Motion Pictures Where have all the old bodies gone?

Back in the 70's my Dad had two 32 Ford 5 windows that were old dirt track cars. The only thing really wrong with them was that the doors were welded shut, which is an easy fix. He ended up giving them (yes I said giving) to a cousin of ours. If he only knew then what he knows now!

 

Scrap drives were pretty aggressive in the war years.

 

When I was a kid the cars at the circle tracks were 50's cars (mostly 55-7 Chevy's). But while tagging along with my Dad on hot rod searches I do remember stumbling across some old 32 -34 Ford coupes that had seen some track duty. Probably 25 years ago my older brother managed to buy a rugged 32 5W dirt track derelict body that he still has up in the loft of Dad's barn. Some day the "Zip Gas" coupe will roll again.

 

Back in the 60s, I was learning to paint cars with my Sears compressor out in the driveway. Painted more 55 Chevys that ended up at Lee Raceway, Lee, NH (sportsman class--stock car racing). Good thing, no body work required, just paint. Nothing worse than seeing an old 55 Chevy or Ford stock car, in someone's back yard, all dented up, cut up, and rusted and to think, what that car would be worth today, if the owner went drag racing instead of circle track.

 

A number of you guys are talking the tri-five Chevy's, but I've also heard many times racing was a main reason for the '57 Ford Custom ( my avatar) models being so hard to find. The shorter wheelbase and bodies made the Customs hundreds of pounds lighter than a longer wheelbase Fairlane, yet the same drivetrains were available.

 

Back in the 60's there was an article with a couple of photos in the paper on how some college kids were doing a big clean up on the Colville Reservation one year by paying the tribe members 3.00 each for the old junk cars sitting on their places and hauling them off. The photos showed big piles of prewar coupes and sedans that they had drug in and pushed in piles.

When I read Oldscrounger's post I thought I was reading about my grandfather for a minute. He threw more things out or hauled them to the dump than you could shake a stick at just because he didn't need them anymore and didn't think anyone else would want them. My mom still fusses about the big oak table he hauled out to the scrap pile because they had replaced it with a 50's deco style table. He used to tease me that he had buried a Model T somewhere on the farm (that I still live on) but would never tell me where.

 

It'll be interesting to see what cars that are built today will survive 50 plus years. Or will be considered collectable....

 

Yes, it would be interesting......but most of us will not be around to find out.

Ray

 

This is where

 

And don't forget "Destruction Derbys" and figure 8 races. So many great late 40s and early 50s cars destroyed in the 60s at those. Gotta admit I loved watching them back then but looking back.......what a waste.

 

This is the Parnelli Jones 32 Victoria, Painted by Von Dutch for a case of beer. We should all thank our lucky stars the jalopy racing era did happen, for if it did not, the 1932 Ford would be around in such great volume that the cars would have the same value as a 1970 Ford Pinto. Try selling a Pinto for $40,000.00 at auction.

 

WHITEHALL MONTANA EARLY 50s.......

 

I can remember going to the jalopy derby at Gardena stadium in the '50's. After the event some of the cars were just left in the field behind the stadium. I probably could have picked up some free '32 coupes if I had wanted them.

 

Here is a pic of My Mother @ Belmont Speedway = Belmont California sometime in mid 1950's they always had a Powder Puff Derby between Heat Races and the Main. My Dad built quite a few of those Hardtops , usually from the nicest cars he could find . he had a Shop in Sunnyvale Calif.

 

My home area, on the North Shore of Lake Superior, had easy shipping, by water, right to the steel mills. So all the old cars in a large area around Duluth were shipped out to help the war effort. Another thing to consider is that people were growing out of coupes after the war and wanted larger cars. If you wanted a cheap work car, just shop the back row of the local Plymouth dealer. There were always business coupes there that no one wanted. Including the hot rodders.

 

Don't blame me! This is a '34 Chevrolet coach (I think).

Did anyone else see the big "TOYOPET" sign prominently displayed on the backstretch? A portent of things to come!

 

A lot of cars were lined up on river banks for riprap to prevent flooding. There were still some rusted hulks on the Animas river in the ninties. All have been removed now.

 

Just some observations, I'm no expert.
My area had at least 4 tracks in the '50s
one is still active in Middletown. Robert J. Palmer
on here has had a huge thread on the demise of
the Moody mile track in Syracuse. lots of cars still there.
There is a town called Franklin I think, south west
of Albany that has or had a big club of old time cars and racers.
My point is that wherever these tracks were, some of
the cars and yes the speed equipment, tend to stay
in the barns and garages near where they were located ,
because many racers lived near where they raced.
Ya many went for scrap, but many of the really "old timers"
still have stashes, and restore some and even still run them.
The problem, as always is trying to find them!
And I'm not telling what I know!

 

A picture of the Hardtops taking a parade Lap

 

Thank-You, @Tony Martino.

I look at stockcar racing here on the east coast and jalopy racing on the wast coast as giving those cars a longer chance at life.

They were viewed to most people was unwanted junk and sent to the junk/scrap yards.

The racers of the day pulled them out reinforced frames with rollbars, built engines added speed parts if allowed or would hide the speed parts if not.

Just as the dry lakes and drag racers did.

If not for the oval track racers many of these less desirable bodies, sedans, 37-38 Fords, 36-39 Chevrolets would have gotten crushed may years before the did!

The link to my Moody Mile Tread-

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...he-mile-oval-at-the-n-y-s-fair-grouds.981395/

 

At one point between N.A.S.C.A.R. sectioned tracks (like Fonda) and outlaw (no sectioning body) there known 200 tracks in New York State!

That number comes from the book-

Car Coming An Auto Racing History of New York State

By Gary Spaid and Hank Schramm