Found a car far-far-far in the woods - best way to pull parts?

Okay, so I was out at a new friends house for dinner the other night. He's got 123 acres, and seem surprised when I asked him if he had found any old tin out in the woods. Yes, there's some mid 40's dodge out back he says. Instantly interested, I ask him if we can go take a look after supper.
What I thought would be a quick hike turned out to take almost an hour to get to. It turned out to be a 53 Chevy Moredoor - but I REALLY want the grille and various other pieces. He told me to help myself, but damned if I'm going to be able to just yank the car out of there. I can't figure out how it got there in the first place other than maybe there was a road cleared at one time that the forest reclaimed, I dunno. There's NO way I could haul the whole car out without clearing a whole new road (I don't think the dude would take too kindly to that anyway) and I don't want the whole car, just pieces.
My question is this: how would you guys go about getting these parts? Keep in mind this is Maine and every bolt is surely rusted into place and it's a mile or more to the nearest power source. It took me a whole day to pull the grille off my 50 in a garage with power tools and light sources, I can't imagine being able to do this to a car half sunk into the ground.
I've humored the idea of lugging out a small oxy-acetylene setup and cutting the pieces off in huge hunks. It's VERY wet out there, so I don't think fire is an issue, but I thought I'd get he advice from some HAMBers on how they'd handle it. I don't mind making a couple of trips, but I want to be logical about the whole deal and not kill myself or start a forest fire in the process.
Any suggestions?
Sorry for the long winded note, hope you guys and gals have got this far.
Thanks.

 

how about a cordless reciprocating saw?

 

sawzaw

 

my thoughts also.

 

i agree. cordless saw and a rented quadrunner with a trailer

 

Cordless saw and drill lots of different bits and blades for sure. Rent/borrow a quad and trailer as said before, or if you want it bad enough just pull a wagon and put the parts in it for the hike out.

 

Tell him you're GOING to get the bits and pieces, but you're going to wait until the fall. It's amazing how much easier walking in the woods is with the foliage off the trees and shrubs.
In fact, if you know someone with a 4x4, I'd bet money they could drive to it in the fall.

Don't take a torch...sure as hell, something will catch and burn--under hood debris (leaves, pine needles, etc.), old dried insulation and rubber, etc.
If I can start a fire in the woods when it's raining, using only a couple matches, you can start one under a car with a torch.

-Brad

 

Don't forget extra batteries!

 

I know where your coming from.Been halling stuff out of the woods in our parts for 25 years.Just like you, rust is a problem.When I go hunting for parts I take only what I might need.Too many tools can be heavy.I take a hand full of wrenchs, 3/8- 11/16. two sets of vice grips, hammer,chisel,hack saw with lots of good blades,small socket set, philips and flat top screw driver and last but not lease a axe.I put it all in a back pack and off I go.My axe is made with a steel handle, Broke too many wooden ones off??They were not made for chopping steel!! If everthing else fails to remove the part, I take the axe to the steel around it.I use the hammer with the axe and hit the back of the axe like a chisel.Most of what is in our parts is rusty anyway and you only find stuff like nickle or good chrome. In the last few years I have been taken a cordless sawall.Good to have a few extra batteries cause they don`t last long when chopping the roof off a 60`s car. Oh and like they said a 4 wheeler is great Having a small trailer with it is even better for the big stuff. enjoy and have fun.

 

A nut splitter might come in handy. Take a small first aid kit as well, you don't want to be hiking back and forth that far for a cut thumb or something.

Flatman

 

Take all the stuff mentioned above AND take a friend who can drive the quad back in case you get hurt. Besides, two guys can tear more stuff off a car than one.

 

Cordless sawzall sounds like the ticket. Sigh. One more tool to buy that I can't afford. Looks like I'll be waiting til the fall anyway so I can save up enough money. Ha-ha.
As far as the 4x4 goes ... there's just no way. The trees are so think, and theres a stream on the other side of the car too small to canoe down (yeah, I thought about it) and the car sits at the bottom of a very steep, heavily wooded gully. Like I said, I don't know how it got there in the first place, unless someone drove it down the hill when there weren't any trees.
Thanks to all for the valuable suggestions. I never would have thought of an axe, but I kind of hope that is a last resort.

 

I'm a fan of the Cordless drill with good bits and wd-40 - Drill out the stuck bolts

 

the wild woods of esay are callin you .... me thinks

 

Cordless electric sawzalls suck. No way I'd wanna be 7/8th's thru the job and have it poop out.

Go rent a gas-powered sawzall. Cheaper than buying a cordless; batteries never die.

Late fall is best; ground is driest and it's easier to get thru the woods to the car.

I've used and axe B4; cut up a body and ditched it inna grocery store dumpster. it works - but you'd be pissed if you missed and whapped the grille in the process...

 

HAHAHAHA!!! Aint that the gospel? You know Chuckspeed, I had NO idea there was such thing as a gas powered sawzall. Are you jerkin my chain?

 

Nope...think about it. Guy's on a jobsite that's mostly mud and he needs to cut metal - what's he gonna use if he has to run it all day?

 

A bit of water!! a few trees!! they never stopped me before!!This is me last year on a "hunting" trip (hunting car in the wood trip). came home with a few goodies that weekend.

 

Better to miss and hit the grill then miss and hit you leg!!OUCH!! Been there done that.

 

I'd pull yer chain with a gas powered winch...

http://cgi.ebay.com/RYOBI-EJ-100-Ga...ryZ20788QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Actually - I had guys pay me to beat the shit outta the body with an axe. This one guy (who I won't mention a name) was so ape shit crazy he scared me...went wild on the body for 45 minutes. Nearing collapse, he handed me the axe - as I lifted it up, the head broke off.

True story.

 

seems the forest service helicopter should remove it to your site of choice just so its not endangering the chipmunks

 

Wouldn't that be a beautiful sight? Old tin dangling precariously several hundred feet above confused municipalities? Mmm-mmm.

Chuckspeed- Thanks for the link.

 

rent a small gas generator for the day or see if you can borrow it from a friend then plug your salls all in then ya don't have to buy a shitty battery powered one also get on guy to carry the generator and tools and another one to carry the parts off.

 

after spending today cleaning out old mice nests and chipmunk habitat from some cars going into clean dry storage...
i spose the movement of said vehicle is disturbing more wildlife and the natural rusting of the metal object will enhance the chemical makeup of the overly sterile wooded ravine ..

could be it was placed there just to stop the erosion after forest harvesting!

 

Sorry i couldn't resist.

 

This is an interesting thread. Hopefully I'll be doing some car harvesting on my family's property in Michigan this fall. I think we're going in September. Is this a good time to go in terms of weather and foliage? As for the moving parts, they've got heavy equipment for that.

 

i'm surprised no one has mentioned using wrenches/sockets and tightening instead of loosening. anything smaller than a 3/8" bolt normally just snaps in two. you're never gonna reuse those bolts anyway. i went to a boneyard many years ago to get a pristine f-1 grill. after a while we just started breaking the bolts off instead of trying to loosen them. about 10 minutes later we had the grill in hand.

 

We need pictures of this car!

 

I used a small Honda generator and a recip saw...Got the cowl with firewall and with the window frame ,rear window, pedals and some tin that was missed by the shotgun.