This is a shop with some history, and a lot of it is....ok was still there. The story goes that a mechanic opened his own shop south of Abilene, KS back in the 1920s. It was a full service machine shop at the time, offering boring, babbiting, etc. I found hardfacing rod and instructions too. He was killed in a car accident sometime in the late 1950s or early 60's, not really sure when. His son had no mechanical aspirations and aside from using the shop for storage kept it pretty much the way it was when his father died. Fast foward 40 years or so and his grandson owns it and wants to get rid of it all. He'd known for at least four years that my father and I were interested and three weeks ago he called. We went, looked it over and came to an agreement. Last weekend my father, my fiance, Jay (Nosurf) and I went and cleaned it out. (Some of the pics are a little blurry) What we found were shelves full of what you'd expect to find in a mechanic's garage back then. Shelves full of 'new' bearings, rings, brake parts. A factory rebuilt 97 that's nice enough we couldn't tell if it'd actually been on a car before (there apparently use to be more, but they were sold a few years ago). There were rebuilt and rebuildable starters and generators, new gauges. Picked up some cool tools too: a floor mounted riviter for installing new pads on brake shoes and clutch disks (as well as the pads and rivets to actually do it). Some things were head scratchers...if anyone could tell me what the two red things are in the following pic I'd be greatfull... There was enough stuff that four of us spent nine hours on Saturday, and two of us spent another 7 on Sunday cleaning it out. We haven't sorted it yet, so I really don't know what all is in the boxes. Everyone just picked an area and went at it. More pics to follow...
There's enough Chilton's Motor Age magazines here to stack about 3.5 feet high. Seems like he had them all from around 1937 to 1958. A big Lincoln flatty (likely truck version). Missing heads, manifolds, and oil pan. Picked up three of these. I believe they're for a 36. We grabbed this too, it was heading to the scrapper otherwise (they were out there at the same time). Model AA mostly, but a '32 truck grill shell. Besides the big flatty, there were also two 8BA's and Model A 4cyl. The one item I'm probably most stoked about is the Merc crank I found tucked in a corner. That'll make its way onto my T in the next couple years .
Here's some mystery wheels. 17x3 or 3.5 with a 4 bolt pattern. Also found the front spindles and brake drums for whatever they cam off of. Also not sure what this is. First guesses were that its an overdrive unit for a Model A. Any better guesses?
What a neat story and cool finds! I'd dismantle the shop and put it back up at my place, but thats a far drive! -Shiny
thats cool.... and maybe a little creepy, i hope you arnt cursed by mechanic ghosts now or something.
Very cool. Glad you were able to save the stuff and congratulations on that crank - you deserve it. With that tractor conversion outside do you think the unidentified piece could be an underdrive for a doodlebug/tractor conversion?
We just bought the contents. A good portion of the building has already fallen, the rest will be torn down in another three weeks or so. It was f'n windy on Saturday, and when I was up in the attic I could feel the whole building sway. Kind of scarry. The doodlebug has an A engine with what looks like a three speed hooked to another box that could either be an overdrive or underdrive (no idea, but its considerably larger than the one in the picture above). It has an AA rear anyway. When it comes to that kind of stuff, I generally have no idea what I'm looking at. We've got about three brand new sets of Model A pistons and enough other new stuff for an A that we're gonna try to get the doodle-bug running.
Everything seems to be turning up found in Kansas recently. Maybe it's like the lost sock thing. All the old car stuff is disappearing throughout the rest of the country and ending up in Kansas....
I agree...Rod Stewart would approve!!! Better you got it then it being sold to some ebay freak that would just want to sell it to make money and not use/enjoy and cherish it!
looks like a lot of fun stuff... make sure ya take all the vintage storage too.. old cupboards have value
Took a few of the cupboards down, one was made out of a WW1 ammunition box. When we ran out of cardboard boxes on day 1, it got filled. Jay took at least one cupboard and is gonna use it in his garage. One thing we didn't find in there was a crow bar.... Still not sure what we're gonna do with it all. Some will get sold, a lot we'll keep for future projects. Right now its in a big pile of boxes waiting to be organized.
Red thing...I have a couple of mystery tools with similar jaws but actuated with a big threaded rod...my thought was that they might be compressers for leaf spring assembly. Pure guess...would like to know.
Very nice score!!! Thanks for the pics....That would have been amazing just to walk trhough the place. I like in the 2nd pic on the door "Always Forever LIS & KLS 1964" Not sure on the letters, but thats what it looks like....Thanks again for sharing.
Well, the one on the left in the picture has two sets of iron jaws that slide into some groves. Its hydraulic (not presently working), but the direction the jaws slide in wouldn't allow you to compress a spring and install a bolt. I also have a long threaded rod for it. The other thing in the pic has two sets of those forked blades. The base has a slide indicator that measures cylinder wear, but no idea on how to operate it. I haven't found an instruction manual for either one of them, which is kind of odd, since I've found manuals for everything else.
The wire wheels are 1933 Terraplane but seeing as this thread is just over 3 years old you probably figured that out by now.
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