Worth digging? (finned alum. drums)

I'd like to know how the car sunk that deep, or did some animal do the digging under there.

 

Aluminum rot must depend on the alloy. Maybe 15-18 years ago I heard about a NOS Indian 45" engine and trans. It was there, and I bought it. The old fellow said "I got another one, want it, too?" Of course I said yes!!!! He took me into his ba*****t. It was covered with teens to '40's motorcycle stuff! I picked up a NOS circa '29 HD fender, shining bright as new. The right side, on the floor, was like gauze, the left side was perfect. Everything was that way. He said the sewers would backflow once in a while, then go back down. The engine/trans? It was in the corner. There was a heap of rusted steel surrounded by crumbling grayish white powder with flecks of pale green here and there. It was totally gone, no aluminum left at all! I didn't buy too much, there wasn't much left. I did get three cases of Indian oil in the original cardboard cartons.

 

What Cosmo said is true. I have driven a Buick that had a separation like this and it felt like a rotor does when it is warped.

I doubt there is anything left, galvanic corrosion (aluminum vs. iron)and the elements wreak havok on these things. Dig anyway, with a backhoe you are only out a little fuel! Good luck.

 

i think it all depends on the acid content of the soil.
sometimes the **** is good when you dig it up, other times you just get good exercise. ------ you'll end up witth a good story either way.

backhoe ran outta fuel
the owner fired shotgun shots over your head
backhoe got stuck
lost one of your shoes in the mud
the car shifted once out of the dirt, fell & the buick drum cut your pinky toe off
ITS ALL GOOD - go get the drums!

 

When we got a set of buick drums from the boneyard they were stuck as mentioned. I think the car was about a '59, it had aluminum backing plates. So with a chisel and a bfh we beat a hole through them, pretty much destroying everything but the drums.

 

Actually you've got it backwards. The aluminum outer shells were spun in a fixture that had it's axis about 30 degrees from horizontal and the molten cast iron was poured into the spinning aluminum. the centrifugal force threw the molten cast iron out to the aluminum shell and deposited it in a uniform thickness inside the outer shell. I observed this operation while a General Motors Ins***ute Student in Flint Michigan in 1962.

 

Thats like shooting deer with an automatic rifle... ********. Go get your daughters sand castle shovel.. or you could scrounge up a walnut pick and a 2" paintbrush and be like Indiana Jones and the Buick of Doom....

 

Well, digging it up with a walnut pick when you own a backhoe would be like waiting for a deer to die of old age with a rifle slung over your shoulder.