I was so happy to be a part of this... https://www.junkyardlife.com/2016/10/junkyard-emergency-1934-ford-tudor-race.html Junkyard Life: Classic Cars, Muscle Cars, Barn finds, Hot rods and part news: Rebuilding the 1934 Ford race car found in the woods, Part I Junkyard Life: Classic Cars, Muscle Cars, Barn finds, Hot rods and part news: 1934 Ford Race Car restored and makes debut at World of Wheels
What a cool story!! I always wonder about the back story of old abandoned cars; who owned it, how did it get there? To get the story of retrieval and the man's son getting it back is great!
Those cars were in a draw, a "hollow". Jody Potter the author of the blog likes to hunt down old cars and write about them. I went to High School with Jody and we graduated together. By the way I'm the Travis Brown that took him to those cars. I'll clarify the story a little bit and tell how we found these. The cars I saw when we (FD) were looking for the lost man (he was fond OK) was actually a few miles away. That place had a cache of unbelievable cars. They were all over the place. Behind a the residence, a really rough looking house trailer, was a long shed in this shed were the good ones. There were great examples of good cars from '39 to '69. Lets just say the folks that lived there were less than friendly. Actually they never came to the door. We got a vibe so we got the Hell out of there. I took Jody to see an old Race Car on the side of this little road. That one was a '39-40 Ford Coupe race car. The 39 Coupe was gone so I took him to another place that had a 50 Ford sedan in the yard. That sedan had been sitting 40+ years in the front yard of this residence. We talked to the lady that lived there and she told us about Some VW Beetles down the hill from her home. Jody Love Beetles so we went down the draw. Who doesn't love "Herbie"? If you have ever been in the Ridge and Valley part of Alabama, you know how some spots can be. That hill was steep. Any steeper and we would had to slide down there. The Beetles were nothing much, just shells. The I spotted it. Instantly I felt that sharp tinge in my gut, that adrenaline dump AKA "butterflies". I though it was a '32 Ford. AS we got closer, I could see it was a '34. A 1934 Ford race car. That car may have raced against my grandfather. He raced a '50 Ford and a '46 Pontiac in the Jalopy Races. I could have swore that 34 was not next to the Victoria, as a matter of fact I know it was not next to it the first time we went down there. I believe someone else had been down there and moved it next to the Vicky. It was about 3 years later when Jody got it out. He gave me first chance on it but I never could track the owners down. Actually the lady in the house gave us permission but she finally admitted she was a renter after we talked a while. I'm kind of bashful, Jody is not he was able to make the contacts pretty quick. Those cars were driven in there. They were parked down there in the 60s. Then it was cleared and a old road ran through there. As far as I know, the Vicky is still down in that hole.
The Victoria was very Crusty. It's a much heavier car and would be a major ordeal to retrieve. Actually it could be down right dangerous without the right equipment and even then....
Sam Massey looks like his brother John. There was Sam, Joe and John. They all did something in the automotive field. John was a machinist and mechanic. I bought a machined crank and 8RT block from him around 1993. I was going to put it in a 49 sedan. In '95 I bought a 50 Coupe. That coupe had a crack in the cylinder. I took the good block and the cracked engine to John Massey's Shop and he put it together for me. He was a super guy. This is my 50 Business Coupe with John's engine in it. DSCN0237 by Travis Brown, on Flickr I kept that engine when I sold the Coupe. Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr Right before I sold the Coupe, I got the F1. I found out that the PO of the F1 took his block and crank to John in the late 80s. He could not pay John because of a sudden divorce so he let John keep it for the machine work. OK here goes... I bought the block from John. John built that 8RT for me a few years later. I run it for a few years in my coupe. I buy the F1. The owner of the F1 let John have the block and crank for machine work years before. The block/engine that John built for me came from the F1, that I later bought. Nearly 15 years later, Jody and I find the racecar that belonged to Sam Massey, John's older brother.
The Jalopy Journal
