Hot Rods Rusty metal sitting in the woods for decades... what is it?

My parents have had this property for 52 years and they've never really done anything with it (don't live there). I've seen some metal around before, but it wasn't identifiable. Today I found this pair of fenders, firewall and Stewart Warner vacuum fuel pump.

The fenders and firewall were around 20 yards away from each other so they may not go together.

Google searches for the pump indicate 20's which seems to align with the fenders. The headlight bar (?) connecting the fenders was either added later or is just very utilitarian.. not like a Ford headlight bar.

This stuff is trashed, but it's cool because it's survived so I may rig some headlights and make a wall hanger.

Does anyone know what this stuff is? Recognize the firewall beads? Fenders? Headlight bar? I know the pump probably could have come on lots of cars.

Thanks

 

one part looks like a 28 Chevy

 

I go with squirrel. Chevy had the vac tank also, as did other cars.

 

I’d drive it

 

Well that was easy. Dimples where the headlights mount look like 28 Chevy and they had that kind of stamped headlight bar. Good call!

Were other years similar to 28? 27 and 29?

Looks like I'm in the market for a grill shell and maybe my original 35 radiator will fit in to mount it all to.

Thanks

 

...I have a spare '33 Ford cab, big truck frame, 35 wires..

The other metal around the woods is bound to be door skins or cowl sides but anyone's guess.

 

Get a shovel and metal detector....

 

Fun stuff this. Reminded me of junk yarding for the first time...."what the heck is that thing?" hung in the air as my buddy shrugged his shoulders & said "beats me".......ahhh the good ole days.

 

I plan to get my dad a metal detector. He'll have fun with it. He mentioned it before just for the old house foundation and pump house fountain. That stuff is hand built with rock and probably 100 years old.

Now that we have a hot rod grave yard we definitely need to get one. I don't expect to find any more sheet metal with any kind of shape but I did also find what looks like a bell housing half buried so who knows what parts there may be around. Probably not a ton.

Until I saw these fenders I p***ed this stuff off as old tractor parts. Its hard to think about what condition this stuff was in 50 years ago when it could have been saved.

 

50 years ago it was just old junk no one wanted, wasn’t worth the time to take it to a s**** yard, nor the cost to put it in the local newspaper cl***ifieds to sell.
“Toss it over there”.

 

Agreed in general. 50 years ago though my parents bought the property and made trips there in my dad's 70 GTO convertible with the '35 back at home (not desirable either and not running by then.. last ran in '63 until 10 or 15 years ago). Had he known it was there he probably would have done something besides left it there.

O well! It's a wall hanger now.

 

Is that your car?

I'm looking at that trim around the cowl. It seems like a long shot as far gone as this stuff is but doesn't this pic of mine seem to show a cowl side with that trim? It would have to be stainless if that would even survive so long. Maybe aluminum? That would be odd for trim.

 

I used to own that car, yes. I don't have it any more.

Parts like the cowl band were often nickel or chrome plated br***.

 

I would have ***umed plated but that metal and trim found right with the firewall it seems would be the cowl and I can't imagine that plating would still look like that in the weather.

I'll have to look closer next time and actually bring stuff home.

 

I think the Chevy's in that era used aluminum cowl bands

 

Thanks. It seems like that's about the only material that would look the same outside all these years

 

So I found some more sheet metal today. None is usable but I'm going to probably buy a grill shell and headlights and mock it up for wall art.

The drivers side is best. Front fenders, firewall, maybe radiator support rods not dug out all the way yet, cowl top, driver's side cowl side, dash and what ever it is I have attached here. All is thin and twisted with large holes . Power will go through 3 duces until that manifold is needed for my 32 pickup.

Squirrel - do you recognize this trim piece? Probably made of whatever the cowl band is made of. Looks like it should be straight across the middle with two pretty tight radius bends on the ends. In my searches I see you didn't start with much so not sure if you know.

I came across someone's thread from 2017 where you said you narrowed your cowl. Do you remember how much smaller the roadster cowl is?

 

I don't know how big a roadster cowl is. I think I looked at pictures and decided the coupe cowl expanded out a ways on each side, but I don't know how much.

The rest of the body on mine was gone. Nothing there, at all.

 

Please select full size images when you post pictures

 

Your pictures are of a chevy closed cowl. The band is aluminum to hide the splice between the cowl and windshield lower sheet metal. There are nail holes drilled into that band that are counter bored and after attachment, the counter bore was filled with an aluminum plug and finished off.
The trim band that was under the hood webbing was aluminum also. (1928, also seen some on 1927)

 

Oh okay I had identified something else as the cowl top so I'll have to figure out what that is. I'm not sure there's enough there to post it. It does have a bead so maybe I'll take a pic and post. I'm not really seeing that bead on a 28 Chevy so far.

Thanks!

 

26/7/8 Chevrolet cowl bands were aluminum, like the radiator shells (for the cars) and tend to suffer from the effects of the "Corrosionworm" (cousin to the dreaded Tinworm).

 

I do realize there's not much here, but I thought this was the cowl top. I thought maybe the bolts on the corners were from cowl lights. It seems like what I posted last night is the cowl based on the trim. That and it seems a 28 Chevy doesn't have a bead there on the top of the cowl side.

What might this be?

 

Seems to be Chevy overall but don’t discuss, in Vandenplas’ words...”it’s always a Dodge”! LOL

 

That must be a trim piece on the side of the cowl not a bead between the top and side? I ***umed it was a bead, but this rusty, twisted cowl has no bead or trim. Not even a seam.. it's just flat.