Never a whole building full, but I do remember buying a whole set of NOS 37 Chevy fenders like the ones in the pic.
I Once Plundered A Large Stash With The Help Of 302GMC In Twin falls Idaho And Still Have The N.O.S. 1940 Ford Clock That Works To This Day...
I missed a stash in a small town in Nebraska thanks to my stupid ex brother-in-law. There was an old brick building with a Ford dealer sign on it. I asked my Brother in law who had lived in this town all his life if there was anything in the building. He said he doubted it, as it had been closed ever since he was alive, so we went into the bar and never crossed the street to look. Five years later, I am at the Iola car show and swap meet, and two guys are talking about the stash of NOS Ford parts they found in a Ford dealership that had been closed for 40 years. This got my attention so I kept listening. Turns out it was the same town in Nebraska that my ex brother in law lived in and the closed Ford dealership that I asked him about.
Sam ting only different. Out of business GM dealer north central Minnesota. All the parts that didnt sell went into a building in back. Sheetmetal back to the 40's. Trim. Tune up EVERYTHING. I went through their parts room in the early 90's and there was a bunch I didnt need and no one knew what N. O. S. was. Out of business early 2000's. Never did chase it down. But the building still stands and I still wonder if it is still full
It was sometime in the mid 70's returning from the Lawrence Ks. swap meet & checked out a Chevy dealer in Hiawatha Ks. the dealer let me look down the rows of parts cabinets & the 2nd level, picked, up a few items for my 55 Chevy & recall nos door panels for several years & plenty of commercial pieces & parts. my interest was primarily in a red 56 Chevy short box 4x4 pickup, while looking it over he offered the truck & a load of obsolete parts of my choosing for $750, will forever regret walking away on that deal....not the end of the story as a friend from eastern Iowa Mike Wooldridge shortly after was in town & bought a rental trailer of his parts & recall him rubbing my nose in the nos still in the box, accessory 55 dual exhaust tips attached to a show room type standup display board.
N.O.S. Not to get off topic but 40 years ago while trekking through the Pacific Islands we came across an old American army storage hanger that we got to have look in. Honestly, there were crates of military Harley Davidson bikes that were to be ***embled from the second world war and probably Jeep stuff as well. The American army were stationed there and when they pulled out, they left everything behind. They pushed old GMC trucks into the harbor apparently and there was on old plane parked beside the runway. Cheers
Not discovered. But finally got to visit https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/some-history-from-a-local-speed-shop.1311903/
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-unofficial-neighborhood-speed-shop.1323704/ My neighbor buys NOS stuff regularly. Most probably are not on our terms of NOS but occasionally he digs up older new parts
I bought a Ford dealerships old stock for $100 bucks a truck load, got off with about 10 heaping loads of all kinds of stuff. Over 10,000 part numbers mostly 50's to late 70's. I also bought the left over old stock from a closed dealership that closed in the 60's. I still have most of the old stock, but the truck load stuff I sold a few years ago.
The Dealerships In Our Idaho Valley Would Haul Much Of The Obsolete Parts To The Landfill Rather Than Continue To Store Them...Sad But True In Many Areas...
Mid '60's I worked for awhile for a Chevy dealer as a flunky. Parts manager ***igned me the task of picking 3000 parts off the floor and shelving them. Hundreds of chrome trim mouldings that he told me to haul to the dump. I Figured the dump was in my back yard. He caught on and made me bend every one in half.
Yes in Maui in 1994 when I lived there. NOS Chevy sheet metal from 1929-1949.I was cruisin after breakfast on a rainy Sun morn in Wailuku and saw a stack of fenders behind a commercial property yard chain link fence.Some still had the paper shipping wrap around them.Went back on Mon when the business opened.The man had taken them out of his storage bldg to have the inside of his shop painted.He was 78 yrs old and had the diesel repair shop.The Chevy Dealer (Haleakala Motors)yrs before had asked him to dispose of the stuff.Instead he stuck it in his vacant bldg. 19 Fenders ,Pair of '29 fronts,'32 fronts,34 master RF(2),34 rr,35 Master RF,34 Buick model 57 RF,pair of 40 pickup rears,52 PU RR , 47 Chev grille,6 pairs of 49 4dr rear quarters etc.Took 3 trips in my little Nissan PU to haul them home. $250 for the load.Went back months later to chat and he said he had ***orted stuff in another bldg. NOS 31 Chev roadster windshield frames(,2 of them wrapped up Chromed ones) NOS 41 Ford Woody upper tail gate,NOS 47,48 Running boards R side, 49-51 Merc Woody NOS upper tailgates,NOS 40 Merc steering wheel,NOS 54 Ford steering wheels.Used 57 Ford retractable windshield,rear window ,quarter windows,sunvisors and front seat.Used 32 Chevy grille shell.Another $150 for all that.Back then Hemmings was the only place to peddle them. I did well !!
Being in the parts business, I've found several stashes of NOS, but never a dealership hoard. Mostly stuff from shops bought new for projects and never used, or from retired parts dealers. There's always some winners, but a lot of NOS is parts for cars that are unpopular or pieces that rarely go bad and are hard to sell. Also, there's a ton of 1942 specific trim out there NOS, in many cases only for one side. Lots produced in quan***y for cars that never got built.
I most recently bought a pair of nos 29-33 Chevy commercial rear fenders with brackets attached & a small cloth bag wired on with attaching stove-bolts commonly used in the era, recognized the fenders from a previous purchase years ago, seems here in the ag state's fenders were options & were often left unused on flatbed trucks etc. found the radius was a bit broader than coupes & sedans & the mounting was different but reworkable were it not for the offending radius.
I’m boring. Only “NOS” thing I’ve come across was a full can of Olympia? Beer -steel can- helping a guy taking out a wall in a bathroom. Never could wrap my head around why there would be a full can of beer inside the walls. Maybe some builders sacrifice to the beer gods, I dunno. Carry on.
My old man did that a few times back in the '70s. He would ask the older dealerships if they had old parts laying around and would buy the lot. Pre-internet, so hours of looking up part numbers. Then off to the swap meets. Anything flathead, he'd keep for me. A 13-year-old kid with a flathead.
It never fails to amaze me that people who have zero interest in selling something themselves fill their diaper when someone else sells the same parts, or even just takes them home. It's like *****ing at someone for stealing dog **** off of your lawn.
I had a freind that worked in the parts department at a Ford dealership in Florida back in the mid 1980s. I helped them move to a new dealership back about 1985. We found a good bit of flathead stuff. Back then I was more into SBC. We had a local speed shop that had some cool FE stuff. They had the Thunderbolt originally driven by Gas Ronda, a Boss 429 and a 68 1/2 Mustang Cobra Jet. Man, I sure miss those days. Muscle cars were a dime a dozen. My first car was a 67 S code fastback Mustang. A friend's dad had a 34 Ford coupe he'd driven since high school with a SBC with 3x2s.
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