A fun place to find stuff is in old abandonded buildings and factories downtown detroit along the river. Theres one building on the corner of atwater and ryopel (spelling) that use to be a storage building, inside are all sorts of cars that were abandoned there, people pushed a bunch from the upper floors down into the elevator shaft. Ill have to find some of the pictures from inside and out. I know my buddy found a really old car and driver up there from the 70's
It also helps to know people in the "hood"...I found a 60 biscayne not too far from here..Turns out a boy i go to school with lives next door to the car...He also told me where some more ol' cars are...
Yeah man, if you know where to go you can score some shit in Motown yet. A few years back some locals inherited a stone stock original 56 Cad conv. with about 50K miles. It still rusted some from lack of proper storage but it was all there. If I remember right it was around Greenfield and Fenkell Ave. I imagine some of the old Grand Blvd homes still have some shit in em too. A client about 10 years ago found an original and well worn 34 Packard 5 pass. cpe (vicky) near or in Highland Park. They're there kids. Pink scooter? WTF were you thinking?
I was driving through the deep hood here and saw a 53 international in someone's driveway. That's how I knew I was home. No radio and steel wheels, it's invisible to thieves.
That makes two of us! I'll drink to that for sure - as in my mind anything from the 70's up are the "new cars" - more so 74 & up when that unleaded gas came out. Gary 4T950 Chevy Guy
Ahhh, the hood ain't shit. As long as you're not standing out like Mr. Suburbia driving a white Lexus and asking for directions it's not nearly as dangerous as most people think. I pulled cars out of housing projects for years. It's really not a big deal. You just roll up and act like you own the place. I'll tell you one thing right now: when it comes to shady business, I'll take the hood over the woods any day. At least in the hood there are witnesses.
You guys think the Hood is all that great... try going up to the Indian reservations here in Arizona. You'll see a bunch of old trucks and cars from the 50's+ that have probably been sitting there most of there lives. Lots of them too.
Dam. Some of you guys aren't true ghetto dwellers. Here's a lesson. If you see a car of interest at a house in the ghetto don't go knock on the door & expect someone to answer. Use the ghetto doorbell. Park in front of the house & honk the horn. Within seconds the front door(s) will swing open at wich time you can state your business. It also helps to be bilingual. Billy
Gotta be carefull downtown, some of those buildings aren't abandoned, and some of those cars aren't as well. Usually tin as old as we like isn't a problem, but a few years ago when I had a 5.0 mustang and well a guy had a nice set of cobra bucket seats, and um well the price was right...but I didn't buy em, something about the dude having a gun stuffed in the back of the jeans and the cars all cut up left me feeling a bit uneasy....
I've pulled a couple finds out of east palo alto over the years. The earlier you go after sunrise the fewer people your gonna encounter. Light rain helps if it's a really bad area....
I've learned on my ghetto finds, if you really want something and the price is right buy it and get it out of there right away. I bought a car to use for the wheels once and left it in a sketchy area overnight with a tarp on it. Next day drivers side window was busted and the front wheels/tires were gone. Put 2 donuts on it and drove it home right then, lesson learned. Also tried to strike a deal with a guy on Jeep. Agreed to come back the next day and pay and pick it up. The guy was nowhere to be found. Come six months later I found out he got thrown in the clink for probation violations.
Back in the late 80's, my buddy used to run a roto-rooter truck in the D and spotted stuff all day long at work. We would go back banging on doors at night and you wouldn't believe the stuff we picked up CHEAP. Nothing that would really fit here but... a 69 bronco 1 69 and 1 70 mustang both mach 1's, one an original 428 car a dozen or so mustang II's for literally next to nothing (we used to stuff 351's in em and race down on French road) a 65 Galaxie xl500 assorted Cutlass's Chevelles and LeMans's Some of these were bought on a bill of sale and a few were probably of questionable orgins but we used a lot of them for parts and then disposed of them properly.
There are also ghetto and inner city car cultures of all kinds, not just the obvious Hondas with no mufflers...major subcultures of musclecar streetracers, customs in heavily guarded garages beyond apartment blocks, bikers, antiques...all adapted to what seems a hopeless environment. Security is the most obvious theme...everything involving modified vehicles or possession of tools involves lots of gigantic chains, padlocks that look like they belong on the presidential nuclear bunker, and eternal vigilance...motorcycles generally have to be lugged upstairs into bedrooms at night. I used to know an old Black contractor in Joisey City, owned a construction outfit and had become a real estate magnate along the way. Quite probably filthy rich, drove around in his pickup and went up ladders with his hammer just like his employees. His whole lengthy life had involved Model A's and AA's, and he showed me around his stash--which was eye-popping. He had a fleet of finished A's ready to go, and drove all of them frequently, but he also had purchased what seemed like every disused warehouse and garage in the city. Every place had massive steel doors and battleship-like padlocks... Atleast one had a resident homeless guy as the official watchdog; I think my friend was secretly proud of having a pet white guy! Most of this stuff I think paid for itself via attached blocks of rental property. Each garage was CRAMMED with unrestored cars, engines, parts, and tools... probably 80% Model A, but a bit of everything he had encountered that looked interesting. His work took him into every sort of neighborhood, and I think after 30 years he knew what was in every garage and basement in the city. Every couple of years, another A accumulated from the piles of stuff, got finished, and joined his fleet. He's surely dead by now, but he had several sons following his footsteps...so remember, there's at least one urban wilderness in NJ that's practically solid HAMB material behind all those locks. Joisey City has since turned into a Yuppified annex to Manhattan...but I bet I know who owns those apartment buildings and the garages underneath.
COULD HE BE TALKING ABOUT THE OLD C CAB YOU SEE FROM RT 24?"" Nope--that's a Mack Bulldog chain drive...about 42 Model T's worth of steel! This is on...confusion, confusion...OLD 24, now 124 in some places, still 24 in others. Morris, Springfield avenues or something?? Anyway, drive East past Millburn ave...before you get into downtown Union...or isit Springfield? I've lived in NJ for like 40 years and only know how to get to Hershey... Anyway, apartments on the right, southish side of road; large square tarp covered lump in parking lot...is 26 or 27 sedan, don't remember which. Very visible but not noticeable...
Almost choked on my sandwich! Maybe they was laughing too hard to give you shit! If you act/look crazy enough you usually wont be bothered.
I found my 54 Chevy in the hood, $450, I go through them on a regular basis in my work van, I did today. I found a 50 Ford 4 door, a Valiant based Barracuda and a 55 Chevy 4 door all within a three block area. I found a Shwinn Stingray Apple Kart in the trash on Monday, but that was in my parent's neighborhood which is swanky. Just because I'm worth $3,000,000 doesn't mean I'm below dumpster diving.
Watch out for a '60 Studebaker blasting Paliment from the speakers in the Flint ghetto... That's my brother. If you look crazy, the crazies won't bother you.
The yard belongs to American fiberglass. I stopped in there yesterday and asked if he was willing to sell any of the cars in the lot. he promptly said NOPE! I took some pictures that I will post later
-I stopped a coupla' months ago to ask about a '49 Olds that I had noticed for years that was peeking through the fence of a salvage yard in STL. It had $500. on the windshield, and seemed complete. The yard is in a run-down industrial part of town, that is slowly being "rehabbed". I had always put-off stopping, due to the huge dogs with attitude problems that occupied the small salvage yard. This time I thought...what if the next time I get to town, there's a 7-11 sitting where this Olds had always been parked? I stopped around the block, and approached the guy on a forklift about checking out the car. He said "no-one's allowed back here... Go around to the front of the building, knock on one of the windows, ask for "Bettie"...and she may or may not come out." As I start to knock on one of the boarded up windows, a worker walks out of the gates followed by the two dogs. He asks what I want, and when I explain I wanted to talk to Bettie, he asks "WHY, does she know you???" I explained again about the car, he said it belongs to "Steve" and it's not for sale...but, he goes in to ask her if she wants to talk to me. Bettie came around to the fence and again, asked what I wanted. I explained that I had seen the car for years, and was always afraid that it would be crushed. She said they got it from a guy who was hauling it to the crusher, and the $500. on the windshield was the price the owner had on it originally, but couldn't find a buyer. She said is certainly was in no danger of being crushed. The worker then cut in, and again said "it ain't for sale"... Betty smiled, and pulled out her business card, and told me to call back the next week...that it might actually be for sale. After going through all that...I still haven't called. That 7-11 probably will be built there, by the time my *ss finally calls her...
The Jalopy Journal
