Bill and I got wind of a old car in the woods just off one of our main roads here in St Johns.I figure we drove by this car over a 100 times and never new it was there. This 39 Ford we figure out was put about 300 feet off the main road back in the early 50`s.Found a 1950 Newfoundland plate on the front of it,Other then the motor and trans the rest of it seems to be still there.but rotted bad after 50 years of our harsh weather. Car was found when the land was open up for new houses.Found it strange how the car and the trees around it were not touched but all the land around it was all dug up.I find out that one of the locals that drops around my shop was in charged of clearing the land and told the machine operators to not touch it.He figure I would be interest in the car.Man he has been coming around my shop too long. Today Bill and myself as well a a close buddy when up to see what we could save.The car came apart with very little problems. very ruff but both the front end and rearend was there. After clearing the car of all body parts we come to find that the front end was good but the rear end was rusted too bad to take. Like I said 15 years ago we could have saved it. Bill got some parts for his 32 and the front end might be used is another friends project. It was a fun day and we saved this parts before some house was built on it.
Yeah today was a blast, thanks to a friend of ours who put us on to the car...and then the other friend who had kept the tractors at bay! Thru our local connections we actually found out about the car before the contractor who preserved it for us managed to even tell us it was there! Hahaha Sadly she was in very bad shape having been there since 1950 or so but offered up some small parts and the front axle assembly. The rear radius arms were rusted and broken but the front wishbone seems to have come thru in good shape. For the Deuce I pulled the door bumper pads, the front brake hose mounts, a couple of lower window trims...a cool grab handle/coat hook Brk, a set of interior handles...some spring plates and some other stuff...not to mention the prize, a repairable Banjo wheel! For the community chest we now have a 39 pedal assembly thats tight and smooth and a couple of other odds and ends. Our friend Monty will get the full front axle to use in his project. The tire on the front axle has great thread and hardly any dry rot. Unusable of course...but amazing still. We checked out some other locations and found a few other cool parts as well. It was a total slog thru some wet terrain and I know I'm wasted tonight...but had a blast. Heres my new wheel!
I love to see the old iron get saved from scrap yards. Good save on the usable parts. I work in a scrap yard I try to save what I can. Even if I can't use it myself. There are so many of yall that will thank me at the swap meets.
No no....not like that! This was crown land prior to it being bought by a developer and the entire land surface is being cleared of all vegetation and topsoil right to the hard earth. If the Foreman doing the clearing hadn't known us, and been a "car guy" himself, the 39 remains would have been in the 20' high mound of stumps and brush to the right of the little Oasis that held the car! Apparently, this area was a very remote wood cutting location back in the 40's/50's. You just set up a camp and started cutting. The "main road" fitzee mentioned was just a cart path at that time, so the car endured an unbelievable beating going back and forth...as proven by one of the forged steel rear spring mounts being cracked off and rewelded back on and the tierod being twisted to the point that the pitman arm was bent and had rubbed a hole right into the tierod tube! There is a repair section bolted to the bottom of a rail up front and the rear bumper had a piece of leafspring welded in the back to join the two broken halfs of the bumper back together. The car was barely 11 years old or so when it died! The owner just cut his losses and walked away. Someone eventually took the engine and gearbox...sliding it to the main road on the missing hood we assume. We know/knew where theres a lot of stuff in better shape than this, but watch it degrade or have watched it go to the crusher rather than take it from private land. We're not thieves. Situations and attitudes vary by location (Worldwide!)...and with all the new development reaching out into the crown lands around this city sometimes this old stuff comes to light. Now the other side of the city is all farmland and WOULD require permission to even check the fencelines...let alone remove something...like a certain 31 Chevy.
like a certain 31 Chevy!!! you holding out on me? Man it been awhile sence I walked as much as we did that day.Man I feel like a old man today.
Young fellas these days....LoL I'm out doing yard work and putting up some Christmas decorations!!!! Theres a 31 Chevy sedan over on Brookfield Road just past the farms. It WAS visible from the road, but was moved back MUCH farther on the land. The owner is passed on, but of course SOMEONE owns the land...thus we're out of luck on that one. I took pictures of it when I was 12...and yes they did have cameras then.
I would never suggest that you took the car with out permission, funny sometimes how people want what you have after it is rescued but could not care before...
I often wonder how many of the cars dumped out in the woods like this were stolen cars 50 years ago. I have found many too nice to be out there cars in my travels.
Man it's great to live out of the urban nest..I just picked up a nice 35 -36 Banjo rearend for free...as you know I live here in northern Maine..I hunt a lot and I always come across a car or truck every year in the wild...I'm starting to realize some of this shit is worth hauling out...The way I figure it I'm going green...I'm cleaning up the land...shit this stuff has been left their to rot..nice steering wheel find..Oh..I use to sled a lot..(snowmobile) .... I can remember 100's of car I came across sled for all those years...I'm talking in the wild..on wood hauling tote roads...boy wish I could remember those day..all up in Aroostock and Penobscot county..
You never know what you will find. Up here many a car was ditched on crown land or off old back roads. Each years I find more and more,sometime I loose out on cars.I have heard of stuff being balled up and halled away.The good stuff for us is in land, I have found some good bodys in central Newfoundland.There is alot more out there to be found.Some enjoy going off into the woods to hunt and fish.Not me I hunt all right but for old iron.
The Jalopy Journal
