cars converted into farm machinery thread

Hi all, I'm new here but wanted to fill in some details on the "Mailwagon" seen above. I purchased it on eBay a few years ago from a guy who had gone to Minnesota to get it. The guy he purchased it from gave him the name of the name of the farmer from whom he purchased it 20 years earlier. He said it had been used by a farmer (and he gave the name) who ran a rural mail route near Devils Lake, ND in the late '40s and early '50s.

I wanted to get the car drivable once more and make it look like it might have "in the day". When I got it the back fenders as seen in the photo were in place though the right one was missing about a third of the back end. There was no top, no interior, no lights, little gl***, some body wood, complete running gear including a Model T worm drive rear end. It had a little bit of brake left on the front wheels.

The first thing I did was get it started. I didn't want to spend much time bringing it back to "the look" if I couldn't drive it. Here is a link to a video of it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE_ptoCYV8c

I soon added a used interior from a tudor that was becoming a hotrod. I added all the gl***, made front fenders from some heavy gauge steel which I stripped of paint and rusted with sea salt and hydrogen peroxide. I added the Model A lights with the sealed beam conversions and a school bus "STOP" light in which I added a taillight bulb. That light is mounted above the rear window where there was an outline of the original Model A taillight bracket in the body rust. The body had surface rust but there was absolutely no body rust.

I had some fun with it but my wife was not real fond of it! She did let me park it in the front yard and decorate it for a Christmas display that year. The next spring, my friend, who owns the aforementioned "museum" in Galvin wanted it so I sold it to him. I drove it about 3 miles on the road from my house to his. I got up to about 35 MPH and I'm sure it would have gone faster but with almost no brakes I chickened out.

To complete "the look" I had a friend paint the doors with appropriate lettering and then I aged it. I also added a rusty 1947 ND license plate! This project was a lot of fun. It was more of an art project than a car project in many ways.

Here are a couple more pictures:
http://www.thefreemancenter.com/1930_Ford_Tudor/1930_Ford_Tudor.html

PS: There are some really nice cars in the Galvin "museum". He enjoys giving tours.

 

More pics from the Galvin "museum"

 

Look close now; '33 Tudor Sedan.

 

Isn't that mail car an early "donk"? lol...

 

Some stuff my buddy's picked up:

'37 Plymouth turned into a saw: Body cut off behind the front doors, rear right frame rail bent upward, shaft with a big sawblade run across the back with a drum that rested right against the big truck tires which were mounted by welding them up to the drums. To drive it, you ran it with the right tire flat. To run the saw, you air up the tire, jack the wheel off the ground, and go. It also has a Model A windshield tacked on the front of it.

'25-ish Chevy cut down and turned into a small roller, for the lawn. No body parts, but two radiators on it.

A home-made tractor, or maybe made from what was left of an old one, that has a '49-'50 Ford V8, rearend, and the speedo cut out of the dash hanging on it. Big steel I-beam frame under it.

He did have for a while a belt-drive power unit for a sawmill or something that was made out of the front of a '32 Packard sedan, the frame cut in half. Even cut down to just the front of the car with no fenders or axle, the thing weighed in around 2 tons.

Years ago, too, he sold another '32 Packard that had been a coupe - turned into a tow truck of some sort.

That's in addition to quite a few doodlebugs, mostly Model A's but a few others as well.


I used to know where abandoned in the woods was a 40's Mopar 3-window coupe with the back cut off and a small winch added to the back. Not sure what that was for -

Looks like all I can find photos of is the Plymouth right now, but here that is anyways.

 

I was just talking about this an hour ago, come here and theres a topic about it.

ONLY on the HAMB.... get out of my brain!!!

 

Here's a few from a farm auction last Jan.

Think this one started out as a Crosley


Former model A turned portable air compressor


doodlebug,and yes thats a roadster cowl...




Toro...










International stake bed



more stake beds






OK maybe not converted but whens the last time you saw a
GMC huckster?


and more









6 cyl Buick stationary engine

 

Neatest i eer saw was my neighbour who tok a 65 Ford 1/2 ton removed the box and installed a IH M series rear end and tires. He used it for years. It looked real cool and would go like stink. I think it is in the pit below my house right now cause he never throws nothing away. If I get time I will wonder down and take a pic.
Don

 

Oh, I want it bad!

 

Truly a home made conversion, I've traced it back to the 30's on a ranch north of Paso Robles Ca. The person I got it from has had it more than 30 years. Some operator hit a stationary object with the oil pan and broke off the oil pump but kept plowing till all the babbitt was melted out. Amazingly the block is not cracked! When I got it, it had large tractor wheels welded to the rear brake drums.

 

One more view!

 

These conversions where also very popular over here in europe. Here is a Model A with a model b engine from switzerland, the farmer used it from 1950 to 1961 and it is still in the same family.

 

here is mine , pulled it out and going to start using it on the two acres, picked it up out of fillmore ca, 75 bucks, it was on a avocado ranch

 

32 frame made into a hay trailer.