So this old guy stops by my shop with some great stories about hacking up 32-34 Fords

Been meaning to post this for awhile. I have a small car lot in downtown Austin TX. I bought this old model A cab a couple years ago to teach myself how to weld. It was really rough and I figured I could only improve it. I had it sitting beside my shop and this old guy saw it and stopped by. I think he said he was in his 80's.

Anyway... He asked me what I was doing with it and we started talking about what stuff was worth nowadays. I told him what I had paid for the cab and he couldn't believe it. I began to tell him that all this old sheetmetal is getting expensive, especially the 32-34 Ford stuff and that a solid 32-34 coupe body would easily bring in the 20k + range. Not counting what the whole car was worth.

He about fell over backwards when I said it. His eyes got gl***y and he just kinda stared off in the distance. He said when he was a kid they used to go around and gather up old car bodies for s**** metal and that they were so poor they couldn't even afford saws. They had to chop them up with hatchets! Said he didn't know how many they hacked up.

He also said that during the war they used to stash old cars behind barns and keep them hid or covered up because if the government men came by they would ask if it ran or was being used. If it wouldn't start they would say they would be back to hear it run and if the motor was gone or the car had obviously been sitting a while they would just take it for s**** for the war. He said they had to keep anything usable stashed away or they would just take it.

Anyone else ever heard these kinds of stories? Could the government just take stuff for the war effort?

 

Back during WWII, metal was at a premium...and the cities & some states used to have "s**** drives" and many people collected any kind of metal laying around to turn in so the government could build tanks, planes, etc...this also went along with rationing of gasoline, food, etc...and you can read more at the link below...

I think the old guy's memory is fogged a bit...I don't think the government "could take stuff" from anyone.

Here's an excerpt from:
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/life_08.html

Save those s****s. With so many commodities in short supply, the government not only rationed them but also campaigned to save and reuse vital materials. Many people who were children or teenagers during World War II remember how their small towns held s**** drives. People collected s**** paper so it could be used for packing around equipment and weapons. All kinds of metal was collected so it could be recycled and made into bombs. Engine grease was saved. The government needed copper for war material and minted pennies from zinc-coated steel in 1943. Towns had paper drives, rubber drives, and s**** metal drives. Children went door to door in their neighborhoods. The drives generated a strong sense of community and a patriotic feeling that everyone was helping in the war effort. The actual savings from these drives is difficult to measure.

Google SHOULD be your friend...there's lots of info there if you simply do a search...!!!

R-

 

An old gentleman that I knew who had a s****yard I used to frequent years ago, never crushed anything. It would return to the earth first and many were on their way there. Anyhow he was quite bitter about the cars "they" took from him in WWll, So I guess there is some truth to what the old gent said. Tom...

 

Roger, Roger, Roger.. think what you said.??? you don't think the government can just take what it wants...? they have been doing it since the beginning of time... hey you won't remember me, but we met you at a gas station, on the way to the 'first' Rod and Custom, Spectacular.... actually you and your brother, ea. had a 57 Chevy..

 

sad , but great story . Good memories or bad , only the old man knows .

 

Brining this back on topic, about cars, one of Barney Pollard's relatives is on the board. He can tell the story much better than I since my details would be worse than 2nd hand. Barney had hundreds of old cars he was saving in the name of history. I guess he actually had to go to a hearing and all I can remember of his position on the subject was (paraphrasing) if the need for these cars is the diffeence in whether or not we win the war then not only can you have them, I'll deliver them. I believe he compromised and gave them the old tires.

After the war s**** was at a premium as well. Dad and his friend would pay $5.00 for the average Model A, take them to Ford Woods down by the Rouge River and burn them out, separate the engine (cast iron was a different price) and s**** them for around $30-40 bucks. They would do a couple dozen cars a week. They'd s**** any old car they found and once burned an aluminum-bodied Packard town car. They didn't know it was aluminum until the body started to sag and he said they had to run to the river several times to get buckets of water to put out the fire (big car!). It was a 35-37, he wasn't sure, but it had aluminum heads also. They paid $70.00 for it, sold the tires to a local plumber for his truck for $75.00, and got almost $400.00 for the s****. Couple of kids livin high on the hog for a summer, huh?

Bottom line, some of what the ol guy was trying to tell had a degree of truth to it.

 

I did think it thru, I usually don't post anything that is pure ****...but there's absolutely no proof that the gov't "took" the old man's "stuff"...now nor in the past. Cities, towns, businesses and civilian groups did those s**** drives...but no one "forced" people, much less the gov't, to turn over their s****. There may have been some people that said they were gov't employees...but that doesn't mean the gov't ''took" stuff.

Yes, I'm well aware of the gov't's capability of "taking stuff," but that doesn't mean it happened to a farmer's cars...!!!

No, can't say I do remember you from that short description...and there's tons of gas stations all across this land and I meet a ton of people...and what "R & C Spectacular" would that have been...unless you're confusing it with the "Leadsled Spectacular"...???

R-

 

MY family had and still has s**** yards. They took 90% of the cars out of our wreaking yards a month! Yes they took it. My grandpa was a cunning ******* and got used airplane tires and sold them, but he had to give a good deal to returning GI's. At least this is how my dad tells it.

 

Maybe people were even intimidated into giving up their old stuff back then. I would guess that a hint of strong arm tactics may have sometimes been used.

Some who were portraying government workers in search of s**** metal may have wound up looking down the barrel of a shotgun and told to "get off my land."

 

hey look what i found. My grandpa is the second man from the left.

 

Can the government just take stuff.... well... eminent domain comes to mind (grant it you are supposed to compensated but that wasn't always the case read the history on it).

Would it really be that hard to imagine that during this time period what some people considered s**** might be someone else's parts car and think about the mentality at the time of events... you don't give up your "s****" your for the enemy (that's not really to hard to imagine).
Look around today at the laws that allow your "project" car to be towed off. There have been several posts on here and other boards about this occurring. All the major car and truck magazines have been doing stories on how to keep the "hobby" alive and have printed what legislation states are trying to p***. I mean if you really want to ask what can the government can do during a time of war? let's see Japanese American Internment.... that was during WWII.

 

Winning the war was important,...old cars were not.
And, you have to remember that these were not sought after cars, just junky old cars. A '32 was only ten years old. No big deal...and they were everywhere, not rare.
I can remember in the late 50's going to the jalopy races and watching a dozen or so deuces and '33-'34's getting demolished every sunday. Sunday after sunday....

 

Looks to me like he "donated" all of it, instead of "They took''...there's a big difference there.

R-

 

I dont think he had a choice, it was donate it or they took it. My grandpa was not the type of guy to "donate" things by choice. Besides do you belive everthing you read in the newspaper or internet? Propaganda is a word the comes to mind.On the other hand It was 70 years ago, the only record i have is this piece of paper. Otherwise all i have is verbal history. Since its my story ill tells it how i tells it. ha ha

 

Here is a great article I googled about s**** drives. It may shed some light on things.

http://journalstar.com/news/local/article_44b311bb-ca27-556b-b4d4-716a0fd9b801.html

 

People during World War II would do anything to help with the war effort.
They understood that keeping all of their s**** wouldn't be very valuable if they had to salute a German or Japanese flag every morning.

 

If you dig through Life Magazine for the war years, you will find an article about a s**** dealer being forced to sell his stock. I think the guy was sitting on it to await better prices. Maybe, maybe not illegal, but no one was going to take that sort of thing to the supreme court in the wartime social climate. I think individuals would have just been under a lot of social pressure to melt the old heap, and I am sure lots of old cars got rolled away without anyone even bothering to ask for both $$ and s****-drive patriotic reasons.

 

Appropriate or not:

"A government that can give you everything you want (or what you think you want) is powerful enough to take away everything you have."

It's always been true and the government we now have is laying the foundation to make it a reality in the very near future.

Frank

 

True, even a few hot rods wound up as s****, like the Spaulding bros. streamliner...once the boys went into the service their parents donated it to the war effort, probably wound up in a battleship or a tank.

 

Wow... And when I left for work today I thought this thread was gonna be a dud!

Lot's of cool info on here...

 

We all got to remember,the govenment can do anything they want,take your state flag,take your land if they want to run a highway through it.We do have alot of freedoms and I proudly fought for this country but still today peoples rights are really being stepped on.

 

these stories of the s****ing of cars takes on two different aspects.

One: anything and everything was going to be used for the continued war effort. Period. To have lost the war was unthinkable.

Two: many of us have a hard time separating our feeling that we have today from the realities of an era which is hard to grasp today.
Most HAMBers were not around during WWII. And many also were not here in the 50's and, even the 1960's.
What we consider "sought after" or "valuable" today was not always the case.
I bought a complete Anglia for $15 in the mid-60's.
In the early days of WWII a deuce was only 10 years old....so it was no big deal.
In comparison, a 10 year old car today would be a PT Cruiser or a Chrysler Sebring. I doubt anyone would think twice about s****ing one today that had a blown engine if your Country needed the metal for the war effort.

Remember, in 1967 I made $1.40 an hour and in 1971 I sold a 1967 Corvette coupe 427/435hp which was mint condition for $2200.

Its all relative for the most part....

So, what are you throwing away today that you'll miss 30 years from now?

 

After the war you could have bought a flying B-24 bomber at s**** actions for $50-100.00 what a shame, I think only a dozen are still around out of hundred of thousands that were built. Keep mind the also sold all sorts of goverment surplus Planes, Tanks, ETC
The goverment may do it agian and sell all of OUR steel to China have you seen s**** metal prices latley

 

Barney Pollard made a deal with the government by buying model T's and donating them in place of the rare cars that he was collecting. Model T's were plentiful. He had hundreds of rare and exotic cars that he stored vertically in his warehouses. He lost a bunch in a later fire.
Hopefully his grandson will come on and clarify again.
Yes, the government would put the pressure of the law and force people to donate their metal if they thought you were hoarding it.

 

I tend to believe it may have happened to an extent.

The elderly rarely make erroneousness statements concerning the distant past. I would sooner trust the recollections of a really old fella who was actually there, than the ***umptions of someone who wasn't.

An elderly person may not remember if the mailman came yesterday, or what they had for breakfast today, or where they set their teeth down 30 seconds ago...BUT...never underestimate the accuracy of an old person's long-term memory, even if the memory is from 70-80 yrs ago or more.

In fact...whenever a senior speaks of things from long ago...from the history they lived through...it's usually best to listen...and learn. As opposed to simply presuming the poor old guy's brain just aint workin' right.

 

there was a yard near here the owner worked at a steel mill less tan a 1/4 mile away the goverment tried take it and he woldnt let them so they blocked him from the yard he wasnt even allowed in it.that was during ww2 the original owners p***ed and a friend of mine new one of the sons he gave him permission to enter the yard a state hi way patrol came in after him he stated i have permission the trooper said i dont care if it is from god leave before you are arressted. they just s****ped it out in 07. believe it

 

OK...uhmmmm, I'm going to need a bit more explanation on this one...that's one long stretch of time between WWII and 2007 (like over 50 years)... what was going on with the yard in all that time...and what were the owners doing in the meantime with the yard...??? How did he prevent the gov't from taking it...???


R-

 

Yowza...

 

Man youve got that right!! That is something that is forgotten these days and THAT is sad.

 

Thanks for history lesson. Slim