Anyone ever took an abandoned car, like say a river car , a car found in a gully , or just drug out of the woods and turned it into your pride and joy? , I'm not talking about going out and buying a project , just finding one , totally discarded and giving it a new lease on life? , let's see some before / after pics of them...
I'll play. First photo was in a mesquite grove south of Abeline TX 2000. Second photo was Northern Iowa 2008. Yea it's in my avitar.
Not a HAMB car, but does buying a 70 duster out of a junkyard with no windows and a bad engine count. Had a 72 with a bad frame went to junk yard up the road and Ted goes, "I got your car." I said what, and he explained having a 70 up on the hill, and if I needed parts he had em. I told him show me the frame, and bought it for $75 swapped my gl*** and engine that weekend and was driving it in a week.
a few of my 41-46 chevy/gmc pickups i find that was like my 46 chevy pickup the yellow one it wwas in a woods behind a shed uphill a hill since 1959 just sitting with flat tires and a shot out windshield and all rusted out ect.thanks
Thanks guys I like this kinda stuff , keep it coming , I feel this is what hot rodding is all about , not going out and getting a cataloge and building a car , but , doing it like it was done in the early days....finding a car , and using your knowledge (and luck ) of all aspects of the car , and putting them to use in a car that is truely unique and personal , anyone with a fat wallet can buy a catalog car, pay someone to finish it for them , then parade it around like they are the ones who built the car , I like the ones you see in guys back yards , ba*****ts , etc. guys elbow deep in the innards of the car , wrench throwing , cursing , beer drinking , bench racing and all the other things that go on in the places where the "real" cars are built...
My 25 Chevy was about as abandoned and neglected as you can get. It should be finished this year.(link in sig)
If anyone else has a story to share, I'd love to hear it. I love these stories, and seeing old cars get a new life. Just awesome! -Allan
yep just doing one now...50 Fiat topolino...paid £40 for it, had been in a lock up garage for years ...in fact so long a drip from the garage roof has made a small rust hole in the bodywork!!! anyway chucked away what was useless and flatpacked the rest, 12 years later just dragged it out from behind the car port to build the wife a pick up truck... OK it's going on a VW floorpan for costs. registration and speed of build...but it's gona be up and running for some shows later this year!!...I Hope...check out the picshttp://www.volkszone.co.uk/VZi/showthread.php?t=703401
13 years since it was pulled out of a ravine on my cousin's farm. Had sat there since 1958. Just too many distractions in life......I need to get working!
Not mine but this one was dug out of an arroyo. Only part of the cowl was exposed. Built by Jim Johnson of Albuquerque.
My '59 El Camino was virtually abandoned in the woods down in Alabama. I bought it for $400 at what was, essentially, a s**** auction. I plan to have it on the road this year for under $2500. JH
its nowhere near finished yet, just gettin started really. but it was at the brink of oblivion. has a little bit of family history too. originally it was my great grandfathers car, one day my mum, pop and nanna were up looking around the old farm (no longer owned by the family) and found it sitting in the trees. so i go up and talk to the current property owner and he tells me that it was really owned by my family so i could have it. now theres this old saying "my grandfather's had the same axe for 40 years, its had 3 new heads and 5 new handles". so as theres not much of this car thats actually useable the build has been dubbed "great grandfathers axe" (i will be using some parts so i believe the soul of the car will be captured)
I work on cell towers for a cellular company and travel all over and glad I do because I was heading to the site i thought was ours so im driving down the dirt road and I came across 2 decent 28/9 Model A tudor sedans, a matching frame and, another model a maybe early 30s and I knew from that point on i wasnt leaving this city untill those cars where on a trailer headed back home. So i did what i needed to do, calling everyone and everybody around that knew about the land owner and finally I got ahold of the older man who owned these cars as a kid. They have been siting for over 40 years in this same spot covered in weeds dirt and a full of other random parts. I got ahold of the guy and I offered him 500 for one of the bodies and 200 for the frame he wasnt interested in selling them untill i said i have cash right now and i can meet you. He said alright I guess i can come off them. Well when I met up with the guy a couple days later I asked him if he would throw in another one of the bodys he asked me if i could do 1000 for both. I told him i have 800 right now. So i got the frame and 2 of the bodys for 800 which was a steal i thought. Got them on a trailer and sent them 1400 miles to my place back home. This was all two days ago literally so here Iam.
WOW outlaw those two look very tidy. id say you got them for a steal. good to see there still out there. wats the plan for em?
39coupe: sitting on it's roof kept the bottom from rusting out? fuzzybear: you have vision. keep it in the family. axe me how i know...
yeah i know ive been told im mad. but as i said theres not much of this car that il be using, just a few parts to say the car lives on
I have so many plans for this car ill keep it short and try not to take up too much space on this thread. Plan on chopping about 5 inches maybe a little more. I plan to channel it a little and do some extra custom work to it. I have so many ideas for this thing i just cant wait to start putting them into action.
So, what is the difference between and abandoned car and an abandoned project? I know of a "project" was was bought from a closed junk yard to be moved to a field where it sat for years. Then someone bought it and moved it to their farm, behind the barn, where it sat for many more years. Then a 3rd guy bought it, cut it up a little and moved it to their fence line where it sat for another 10 years. A 4th guy has bought it, and moved it to his place where he "works on it" a few hours a month, its been at his place for a couple years now. I suppose someday it might look like a car again, at least the last guy is doing something to it, for now. At what point does an abandoned project become an abandoned car? Gene
Found my 37 under a tree down by the beach here in Ventura in 1978.Had been a drag car in the late 50's--early 60's.Guy was ready to crush it-----
I will be starting a build thread on with alot of pictures and information as i go. It will be something to look forward to see ill make sure of that. Ill be starting one with in the next few weeks.
The Jalopy Journal
