"Honey, it followed me home. I tried to make it stay..."

So I spent my day off cleaning up and taking care of some pre-winter chores, including taking a load of scrap to the scrap yard. After a weekend full of shenanigans of refrigerators gone bad, I had amassed a solid truckload.
Whenever I go to the scap yard, like you, I keep an eye out for old car stuff. When I do see it, it is usually right after The Claw has crumpled it into a big rusty booger.
As I was unloading the nasty refrigerator I spied a round shape at he bottom of the mountain of metal that looked a lot like a fender. I paused in my labor to climb up to get a closer look. Doth my eyes deceive me? Seriously? Did someone scrap a Nineteen F*@kin Forty Ford?
Most yards here in the state wont let metal leave once it's in due to some****hat suing a yard for getting injured while monkeying around on a pile of metal. This yard has loosened up a bit and with hat in hand I approached the yard boss to see about purchasing the sad remains.
He hopped in The Claw and as "gingerly as possible" tore the rest of this poor poor car out from under the pile.
Before you ask, all that you see here is all that was left. They used the hot wrench to separate this from the tattered remains. I could tell that it used to be a 4-door sedan. The cowl and dash were nearly unrecognizable - I checked. The frame was shredded, the drive train long gone, the doors were barely recognizable as doors. It was so sad. And the crazy thing was, that for being in the rust Belt, this is rot free. WHY WOULD SOMEONE SCRAP THIS??? I would have known if a 1940 Ford anything popped up for sale locally.
Well, for the price of my load of scrap and a few bucks I brought this home. My plans for it are that I don't have any plans, I just couldn't bear the thought of this getting destroyed when they piled a Neon on top of it. The fact that it is in as good a shape that it is considering where it was laying is in and of itself amazing.
I might take it all apart and find someone who wants some real Henry steel fenders. I might use these as practice for body bumping and then sell them. I might make a crazy chair out of them... I don't know. But I wanted to share with someone who would understand why I brought it home. The Yard Boss didn't understand. Neither did my wife. Sure looks better in the yard than a refrigerator though.

 

how can a true car guy leave this behind to make soup cans out of?
good on you for saving some history

 

I see a new desk in your future!!!!!!!!!!

 

Nice save, great story, are the brake and clutch pedals there? If so go back and get them, I could use a pair. Bob

 

It looked like someone stripped all the drivetrain including the pedals out. What was left of the x-member looked like it had been hacked apart with an axe.

 

good save and kudos to the yard boss. saved a rusty 59 ford one time the idea of it being smashed was to much I gave the car away but it didnt get crushed.

 

yeah good save....looks a lot like the beginnings of a nice rolled arm sofa to me.....

 

Find the hood and you have a nice firewood shed. Bob

 

Brought back from the dead cool find

 

Good save, glad you made the effort!

 

i too have the same problem with "strays" following me home. i got it bad cars, motorcycles, and guns they all chase me all the way home. how can we say no? its our civic duty to save these orphaned items if we don't then who will?

 

so sad,,, we need to start an (a.s.p.c.a.)for cars.... they should be fined for that kind of abuse... and the hoarders should have their cars taken if theyre not doing any thing to them but letting them rott...;-)

 

Good to know I'm not the only one that does that!!

 

Yea, I break even at the scrap yard about half the time I go! Now the guys see me coming and pull out the stuff they set aside! Mostly steel signs and a gas pump once.

 

I was offered a worse std front with a bonnet at our swap meet for $2500nzd, I passed it up. If I was closer I'd be making you an offer on it.

Scotty

 

Buy a reproduction body... you are good to go.
as with you, I scrounge when I scrap. The owner knows if I find something, I may owe him. In the last 3 months, came out of the "yard" with perfect front and rear seats and dual piston calipers/spindles/rotors from a 67 TBird, 69 Torino hood scoop, and 59 Ford 9 inch. He sells for 2x the scap value. If I had space, I could have had an entire 50 Studebaker Coupe

 

if you could find a hood, you could do this, my hot rod buddys love my buried 56, i;m lookin for more old iron to half bury.

 

Those fenders look nicer than the ones I'm using. Some people's idea of scrap.....

 

Killer wall hanging!

 

I see a desk as well!!

 

Good save Gigantor. For some reason i also see a desk. That would be very cool.