While in Maine this weekend, i struck up a conversation with a man who ran an antique shop on his property down the road from us. He said he had an old wreck on his property, so I asked to see it. It was a pretty interesting find. I couldn't identify it but I took some pictures and told him I'd try to find out what it was. It had a straight eight, IFS, and at least a partially open drive from what I could see. The rear end, head, carb, hood and sheetmetal past the mid cab had been scavenged long ago. It looks like the car rolled off the mountain road many years ago. EDIT: We have determined it's a 1935 Oldsmobile Eight, but not which body style!
Back up from the car a bit , and take a full pic of the car , makes it easier to identify rather than close up pics of parts of the car...
im guessing buick? based on straight 8..but doesn't look like any buick I have seen.....I guess best tip off with be the grille for what it actually may be...hmm
Right as usual, Bruce! Also note grille bars, horizontals are in pairs... 'L' head engine, Pontiac steering wheel. 1936-'38.
maybe even an Oldsmobile? I believe they also used straight 8 and had similar grill design as the original picture posted...
Gauge Cluster possibly from a 36 Olds? Also similar gauge cluster to 49-50 Kaiser? But my money is on the 36 Olds!
I think 31Dodger hit it on the head..... Pontiac and Buick manifolds were on the left side of the motor, Olds on the right.
I could have sworn I had a full shot but I can't find it in my camera, so I may not have actually snapped it. There were tons of little 1" & 2" trees around it though, so without a machete, it'd be hard to make out. I think you nailed it, 31Dodger. That interior and that grille/hood ornament are a perfect match.
There's also another stripped down wreck near our vacation house. This one looks like a 40's Ford truck cab but I couldn't get down the slope to get a close look at it. I got part of the story on it. Apparently back in the long long ago, the man at the top of the hill was a bit... cavalier (wild) about driving his trucks down the mountain, at one point driving his Model A truck standing on the sideboard, steering through the window. That truck made it. This one did not:
Yeah, I think you're right, looking at the detail along the door. I'm going to get back to the man whose property the Olds is on to let him know what it is. I might see if he'd let me scavenge some parts off of it. He's an antique dealer so I'm sure we could figure out something. The sheet metal (what there is of it) is banged up but not crumpled too bad. The tops of the front fenders and the firewall could be bumped back into shape. Most of the damage is singular, not multiple impacts, and the steel looks thick in most places up top. If someone had the back half of one of these it'd be useful.
Not sure whose land it's on yet. Besides, the driver side is probably rotted away to nothing... but I'll eventually track down the owner anyway I'd bet. The Olds is probably more realistic of a score. I've seen worse damage repaired but it would take a real vision to make it worthwhile. I've got too many irons in the fire right now to make an offer and not enough storage to house it.
No, at least not that he mentioned. He bought the property some years back and the Olds was there when he bought it. It's probably been there for 50+ years from the looks of it. It looks like someone either rolled off the road or got hit and rolled off the road. Not pictured is the big dent on the pas side and pole shaped depression in the roof.
So, I heard back from the owner of the property that the Olds is sitting and rotting on; he's interested in finding buyers who need parts off of the car, but there don't seem to be a whole lot of people restoring these and this one has been picked over pretty well. However I find myself fighting the urge to make an offer on the whole thing. I can see a pretty mean car underneath all that moss and rot. It would be a huge fabrication heavy job and there's so little, mechanically and likely structurally, left that it wouldn't really be an easy traditional custom build. I'd need to make a new frame and fabricate from the cowl back (though he does have a trunk lid at least). The pro to that is that it's a bit of a blank canvas as far as coachwork. The con is that it it's a bit of a blank canvas as far as coachwork... Am I crazy for even thinking about this? I really can't do it right now because my build isn't done and I just don't have room to store it. But man could that thing be cool done up with some Lakes style and a fresh straight 8...
Pontiac and Oldsmobile from that era both have their manifolds on the p***enger side Buick, overhead and on the drivers side.
Good to know! Do you know how similar the Olds & Pontiac L8's are otherwise? Is there any interchangeability between them? I ask because I see Pontiac straight 8's for sale about twice as often as I see Buick straight 8's and I've never seen an Olds straight eight for sale that I recall.
I guess if he had read the whole thread, especially your correct i.d. in post #11, he would have known that!
I just added an update in bold to the first post so folks don't spin their wheels trying to figure it out. We still don't know what body style it... WAS, but I think once I see the decklid that was found nearby, that might solve that too.
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