After you get it freed up, I'd recommend a mag partical or dye penetrant test of the critical components before I drove too far from home.
50% Acetone and 50% ATF . Be careful it will be harmful to paint . It needs to be in a container that , can be sealed it with evaporate fast
WTF?? That is wood not steel or iron! But who would have built a wooden reared and why?Even In a hundred years of sitting outside steel could not deteriorate to resemble petrified wood. It’s got to be a shop class differential display from maybe the ‘30’s. And discarded at some point in the distant past. Very Cool and whatever the story could be I want it! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Uncle lives basically on the shore near the Atlantic, he parked a Mk III Cortina he no longer drove outside in a field next to a 60s Anglia. Anything that didn't have paint on it looked like that, crumbly wood with in 10years. Bumpers were a facade, you could walk up to it thinking it was a complete perfect bumper, but the base steel was completely gone and only the chrome luster was left. Aluminum bits turned to dust at anything more than a stiff breeze. The Stainlesss held up really well though. Even here in Calif, check out vehicles that are near the Pacific, three year old cars look like rustbelt buckets.
Try Naval Jelly....... from someone's really old naval. Have you identified the era yet? Mesozoic? Paleozoic?
Salt water will do that. I have a Model T front axle that came out of a river less than a 1/4 mile from Long Island Sound looks very much like that rear. Bob
I found an old mining chain while putting around the mountains of Colorado, back in the 70s. Even in that super dry air, the metal in the links, which had to be at least 1/2" thick, had 3/8" of rust that looked like it was growing out of the metal. I tied it on the bike with some might-save-me-sometime bailing wire and brought it to the shop. Today it lives proudly on top of my wood stove, having shed shards of rust along it's road of life.
Apparently you have never been around a car or a piece of equipment from the 30's 40's and some cases newer,that has been exposed to salt water or salty air like at the coast ....I have even seen parts rusted like that were submerged in body's of water ,fresh water,for long period of time then exposed to air or even in very damp,wet places that don't dry out much it will do that...old mining equipment in higher altitudes that are dry most of the time till the winter snows come over the years will also do that....in other words ...its not petrified wood... Sent from my SM-T387V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You can slip a Cadillac into a Dog House with that stuff! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app