Where did you find your project?

Got mine from an Ol' Hot Rodder. Like mentioned before, do the footwork. For instance get yourself some cash. As much as you can afford and take a drive to the old part of town or out into some older suburbs, keep you eyes peeled and knock on some doors. Someone's bound to have something cool they are willing to get out of their yard. A Model A is a tall order for your first rod. I'd peruse this site and make yoursel a hit list of cars you like, the more lines you cast the likelyhood of you catchin' something is greater. Just my opinion.

 

Ebay or Hamb...

 

found these last weekend on a joyride

 

Swap meets are good source, but sometimes those guys seem to have been watching too much Barrett-Jackson on TV.

The best deals I have ever found are usually sitting in somebodys back yard. You have to go up and knock on the door.

Good luck .

 

Drive the back roads with a good pair of binoculars. Less chance of getting shot at! I found mine in a junk yard ten years ago and went back with the money about a year ago. Patience and the right price.

 

i have an e mail for a guy on h.a.m.b has a bunch of cool cars for sale, rufuranch @hot mail . check under cars for sale or e mail them and get the web site

 

Keep searching Craigslist, your bound to find something good in your area.

 

A buddy of mine use to tell me i was crazy to want to build a model a with a flat head.I had a motor just needed a car.When he was hunting upstate ny he was getting gas when a person pulled in with a 40s ford with a forsale sign on it so he asked what year it was and said he knew someone who was looking for a model a coupe.The owner of the car said ,my nephew had one and it was for sale and gave him a number.I called him a week later and took a ride to see it and explained i couldent come back for a week and wanted to leave a deposit.He wouldent take one and gave me his word it will be there when i said i would come for it and we shook hands.one week later it was mine.Try to go to cruise nites and find cars you like and ask the owners wher there may be one for sale.Chances are they have at least some parts to offer that they have picked up durring there build. Make friends with the old timers,if they like you they will know where to find stuff and be a great help allong the way.if they dont take to you there stuff will go back to mother earth before you will get it.

 

Way way way out in the back of a scrap metal yard, sitting on top of another truck just like it, and a hundred feet from a model t, A, frame for an A, 29 chevy, 31 olds chassis, fifty feet from a semi trailer with 6 flatheads, and another hundred feet from the recently burned down garage that had an all original running model A, mid 30's modified coupe, and another not so great model A, all three burned severly, quite possibly not repairable, the coupe has a solidified puddle of aluminum under it from the newer transmission that Was in it, but is now under it.

 

I always would pick a nice weekend during winter months and would just drive,stopping and checking out rides you could spot from the road during the bare trees. Most never would sell but still we found alot of stuff you couldnt see in the summer. Driving around you can find alot and get a word out your looking the more you stop and inquire.

 

swap meets, auto trader, word of mouth, and dont expect to buy anything cheap because nobody gives anthing good away.

 

#1 found in top of a grain elevator.

#2 found in he bottem of an old Indians feild

#3 found on its side in a rushing river.

I have found them in the paper, ebay, shoot I even found them from talkin to an old guy in line at the grocery store.
Hell I think usually they seem to find me.

 

Hotroddings alot like Amway its alot of networking and eats holes in your shirts! I put a APB out on myspace and got all my friends and family looking for rust piles in fields. And came up with this 28 roadster for almost nothing.

 

If you have the mindset and the radar and maybe already a few cars in the backyard, they start to find you..rust likes to be with rust..you know when you are driving by a wood slat fence and you can adjust your eyes to see only the open spaces, the whole back yard will open up to you!...on craigslist I saw a 1048 Cadillac advertised, I think the typo error gave me just enough time to be there first, just being curious...a friends wife made him give me their MGA just for the garage space...a friend told me his mother works with another woman who now that her husband has died wants to sell their Citroen/Maserati SM...a bulldozer operator I know told me the owner of some land he is clearing told him he could have the old car bodies that are in the way, 32 Ford Tudor sedan and 36 Ford Tudor sedan...get on a roll and you'll have too many projects before you know it!....

 

Driving an older car helps..I get alot of the "I have a car like that in my backyard" conversations,and notes left on the car too.

The guy I bought my 26 Chrysler from was a mailman for umpteen years.
He has the best stash of old tin I've seen in a long time.
He won't get off most of it, but sold me the running '26 for $350

I hooked up with him because I had a sign for "parts wanted" for another car at the swapmeet.

I think the key to it all is to have the money in your hand that you can spend. Hit the swaps, web sites, etc, and maybe put up a card at the local "real" auto parts store, or a wanted ad in the local paper.
That $50 for the ad could get you a real winner..

 

You either gotta get off your ass and look like crazy, wait and watch the ads, or you gotta pay to play. Those of us who do spend the time looking and dragging out these old cars don't give our time and labor away for free. But I've bought and sold lots of good rod and custom material and have yet to have a buyer complain about what they got.

 

The cab on ebay. the frame and 9inch ford rear from Satanherself. The rest i had laying around.

 

one of mine came from here,,,,HRP

 

I got most of mine from small local salvage yards or neighbors and relatives. There was a guy who towed cars for the national kidney foundation when they were donated. He got all that were not running for his small salvage yard. Most were 80s and 90s but Every once in a while he would get one from the 40s to the early 70s. I got 2 from him. He sold them cheap. The others were from elderly neighbors and relatives. It might take a few years to get one you want but usually they are for a really reasonable price. Some out of the way garages and small salvage yards never crush a car and have all they ever bought or were given. I know a guy that had about 75-100 out in the woods and fields behind his garage. Most were about 1930-1970. Usually one will turn up in a time when you are not expecting it or just after you have got another which cost you much more.

 

Here is A 48 ford 2dr. I got from a relative at a good price it had been there since 61. The 40 Ford 2 dr. is another she has but will not sell.

 

I got 2 of them out of here just by talking to some old farmers. they both been there since 1954 and covered in bird shit but both were in pretty good shape. the sedan was a very rust free car with only some surface rust

 

I found mine here on the HAMB. However, I tend to look on Craigslist every day and find more and more out there. The problem is the price that some people want. Every once in a while I find a SMOKING deal on there. Also, when I drive around I tend to look in yards. There are a few old car yard out there and have some descent deals. Finally, I made a name amongst my friends as the car guy. Every time they come across an old car, or a old 4 wheel drive, I get a call. 2 pairs of eyes is better than one, and 3 is better and 2...

Dima

 

kind of depends on where you live and what your network is. I'm sure they're still around,but there's not a lot of territory out here in central PA that hasn't been pretty much traveled over. So you gotta know people, or ask. Check out local papers, hang out with old people, be polite and ask about them.

I got my A as a running car, already chopped, but still needing a lot of work, at the big swap meet in Carlisle,PA. It's gotten more late model stuff with time and I got a fair deal on it on Sunday because the guy didn't want to drive it back home to Pittsburgh.

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?page_id=516


HERE!

 

Found my 50 Shoebox behind a customers house when I went to check out a 66 Lincoln for another customer. Our 39 Dodge truck cab was sitting in the woods next to a customer 40 Chevy cab he bought. We'll just spend some days driving around looking and asking for cars. Behind old ladies' farm houses or trailer houses seem to be prime spots. Be careful on e-bay.

 

i found my 56 merc in the back corner of the vw section at the pomona swapmeet!!!!

 

My projects seem to find me. But I go to Indy seveal times a year for my dads company. I take Rt 35 most of the way and I see all kind of cars and trucks along the way. Take a road trip and just start driving around. You should turn up alot of old tin in your area. Good luck

 

...the way I did it was to print up a "wanted-poster" for exactly what I wanted and posted it around my local aera...mom & pop stores .community bullitin boards,feed stores . places like that,2-3 weeks I had my project 2-two 66 chevy pick up's within 1-mile of my house!! 1 to build 1 for parts....the drive around thing works too DON'T TRESPASS, get a "spoting scope"

 

Mine find me also. All these ideas posted here are good ones!
Just go thru life with your eyes open, one will find you.