Hot Rods Why did they survive?

Mine didn't actually "survive". After it was all used up as a stocker, it was made into a race car for the local stock car tracks. I think it outlasted the other stock cars and was retired to a field when they stopped racing old fords. A buddy bought it and cut the body into 4 pieces so it'd fit in the rafters above his garage and it sat for years. Another buddy found and bought the decrepid, 4 piece body and I bought it from him. In the end, the only body parts usable from the original body was the top!

 

My 48 was bought as a 75.00 beater work truck in 1973 from a gent who had retired and was moving out of town when I lived in McGregor Tx. The look it had then would make some of these patina fans today pee on their shoes.
The 31 Model A Victoria on the other hand wasn't really a survivor when I bought it. From the looks of things someone rolled it over on the drivers side in a field 40 or 50 years or longer ago and stripped the running gear out while leaving the frame. All the seats were long gone but every window molding is still with the car. Left side is bad from the middle of the window opening up. Passenger side just has surface rust and the results of being exposed to the weather for all those years. The big dent in the back says that it got rear ended not that long before it lost it's drivetrain and probably it's interior. or most of it.
As I first saw it the day I bought it. Taken from the road while I was waiting for the seller's rep to show up

The good side


The bad side including the big dent in the back. I picked up another drivers door that is real nice and will probably fabricate the roof pieces.


For sure not a survivor but it hid out long enough that it didn't give up it's frame or some of the body parts to fix another

 

I.ve had my Oz 1940 Dodge since 1971 when I bought it from a uni student in Balmain an inner city suburb of Sydney......I'd had an Oz 1940 Dodge Coupe since 1969 and as all budding hot rodders aged 15 do, I pulled the car apart so when I saw the sedan advertised I pestered my dad into us going to see it.......when I knocked on the door a guy answered, half stoned....."the car man?......you mean Sebastion, that's the cars name, man........he's around the corner, man"......lol.........so off we went and found a still registered, complete down to the owners handbook & hubcaps car with burnt ignition wiring but too good to part out............when asked what the price was the guy replied, $40, $20.00.......so after explaining that we would have to get it towed home my Dad offered $15.00 and the car was mine.........lol......... and it cost me $20.00 to get it towed but once home I realised it was too good to part out so it was going to be restored but after getting screwed around by an engine rebuilder who didn't rebuild it properly I decided it was getting hot rodded, I bought a 1962 Chrysler Royal for its running gear, 318 Poly & auto and I still have it to this day and its been pretty much as seen in the pic except for the vinyl top removal about 5yrs ago........so I know its history from 1971, however in about 1985 I did a wedding for a mate and whilst waiting outside the church whilst the ceremony happened I was talking to an old guy outside having a smoke who remarked that it was nice to see a 1940 Dodge as they were not common..........I thanked him and indicated that it was unusual to have someone know what year the car was.........his reply was that his mate, a George Mason from Narrabri, a town in western New South Wales had one in the 1950 & 60's and it had been through the 1955 floods..........well I said this is THAT car as when I transferred the registration papers into my name in 1971 the previous owners name was printed on the papers and it was.......George Mason, Narrabri..........I gave the old guy a good look thru the car then had to get back to the wedding duties.......never did get his name but I now knew why the upholstery in the car was so tatty when I bought it.........lol........anyway that's my 3 oz cents worth..........Andy Douglas.

 

Despite being a complete underdog and outcast like a leper in the States plus being in the UK for 20 years with our shitty weather my Edsel made it through
I love it and it seems to have attracted a lot of attention in my neck of the woods as i use it daily

 

The first thing I think of when I see a race car # 56 is local racing legend Jim Hurtubise. One of my favorites!.Along with local Chuck Boos #9 . My son is crewing on a sportsmen modified this summer,also #56, kind of cool Id say.

 

Just paid the 38th annual registration on my 34 Tub ,,came in '77 as a basket case ,,on the road in '79 ,,,it almost got sold a few times when things got tough ,,,but we got through ,,it's showing a few scars but I still get a kick out of it taking it out for a drive ,,,

 

mine survive in the rustbelt by being in a garage most of its life but it did see it share of salt ( floor boards prove that ) , the guy who I bought it off of was the only person who parked it outside ( and it grew moss on the north side ) , the person he bought it off of parked it and did the mods to the chassis years back when the transmission died and he wanted a newer drivetrain and then pushed it in the corner of his garage .

 

You look at cars that are scarce. How many '36 to '40's cars got made into stock cars? Same a little more recent with Chevelles, Camaros and Novas. You would see 20 or 30 at a local Saturday night track, take that times maybe 1500 tracks around the country. That takes a lot of iron out of circulation.

 

My 33 Fordor Deluxe must've thought it was dead , was bulldozed into a ravine in Northern Nevada . sometime in the 50's. the small towns here used to have voluntary city cleanups when the old junkers would be taken away and disposed of .while working on several 33-34's for a collector I was planning to use it as a parts car , but after acquiring lots of extra pieces , I began to look at it as if it had possibilities.

 

I don't think it's anything more than luck of the draw, that that car happened to fall into the hands of someone who had the space to store it properly to preserve it, or into the hands of someone with the requisite skill and/or money to restore it, and was lucky enough to not get irreparably cracked up in an accident.

 

My 41 actually has a 46 body...it had sat here in the high desert since the early 70's

 

I've been restoring/driving this for almost 8 months now. For the majority of its life I think it sat somewhere in a garage. The previous owner had it for 3-4 years and only put 1500 miles on it. The previous owner, his grandpa, didn't drive it too much either. I think it might have 93000 original miles, or maybe 193000. Who knows? Haha.