Flathead folklore, were did you find yours...

39portlander

39portlander

Well-known member
When you get a flathead or potentially look @ a prospect, it's got a story. I see bart78's thread and his flathead was stored in a chicken coup. My last one was found in a pig pen.

I have seen dozens of Flathead's on a site, block down/pan up and they look like mushroom's growing up through the ground. Let's hear some of your stories:D. Scott
 
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I found mine in my truck where it had been resting in a pasture behind a barn for about 30 years. it was very rusted up & very stuck. Not rusted or stuck now after I rescued it about 7 years ago.
:)~~Walts37~~:)
 
There are still tons around here to be found. And most free all you have to do is ask.
 
i've torn down so many froze up, valves all rusted in, cut the top off the pistons to get them out, flatheads, and saved the blocks, I could no way count them all up. Mind you thats 60yr's worth. Walt
 
My dad bought mine new in 1950. I guess you'd say I inherited it. It's been pampered all these years. Wouldn't part with it for any price.
 
my uncle found about a dozen flathead v8s in an old abandoned barn. 1 or 2 was rebuilt and up on engine stands, the chains about ready to fall off with the engines. the rest with weeds, grass, and dandelions growing outta them.
 
fellow club member has ramp truck and scraps. He found '52 Ford that had been sitting for many years in a field, hood on it and closed. Amazingly the motor was free so I took a chance. Hell, it passed magnaflux and pressure testing at Dave's Machine in Fitchburg so I am building it now for my shoebox (thanks to kind advice from Walt and Ronnie Roadster). Also since car was an automatic I got the center section to put in my OD car to make it a "freeway flyer". Right place at right time I guess.
 
Mine sat 34 years in the truck with no oil pan on it. Previous owner spun the center main bearing and started to work on it then stopped and left it all that time.
The block was frozen when I got it, but I managed, over a period of a month little by little, to get it to turn over.
 
I found my 53 customline sitting under a shed, been sitting there for 28 years. I had it running the day after I got it home. Ran Like a steam engine,had two bad cracks into combustion chambers!
Tony
 
My C59A was sitting under a workbench for several years. It had been fully reconditioned and done a few thousand miles touring in a 47 sedan. The owner does a lot of touring, and the flathead was struggling in modern traffic, so he pulled it and installed a 350 SBC with Jag front and rear. Fortunately the guy had the good sense to keep it dry, intact, and turn it over every once in a while.
 
My dad bought my .060 over 1936 long block at a machine shop in Blytheville, AR in 1962. It didn't make it into the '34 car until 1971. ... and it's still there. BTW- he paid 50$ for it.

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My Dad bought my '40 for me in 1968 for $50. It was sitting beside a chicken house with the hood off, heads off the engine, and engine full of water and rust. My uncle had a '52 that he had parked because it quit running. We got it running again and put the engine in the '40.
 
I found this 1953 Flathead while at work. It had come from a garage tear-down we did and the engine ended up in the metal bin. Only Herman P. and I knew what it was. He saw me looking at it out in the bins--he said that if I did not take it that he would. I backed up my truck and we muscled it up there. It appears to be in good condition--stored in a dry garage for many years.
 

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I bought mine a couple of years ago at a surplus auction. It was an auxiliary fire pump mounted on a two wheeel trailer trailer built
prior to 1959. Paid $35.00 for the motor complete with the pump and trailer.
 
Good friend bought a 36 ,ask me if I wanted the engine (thinking it was a 21 stud) I said no. When I saw that it was a 59ab with a 97 setting on it, I offered to buy it,he said "just take it,I have no use for it". It is now rebuilt and in my roadster.
 
dude said:
Good friend bought a 36 ,ask me if I wanted the engine (thinking it was a 21 stud) I said no. When I saw that it was a 59ab with a 97 setting on it, I offered to buy it,he said "just take it,I have no use for it". It is now rebuilt and in my roadster.
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Dude, That IS a good friend:D
 
I found my first of many, in the orange groves of Southern California in the 60's. They were very low milage (time) engines. After WWII, the government had a bunch of them new packed full of pickleing oil, sold them for $5.00 each. 500+ is what I was told the grovers put them on wind machines, with surplus propellers. I bought 10 with less than 10 hours of running time. They were all set to turn 800 rpms. The grovers were converting to electric motors. I still have one left, 50 years later.
 
Mine came out of a friends 52 Mercury that he drove to high school in 1965. When he junked the car he put the engine in his barn, until about 5 years ago, when he sold it to me. I loaded it on my trailer, brought it home. I left it right on the trailer, with it setting on the crossover pipe to support it, put a good carb on it and started it up. He told me it was low on oil pressure, and he was right!

Bob
 
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