Abandoned roadster

X2, That was commonly heard remark back in the 1960's and 70's when I would find Model A's in similar condition out in a field or behind a shed in Idaho farm country.



when I was a kid, there was a coupe nearby. The fella lost his son in Vietnam and it was his car............
Understandably, he wouldnt sell his kids car. It was rotting into the ground......
 
ronn said:
X2, That was commonly heard remark back in the 1960's and 70's when I would find Model A's in similar condition out in a field or behind a shed in Idaho farm country.



when I was a kid, there was a coupe nearby. The fella lost his son in Vietnam and it was his car............
Understandably, he wouldn't sell his kids car. It was rotting into the ground......
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Even over here, I've seen a few cars rot into the ground after the owner refused to sell them. Some of them were Model As too. I even tried to shame the last guy into selling but the more I spoke, the more he dug in. He was going to do it up one day but by now, I think he will have nothing left but a pile of rust.
If only......
 
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Re: The ‘31 Roadster if it exists
Get your MiG welder and shore up the body
Find on halfway decent chassis/running gear on Facebook or Craigslist
That a rodder is discarding
Same with sheet metal that is less than ideal.
And you will have a roadster that gets noticed.
Example:
Old Friend pulled this ‘31 Tudor out of the woods in Northern Wisconsin many years ago. Had lots of fun with his rolling museum.
 

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Marshall V. Daut said:
This is how I prefer to see Model A's and T's, not in a line-up of shiny red and yellow restored ones. When I was younger, my greatest passion was combing through local farm fields, ravines, woods and creeks for abandoned Model A's, let alone peeking in rundown barns. Sometimes I found some gems, sometimes nothing. I still revel in that ditch near Washington, Iowa, that contained about 40 Model A, T and early V-8 bodies that had been dumped there in 1940 to fill the ravine for eventual farming. Boy, do I miss those days! The excitement of the hunt and "kill". This abandoned roadster photo awoke memories of all those years of excitement and hunting for abandoned antique cars. Thanks for posting it. I sure hope someone saves this car before nature completely reclaims it.
By the way, it looks more like a 1931 than a 1930 with that radiator shell.
Marshall
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I can relate to what Marshall said about hunting for As in the 60s and 70s. My first "A" a 29 Tudor I found in 1963 in a cherry orchard in Idaho, where it sat for over 20 years. It cost me $25. My second "A" a 28 roadster also found in 1963 was missing a lot of parts but the body was intact and good condition, was sitting behind a barn in Washington state. It cost the large sum of $2.

In the 70s there were two 29 Tudor Sedans sitting in a small town about 20 up river from Davenport, Iowa (perhaps Marshall also knew about them) that I tried several times to buy. So the story went that the owner told me, he had bought them both new and parked 1 while driving the other. When the driver needed to much work he parked it in the backyard and started driving the other "A", when it too was about worn out he parked it next to the first "A" where they both sat for many years. He would not sell either car "as he planned to restore one of them and use the parts from the other to do the job. They had been sitting so long that about 6" of the bottom of the wheels closest to the ground were rusted off. To my knowledge they were still there in 1984 when I left Iowa for Delaware. Frank
 
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Back in the 80's I used to run a small company where we would drive around and find cars for $50 to $100 and part them out, anything from trucks to T-birds. Of course those days are gone, but so many times I heard the same thing, "Not for sale, I'm going to fix it up". There is a local guy who is very lazy & had alot given to him from his parents and/or his father in law, including a '66 Harley Electra Glide, a pristine (at one time) low mile '65 Pontiac LeMans, and a restored 50's Mack Model B, all of which are now basically rotting away in an old barn. I have tried to buy the Harley and the LeMans for years, nope, won't sell, and the guy is now 65 yrs old. I know he'll never touch them.....Very frustrating to see vehicles just rotting away....
 
Very frustrating indeed but they are his cars and it's his prerogative as to what he does with them. I just know that the fate of those cars would be very different if they were mine and I suspect anybody else here.
 
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"I know he'll never touch them.....Very frustrating to see vehicles just rotting away...."

Whenever I ran into those types, who wouldn't sell their rotting away vehicles, I wondered how these guys will be able to restore a Model A when they didn't have the energy or found the time to even cut their lawns in the last six months or shave their beard growth for the previous two weeks. Following up years later whenever possible, I found that not ONE of those vehicles had ever been restored by these guys. The cars had either rotted away, sunken into the ground so as to make them unrestorable, or the heirs had the carcasses hauled away to the junk heap. But, by Gawd! They were going to restore those cars one day - right after they cut their lawns and shaved! Yes, it was their property. But as temporary caretakers of the cars, it was their responsibility to see that they survived in decent condition for the sake of history and for future generations, who will now never get an opportunity to bring those rotted-away vehicles back to their splendor. Who wins these situations? Nobody, that's who!
Marshall
 
Who knows how old the photo is. Still looks pretty good, considering.

We all love finding old cars. I bought a 24 T couple that had been sitting in a garage for about 60 years. I just bought another T that had been in the same family since 1955 and not run for quite a few years.
 
Great stories all, Years ago I kept after a friend of mine to go take a look in a barn close to his home wondering if there was any old cars there. He finally relented and we went to look. I peeked in through a crack in a rear barn door and a headlight was looking back at me. We went in and I did not quite know what it was till I came back home and looked it up. Turned out to be a 1926 Oakland sport coupe complete with landau irons and dual rear spares in what appeared to be wonderful condition. Seemed like a battery would have started it then. Many folks from that family started a war between them over the property and eventually the place caught fire and burned flat ! A beautiful auto lost for what ? Still think of it today.
 
Marshall, you hit the nail on the head. The guy who has all 3 of those vehicles lives in the country with his wife who inherited all her Dad's things. He does not cut the grass hardly at all, and has a beard down to his belt buckle. Included with those I mentioned are about 3-4 various makes steam engines, Waterloo Boy tractor, a never used 40ft goose neck trailer, and a D6 dozer, all rotting away in several barns. Sure they are his to leave to rot, but very frustrating for all of us wanting them to survive.
 
I hate it when people look in my sheds and think they've found gold. Yeah, maybe but its MY gold. A dry shed with plenty of air movement will keep a car nicely for many decades. Some of us have plans for retirement, although I'll admit I have enough plans for about 70 years of retirement. Recently pulled out an early 60's FoxTrac that is my next project. After that it'll be my 70 VW bug, or maybe the 1948 JD M, etc etc.
 
1928Mik said:
Back in the 80's I used to run a small company where we would drive around and find cars for $50 to $100 and part them out, anything from trucks to T-birds. Of course those days are gone, but so many times I heard the same thing, "Not for sale, I'm going to fix it up". There is a local guy who is very lazy & had alot given to him from his parents and/or his father in law, including a '66 Harley Electra Glide, a pristine (at one time) low mile '65 Pontiac LeMans, and a restored 50's Mack Model B, all of which are now basically rotting away in an old barn. I have tried to buy the Harley and the LeMans for years, nope, won't sell, and the guy is now 65 yrs old. I know he'll never touch them.....Very frustrating to see vehicles just rotting away....
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I know the feeling! When lloyd Young died I went to his auction. I had made arrangments with my bank for a letter of credit, and the auctioneer. I was all set. So I go to the auction. I wanted one specific car from Lloyd's collection, and I wanted it also as a Great Race entry car. So we get down to me and just one old guy bidding. BTW; I was almost 60 at the time - LOL. We were going back and forth just he and I. He was just gohna keep one uping me $1,000 at a time. Finally I told the auctioneer (Larry) "let him have it". To which he looked at me and said "are ya sure". I replied "yeah". The guy could hardly walk? A car from the late 1920s..like the first time that car got a flat, or a dead battery and that car was finished. No grandson with him, nor a son-in-law... I am sure that car is almost a POS now. Just a shame.

I hear that I'm gonna fix it up speech all too often. By the time they get around to it the car is noting but a pile of scrap.

Owning a collector car comes as a duty if ya ask me. That probably sounds odd to a lot of people. A collector car is not just another used car.
 
I met a girl in college in 1966 who said there was an old Ford in a field on her parent’s property, and I could have it free just for the taking. She drove me out to the farm and as we approached the field I could see a roadster that looked pretty rough but sorta complete sitting under a tree. As I got closer it showed as being somewhat picked over, and pretty straight, but the tree had grown up right through the middle. It would have taken a pro arborist a full day to cut that tree out safely, and a way lot of hard labor to move what remained of that roadster from its 30+ years in that field. It’s been over 60 years, but…
…It might still be there.
 
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I had a German car I dearly loved, bought it new in 2000. A somewhat rare spec which was great fun to drive until it began falling apart. One darn thing after another, and it wasn’t nickel-and-dining me to death, it was frighteningly expensive, but way too complex to fix on my own. It sat for 2 years under a tarp, and for 5 years before that in a garage. A few weeks ago Copart offered me $170 (!) for it. The dang taillights are worth three times that much. I just couldn’t stand the thought of scrapping it. I wanted to put it into someone’s hands who would appreciate it. Finally found just the right guy who could get it fixed up and I GAVE it to him. No charge. I knew I was never going to get to it “some day”.
 
Do you think these bodies could have been restored if the owner hadn't decided that someday HE would restore them? :)
Marshall
By the way. all these bodies have sat in the same place since 1940!
 

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