Non Ford but sorta related

N

nospartsman

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A friend of mine in Kansas has uncovered a lot of Fords from Model A's thru 1950's and today he just found this 1954 DeSoto sitting precariously on a pedestal of dirt that is eroding away. It was rocking while he was removing the grille, it still has the hemi engine in it, the firedom. The 54 DeSoto grille is often put into 1949-51 Mercury lead sleds. Risked his life for this grille, it drops off quite steep in front of the car. A relative of mine had one of these DeSoto grilles in a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 hardtop back in the early 60's.
 

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I used to prowl around the Arkansas river when I was a kid growing up in western Kansas. There were several places where folks had dumped old cars along the banks. Some said it was to prevent erosion but as you can see in the photo, that excuse doesn't hold up well. Most of the good stuff was picked from these dump areas before I was out of my teens but there still may be some good stuff there I don't know. Many a model A came out of there and some of them were actually restored. I found a 1935 Harley Davidson UL motor and front fender while poking around there. A guy that I worked for at the time took a look at the motor number on the engine then produced a picture of the machine back in its hayday. He and a brother had taken a train to Wichita where they purchased the bike and then they rode it back to western Kansas since there were no Harley dealers there at the time. Some years later, he sold it to a fellow in town who had taken it apart and obviously not put it back together. I traded the usable parts for other things and they went on to be parts of other restoration projects.
 
Here's some other finds, the upside down floor pan with the guy under it is a 1939 Mercury convertible, there is a Chrysler Airflow, and a 35 or 36 Mopar wrapped around a tree, 34 pickup cab being dug up, plus a 34 4dr on its side and a 36 coupe dug up.
 

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nospartsman said:
Here's some other finds, the upside down floor pan with the guy under it is a 1939 Mercury convertible, there is a Chrysler Airflow, and a 35 or 36 Mopar wrapped around a tree, 34 pickup cab being dug up, plus a 34 4dr on its side and a 36 coupe dug up.
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Since I will NEVER find anything like that in Florida. How thin is the sheet metal when you find something like that? Is it just rust or at all usable?
 
Be really careful when using that cutting torch when your acetylene bottle is horizontal The bottle needs to stand up straight to keep from drawing acetone out in liquid form.
 
Fibber Mcgee said:
Since I will NEVER find anything like that in Florida. How thin is the sheet metal when you find something like that? Is it just rust or at all usable?
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You need to look in those Florida sink holes you never know what you'll find. The sheet metal is usually very good when found in Kansas, floors will rust some and rodent nests will rot out certain areas like header panels and bottoms of quarters. I have a quarter panel from a 34 Chevy that the wind and blown sand has blasted the paint off and it looks like new metal and it was exposed the weather for 50 or 60 years.
 
nospartsman said:
You need to look in those Florida sink holes you never know what you'll find. The sheet metal is usually very good when found in Kansas, floors will rust some and rodent nests will rot out certain areas like header panels and bottoms of quarters. I have a quarter panel from a 34 Chevy that the wind and blown sand has blasted the paint off and it looks like new metal and it was exposed the weather for 50 or 60 years.
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Wow, I can only dream. Everything down here is rusted so bad it's not worth using. I like knowing somewhere they are still out there.
 
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