Neat Find in Turtle Deck

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2008: Neat Find in Turtle Deck
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Denny on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 09:30 am:

I'm in the process of restoring a '22 Coupe and while removing the lower passenger side panel of the turtle deck I found a gas tank measuring stick lodged between the frame and the sheet metal. Although faded I could make out the following information.
It must have been a "give-away" from Dover Service Station. One side has the measurements for a Ford and Chevy gas tank and the other has an ad for the service station.

The ad states: Dover Service Station...Dover, Ohio...Phone 385.... New Navy Gasoline and Mobile Oil....Free crank case service...

Then it has this little diddi..
"When behind the wheel of your motor car,
You experience the greatest of pleasure,
Do not neglect when going afar,
Your gas and oil to measure".

Just thought I would share what I thought was a neat find.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Pat on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:05 am:

That is neat. I once found a rusty, loaded revolver pistol behind the door panel of a car used for rum running during the depression. What has anybody else found while restoring your cars?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Richard G Goelz on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:09 am:

Rust,lots and lots of rust.
Rick


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:27 am:

I found a 1962 personal loan statement from Household Finance in the door of a '34 Franklin.

A theft recovery idea was floated many years ago - to drop your business card in the door of your car.

Wife's 15 year old Jaguar has serial # on every major piece, like hood and fenders. Is that common?

rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Paul Mikeska on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:29 am:

I found a couple of old unfired paper shotgun shells undrer the rear seat of a 27 Tudor when I was cleaning it out after purchasing it.

Paul


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:33 am:



My Dodge had about twenty pounds of mud dauber nets inside the doors.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:45 am:

Steve, are mud dauber nets something you use to catch mud daubers?

(Sorry, but you knew someone wouldn't be able to resist that! :-) )


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Thomas J. Miller "Tom" on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:49 am:

Ralph, Your Jaguar is normal. US law requires all easily removeable parts be marked with a tamper evident label containing the VIN. The rationale was to slow down the chop shops as legitimate body shops and insurance companies would question the origin of used repair parts missing these labels. Similarly, there is a R-DOT standard that all aftermarket repair parts must be marked with a label stating their origin.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:50 am:

Usuly I kin spel.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Herb Iffrig on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:51 am:

My uncle Joe told me a story about the car he bought in about 1930. It was a 1926 model T coupe. He had paid $35.00 for it. After he had got it home he was cleaning it out and found a five dollar gold piece under the seat! If I remember right it was a 1908. That was a golden year for the model T too.
Herb


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Sims on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 11:19 am:

Besides mummified mice and mice nest, I found a T ignition key buried in the grease between the rear motor mount and the hogs head on one old engine I got. Hope the owner had a spare.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Grady Puryear on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 11:24 am:

In days of yore when I was working and had company cars, I would always let the kids clean out the one I was turning in and keep all the money they found, lots of change and fountain pens, coffee cups and etc. One interesting find was a ladies brassiere under the back seat, that was 40+ years ago, and I am not sure I am out of that one yet, I can still see that old boy in the assembly plant doing that, and laughing to himself as to what was going to happen on down the road, and least that's what I told the wife and kids.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Norman T. Kling on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 12:04 pm:

When I was in my teens, I found under the front seat of a 1922 Dodge Runabout, many old coins. Of course I spent them. Many of them were very early 20th century or late 19th century coins. Of course I spent them. They were real silver coins. Of course I spent them.
Norm


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Robb on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 12:07 pm:

While working on my 1919's engine, I found a puddle of blood......Oh, wait, that was mine. Sorry.
Bob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 12:15 pm:

Norman, that's one of my regrets. Silver dollars were more common than paper ones in Nevada, and when I was there I spent them without a second thought. I should have kept as many as I could afford. As soon as Johnson money came out in 1965 all those dollars disappeared into collections.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne in Malvern, PA on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 12:25 pm:

When tearing down our late '30 A Pickup, I found several wads of newspaper used as stuffing in the top padding from just after the war ended. The engine was hard to pull out, and I also noticed during the teardown that almost all of the body bolts and sheet metal on the passenger side of the car were very difficult to get apart, with alot of the holes drilled oblong.

Once apart we determined that the frame was both skewed and pushed in on the passenger side, and that the frame number not only didn't match the engine, but that it was from a late '28 block of numbers. Our conclusion was that the truck was hit on the passenger side at some point, probably right after the war, the running gear sheet metal was replaced, and the cab replaced with the later model rounded cab, but nothing was done to straighten the frame. They did whatever they needed to do to put the thing back together including wallowing out holes, etc. That also explained why the hood fit so poorly, the front crossmember wasn't correct for the higher radiator.

We straightened the frame and replaced the front crossmember with one correct for a '30/'31 before reassembling everything. Now everything mounted up OK, but it seemed like we spent days shimming the body blocks to get everything to line up. Sitting on the bent frame all those years probably warped all the sheet metal.

Would love to know what the actual story was, but restoration detective work can be part of the fun.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By andy samuelson on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 01:32 pm:

Once upon a time I spent some time working in a salvage yard {junk yard for you old timers].
This was back in the early 60's [ see how old I am]. While taking out a quarter window for a customer we found a air ratchet down inside the quarter panel. Not everybody used them in those days. It was marked with GM and a tool room #.
The first owner probably complained about a rattle from day one.
Also we allways found money and articles of clothing, a couple of times we even found some stuff I think was aregano.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Royce on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 01:33 pm:

I looked in the trunk of a Jaguar and found it was made of rust, with the paint being the most structural part of the vehicle.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gilbert V. I. Fitzhugh on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 02:46 pm:

Back in the late '60s I helped a friend drag a '23 Packard out of what we thought was a fancy chicken coop in Minnesota. Turns out it had been a moonshine still, and the car had been used for outrunning cops while hauling contraband. There were shotgun-pellet holes in the headlight lenses, a recipe for sour mash in the shed, and a half-used pack of Wings cigarettes in one of the door pouches. The last I heard, my buddy still had that car, untouched, in Wayzata, MN.

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By R.V. Anderson on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:09 pm:

In my '27 Tudor: A 1918 penny, a 1926 Buffalo nickel, and a grocery list.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob McDaniel (Indiana Trucks) on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 10:57 pm:

Under the back seat of my 26 T I found a 1952 Blatz beer bottle that looks like brand new along with all the chewed up missing parts of the seats and mouse seeds and a very tiny little toy cast truck not more than maybe 1/2 inch long and some tools and an unused tire patch kit that is hard as a rock. :-)

Bob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jeff Perkins on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 11:00 pm:

In My '31 Slant Window 4dr. I found a 1931 Half Dollar coin. My woodworker friend embedded it in a wood shift knob and gave it to me for the car.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By aarona on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 11:14 pm:

A friend who does the wood on station wagons and boats hauled a woody station wagon in bad need of restoration to Ca. from Arizona. I think it was a Pontiac. He had the car in the shop and they were looking it over when they noticed a buzzing noise in the rt. rear. There was a rattlesnake in the quarter panel!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rob Patterson (Aust) on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 11:37 pm:

Years ago, I was baby sitting my mates Studebaker Hawk GT while he visited his parents in Italy.
I was getting pretty annoyed at the "thud" coming from the back of the car every time I went around a corner.
I put some time aside to look for it and found, wrapped in newspaper, a bottle of Moet, two champagne flutes and a pack of condoms under the rear seat.
I asked my mate about the find and he said he'd never had the back seat out of the car.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ray Elkins on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 12:50 am:

in the glovebox of a 39 Pontiac I found (along with a lot of other papers) a ledger used to keep up with the farm finances dated 1948. It lists every hog, cow, calf, and bull he bought and sold, the prices, and dates. Its in very nice shape.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By EDWARD R. LEVY on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 12:55 am:

Steve,
if that truck is as old as I think it is it has one of those old flat head side valve six cylinder engines which usually ran forever.
Edward R. Levy


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Dewey on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 03:00 am:

Ed,
That would be correct, as I have a little newer one; mine has the "modern" rear fenders and the cab with quarter windows, but same colors!
T'
David D.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 07:03 am:

David has it right. It's a '51. When I got that truck about twenty years ago I had the engine rebuilt because of a really bad knock. I just use it for hauling firewood and other chores, so it hardly ever leaves the place. It should outlast me.

I don't worry a lot about it being stolen because of #2 and #8 below.

Reasons why farm trucks aren't stolen:
They have a range of about 20 miles before they overheat, break down
or run out of gas.
* Only the owner knows how to shift without jamming the transmission.
* It is difficult to drive fast with all the fence tools, grease rags,
ropes, chains, buckets, boots and loose papers in the cab.
* It takes too long to start and the smoke coming up through the
rusted-out floorboard clouds your vision.
* The Border Collie on the toolbox looks mean.
* They're too easy to spot. The description might go something like
this: The driver's side door is red, the passenger side door is green, the
right front fender is yellow, etc.
* The large round bale in the back makes it hard to see if you're
being chased. You could use the mirrors if they weren't cracked and covered
with duct tape.
* Top speed is only about 45 mph.
* Who wants a truck that needs a year's worth of maintenance,
u-joints, $3,000 in bodywork, taillights and a windshield.
* It's hard to commit a crime with everyone waving at you.



Ole was walking around machinery hill at the State Fair in St. Paul MN when he runs into a Texan and they start to talk farming. The Texan being a bit of a braggart starts to tell about his ranch and says, “I can get up before sun up get into my pick-up truck and drive all day in a straight line and by sun down I’m just getting to the end of my ranch.” Ole replies, “Ja, I had a pick-up like dat once too.”


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Warren Mortensen on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 07:36 am:

After hauling my '17 touring to it's first tour, I found a 1901 Quarter laying on the running board.

I've got one of those old farm trucks too. Nothing like climbing into the cab when the sun has been beating down on it all morning and getting a whiff of that "old truck smell".


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ray Elkins on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 07:49 am:

Warren, does that one have the Merc flathead?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Michael Pawelek on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 08:07 am:

When I started to dismantle my late '31 Slant Windshield 4 door I found two pages of the "Houston Press" news paper dated one month previous to the engine/frame number coiled up under the gas tank where the wires from the dash panel travel to the engine compartment. The paper was coiled into a tube shape and could only have been slid into the metal channel under the tank before all the wires were put into place so I assume it was done at the assembly point here in Houston, Texas by someone at the Ford shop to keep the wires from bouncing around and making noise on bumpy roads....Michael Pawelek


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mack Jeffrey Cole on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 08:33 am:

A little newer car I know but when I got my grandpal's 61 tbird home and started cleaning it out,I found a unopened bottle of liquor and his bottle of nitro glycerin tablets.I gave the bottle to my dad that has it in the basement.I have the tablets in 1 of my parts drawers.
my grandma had parked it in 76.He had passed on in 1970.I got the car in 98.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Grant Baker on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 08:54 am:

When rebuilding the engine in my '30 Model A Tudor, I found about 50 walnut shells inside the head and the block. I used to rebuild modern cars to resale. I once had a Mustang that had been a theft recovery. When re-installing the radio I felt a plastic bag behind the dash. I pulled it out and found a bag full of crack cocaine. I put the contents in the waste oil tank.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gregpry on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 09:08 am:

I found a 1920's newspaper under the seat of one of my T's.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 09:26 am:

I found a clip with about 20 rounds in the glove box of a rental car from Little Saigon (socalif) a few years ago. When I turned it in, the rental co. said the prior renter had come back looking for it.

rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Warren Mortensen on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 01:57 pm:

Ray;

Regarding my '52 F-6 truck, I believe it's the standard Ford flathead (239 cid, 110 HP @ 3600 RPM). I've had it up to 60 on the flats when empty but that's pushing it. Likes 45-50 mph better. I drove it from the Twin Cities to Alexandria, MN and back (over 300 miles) and it now has a hung valve on #5 cylinder. Planning on pulling the head this winter to see what it looks like.

I grew up learning to drive on a '51 F-5 (now my parts truck). Only drawback on the '52 is that it came with the Syncho-Silent 4-speed. I prefer the sound of the more basic 4-speed crash box myself.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andy Drake on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 02:57 pm:

Sandwiched behind the seat on the passenger side in the woodwork of my '24 Coupe was a valentine card in beautiful shape. It'll forever accompany the car. In the trunk were a handful of Budweiser beer bottle caps.

Perhaps the original owner was taking someone for a little jaunt on Valentines day?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 04:31 pm:

Along those lines...

Many years ago when I was still a policeman in a nearby town, I drew desk duty one night while the others were scheduled to go out on a drug bust.

I listened to their radio chatter and it went down successfully. They returned a while later and asked me to inventory stuff for the evidence locker! I said, 'no way...you guys did the bust, you do the inventory!' My best friend growing up, who also was a cop and also on duty that night said...no, I think you will want to do the evidence locker inventory!

Intigued, I agreed. There in a box containing everything imaginable that they had cleared out of the car was a pack of envelopes! Military types, the kind guys sent letters home from Vietnam in. So decided to pull that pack out first! Hmmm...gulp...writing looked familiar and return address even more striking! Holy crap...these are all the love letters I sent to my beau while I was in Vietnam! The same gal that dumped me about 3 months before I returned with a Dear John that was not negotiable!

Long story short, she had apparently somehow stuffed the box under the front seat of her car, it had been sold onward several times since, and finally wound up being used in some local drug dealings and had been impounded that night and searched!

The town was not that small, but none the less, there I was with a pack of love letters that no longer had meaning...but...do I enter them in evidence, or, do they simply disappear at this moment in time? It was an ethical struggle for the better part of what was left of my shift. Finally my buddy stopped by and asked was the inventory done. I told him still working and he added, yeah, the other guys are curious...and when I looked up at him with a frown, he grinned and added...they just want to know what we had found, I was the only one who gathered up the contents of the car <wimk> <wink>, I looked at the envelope packet and saw the return address. I told them I would gather up all the evidence and told them I'd have you do the inventory.

Suffice it to say that when court time came, there was no mention of a package of love letters found in the confiscated car! :-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Norman T. Kling on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 10:38 pm:

I had a 29 Model A Coupe, my first car. I took the front part of a 31 Pontiac horn and replaced it on Spartan Model A horn. It was chromed and shaped differently. I sold that car and never saw the A again. A few years later I bought a 37 Chevy from a different person and low and behold that same horn was on the Chevy. I later put the horn on a Volkswagen bug, which I later sold, and never saw the horn again!
Norm


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ray Elkins on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 11:03 pm:

Sounds like fun Warren. I just wondered because I parted out a 52 F-5 last summer that had the Merc truck engine. It is now being built to go in a 50's style 27 T coupe hot rod.

Norman, I used to rebuild a lot of wrecks (totalled cars bought from insurance pool). In 86, I bought an 85 GMC S-15 pickup rollover with 10K on it. I rebuilt it, put a one-of-a-kind paintjob on it, and drove it till it was showing around 150K and sold it to a neighbor in '90. I moved to Evansville, IN several years later and was working at a hospital. I came out late one night to go home and a truck sitting across the parking lot caught my attention as the paintjob was hard to miss. I left a note on it and got a call the next day. The fella said it was showing 280K and the truck was still going strong, but he had no idea it had been rolled and totaled. He didn't seem too worried about it and neither was I since I had the required signed and notarized paperwork verifying the buyer was aware, but someone somewhere down the line decided they wouldn't disclose the fact. Anyway, I just thought it was strange to run across that truck so far from home.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ken Todd on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 01:08 pm:

I bought a barn fresh Model A coupe one time, took it home and was checking it over, lifted the front seat to see what was under there. There was 3 or 4 layers of cardboard and when I lifted them up, there was an Ermine looking at me, before he turned and skedadled out of there.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Frank Harris on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 01:59 pm:

I had a 1913 Cadillac many years ago and always had my camera with me when I drove it. I sold the car to a man 100 miles away from me back in 1986 and bought a sail boat with the money. By the way the sail boat had a rusty one and a half horsepower Seagull outboard in the bilge and I rebuilt it and still have it today. But, if I start it up I will get arrested because it makes an oil slick where ever it goes.

I never could find the two accessory lenses for my camera and looked everywhere for them. A few years later I saw my Cadillac touring out in front of a real estate office with a for sale sign on it. I looked at it and purchased it on the spot. I got it home and looked in the door pockets and sure enough there were the two accessory lenses wedged down in the right hand door pocket


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Norman T. Kling on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 03:43 pm:

My dad bought a Ford LTD new and my parents drove it for years. After my mom died, he went to live with my sister. He had a stroke and sold the LTD. Later when my dad died, my sister was making arrangements for his cremation. When she came out of the mortuary, there was the LTD parked across the street with the same dents and all!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 04:00 pm:

I vote George's find as the most unusual, and the most touching; Grady's the funniest.


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