Tag: rotting cars

The Triumphant Rise and Epic Fall of my First Truck.

Jeremy Nutt 2 Comments

I would expect the editor of any automotive blog to have owned and driven a massive number of vehicles to give some kind of legitimacy to the blog itself.  For that reason, I feel that it is my duty to the readers to own and drive as many vehicles as possible, and for that, I thank you.   Between my own personal automotive obsessions and working as a technician, I have driven hundreds of cars, each with it’s own intricacies, oddities, and personality.  How trustworthy are my gearhead opinions though?  Why continue on this automotive journey with me if you don’t even know where I have been?  I think at this point in our internet relationship, it’s time that you learned about the triumphant rise and epic fall of my first daily driven vehicle.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but I really loved that truck more than I can explain.  Something about it was special to me, though I am still unsure of what.

Triumphant Rise:

When I was 15, I had about $500 to my name from dogs chasing me my newspaper route days, and I knew that the pinnacle of life was knocking on my door.  I was getting my license soon.  Sure I already owned 1 car, which will undoubtedly come up in future musings, but I needed a car that I could actually drive daily.  A car that moved under its own power, maybe something with wheels and a running engine.   After harassing my parents for a while, they finally agreed to let me get a second car a little early.  (Thanks Mom and Dad).  I immediately ripped through the “Vehicles for Parts”, and “Antique Autos” sections of the local Want Advertiser searching for the perfect older car to drive daily. A Dart would be cool, I thought aloud… or maybe an Iroc, OH how about a 1939 Studebaker, that would be really cool too..

The weeks steadily passed and my parents shot down every dumb idea I had, thankfully.  Then my mom came home one day and said that a person that she knew had a 1987 Dodge Ram 50 for $500 that needed some work.  Initially, I wasn’t so sure, but within a day or two I had found pictures of some Ram 50’s in MiniTruckin magazine that made me fall in love.  I scrounged up every last penny I could find, and I bought it.  It was the beginning of a very special relationship.

The first thing I did when I got it home was to rebuild the carburetor.  That’s what you’re supposed to do right? It took a few tries, but I got the carburetor back on the truck and got it running again, albeit only slightly better than before I had touched it. Nevertheless, I pressed on.  I changed fluids, fixed exhaust, and even fixed the leaky power steering.  After an eternity (a few weeks) had passed, I got my license and began driving my newly improved Ram 50.  We quickly became great friends, and each weekend, I would spend endless time improving different areas of her:

– Removed rust and rot
– Straightened all the metal
– Added bucket seats
– Lowered 3 inches
– New tires, polished chrome wheels
– Absurdly loud stereo system
– Tinted window
– Bug guard (they were cool then)
– Tonneau cover
– Custom frenched license plate in the tailgate
– Painted neon green brake drums and calipers

The Epic Fall:

It was beautiful on so many levels, and perfect for cruising the beaches. Rust free, dent free, and just a really astonishingly clean truck.  Although the local law enforcement were not fans of my tailgate, it really did set my truck apart from the rest. Mine was special.   After about a year of driving the truck, I began thinking irrationally.  For some unknown reason, I decided that I could not handle the slowness of the truck any longer, and I needed a faster vehicle.  What an idiot! I put the truck on the front lawn for sale for $1000 obo, and a guy I knew gave me $800 cash for it.  He then drove away my original $500 purchase price, about $1000 in upgrades, and thousands of hours of making it perfect. All because I was an idiot.

Years pass, and the truck vanishes from sight and everyone’s memory but my own.  It was only a year after selling it that I had realized the mistake that I had made. I constantly dreamed about turning back time, but without a Delorean, I just couldn’t.  I jumped from one car to the next to the next, desperately trying to find the magic that my little Ram 50 and I once had, but the magic just couldn’t be found.  It was gone for good.

Months turned to years, and my brother and I needed something to do one hot summer day. We decided to challenge the junkyards in a game of mud, oil, and grease.  It was always a great time and would have been again, but destiny had other plans.  There she sat, my beloved 1987 Dodge Ram 50.  Smashed on every corner, missing wheels, and another truck sitting on her roof.  I felt sickened.  Something I had worked so very hard on was now crushed right before my eyes.  It was truly an awful feeling that I would not want any other gearhead to go through.  I reluctantly approached the truck knowing full well that I had done her wrong.  A silent heart felt apology was in order as I slowly meandered my way around the back of the truck.  My custom tailgate, the green drums, the lowering blocks, the interior, the tint. It was all still there, just horrified in every sense of the word…. I spent a few minutes thinking about all the great times we had, snapped off some pictures for memories, and then shamefully walked away.

Amazingly, this saga didn’t end that day in the junkyard, but “The Reincarnation” is a story best left for another day.  Anybody interested?

Arizona Junkyards Are Better

Jeremy Nutt 6 Comments

Every car in Massachusetts is rusty. Whether you have a 1955 Lincoln Capri or a 2010 Chevy Camaro, in the North East, your car’s destiny is rust.  Now, if the nice cars are rusty, just imagine what the vehicles in our junkyards look like.  They are absolutely horrifying at best.  In the time that it takes to remove a junkyard fender, it often erodes itself back into dirt right before your eyes.  Bolts? HA!  After 1 year (so… 2009 models at this point), all bolts become permanent.  At the 2 year mark, the bolts don’t even look like bolts anymore. They become round rusty buttons that can only be removed by breaking the head off with Vise-Grips.  It is truly an awful experience.  Thank goodness for torches, Sawzalls, sharp drill bits, and tetanus shots.

Arizona cars on the other hand, are better in every possible way.  Rusty cars (New England style) just don’t exist out there.  What they consider a junkyard car is usually “flawless” in my opinion.  The nicest cars I personally own aren’t as clean as what is found in their junkyards.  It’s quite sad really.  Over the last few years, I have had the pleasure of working on several classic cars from the South West, and I laugh like the village idiot the entire time I work on them because I can’t believe that the bolts come out.  Underneath the AZ cars, the original hydraulic brake lines and parking brakes cables are often still there and working.  It is a gearhead fairytale.

Let’s do a comparison, to see who the real winner is.  Massachusetts on the left, and Arizona on the right. Ding Ding Ding. FIGHT!

Sure enough, Arizona wins with a KO, as expected.  If you want to restore an old car, just buy a rust free body from someplace dry. It will save you thousands of dollars, trillions of hours, and a Tetanus shot.

Weekly Rotting Car: 1933 Plymouth PC

Jeremy Nutt 2 Comments
Sad Looking 1933 Plymouth PC
Sad Looking 1933 Plymouth PC

Sometimes you look back in life and realize that you let some awesome cars slip right through your hands.  This is a story about one of those cars, and I think about it all too often.  It began about 15 years ago when my parents bought a “drivable” 1933 Plymouth PC 4 Door Sedan.  Unknown to my parents at the time of purchase, this was an extremely rare car.

Back in 1933, cars didn’t have fancy model names like “Zephyr” or “El Camino”, they just had model numbers.  Boring, I know.   Even with its brand new fancy-pants one-year-only straight 6 engine, it didn’t have a chance of survival.  The great depression was hurting the country worse than ever, and Plymouth had decided to remake the 1932 bodies (for all intents and purposes) and call it a 1933 PC model.  Much to Plymouth’s surprise, the few customers that they still had were less than impressed with this grand idea.  The Plymouth PC was built for a mere 3 months before they ended production early and switched to the longer wheelbase PCXX and PD models.  That’s right, the customers hated the PC and wanted something different, so Plymouth gave them a longer vehicle.  At least it wasn’t a 1932 model anymore, right? Several years later, WWII began, and cars were being crushed and melted left and right to make war vehicles.  Naturally, the cheapest, crappiest cars out there were the first ones on the chopping block.  (Almost sounds like the Cash For Clunkers program!)  For reasons unknown, my parents Plymouth had survived all these years against all of these unimaginable odds.

Ok, enough of the history lesson,  let’s get back to when the vehicle arrived in the driveway, shall we?  My dad is the best technician I have ever met by leaps and bounds, and he was doing a little nitpicking of the new 4 wheeled acquisition.  A grind here, and hammer there, and pretty soon a frame-off restoration was in full swing.  In his defense, the “drivable” car was built of 80% body filler, 13% rivets, and 7% original sheet metal. The lack of solid body was bad enough that it had to be redone by somebody with more time, the right tools, and more work space.  So off it went to a body guy.  Weeks passed and a fair amount of money exchanged hands.  Frequent phone calls from the body guy assured my parents that everything was going great.  New metal was going on, and it was going to be straight as an arrow when they got it back. Yippy!

A month had passed since we last saw the car, and out of the blue my dad received a phone call from the a storage unit owner looking for rent money.  “What the?”  Well, the body guy had put the Plymouth body and misc parts into a rented storage unit, and took off with the cash.  Nice guy right?  He had never even touched the car, which was truly crushing.

Weeks turned into months, and months turned to years.  The sour taste for this once loved vehicle never left their mouths, which understandably left this ultra rare pile of auto parts sitting dormant in the yard for many years.

At about 18 years old, I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I decided I would take charge of the project and teach myself how to do nice bodywork because I couldn’t stand to see it rot.  Hundreds upon hundreds of hours went into that car.  Cutting rot, welding 300+ rivet holes in the roof, fitting the suicide doors, assembling, building a new firewall, removing the doors again, reassembling….. and on and on it went.  Within a summer, it was finally running again.  It was far from drivable, but it did run.

Going Back Together Again!
Going Back Together Again!

Then, the big move happened.  The house was sold and all the rolling stock had to move from the old house to the new.  “Temporarily” the car went to my brothers house.  Temporary then turned into permanently, and before long, the car was parted out and sold piece by piece.  Yes, it was all gone as quick as that, and I am still sickened from it.  Unfortunately, I lacked time to finish it, and space to work on it.  I already had too many cars and had to make choices.  Looking back I would have done things a lot differently, it’s too bad I can’t get it back because I would have loved to finish it.  Hopefully this Plymouth’s parts have helped bring others back to life again. That is what I tell myself at least.

If you happen to know the whereabouts of any of the major parts from this car, I would love to hear from you and see your own Plymouth project!

What kinds of cars you have you let slip away? Leave me comments!

1967 Chevy Chevelle Bored to Death.

Jeremy Nutt

While on one of my weekend junkyard journeys, I came across possibly the saddest looking 1967 Chevy Chevelle in the history of mankind.  It was in tough shape as you can tell, and basic in every possible aspect of the word.  It had some of a small block still hiding under the hood, and a terribly boring automatic transmission to match its painfully bland paint.  I have to assume that this car put the previous owner to sleep every time they looked at it, which ultimately drove the most boring Chevelle ever to its final resting place.

Got pics of rotting cars?  I want to see them!  Send them to jnutt@1aauto.com

Beautifully Rotting Chevy Nova Convertible

Jeremy Nutt 4 Comments

While cruising the junkyards a few years ago, I came across a Chevy Nova Convertible that was 98% parted out and left for dead.  This made me sad because:

A) I get emotionally attatched to cars in junkyards

B) Chevy only made these in 1962 and 1963, for a total production of about 50,000 units.

That seems like a lot at first glance, but they made over 300,000 Nova 4 door sedans in the same time frame, in addition to thousands more 2 door sedans and hardtop models.   The unfortunate reality, is that this car has most likely long been crushed, which is really too bad because the body itself didn’t look all that bad.  Here in New England, we rebuild far worse.

Old Hemi’s in the woods. Now that’s unique.

Jeremy Nutt 1 Comment

Instead of a complete rotting car today, we have a couple Hemi engines in the woods.  One still sits between some frame rails and the other was found hiding under an old hood.  I am not sure if they are 331’s or 392’s, but it’s obvious that they are the “old” style Hemis.  I looked around the area and sadly there were not any 426 blocks hanging out nearby.

Can anybody provide some stats of these?  Size? Horsepower? Torque? There must be some old school Mopar guys out there that know this kind of stuff.  Enjoy the rotting muscle !

What is upside down, rusty, and has 4 wheels?

Jeremy Nutt 10 Comments

It’s this week’s “Weekly Rotting Car”!

One day, many days ago, I noticed something bluish WAY down a hill on the side of a road.  Naturally, I had to investigate the situation.  What I found was truly an awesome automotive specimen.  It was an upside down, engineless, rotting, yuckified, and a downright perfect car for this blog.   Anybody care to guess what it is?

Hint: It is not a Lamborghini.