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Sight unseen [except for the advert photo], I agreed to the asking price + a bit if they delivered it, as I knew it wouldn't take long for someone to buy it. When it arrived, it turned out to be not quite as complete as I'd been led to believe, but the body was solid and all the sheet metal was original with very little rust or filler to be found. The main problem with the sheet metal was the back fenders, which appeared to have been run over, probably in a wreckin' yard, and the grill, which was rougher than I could deal with, and there were no running boards. As for the "complete mechanical, trim and gauges" there was an incomplete V8-60 flathead, no trans, totally wrong radiator, temp gauge w/ the capillary tube cut, other gauges non-functional, misc trim pieces missing, no seats and a modern steering wheel, with the whole works sitting on a 57 Chev car rear axle that wasn't even bolted in!! Many other little bits incorrect or missing, but I was happy with the buy!
After pulling everything out of the body [the weight must have held it all on the loose rear end!], I lifted the body onto some blocking where I could work on it separate, and store it out of the way, and started in on the chassis. I checked out and overhauled the 57 Chev rear and mounted it properly on parallel leafs; built and installed a good 195HP 283; found a good aluminum case T10 4 speed; sealed and fitted the gas tank; found a correct rad, and got the chassis rolling and running. The front axle was the original buggy sprung beam, with 40 Ford hydraulic brakes.
A saturday afternoon beer session with half a dozen friends got the body back on in it's proper place and loosely attached. Started lookin like it might be a car again!!
Meanwhile, a '37 pickup came up for sale at a good price, and as I had some of the parts it needed, and knew a bit about the '46 flathead that was in it [with a variety of problems], I bought it, fabbed and fixed and finished it, and put it on the road.
The only part I never found was the tailgate. I drove this truck part time for about a year, and sold it to a 'gentleman farmer' who put his farm name on it and used it to go to town ocassionally.
After some time sanding on the body, getting the rear fenders the right shape again, and finding most of the necessary parts [required a trip to the interior of B.C. and visits to a number of major swap meets. including Portland], it was close enough to being driveable that I took it to a friends place who had better equipment than I, and where there was a bit of shop space, and we did a blitz to get it together and roadworthy in order to go to the Cloverdale swap meet - only a few weeks away.
Wiring got finished, and everything was primered, so assembly commenced at high speed - just days before the meet. It was completed late the night before leaving to drive down the Island, hop the ferry to the mainland, and drive the freeway to Cloverdale. And we made the trip with no problems!! After a long day at the swap, we slept in the delivery, hit the meet for a few hours in the morning and headed back.
Later it was totally disassembled again and painted 'French Vanilla' and Chocolate Brown with a very original looking interior that never got upholstered before I ran out of money, but with all the right qauges, and other correct bits, including a nice 'banjo' wheel!
Don't do this at a car show, but this rig is mine, so I can use this as a way to show how small vehicles really were back in the 30's!
About 1984, I was out of work and out of money, so the Delivery had to go up for sale. The guy who bought it hot rodded it more: high HP motor and automatic, w/ low profile tires on mod wheels, a tilt column w/ small steering wheel, and orange paint. I guess he came to his senses, as later he stripped it down to paint it a better color, and while that was in progress he split w/ his Missus, who scooped the car and sold it through the courts to get her share!! Unfortunately for the buyer, the small parts had been stashed when it was sent out for paint, so the guy didn't get any of the trim and many critical parts like the inside window frames. As a result it had another pile of cash thrown at it and got rodded even more, winding up very "billet" looking, w/ Euro-style poly paint and none of the 70 year old parts I'd scrounged so hard to find. What had been a very original car that has been on Vancouver Island all its life, is now your average billet-mobile, with so much cash invested in it, that it's never driven except to shows. Oh well!
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