Yesterday's Weapons Forums

I've got this project going whereby I'm looking over all the old family photographs. Here are a couple of my grandfather's last car. It's a 1954 Ford Customline 2 door sedan. It had the overhead valve (intro. 1952) in-line 6 cylinder engine and Fordomatic transmission.

My dad worked in service management but had friends in the dealership up front in sales. Knowing he was interested in old cars, they would often steer older cars back to him to see if he was interested. This Ford was traded in for a new Mercury around 1971 and that's when my dad got it for his father-in-law, my grandfather.

This was a very low-mileage car and my grandfather tooled around in it for a number of years but he met with a mis-hap. He made a left turn in front of a motorcyclist. The door on the driver's side was caved in badly, also the B pillar badly enough that there was a kink in the steel roof. My dad got a used door for it, which kind of fit but clearly that wasn't the extent of repair needed. My grandfather decided to give up driving after that. He gave the car to my uncle, who took it over but stored it out of doors from circa 1976 until he died in 2010. That's about 34 years out of doors without moving. Not too many years after my uncle parked the car in his yard, a very large upper branch of a mature elm tree fell on the car. It hit the roof, across the windshield, and the hood. I raised the hood once after that and saw that the dent in the hood had extended down to the air cleaner, which in turn had broken the carburetor off its mount on the intake manifold. So for at least a couple of decades, whenever it rained water would cascade down through the broken windshield and into the car. At the time of my uncle's funeral, my cousin offered the car to me for restoration. I declined, knowing that it was way too far gone for any practical purposes of restoration. This is the oft-told saga of someone saving a car who says, "Someday, I'm going to fix it up." So often, it never happens.

I found the "after" pictures, taken in 2010. I was mistaken; the accident damage occurred to the passenger side, not the driver's.

....did anyone offer it for sale to other restore folks out there that woulda bought it for parts for other vehicles...???...I'd have loved to have that front bumper or the hood ornament other other pieces/parts....coulda got at least some$$$ out of it I'd guess...

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....Naj puška govori!....
.............deplorable typical "bitter clinger"....

And those head light rings were good for tunneling back in the hay day of custom cars.

Rad

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I'm not sure what my aunt finally did with the car. She was having a difficult time getting rid of it. I live 1,200 miles from her home, so it wasn't convenient for me to try to do anything with. #1, as a whole car, it was too far gone. The floor was rusted out due to water coming in the broken windshield. Infestation by rodentia. Water damage and rodentia had destroyed all the wiring (old cloth-wrapped stuff). Upholstery was completely shot. Rust in many places on the body lower areas. Wheel lug nuts rusted onto studs. Brake shoes rusted onto drum surfaces. Wheel cylinders seized. As to other mechanicals, like the fuel tank and lines, engine seized, who knows how the auto. trans. fared but must've had some rust on machined surfaces that hadn't turned in over 30 years. In short, it would've taken tens of thousands of dollars to bring this car back and you would've been way, way deeper into it than it was worth.

As to good parts, all the chrome die cast stuff was pitted badly. The front bumper looks kinda good in the picture but the chrome plating was thin and frosty-looking, not really shiny like chrome is supposed to look. The stainless grille main section looks good in the 2010 picture, not bent; it might've been worth something.

The car was offered to me with the hope that I'd completely restore it and keep it in the family, as it were. I've already commented on the hopelessness of that scene. However, with the idea of restoration in mind, I don't know if my uncle's family would've welcomed the idea of my taking the car over just to part it out and junk it. At least not early in their attempts to find a new home for it. Later, maybe, but again the issue of 1,200 miles comes up.

The one thing I could've taken advantage of if I'd been quick on my feet the last time I looked at it (when I took the pics) concerns the license plates. Those weren't in the best of condition, but prob. worth at least $100 in California. A few years ago, the state legislature there passed a law permitting the re-use of vintage plate sets. So, somebody with a 1963 through 1969 anything (last year the series was issued) might've bought them. You see, those black plates with gold lettering came out in 1963 and wouldn't have been original to the '54 Ford. I don't know if those plates were from 1963; prob. not with an ORU prefix. However, I'm sure smart car collectors can figure out what year ORU was first issued and they would be most appropriate on a car of that year.

I had three sets of old CA plates in my possession dating back to when they weren't worth anything. I had one set of series 1956 (gold/black) and two sets of series 1963 (black/gold). They were all in pretty nice shape and I got about $200 plus per set on eBay after the law in CA was changed and they became valuable.

I first read the thread title and thought it said "Ford Cosmoline"

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

cosmoline ?? did it drip oil ?? they were an interesting looking vehicle l might have liked to have it tom restore now