Strangest item ever found in car purchase

I'm just curious if any of you have strange finds that came with a car or truck you purchased that you would like to share.

Personally I've never found anything out of the ordinary but I'm sure some of you have.

As always, keep it clean.

When I removed the rear seat from a 1968 Roadrunner I bought, I found a ton of loose change and three stocking masks underneath. The car was owned previously by a girl from El Centro, California and looked as if she used it to escape across the desert after robbing liquor stoes. The car was full of sand.

Found a very nice high quality brass cased compass under the seat of an old Cadillac.

About 40 pounds of rust......................Bob

In 1981 I bought a 1978 Electra that came from Kansas; fine brown silt everywhere. It was under the seat, in the glove box, between the radio buttons. A light blue car with velour. And behind the trunk liner, in the tail light lenses. What a menory.

Bernie

I found a 10" switchblade knife under the seat of a Honda 600

Went to dig out a '46 Buick many years ago. The car was in a paddock miles from anywhere. It had been there so long it had started to sink into the ground.

I was hoping to get a few good gearbox parts. Looked behind the front seat to find an ice-cream container with all the new parts needed to rebuild the gearbox .

Syncros, bearings, cluster and gears. Very happy Vegemite !!

Danny

I found a scattering of pot seeds under the front seat of a '52 Chev I bought for $82.50 in 1972. This was not a big surprise — the car was purchased through the father of the young owner, on account of the fact the kid was in jail on a drug conviction.

Found a perfect condition grease and road dirt encrusted 1916 York, PA bicycle license tag that was holding turn signal wires onto the front bumper of a Model A.

Wish I had a picture, there used to be a 36 Cord sedan parts car at the restoration shop in Virginia where I worked for two years (White Post), in the driver's seat was a real skeleton, we called the car "bones" of course....car now gone but think skeleton still resides there in a NOS casket....

My 41 buick special had a oldtime funnel tucked in the corner of the backseat area connected to a tube to exit in front of the rear tire , I was puzzled .Then my dad said you found the business mans bathroom for no stopping . Gross and that wan't just mice I smelled then .

A better one is a friend bought a car from a police impound auction , the front power windows stopped 1/2 way down . about a year later my brother look at it for her . Tapped in the door were bags of cocaine , 2 per door . Of course they threw it away .

About 45 years ago I helped a friend recover a '23 Packard from what we had thought was a chicken coop in rural Minnesota. It turned out to have been a moonshine still. We found remains of the distilling apparatus, a recipe for sour mash, and - in one of the door pouches - a pack of Wings cigarettes. I wrote up the story and it was published in Antique Automobile many years ago.​

My dad's find I remember hearing about was when he bought a mid-70s Nova for my mom for 50$. Found a chainsaw in the trunk. Sold chainsaw for 50$.

I bought a 1992 F-350 that had a nice Leatherman behind the seat. A 1970 Dodge Power Wagon yielded a number of tools and a bunch of chain saw files on the dash. The best tool was an engineers tape measure, I hand it to people every now and then and laugh at the reaction.

This is funny.

It involves a motorcycle, not a car or truck. A 1964 Yamaha .

Keep in mind that this bike had not been out of the garage since 1966; the owner just didn't feel safe riding a motorcycle.

When I bought it in 2012, the owner was about 80 + years old.

These bikes have side panels, one side to cover the battery and fuses and the other covers the tool-kit.

We got the machine out of it's hiding place in the garage; and I started to check things out. Took the fuel cap off and looked in the tank, looked pretty good, then removed the side cover that covered the battery, the battery was still in there; but fortunately it didn't leak and rot the metal out. OK so far so good. Took the other side cover off, that the tool kit was behind it; but when we removed the side cover a pack of condoms fell out on the floor. I suppose from 1965 or so.

Silence in the garage.

There was the owner, and his wife, 2 of my friends, and myself. Remember the owners are in their 80's. One of my friends , picked the pack up, just to be sure what it was. The owner looked shocked and I can't even begin to tell you what expression his wife had. Because, we found out that she was never around this motorcycle. Even at 80+ years old, he had some explaining to do.

While in high school one of my kids bought a really sorry looking Datsun 280 Z (lots of rust, back bumper gone, etc.). We started cleaning a bunch of trash out of it, and, found a Rolex watch under the front seat. It looked like the real deal to me, so I took it to a local jewelry store to have it looked at. The jeweler looked it over and said sorry its a fake. Then he said - but - its a very good fake and probably is worth about $100. We sold it to a friend for exactly that.

Regards:

Oldengineer

I purchased a 1926 Rei T6 sedan in 1976 . Tucked under the back seat was empty bottle of Old Plaid whiskey .

We took the heads off of a '33 Cadillac 12 engine we were supposed to "just get running". On top of one of the pistons was a roughly 2" square shard of glass way to big to have fallen thru a spark plug hole. Sabotage?

I bought a 1931 Chryslet that belonged to Al Capone. Under the rear seat was a 1932 World Series poster wrapped and rolled in a wax type paper. Obviously my find of a lifetime.

Wayne

Condoms in a hole in the headliner of a '35 Dodge coupe!

Trimacar, I recall seeing that skeleton sitting in the Cord at White Post. A sign said "customer waiting for his car to be restored", reflecting Billy Thompson's sense of humor.

A sewing thimble in the bottom of front passenger door on my 29 Plymouth.

Tucked in the windshield header of my 32 Ford truck was a matchbook from the previous owner's "naturalist" (nudist) camp.

It's still up there; great conversation piece!

Well I found a body bag (empty and clean). Of course the car it was in was a hearse. It was folded up nice and neat in a storage compartment.

Also found a sealed can of Studebaker-Packard Cooling System Cleaner and Neutralizer in a 1977 Mercury. Go figure that one out.

I found a laser disc player and 5 or 6 movies to go with it in my 64 Continental. They still work to this day. It's funny to see my friends face when they see a 12" cd :confused:.

Tucked in the windshield header of my 32 Ford truck was a matchbook from the previous owner's "naturalist" (nudist) camp.

It's still up there; great conversation piece!

I hope you washed the seats!

Under the replacement carpet of my '17 Franklin, a 1926 quarter; under the front seat cushion, a spare key.

When I was in high school a buddy found a loaded pistol under the back seat of a 56 Plymouth he had just bought. His dad was the chief of police, I wonder if he still has it.

I bought a 70 Chrysler convertible from a guy that was worried that it would be towed for expired plates. I got it running and should have left then, But I opened the trunk and found a large tin full of old silver quarters. Of coarse then the old guy then remembered where he had stashed them.

By the way, I pull out every back seat I come across.

FOund a car froma former business owner between the rear seat near the Mircophone pouch, it was a Funeral Home. No a sunrise there, for Packard Limo

When my '59 Chev showed on the yard a little over a year ago I saw the rear right passenger door had been replaced.......but the original door with a cracked window had been stowed in the back seat.

As long as I was going to re-do the interior anyway I took the door off of the car, switched windows (not the most fun of jobs) and put the original door back on.......

My '04 Cad had two liberty head dimes and three indian head pennies. The '26 Ford had a Schrader "Balloon Tire Gauge" Pat. 1923 in a snapped leather case, wedged in the body panel behind the seat. The Vette had about 15 coins from the 50's. Love finding misc. treasures like this.

Twenty years ago I bought a car that had been upholstered in Mexico, when I tore out the interior I found crude tools left behind and many coins, the coin value totaled 27 cents American. My brother bought a police impound car with no trunk key, when the locksmith got it open there was a Snap -On top box full of tools that he is still using today. --Bob

I found a folded up 1963 series $20 bill deep down in the one of the side trunk wells of the 63 Riviera I owned. The bill was in bad shape and I traded it for a new one at my bank. There was also a small comb made of aluminum down there as well.

I also found a couple of 17mm Snap On wrenches under the back seat of a 1983 Mercedes 240D that I bought for parts.

The only thing I've found so far in my 1956 Ford was a pair black ladies silk gloves tucked in the space where the front seat back met the lower cushion. The original owner was an elderly lady. I don't really think I'll find much as she had kept the interior exceptionally clean. She apparently smoked though as the front ashtray still had some butts when I finally got it opened.

Found the head of a maniquine in the trunk in a box facing up. It bout scared the heck out of me when I opened the trunk and she was staring at me. This was in a 1972 LTD.

I found a really cute pair of girl's panties (still there) in the back seat of my '54 Chevy. I thought of asking my wife to model them for me, but I don't think that they would fit her.

I hope you washed the seats!

Nope; I decided to replace the seat.

A better one is a friend bought a car from a police impound auction , the front power windows stopped 1/2 way down . about a year later my brother look at it for her . Tapped in the door were bags of cocaine , 2 per door . Of course they threw it away .

Riiiight. They threw it away. At least that's what they told you!!!!!!!!

Hitchhikers.. You would notice them the next three days...

Early in my car sales career, I had a somewhat interesting late-model convertible come in on consignment (I'll refrain from mentioning it because the owner is known to frequent this forum). In the center console were a handful of little blue diamond-shaped pills.

I wonder if the car would have been more valuable to a buyer of a certain age with the Viagra included?

My '61 falcon came loaded with a glovebox full of vitage receipts, fake jewelry, and coupons to the piggly wiggly. Also found the order sheet under the rear seat as well as a checker board and stuffed animal... a kings ransom!

1936 Chevy yielded spare parts, a mercury dime and a christmas santa claus pin... seemed fitting as I bought it just a day or so before Dec 25th.

1964 Gaz69m Rusky jeep had one big friggin' spider from the southern US that hitched a ride north!

1960 Saab 93f had alot of match books and spare parts.

Those skeleton stories remind me of stopping in a diner last week. I thought the skeleton sitting at the counter was a Halloween prop. After sitting there for 20 minutes I asked the flustered waitress for a cup of coffee. She said "You are not in my section." and walked away. I didn't wait around any longer.

Bernie