What interesting items have you found in your cars during restoration?

[hursst]

When I go to junkyards and when I've restored cars, old stuff always turns up under the seats, in inner fenders, under carpets, or any number of other places.  My best find was a 1925 Buffalo nickel in a 1938 Olds in a junkyard last year.  I also recently found a matchbook promoting a Republican judge for election in the mid-1960's in my 1960 MGA that I'm restoring.  I also found a 1959 penny.  These finds are not much, but interesting,  but then I thought that maybe everyone else had some much better stories about things they've found in similar manners.  What have you discovered?

[Mark Gregory]

In 1976 I found in my 1926 Reo T6 Sedan an empty flask of Old Plaid Whiskey that was probably from the WW2 . I gave it away but think of it often on how it survived in that old car for so long .

[Bill Harmatuk]

To charge a battery on a 68 Volkswagon you have to remove or tilt up the back seat cushion.

Well...... A pack of condoms fell on the floor in the back  and I didn't notice. MY WIFE DID A FEW DAYS LATER.

I had some explaining to do.

I was an instant liar and anything I said was a lie. Not good.

I took a guess...... and under the seat lodged in the springs was a reciept for something and another old grimy pack of condoms.

 

Bill H

 

Just celebrated 37 years of marriage, September 29th.

 

 

[Walt G]

When I was restoring my 1931 Franklin with a Derham Body in the early 1970's two things were found under the drivers seat. A small card about 3 x 3 inches that said Atkinson Spring Company on it and Derham with the size of the seat cushion. Atkinson was the supplier of seat cushions ( springs frame etc) to most, if not all of the major custom body builders at the time, also in the bottom of the frame where the seat cushion fit was a  mound of small round and oval black and yellow striped things with a bunch of somewhat transparent flakes surrounding them. I poked them with a screw driver then realizing what it was ran like heck looking back to see if that mound was following me. What it was were bodies of deceased bees that had made heir home there and apparently then died who knows how many decades before when the car was in storage. the transparent flakes were their wings! Scared the  &%^$%^&  out of me. I used a shop vac to get ride of them and then things went well after that. Ya just gotta love old cars and their inhabitants.

[Terry Wiegand]

We have the 1916 D-45 Buick that has been in my family since 1963.  I had the car re-upholstered and a new top with the side curtains done in 2015.  When the door panels were removed for replacement, this paperwork was found inside the rear passenger door.  This car was built early in the model year and this documentation validated our thinking that the car was at least 100 years old at the time this was found.  The photo tells the story.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[Bhigdog]

About 2 dozen hershey kisses in every place imaginable........bob

[PFitz]

Nothing of real interest, but always a mouse nest, or several.

 

But once I found the mouse - nicely mummified, spread-eagled, and sandwiched between the top of the running board splash apron and the underside of the wooden body sill of an all original 31 conv coupe. How it got in there I don't know because there was only a 1/2 inch gap. Looked like something out of a cartoon after the cat goes by driving a small steam roller. 

 

Paul

[oldcarfudd]

1969, helping a friend salvage a 1923 Packard out of an old moonshine still - some crocks, instructions on making sour mash, and half a pack of Wings cigarettes.

[61polara]

A paper bag of early 1950's condoms in a 1947 Roadmaster trunk.

[Xander Wildeisen]

I have found my enthusiasm fades over time.

[locoman]

An opossum skeleton tangled up in the wiring harness behind the dash of a 1923 Haynes that I was restoring.

[dei]

If you count saving parts for my identical '58 Buick Limited in the garage...

 

I drove this limited back in 1971 and quit driving it around 1976 for my Special Convertible. It has sat outside for the last 33 years behind my garage so... Went at dismantling it and when I tipped the seat back look what I found.

 

We have had the long neck bottles for a long time and this one is a stubby (and the brand I used to drink).

 

Edited October 8, 2018 by dei (see edit history)

[Restorer32]

Found a 1921 York, PA Bicycle License holding turn signal wires onto the bumper of a Model A Ford. The license was like an aluminum cable tie and worked well to hold the wiring in place. Also, in a Healey 3000 we found a large and very much alive RAT. The car had come in from storage in a barn so the rat was truly a "barn find".

[chistech]

Just went to look at a 28 Chevy 2dr sedan that was offered to me. It’s an original condition car that was driven by its owner until 03’ when he passed. Tons and tons of spare parts and includes a new wood kit so I had to really check it out. Digging through the inside of the car I found the drivers side kick panel almost off. Behind it was an old break top revolver loaded. I let the owner know about it and they said they didn’t know what to do as they have no license. Turns out I do, they told me I could have it, so I took it home. Thinking I will probably go and pick the car up too.

[J.H.Boland]

Nothing quite as exotic as a revolver (I wish),but when we loaded up my "21 Chevy after 41 years of storage and started down the bumpy gravel road,I was horrified to see stuff falling off and bouncing down the road. Turns out the car was full of old walnut shells deposited over many years. There was even one wedged between the flywheel and belly pan. I bent a crank trying to get the engine unstuck, only to find that the walnut was the problem.

[Restorer32]

Found a small bag of white powder in a stored fire truck. Called the police thinking it was cocaine. Turned out to be saltpetre. 

 

[Restorer32]

Here's one that is a mystery to this day. We removed a head from a '33 Cadillac 12 and on top of one piston was a rather large shard of glass, way to large to pass thru the spark plug hole. Best we can figure it was put there accidentally by a previous owner or on purpose by an aggrieved spouse during a rebuild.

[JACK M]

3 hours ago, Restorer32 said:

Found a small bag of white powder in a stored fire truck. Called the police thinking it was cocaine. Turned out to be saltpetre. 

 

 

I found something similar at a motor cycle swap meet.

I was interested in a tail light and it was inside.

The seller turned just about as white.

I left.

[36humpback]

when I took off one of the bulkhead panels in my panel I found a partial pad of laundry tickets.  It originally belonged to Walla Walla laundry.

 

[Friartuck]

My late father sold two K model Lincolns to a local collector circa 1979. When he finally got around to restoring the second one some 20+ years later he found a stack of letters under the back seat written by my father to his parents in Yonkers, NY.  Judging from the envelopes, I didn't know my father had an artistic flare. They are all written in polish and slowly getting them translated.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Friartuck (see edit history)