m smith

I have not attempted to start car. A friend tried to turn it and says it is stuck. The Bronze paint rubs out better than I expected. There is black paint runs on the muffler & tail pipe which surprised me as I thought they were installed after all painting was done. Biggest surprise to me was the heater hoses. The accepted repro ones every body uses have the little outline of a square and GM markings. Original cars I have seen previously had groves in the rubber running lengthwise to the hose in a small section. This car has the little squares w/ GM markings but the ink is orange like the engine. I had not seen this before. There is no exterior rust The trunk has some pin holes which I expected. The cloth in the interior is somewhat faded. The vinyl was very stiff but has responded to some conditioner but does not return to as vivid of a copper color as it was when new.

I have not attempted to start car. A friend tried to turn it and says it is stuck. The Bronze paint rubs out better than I expected. There is black paint runs on the muffler & tail pipe which surprised me as I thought they were installed after all painting was done. Biggest surprise to me was the heater hoses. The accepted repro ones every body uses have the little outline of a square and GM markings. Original cars I have seen previously had groves in the rubber running lengthwise to the hose in a small section. This car has the little squares w/ GM markings but the ink is orange like the engine. I had not seen this before. There is no exterior rust The trunk has some pin holes which I expected. The cloth in the interior is somewhat faded. The vinyl was very stiff but has responded to some conditioner but does not return to as vivid of a copper color as it was when new.

The conditions of the new vehicles varied greatly The worst I think were the late 70’s new vehicles that had vinyl tops and had badly rusted out tops, a ’65 Bel Air Station Wagon brought $5000. The front floor pan was rusted out, the front windshield pillar was rusted through, the far rear side windows mounts were so rusted that the windows would not stay in position and both front fenders were damaged by trees growing and bending them. The interior was also beyond repair. It had a nice spare tire and wheel. Much damage was done to floors by moving the cars with a huge fork lift. The one I bought sustained damage from this. One of buyers, and I believe it was a pickup, put a battery in it and some gas, started it & I understand drove it away. I believe they tried to start the ’64 Bel Air wagon with 300 miles on it but I did not see if they got it to run. There was a very nice ’65 Impala 4 door hardtop with still good paint but it had had the left front door and back lite removed. The interior was therefore shot. Probably the nicest ones were the ’65 Impala sport coupe. It looked very nice from what I saw of it. The ’64 Impala Sport coupe and a pair of ’63 Corvairs also appeared to be very nice. I did not look at these extensively as they always had a crowd around them, on line bidding put them out of my price range and I had no great desire for them. Comments on other front row cars, the ’64 wagon had light surface rust on the hood and the right front fender was rusted out where a battery might have leaked down on the inside of the fender, interior was very nice. The ’66 Bel Air 4 dr sedan interested me, but it had small rust through around the back window and rusted out behind the right rear wheel. It’s paint was also not good which I think was a characteristic of the color as my Impala has the same problem. The ‘59’s were my main interest . The stitching on the Impala’s seats were bad. The inserts in the front seats at least had come un stitched from the vinyl. The trunk floors were badly rusted except for the Bel Air I bought, and it has a few pin holes in it. The front floor coverings were all in the trunks, rolled up and petrified. The green 4 door sedan had a rusted out wheel on the ground and was rusted out around the rear license plate/gas filler area. The fork lift had sliced a hole in it’s gas tank. It did have a remnant of the window sticker still in it and the clear seat covers were somewhat intact , The Impala 4 dr sedan had a badly rusted out truck and no gas tank at all. It did seem to have decent paint. The last ’59 to sell was a Biscayne 4 dr. It had no back window, thus interior was no good, since water had gotten in the trunk area it also had rust out in the rear fenders and trunk. It did have nice paint. The one I bought had light surface rust on the hood which rubbed out nicely. I think the paint on the others would do likewise. The sun had popped the vinyl on the top of the back seat and the vinyl was very dry. It has softened with conditioner to an extent. Several of the ‘59’s including mine had some splits in the cloth part of the seat. I expect this was caused by lookers sitting in the cars. Signs were posted to not sit in the cars but they were poorly supervised to see that the public adhered to the signs Several hours after they were sold they did rope the top row of cars off and had guards posted to keep people out without proper credentials. A lot of the engines were said to be stuck. I bought mine with the thought that it is too. I have not attempted to see. It still has a lot of bright orange engine paint on the exhaust manifold which I do not want to destroy by getting the engine to run. The oil and ATF are clean as new. Myron

In response to Steve, here is my story I regard the Lambrecht auction as a success for the car hobbyist. I do not think the opportunity to study 50 or so unrestored unsold truly original vehicles will be repeated any time soon. Granted there was a lot of deterioration in the vehicles due to neglect, but it was a great chance to do research on authenticity. The community of Pierce did a tremendous job of accommodating approximately 17,000 visitors to their community of 1700 pop. People were commuting to the auction from more than 100 miles away. I stayed on the Pierce Co Fairgrounds in my friend John’s motor home. Shuttle services were provided by the community to the farm where the sale was to take place. After viewing the cars the day before the auction, John encouraged me to try to buy any one of the 5 unsold ’59 Chevrolets since I already had a collection of 1959 Chevrolets. His logic which I consider sound was that I would never again have the opportunity to buy an ‘new’ unsold ’59 and that if I did not try I would soon be sorry. Although I might have bid on three of them, the one I considered the most desirable was the Bel Air 4 dr hardtop. It seemed to be in the best condition, and I did not already have one of this body style and model. And, I believe it to be the rarest of the ’59 cars on the sale. Because of the gathering crowd, I claimed a spot just in front of the car before the 1st car (the Cameo Carrier) was sold 11 cars away. This turned out to be a good place as I ended up standing right by the man holding the flag in front of each vehicle as it was being sold. I gave my bids to him. I have no idea who the other bidders were as the crowd was so large. I got my 1st choice of the’59’s which although on the ‘prestige’ row of 'better cars', sold for much less than most. I was not prepared for the chaotic few minutes after the car was sold. I was asked to do an interview for the History Channel which I declined and other questions I was not prepared to answer. Since my wife Barb was not there, my first priority was to let her know what I had done. (I had John call her) Later in the afternoon, as we were loading the car on a trailer Angelo Van Bogart editor of Old Cars Weekly came up and started talking to John & myself and complimenting my choice of the car. He was very nice, not pushy so I guess we were interviewed, but it was more like a conversation. I am mentioned in the Lambrecht coverage of the auction and the car also made the cover of that week’s Old Car Weekly magazine. Angelo also mentioned of AACA and the HPOF class in his article. I have not experienced the buyer regret for purchase of the vehicle. It had been stored inside for a time before having to endure outdoor storage where a fair amount of damage occurred. It does have many interesting aspects being ‘a factory original.’ I find it also interesting that my father & I each purchased ‘new’ ’59 Chevrolets but 54 years apart. I can understand some of the prices the‘new’ vehicles brought. There are so few ‘factory new’ vehicles of this era left in the world that even in deteriorated condition, there is no price guide for them. They are of sorts like a great works of art that cannot be replicated. What I fail to understand is what the used vehicles brought. Even with low mileage they were still used pasture cars with nothing special about them other than they will always will be labeled as ‘a Lambrecht car’ which maybe adds to their value. myron

I would like to communicate with the buyers of the other 4 "new" '59 Chevrolet cars sold on the Lambrecht auction. Where did the cars go, what are the new owners plans, have they made any interesting observations about their cars since purchasing them? M Smith

Original unrestored. HPOF certified. delivery to Hershey possible. Ice Green, broadcloth interior. $7,250.00. Contact Myron Smith, Lincoln NE

I agree they are 1954 passenger.

1940

I have added phone number and email address to the posting. I do not know how to add photographs, but I can email them to you. I'm new to using the forum, other than just looking.

FS 1949 Chevrolet Fleetline DeLuxe 4 door, 91,000 miles. Aways garaged. Ice Green in color. original paint, excellent original interior. Still has seat covers. HPOF certified. $5,000 phone: 402-475-5563 email: mbsmith.smith5@gmail.com

Jan: Our little region in Nebraska sends all but 3 newsletters out electronically. We dont have a large treasury and are a relatively new region. It has worked pretty good for 4 years now. If you'd like a copy of it I'll be glad to e mail it. Myron Smith Lincoln NE