Calling all Pickers

[Steve_Mack_CT]

This is for those as bored about the posts on American vs. foreign and the like as I am... (chuckle)

My guess is most of us here are also interested in automobilia, petroliana, and the like. Maybe enough to maybe warrant a regular column in the Antique Automobile? (Hint..) Anyway, my question is, what great picking story do you have that does not involve an actual car (we have covered cars here already.) that you care to share

Mine is from the 70s around age 14. Spent a couple Saturdays assisting a family friend who had a small farm cutting firewood. Knowing I was a car nut, at the end of each day I was allowed to pick something out of his barn rather than get paid in cash. So the first day I took an original ’32 Ford passenger grille shell with insert, and the next time I took another one, but it was a commercial shell. Small world as a few years later I gave my auto shop teacher the commercial shell, the one big item he was missing for his Ford pick up restoration. The passenger car shell hangs with my other collectible stuff to this day – I always chuckle when I see the prices they ask for these at Hershey. Maybe I should sell before the whole nostalgia hot rod thing passes but I guess I need to keep it. We have had other great picks, but that is my favorite story. Still hope to build the rest of the car around it someday

Edited January 27, 2010 by Steve_Mack_CT
clarity (see edit history)

[Jim Bollman]

I had a similar arrangement with a friend of the family when I was about the same age but it was in the 60s. I worked several Saturdays for a pie of parts that were suppose to be a 1947 Cushman. Years later I discovered it was really a MotoScoot. Still have the pile of parts, missing most of the engine and a few other hard to find parts. Also discovered they are not as desirable as a Cushman.

[Guest Steve Hughes]

Not quite a picker's story, but close enough. This was in the '70s sometime. I was at an auction from an old time mechanic's estate. I wasn't able to afford any of the tools and such, but I found this box of literature. I had a 1931 Pontiac, and there was some early Pontiac stuff in there so I bid on the box and got it. It was great fun digging through it when I got home to see what all I had. There were magneto manuals, a brass era book on radiator repair, several Avery tractor manuals, and the prize of them all was an original operators manual for a 1913 Pope Hartford automobile. Many years later I passed that manual on to an owner of a '13 Pope Hartford. I hope it made his day.

[keiser31]

A friend of mine and I were about 16 years old in 1970 and went downtown Detroit and picked up this giant neon "FORD" script blue oval sign from a vacant lot. We stuffed it into the back of my buddy's '70 Falcon Torino and it hung out about 2 feet past the bumper. That car sagged all the way home (about 11 miles or so). My buddy took it to his house because he was the "Ford guy". The next day, his dad took it to the scrap yard and got rid of it.

[Restorer32]

My ex wife "picked" a "paperweight" from an antique/junk shop for $5. Brought it home and I immediately recognized it as an original Daphne At The Well(sliding boy) rad ornament for a 1932 Packard.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Some good stories, guys - Restorer, isn't it funny how things sometimes seem to "find" an appropriate home? I have seen cases of this time and time and wonder how that happens. Great find.

Now as much as I like that old '32 Ford grille, if I happened upon an old hot rodder who just happened to be trying to figure out what to do with that old Packard Service sign in his garage.....

[R Walling]

To Steve Mack re your quote

"Now as much as I like that old '32 Ford grille, if I happened upon an old hot rodder who just happened to be trying to figure out what to do with that old Packard Service sign in his garage..... "

I just happen to know of an old rot rodder who has a very large brand new porcelain and neon Packard sign that he doesn’t know what to do with it in Springfield Ma. The only problem is he thinks it is worth many, many thousands of dollars.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Roger, if that hot rodder wants to part with it, and even if I cannot afford it, I can probably find it a good home, and maybe he has something else of interest....

Do you attend the Hazardville Barn swap during the winter months?

[R W Burgess]

I like these stories guys....keep it up...will make a good newsletter article!!!

Wayne

[Restorer32]

My business partner was restoring his '29 Packard Phaeton and realized he was missing all of the hardware for the hood doors on one side. Called me, I couldn't help. That weekend he began cleaning out a commercial rental property he had recently purchased. In the attic he found the only car part in the building....a '29 Packard hood side with all the door hardware.

[TheMoneyPit]

I've been collecting radiator emblems for around 35 years. I started it partly because my father collected them, but also because there was a local junk yard which was owned by one of Dad's friends where many acres of cars from the mid 20's into the late 1950's were land-locked in by a newer yard operation. The owner thought picking emblems off the cars was a good thing for little kids to do and for the most part he gave me free reign at the yard. This was years before the "age of litigation" as someone coined it. At one time my father found an Aerocar script in that same yard and he paid $2.00 for it. Most of what I found was from the 1920's & 30's and I have them still except a few that were upgraded over the years.

Wish there were still bone yards like that now - I remember a fairly complete Nash Lafayette 400 sitting next to a Pontiac 8 - both sedans and currently missing their emblems assuming someone saved them...

[Dandy Dave]

I've done my share of picking, but the best place I ever picked was unbelieveable. A local Real Estate lady, that was a good friend of mine, helped a fellow out one time by paying his taxes. Being the smart business woman that she was, held paper against the property. She past away in her 90's and her Son, also a good friend, had the task of going though all the paperwork of the estate. She did not tell him about the loan that was never repaid, but she did mention it to me several times in confidence. To make a very long story shorter, he ended up forclosing on the property. He called me up and said, Dave, I have a clean out job if you want it. Woooo Hoooooo. Show me the way.

When I got there, I had to pry the doors open in the house as they were nailed shut. Got the outer door open, and the inner door opened just enough for me to squeeze my skinny self in only to have to climb on the stuff as it was piled 2 foot short of the sealings though the whole house. Also there was a barn out back stuffed full the same way. A pickers dream come true. The kicker, I only had 10 days to get the stuff out. I called everyone that I could think of that were also pickers and sold stuff off as they wanted it. I told my buddie that 10 days was not enough time and we could have made a lot more if I could have gotten an auction house involved, but he already had the property sold.

Top Picks were. A 1941ish Buick Convertible that the coons had a field day in. A 1963ish Ford Galaxy, both were in the barn. 2 one lung motors. A 1.5 HP Associated, and a 2 HP Sattley. A very cool old butter churn that I still have. And tons of small stuff between piles of trash. I worked 16 hours a day for all 10 days and did manage to get though most of it.

I believe a deal like this would come around only about once in a life time. My friend wanted 1/2 of whatever I sold so It was not like I could keep everything, I had to move it. Funny thing was, when I got enough stuff out of the house, the original furniture was still sitting right where the previous owners parents had left it when they past away in the mid 1970's and the closets were 95 percent empty. And a pile of unpaid bills were still on the kitchen counter.

I wish I took pictures, but just getting though things in the time frame I had to work was the only thing on my mind. Cha-Ching! Dandy Dave!

Edited January 28, 2010 by Dandy Dave (see edit history)

[Lozierman]

In the Fall of 1969 I happened upon a guy in North Seattle who had quite a few old cars on his property. I stopped and spoke to him and told him I was looking for an engine for a 1910 Lozier. He didn't have one but told me he had an old car engine that I could buy to use in my car until I found the right one. It was buried under a wood pile against one of his buildings. I was abel to uncover enough to see it had exposed valves and since he said the price was only $200.00, I said I'll take it. The motor was on a wooden skid and since he lived on a hill with a road down below I decided with the help of my dad a few of his friends we could slide it down the hill and lift it into my truck. This was on a Wed. when I found it, and I knew I wanted it home quickly so I arranged for my dad and a couple of his friends to come with me on Friday after work to retrieve my find. We got there while it was still light out and immediately uncovered the engine. After it was totally visible we noticed it said Thomas cast into the two cylinder jugs. The seller suddenly remembered it was a Thomas Flyer engine that had been sent to Seattle as a spare for the Great Race! Wrong! It wasn't, and although he wanted to now keep it, I reminded him we had made a deal so he sold it to me, after I had to pay an additional $9.00 for sales tax. (I'm sure the governor never got that money). Anyway, we slide it down the hill, loaded it and took it home.

After unloading it, I found out the motor was able to be turned over and was in remarkable shape. I then looked through back issues of Hemmings to see it I could find any Thomas parts. Looking through a current issue under Wanted, was a picture of that very engine! I quickly contacted that party and found out they had a complete chassis but needed the engine. We struck a deal over the phone, and a couple of days before Christmas he and a friend loaded the engine in their El Camino and drove back to California. The Thomas was from a Thomas Detroit, 1907/08. It has been restored and was Harrah's collection at one time.

[Guest windjamer]

Returning home from Viet Nam I heard a rumor about a motorcycle suspossed to be in a farmers barn. Long story short took me near a month but I tracked it down. Turned out it was not in a barn but in a chicken coop and yes the coop was occupied. For the next week or so I sat on the porch with the old farmer and finaly convinced him to let me buy it. My older brouther said if it will turn over it will run, so I paid $15. for it and we loaded it on the back of a p/u. First stop was the quarter car wash. I hit it with the pressure wash and watched as the leather bags seat and cloth covered wires diningrated,that chicken stuff done a job on anything that wasnt metal.:eek: Got it home and brouther rewired it and the next day had it running. A local m/c guy was at the house and seemed real interested in the byke. I was sitting on it reving it up and holy sh** the clutch ingaged and the byke took off up the bank down the drive ,accross the front yard and into the road with me hanging on for life.:eek: I dont think my butt tuched the seat at least a hundred yards. I finaly got it stoped and back to the house and the guy that was there said Dick, that thing is going to kill you. Ill give you $40. for it. I sold it right on the spot, brouther wouldnt talk to me for da** near 2 months and I learned to late it was a 1929 Harly Davidson I never said I was overly smart.