Know wonder a lot of old cars went to scrap during WW2

[Mark Gregory]

I came across this propaganda poster of how 18 Tons of Farm scrap will build a Medium Tank .

Know wonder a lot of old cars disappeared .

They also say in other posters they can build a ship with so many tons of scrap .

http://peakworthy.com/ww2-government-posters/7/

[1912Staver]

Between the depression in the "dirty thirties" and WW2, millions of cars were scrapped. Everything from 2 cyl. Maxwell's to Duesenberg J's. We should treasure every pre war car but still some {very rough} ones are scrapped each year.  Mid 20's Ford "T's" and other Ho Hum cars are very low in value these days. And I am sure Tons of Model A and Model T parts are scrapped each year right up to the present day.

 

Greg in Canada

Edited March 2, 2017 by 1912Staver (see edit history)

[John_S_in_Penna]

13 hours ago, 1912Staver said:

Between the depression in the "dirty thirties" and WW2, millions of cars were scrapped....

 

Mr. Staver, I never heard the term "Dirty 'Thirties,"

but I can see it might apply.  Do you know where

the term came from?  Perhaps the dust bowls and

droughts that ravaged a good part of the agriculture?

Or, add to it the poor people waiting in soup lines with

rag-tag disheveled clothes? 

I wasn't around then, so I don't have a realistic picture

of that decade aside from what I have read.  

 

Cars advanced so fast in their first few decades

that a 1918 car would have been quite obsolete by 1938.

Imagine if 1997 cars were obsolete in 2017!

[Frantz]

Quote

Imagine if 1997 cars were obsolete in 2017!

They are John! They don't have bluetooth or the ability to mirror your smart phone to the dash board media screen. No back up cameras either! Okay, maybe they aren't quite obsolete, but when you work in the industry and see trades from just a few years ago, they are really missing quite a bit of what people are looking for today. From a point a to point b perspective they haven't changed too much, but self driving cars are nearly here, so we will be seeing this idea again, and soon.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

2 minutes ago, Frantz said:

They are John! 

 

 They are ? Dang , both my dailies are obsolete, then. Have to be careful to not hurt their feelings.

 

  Ben

[46 woodie]

There is a unrestored Maxwell in my town that is missing every piece of brass that came with the car. All of it was removed and given to a WW II scrap brass drive.

[MCHinson]

My daily driver is my 1989 AACA Original Buick Park Avenue. I actually drive my DPC 1937 Buick Century several days a week, when I am not driving the Park Avenue.  I recently noticed that the water pump on the Park Avenue has developed a slight leak. I really need to replace the water pump but have not gotten around to it.

 

I had to drive six hours each way yesterday to attend a family funeral. I rented a car. I ended up with a 2016 Dodge Charger. While the Park Avenue really has everything that I need in a car, I have to admit that the additional power was fun. The Charger really corners well. The car was actually fun to drive. If was comfortable, smooth, quiet, and fast. 

[Joe in Canada]

I remember an article about Barney Pollard in our magazine on how during the war the government made him scrap some of his collection of cars and trucks.

[Restorer32]

A former customer of mine grew up in his family's recycling business. He told me his father bought 1000 cars for scrap in 1937. He paid less than $2 each.

[ply33]

2 hours ago, First Born said:

 

 They are ? Dang , both my dailies are obsolete, then. Have to be careful to not hurt their feelings.

 

  Ben

 

Your dailies probably don't have enough electronics to be self aware so you probably don't have to worry about their feelings. On the other hand a new car. . .

 

[kgreen]

Someone once relayed to me that the enclosed driveshaft cars were difficult enough to work on that they would have been scrapped by the mid 50's for something so simple as a clutch change.

 

**Rumor alert - subject to verification**

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

1 hour ago, kgreen said:

Someone once relayed to me that the enclosed driveshaft cars were difficult enough to work on that they would have been scrapped by the mid 50's for something so simple as a clutch change.

 

**Rumor alert - subject to verification**

  Purely rumor!   Perhaps more difficult, but did not need to be worked on nearly as often. Can't count the number of u-joints replaced on customers open drive line. NEVER a Buick.

 

  Ben

[misterc9]

Yes An enclosed driveline 54 or older Chevy that needed a clutch or even worse a Powerglide transmission was worthless. Same was true of 60 or older Buicks with Dynaflow and enclosed driveline.My parents had a 51 Chevy with Powerglide. They went from shop to shop to find someone to fix reverse gear.This was in the early sixties. It was very expensive.

Edited March 3, 2017 by misterc9 (see edit history)

[Frantz]

Quote

Someone once relayed to me that the enclosed driveshaft cars were difficult enough to work on that they would have been scrapped by the mid 50's for something so simple as a clutch change.

My '65 Rambler has a torque tube....

[Frank DuVal]

Matt, more power? You just need a Park Avenue Ultra!

 

BTW, I am looking for a nice low miles 2005 Ultra myself.

[Frantz]

Quote

Matt, more power? You just need a Park Avenue Ultra!

I sold my brother a '93 Park Avenue Ultra that we got traded in here. They are awful nice for a FWD sedan.

[RansomEli]

With all the aluminum on them, Franklins were prime candidates for WW2 scrap drives. It's a miracle any are still around today.

[Joe in Canada]

Canada entered  WW2 at the start in 1939 before the US so new cars were not available as in the US at the time. You had to get permission to get a new car and good used cars were also being traded regularly. When ever you ran out of gas rationing coupons you would buy another car then you would get more coupons with it from the government. The scrap drives would include many of the big cars like Cadillac and Packard as they were harder on gas making them very difficult to sell with the gas rationing in Canada.

[victorialynn2]

If it makes you'all feel better I sold a '30 A and a '24 T for good money last year after I was told the market was soft. 

There are still buyers for good examples. 10k+ Not tons of money, but fair market value. 

[tcslr]

Mr John_S-in_Pa,

 

[tcslr]

Sorry, hit the tab button,  The 'dirty thirties' was the term used about the Dust Bowl.  It officially lasted from 1930 to 1936 but in some sections up to 1940.  It was primarily the southern plains.  "Black Rollers' or 'Black Blizzards' was a common term and event.  In May of 1934, some 340million tons of topsoil was lost  - in ONE DAY- reaching the whole way into Washington DC.  It was probably the greatest ecologic disaster in modern recorded history.  Seeing that energized the administration..  Read Tim Egan's great book 'The Worst Hard Times".  people placed chains on their cars to short out the static electricity from the storms. 

All this occurred during the depression further destroying families, communities, society.

 

It is some of the reason I just love the cars of that period.  the styling was so beautiful maybe in large measure to help folks forget the 'worst hard times.'  Actually from 1928 to about 1934 was  - imo - the highest styling period.  It seems engineering was focused more on that and then slowly evolved to the mechanical portions - certainly cars from 1990s and forward, the focus is primarily more mechanical and reliability and comfort.  I like them but they just generally and largely don't have the panache of those times.

 

I think that by looking at the cars of the times ( and considering that the style is 'delayed' by 2-3 years). one can get a sense of what is important to a culture.  European cars after initial production from WW2 certainly are utilitarian then 'soft and flowing' - maybe to forget the horrors of the earlier decade.  US late 50s - the 'space' impact.  60s - the 'engine size wars because gas is beyond cheap.  Currenty, many cars seem to be 'blacked out, sport' - the supernatural craze?

 

Tom

 

 

[60FlatTop]

Here's a WWII contribution.

 

I chipped in a little toward the War in Afghanistan that started in 2012. Actually a few of the parts were around when the poster was made.

 

I got my truck weighed, too! 4960# unloaded.

Bernie

[Guest Model T Nick]

Remember: WE WON THAT WAR!

[8E45E]

On ‎03‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 6:13 AM, John_S_in_Penna said:

 

Mr. Staver, I never heard the term "Dirty 'Thirties,"

but I can see it might apply.  Do you know where

the term came from?  Perhaps the dust bowls and

droughts that ravaged a good part of the agriculture?

Or, add to it the poor people waiting in soup lines with

rag-tag disheveled clothes? 

I wasn't around then, so I don't have a realistic picture

of that decade aside from what I have read.  

 

I wasn't either,

 

But what I got were LOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNG lectures from grandparents, and other "older ones" who lived through it and told me how 'lucky I was'!  They were the ones who didn't tolerate fussy eaters, and we should be happy we got dinner, period!  The was no such thing as 'welfare' where a down & out recipient received a cheque, but it was called 'relief' with vouchers that were redeemable only for what was stated on it; sacks of flour, potatoes, etc., and one had to still make their own bread.  As well, I was told they were happy receiving used toys or clothes for Xmas, and I should be happy with what I got, even if I didn't like it, or it wasn't what I wanted, but because it was NEW!  I delivered the newspaper to an elderly couple back in the 1970's, and was told by the woman how fortunate I was the proceeds from delivering the paper were mine, and didn't have to contribute to the family income, as her brother had to back in the 1930's, and on and on.....

 

Craig

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

On 3/3/2017 at 0:30 PM, misterc9 said:

Yes An enclosed driveline 54 or older Chevy that needed a clutch or even worse a Powerglide transmission was worthless. Same was true of 60 or older Buicks with Dynaflow and enclosed driveline.My parents had a 51 Chevy with Powerglide. They went from shop to shop to find someone to fix reverse gear.This was in the early sixties. It was very expensive.

 

  misterc9, don't know your parents lived, sounds like the shop owners in your area were too well fed.  We worked on them, IF NEEDED, in the yard. 

 

  Ben

[Xander Wildeisen]

 

[padgett]

Replaced a clutch on an Oak Tree root once. These are the good old daze.

[JACK M]

I remember when I was young and strong.

I remember laying on my back in the snow changing out a clutch among other very uncomfortable things I would in no way attempt today.

As Padgett suggests, they are fond memories but  WHAT WAS I THINKING ????

 

Oh yea, that cute girl down the way that loved to go for drives in my car.

[Guest SaddleRider]

RE : DESTROYING OLD CARS - THEN AND NOW

I don't think many of you younger folks appreciate how as technology evolves,   culture evolves.    Take, for example, the perspective of those of us who were involved in the Classic Car Club Of America in the mid 1950's.      We focused on the big super-luxury cars of the late 1920's thru late 1930's.    The public thought we were nuts for preserving twenty-year old cars - and for good reason - prior to the 2nd World War,  most cars were geared very low -understandable, given the miserable roads of that era, with relatively little inter-city traffic.   In the years of leading up to, during, and right after World War II,  highway speeds increased dramatically, reflecting dramatically improved highways.   By the time our Club got going,  most then-modern cars were much higher geared,  with "insert" type shorter stroke connecting rods. So any of the  properly maintained mid 1950's era cars were, then and now,  perfectly comfortable crusing at 70 - 75 mph - a speed which would quickly pound the rod bearings out of the earlier vehicles.  Do the math - at, oh, say 70 mph,  a car geared tp pre-war requirements would have its poor motor spinning over faster than a then modern car at well over 110 !  And even that math dosnt discuss the much more durable short-stroke motors that incur so much less stress than the older designs at ANY rpm !.

 

Is it any wonder the average person of the late 1930's and later, couldn't care less what happened to older cars ?  Think, for example, the difference in basic "driveability" of a new 1939 car, compared to a then twenty year old car ! Even by the late 1930's we were starting to see pressurized cooling systems, dramatically improved handling thru independent front suspensions,etc.

 

Now flash forward to the current era.   Today...a  PROPERLY MAINTAINED "bone stock"  twenty, thrity, or even fifty year old car is perfectly capable of keeping up with modern traffic in air - conditioned comfort. And, as many point out here and elsewhere,  people do tend to relate in the old car hobby, to cars that impressed them when they were much younger.

 

Take the situation during the WW II scrap drives regarding that apparently "mint" condition Duesenberg.  It was then a ten year old car.  By the time the war started for us in Dec. 1941,  you could order your then new Cadillac with air-conditioning!.  It had a pressurized cooling system, four speed automatic transmission, power windows.   If you've ever driven a Duesenberg AND are familiar with how nice the 1940's era Cadillacs are to drive by comparison,   you can appreciate the difference in driveability.    Which one would YOU rather drive in traffic on a hot, muggy day !

 

Our culture has changed ! Nostalgia is no longer thought of as almost a mental disease - it is FUN to play around with the technology of bygone eras.   Try not to understand culture of other eras,  by what we have become today !

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by SaddleRider
i ought to learn how to type (see edit history)

[Xander Wildeisen]

The ACD club had a story on the Duesenburg, and the lady that owned it. Interesting to read the story.