Then two kids, two gas shortages and $1.50 per gallon came along and I bought a Datsun 210 wagon.
Posted on 06/28/2013 9:20:04 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
Lambrecht Chevrolet of Pierce, Neb., was like many Midwestern, small-town dealers — owned and operated by a family, with minimal overhead and little need for advertising since most customers were neighbors. Ray and Mildred Lambrecht ran the dealership with just one employee for 50 years before closing up, and later this year the Lambrechts will sell off a trove of 500-odd vehicles they've held onto over the decades — including roughly 50 with less than 10 miles on their odometers. It's less a car sale than a time capsule auction.
While many of the cars in the Lambrecht collection were customer trade-ins that were left outside to rot, the Lambrechts would occasionally take something they couldn't sell and just put it in storage. City folk might find it unthinkable to leave so many vehicles lying around for so many years, but there's always more space in rural Nebraska, and the annual costs fall to zero quickly. I wouldn't call it hoarding, but I know many people who gather old metal like this do form an attachment to their kingdom of rust; every ride has a story, even when there's weeds growing around it. Jeannie Lambrecht Stillwell, the Lambrecht's daughter, says the decision to sell wasn't an easy one for her parents, and that the cars "comprise a lifetime of hard work, tears, and joy."
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
I’m pretty sure some of the earliest Chevy engines were indeed flatheads, but I know the Stove Bolt Six was an OHV pushrod unit.
Vega had an interesting system that in theory was supposed to abate the inner body rust. Some kind of electrolytic passivation. In practice they were unable to get all the electrolyte out after the step (I guess they could have baked it, but that would have cost too much), and the moisture, you guessed it, did what moisture does on sheet metal.
I still have nightmares about selling my '64 Grenadier Red Goat.
I had a buddy who stuffed a 350 big-block into one. I spent the afternoon swinging a sledge hammer into the firewall to make it fit. I can’t imagine cramming a 454 into one of those.
From the photos at the auctioneer's site some of them look in restorable condition. But I can appreciate what happens to cars left outdoors. A number of years ago there was an auction of a similar old collection of cars in Massachusetts. Grown men nearly cried seeing close to a dozen 1950s Thunderbirds left to rust outside, along with over one hundred other vintage cars that would have easily restored if they were stored inside. Many were worthless due to rust by the time the collection was auctioned off.
“Dude, talking about “jumped out”, look at #1
1964 Pontiac Tempest with a 326..that’s a “GOAT” in sheep’s clothing!”
That one jumped out at me too along with some others. There seems to be a lot of 4 door sedans which will bring less than the 2 door models. A few nuggets in there depending on the condition.
Someone needs to call Danny at Count’s Kustoms — he’d have a field day with all this!!
Yep, thanks. Foggy recall from working with Ford and GM industrials, AKA, 3-ton dump trucks/snow-plows.
Some of those engines got co-opted and pushed into PUs; Chevy and otherwise. I guess I’m thinking of Ford flats.
Thanks, again.
Dude! You the man! The StoveBoltSix was EXACTLY what I was thinking of!
I may need to resign my MotorCity/UAW “cred” over that one!
My family must have had one of the few Vegas that actually worked. It got me through college and had over 120K miles on it.
Depends entirely on how they were stored. Unless they were professionally preserved, they may be junk. A car dealer I knew had 2 Model A Fords professionally restored to as-new condition. He then left them in a barn for 20 years. Rats ate the upholstery and wiring, the tires rotted, the engines seized. But they still had new paint.
Perhaps strangely to some, I’d go for the ‘65 Bel Aire Wagon. We had one with a 283. Drove it all over the United States... every state in the lower 48, or is that lower 55 since we be speakin’ obamics now?
It was a neat car. The only better one was a ‘76 Caprice Wagon with a big block 400. The tires on that thing were like truck tires. 90 mph across Arkansas was no problem.
I call dibs on the 62 Nova!
gas monkey too
I had Vega wagon with fake wood panels and you are absolutely right. I was a lucky guy in high school. That back seat did fold down flat you know...
Dang! That’s a lot of vehicles to have been holding on to. I’d love to have one of the 60’s trucks.
I’d love a couple of old Chevy pickups with no GPS or computer chips that will fry in an EMP.
Why waste good ammo on that?
From the pics and video, I hope there's more exciting cars in the trove that weren't filmed, but I didn't see any mind blowers that really stood out. Anyone crossing their fingers for one of the lost Camaro ZL-1s or the lost '65 Z16 Chevelle with the 'Evening Orchid' paint code to be revealed still has reason for hope, I guess. If those ever show up someday with five or six miles on the odometer, oh holy crap. The auction will end up in a duel to the death.
What this does prove is that there are still undriven zero mile cars hiding out there in barns and garages that are unaccounted by everyone but the few owners who know where they are. That's what makes this exciting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.