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 ...
“People so very unlike the worthless trash you find in states like...*my* home state.”
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Aw,come on. There are lots of nice people in MA.(I’m excluding all politicians.)
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A few years back, I bought a Sunbeam hedge-clipper that had hardly been used from the mid 60’s or so.
It ran, but very, very reluctantly.
I opened it up to clean it out and ALL the grease in it had mysteriously turned to an epoxy like substance.
Was able to clean it, not as good as I’d like, re-greased and reassemble, runs great!
As far as the cars go, same situation. In addition, ALL the seals are shot, no matter how they were stored.
Brake fluid absorbs water, so you’re looking at new brakes, brake lines, booster... and that’s just the beginning of the list!
So when can I start?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Summer of 69 three of us lived in one of those. We dried our clothes on the aerial and I think we burped in the gas tank to keep it running.
I had a pinto, baby blue. Went forever. I knew people who listened to their Vega rust.
My Pinto was brown, with the base 2.0L OHC four and a 4-speed manual. It originally came into the family when I was about 11, and when I was 13 my dad taught me how to drive in that car (we lived in the country and there were plenty of backroads where a young’un such as myself could get driving lessons without drawing undue attention). During my junior year of high school Dad and I were driving to school one morning (he taught at the HS I attended) and the engine seized. We got Mom to pick us up after school and we got the truck and rope-towed it home, where it sat for a couple years.
Fast forward to my freshman year of college. I decided I really needed a car, so Dad and I rebuilt the engine in the Pinto and I drove it back up to San Luis Obispo. It ran well, but I suspect I didn’t do a very good job of breaking it in; it smoked like crazy, even after putting new valve guide seals on it. Eventually we decided it had to go when I had to add three quarts of oil during a 400-mile drive home.
But since it was the first car that I had exclusive use of, I still remember it fondly.
There are fewer than you might think.Yes,there are some but I know this state as well as...if not better than...most folks in this country.I've lived here all my life...a life long enough to include vivid memories of the woman who signed my draft card and the office where I met her (I pass by it often...to this day).
ping
Vegas would start to rust on THE SHOWROOM FLOOR.
Bump
This guy in the town I lived in had a 65 Buick wildcat with a rag top that was rotted with holes in it. It was rusted bad and he had got drunk and shot holes in the side of it. A real POS if you know what I mean.
My Buddy went and bought himself a brand new 78 Z28 Camero when he got out of high school. One day he saw Butch in his Buick and jokingly asked if he wanted to run it over at the quarter mile. Butch said sure.
Another buddy of mine was out in the field cutting hay with his dad and when they rolled up to the start line he laughed and told his dad “look, Butch is gonna race Tim in that old POS. His dad said just watch.
That 350 was no match for all the cubes in that wildcat. To add to his embarrassment Tim said he wasn’t used to shifting the Camero yet. Lets do it from a rolling 30. Much to his chagrin that was worse.
I just bought a ‘54 Ford NAA (Jubilee if it were a ‘53) tractor that sat unused in a barn for 30 years in north central TX.
The front tires are rotten beyond saving, one rear is holding air but the other had to have a tube. Muffler is rusted in half.
Crank seal is bad but was when it was last used, judging by the grease build up.
Converted it to 12 volt and cleaned the tank out. Runs sweet!
I had a buddy that did that to his Vega - put in some big engine, painted it all black. I rode in it once - too scary! It lasted almost a year before he wrapped it around a tree.
Seems to be an awful lot of 6-cyl. 1/2 tons on the list. Must have been a popular farm truck.
If the engine is sealed and the air cleaner is in place, the engine can often run as well as it ever did with some minor work. Especially if the gas tank and carb were empty.
We had a ‘37 Chevy farm truck when I was a kid. My dad pulled the motor after the engine in our ‘50’s pickup threw a rod. When I got out of college, I attempted to restore a ‘46 Ford pickup. That money pit taught me an expensive lesson.
Money pit I understand!
I know that I won’t make a profit from any of the cars I build - I consider myself lucky if I hit the “break-even” point. But that’s not why I build ‘em.
Anyone can march their checkbook down to carz~r~us and buy a buggy. And if all you’re after is transportation that makes the most sense.
I build them to drive them. I like it when people turn their heads and say, “Wow - that’s something you don’t see every day”. I like toolin down the road in something I constructed with my own two hands.
And I appreciate the fact that there may come a day when I won’t be allowed to own one anymore, much less drive one. Life is too short.
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