Roger's collection goes to Big M

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rogerh
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Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by rogerh »

Just a word to say John Fowlie has purchased my Plymouth parts collection, and will be up here in a week or two to gather it all up.
Thank you. :)
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tomf
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by tomf »

I might add that I delivered all of my parts to Big M on my way to Sacremento in July. John should be your "go to guy" for parts.

Tom Fox
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rogerh
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by rogerh »

John Fowlie and his missus M'lissa are making plans for a road trip...driving from Williams, CA to my house here in Orting, WA, near the base of Mt Rainier to pick up the parts collection I sold to them.
I threw in the suggestion that they call on a Sport Fury I saw in a small, remote salvage yard on the Columbia River several years ago. Sure, I had hoped to get some $ together to buy the car, but I now see that it would be best if someone with adequate resources buy this car.
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rogerh
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

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John and M'lissa arrived here just after noon today, on one of the hottest days of the year,
driving a '73 Chevy pickup w/ no A/C, towing a flatbed.
We chatted for a while, then loaded up his purchases (plus some extras thrown in).
Shared some stories, and then they had to be going. I phoned ahead about the Sport Fury I saw in a salvage yard down on the Columbia RIver, but the owner didn't recall having such a car in his yard (!), so I am thinking he is getting "forgetful". Jand M said they would look into it tomorrow, then head south into Oregon to seek out a forlorn Desoto, I think it was. John seemed pleased to get my Plymouth parts, even though he didnt have a chance to examine them while they were here.
They took photos, so I will have to wait for them to post.
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rogerh
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by rogerh »

...and then I need to figure out how to Photoshop the ubitquitous squirrel into the picture...
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savvy59
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by savvy59 »

rogerh wrote:I phoned ahead about the Sport Fury I saw in a salvage yard down on the Columbia RIver, but the owner didn't recall having such a car in his yard (!), so I am thinking he is getting "forgetful". J and M said they would look into it tomorrow, then head south into Oregon to seek out a forlorn Desoto, I think it was.
Inquiring minds want to know - was the SF still in the salvage yard? Did John purchase it?
Was John successful in picking up the Desoto?

I suppose you have a ton of garage space now with allthe 59 parts gone? Does that mean more room for another car once the economy shines down on you and the homebuilding industry?

Curt
There's Nothing Finer Than My '59er!
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rogerh
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by rogerh »

As I said once before, Curt, you are the eternal optimist!
I haven't bugged John for news or photos...I figure he fell behind on orders by driving up here and back. I'll email him sometime this week.
Curt, the sad truth is unless I get a much better paying job than I had before, or win the lottery, or meet a rich girl, I can't afford to stay here. :(
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big m
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by big m »

We just arrived home later in the day Saturday, about a day later than originally planned. I'll get some pics and the story up when I can get a chance to in the next day or so.

---John
In rust we trust!
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rogerh
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by rogerh »

I'm glad you made it home (I hope all is well). THanks for the note.
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big m
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by big m »

I finally got caught up enough to find the time to add to this thread.

We left Williams, Ca. on Tuesday, August 18th, a beautiful sunny day. The old truck ran fine, up until we pulled off the road near Portland to get fuel, as soon as the throttle returned to idle, the engine would stall. It would restart and run fine if the gas pedal was depressed slightly, so I figured that a bit of dirt had entered the idle circuit in the carburetor.

We arrived at our motel, and met up with a good friend and his wife, and had dinner together. The next morning, I got the truck started, and revved the engine and shut the choke butterfly. Just before the engine would die, I opened the choke back up. This sudden, increased engine vacuum through the carburetor cleared the restriction out, and it idled much better.

The sun was out in force, and the temperature was warming up considerably, it was going to be a hot afternoon.

Crossing the bridge into Washington state-
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An amusing sign at a gas station near Seattle-
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Arriving at Roger's place-Roger had made things easy by boxing up all the smaller parts, and everything was out in the open, making it simple to load.
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By the time we were finished, we definitely had a load in the pickup!
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M'lisa took this pic of I and Roger next to his beautiful convertible-
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It was a pleasure doing business with Roger, and great to chat with him awhile, but we had to get rollin' down the road. We wanted to see if we could locate the Sport Fury that Roger had seen years ago, down near the Columbia river. Yep, there was a reason for that empty trailer!

---John
In rust we trust!
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big m
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

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After leaving Roger's place in Orting, Washington, we headed south on a county road that Roger suggested to avoid the Seattle-Tacoma rush hour traffic. It worked great!

Here's Mount Rainier, still covered in snow-
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Just North of Vancouver, there was a collection of old cars visible from the freeway. We took the next exit and doubled back to see what the story on them was. There were skull and crossbone signs as well as no trespassing signs, stating this was a storage area, and visitors were not welcome. One of the cars that stood out was a '57 Cadillac eldorado coupe, in surprisingly good condition. We resumed our journey south, and crossed back over the Columbia river into Oregon.

It was getting late in the day, and we planned on staying in Hood River, Oregon for the night, but we were unaware that every motel room was booked that night, save for one at the Best Western. I was getting tired of driving, but when the desk clerk announced the price of the room, $200 per night, I told M'lisa we sure weren't spending that kind of money on a night's stay!

M'lisa called a motel in The Dalles, Oregon, 25 miles east, and reserved a room at the Oregonian motel there. It was past ten o'clock by then, and I wouldn't have cared if the place was a dump, but we were pleasantly surprised by the room. This motel was built in the fifties sometime, but the room was nicely restored, with vintage furnishings and new beds.

The next morning we headed back to Hood River, where we needed to cross the river on a long bridge, to get to the Washington side where the Sport Fury's yard was located.
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That was one narrow bridge! Here's the Columbia river-
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We found the yard Roger Howard had described, it was definitely off the beaten path, high up on a hill. The yard's owner had a bit of a difficult time remembering the '59 Sport Fury, he also said if we wanted to look around, the price for the 'tour' was $25 each. I declined that offer, but he did show us where the '59 was located. There was also a '59 Belvedere sedan and a '59 DeSoto Firedome sedan near it.

The Sport Fury was missing the quarter medallions, and several other key moldings, the body didn't look too bad, except the decklid had been pried open and was rusting out along the lower lip. Light was visible through the floors behind the front seat, and the trunk was full of debris from the forest where it had set for so long. It was hard to justify the price of $2500 to buy it, as it may be relegated to a parts car. I did not take any photos, the owner didn't seem too keen on the idea of it.

---John
In rust we trust!
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big m
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

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Homeward bound-

We travelled South from Hood River through a dense pine forested area.
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Mount Hood is visible in the distance-
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After stopping for lunch in Madras, Oregon, we found a wrecking yard just south of town. There was a '60 DeSoto 4-door hardtop, but someone had severed the fins from the body. The only other older car was a '62 Mercury Comet 4-door sedan. We drove to Bend, where there was a large yard, but the owner said that every heavy car had been crushed when the scrap price peaked last summer. Getting back into the pickup, I began to back the trailer out, when the engine died. Now I had no fuel to the carburetor. As hot as the outside temp was, [the bank thermometer in Madras read 105 degrees] I wondered if the truck had vapor locked. I got some gasoline from the yard's office, and put some in a Pepsi bottle, and poked a pinhole in the cap. I was able to fill the float bowl on the carburetor through the bowl vent this way, and the engine started right up. The heat under the hood caused the vapor lock after parking the truck, but all was good now.

We looked up an old friend that had a landscaping business in Bend, but alas, the poor economy must have been the demise of his business, as he could not be found, and his telephone numbers were disconnected. We stayed the night south of Bend, where our connecting route joined. We got up early the next day, as there would be many miles to drive. Our next stop was near Paisley, Oregon, there was an old Shell station with a couple hundred old cars parked in the desert behind it.
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These were the Forward Look cars on the property-
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The owner of the property, Albert Bleachler, was a really nice guy. It turns out that he had a friend in Lakeview Oregon with a car lot, that stored quite a few cars on his property. They had an arrangement to split proceeds from parts or cars sold. Turned out I knew the owner of the car lot, he had been in the yard here some time ago. I ended up buying the '57 Plymouth 4-door hardtop, after calling him on the phone and getting the price for it. Albert helped load the car on the trailer with a '48 GMC boom truck. After getting the car cinched down, we headed to Lakeview to pay Bob, the car lot owner, for the Plymouth. It was nice to be trusted in this manner. After having lunch and squaring up with Bob, we headed south and crossed over into California. Here is Mount Shasta looming on the horizon-
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A scant 20 miles within the state line, I could hear a tire flapping. I pulled over and checked the trailer, and couldn't see anything wrong. Turned out the left rear tire on the truck was beginning to separate, rather unexpected as the tires were not very old. After changing the tire, we went another five miles or so, and the spare tire I had just installed exploded, wrapping the tailpipe up into the rear fender. Not sure why this tire blew, as it was hardly used. M'lisa called AAA, and was informed they could tow the truck up to 100 miles, but not the trailer.
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It was quite late in the afternoon, and the sun was going down, not to mention being in the middle of nowhere. Typical. Why couldn't the tire blowout wait until we were in front of a Les Schwab tire shop? LOL!
We got ahold of a friend in Redding, about 100 miles south, he didn't have enough diesel to make it that far, so we had to make a decision, which was that M'lisa would have the truck towed to John's place in Redding, and meet him halfway with some more fuel money to pick me and the trailer up later that night.

The temperature began to drop, and I got bored waiting, and took these photos of the abandoned motel we were parked in front of.
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Several hours went by, and John finally showed up, and we attached the trailer, and he drove to Redding, to his house. The next morning he supplied us with two mounted tires, as well as a vintage Kiekhaufer boat motor for our finned boat. The rest of the trip was just a hundred miles, and went smoothly.

---John
In rust we trust!
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rogerh
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by rogerh »

HI John and M'lissa,
You tell a great story, even if it is just a minute by minute report, it is a true representation of wht it can be like out there on the road.
Now that you remind me, I recall the Sport Fury at Howard's as being just the way you describe it. If you had the permission to look around, I bet you would have found the missing trim, as it was off the car when I was there, but close by. THe rust-thru in the floorborads sounds about right, and wehn I was there the hood was up.
The cars in Paisley made for a good tour, but they all look pretty sad.
All in all, you had another excellent adventure!
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big m
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

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The hood on the '59 was down, and was covered in pine needles. Howard opened the hood to reveal a '59 Chrysler engine with a 2-barrel carburetor.

I've since cleaned out the 4-door hardtop I brought back from Paisley, and all it's glass and potmetal are very nice, and the floors and trunk are free from rust. It will make a good parts car.

---John
In rust we trust!
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rogerh
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Re: Roger's collection goes to Big M

Post by rogerh »

You remarked that Hwy 97 Bridge over the Columbia River was narrow.
On Aug 30, a semitruck-trailer hauling apples "hit a support beam"and the cab went over the side. One dead, one missing.
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