Local Auction Let-Down

If I had felt better, would have loved to stayed around and bid on this sweet welding helmet. (Where can I get one of these?)

Got up early this morning. I've been looking forward to a local auction all week. The sale bill listed several interesting cars and bikes. A friend of mine came over, so did my father. We all met at my house, and along with my 16 year-old son, the plan was to spend a good part of the day at the auction.

Well...it didn't work out that way. My dad brought over a hide-a-bed couch that my wife wanted. My folks had gotten a new couch and said we could have the old one. While waiting for my friend to arrive, dad backed the truck to our front deck. I opened the tailgate, reached down to pull the couch out of the truck and immediately felt a sharp pain scream through my lower back. I dropped to my knees quicker than a sinner at the altar. What a way to start the day!

At any rate, when my friend and his boys got to the house, they helped get the couch into the house. I took a 800 mg IBP and we headed to the auction.

The auction was held in an old Chevrolet dealership near my home. Several years ago, someone put up a really nice chain-link fence around the place, but I've never seen much action. Rumor has it, that the lady who owned the place had let her nephew use it. Over the last few years, he had amassed a huge collection of junk. Several 60's and early 70's Impalas, Camaros, Trans Ams, Firebirds, and Novas. There were also a few late 60s Chevrolet pickups, a 55 Chevy Panel, and a 41 Chevrolet Coupe. Another room in the building had a dozen or so cycles that were in various states of disassembly.

We took off a bit early, but when we arrived, the place was already crawling with people. As we strolled through the place, the rooms of the dealership were filled with all sorts of tools and more junk. Outside there were at least a half a dozen 2 ton floor jacks, 3 or 4 engine stands, arc and mig welders, sandblasting equipment, etc. However, everything was in pretty bad shape.

I was most interested in the vehicles and bikes. However, looking around, most of the stuff was "too far gone" for the type of project I'm looking for. The guy had performed "open heart surgery" on most of the vehicles, engines were pulled and not to be found. The guy had started on almost everything....some disassemble here and there, some grinding of rust and patina, but NOTHING was very far along.

Bottom line, my buddy who owns a chrome plating shop didn't see anything he was interested in. His boys didn't see anything of interest either. The cold, the crowd, the ice, my throbbing lower back, and the disappointing condition of the cars I thought I might be interested in, all worked on me as well.

We hung around for a little over an hour to see what some of the vehicles would bring. However, the auctioneer started in the lobby of the building selling off nick-nacks, etc. In the mean time, my son slipped and fell on the ice and messed up his hand. We decided to call it a day, and keep our $$$ for a better day.

I didn't get near the pictures taken that I wanted, but here are a few.

1941 Chevrolet Coupe: One of only 2 of the some 2 dozen vehicles that were to be auctioned that they were still waiting on a title for. Thought this might be something of interest, but lots of cancer in this one. Floor and trunk were completely gone....Rockers and lower doors were also shot. The guy had started grinding the passenger side fender. (see pics)

Listed as a 64 SS, the only thing on this Impala that was in fact from a Super Sport were the hubcaps. It looked like this may have been one of the only cars that ran.