The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Things you found in your Stovebolt when you bought it ?

I found a hot dog under the seat; it wasn't very good.

Boo Radley

It's kind of neat to think about where these old trucks have been and what they've done. I was interested to find old scale reciepts from the farm coop here, a hand written loggin permit for firewood, and a insurance certificate dates 1994. At least one of the original PO's lived only a few miles from me. I also found the reallyl cool stuff, like the spark plugs, dead mice, jack star, etc.

49 chevy 1/2 ton

A large Tonka truck
Used Diapers,
A push broom
1 glass pack
1 header

*highlight*
2 Posters from the Mike Tyson/Holyfield earbite fight.
Not in great shape but worth money someday.

I found all kinds of screws (probably doorpanels)in the glovebox, what I think may be the transmission fillerneck to a automatic transmission, a few rusted wrenches that look like they're 48 yrs old, a pivet/swivel socket, & what my girlfriend calls a "Flintstone Truck" gotta love "most" women's outlook on ol'trucks/cars

In the ashtray of the '48 I found a rusty bottle cap, a bulb, and an old style pull tab from a beer can.

Behind the seat are 2 Yeungling Beer bottles.

On the floor I found the cover for the voltage regulator with the screws inside.

Tons of mouse nests.

I didn't go through the glove box yet, or look under the seat.

In the dump bed I found a tow chain, a 20" tire chain, and some turtle bones. (The PO found the turtle dead in his yard. He put it in there thinking he would end up with the shell) The shell had disintegrated.

just a lousy freakin fork.....

I found a med-large [3-4 oz] quartz crystal jammed between the springs in the bottom cusion of the seat--Not that buy into any of the woo-woo crystal #### but I'm not about to chalenge Murphy to make me miserable [that's sometimes spelled *walk*] so it now lives in the ashtray.

*bump*

anybody have anymore stories?

This turned out to be a very entertaining thread... thanks to all who have posted...

-W

in my 65 C10 some mouse crap some weird shaped tin cans that turned out to be fold apart reflectors lots of seat cusion firewall stuff made into a nest in the glove box live full grown mice, mouse crap, bunch of ants and a dead baby mouse in the nest in the glove box and i found an owners manual for a 1968 Chevy car in the glove box also

Nate

In a 52 chevy half ton I found a pair of pliers (sticking out of a hole in the cab corner) a cardboard Hamms beer 6-pack holder and a cheking account deposit slip that lead me to a PO who provided me with a clear title, That was an excellent discovery!

many different things but the one thing that stands out is in all the bolts that i have cleaned have had a "church key" for opening old beer cans maby thats why all the grills and fenders are dented!

found a 4 foot snake in the glove box of my 65 !

bought a 65 chevy in 04 long bed no has a stake bed installed found the origonal sales papers in glove box after removing 4 foot snake ! that was a big suprise none the less !

When I was cleaning out the cab from a 1952 1 1/2 ton GMC I found a letter sent in the 1950's to someone here in Fairbanks Alaska from Detroit Michigan. The lady in the letter complained about her aches and pains due to bad weather.
I also found an old pint metal can of heet for fuel, a box to an old set of trifold wiper blades, and a 1952 dime. The most amazing item was an early 1950 Sunday school book for 1st or 2nd graders.

mine is a school bus converted to a car carrier (dont ask), so I actually found a 1980s turbo colt in my 'bolt.

also included, two extra wheels/tires (wrong size), an extra flywheel and clutch assembly (sweet find), a working and mounted winch, many bee hives, a crusty pair of work gloves, various beer cans and cigarette containers, empty cans of starting fluid (which I should have taken as a bad sign).

more conspicuous is what I didn't find in my bolt...namely, a windshield, brakes, or more than 20 psi in any of the tires

My '49 3800 doesn't have the correct defroster outlets so yesterday I was removing some correctly sized ones from a parts 3100.

Some previous owner had used a household vacuum cleaner hose as ducting. So I guess I would have to say a vacuum cleaner hose from some mom's sweeper.

"Son, go ask your dad if he knows where my sweeper hose is?"

"Dad, do you know where mom's vacuum cleaner hose is?"

"Uh why would you ask me son?" "I don't see it laying around the shop."

Later in the day---Ma says, "Pa, the windshield isn't fogging up. How'd you get the defroster fixed?"

Pa, "Oh with a few parts I found just laying around the house."
--

Even the end of the hose was intact, just taped inside of the outlet. The guy did forget to clean out the hose before using it as some household dirt/trash was stuck in the defrost outlet.

found a HUGE mouse nest above the headliner, some behind the kick panels, under the seat, and all made of seat padding. And the smell was terrible, didn't go away until i had the cab bead blasted! Oh, by the way, my big heavy duty shop vac would get clogged up when trying to suck up that material... so had to dig it out by hand. YUCK!

In my 52 1/2 ton found old newspapers, old old coke bottle, mouse nest and canadian tire money from many moons ago.

*bump*

-W

I found beer cans, beer cans & more beer cans - Also found a hookup for electric trailer brakes (brand new), plastic pipe, brake calipers for something - no idea what, an alpine tape deck, alpine speakers in MDF speaker boxes that were wet.....

I bought a 48 panel in 2002 it had been sitting way back in the bush. When I cleaned it out there were an assortment of motors and engine parts in the back.Full bottle of whisky under the seat. There were peace sings painted all over the outside of it.Honk if your horny bumber sticker. A reciept in the glove box dating back to the 60's. I took the name from the reciept and tracked the person down found out he didnt live very far so I went for a visit. He showed me pictures of the panel from back in the 60's when he drove it and told me some intresting stories That was COOL.

The only thing I found was mouse and racoon droppings and a couple old NOS GM compasses. They all went in the same garbage bin along with the rest of the garbage in it.

TSheridan,

Did you really trash the NOS compasses?

I bet you're crying after seeing the E-Bay sales postings that have been going the last couple weeks. $3K?

Only thing I ever found of interest was one of those back support belts. Guess the old guy I bought my 52 from must have used it, when he drove the truck?

Well, I just brought my 1952 Suburban home from Phoenix, so this thread prompted me to have a look. Nothing spectacular in the glove box. U joint caps from when the torque tube was swapped out for the 3/4 axle. Looked under the seat. Found a couple of empty beer bottles. A receipt from a cycle store dated 1991. And a poster ( or two ) inviting me to the 1881 funeral for Billy The Kid. Must've taken a tourist trip to Tombstone or something similar.

In my 51 6400 I found a set of realy big tire chains under the seat and the previous owner (she) had written all sorts of part numbers on the inside of the drivers door.

Mine was pretty un-exciting; all I found in the glove compartment was a reflector, four spark plugs and a small assortment of washers, screws, nuts and bolts and one mouse skeleton and a plastic bag under the seat. Oh well, I guess it's better than a 'ton' of mouse droppings that some have found.

A local buddy bought a used and abused 37 half ton a few years back, been for sale quite along time. After he got it home, lifted the seat cushions, found an unopened GM factory box which held the original accessory tool kit in mint shape. This item had gone undetected by the dozen or so previous owners.

well in my 48, i found the same rat stuff. and the other thing was the head and part of the handle of a sledge hammer stuck in the hole on the cab corner. cant get it out,so looks like ill have a perminant rattle.

Originally posted by R.F.:
Vintage stainless speculum behind seat of '55 stepside.

uhhh rf? did ya sell the speculum yet? ohhh forget i asked.... hahahahaha

My 1959 1 ton was used as the tool truck for earth moving so it had all kinds of small bolts and bits that were mostly rusted together. It also had the old pyrex (now on garage wall as trophy) brass hypodermic looking fire extinguisher. In the big box it had a number of crappy old tires, some old tractor front wheels, and about 5 bulldozer track rollers which each weighed like 50lbs a throw. The side tool boxes had rusted out floors from batteries so they held nothing. The cab had a few lone star and schlitz beer bottles. I was short changed for rat offal and dead rodentia, but am not complaining.

My 47 jeep from the same nice old guy contained a number of old shotgun and 22 shells in an ammo box that was attached to the side of the jeep, plus some tires that didn't go with the jeep. The floor was about 6" deep as a planter and the whole thing was loaded with fire ants. Fire ants had nested in the alternator (still works), the air tube (millions!) and about a bazillon in the planter section. Never saw so many in my life. They don't like PB Blaster.

While doing the jeep I bought my neighbor's 72 C10 (doing that one now) and it contained stock manifolds for I6 jeep motor, mismatched alluminum 15" wide wheels (which after I trade em out for matching ones will get used), and 2 stock wheels, plus the bumper, wipers, and garbage. No ants, rats, or offal. The interior had a turd gauge package, and an excreable audiovox radio plus 6x9 speaker holes cut into the doors ( #$@#$ !!! ) which were brilliantly replaced with 1/2 plywood and 6" round speakers.

I took the jeep parts and sold them on ebay for $117.50 and I only paid $100 for the truck! HA! Freebie! Truck also had its turd TH350 in the back and no motor. Same neighbor that sold me the truck had a lumina I fixed up and we sold and split the take. I used my proceeds to buy a 230 I6 (freshly rebuilt - 1000 miles or so on it) and had enough left over to buy a 700r4 rebuildable core that's going to tranny shop tomorrow.

I bought a 52 that was all painted up crazy and had some purple carpet in it. There were weeds growing in the carpet. W-E-E-D

Among some miscellaneous junk I found in the cab corners, I found a brass water injection unit for a carb. It looks like it fits where the air cleaner attaches to the carb and it has a tube that hooks up to a water source. Anyone know anything about these things?

I experimented with the water injector thingy - used carb vacuum to suck up the water or water/alchol mixture into the carb. It is supposed to slow down the burn a bit so that it will eliminate ping. Airplanes have had the system and some hot rod turbo cars are using that system. On the first turbo buick regals in 1984 with the SFI engine they were supposed to come out with a retro fit system, but never did. If you look at an early turbo buick with a strong flashlight at the row of idiot lights you see a 'power injection' light that was supposed to light up green. I had one of those cars.

That thing with a big glass bottle it hooked up to was probably not too sophisticated, but, it probably did prevent ping on hot dry day.

When i picked up my 53 3/4t i found three packets of ciggs, two were eaten, one in good condition (unopened), about 2 dozen used bullet shells, 2 inches of dirt and mouse poo, and some old coins

BEHIND THE SEAT OF MY 59 I FOUND A GALLON OF WATER,A QUART OF OIL, BREAK FLUID, A LUG WRENCH,
A FUNNEL, 3 OLD RAGS, AN EXTRA GEARSHIFT KNOB, AND A CALENDER OF OLD CARS.

What is "BREAK FLUID" used for?

"break fluid" is a replenishment fluid used in "rasselling" but never in wrestling. : )

"break fluid" is a replenishment fluid used in "rasselling" but never in wrestling. : )

can you use "break Fliud" on a breaker bar??...

My '61 C-29:
-A roll of toilet paper in the oil filter canister
-Bobby pins holding the wiring together for the heater
-Speaker wire holding my muffler to the frame
-Mouse nest in my heater fan
-Snake skin underneath the seat (no snake though)
-Chewing gum to keep one of the fuses in its place
-The metal wrapper wrapped around a blown fuse to complete the circuit
-A small key ring in lieu of a cotter pin to keep the 1st & reverse lever attached to the transmission
-About 1/2 inch of dirt caked up in the cab of the truck. Must have been flooded out or something. Still finding that dirt in nooks and crannies to this day. Haven't done a complete tear down....yet. Someday.
-Lots of old coke bottles in the bed of the truck as well. Cashed em in and made about 10 bucks.

Happy Hunting!!

1939 3/4 ton. What appeared to be the near complete skeleton of a cow. In the cab, not the bed. On the tailgate was a 1951 New Mexico truck license plate.