1957 Mercury for parts

[doug hodder]

One of my customers had this trailer sitting behind the barn, they had cut the rear out of it and were storing hay and other junk in it for years. It's about a 1957 Mercury, his family has had it since '62. Now he wants it off his property. I'm going out this weekend along with Steve E and we are going to strip it of all the useable parts, Windows, stove, ice box, sink, badging, Hadco hitch parts, door with window, hinge etc... I can have whatever I want from it, and he'll junk the rest. Before anyone says..."why don't you restore it"....it's a junker, not worth it. Nice that I don't have to haul off the carcass though. Great deal! Doug

[Phooey]

Do you have a new project started?

[eamarquardt]

There are a couple of interesting ads on Craigslist here in Ventura, County. If I could move a 5th wheel I might glom onto one of the 5th wheels. They gotta have brakes and lots of other good stuff.

http://visalia.craigslist.org/zip/4120504201.html

http://ventura.craigslist.org/zip/4104685372.html

Did get some al Mustang wheels for free today. I may repurpose em or scrap em. In either case they were FREE and worth $60 just for the scrap metal value.

Cheers,

Gus

[Zollinger]

Wow! Looks like a lot of usable parts.

[doug hodder]

Do you have a new project started?

Not yet...still have to do the final details on the last one. Doug

[mandy]

Doug that almost looks like the trailer I just bought. Looks like you hit the jackpot for spare parts.

[doug hodder]

It took 2 hours to get what we wanted out of it...and a little blood. Here's the pile of stuff we saved. Stove is a 1957 Model 300 Princess. Looks like it will clean up and operate.



Good by old trailer. The owner had told me stories of taking it with his parents down to Mexico back in the 60's. After we stripped some of the items out of it, it started to collapse a bit more. Then, on the way home I saw this one sitting in a field. I think it's a Spartan. Doug

[rebapuck]

What size AC does that Spartan have on top? If it is an AC. Was there a really long extension cord going to it?

[doug hodder]

That's called a swamp cooler. Not something you'd want in NC. It uses a pump to run water over some porous pads and then sucks air through them and pumps it into the house. Out where it's really dry...a swamp cooler works great, cools and provides humidity. That Spartan probably was a park model trailer. It had the #56 on the front of it so it probably spent most of it's life in just sitting. Doug

[working on it]

That's called a swamp cooler. Not something you'd want in NC. It uses a pump to run water over some porous pads and then sucks air through them and pumps it into the house. Out where it's really dry...a swamp cooler works great, cools and provides humidity....Doug

A side note on the evaporative cooler-"swamp cooler" : In Dallas, in the late '50's we had a severe drought, with high temps and lower than normal humidity throughout the summers. Most homes in my neighborhood had no A/C, just attic fans (sucked air thru windows, and out thru the roof gable vents). Others had "swamp coolers", and we were lucky enough to have both. My Grandparents, three houses down, were the only ones to have 2 window A/C units (on really hot nights, I would slip out, and go there!). Well, the "swamp" evaporative coolers worked well with low humidity, especially with a whole-house breeze generated by the attic fan. But, when the humidity from the Gulf (of Mexico) would rise to 50% or more, then it became clammy. Later, in the '60's, we replaced the "swamp cooler" with window A/Cs, as did the rest of my neighbors (none had central air, at least into the 70's). Really liked the muted roar generated by the "swamp cooler" fans , the attic fan, and the window A/Cs (to this day, I sleep better with that background noise...I love the sound in my little trailer, and sleep like a baby!).