As a hobby I explore abandoned buildings (and tunnels, drains, etc). Last week a friend told me she knew of a vacant "gear factory" so we went to check it out. Well, it turned out not to be an industrial site - more of a warehouse - but it was pretty cool to find 2 old Rivs outside ... rotting, sadly. Are these what, a 64 and 65? Not sure, I've only had eyes for the boattails 'til recently. They still had engines, but everything was pretty corroded ... and it looked like raccoons had been using their trunks as dens, entering through the rotten floor, and covering the backseat with feces. Still though, I rarely ever see Rivs around here in 'long, salty-road winter' Minnesota, so it was surprising to run into 2 of em here.
Max-maybe the owner can be run down and there are some decent parts left and could be saved? A few of us area guys try if you want to pass on further info-
Looks like someone used to have em tarped up, wonder if the owner fell on hard times or passed away? Anyway, if anyone wants to track them down, this is the place they're parked outside of: http://www.dopplergear.com/ Let me know what you find out, I'm curious!
Max-I checked out the cars and talked with the owner. They are/were parts cars for a driver he has. One engine is gone and the other is stuck, but there are some parts that another list member will go after shortly. These cars were soon to head directly to the crusher-good find
nice find thanks Dan i will be going up to save them from the crusher and part them out he wants the one motor from the car then all thats left is the shells better that way than what he said was to happen to them thanks Greg
you guys are the last of the really good guys, that work to help a stranger get the part he needs without ever knowing the good guys who find these rare cars.
we'll be there most of the day on monday if anyone wants to say hi i will be going over to JW's to drop some heads off as well see ya up there Greg
Glad to see them saved from the crusher and getting parted out. An organ donation of sorts. Now these Rivs can "live" in other cars. :beer
we got alot of things from the cars we striped the red one completely if you went and looked at it? and put it in the silver one and some in the back of the truck there was nothing left of the red one at all so they where going to call the truck to come and get that one the silver one is home thanks again Greg
Hi Greg, Ed Gunyo here, Dan mentioned the car to me and I went over to check them out. I saw the cars close to 20 years ago... I lived a few blocks away. Glad you could find some good parts. As posted I hope the 59 Ford is saved vs being crushed. Good find. Best Regards, Ed Gunyo, ROA 101.
I am in the Twin Cities and looking for parts for my 65 riv. Got bad body rot... You getting rid of any parts that would work in mine? If not do you know where to find parts locally? PM me....
geek-a group of us parted a '65 last year. It was a Minnesota car and we saved one front fender and the hood-floors were gone and it was just too tough a shape generally to be worth saving that car. It's going to be hard to find decent body parts around here-altho I do have some mechanical parts if you need. Hopefully somebody will have better help for you-good luck
Max - you should come to Detroit. We have lots of abandoned buildings!:laugh: Seriously, though, these building have some impressive history. I have been doing some exploring myself and found the Piquette Avenue plant, where the Model T Ford was conceived and the first 2000 produced, as well as where the assembly line was toyed with. I also drove around the Highland Park plant last week, which is where full scale Model T production took place and the balance of the 15,000,000 T's were produced. Both those buildings are just rotting away....:rant: K
Floors are my exact problem, with the rust eaten floor (whats left of it) and the rat carcasses and feces I have tore it down to bare chassis and no interior. Now I have to figure out preping the floors for new or just weld sheet metal in. Anyone heard anything positive or negative about acid dipping. My concern is it is super expensive and I might cry once I find out how bad the rot is.
The buildings we explore are usually abandoned, but over the summer we spent some time sneaking into the Ford assembly plant in St Paul, which is slated to be shut down in 08 or 09 (it's the oldest still-running Ford assembly line in existence) ... was a really good time, but plenty of security to dodge ... http://www.actionsquad.org/images/ford.jpg
