For those of you that watched Sixteen Candles... a classic scene where GrandPa's car gets driven into the lake. Today, I think I confirmed that I bought GrandPa's car. My 68 Cat spent all of its life in Western Canada. Since the day I bought it I have been cleaning clay-like dirt out of every corner. I always assumed it was just a reflection of the "gumbo" soil in the region, dirt roads, hard living and a convertible. Whatever the stuff is, it stays muddy for weeks and then drys hard as a brick - I have a friend in the area that says this is typical of gumbo. However, today I discovered there is more to it. I wanted a couple of small patches I welded into the floor where I had some rust damage, right near the rear set of seat bolts for the front bucket seats, had the same rust and kind of a bulge on both sides (it looked like the floor had bee stressed). My welder cut open these bulging spots and found lots and lots of dirt inside. Now, this is on the inside of the car up pretty high...under the carpet... How does that much dirt get between two pieces of metal there??? I think the answer is river flooding or a lake.... More interesting, my gas tank has all these big dents - just in the front (when I had the Red Kote put in the guy at the shop was equally amazed by the number of rock marks - it's impressive...-- "wow never saw that before...")... More interesting when I fixed the power windows on the rear quarters -- I found tons of this same dirt under the motors (that made me wonder at the time...). So, I think the old Cat had a run-in with a lake and ended up in a bunch of silt... I think the gas tank took some abuse on the way into the lake. In the pic you can see the dirt the welder found in this little area (The dirt was between the layers of steel -- no hole in the floor)
It was probably in a flood. That water is super nasty.. covers everything in mud. You might be lucky and the flood waters didn't get up into the dash.
You made me look it up! Dong's "grandpa" drove a late 70's Olds Delta 88. But I get what you are saying. I agree the thing had to have been in water to get mud in those odd places. But I would have expected at least some flash rust. That's some shiny metal there.
Thanks @Briz et al, that shiny metal is not by accident... it reflects 40 plus hours of labor with wire brush the size of a toothbrush and a full bottle of goo gone (it worked better than anything else and I tested a lot of stuff..) to get rid of 2 or 3 layers of carpet adhesive...lord it was all over everything and of course rust under that. I joked with my wife that I was involved in a self-imposed fraternity hazing event in my unheated garage. I then filled in some of the mild pitting with JB weld in some of the low spots to give those questionable places a little TLC. You can't see the "breezeway" under the gas pedal but that will be gone tomorrow. 2 coats of chassis saver made it look pretty sweet. It looked ugly but most of it was pretty solid except for that spot by the pedals (no surprise...).
Does or did your car have a hitch? That car could've been used to launch a boat or other water craft at a lake for a good portion of its life? Not all boat launches are concrete, we have a bunch here that are just a bed of river rock. Which could explain the dents it the front of the tank, maybe the old girl latched onto a big ol' boat that was more than what the owner thought it was, she bogged down spinning the wheels yanking the big boat out scrapping the tank along the bed of river rocks as it was coming out? Just another theory to add to your puzzling scenario
There we go... it DID have a hitch. As the fella says on Vice Grip Garage... "I'll be dipped"....I think that makes the most sense! The poor thing took a few too many dunks in the mud when the boat was launched... Genius @1969RIVI
The Red River Valley in Manitoba is famous for its clay gumbo. The river itself is very silty and with the land being so flat, we experience regular flooding. Did your car come from this area?
