After half an hour or so of conversation with the gentleman of the
house, whose wife is actually the inheritor (inheritrice?) of the '59 Custom
Royal Lancer, and who it turns out was known to me as he ran a restaurant where
all us cops ate back in my early days as a cop, we carried our shovels, brooms,
and lights out to the remains of the barn. I did not take more photos
because it was already approaching dusk.
First the "bad" in addition to the circumstance of the barn collapsed
around the car:
The roof is somewhat caved and probably would have to be replaced for a
nice appearance, as I know it is difficult to work the roof sheet metal back
into factory form. But see the "good" below.
The hood, although we were able to unlatch and raise it, is rusted out in
the forward underhood structure, so that the outer skin up front is flapping
loose. But I presume any hood from a '59 of the same body would suffice
with the addition of the "feed scoop" ornament.
The driver's side frame is mired in frozen mud, as is the front part of the
passenger side, and we could not see if it is still solid. The part we
could see, further back on the passenger side, looked OK..
The passenger side forward part of the passenger compartment is seriously
rusted out. It turns out that the barn collapsed over 20 years ago, and
the car itself lilts to the right front corner due to the sloped lay of the dirt
floor, so all water found its way to that right front corner of the passenger
compartment, and the floor, hinge bulkhead, lower cowl structure, and of course
that area of the front fender, are badly damaged. The passenger door lower
structure is gone although the outer skin, while flapping loose, is still all
there. We figure that a donor from any body style would supply that lower
inner structure to repair the door if a proper 2 door hardtop door proved
elusive. The only proper fix of the bulkhead structure IMHO would be to
obtain this section of structure from a donor car and weld it in. My buddy is a
certified welder and although I'm not certified, I am also skilled, so we felt
we could accomplish this. The passenger door is down about 1/2" at
the front edge, and about 1 1/2 inch at the latch sill. By wrestling it up
into position we were able to latch it and keep things together.
The "good":
The edge of the roof structure, all around, appears to be undamaged,
straight, and in the correct shape. Hard to believe given the joists
laying over it. All glass is intact and from what we could see with the
lights, the windshield is not even fogged.
The left side of the passenger compartment is solid, the door works
correctly, etc. The floor actually felt solid everywhere but that other
front corner.
Every piece of exterior trim is present except one tail light assembly,
that on the upper right. The large gold colored "lancers" on the front
fenders, the Custom Royal plates, the upper and lower spears, and the chrome
roof surround all look cleanable and useable. The grill work and heavy
chrome pieces that outline the fender eyebrows, and the taillight pods, are all
there except for that right upper pod, but there is mild pitting in the grill
work (those are awesome heavy pieces aren't they...), on the hood ornament, and
heavier pitting in the pods. All the metal trim is present and straight on
the inner door panels although the upholstery itself is of course getting
ragged.
The dash pad amazingly is nice and smooth except for the far right
corner.
The "informational": The engine is a B, not an RB, so I would presume
a 361, and a single four barrel carb. The trans is a torqueflite based on
the 1-2-D buttons. The car is filthy but may be the pale pink and white
combo, with an interior consisting of dark gold vinyl, beige-ish cloth, and what
seems to be a perforated looking heavy cloth insert in the door panels.
Oh yeah, the driver's seat is swivel. My bud had a fine time
swiveling back and forth several times. He's just a young whippersnapper
being only 50, and he acted like a kid on a fountain stool there for a
minute.
The lady has not completed her research so we are no closer to knowing what
it might take for him to acquire the car, but he is not deterred by our
examination. At this point he would still like to buy the car and aim for
a #3 restoration by him and me and enjoy driving it. I have some emails
from list members concerning parts if it should come to be parted out and I will
keep those, but that isn't the plan at least not yet.
Bill & Kathi Parker, South Central Indiana, harboring of bunch of old
and newer Mopars
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