Our Antique Vehicles In Real Life...

Selective Memories...
Where did all of the antique vehicles go...?  "Why when I was growing up we "musta" had a dozen 1940 Ford Coupes in our neighborhood... " "and there were tons of old cars in my neighborhood back where I grew up...."

We have all had those conversations about all of the cool cars that lived in our neighborhood and how plentiful they were. So it would stand to reason that part of what we collect and drive today is a reminder of our youth and the cars we drove back then... or would have driven if we would have had the money.

The thing we often forget is that the antique vehicles we collect today were simply daily drivers back in the good o'l days. Not many people thought about their car being collectible someday.

When World War II came along many of the early "antique" vehicles from the teens and twenties, were simply worn out and had little or no value at the time, so they were donated to the metal scrap drives for the war effort, along with a few thousand porcelain advertising signs that we car collectors would die for today.

Because there were so many Model T and Model A Ford's built... despite the scrap drives, more than enough survived to be restored a generation later.

Also, many of our "antique vehicles" got destroyed or suffered major damage in wrecks. Just like today... when the damage was severe enough that it would cost more to repair the vehicle than it was worth at the time, it was scrapped. Some of the more rare ones we would no doubt try and save today, but back then, the repair costs exceeded their value.

So to put all of this in perspective, I am starting a page of car wrecks. Part of what makes our antique vehicles valuable is the number of survivors of a certain make and model. If every 1940 Ford Coupe ever built survived in drivable condition what would they be worth? Not much.

It would be the same for Ford vs Packard... for example. There were fewer Packards sold to begin with, as compared to Fords, in part because the Packards cost more... so they were not as affordable to as many buyers as compared to a Ford. That in part is what makes a Packard valuable today, there were fewer made resulting in fewer survivors. A Packard is also more expensive to restore today, as compared to a Ford or Chevrolet of the same era.

But when you are driving on the road with all makes and models, Packards got into wrecks just like the Fords and the Chevrolets, and all of the other brands on the road. Those wrecks took out quite a few cars expensive cars over the years.

And in some cases, there were no car owners involved when their cars got damaged. Being parked at the wrong place at the right time can also get your car destroyed without you even being there. I have a few examples here.

You can look at most of the following pictures and determine what happened to the antique vehicles and in some cases the drivers. We often forget that our collector cars were once daily drivers and were subject to the hazards of the road, which included bad weather, drunk drivers, speeding drivers, and those drivers who simply don't pay attention to the road.

So we should be thankful that we have plenty of antique vehicles available to us to restore, drive and enjoy. They did not all survive...




































































I was a tow truck driver in my former life and accidents like this are the most difficult to recover as there is little or no damage to the vehicle as it came to rest, but there is hardly any way it will not be damaged in the recovery process. Often times the insurance company fails to understand the situation and wants to blame the towing company for the damage to the vehicle after it is recovered.

More to come....