Buying Used cars in the 50’s & 60’s.

I was 10 when we became a 2 car family back in 1958. Dad had a shirttail relative who was a mortician  and it wasn't uncommon to take a car in as part payment on a funeral. 
The car in question was a 1953 Ford Sunliner. It had a Green plexiglas roof panel over the drivers seat as well as both a radio and a heater. ( they were still optional) 

Nice car with only 35,000 miles on it but in those days a 2 year old car would be traded in for about half of what it originally cost. So at 5 years old  $375 was a fair price. Tires still had some tread left ( but good recaps were only  $9.95 and your old Recappable tire)

 The service stickers in the door jam were thick with the oil changed every 1,000 miles.  Paint was still shiny indicating regular wax jobs. And the upholstery was clean and tear free under the seat covers which were nice too!  
The engine idled a little rough  indicationing a tune up was due ( every 3500 miles according to the service stickers)  and the brake pedal went 1/2 way to the floor  so time for another brake adjustment. 
 

The hotrodder who helped me pull the motor on the 48 Chevy  told my dad he'd tune up the engine and adjust the brakes  for $9.00 but if the points  or plugs needed replacing points would cost $1.60 and plugs were 35 cents each. 
he'd also do an oil change with new oil, new filter for $5.00 which Dad thought was a little high until the Hot rodder agreed to use Pennzoil.  
I even got to "help". Since I got along well with the hotrodder.  By now I knew when to keep my mouth shut and when to ask for help.  

Wow, cool. 

More please.....

In reply to NermalSnert :

The following is a shaggy dog story, just skip the next paragraph to ignore family drama stuff. 
 

The reason for the Ford was my step mothers idea of going to work. The problem was by then She was fully into the Valley Of The Dolls.  Her doctor had prescribed Tranquilizer's  for stress, Pep pills to be alert so when Dad came home she'd have a diner, and sleeping pills•••••• Plus a few others, all typically washed down with a beer.  The actual end was worse than you can imagine. Ultimately she was institutionalized, shock treatment,  and 2 frontal lobotomies failed. On advice of her Doctor my father sought and got a divorce. 

 In the nearly 3 year period all of this took the Ford got very little use.  Well, I did a little practice driving in it at first up and down the driveway and eventually around the neighborhood.  Ok maybe an 11-12 year old shouldn't drive without a license, but I did and no one was the wiser.  ( Even occasionally drove past police but a smile and a nod was all it took to leave me alone).  This will matter later in California. 

Anyway Dad's barber had always admired the Car, in part because I waxed it at least once a week. Every place including door jams, inside the trunk and under the hood.  Plus anything on the interior that wasn't upholstered.  I was careful  to polish all the wax using techniques like tooth brushes and Q tips.  including body seams, etc.   vacuum everything, kept the glass sparkling,   It helped that our new home had an attached 2 car garage.  Dad's company car was taken care of by the company. But I kept that car really nice. It did surprise me that Dad got all of his money back even though now the car was almost 9  years old.  

Dad's latest promotion had him looking for a car with some status. So back to his shirt tail relative the undertaker. He'd taken in a barely 2 year old Cadillac that was all sorts of trouble for him.  Loud !  Improper !  And troublesome. He couldn't keep it at the funeral home because it was a Red Convertible with a white top and interior.  Not the typical pastel or Black 4 door sedans he usually sold.   
But a 1959 Red Cadillac El Dorado  Convertible?          Parked at the funeral home,  tongues wagged and business dropped. Parked at his Apartment it got dusty and forlorn looking and didn't sell.  
 

This one was the most loaded version and listed for $6997 1959 dollars.  Dad took it off the Morticians hands for $2300. ( far less than he'd allowed on the funeral) its was only 2 years old  and because of the owners illness it had only 6600 miles on it.    
Dad brought me with him to take it home. Wow,  was it dirty!   And low!  While the tires were really under inflated it still was so much lower than The company Pontiac dad drove. 
Naturally  the battery was dead but Minnesotans  carry jumper cables year around in their cars and it only took a few minutes to hook them up and give it enough charge  to get it started, well, sorta!  It was running rough.  While the hood was up I'd checked the engine ( no oil on the dip stick). Couldn't see any antifreeze either. Air filter was dirty.  One plug wire was loose. But it was obvious no one had touched the car service wise since new.  
 

Since it was a company car no one could drive Dads Pontiac  so I got the dubious pleasure of bringing it home. ( I'd been driving trucks and tractors down on the farms I worked at, plus driving the Ford around). With my dad right behind me I wasn't worried. ( Things were a lot different back then). But  I wasn't sure at that point the car could make it.
 Luckily a few blocks away  there was a Standard Gas station.  While the tank was filling, the attendant was busy filling the tires up, adding water to the radiator and oil to the engine.  We settled on 3 quarts because we couldn't shut the car off with the battery so low. ( remember this had a generator and they don't charge at an idle). It took more than $8.00 just for gas Standard had 105 octane leaded at that point and it was .32 a gallon when regular sold for as cheap as . 17 cents.  not to mention the oil.  

Wow! did that Cadillac ever ride rough!!!!!  It bounced and jumped at every pothole.  It was terrible. Hot rods road smoother.  Plus it had electric seats. I never had electric seats before  and trying to get things right I must have worked every switch 900 times. ( I think I'm only slightly exaggerating). 
When you add a low brake pedal  because the drum brakes needed adjustment The electric seats really got a work out. Remember I was 13. To see over the steering wheel I had to have the seat all the way forward and up almost as high as it went.  When braking I could either slide under the steering wheel, or lower the seat but not be able to see.  
We got it home safely,  I even took the new freeway, which aside from a bone jarring ride the engine  actually started to smooth out and promise some performance.  I could have floored it but then I'd have to slide off the seat and forget about seeing anything until I got back up on the seat.  In other words I could watch where I was going and tip toe on the pedals or  work the pedals blind. 
  Reading the owners manual I found out the lever I thought raised and lowered the top, raised and lowered the car!  It had factory air bags.  I'd driven it home lowered to the bump stops. Once I pulled the lever 1/2 way out it rode at normal height and very comfortable.  
It also had a headlight minder. Automatically  dimming and going to high beams. Plus a wonder bar radio.  Now the radio had tubes like other radios and took a bit to warm up but if you pressed the wonder bar it would automatically tune in the next radio station  That was a really big deal in those pre FM station days. 
 

It had a inside heater that once you selected it it, it only took a few seconds to warm up the interior.  What it was, was a gas furnace that ran off the car's gasoline.  No more waiting  several minutes for the engine to warm up. ( although it had a regular heater-defroster  as well)  electric windows including the vent wings. 
it also had Air conditioning,  on a convertible!!!!! 
It was so loaded with options and stuff normal cars didn't have that it took me more than a day to read about something and then actually figure out how to use it.  
The battery kept going dead but testing it showed it in good condition. Turns out the switch for the instant heat wasn't where I thought it to be and it had never been off.  The system had its own spark plug and coil which while the plug was fouled at first it kept trying to ignite the heater thus draining the battery.  
 

In reply to frenchyd :

Servicing and Cleaning a car that hadn't been touched since new took a whole week. At least with the size of that big Cadillac. 
I used to be able to clean the interior, wash,  and wax the 53 Ford by Noon on Saturday but it took all day Saturday just to clean ( now days they call it detailing) the interior.  Washing that behemoth took more than 4 hours since first I had to flush the top layer of dirt off  ( involved a step ladder and a really long hose) Then using the  ladder,  carefully reach over that big hood and trunk, carefully hand scrub the finish. I really think the last time it had been washed was when it was new. 
Using nearly every towel  in the house I went to work waxing the car.  I'm pretty sure I used Turtle  wax, which in those days came in a glass jar. You unscrewed the lid, taking  a wash cloth rubbed on the wax to the wash cloth and then using a circular motion rubbed the wax in on the paint. You could get about a 2 foot square area before new wax was needed. A fender  or door took more than 2 hours and the hood and trunk took forever. ( or so it seemed ) 

Then chrome polish. Do you know how many acres of chrome there are on and in a 1959 Cadillac ElDorado?  
 

Then I started to do the required service work.  Drum brakes back then were supposed to be self adjusting.  There is a ratcheting mechanism that every time you step on the brakes in reverse it tightens them up.  Sometimes the adjusting star gets stripped so they don't adjust but I honestly think the previous owner never put the car in reverse.  Each adjuster was properly loose and they all took the same adjustment. From then on the pedal stayed up until the linings wore out.  
The oil was filthy. Even with the 3 new quarts with only about 25 miles on them.  I'm sure the original  owner had never changed or added oil. 
In those days used oil was spread over the gravel at the end of the driveway to keep the dust down.  Or poured on the shoulder of the road for the same reason.  That was what passed for being a good citizen back then. 
 

Spark plugs were replaced at 6600 miles because of the lead used in gasoline.  They were pretty groody.  And new distributor cap and rotor replaced along with the points just because that's what a proper tune up required. 
Now oil and grease everything.  You even oiled the Generator. Little flip cap over the front and rear bearing as I recall.  One on the distributor too.   Grease the hood hinges, and oil the hood latch mechanism.  Doors, trunk, and even the top needed attention. 
I think there were slightly less than a million grease nipples underneath too. All bone dry indicating zero prior service.  I honestly used more than 2 tubes of grease when all subsequent grease jobs barely used 1/4 tube.  
Following the tune up and service work I cleaned my greasy hand prints off and gave the car its second wax job. Stood back admiring my work and waited for Dad to come home.  

You can skip the next 2 paragraphs  to avoid more family drama. Car stuff after. 
 

Unusually dad came home very late that night,. My sister had to cook some hot dogs in those pre- microwave days. That and potato chips was diner. About the only thing my younger sister could manage. But she was proud so instead of our usual insults to each other I was almost nice.  Hey! She was only a girl and 11 & 1/2 To boot. What do you expect from me? Enlightenment?  The next morning I could smell breakfast cooking so I assumed my Grandmother was here. Running into the kitchen I saw my mother. Last time I saw her was over 7 years earlier as she left me and my 3&1/2 year old  sister sitting on the coach to wait for dad to come home and read her note.  She and dad had reunited and the Cadillac was to take a trip to California.  

The trip out to California was uneventful. That big Caddy purred all the way.  Just Dad, Mom, my 1/2 sister and my sister.  It's a 2 long days. But when we got to squabbling  one would move up front leaving that big back seat for the other 2

 The real reason for the trip as far as I was concerned was cars.    Oh sure We did the tourist stuff and spent most of the time at my Mother's sister's home In Visalia  but we were there for cars. 

Mainly HotRods  because according to the magazines that's were they all were. I was 13 working on 14 when I could get a legal farm driving license.  I had taken most of my savings out of the bank and had $500 with me unknown  to my dad. My goal was to buy a Hot Rod.  
 

A few days before we were to leave I found it!  Only  a few blocks from where we were.  A 32 Ford roadster Channeled 5 inches over a Model A frame . You opened the door and had to step up to the floor.  Crude doesn't begin to describe it. It was obvious the guy had chiseled a while and then  hacksawed  a while. Near as I could see only 4 bolts held the body on the frame and none of those bolts or bolt holes had been put there by Ford.  The floor of the trunk was more or less wedged in place corrugated sheet metal with 1/2" + gaps at various places.  A 20 gallon square gas tank from an unknown car just sat there. He hadn't bothered with straps or anything.  No gas cap,  just a rag stuffed in to form your friendly Molotov cocktail.  
The rear suspension looked decent. Obviously he hadn't taken enough leafs out of the rear spring or de-arched it. But the sweet  part was the rear end itself.  A Halibrand quick change  with Buick fined aluminum drums. And big 15 inch  Kelsey Hays spoke wheels.  While the back tires were completely bald. The fronts still had enough tread to make it back to Minnesota.  
 

The front axle was equal parts good and wonky. it too had Buick fined drums  but no wire wheels. Nicely dropped the full 4 inches and then holes drilled in the web to lighten it.  Very neat looking. But the front spring still had all the leaves and the eyes hadn't been reversed yet to give it that down in the dirt look. The wonky part though was the split wishbones.  One side looked different that the other.  What's worse the alignment looked goofy.  The right wheel looked toed in while the left wheel looked toed out. Eyeballin' the caster that looked right but the drag link  went uphill when it should have been level.  
While the body was now at least 6 inches lower than original  the radiator remained at stock height  Giving the car an awkward reverse rake.  
The seats were probably from a sports car ( Maybe a Triumph  TR3?) because they were bucket seats. Instruments were a mix of Ford and Stuart Warner. The ignition key just laid  in the slot, clearly any key or whatever would work. 

The engine  and tranny was a Mercury  Flathead.  Obviously recently removed and bolted in place. Stone stock and still dirty. But it started right up and idled smooth, all 8 firing.  

He was asking $255 because he said that's what he'd spent so far. A fair price if I could fix up the worst of its flaws.  Dad didn't know about my plans yet and I wasn't sure how he'd take it.  I mean a 13 year old kid  without a drivers license driving a hotrod across country.  Gulp.  The Guy and I shook hands on the tentative deal subject to my fathers approval.  I told him we'd have to fix it so he could test drive it and that meant straightening out the front end.  
 

That turned out to be easy.  The steering wasn't centered when he put everything together and starting from centered  it quickly got pretty good.  

In reply to frenchyd :

Buying a pair of $10.00 glass packs to muffle the engine a bit and finding a tin can the fit snuggly into the neck of the gas tank improved things a bit but the hard work was drilling through the corrugated sheet metal into the frame for a few self tapping sheet metal screws took most of the afternoon.  
I solved holding down the gas tank with metal strapping we found in the dumpster behnd the assembly plant.  Diagonally across all 4 corners it seemed solid enough  for me.  
Time to go talk to dad.  
Gulp!   
Wisely  I waited until he'd had a couple of drinks and then asked him if he'd go for a short ride with me.  When I asked for the keys to the Caddy he barely hesitated before tossing them to me.  That was the point  I was sure I was going to get it.  
Trouble is my dad was really smart. He knew how to say no while sounding like he said yes.  He listened to my arguments and nodded to most of them.  A few questions and finally the trap!!! 
"Son, are you sure it will make it all the way home?" "Yes Dad,  listen to that engine, and you know I can fix cars even if something did break down". 
A little break down sure but that's a very old car made from Junk.  If We're going to follow behind you we can't be breaking down all the time. 
"We're going to Disneyland  Thursday. You get that car ready to make the round trip and if it makes it there and back without breaking down you can buy it. 
Challenge accepted.  Early the next morning I was over there with a scrap of paper, a pencil and a critical eye. Things on the list fell into 3 categories.
1. Absolutely  has to be replaced.  

2 should be replaced

3 would be nice to be replaced. 
The  trouble was I trusted nothing.  I had one day to sort through

 

In reply to frenchyd :

In the end I decided to focus on the visible things like like hoses, wires,  etc. with special attention to the coolant system. 
Getting from Visalia to Disneyland required me to drive the infamous grape vine.  A known radiator killer. Careful flushing of the radiator and adding coolant to the water  offered my best chance.  Along with a new fan belt because the old one really was shot.  
We did waste a couple of hours trying to find a used set of aluminum heads but the one set we found the owner wanted over $100 which was pretty close to what they cost new.  
The wiring was pretty  shaky. Crimp on connectors weren't common.  Normal approach was twisted wire followed by friction tape. 
 

The back tires were bald but no cord was showing so I deemed them good enough for the 10 hour round trip.  My dad planned on putting new tires on before heading back to Minnesota so I would just pick out the best two for my use.  
  
Thursday I led the way, Dad said when I broke down he didn't want to have to turn around and come back and get me.  He did put a 50' long heavy rope in the trunk though.  
About 10 miles from the grapevine hill I gently picked up speed.  My idea was once on the steepest part I would feather the engine a bit to give it a breather.  Flatheads were known to run hot.  Dad  on the other hand expected his Caddy to have an easy climb.  
 
Remarkably the hot rod never got over 200 while dad's Caddy had the needle right near the top.  I guess lugging 5100 pounds of Cadillac plus passengers and luggage up the Grapevine is a lot more work than the 1500#'s ? The Hot rod weighed. Not to mention the engine in the hot rod was open to the air.  
 The rest of the trip into Disneyland was  easy. 
while I wanted to stop at the SoCal speed shop in Burbank, dad insisted I stay with the family.  
 

The trip back the next day proved my undoing. everything was fine until sunset.  About an hour past sunset I noticed the head lights were dim. A glance at the ammeter showed a discharge.  Since we were more than an hour away I shut off the headlights and dropped behind my dad to use his. It didn't work  about 1/2 hour from Visalia the battery gave up  and out came the rope.  The next morning We towed it back to the owner.  A quick check and yes the brushes were shot on the generator.  Less than a dollars worth of brushes is all there was between me and a hotrod  

PS The trip back went through Reno where my father lost the rest of his money and borrowed mine.  The following year to pay me back he brought home a 1953 MGTD  which today sits in my basement waiting for spring