Abandoned ‘59 Continental

[Lee]

I’ve been driving past this car at the side of the main road through Lawrenceburg, IN for the last 2 years, and finally decided to stop. Surprised that it hasn’t been towed or otherwise molested at some point. Not even a for sale sign. I found it interesting that it was apparently still being driven by a DOD employee as late as ‘95, and passed NY inspection in 2004. It sure looks rough today.

[Dan Szwarc]

It's fine. Did you make an offer?

[Lee]

I wouldn’t even know who to contact!

[Dan Szwarc]

"Inquire within"

[Mike]

Makes you wonder what it looked like when it was last used regularly.

[frasern]

Isn't that what they call "patina" now?
Put some air in that flat tire and some fresh gas and you got a $20,000 car!

[1Bad55Chevy]

How you would legally buy that car is easy. Have the owner of the place call the police and report it as an abandoned vehicle. The police will have it picked up by a local tow yard. After a set amount of days determined by the state it will be auctioned by the tow yard at one of their own in house monthly auctions. You would be provided a bill of sale and all necessary documents from the tow yard to apply for a clean bonded title.

[Mike]

The people who own the property must know something about it otherwise you'd think it would have been towed years ago.

[1Bad55Chevy]

This vert has been sitting at this body shop by my house since like 2018. Pic via Google Street view.

This was a very high end job where everything was disassembled primed/painted/cut & buffed. They use to push it back in the shop every night for like a year and now it just sits there out in the elements. We have had some pretty crazy hail storms since that car was painted so I wonder if the body is destroyed.

[TonyC]

Looks like a '65. Wouldn't surprise me if they did ruin the structural integrity trying to employ cutting tricks that must never be tried with a unibody, because they learned too late it was unibody. Unfortunately, structural compromise marks the end of a vehicle. Just a guess, mind you, but a plausible one.

---Tony

[1Bad55Chevy]

Looks like a '65. Wouldn't surprise me if they did ruin the structural integrity trying to employ cutting tricks that must never be tried with a unibody, because they learned too late it was unibody. Unfortunately, structural compromise marks the end of a vehicle. Just a guess, mind you, but a plausible one.

---Tony

You really do hate everything that is built differently than you like... lol

Has their been threads on this site where someone actually ruined one of these cars? Not like "he ruined it because I don't like it!".

[TonyC]

C'mon, I know people. They will never admit to failure or being wrong about presumptions they make; it's just not in vogue. I will, much as I hate to do so; it's embarrassing, yes, but I can admit to being wrong when proven wrong.

If I'm wrong about that '65, show me and I'll admit it. I believe I did disclaim that my input was only my guess and not declared as fact. Just a plausible guess; you know how many people don't realize these cars are unibody? I stopped keeping count.

(Psst...homonyms.)

---Tony

[Mike]

Well the front wheels do look pretty tucked in there but who's to say if they did chipping they didn't add bracing to make up for what they removed.
My guess would be more that either someone stopped paying their bill or it belongs to someone who works there.

[1Bad55Chevy]

What cutting has to be done to install air ride on one of these cars? Seems like none since the kits are all bolt in unless your trying to put the rockers on the ground which would take a driveshaft tunnel modification. A piece of 18g through a slip roller takes care of the driveshaft tunnel.

I didn't buy a sedan because they were unibody cars. I didn't know that until I started looking at them but I am newbie to the car scene lol. I didn't want to get into the hassle of rust repair with no access to reproduction panels. I can do some sheetmetal fabrication with a break, slip roller, shrinker/stretcher but I am a LONG LONG way from a pro.