Arriving home from work yesterday and not feeling like my typical workout, I
asked my son if he wanted to go out looking for Sunbeams. He looked at me
strange and said "Yeah, like we can just go out and find one."
I had passed through an area about 40 miles from where I live about 2 years
ago that seemed to have the "right stuff" for locating old cars. It was a
rural farming stretch that had grown over the years to hold many many
"Sanford & Son" type dwellings with abandoned cars that seemed to just be
everywhere.
My son said he was game and away we went. After reaching the area we started
bobbing and weaving slowly up and down the long roads.
We saw cars! Many many cars. Classic Falcons, Pickups, old sedans and many
many others. After about an hour my eyes started to get tired of looking.
We turned down a long very un-populated stretch and passed by a residence
that held a number of trucks parked along a fence-line about 200 yards out.
The weeds were tall and visibility was tough. Just as we cleared parallel
with those trucks I saw it! A FIN!
I could only see about 18" of what appeared to be a light blue Alpine fin.
I shouted to my son who was driving to STOP. He backed up so I could get a
better look.
BINGO! We found what we set out for. Nobody was home so I hopped the fence
and made my way through the weeds. A Wedgwood Series II sat among some old
50-54 chevy trucks. She was beautiful!
I was a little nervous trespassing so my look-over was brief. Body #9968,
serial #B9109902 color code 53. The interior was open with no top so the
floor was covered with leaves and debris. A radio with a plastic surround
(broken) was mounted below the dash. The gauges were intact. The engine was
complete with everything there. Body was pretty straight with minor damage
to the front valance.
Chrome was in good shape. There is a special beauty to those wing-window
free doors! Seats were rotted down to the frames.
I left a note for the owner at the door and talked to a neighbor about 1/2
mile away. I got his phone number and plan on making contact. I'll keep you
posted.
So...When was the last time you went looking for a Sunbeam.....
And found one!!
Paul
Colorado
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