Thread: If one waits long enough...

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Guys,
I have been around here for years but almost entirely on the Cobra site. But a strange thing happened this last month. To make a long story short, my Daughter has been put in charge of a huge collection of GM muscle car motors!

A Garage find to have wet dreams over. I have now been appointed Executor of the following; this is not even close to a full list yet, simply because I couldn't move everything to see it all.

Quick Synopsis of what happened; Father N Law to my Daughter spent 40 years simply collecting HP GM Motors! As far as I know he never built a car, his sole interest/hobby was getting these motors (and associated parts) and rebuilding them.

ALL motors are 4 bolt mains, All are cast with PASS on the blocks. (I have a few casting numbers and ID numbers but not all yet- I wasn't ready to walk into THREE Double Wide garages to find what I had found!)

At least 4 - 454-s
" " 4 - 396-s
" " 3 - 409's!
" " 3 - 302-s
" " 3-4 427's

Not one motor we could get to showed any Honing, Decking, or boring. Not one with any visible damage. As long as he has had these I'm thing I.E.; a guy had a new Z-28 and totaled the car. The Owner had standing orders at numerous junk yards in the area and every time a HP car came in they called him in and he bought the drive trains.

Numerous Muncie T22 (Ops!) ROCK CRUSHER TRANSMISSIONS.
Tools, large jacks, large lifts, welders (One new Lincoln TIG still in plastic), commercial drill press. It would take two of Brents pages to list everything, but everything I saw looked almost brand new.

OK, "THE" question, sell as a complete package, sell each motor separately, assemble each motor to specs "The Right Way" and sell independently? All the proceeds will be going to the widow with one exception, my daughter is taking one 409 for her 1945 (Yes 1945) GMC one ton Truck.

A garage find that makes an Old Hot Rodders heart skip more than one beat.

DV

Mod Note:


While this is Ed's first post, Brent and I have known him for over 10 years.
A true tell it like it is kind of guy.


Bill S.

Ed, welcome!!! You are one lucky man..........to have such a wonderful daughter!!! It's always exciting to read about these types of 'finds', we all wish we could be on the receiving end of one. I really believe there are more of these out there, as the older generation car guys are passing on, some amazing collections turn up.

Oh, one more thing............we want pics!!!

Mike

Mike, Nice to meet you and all the "Rodder s'!

I only took some close up pictures of some casting and engine numbers. I never dreamed we would find one motor after another; stacked on end, back to back, engine stands, engine lifts. When I get back (6 hours from me) I will see if I just can't stand back and take some full pictures. Seems to me this entire shop (three Garages so far.) should be just picked up-moved to GM's show place in Detroit and make it a part of their Museum!

Months of work ahead, deciphering everything, trying to match heads, manifolds to each motor. Every thing in this shop will be documented as well as I can!

Bare with me, I will keep everyone updated! Maybe Leno is looking for some GM HI-PO ORIGINALS!

DV

Just remember Ed, I get first dibs on any Mustangs or Cobras (real preferred)




Bill S.

This thread is worthless without photos.

Deep Roots,
I'm sorry. As I mentioned before it was a little over whelming. You want to see some photo's of numbers close up? That's all I took the first time there and then only a few blocks were actually copied. As mentioned when I go back next month I will take full photos of the garages before I load up anything. My Daughters N-Laws, if you missed it are 6 hours drive from me.

Mr. Bill, I do know there is a "farm" involved that belongs to part of his family and that he kept a lot of things there. Problem with that scenario is the two families involved are not on speaking terms...?

I absolutely will have multiple photo's and documentation when I make the return trip!

I don't think the 350 smog motor is going to get anyone excited but the one in front of it?
Etc.,









For now.............

DV

Wow!
First of all welcome Ed! Second, I wonder if he didn't keep records somewhere of all his collection, might save you months of work. Thirdly, other than a huge collector, if you guys have the time, selling them individually would be ideal unless a collector pops up who's into the same thing. It always seems that when a stockpile of cool stuff pops up, that there are issues to be dealt with like family members, and will's and stuff. I'm sorry for you daughter's loss of a father in law. I think it's great that she will keep a 409 for herself! Those are getting hard to find, and costly! Good luck to you guys with the hard work ahead, I think payment for such efforts might be a corvette engine or a second 409!

I would seperate the parts into complete motors, and sell them "as is"... one at a time.
Reasons:

Finding a buyer who wants, and can afford more than one, will narrow the number of buyers.

Most guys will not want to pay for more than the one or two engines that they actually want.

The cost of rebuilding an engine may easily exceed what you can sell it for.

Same thing for the transmissions. (BTW, the T-10 was a borg warner trans. I think you mean M22.)

If you get to the point that you have a few of the less popular things left.... and not much interest.... then you might sell them as a lot, just to finalize the project.

Stovens,
Thank you but no family problems on this part. The Will as been executed and declared, The Mrs. wants nothing for this-absolutely nothing. I put my foot down and told her Wendy (The Daughter N Law would take one 409 and I would take the Pick Up that she was going to have hauled to the scrap yard!

Other than than that some small percentage for a friend that is going to help move this stuff 400 miles, after that it is to be Hers.

And there very well maybe completes file on every motor. (File cabinets galore in one of the shops.) And his son seems to think his Dad knew what every motor came from, one 4bl. or two, mileage and so on. I knew John -some what - and I have no doubt he either recorded all the information or kept it in Memory. Here's hoping one of the dozen files or so has the information.

A company in Ca. has already gotten ahold of me trying to buy all the 409's!?

DV

H.R.P.,
All good ideas to ponder. The only standard motors out of the dozens I have so far are three 350's.
Might sell those as weights!
DV

Now I find out that two of the 350's are GM's Hi-Po smog motors that first came out in the Novas before EPA really loaded them down....Oooops!
DV

Another 396 just showed up, totally complete! It is now confirmed, all motors, tools, tool boxes, jacks stands engine hoists etc. etc., will be in my shop the week of the 10th. All the bidding will be strictly for the motors, after the motors I will see what I can do on all the shop tools, boxes, equipment, etc.

Right now people are coming in from, Ca., Arizona, Nevada, Mi, Pa, Il. and Ohio. Drop me a note with your addresses or phone number and I will give you a date to do your own inspection!

Thank you fellas-this should be something else! I will have every motor ID'd per the casting numbers, serial numbers and blocking numbers per GM's records, Feel free to bring your own information, Mic's etc.
DV