Some believe I've crossed over to the dark side. 39/40 vs. '36

[Bored&Stroked]

Originally Posted by tubman

I thought you made the right decision, but after what you found, I'm sure you did. I've taken apart some where the grease shields still had shiny black paint, but never the backing plates.

When I first got my 32 Cabriolet, I noticed that the oil-change stickers only went up to about 5,000 miles in 1957 . . . and it had been up on blocks since about 1959 or so.

Also, all the tires were very old pre-WWII type stuff - down to the cords. They were probably from the wartime, and it had not been driven much afterwards.

I think the reason it was parked is somebody rebuilt the distributor and had the points plates misaligned on one side - so it was only running on 4 cylinders.

When I rebuilt the original mechanical brakes, all the backing plates (once I cleaned them out) had all the original black paint on them.

Also, none of the fenders had any splits or other signs of being on the road for long.

This is why I believe the car only had 5,000 miles on it . . . just the way everything looked. But who knows - it refuses to speak to me and tell me the stories of its life! LOL