Our Poor Battered Cord

There is not much to tell really. Things have been in a deep freeze here and either one or the other of us has been out of town for the last while. Now we are both back in town and things are warming up. The next steps are to finish stripping one of the donor vehicles and then bring the Cord body into the shop (it is sitting on a car trailer in an equipment shed right now). We need to clean out all the debris from the floor pan and make a plan as to what we are going to do for a frame (the unibody structure appears to be too far gone). After that it is just a matter of rebuilding the floor structure while making sure we don't knock everything out of shape. Some big decisions in the next few months... I will try my best to keep you up to date with our progress.

Cheers,
Dan (DCDB)

DCDB, any updates?

Love the "as found" pics! Maybe submit them to Hemmings for their calendar?

GREAT FENDERS for a finder! And the pic of it as it just cleared the woods shows undeniably the grace and beauty of the Westchester!

--Tom

I have posted more pictures at: [url:2p66zjfy]http://voicethread.com/share/283282/[/url:2p66zjfy]

Feel free to leave comments on the site. Let me know if you have any troubles.

We have a very dry climate here so things don't rust as quick as in other areas. The car appears to have been ivory in color (there are a couple of specks of paint left on the front fenders).

The lead is gone because of the fire (it pooled in areas throughout the car). The handles and other bits are in surprisingly good condition but we are missing the driver's door handle. You can see that much of the dash including the headlight cranks melted in the fire as well.

Yes there are rear body pictures, I just don't have any handy right now. It is a slant back, but the trunk lid is missing. We have the hood but not the grille pieces or tranny cover.

I am not sure what good the engine would be for anyone any longer... I guess there is the potential that there are rebuildable parts on it but that is doubtful, this is a farm.

The bodys would normaly rust with a red color like the inside of the cardoors.
With the freeze cycles up there the metal on the outside seems fine except the lack of paint.
The exposed body seams have shed there lead or was it salvaged?
Is there a rear body view, is it a slant or bustleback?
Are the bumpers, hood still there?
I could use the windshield frames, amazing why they did not rust out, the stainless door handles look rather good still.
This could go on display outside the museum.
Get a jackhammer out and find that engine!

To amend the famous quote: "It looks like a beautiful thing that was just born on the highway and grew up there, and then died in a backyard."

Only a Cord could be in that shape, and still manage to look cool.

If you haven't joined the Club, please do so. We'll be happy to have you and you'll meet all the people and parts necessary to finish your project.

People have started with a lot less and made certifiable cars. It will be amazing to see the transformation from a rusty hulk to a cleaned primed and eventually a drivable car. I believe all the pieces are available for this car,
K Clark

The fact it even still exists is impressive. Thanks for sharing!

Well, there are a couple of door handles that don't look too bad.

you might be a little bit a head of me, tomorrow i can pickup my 37er Cord Custom Beverly sc that i bought 3 month ago. Importing, Thansport and customs between USA and Switzerland takes a lot time obviusley.
My car seems quite complete but is covered in primer and putty over rust, at least you don't have primer and putty to take of !!! <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

Give me 6 weeks plus or minus 30 years <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

I apologize for the picture size. I will re-size before posting next time.

some elbow grease, a weekend, a bottle of whiskey and she'll gleam again. <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: --> even there's not much left to polish i wish you well.

Cordially Oldbanger71

I am posting the pictures of our Cord in this section as I believe they fit better here than as a reply in the Parts section. Oh and I should warn you that pictures of our Cord are graphic in nature and should not be view by Cord nuts with weak stomachs...

Here is the story of the Cord. The car was originally on its way up the Alaska Highway (I live in Dawson Creek, B.C. which is Mile 0). The best I can gather is that this was in the 1950's. The car had an interior fire in the about 6 miles up the highway. My wife's grandfather then purchased the car for $50 or $75 (the story varies upon retelling). He used the engine for a welder and traded the transmission to another guy that used it in a tractor of some sort, the body went behind the wood shed and sat until just recently.

The engine was great for the welder after a bit of playing around to get it set up. One winter water was left in the engine and the block cracked. It is now buried as part of the foundation of an old grain elevator.

I have no idea what ever became of the transmission. My guess is that it is buried at our local dump

The following pictures are from the day we cleared the bush from around the car. After this we had to cut a road through the bush to get a tractor in to it. We jacked up the car, put an axle under the front, put a beam under the back and hauled it out with a tractor. We loaded it onto our car trailer and moved it into a shed where it now sits. I will send more pictures of that day if people are interested (they are on my Father in Law's camera right now). As you can see the car is in VERY rough shape and is almost unrecognizable and yes we are certifiably nuts. I will try to get the numbers off it again this afternoon (as I know this question will come).













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