Truckloads of old cars for sale

An auction will dispose of several antique cars - or at least their parts - that have been rusting for decades.

By JORGE SANCHEZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2000

CRYSTAL RIVER -- Know anyone searching for a door handle for say, a 1952 Dodge, or some other rare part for a 1931 Chevrolet sedan?

These and many other hard-to-find automobile parts will be part of an auction scheduled Saturday when a recently unearthed collection of antique cars goes up for sale. Among them are a 1931 Chevrolet sedan, a 1949 International truck, a 1959 Ford station wagon and a 1953 Ford truck.

The antiques belong to the Elliot family of Crystal River and will be auctioned off on the property owned by Lois Elliot, the matriarch of the extended family. The auction site is a pasture off State Road 44 just west of Bearmount Terrace. The land has been owned by the Elliot family since about 1897.

But the automobiles are long past the point of restoration, said Bill Elliot, who is handling the auction for his mother. The cars have sat outdoors for many decades -- long enough that oak trees have grown right through some of them. The bodies are completely rusted away.

"These are not vintage automobiles in the classic sense," Elliot said. "The sheet metal in the bodies is totally unsalvageable, but there are lots of useful parts inside. Power trains, transmissions, all kinds of valves and switches -- things like that."

If the antique cars had been preserved, Elliot says the auction would be a high-dollar event. Now, he says the rusted relics and mounds of lawn mowers, refrigerators and washing machines will bring in "about $5,000, tops," he said.

Elliot, 57, has worked for more than a year just to extract the autos and other items from a barnyard that grew into a forest. He wrestled with a chain saw underneath a car to lop off an oak tree that had grown around a drive shaft and continued growing right through the body of the car.

"That's a tough position to handle a chain saw in. I'm lucky I didn't lose a leg or something," he said.

Working a year for a $5,000 payoff might seem like a waste. But Elliot said it's a chore long overdue. His father, William, who died in January, didn't allow anything to be thrown away.

"We hauled about 35 loads of stuff to the dump," he said.

Like a lot of families in rural America, when a car or truck stopped running, Elliot's family parked it out back in the field. That's gone on for 50 or 60 years. What used to be the Elliot family's barnyard transformed itself into an oak forest through the decades. The trees just swallowed up the car collection.

"I call it Sherwood Forest," Elliot said of the thick oak stand, which has caused him countless hours of sweaty, back-breaking labor.

After the first few cars were pulled out, someone complained to the county and code enforcement officials paid him a visit and ordered the cleanup.

"At first, it was because I wanted to do this, but now it's become that I have to do this," he said.

On the week before the auction, Elliot ponders the fruits of his labors and wonders what might have been.

"See that one?" he said, pointing to the rusted hulk of the 1931 Chevy, which had been parked in the same spot for about 50 years. "That's a very rare automobile. In the 1930s, Ford was outbuilding Chevy about 50 to one. If that car was in any kind of salvageable condition, it would be worth thousands," he said.

The cars will be sold in their entirety, Elliot said. An auto salvage dealer who tears them down for their parts will have quite an inventory.

Besides the antique autos, there are piles of lawn mowers and refrigerators, also dating back quite a few years. Many of these are in somewhat better condition and could be restored.

Elliot pointed out an old Norge refrigerator, powered by a belt-driven compressor. He said the model dates back about 80 years.

"That's just the way my family was back in the old days. We didn't throw away anything," he said.

The auction begins at 9 a.m. Aug. 12. For more information, call auctioneer Phil Riner in Winter Haven at (863) 299-6031.

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