I'd agree. About 6 years ago I saw what could be a '57 Fury in a junkyard,
which I am sure is still there given the rural location. Could have been a
Belvedere too but it had the gold trim panels on it, or their remains to be
more accurate as I can't remember if they were all bent beyond repair or
not. (Does anyone want me to recheck on this car/yard??)
Junkyard was old and had been a garage at one time and is so far out in the
boonies not many folks had been at this car, plus the owner seemed to be a
Chev guy based on the cars in his driveway.
When it comes to post WWII cars anyhow, outside of stuff like Chrysler
300's, Corvettes, and specialty cars like that, you can't tell me there's
not at least one in every state and a couple more overseas - some of them
may be in junkyards, barns, back fields, or otherwise not known about by
enthusiasts, but I am sure they're out there.
Prime example: The 1960 New Yorker station wagon. Total production between
6 and 9 passenger models, just under 1300 cars. According to one source I
was told only 12 of them were known to exist, including one in France and
two in Australia. I can't remember now if that total included salvage yard
residents, or if it was mentioned there were 'a few more' for a total of
about 20 known to exist worldwide.
Not known at that time: 2 I found sitting 20 feet apart in a junkyard here,
including the one I bought for all of $50 which has a 1966-67 inspection
sticker in it. Neither of them may be savable due to rot, but they both
still exist. Further, a guy down the road in the Albany area has one that
either is on the road or really close to it; I sold him an extra hood
script. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find 2 or 3 more as I get into
more old-car junkyards. And that is just one state. 1300 total means
about 24 cars for each state and 100 more for the overseas market; allow 50%
for past scrappage due to accidents, rot, and demolition derbies leaves 12,
and I came up with 1/3 of that over a couple of months. In theory I should
be able to find at least 7 more within the state. But since there are only
two guys in NY who happen to care anything about this particular car, it's
up to us to locate any others. The potential exists, based on yards I am
still learning about, not to mention Eric Farr up above Watertown who only
will even let in about 5 guys and is supposed to have 10,000 cars there
alone - he and the Lord are the only people who really know what's there.
Further, you can't go by registration in NY as they would lump in the
Windsor wagons too - the registration makes no differentiation for model and
I've had weights on registrations all over the place - they even changed one
for me the clerk thought was too high - so you can't necessarily judge by
that either.
Obviously they won't be evenly spaced out to 12 per state, but if you could
definitively locate every example in existance of a particular car, I think
the actual percentage would surprise a lot of people.
Heck, to go back to the Corvettes, it was only a couple years ago that one
of the magazines featured a '53 that had been customized. What!?! someone
customized one of the 300 (or so) original Corvettes?? Yeah... it was
done in the '50's when it was just an old car. This guy restored it after
finding it wrecked and...
(drum roll)
...Abandoned in the woods on a riverbank. Total investment: time to haul
it out of there and bring it home. Granted it just about needed one entire
side replaced... but he redid it to look the way it did just before it was
wrecked, for a really unique set of wheels.
My one friend even found a '34 Ford cabriolet that was abandoned on a farm
in the Adarondacks, and told me about a Model A that is still up there
somewhere - not just any Model A but a sports coupe with the soft top. Not
to mention about a 29 Packard limo that sits behind a house, although that
one waits for a 'someday' restoration that will probably never come. Not
Forward Look or even Mopar, but.. I know where an Airflow coupe is stored in
a carport, that is in pretty good shape what you can see of it. Model A 2dr
keeps it company, and who knows what is in the garage next to them. Now if
those are still out there, and here in the home of road salt and cars that
rot so bad they break apart, or have no floors or frame left under them at
all....
Anything is possible.
Bill K.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marv Raguse" <MJRAGUSE@xxxxxxx>
To: <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 10:02 PM
Subject: Re: [FWDLK] 1959 New Yorker convertibles - How Many Left?
> In a message dated 5/16/2004 11:47:41 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> mjh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> Of course, I know nothing about the survival rate of '59 New Yorker
converts,
> but I have to disagree with the estimate of 40% survival rate. I own a
'57
> Fury, which among Mopar lovers like us has long been recognized as a
> collectible car, if not among some of the general public. According to
the Golden Fin
> Society, which tracks numbers of remaining Furys by VIN, engine #, and
body tag
> #, of the 7438 Furys made in '57, there are maybe 40 left today. That
> includes rusted out frames in junk yards that they could confirm are real
Furys, all
> the way to #1 show cars. That's 5.3% survival rate.
>
>
> It is my opinion that there are many more Fury's out there waiting to be
> registered. For example, there is mine which didn't get recorded until a
couple
> of years ago.
> Marv
>
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