The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

[Ciro A.]

Saw a similar thread on another website, so what are some strange/unique items you've discovered while restoring your cars??

[Jim D.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

I bought a 65 coupe from So. Ca. this summer. On Halloween, I found a live Black Widow spider in the drivers side trailing arm (may she RIP).

[Todd B.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

I found where one of the prior owners of my car wrote his name, city, state and social security number on the back side of each door panel. I suppose his intent was to help identify the car if it were ever stolen.

Other than that, just a pair of retro sunglasses under the seat.

Todd

[Peter B.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

I've owned my 67 Coupe for 25 years but only started to look into its history over the past year in conjunction with a restoration. I've tracked down the previous owners back thru 1977...but that owner had no info on the person he bought the car from so that seemed to be the end of the trail. This past September I was removing the trim around the interior of the rear window and a folded piece of paper fell out that had most likely been put in there to quiet a vibration. I unfolded the paper and it was an old service tag, probably from a dealership, with a name and address imprinted on one side, but with no dealer name showing, just a service number. This chance find led me to the second owner of the car who had info on the 1st and 3rd owners. You just never know what one of these cars is going to tell you.

Pete

[Randy C.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

I removed my gas tank in an effort to see if the build sheet was still glued to its top - the sheet was there but only part of it - most had been previously torn off. But the big discovery was that the entire undercarriage of the body was coated in tin foil. I found the same thing in the interior behind the carpet in the rear storage area. By this time, I had been in contact with the person I bought the car from and I asked him about the tin foil. Well, he was quite proud of that tin foil. He had installed a CB in the Corvette and could transmit like crazy but received nothing. So....he glued in all that tin foil to create an "antenna plane" and he said it worked beautifully - that he could talk on his CB to people as far away as Texas, from California. Anyway, all that tin foil came out. And behind the tin foil above the gas tank, etched in the fiberglass was "GTR 12-4-70". The car has a build date of December 14th so that must have been some sort of final inspection of the body. That tin foil was a royal pain to remove! Randy C.

[Joe R.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

Bought a 1991 ZR-1 with 684 miles on it. Been in a little wreck in Mempho! Found a pinkey ring-finger still in it! Still have the pinkey ring but threw the finger away.

JR

[Erik S.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

Bought a 1991 ZR-1 with 684 miles on it. Been in a little wreck in Mempho! Found a pinkey ring-finger still in it! Still have the pinkey ring but threw the finger away.

JR

a missed opportunity to find the previous owner; did you take a finger print before dumping it ?

[Richard M.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

...how about a oil cap behind the drivers side kick panel vent in our 63 coupe, or the big black horn button mounted in front of the PG shifter under the boot to act as a neutral safety switch?
Really strange.
https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?t=66158
https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?t=59134

[Brian M.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

So the previous owner gave you the finger?

Bought a 1991 ZR-1 with 684 miles on it. Been in a little wreck in Mempho! Found a pinkey ring-finger still in it! Still have the pinkey ring but threw the finger away.

JR

[Paul H.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

A marijuana cigarette dropped down from underneath the driver's side dash of my 68 Period correct for that era.

[Donald T.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

Found a shotgun shell behind the body mount access panel. An Ohio license plate from the mid 70s serving as the bottom plate for a rusted out battery tray. Part of a tin can fiberglassed into a damaged heater box.

[Jack P.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

Hi,

I have posted this before , but since you asked. I found these coins under the carpet. I bought the car in 1969. 66 Roadster.

Take a close look at the dates!

Jack

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/attachme...6&d=1257685284

[John D.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

I found Jimmy Hoffa's toupee under the jack in the storage area of my '67......it's still there....I'm afraid to touch it.

[Robert I.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

My 62 was bought new by my father. I have a very good memory of him driving that car to my high school graduation in 62.

But then I started looking at some of the dated parts: July and August.

So I called my stepsister. They picked the car up at the St Louis factory and drove it back to California, in August, just before school started.

So he must have come to my graduation in his 58!

So much for my memory.

There were some of his payroll stubs in the car. I always assumed he made a lot more money than I did.

After working for Northrup for 35 years, he made the same as I made as a new teacher.


Of course, there is the bullet hole!

[Donald B.]

Re: The strangest thing you found while restoring your car

A marijuana cigarette dropped down from underneath the driver's side dash of my 68 Period correct for that era.

Found the same thing when restoring the "69 Z28. In the name of science I smoked it (like Clinton I didn't inhale ) but the only "buzz" was from the lack of oxygen.