I finally managed to get back up to the property to see the car, I’m mad at myself for taking this long but we managed to get the car out of the ground and get it under cover. We had my cousins truck with about 2 1/2 feet of old chain, and one of the back tires still held air so we swapped the other back with the spare (which had been buried in the dirt on its own for as long as the cars been there) and pulled it onto the gravel. Once there we put a donut on the front left, put one of its old tires that we popped back on the rim on the front right, and pushed it under a trailer cover. After that, all we could do was jot down anything we could learn about the cars condition, and hopefully with the help of the community figure out next steps. My dad stockpiled parts and never threw away anything he swapped out, and my friends dad runs a classic car shop and said we can order parts through him for shop discounts.
Here’s what we’ve learned/done since the last trip:
-rats have been living under the car and in the engine compartment, but haven’t made their way to the interior, chewed wires are a concern
-the hood hinges were removed, the springs had bent them inwards horribly, preventing the hood from closing
-all the wheels still roll and the brakes worked
-it sounds and feels like the vacuum for the headlights is still good
-we saw what looked like transmission fluid in the rat nests that were underneath the car when we moved it
-8,000 miles on a rebuilt engine, around a 120,000 total I think
Thanks again everyone, all feedback’s appreciated and plans are underway to trailer it back home, but a fallen tree is blocking the only trailer-accessible path out of the property, I’m hoping to have it home before Christmas!
