uncanny stories

[Brian]

A couple of uncanny but true stories...a few years back, one day I ran outta gas in my trusty old 35...I left it parked on the side of the highway, and set off to fill a fuel container...upon returning to the car, I noticed a hubcap was missing, obviously been stolen during my absence. My friend who was with me was most brassed off about this, "Don't worry", I said, "it'll come home"....
Some weeks later, the car was parked in the local township. I returned to the car, and there was a Maori [native NZer] standing by my car. "This your car?" he asked..."Yes" I replied. "Did some bugger pinch your hubcap?" he asked. "Yeah" I replied..."Sorry man, that was me, if you come over to my place I'll give it back". He had a fresh scar down his left hand temple; he'd recently got outta hospital after having an operation. Now, I dunno if he'd had a near death experience or what, but he'd definitely turned a new leaf. I went to his place a few days later, he lived on the other side of the harbour, necessitating catching a vehicular ferry and a bit of a drive to his remote abode, but he ended up giving me a bit of other flathead stuff as well as my hubcap. My hubcap indeed came home.
30 years ago, a friend of mine bought a 39 Mercury sedan. He'd had it 3 days, and took it to Masterton, the town where I live. Now, when he bought this car, it was missing the 'MERCURY' emblem on the trunk lid. Upon exiting the car in Masterton, he looked down, and embedded in the asphalt, was a 39 MERCURY emblem. Had obviously been there a while, it was deeply embedded. My mate worked away at it and retrieved it intact. How long had it been there? who knows...but obviously it was meant to be that my mate found it!
Funny how stuff has a way of returning to where it belongs....
Who else has had similar experiences?

[ScubaChief60]

Awesome story! I too have so many I could write a book! Actually I did write a book...
Lesson I have from this is be certain you do not wander far from your old Ford...

[Ray in La Mesa]

I have one too. Lived in Big Bear Lake,Ca. in high school 61-63. Family had horses & I road out through the forest a lot around the valley. Had a '30 "A" fordor as my only car with the wrong w/s in it. One day while riding thru the forest I came upon an "A" w/s frame hanging on a pine tree branch! Lifted it off the branch & slung it over my shoulder w/o even getting off the horse. Got home & set it on the "A" cowl & it was the correct one! All I had to do was paint it & put glass in.

[Kurt in NJ]

I bought a 59a block at Hershey, bored 3/8, cleanest water jackets I have ever seen, no rust, no cracks,not even the “ factory “ ones but it was missing the main caps.
I took a chance, he promised to bring the caps next year
At home it passed magnaflux and I had caps that fit close enough, the bores were .003 under 3/8 but scuffed a little.
Next year comes and they were forgotten “I’ll bring them next year “, 5 years pass with them being forgotten, the fields changed, couple more years pass, finally find him again, was told “next year “again, didn’t see him next year and gave up looking, 10 or more years pass and I am walking down a aisle and I here yelling— I Got Your Caps and turned around to see him running towards me with a bag, it was the caps, at home the scratches in the bearing inserts matched.

[ford38v8]

Back in the day, when I was a regular at all the swap meets, I happened upon an old guy playing a fiddle at the back of his RV, behind his table full of pocket watches. I listened while looking at his fine collection of watches. A nice conversation ensued with him and his lovely wife when he finished playing, during which I mentioned that my '38 Ford's clock appeared to be nicely cleaned and lubricated, but was missing the main spring. He told me to wait a moment, while he entered his RV to look for a spring, which he assured me was identical to a pocket watch spring. He came back empty handed but promised to bring it to the next swap meet. I saw him often after that, always without the promised spring. Finally, he chased me down several years later, handing me a sandwich baggie containing the long promised main spring with hand written instructions on correct installation. A sticky note on the baggie had my name and "No Charge". I found his RV one last time at another swap later that same year, his widow delivering her sad news.
How I long for the return of those truly Good Old Days.

[Brian]

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Years ago, I was collecting up the parts to build an Indian motocycle...a workmate told me he had a friend who had recently sold a car with a pair of Indian gas tanks in the trunk....bugger!...I was seeking gastanks. About ten years later, I by chance met up with an old friend i hadn't seen in years. We got talking, during which I mentioned I was in the process of building an Indian. "Come up to my place" he said, "I've got a car with a pair of Indian tanks in the trunk!" he gave them to me, I was rapt; they even had the original Indian with full head dress emblems on them still! Yet another coincidence?

[Newc]

My first 'Hot boat', I was 13. 40hp Merc outboard- big deal for a 13 year old. Well about a yr later I lost the front cover for the engine, figured I was sunk, maybe fell off in the river? Another year later I went to the Mercury dealer and expected to pay big for one; He shows me MY missing cover! Left on the beach and someone turned it into the dealer!! Newc

[rockfla]

My Dad went to Hershey for the first time in 1970. Everyone told him "If you find something, you better buy it right then because you will never find it again!!". So, he found a set of NOS 37 running board strips and bought them and made the cardinal mistake of saying "I'll be back and pick them up!!", which he could never find where he bought them. On, Thanksgiving week every year in Daytona Beach the AACA used to have a big car show that was "our" Hershey of the Southeast and always had a big flea market along with a car show and parade. Fast forward to 1984, my Dad was cruising the flea market when a vendor asked him IF he went to Hershey in 1970? He said "yeah" with a stoned look on his face, the fellow asked IF he had bought some running board strips for a 37 Ford, and my Dad said, yeah and I never could find the spot when he went back to get them. The fellow said "I have your running board strips.....My best friend and I used to do a lot of flea markets all over and he got sick a few years prior and couldn't travel anymore and he gave me the strips and said "here" maybe you will run across this fellow one day!!!!".

[flatford8]

Interesting thread…..Great idea Brian!……..Mark

[rockfla]

Some may have saw this one in V8 times but here goes again for those who didn't. My Dad (again) was visiting a friend one Saturday across town and during the visit was introduced to a fairly new neighbor of our friend who had moved here from Seattle WA area. He worked for Boeing and traveled to several of the Navel Air bases here in North Florida as the Boeing Rep. The neighbor, who was a car guy, would go garage sale-ing with his wife most weekends as a hobby. While at a local garage sale, he picked up a 1941 Camp Blanding car tag #2934 as Camp Blanding was one of the Military installations he frequented for helicopters. During my Dad's visit, he found out the fellow was searching for some Model A parts, which my Dad had and a few weeks later a trade was made...The tag for the Model A parts. Several months later my Dad got a call from the same fellow he got the Camp Blanding tag from and he was inquiring about the tag......He had been on a trip back to home to Puyallup WA for a visit and while there, went garage sale-ing and found a 1941 Camp Blanding tag. He wanted to check the number against the tag he found.....and YES.....It was the mate to the first tag that he had found. About as far apart in the continuous 48 states as you could get. THE SAME TAG and the SAME person found both tags.

[GB SISSON]

A few years back at the urging of my cardiologist I took off about 25 lbs. With my fingers now a bit skinnier I realized one day that my wedding ring was missing. With no actual pavement anywhere near here, finding it was a long shot at best. I didn't even know if it had beem missing for months or just a day. One day I was called to look at a '47 ford 1 1/2 ton truck that some folks had hired me to repair and make driveable. They had inherited the old hay truck along with the grand dad's farm. Seems it was not starting well at this point so I took a ride across the island to check it out. There are no lights in the barn so previous work had been done by flashlight. Carb, distributor the usual. While diagnosing I'm checking the coil wire into the crab cap. I see what looks like a distributor bushing stuck into the goo on the front crossmember. How on earth could that have fallen out of the distributor? Still not thinking about my ring I stretched way down and hooked it with my finger and of course it was my missing ring.

The Moral of the story: Don't clean all the grease off your chassis, it's there for a reason.

[av8coupe]

Years ago I would occasionally check out Craigslist to see what was out there that I didn't need but had to have. I saw an ad for a '46-'48 rear bumper iron cover and made a phone call. After talking with the guy I made the 60 mile trip and ended up making a purchase. We talked for a few minutes and he said "I have a few things that you might enjoy seeing." He had a storage area with multiple doors and the first revealed a T bucket, I don't remember the next but when he opened the third, my curiosity was piqued. I looked for a few minutes at the '50 Ford sedan and said "I built this car!" There were a couple of things that I had done that absolutely made it unique and here it was in a garage belonging not to the guy I sold it to, 60 miles away, on a whim shopping trip. What are the chances? There are some crazy stories on this thread.

[Als48]

I have one as well. It is also pretty astounding. Years ago when I was a teen, in the '63-65 time frame, I was horseback riding on the family 63 acre farm. I was wearing my '64 Class ring and lost it somewhere on the farm. Talk about a needle in a haystack search. Of course we didn't find it after searching some of the more likely areas, we assumed it to be gone forever. Years later, around 1995, my mom and dad found a ring while planting or digging potatoes near the cattle barn where we had kept "Poco" the pony/horse we had since around '58 when my little sister was born. Everyone had forgotten about me losing the ring but there it was, over 20 years later. Coincidence?

Al Hook

[rockfla]

Al Hook
Funny you posted this, My boss and I were just talking about "maybe" some day someone will find his 1965 High School class ring he lost in 1964 in a barrow pit swimming in Miami FL.

[rockfla]

Okay, last one for me. My parents moved here to No Fla in early 1966. My Dad, at the time had a 50 Plymouth Woodie. My Dad took an evening job working at the local YMCA till 9 at night and sometimes a day or two on the weekends. Shortly after moving here on a Saturday, work day for him, driving home a guy rolled a 37 Ford Woodie out and was putting a forsale sign in the window. He bought the 37 and sold the Plymouth on down the road (Which I found out in 1998 that my bosses best friend ended up with the car and drove it for a few years till it was bought by a radio station as a Grand Prize for a local surf contest). Any, several months later my parents bought their first home and on move in day my Dad was out poking around the garage and stuffed way back of the block walls against the rafter tails of the garage were a pair of 37 Ford Fog Lights as seen in the picture circa 1971/72 ish at the Ormond Beach car show

[Ray in La Mesa]

Als48, I posted the w/s-pinetree story but yours reminded me of my high school ring. I graduated in 1963 and bought a class ring. A month later I was out horseback riding, not the same ride, with gloves on as there was about 8" of snow on the ground. Took my gloves off to blow my nose and the ring went flying into the snow. Never did find it, now there is a shopping mall over that spot.

[rjlester]

In 2003 I bought a 1973 Blue VW beetle for parts. It was just like a blue 73 beetle my dad had in the late 70s/early 80s for a couple years in a small town in northern Alberta. I told my dad that I think I bought his car he sold in the early 80s, but he thought that was impossible as we also lived 6 hours south of there now. It even had a 1960s swingaxle trans in it, which my dad installed in his bug when his trans failed in the 73.

Instead of parting out the 73, I left it at our cabin and after putting big tires on it, used it as an off road buggy out there ever since I bought it in 2003.

Fast forward to summer of 2022. I was digging through the glovebox of the 73 bug and I found a toyota car key, cut by the local locksmith in the town we lived in back in the 70s and 80s. My brother is still pretty much best friends with the owner of that lock shop. I sent a picture and he sent it to the lock shop guy. My brother calls me about 2 minutes later and his friend said he cut that key back in the late 80's or early 90's as he recognized the company name stamp on the key. I asked my brother, what do you think the chances are that this was Dads bug? He said, how many blue 73 bugs were in that small town back then. ONE.

Called my Dad and he couldn't believe it, we had some good laughs about how slim the chances were that I bought his old bug. Hilarious.

Dad has passed away since then, and I always think of him now when I drive that car.

[Model51]

As you might tell, I'm into 1935 Trucks. One day while searching on line, I found an original 1935 Ford Dealer Demonstrator Sign panel which is the first of three panels on the side of the bed on a 157" stake truck. You never see these, but here was one for sale. I struck a deal and Don Rogers kindly stopped on his way to Hershey and I got it from him there. I'm happy as can be.

Three years later, again searching on line, I see another one of these advertising panels. Since I already had one large wall hanger, I almost moved on but something made me stop and look more closely. Turns out it was the mate from the other side of the same truck. Ford only made one truck per dealer, so they are unique. Different seller, different location. Got lucky and was able to buy it. Again Don Rogers picked it up in the summer and delivered it to me at Hershey. I brought the first one to Hershey with me and we took a picture of the signs re-united for the first time in likely 80 years. I haven't ever seen any other examples for sale before or since, so what are the chances I end up with the originals from the same truck.

I plan to restore my truck as a demonstrator, drive to Lovington, Illinois (of only about 1,000 folks) and take a picture of the truck sporting these advertising panels in front of the building in this town which used to be the Ford dealership. Should make an interesting reunion.

[nelsb01]

I started my work life as 3rd shift mailroom trainee. Over the years when the work was done you could sit around and relax. Well, one night I brought in an issue of Hemmings Motor News and before the shift ended, the company Electrician came in early and saw the Hemmings. He asked about what I had home in my garage that I would be reading an old car magazine that had 1000's of ads. I told him that I had a 1936 Ford pickup home in my garage. He said that he frequented auctions in northern Minnesota and might have some items that I would be interested in. Well, time went by and I didn't see him again for a while. One morning before I headed home he shows up and asks me if I would be interested in this? This turned out to be a 1932-1936 standard spare tire lock. It had the key but not a cover for the lock. I asked him what he needed for the piece and he said nothing because it was in a pile that he bought and he got what he wanted and this was just a bonus.
Fast forward to years later. Cleaning out the grandparents home and there was a box of old car stuff. There was a broken 1940 Ford hood latch, some old car emblems and a stainless Ford script oval............yes a cover for the spare tire lock. A old car guru said to use a pen spring and an long split rivit and sure enough -- I now own a complete Ford spare tire lock. It look great in the display case.
As with the other stories -- it pays to look a little deeper................

[Ray in La Mesa]

San Diego Big 3 swap meet about 10 years ago I ran across a pile of vintage license plates on the ground in one stall. Sign said singles $3, pairs $25. I look and found a 1928 Calif. plate in the original yellow on blue colors & paid the $3. A bit later in the afternoon I went out walking again and stopped to look through the pile again, you know you never see it all the first time. I found another 1928 Calif. plate painted red & white so picked up & paid him the $3. Got back to my stall & compared the plates, yup, they were a matched pair. No, I didn't go back & give him more money.