Alec Derrey
Well Known Member
Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've been on the site, but I thought I'd start a new thread today. Some of you may already be familiar with my mystery car, but for those who don't here's the story...
Several years back a me and a buddy pulled a 1959 Biscayne out of an old cherry orchard. It had been flipped on its passenger side a few decades earlier, and most of the good stuff was missing....
But what was left was a cool old Biscayne body, a 348 4-barrel engine, three pedals and a column shifter. To us it seemed like it could have been someone's cool old hot rod, so we dragged it home.
When I started researching it, I found several clues pointing to the car possibly being an old Highway Patrol car for Oregon State.
I'd like to post the photo's that I have (Or 20 of them, since that's the limit) of the car and the engine that came out of it. I plan on digging into this car and it's history a lot more, and I hope that I can find some support from my fellow W- Motor fans!
This is how it was when we found it..........
You can clearly see how it sank into the ground over the years.....
The engine was actually still in the car when we found it, and it was surprisingly complete!
We got it home on a U-Haul trailer. Not so easy when the car had no wheels.....
We scored a rear end out of a local junkyard to get it halfway rolling.. You can see that the paint on the roof still had some shine under all that dirt! I believe that the unique blue paint is a big clue to the cars history.
Intake manifold numbers
Yep, that's a clutch pedal!
The VIN Number
Date stamping on the engine block.
Cylinder Head casting numbers
Carter 4-Barrel Carb
The dashboard had been repainted many years ago, notice the original light blue can be seen underneath. Also note the odd holes drilled seemingly randomly on the top of the two left gauges. Not sure why they're there, just another piece of the puzzle!
Does anyone know if this steering wheel is correct for the car?
This dark blue paint is original to the car.
Some cryptic chalk marks above the trans tunnel. Anyone know what they mean?
More chalk marks. This one I know denotes the body code 1221 or Biscayne Business Coupe.
More cryptic chalk marks, very hard to read. Looks like factory shorthand..... Anyone know?
ID tag on the distributor.
Big hole in the quarter panel where an antenna once resided?
And the piece that got us scratching our heads in the first place. The Trim code 808 is a mystery, and so is the Paint code SPEC. I've only seen one other tag with the same numbers, and that's the car that is said to be an ex Oregon State Highway Patrol car. Could that be what I have?
So there it is so far. I'm interested to hear everyones thoughts and ideas on this car. I'll continue to upload photos and update the story as time goes on. Thanks for looking!
Several years back a me and a buddy pulled a 1959 Biscayne out of an old cherry orchard. It had been flipped on its passenger side a few decades earlier, and most of the good stuff was missing....
But what was left was a cool old Biscayne body, a 348 4-barrel engine, three pedals and a column shifter. To us it seemed like it could have been someone's cool old hot rod, so we dragged it home.
When I started researching it, I found several clues pointing to the car possibly being an old Highway Patrol car for Oregon State.
I'd like to post the photo's that I have (Or 20 of them, since that's the limit) of the car and the engine that came out of it. I plan on digging into this car and it's history a lot more, and I hope that I can find some support from my fellow W- Motor fans!
This is how it was when we found it..........
You can clearly see how it sank into the ground over the years.....
The engine was actually still in the car when we found it, and it was surprisingly complete!
We got it home on a U-Haul trailer. Not so easy when the car had no wheels.....
We scored a rear end out of a local junkyard to get it halfway rolling.. You can see that the paint on the roof still had some shine under all that dirt! I believe that the unique blue paint is a big clue to the cars history.
Intake manifold numbers
Yep, that's a clutch pedal!
The VIN Number
Date stamping on the engine block.
Cylinder Head casting numbers
Carter 4-Barrel Carb
The dashboard had been repainted many years ago, notice the original light blue can be seen underneath. Also note the odd holes drilled seemingly randomly on the top of the two left gauges. Not sure why they're there, just another piece of the puzzle!
Does anyone know if this steering wheel is correct for the car?
This dark blue paint is original to the car.
Some cryptic chalk marks above the trans tunnel. Anyone know what they mean?
More chalk marks. This one I know denotes the body code 1221 or Biscayne Business Coupe.
More cryptic chalk marks, very hard to read. Looks like factory shorthand..... Anyone know?
ID tag on the distributor.
Big hole in the quarter panel where an antenna once resided?
And the piece that got us scratching our heads in the first place. The Trim code 808 is a mystery, and so is the Paint code SPEC. I've only seen one other tag with the same numbers, and that's the car that is said to be an ex Oregon State Highway Patrol car. Could that be what I have?
So there it is so far. I'm interested to hear everyones thoughts and ideas on this car. I'll continue to upload photos and update the story as time goes on. Thanks for looking!
