Drowned Cadillac And Skeletal Ranchero Await Resurrection In Washington Storage Yard

Sometimes you run out of room for your hopeless diamond-in-rough project cars at your house, so you rent a storage space for them until you have the time and money to fix them up real proper-like. That's the situation that Lowmiles seems to have photographed for us on a recent trip to a Seattle-area storage facility. Make the jump to read his description.

I had to run up to my storage locker in Mukilteo yesterday, about a 20 minute drive from where I live, and while I was there I decided to document the two finest pieces of Detroit engineering currently being stowed there. One is a survivor, the other...well, it's complicated. I'm assuming since someone is paying god knows how much per year to store his very much incomplete vehicle there, he still has clings to the idea that it will one day run again.

Enclosed you will find two sets of photographs. The first set is of the saddest, yet most hopeless optimistic, '57ish Ranchero in the world. One's first reaction seeing it (aside from the generally awesome feeling one gets when looking upon anything -chero or -amino) is that it, to put it mildly, is not currently in running condition. In fact, it is not in any sort of condition at all. Missing are the front end and all of the magic contained therein (like the engine), everything inside the cabin, the cabin doors, all of the glass, all the chrome, the frame, the axles, the wheels, the drivetrain, and the tailgate. How is this a car, you might ask, and not something offered as a part on craigslist or awaiting the Crusher? Well, you're just not looking hard enough. In the owner's mind, in just a few short years and with a modicum of effort (how hard could it be to track down Ranchero parts?) he will be cruising the tree-lined and weed-choked boulevards of Seattle's northern suburbs in the only cartruck to survive a nuclear test. He will be driving fast just to outrun the ladies who want him and his Ranchero and the men who want to buy it from him. But he belongs to no woman and he will sell his pride to no one. He has only one thing on his mind – a car with two seats and a bed for haulin'.

The second set is a shining example of auto neglect. At first glance, I thought this car had been underwater, what with it's myriad water-based lifeforms clinging to its seals and all. Heck, there are even visible signs of green slime inside the windshield. Perhaps it was stowed under a dock on the Sound, or it had been pulled from Lake Washington and the skeletons inside given a proper burial. I was disappointed to find out that inside this '68 Calais (I think) was clean. I can understand keeping your car in this sort of condition if you use it as a daily driver and have to park under a waterfall, but this sort of abuse is really unacceptable when it spends it's entire year at a storage facility. Buy a car cover, or at least give it a tarp!

lowmiles