In honor of Patina Week, I thought I’d show more photos of a car I featured in my Cars of Route 66 post a couple of weeks ago: here’s a ’50 Chevy sedan, parked permanently at the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri.
This one’s rusting from the top down. Is this normal in Missouri? Perhaps this Chevy is a transplant–and it looks like green might not have been this car’s original color.
Because all of the windows are open, even the interior has built up a patina, right down to the horn button. And just look at that seat! I’d be very surprised if this car can still move under its own power. But if it can, that seat would certainly make this the most uncomfortable car you’ve ever driven. And check out the stenciling on the glove box – it makes me think this car has seen some kind of official duty. That might explain the green paint.
This Chevy is parked over the grease pit of what was once a Standard service station. That grease pit doesn’t appear to drain after it rains. The mosquitoes have got to be thick here in summer!
Here’s a wide shot of the Chevy next to the former service station building which, like the entire motel site, was recently restored. Let’s hope the Chevy never gets the same treatment.
Been a while since I’ve seen an outdoor grease pit!
I have a special place in my automotive heart for these 49-54 Chevrolets. A fella I worked with at the old-school service station in Iowa City (Russ’ Super Standard!) daily drove a fairly ratty ’50 Deluxe in a “patina” baby blue. It was actually fairly reliable transportation for him, even though he had lugged it out of a barn and done just enough to get it running. Whenever he recruited me for after-hours work on the car, I was always shocked at just how primitive a car it truly was; though the body was “modern”, the powertrain and chassis/suspension were little different from a 30s vehicle.
At one point, we harvested a ’49 Chevy Fleetline sedan for parts; it was in incredibly rough shape, but still fun to take apart. To my eyes, the Fleetlines were MUCH better looking cars than the standard sedans. A ’49-’52 Fleetline is really high on my list of cars to own.
This generation of Chevrolet is still pretty affordable, having lived in the shadow of the Tri-Fives for so long. They’re catching up, though.
Cool find!
Where was Russ’ located?
There were a surprising number of these around when I moved back to IC in 1971. It was the cool thing to buy these and similar vintage Chevy pickups from old farmers. For some reason, there were gobs of old Chevy cars and trucks around, but not many Fords of this era.
Count me in as a big fan of the Fleetlnes. I regret missing shooting a totally awesome Fleetline in town one day, in comparable condition to the ’50 Caddy CC.
Russ’ was (and is) at the corner of Bloomington and Gilbert, opposite end of the block from Pagliai’s Pizza.
By the time I worked there, we were un-branding from Amoco to become independent. I think the current building was 60s era Standard station, but there are pictures showing that corner as a gas station since at least the 30s.
This car could have been a military car knowing the color.
This car is about 40 miles from Ft. Leonard Wood (aka Ft. Lost In the Woods). I’ve seen a few pickups in various shades of green at GSA auctions that had TP XX painted on them, like this one has on the glove box, so I think you may have nailed it.
Oh yeah, Fort Leonard Wood! Of course. That’s got to be where the car came from.
There are still a lot of the light green Ex-Forest Service pickups floating around the area due to the Mark Twain National Forest office being in Rolla (20 miles away).
I’m in Cuba once or twice a month. I always joke I haven’t seen Fidel yet nor have I purchased any cigars.
Yeah thats great patina though its obviously not been a moving car for decades, over here stuff starts to grow long before the car wears out if you dont wash them I’m harvesting a Singer Gazelle for the seats in a nearby town and a Super Minx on another site and the lichen is going great on both. These are close by too, be worried if I learn how to combine it all into an email
The red badge on the grille of the Bluebird would go for $30-50 on Trade Me!
Jim, I’ve seen this car quite a few times and the patina is almost contagious. When I first took a picture of it, reviewing it the computer screen almost made it appear to be a drawing the patina was so great.
You have done it a true service, unlike this:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/route-66-revisited/
Ditto. About as good as patina gets.
I had no idea that Chevy had gone to “s” springs in the seats of its cars this early. I had figured that they were still using old fashioned coils. Studebaker was still using coil springs in its seats to the end. Either because it was still building such high quality cars or because it was so backwards. You choose.
My daughter and I just stayed a night at that motel over her spring break on our way from Chicago to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. You could have eaten off of the floor of the room. A woman bought the place to put her gift shop in the building next to the old service station. She bit off alot, according to her it may have had something to do with her turning 60, and has completely redone the place without ruining it. The car seves two purposes, it gives you a feel for the period and it covers the pit. My daughter shares my wanderlust; although, she did look at that seat and say “scary”. Very cool car, place, and owner.
Cuba, Missouri. There’s more than a few ’50 Chevies still on the road in the more southerly Cuba with lots of patina…though they’re likely to have a Russian Volga drivetrain or maybe a diesel under the hood. Nice shots – I like that old service station.
My dad had a 49. He was driving me to school one day (1958 or so) and we were centerpunched by a kid in a similarly aged chevy. I see a lot of resemblance between this and dad’s especially the rear view.
We took that six and put it in the 1946 two door sdn in which my brother had blown the engine. Drove it for quite a while but the bearings were fragile. The problem with both those cars was the vacuum assisted shift. They always went out and the right arm got bigger.
Altogether, I would probably be as happy with one of these to the 57 I have. The engines took a real leap in 1954 and they went to 12 volts in 55. I would still take one of these. Start the time machine.
As my mother told the story, in about 1950 she and my father priced a couple of first class train tickets from Ottawa Ontario to Hectanooga Nova Scotia and decided instead to trade in the used 32 Chev on a new 1950 four door Fleetline to make the trip. It must have gone well for them as, two years later they traded the 50 for a new 52. I have always assumed that my mother had fond memories of these cars as I can remember her being critical of the 54 Ford that followed it. She always said that she found it to be too light in the rear end. That is to say, bad winter traction. On reflection, however, I wonder if she was overwhelmed by the power of that last year (in Canada) flathead V8. If you wonder why I quote my mother’s remebrance of car performance, it is simply because my father was totally blind and drove very infrequently.
“my father was totally blind and drove very infrequently”
Infrequently? As opposed to not at all? 😛
I witnessed him driving a couple of times. Once, in about 1962 at a family reunion at my grandparents farm about 80 miles north of Edmonton. Myself, a number of tipsy uncles and my (perhaps) less tipsy father were driving along deserted country roads to my uncle’s house when someone suggested that my father take the wheel. As I remember it, it was very slow and had dirrections very simillar to those heard given to blind bowlers: a little to the right George, a little to the left George. It was without drama and we remained on the straight and narrow. Years later this feat was replicated in rural Quebec with the same results. Both episodes were at very slow speeds. This has led my younger brother and I to both speculate that our father was an inately slow driver, even before being blinded. We find this very amusing.