In every old vehicle I've ever dragged home there is some interesting item, gizmo or keepsake that I end up keeping with the vehicle forever.
Often they're plushies - I have a purple monster in my VW Bug, a tiny skunk in my GTO, Kermit the Frog in my vintage motorhome.

In my new/old 1965 Delta 88 (untouched since "68), Smoky the Bear on the dash is a "Snuffit" cigarette snuffer! I also found this unique "Auto Butler" trash receptacle. Interesting because I can't find any others except one reference to one on EBay at some point.
Smoky and the Auto Butler will stay with the Olds!

What have you found? (Pics, please!)

"Snuffit" Smoky (I've never seen one of these!) - There's a round receptacle in the back of the hat brim to put out your cigs. It's magnetic, so sticks well to the dash.

Auto Butler - great atomic star "60's print (can't figure where to hang it in the car, tho )

Top view - plastic - the material of the future - looks like aluminum.

 

Was left my parents's car. Christmas was very special to them, there was a 2" high plastic Christmas tree in the ashtray when the car was transported to me on Christmas Day. The tiny tree is glued into a perfectly clean ashtray in the center console 365 days a year.

 

Cool bear, never seen one before. I'm often surprised by the amount of loose change I've found. Nothing really notable I can recall, other than ordinary candy bar wrapper or french fries and a book of matches. I guess it could be worse.

Now if you were to ask about things I've found in the disassembly of engines, I'd say the amount of debris from shop towels, unknown hardware, insect carcass and plastic straws. Still pretty ordinary stuff though.

 

I found a folding hex key set in my lawnmower's engine compartment. It was blocking my steering.

 

When I tore out the interior of my '56, I found the usual stuff like a lot of hair pins behind the rear seat . But finding the original spare keys under the front seat was very cool.

 

Those originals still have the knock outs for cutting new keys by code #'s, that is a good find.

 

When I bought my 66 Sport Wagon the rear window and tailgate hadn't been opened in probably 20 years. It is a two seat car. In the rear storage I found so much stuff. The Let's Boogie shirt I have as my Avatar was found in there. I found some New York Times newspapers from the seventies. Garbage disposal. Huge link chain. Etc etc. I will see if I can dig up pictures.

Side note. When I was a car stereo installer I would find so so many odd things under seats carpet etc. I worked on a 55 Volkswagen bug once that was sick original. I took out the rear seat. In German (I took German in highschool so I could read it) were all kinds of Hitler support things written in grease pencil.

 

My friend found a small combination wrench in his Ford's oil pan.

 

When I was still a kid, cleaning out the trunk of my parents' Buick just before they were traded it in, I found a paper coffe cup with GM logos stuffed up on top of the inner wheel well. It was partially covered in spatter paint.

 

That's so funny. I actually turned the keys over so no one could see the codes on the knock offs. What an age we live in! What was I thinking? Like someone is going to write down the codes and drive to Maynard Mass, and steal my car that has an ignition switch so worn out that it can be turned with a screwdriver. But those codes did come in handy because I only had the ignition key when I got the car,

 

I didn't take a picture, nor keep it, but I found about half an inch left of a joint in the ash tray!

 

I found a $50 bill under the front seat of the 97 Buick I bought last September. Considering I only paid $125 for it, the money was an added bonus!

I also found about 10 bucks in change, a very outdated IPOD, and an old cell phone. lots of happy meal toys under the backseat.

Other than the money, I can’t recall ever finding anything valuable or interesting in any of the cars I have bought.

 

My car was chock full of thin wires that were left over from rolling papers with built-in holders. Anyone remember those?

 

You had me on the floor with that comment. Damn that's Old School. 🤣😂

 

Bought a Bronco two that didn't run, found a Gerber folding knife under the seat like new, nice find. Still have the knife somewhere but no picture... Tedd

 

It wasn't in a car. At work(family Business) we moved our office to a new building. There was a safe in the old office we had to move. It had sat there from 1929 to 1988. I found about $2.00 in change all silver including a walking liberty half.

 

[QUOTE=ignachuck;1476590] But finding the original spare keys under the front seat was very cool./QUOTE]

Oh man, I'll say! What a find.

 

Insta Roach!

 

Cool. Imagine having that to display in a restoration or original survivor!

 

My Brother bought a new 73 Cutlass and had an annoying rattle, he brought it back to the dealer several times but couldn’t find the source of the rattle until they removed the rear inside door panel and found an empty pint of whiskey bottle. He should have kept it for a souvenir

 

I never found anything of value or interest in any of my used vehicle purchases however when working as a tech people would drop of their vehicle and leave the keys in the early drop box, if it was a come back we would have to call them and ask where the receipt for the work was of course the response was their in the glove box OH MY !! that opened up Pandora's box !! I don't consider my self a snoop but when you have to go through a glove box to find a receipt you come across interesting things. I'm sure some people probably thought after hanging up the phone "what did I just do" others probably didn't realize or didn't care. Most common were fire arms usually small 22's or snubby 38's nude photographs, drugs, drug paraphernalia, pot, cash, condoms, women's underwear. I think the strangest thing I ever found was a small dried up lizard in a small clear plastic box with a note that said I love you !!
I had some friends that worked at a GMAC repo lot and the stories they would tell about what they found in repo vehicles would blow your mind !!!! opps I lied !! my 56 Olds came with a St. Christopher medallion clipped to the driver visor !!

 

When I worked at the Buick dealership years ago I remember always finding bras under the seat of cars. When a group of us were discussing this, a female friend commented that after a long day at work, once she was in the car her bra was one of the first things she did. Her exact words “they’re uncomfortable!”

While I have no doubt removing a bra would be more comfortable, once you reach your destination I would think it wouldn’t take long to realize something is missing.

 

I found a Walmart gift card stuck under the stupid folding cupholder of the center armrest in my '05 Lesabre. I don't remember if it had any money on it, but I seem to recall it having something like $25 or $50.

And the "666" written in grease pencil on the underside of the headliner of an old beater fox-body Mustang.

 

I have many stories about cool things I have found. My favorites are always when there are no keys to the trunk. Get it home and find really cool stuff there. I got one home and pulled the back seat out and reached with several extensions to reach the latch. Took the latch off and found an M-20 4 speed, 69 442 Hurst shifter, 69 W-30 air cleaner and lots of goodies. Another car I done that with and found a new in the wrapper 3/4 inch socket set. For little trinkets I have found lots of good stuff of that as well. One was a name tag, I researched it and found that it was the original owner of the car and tracked them down with it.

 

after my stepdad passed away,i found $4000 worth of US savings bonds in the toolbox he kept in the trunk of his wagon.
he bought them in 1976.

 

See! This is awesome. Keep 'em coming!

 

I only shared a small fraction of my car stereo experience's. It was never ending. Sometimes you were set up. Plenty of lonely housewives when I was in my twenties. Blatant. Oh the old days.

In the mid eighties the gangs started to come to Denver. There was a local boxer that had an old Mercedes. I want to say it was a 68. Silver. Red (blood not a crip) tinted windows. Very difficult car to work on interior wise. I reached up under the dash. I am not sure how much it was but a big ole bag of pot fell down. I stopped in my tracks and went to the waiting room and said hey brother wth? He was beat up from his fight the night before. He called this other dude. He came in and talked to me. They wanted a white guy to be a dealer/holder. I declined and moved to Northern California soon after.

Another story. I reached under the seat of an 87 Z-28. Sawed off dual shotgun. No lie had a coat hanger as the stock. Put my finger right in the barrel. I got pissed. Went to the owner of the car and said wtf? He said: I just got out of prison and I am not going back. We sent him on his way. Shortest double barrel shotgun you would ever see.

 

That's a very interesting insight about Buick owners. I never woulda suspected.

 

As a kid there were a lot of sexy Buick owners. My brother's GS 455 came from one.

 

I’ve also found uncut GM keys under the seat of my ‘40 as well as seeds and roach remnants in the ashtray of the ‘70 SX I’d owned for a long time. My ‘70 wagon had a bunch of Blue Chip Stamps under the back seat and a 1969 quarter. I saved the quarter, and will place it back under the carpet when I install it.

 

No roach remnants of this kind in my current project -- I highly doubt gramps from the WWII era knew what a roach was -- except for the insects
I am keeping his cig butts in the ashtray, though! I dumped the ashes and cleaned it - then put most of them back!

gramps' butts.

 

That Smoky the Bear thing is funny. When I saw the pictures you posted of the car a few days ago I couldn't quite make out what was sitting on the dash. I actually thought it looked like a little bear head but thought 'surely not'. I was going to post and ask what it was but saw this.

no1odsfan: I have always wondered what that avatar actually was. No offense but I finally assumed it was a pretty poorly done tattoo of some sort. I'm glad to finally know it's actually a t-shirt!

 

In the glove box w/ a few other papers of a little Honda car I bought 8 years ago. There are a lot of Steven E Marshall's. It would be neat to find the original owner. He may not, you never know.

 

You need to keep in mind the KIND of Buicks that were in dealerships at the time. Granted, most of them were Lesabres, Park Avenues, lots of Centuries, the ones I found the bras usually were Skylarks.

Thank God for that. Most of the Park Avenue owners were between the ages of 60 and dead.

Cars like this.

 

That is so funny. I actually had someone here PM me saying that they had the same shirt. Ha ha. Yeah no bad Tattoos here.

 

Yeah, I was imagining the “60 and dead” crowd were livin it up. Now knowing it was the Skylark crowd, which is essentially the same age group as Chevelle, LeMans, and Cutlass folks calms my nerves a bit.

 

Never mind.

 

My mother, a very active 74, maintains that she will never go to the nearby retirement city of The Villages, where the 60 and dead crowd has the STD capital of the US crowd due to menopause and viagra creating a zero consequence living it up party.

There, now you can have that image back, Kenneth.

 

Well thanks for that. You have ruined my perception of the “elderly” forever.


Made me think of the George Carlin routine where he asked “Have you ever thought about old people f@@@ing. Well you better start!”

 

The word the younger folks are using for this today is "cringy" -- this is definitely that.