Low mileage claims are great, the term low mileage can be subjective based on the age of the car. It’s safe to say mileage around 10K on a car that’s older than 10 years can be considered low, but 10K miles on a car that’s 70 years old is hard to believe. This car looks to be in amazing condition, has been owned by the same family since new, and is completely original. The family has decided its time to let it go, check it out here on craigslist in Galesburg, IL for $19000. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Ikey Heyman for the tip!
When the new Ford was introduced in 1949 it was a big advancement in terms of design. The new design was more modern than its predecessors and a big hit for Ford. The design saw minor tweaks between 1949 and 1951, the pushbutton door handles confirm this is a ’50 and not a ’49. These cars were available in sedan, convertible, and coupe like the car we have here. This car is described as completely original including paint, interior, and drive train, it runs and drives great and needs nothing.
The exact odometer reading is 10,212, this car has obviously been very well cared for. According to the ad the car has never been driven in rain or snow and looks as good underneath as it does everywhere else. There are not any underhood pictures but this one is powered by a flathead inline 6 with a 3-speed column shift and is a relatively low spec car. This is a car that was basic transportation when new, I wonder why it was so well preserved and not used. The only thing that would make it better would be a flathead V8.
Looking inside this car is a true time capsule, everything is as it was when it left the factory in 1950. This one has quite the story to tell and hopefully, the next owner will continue to maintain the state of preservation while occasionally taking it out to a car show. This car will make a great reference for someone doing a restoration that wants to make a factory-correct car. The question is what to do with it, drive and enjoy or make it a museum piece?
I would imagine that once the Henry Ford museum catches wind of this it may very well end up there.
Amazing find…
perhaps it does belong in a museum for a while. But many of those people that associate with this car have already passed.
Hey! Not dead yet! Love this car.
The seller went above and beyond when it came to documenting mileage, a picture of the speedometer and a sticker on the windshield. If you make the claim and ask for a premium because of that, be ready to prove it up.
Steve R
Not all original. FoMoCo didn’t offer seat belts as an option until 1956.
I dont think having seat belts in any older car would make it non-original. Or any other safety type equipment that makes the car operation safer. As a forty year background in concours judging, rules we used in judging allowed us as judges to NOT deduct points for non original safety equipment on any older car. This would include seat belts, directional lights,safety glass and several other accessories that would make the older car safer to drive and not available at the time of purchase.
That makes sense, no points penalty to make the car safer. Would that also allow a dual-circuit master brake cylinder on an older car? That has always seemed to me like a really good enhancement for an old car. One time when I had my car at a show, my neighbor had a beautiful 62 Impala coupe. He was telling me all of the parts that were new, and it included a brake master cylinder and brake lines, but he stuck with the original single-circuit jam jar style, to keep it original. To each his own, I guess.
You don’t need seatbelts with this battle tank. The plastic car you hit will deform around you softening the blow and easing deceleration.
Mike, go on YouTube and type in 59 chevy vs. 08 Malibu, that will definitely change your mind that you don’t need seatbelts in the older vehicles.
What BobS said. When people say “they don’t make them like they used to” the proper response is “good!”
My Dad took a 5 year old me down what we called the old bumpy road in Niagara On The Lake. It had motocross style berms and my dad would hit them turning the car on a 30 degree tilt. One time the passenger door flew open and I was halfway out and Dad caught my arm and reeled me back in the car, 49 Ford.
The kind of car my dad would have owned in the early sixties, flat head V8 scrounged from the wrecking yard among many other parts. He paid twenty five bucks for some of his old clunkers and the yard was full of parts for cheap. His ’40 Ford pickup was a wrecking yard special really, would do 100 miles an hour which in an oldy like that was actually really frightening.
Yeah, people were mangled in accidents, head first through the windshield, in cars from back then, no way you want to play chicken in these. Seatbelts are a welcome addition.
Love these cars! My dad had a dk blue one just like this w/skirts!
Make no mistake, I love the flathead V-8. I own a few and have collected many spare engines, but the 6 in this car in no way (in my mind at least) detracts from the appeal. The six was designed and engineered with many of the advantages of the V-8 but without the very complicated block casting which was a big part of some of the problems (mainly cooling system related) that come with the V-8.
+1
If I’m remembering correctly it also had just as much horse power as the V-8 . I learned to drive in a 1951 F-1 with the flat six.
Yes, the six had 95 horsepower and the V8 had 100. My first car was a 1951 two door with the six and overdrive. After I blew the six up, I swapped in a 1951 V8. That just led to problems with overheating and vapor lock. The six was whisper quiet and dependable.
At the age of 15 yrs old,I thought there could never be a more beautiful car ever built ! At 16 yrs of age, my father bought me a 1951 ford club coupe with a six. I immediately pulled the six and swapped in a 1948 Merc V/8. Life was Great in 1956. Days gone bye.
What would it be like without Ikey?
Six in a row really go!
IO wouldn’t care if it were still sitting in the show room, $19K is too much for a garden-variety ’50 Ford. Plus it’s the 6, not the V8.
George, in my opinion, this is not a garden variety ford, it’s a business coup, that was mainly used for traveling salesmen and the likes, or, in other words, a work vehicle. This was not your average family sedan, which to me makes it about as rare as hens teeth. Like a reader commented earlier, I don’t think the price is too far off.
It’s got to be a great car. It’s from the model year the very year I was born!
I’ve owned 2 46s, a 47 and two 50 Fords. The damned flatheads ran hot and wouldn’t start half the time. And the pump jockey at the local station used to tease me, should I fill up the oil and check the gas? One of the 50s I had was the exact twin to this one. The six ran smoothly and started dependably, and only had 5 less horsepower than the flathead V8. But if this one had the 8, I’d be on the way to pick it up. Nothing like the sound of a flathead ford to make my juices run LOL
When I was a child sitting and looking out of the front screen door a car pulled up. I said so and my mother asked me who it was. When he got out I yelled “It’s Dad!” I got slapped, and when it was known it really was my Dad I had to go take a bath. I swear that car was sooo shiny and I would have sworn it was purple! After getting a chance to see my Dad for a few minutes I was sent to bed. The next morning the car was still there. Only then I could see it was very shiny black! Had a flat head v/8 and sounded really cool. My Dad had built it out of my Grandfathers junk yard by my Dad and he painted it too. Hopped up the engine and hit the road. I will never forget that night or that 1950 Ford! My Dad always had a cool car. I only wish I could afford this car because of the memories! I would drive it daily and probably look like Barney Phife always wiping it where it was touched. I went to live with my Grandfather later on and remember the yard well. Wish I knew then what I know now. I would have a car built from the same 10 acres of cars. first place I ever shot a gun. a 10 gauge side by side rabbit ear and double triggers side by side. My Grandfather set up some hub caps (probably worth several hundred dollars each by now. Told me, “Boy pull both them hammers back and once you got those hubcaps in your sites, pull both of those triggers at the same time. Don’t remember if I hit anything I was aiming at or not, but I sure remember looking up at him as he was laughing real loud at me. I no longer had a weapon in my hands and I was a good 6 feet back from where I was standing before. Sorry, got to rambling, just remembering the most important people and times of my life. Wish I could go back. Now I am the old man.
I don’t agree the price is too much. If this is a documented 10k mileage car, unmolested, it’s worth $19,000 and more. We have been brainwashed into thinking rusted out mustang and camaro hulks are worth tens of thousands of dollars. No, this car is exactly what we should be hunting for in the classic car world.
Emblem on the hood says it’s a V-8. If it has a six, the emblem should be blue with a 6 in it.
The red emblem in the center of the grill bullet looks like a 6 to me.
That was my first car when I was 13 had it till I was 23. I doubt that it has o ly 10000+ miles because when the odometer turns over or somebody turns it back like they used to the numbers are not in line. I wish I still had mine. Thanks. C C
Could be a old US Government vehicle. My dad worked for the USGS as a chief engineer for the survey and this Ford Business Coupe is identical to the government pool of 6 cy l cars that he would draw from to visit survey crews in the midwest during the summer months. They mostly sat unused during the winter. After 4 or 5 years they were auctioned off some with less than 8000 miles. Look for a shadow image on the middle of the doors of a govt crest. They were hard to remove at auction
This car has 110,212 notice how the last three digits are not in line with the first two. That happens on old for when they roll over.
Kim,
I have had original Stewart Warner speedometers in the original packaging, and the digits [all “0”] didn’t line up. Not lining up was fairly common until the 1960s.
I see a lucrative career in television and movie appearances.
This would work for me. Including that flathead 6. Nice car.
This car is a gem!! Just about how it came off the showroom floor!! I really couldn’t buy a car like this!! The only real reason is because I couldn’t leave it alone!! It is in such great shape that it should be but me being me I’d want to put a flathead V-8 in it and upgrade the breaks!! In my opinion it should be left alone and preserved as an original but I’d want to drive it and hot rod it!! It would look cool with side pipes too!!
To those of you who seem to think this is a high mileage car, let’s consider this:
It’s said to be in the hands of the original owner’s family. In that case I suspect the family has lots of photos of the car from the last 70 years, to prove it’s an original car. As someone who has owned & operated a large restoration shop and a court recognized expert in vintage vehicle values and conditions, from what I can see in the photos, this appears to be an original car.
I seriously believe this IS an original car.
Robert Mitchum…Thunder Road!!
Just the wrong color! Built that model car AMT kit when I was a kid several times!
Iconic movie (I still have it on VHS!). Can’t see a ’50 or ’57 Ford without thinking about that flick. The ’50 in Thunder Road was a Tudor Sedan and not a coupe though. It was also actually a ’51 with a ’50 hood, grille and taillights, but they referred to it as a ’50 in the dialogue. The dash, side and rear body panel trim, trunk trim, back glass trim, trunk internal hinges, front and rear bumpers, hub caps, headlamp trim rings and V8 emblems on the fenders are the primary indicators that it was a ’51.
My home town is Galesburg,Illinois. I have seen this car and it is as good as it looks.
I had a black 50 business coupe in the 70s, but mine was a V8 & not stock. My uncle brought the car to Michigan from California & it had a 52 Merc FH in it. The body was straight & solid but had to ‘help’ the interior. It ran strong too. Another of many cars I’ve had that I wish I still had.
I say buy it and slip in a Corvette 327 , 365 hp with a 5 speed and a Ford 9 inch rear end .
Nah. Drop the body on a 4×4 chassis with a 365 HP Cummins. Better yet, make a tractor puller out of it.
Go really ridiculous or just watch.
(No disrespect intended).
I doubt Ford is interested. They do not do museum cars that much. I have a 1950 Ford that still has it’s first set of tires on it with 16,000 miles. The paint fell off the car interior is pretty good but moths got to the wool seat covers in areas. I was on blocks in a barn from 1954 until I got it. They do not seem to bring much. Mine is a two door sedan and has rear window wiper and rear window louvers both Ford options. Has turn signals but no radio.
This is my wife’s grandfathers car if anyone could help find it!