It wasn’t that long ago that Vanderbrink Auctions was in the spotlight, as they were the auction house in charge of selling off the Lambrecht Collection. Now we all have our own opinions about that event and its results, but we don’t want to get into that debate right now. We haven’t heard or seen much of Vanderbrink since then, but we weren’t surprised to learn they are managing the sale of another large collection and it would seem they are trying to make it the same kind of spectacle that Lambrecht turned out to be. This collection, known as the Jordon Collection, is a mixture of rusted old parts cars and a couple of rare gems, but we doubt it will achieve the level of notoriety that the low-mileage Lambrecht cars. That being said, there are a few cars worth taking a closer look at. The auction is coming up June 7th in Enid, Oklahoma with online bidding here at Vanderbrink. Special thanks to John E for the tip!
As we stated earlier, this collection is composed primarily of rusty old parts cars. The owner, Oliver, ran a wrecking and salvage business, so the vast majority of the cars are wrecks that he towed home. On the upside, the yard has been closed to the public since 1953. The story is that he and the City of Enid never got along, especially when it came to zoning. Rather than let the city force him to liquidate his cars, he closed the salvage business and fenced off his property. He continued to pull cars home, which is how he managed to accumulate over 200 of them. Most of them were left outdoors, but a few were special to Oliver and ended up being parked indoors.
The cars that will likely attract the most attention will be the one’s Oliver deemed worthy of being parked in one of his barns. One of his personal favorites was his 1937 Cord 810 Supercharged with a Beverly Body. He also had another Cord 810 and a 1937 Lincoln 7 Passenger Limo with a Willoughby Aluminum Body that he appreciated enough to park inside. Now unlike some of the car hoarders we have seen in the past, Oliver used and even raced some of his cars. There are several former race cars being offered and one of them was his own personal race car. In his later years he couldn’t maintain the cars like he once had, so all of the cars parked indoors have fallen into disrepair and will need complete restorations.
Vanderbrink has labeled this as the event for hot and rat rodders, as most of the cars are so rusty that they probably aren’t ideal for complete restorations. They claim there are lots of great parts that those in the modification world will want to have for their period projects. While there are some cars here we would hate to see rodded, such as the 1942 Chevy and Ford Blackout period cars, there are plenty of shells here that we think would make for great hot or rat rods and we would much rather see them used than crushed for scrap. The Cords and the Lincoln on the other hand will likely attract a different kind of collector and we are sure they will bid these cars up quickly. We wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few celebrity appearances, as a few have already ventured to this collection in attempts to buy the Cords.
We aren’t sure how we feel about auction houses trying to turn these collections into media frenzies, but we are glad to see that these cars are all being offered a chance to be saved from the crusher. The Cords and the Lincoln will likely be out of our budget, but with this much rusted iron we are sure there will be more than a few that we could all afford. If you happen to be in the Oklahoma area, be sure to stop by the preview and let us know how it looks! So is there anything here you’d love to have? We know we wouldn’t mind having that supercharged Cord!
O.K…..I’ll be the jerk. So some guy obtains cars and leaves them outside………….to rot.
I guess I’m missing the excitement issue here. Isn’t there a show on T.V that features people that hoard and how is/was this old guy any different?
yep ! Jerk it is.
If he hadn’t saved them they’d be metal cubes going to China and made into cheap tools over there to sell back to us long time ago……
…but there still here !
They are still here.
I would take any of the pickups for a rat rod build. specially the 30s and 40s years. the later 50’s models are still cool but not like the smaller cab older models. Drop the old cab on a newer frame, make it just good enough to be safe, bolt on a bunch of steempunk style funky old stuff, leave it all rusty and go cruzin.
One of the coolest local car guys to do this in my area found an old aluminum Cessna plane setting in a field, cut the front end off kind of like an old truck cab, then put it on an old pickup frame. It is cool as hell.
….his dollar…he can do WHATEVER he please!!!
I get the impression that someone has gone around smashing all the windows.To disagree with the above comment, I tend to look at it as, it is what it is, but at least now the cars have half a chance of being restored/rodded/ratted,parts will be available for finishing and or repairing existing models, so all in all its an improvement
Ian.
One of those looks a lt like my dad’s race car from the 50’s!
While I’m sure this will, again, be a grand opportunity for those that have too much money to spend way too much of it on cars that are not worth their bid just for the intent purpose of being seen doing it, this auction lacks the sparkle of new, unsold cars being stored for decade. This one’s just another old salvage yard auction, beit on a grand scale and with once great cars like Cords. I don’t see the hoards of curious people from all over the world making Enid, OK economy explode for a week and I don’t think the History Channel will be a participate. But then, I could be wrong?
There will no doubt be some pretty cool cars but it will be “an auction” with a lot of people so expect to pay double or triple what you should.
Old car for sale at run down old house or farm 250.00 to 500.00.
Same old car at this auction 2500.00 because 2 rat rod builders gotta have it and don’t know any better then to get into a bidding war with each other in order to feed their egos and WIN so they can enjoy sneering at each other. Seen this type of thing happen soooo many times at local farm auctions. Old ford 9n tractor – value 1000.00 – two idiots start a bidding war and it goes for 1800.00 or more. I hate auctions except for the spectacle of stupid people paying to damn much for everything.
Extraordinary, so maybe they can’t be restored, just looking at them is a site. I would really enjoy just a walk around the place.
….same here…
It would be awesome to make it an outdoor museum, just the way it is.
But given the remote location and the fact, that is financially unfeasible nobody would do this.
Besides, how do you preserve what’s there, not let it get worse,? and/or not fully restore everything… (most people wouldn’t even consider that.
I’ll be going to this with a couple of hundred bucks to bid on an old engine. Just something fun to play with over the summer with my 13 yr old son. Can’t afford the cars and can’t imagine them being realistically priced plus I would really want something that is closer to a driver. Enid isn’t a bad town either so it’ll be a good day out. Can already smell the rust!
Phil, Can you take some pics of what you see that we haven’t seen yet, may be post them through BF? Good luck (sincerely) on getting a good deal.
It’s another one of those logistical nightmares.
After they auction these cars off for hopefully more than scrap value, the cost and expense of moving them only begins.
Unfortunately, the local scrap yard has the advantage, because he has the equipment and is nearby !
The Cord for sure, the Fleetwood Caddie and the 37 Lincoln are my three would-like-to-have-cars. There is no way I would leave them in their current condition to form or create a Rat rod. There is probably only one or two Rat’s that I have seen that I liked as such, but I am a stockist, which is someone who likes the stock design of anything. If an old car like these gets a make-over, (for me) it needs to be with nearly unseen modifications. Like a new radio with new speakers, in the old. I had an old Olds once where I had installed a newer radio in the glove box while I left the original one in the dash, no one was the wiser. These are great cars.
Glad to see this being handled by a professional auction house and advertised so people know about it.
The difference between this collection and some earlier ones featured here is that these cars are going to be offered for sale to people who will want the parts or to restore them, especially the Cords. Some of those earlier collections were just sitting out in the weather until there was nothing much left, at which point they wouldn’t even be useable for rat rods or for crushing and turning into cheap tools in China.
The Mark II is one to get due to its rarity.
i like what this auction company is doing. gives all the stuff one last chance before it goes to the crusher and gets the owner some money. there are a lot of yards that need cleaned up/out. interesting early bids on some of the items like the 57 chevy. the third photo above looks like a ” hubcap city ” which will also get some interest. i waiting for/hoping there is a yard full of midget/sprite that comes up someday soon. great find
You said the collection was composed………you mean decomposed,didn’t you? The Continental should be right up there with the Cords.They’re getting harder to find.
It will be interesting to see what the Continental goes for, I’ve always liked them, you don’t see many, but they don’t seem to go real high, but I could be wrong the way things seem lately.
Do I detect a Retractable behind the Continenta?.Looks like a split roof.
Vanderbrink’s credibility, with me at least, took a hit when I saw the listing for lot 42e, a “1937 Packard 4dr Sedan”
The pictures clearly show a post-war 1946-47 Packard sedan. Tsk-tsk…
When you look at what has become of many of these hoards and old junkyards in the past, this isn’t a bad fate. Besides, when this guy started collecting this stuff it was just worthless old junk. It’s like if someone decided to save every 20 year old Camry, Taurus and Lumina they found today. Today we’d call them a nuisance, but if the hoard stayed around for another 30-40 years, who knows what future generations would think?
Could you imagine the horror of replacing those outdated computers in those cars 30 years from now?!
That would actually be the easy part. You could use a basic aftermarket stand alone system like Megasquirt to drive any early digital computer system. The real problem would probably be something like GM’s early Cadillac system of the mid 70’s, which used an analog computer. The real issue is running systems other than the engine, like the A/C and gauge cluster (going through these issues in my 98 Nissan right now. I’m trying to figure out how to control the compressor with an Arduino microcontroller and fix the cluster’s bad connections.). Not to mention, how the heck do you get a CAN BUS car’s systems to function when one of those systems fails? I mean, at least the early systems used a lot of through hole soldered components but most modern systems are SMD (Surface Mount Device) which is a royal pain to fix. It’s enough to make me wish I had a huge amount of knowledge about electronics. I’m trying to learn but man, is there ever a learning curve with this stuff!
Wow what a collection.. Why would you leave them outside what a clown!!!!!
It is what it is. All these comments are projective tests (think Rorshak ink blot) of the poster’s personality. In my mind…….I got no beef with either the hoarders, auctioneers, prices paid, or anything else…………………..because…………………it is what it is.
Here I thought that the “Super 8” vehicles were straight 8 powered, not straight 6.
We can all guess where the real money will go: Cords, Lincoln. Have to dig that flathead V12! I’d also suggest that the ’56 Chevy will be restored or resto-modded.
There is some rare iron here; the grills/headlight surrounds from the ’40 Studebaker have to be really uncommon. Someone will want those really badly, and buy the car to get them.
But I believe that a huge portion of these cars will wind up being scrapped, and their time spent deteriorating in fields was only a temporary respite. The thing is, since sheet metal was thicker than in later vehicles, many of these bodies could be recovered and made presentable. The big “if” factor is whether there are enough interested parties who are willing and capable to make that happen.
Oh yea… One other comment regarding “Glass is broke.” (are the “en” keys disabled on the writer’s computer?)
Some time ago, some vandals had a field day running through this field of cars, perhaps with a contest to see who could break the most windows. That truly is a shame, and I hope they regret their actions, these many decades later.
No, probably not.
They moved on from breaking windows to kicking the dog, to using drugs, then on to petty theft, grand theft and family abuse, in other words career criminal..
One’s got to go for higher goals, no ?
Hello, I really love this site. I do need some help. Can someone clear up the blackout cars? I am guessing something to do with the war? Thanks for any info.
From my point of view there isn’t a problem here. The auction house needs to get the word out to draw enough bidders for the stuff that isn’t a “high value collectable” otherwise this will end poorly for the rest of the cars. This will end up being a much better result than what happened in Hillsboro Oregon back in the early 90’s. A pair of brothers running the family farm decided they wanted an additional 5 acres of hay field, so they scrapped 5 acres of cars their father had collected. The father had owned a car repair shop in Portland starting in 1911 thru the mid 1950’s. The father would buy cars from customers that were not worth repairing and sell parts off them. Not a wrecking yard so such but a parts house for the repair shop. There was a 5 acre field full of prewar cars and a few post war cars that took months for the two brothers to haul off using a 40′ flat bed. I heard about it about years later when I began working with one of the brothers. Around 2008 the brothers wanted to tear down an old barn but, this time they got a friend to take a metro van load of carburetors and generators and lots of misc small parts out and they got sold throught the Portland Swap. meet instead of scrapped, which they would of done, if they hadn’t been too old to haul it off themselves. At least the last remains of the treasure got saved.
What a beautiful sight this yard is. And sad too. Says somethng about what the car hobby has become that even rusty hulks from a golden time in America’s car history can be sold at auction. I liked it better when no one gave a damn about the cars I loved.
Better get a Tetanus shot before the auction.. hehe…