OK, this it a little OT, but I am so astonished and amazed, that I have to share the story. I've had more than my share of luck, and some crazy unlikely occurrences of serendipity, but this one takes the cake.
Last Thursday, I made a deal to buy a rust free 68 Dodge crew cab project truck from a guy out in northwestern Montana. Not wanting to lose out on it, I hooked up my trailer right after work and hit the road. I got there Saturday morning, and he met me at a cafe in town for breakfast before he led me out to his very remote boneyard. While we were eating, he asked "what's the oldest car you have?" I told him about my 1910 Maytag, kind of expecting him to have never heard of it like most folks.
Maytag:
He says he thinks he has some 1910 Maytag parts in the yard. What??!!! Who has 1910 Maytag parts, they don't exist anymore, there's only about 10 Maytags left on the planet! So now, I'm way more exited about what he might have for the Maytag than the old Dodge. When we get out to his spread, it looks like he has about 10 acres of cars, trucks and parts. I checked out the Dodge and agreed that it was as advertised. Then we walked out into the yard and walked right to the front half of a Maytag frame, with the headlight brackets and some other little castings and brackets still on it! He said he had the axles too, and we wandered around for about 45 minutes looking for the stuff, but he couldn't find them. I didn't want to give up but we headed back towards his building and viola, there they were, laying in the weeds, complete front and rear axle assemblies!
I ended up giving him his asking price for everything after a half-hearted and fruitless attempt at negotiating.
Here's the crazy thing about this: I was fortunate enuff to have acquired this car several years ago from a gentleman who purchased it from the Harrah collection. It was professionally restored, but was missing one part: The fill plug in the differential, a unique part. It is a very flat plug with an oddball thread.
I was thinking I would have to disassemble the rear end to reverse engineer and make a new plug. Now I don't have to. Now I'm back home, but I'm still marveling at this coincidence. I may be one of only a couple people on earth who would have a need for 1910 maytag parts. He may be the only person on earth who had any. And somehow we came together because of an old Dodge truck. Truth is stranger than fiction!
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