The Ford Collection

Rust In Peace is a collection of actual photos that were taken and the stories that go along with them while growing up in south central Nebraska as a young man in the 70’s and then traveling in the United States with a lust for rust. On this page you will find some of the greatest Fords ever found and the stories behind them while out in the wilds presented and told by the author Kevin Houtwed over a 40 year period.

1934 Ford Sedan and 1934 Ford 5 window coupe

On a farm here in central Nebraska I found this 1934 Ford that had been parked for what may have seemed like decades to that old Michigan masterpiece out of the eye sight of any road side rust hunters like myself to find until I was told about it one day and decided to check it out. Well, as you see in the back ground, sometimes where there is a little gold dust in the water, you may go up stream and find the real nugget like the 5 window 34 Ford coupe that spent many years in the shadows of that big red barn hopping this day would come when it would be mined to become the pride and joy of a new owner. You ask, why is this story called Fire Red Ford? What does that have to do with a pair of 1934 Fords? In this case it has a lot to do with it as I am going to tell you how close these beautiful old relics came to becoming nothing more than memories. Shortly, and I mean shortly, like less than a few months after these cars were removed from this property, someone driving down the road tossed out a cancer stick without putting it out. When the cigarette hit the ditch along the road it started a ditch fire. With the wind in, or should I say not in its favor, the fire started down the driveway of this abandoned farmyard and burned for almost 1/8th mile right up to this beautiful barn. It was almost like the fire was directed to this area as the grass along the driveway was only a few feet wide that carried the fire along the edge of the drive right up to this majestic barn. In minutes the barn was engulfed in flames along with the whole feedlot area you see in the picture leaving that majestic old wooden castle on the creek to nothing more than a foundation of broken concrete and smoldering piles of debris for a sickened land owner to clean up. Do you think the person that tossed the cigarette out that day had any idea the heartache and problems that were caused by their actions? Think about how close cars like this can come to being destroyed after all the weather and years of neglect by something you do not normally think about like a ditch fire started by negligence and the perfect wind in the wrong direction on a day when the land owner was not around to stop it. In the end, the cars were saved, the barn was lost, the grass came back, after the frost. RIP

1940 Ford and 1946 Fords

This is one of my favorite rusty ravine photos, I have ever taken while out doing some digging around last winter in south central Nebraska.
There are so many memories in a ravine like this one, that we will never know or even have a chance to be told, no matter how long you sit and listen as the wind blows up that ravine out of the river bottom, that became a storage unit for these old Fords back in the early 60's. 
I think it would be so neat to inrustigate these old cars right down to the day they were pushed into this crevice of doom or take it one step further and find out who owned them and drove them before the fatal day they became sheetmetal soil. 
I can guarantee you that someone would remember most of them if they were drove in the late 50's in and around the area of this creek bottom. I did find something interesting you can easily spot in the lower photo on the front fender of the 40 Ford. Someone back in the day may have done a few modifications to this car with the addition of the 3 fake Buick type side holes in the fender on each side. Maybe they put a nail head Buick in it back in the day, who knows, and for that reason alone someone remembers that car for sure. There really is a lot of good parts being stored here for the most part that should be salvaged before it is to late or someone covers them up to make their field a little bigger.
The day I took this photo it was about 6 degrees outside and all I wanted to do was take this old 40 Ford home and warm it up.
All my life I have heard some good ole boy say, she or old Betsy really flew when you put the pedal down. Now if people related their cars back in the day to some old Grandma's name, why did they leave her out in the cold or push her over the edge like this?
Maybe the edge was where some of those old ladies took a few of their men back in the day. RIP

1927 Ford Roadster

Every year when we start to get those early snows with crispy ice covering lightly on the ground, I think about cars like this little 27 Ford Roadster I found and photographed around 1992 out in the Sandhills of Nebraska that had been parked at a time when the value would not have been worth mentioning for any reason at all.  
I learned early in my hunting days that after those light dustings that was the best time to go inrustigating since the metal shows up through the trees and down in the draws, especially after the sun comes out and melts the snow and ice off the steel first as it warms up long before anything else. 
This old model T Ford sat at on a farmyard for years and was never going to be sold at any price according to its owner. 
Being me, I have heard that so many times that I do not put much stock in it and always made sure to come back to visit from time to time. With this one, I have noticed the price must have been right or someone stopped by in the middle of the night with no money, but had the right trailer since it is no longer enjoying being someone's fence line Ford that was never for sale at any price. RIP

1940 Ford Deluxe

This is really a neat picture if you look close you can see the whole life of this farmyard piled around this awesome 1940 Ford deluxe sedan.
I knew this car very well as I grew up 1/2 mile down the road from it on the farm. It was a favorite place to hunt rabbits when I was a young kid. I always knew this place was kind of special because of the things that were hauled here, not far from the old farmstead. 
I remember one day when I was maybe 10 years old we opened the trunk on this car and found a little metal box that was full of old black and white pictures of farming and livestock scenes. I wish so many times I would have saved that box, But it was not mine and I was not going to take it. I know in the end it was destroyed like the rest of this little iron pile.
Check out the wooden grain drill and the push lawn mower with no motor. There was a wood burning stove there along with the next generation gas stove. It was like you could stroll through the years and see when they made an upgrade on the farm. It was all there. 
Later in life I wanted and tried to buy that 1940 Ford many times and was never successful. The man who owned the farm actually was my relation and told me it was way to far gone to mess with and just would never put a price on it. Then lets not forget the old Lutheran country church that was just down the road 1/4 mile from that little iron pile that took all the old wrought iron fence that went all the way around the church property and piled it there just behind that 1940 Ford. It was really neat fence with awesome detail of crosses etc. It was all there including the gates, corner posts and all. I really wanted to save that also. No luck on that either.
Well guess what? That farm sold around 2011 and all the goodies I have told you about along with so much more ended up becoming scrap iron, hauled to Hastings Nebraska for pennies of the real value. I told the guys that cleaned it up a few months after they hauled it off that the hood on that car alone was probably worth $1,500.00. The whole car was really in pretty good shape. Again I was so sick to see all this history be hauled off to be made into the hood of a new car or a piece of I-beam that could ultimately be used to build a trailer to haul more beautiful old iron. You cannot win them all. Not one person became a winner here in the end. RIP

1931 Ford Coupe

The story that I am going to share with you is of not the car in this picture, but of one much nicer and so unique to how it was found and brought back to life here in a small town in Nebraska. 
It starts with a friend I met a few years ago that likes to go out and scout old farmyards, do a little metal detecting etc.
He told me I could share this story, but I was not to mention names or locations due to family members etc. that surrounded the car, I am getting ready to tell you about.
Around 18 years ago the farmyard scout had a brother that was helping a farmer, or had been for quit a few years on a part time basis. The brother told him of a farmyard that was over grown with trees or basically covered itself up over the years and could barely be recognized from the road. It was located near a creek bottom also that did not even have a decent road going to it. It was owned by the man he was working for on a part time basis.
They got permission to go and scout out the vacant farmyard from the land owner. The next nice weekend that followed they were off digging for rusty gold.
Now, neither one of these guys were into old cars as that is usually who finds what I am about to tell you about.
There was an old barn with a dairy lean to on one side that had been converted into a place to back a wagon or a tractor into later in years after the dairy or the cows all dried up. 
The guy running the metal detector cleared back some small shrubs and junk away from the opening of the lean to get up close to the building with his metal detector. 
As he was looking and listening to his detector he noticed some chrome shinning on something through a crack in the rotten wood of the door on the building. 
He called to his brother and said, I think we just hit gold. The brother came busting out of the old house, across the dry rotted porch, leaving his DNA through his shoes on rusty nails sticking up from the porch floor, down the uneven concrete steps and to his brothers side, who was trying to pry a board back so they could look through that old swing out door like a pair high school kids before the play looking through the curtain to see how many people are showing up.
They could not get the door open enough to get inside since many little trees had grown up right in front of the door, so they decided to go back to the farmer who owned the land and see him about the car and what it was.
As these 2 men drove down the driveway back at the farmers place, he came out of the shop and asked them with a grin, So you came back to share the gold with the old man right? 
Little did he know, that is really what was about to happen. They went on to tell him what they had found and asked how long ago he put that car in there? He told them, I bought that farm in 1971, and to be honest, I have never even looked in any of those buildings. You are telling me there is a old car of some sorts in that lean to? Yes, they replied. 
They asked if he had a chain saw and if they could use it to get the door open and see what was waiting for them to throw a life line to. He said yes, but I am going with, this is too good to miss, with a smirk and a smile. I am pretty sure he was thinking to himself ( yeah right ).
They cleared the small trees enough to get the door open and found the nicest little 1930 Ford coupe you could ever run on to this late in the game. Remember, we are talking about the late 1990's.
The farmer had no idea who parked it there or how long it had been a prisoner to that farmyard. 
The 2 men that found the car had no desire to do anything with it, and besides it was not their's to begin with. The farmer took an interest in it immediately. He pulled it out and took it to his shop and with a little help from an old mechanic friend, they had it running and driving down the driveway 2 days later. 
Like I said, I wish I knew more about the farmer, the car and the location, but I promised I would not release that information in my story. The fact is, I know the story is true and I just love sharing ones like this to you even if I do not have an actual picture or was not there myself. 
In my world the story and the fact the car was rescued and not burnt up during a clean up the barn yard torching somewhere along the line, is worth 10 fold the value of that nice little model A Ford in any condition. RIP

1936 Ford sedan

In 1983 my Dad asked if I wanted to go with him to northeast Nebraska to an auction that had some stuff he wanted to watch sell, eagerly I said sure, sounds like a great outing to see some new country. This was a part of the state I had never been to at that time in my life, plus very seldom did my dad take me with for the whole day to do something other than work. At the auction I very quickly got bored with the talk of corn pickers and corn drags as that was all we ever talked about around home on the farm, so I told my dad I wanted to take the pickup and go do a little scouting around the local area. I did not go 2 miles when this motor city masterpiece was waving its tail at me across the pasture like a whale to a passing ship on the high seas. I pulled over and took a short 1/4 mile walk across the field to find this old Ford along with many other pieces of iron and steel that kept it company sitting there watching the days and years go by hoping one day someone would salvage at least a quarter panel or the whole rear section to help build their dream car back home. I do not know why, but to this day this is one of my favorite photos I have ever taken. Maybe it was because it was a perfect day or maybe the fact I spent a day with my dad that was something other than work. I still remember walking out to this sheet metal statue I nearly stepped on a prairie chicken in some taller grass, as it busted out of the grass and into the sky in front of me, right across in front of this old Ford. I realized for a moment that was the first prairie chicken I had ever seen and also how awesome this action painting with nature and the man made beauty fit in the same frame. My Dad and I really had a good time that day at the auction and looking at early iron, listening to his thoughts on the valuation or should I say him asking me, why do you want that junk, as he would share stories of misery when he was younger trying to keep them running and getting things done. I remember a few weeks after the auction we found out that some local neighbor had bought a wooden fruit box that was full of old news papers for 25 or 50 cents. After he got home he decided to look at the old papers for fun and found a lot of cash had been hidden over the years in those papers. He doing the right thing returned the money back to the family where it belonged. Now you can flip a coin on most people and it could go either way on the way this story ended, but it is for sure that this old Ford lost the toss, unlike the family that realized through the fruits of ones labors and the honesty of their neighbors life does not always come up TAILS YOU LOOSE. RIP

All makes and models

Early last spring I took a two hour drive southwest of Grand Island Nebraska to take a closer look at this fence that was made out of hundreds of early car and truck frames that surrounds a huge ranch that I have been told about for years. 
When I got to the location, I could not believe what I was looking at. There is literally frames from every make and model of cars from very early to later 30's that go for miles around this ranch. 
Where did they come from you ask? 
The family that owned this piece of real estate had one of the biggest salvage yards in this part of Nebraska back in the early years of salvage yards. 
This yard was way before my time and was cleaned up many years ago. 
From the stories I have been told, there was nothing like this place as there was about any kind of car or truck that was ever manufactured parked out there that could be purchased, all or parts. 
How often do you hear the high school jock say, I would give anything to go back to 1969 and show these boys how we played ball and so on. 
Well, let me tell you, while they are going back to play ball or become the genius we all did, I want to go back to this ranch and drive over the hill to see thousands of cars sitting there just waiting for me to come from the future with a check book as thick as a wire tied bale of fresh prairie hay, trucks with trailers lined up from my driveway to this location with every gear head that ever lived ready to load and save all the beautiful pieces of iron artwork that these frames that are now being used for fence posts carried down the road. 
I guess you could say the frames did get saved for something that went to a good cause.  
Could there be steel fence posts on land across the road from this ranch that were made from recycled parts of cars that may have a connection with some of these frames after being recycled multiple times since the 50's and 60's when this fence was put in?
That is a question that is impossible to answer, but one question you may have that can be answered is the fact that this is one time almost every automobile manufacture in America has ties to each other, proving when we all work together, stay straight with each other and not worry about shape, sizes, or holes from our past, we can keep even the meanest bulls on the right side of the fence. RIP

1937 Ford sedan delivery

This is really the closest any car ever came to being waded up and was saved at the last minute and I mean the last minute that I was ever involved with.

A very good friend of mine that does dirt work and has developed farms for people in south central Nebraska called me from his cell phone one day at around 2:00 in the afternoon. He told me he was less than 30 feet from an old car body moving dirt and piling junk to be hauled off from this site.

He thought being 30 feet from this 1937 Ford sedan delivery that Ford made very few of that maybe he should call me. He was not sure what it was, but when he told me it was a Ford with solid sides and a single door on the back I dropped everything I was doing and headed on a 2 hour trip southeast to see what it was.

When I got there I could not believe what was about to be pushed up in a pile along with all the other scrap iron on that old farmyard.

In this picture I and standing on the edge of the dirt pile less than 15 feet from the delivery were they had been clearing trees and other old scrap iron pieces. If my friend would not have called it would have been to the iron scrap for this wonderful piece of history before the end of that day. I made a deal with the landowner and hauled it out that evening, brought it back to Grand Island and cleaned it up. It was sold to a man in Lincoln Nebraska that has since started a restoration street rod project on it.

As I haul a rescued victim home like this, I always wonder if those hard working, sweat ridden men from Detroit that are more than likely all passed, are looking down on me saying, it may only be on a trailer, but its back on the road because 1 man cared enough to call and another man cared enough to drop everything he was doing and basically make an ambulance run to save its life. I am sure someday I may get my answer to that question. RIP

1940 Ford coupe

A man walked into my booth 2 years ago at the Nebraska state fair and told me he had a 40 Ford coupe sitting out on a farm down in Kansas he wanted me to come and take pictures of. 
You all know how time flies, and how we say, next few weeks I will get that done and the next thing you know 2 years go by.
Well, a few weeks back, I took a Sunday afternoon and headed his way. When I got to his place he said hop in, it’s right down here east of the house. 
As crazy as it sounds, 30-40 plus years ago, he told me this car was up in the yard you see in the background until one day his dad was tired of looking at it and dragged it to where it is sitting with a loader tractor. He went on to tell me it was a complete car until his Uncle started to make racer out of it and took it apart. 
The only thing that had not been stripped from it to date is the seat his Uncle put in it that came from a bomber plane from ww2.  Now, I do not know about this farm, but where I grew up in Nuckolls county Nebraska we had fighter planes flying over head on a regular basis out of SAC Air Force Base in Omaha Nebraska doing practice maneuvers low enough some days you could see the rivet indentions on the planes panels. I am telling you when you are going across a field on a convertible tractor or for you who don’t understand, a tractor with no cab and one of those fighter planes came up from behind and shot over the top of you without you seeing it first, you seriously had thoughts that ranged from a war scene to what usually prevailed and turned into a direct connection to the Hanes corporation and a washing machine.
There is not much left of it now but memories, and the owner was not sure what he wanted to do with it. He says it is kind of nice to think about when he is out doing his farming every year. You see, they do not always need to be in running condition to give the owner complete satisfaction and maybe if that farm was like ours there could be fighter planes flying over from time to time that have a closer connection to this old combat coupe than they will ever know. RIP