Minneapolis Street Sighting: The Abandonments

Every so often, when scouting the city, I come across various abandoned vehicles; some are easily dismissed as crap, and I don't shoot them. Others beg me to stop and take a closer gander. This pair of classic American workhorses piqued my interest enough for me to hop off my bike and dig out my camera.
Trucks like this are usually found in Kansas, and not in Minnesota--at least not in the Twin Cities. Parked on Portland and I think 37th or 38th, this pair was sitting there for what seemed like eternity. It seems that this lot is a decaying dumping grounds for anything abandoned; I've seen dead Ford Tempos, a few Pontiac Sunfires, and a mid 1980s Chevrolet S-10, but never anything as lucky as this find--and nothing quite as cool since.














First things first, this is a relatively early Dodge pickup; I used Allpar as a reference site, and I have come up with this one as a 1941 model or thereabouts; this bodystyle was introduced in 1939, and continued through the 1947 model year. The chassis code for these trucks was WC for the basic 1/2 ton models, and WD for full-fledged one ton versions.
Las registered in 1974, this poor truck certainly has seen better days. Being off the road for more than thirty-five years, it looked to be in reasonably decent shape, especially for a Minnesota truck. Sure, it probably has some hidden rust, but what Minnesota truck left to the elements doesn't?
The paint is obviously shot, but the body itself doesn't look to be too far gone. All the emblems are there, and surprisingly, all are in pretty nice shape. Even the interior looks quite nice for its age. I'm no expert, but I'd say this Dodge would probably make a good restoration project if someone hasn't already snapped it up.













Next up is this 1967-1972 GMC pickup; for being nearly thirty years newer than the Dodge, it seems to be worse off; the bedsides are so caked with rust that they'd likely need replacement skins if a future owner wanted to have a functional truck. Amazingly, the rest of the truck looks no worse than trucks found in Kansas or Oklahoma; I guess rustproof hadn't gotten to trucks when this one was built. Aside from the bed, this poor GMC looks like it probably is a good starting point for a project, provided there isn't any hidden rust. It's got current collector plates, so I'm sort of miffed about why its just sitting there; maybe it's going to be restored, along with the Dodge. I base that theory on the fact that both trucks dissappeared about the same time, never to be seen again. I did find a rotten same-era GM cab, and a set of fairly rusty white trailer wheels commonly used on this generation truck so who knows.
This is a one-time, as I've never found anything this cool in that spot since--and believe me, I keep looking. I'm just glad I took out my camera when I did, and documented these two pieces of American history.