So I got the car up on the lift to look it over. Very solid car except for rot out at the rockers and the lower quarters. I can fix that later. Doors open nice, windows work perfectly, hood, trunk, and door lines are pretty good. All good news. On with the plan. The first thing I did was pull the gas tank, wheels/tires, rear axle, and leaf springs off the car. These are all things I don't care about but might be worth something to someone else. I also unbolted the entire front suspension. I had no clue these cars had a removable subframe up front, separate from the frame. It made it really easy to drop out as an assembly.
I listed the wheels/tires on Craigslist and sold them for $500 within two days! Maybe I should have listed them for more, I don't know. At least I have $500 now that I didn't have yesterday.
I began looking over the rear end and it was actually pretty nice. Somebody had put a 55-57 rear in the car which back in the day was a major upgrade. They also spent time sand blasting and painting it with some real deal paint, not just a rattle can job. It had new brakes and what looked like a new yoke as well. Not a posi though. Listed this on Craigslist and got $200 for it 3 days later.
No luck selling the other parts yet...
I also pulled both font and rear bumpers to get ready for dropping the frame out of the car. Everybody assumes that these big bumpers on early cars are heavy but I was really surprised, they weren't heavy at all. I decided to weigh them to see. Front bumper and bumper guards together weighed 22 pounds while the larger rear bumper with guards weighed 37. More than I thought by how they feel but still much lighter than they look. The bumper brackets are nothing more than essentially 1/4" x 2" flat bar formed and welded together. They were 8 pounds per side. I will sell them also and make something tubular and nicer later on...