I posted the other day about finding the original (broken) cruise/turn signal stalk underneath the passenger seat. Well, I just made another interesting discovery. I noticed that there was an old, dry, crusty strip of duct tape inside the gas filler flap. I just figured it was holding on the wood grain decal and never paid much attention to it. But I got curious so I peeled it off. I noticed there was some metallic foil wrapped around something underneath that tape. My first thought was was this some sort of sensor or something? But then I peeled off the foil and lo and behold, it was an original set of keys! Someone at some point wrapped up a set of keys and stuck them in there, presumably as an emergency back-up. The guy I bought the car from probably had no idea that was there, since the two sets of keys he gave me were hardware-store copies. Getting an original set of keys was a nice surprise.
It's so cool to find the originals. The only bad thing about those is the key code tags are missing. If you had the codes, new keys can be cut that don't pattern worn keys.
That was one thing that was nice about my old '81 Bonneville Safari - it came with two sets of original keys, AND metal dealer tags from the original selling dealer in Winona, Minnesota.
Yeah, my '83 Colony Park had everything. The keys and tags, the entire owner's manual package, original purchaser's warranty plate, yadda yadda. That wagon was originally bought at the Mercury dealer in Philomath, OR. Sadly, a lot was left behind in Everett when I moved here, and that paperwork may have been included in what was left behind. I pulled the locks, have the keys, but the tag was in the paperwork.
I'm sort of surprised there would have been a franchised dealer IN Philomath - it's a VERY small town about 3 miles west of Corvallis, on the highway going out to the coast. And Corvallis itself isn't all that large. Large enough though to have 2 or 3 franchised dealers
Well, maybe it's the owner that lived in Philomath. Because you're right, it's like La Pine--blink your eyes, you're through town already. It's been a decade since I looked at the warranty card.
