Carbon Pile

[Dave Mellor NJ]

Somebody said,"Whenever I see a pictire like this, a piece of me dies". A shame most all we see are the chassis.From Dontiac on HAMB

[1937hd45]

When the photo was taken I'm sure they tought as we do today seeing a pile of 1992-1995 wrecks.

[Bill Harmatuk]

One thing I respect is / was old people.

I have loved talking to elderly people ALL my life. Listen and you'll learn something.

I have also loved old automobiles ALL my life.

I can tell you stories that you won't believe about old automobiles just being old automobiles.

The Chrysler Imperial phaeton that an old lady had, that was only driven once or twice, ever. The car scared her and her husband, so they parked it under the shelter / car port. The lady and her husband died, the car never moved till the carport fell. The bulldozers came and pushed the whole mess into a hole.

My Dad and I went to look at a 40 Ford coup in the back of a car lot in the country. We asked the owner if the car was still for sale. He said no! He had walked by the car the day before and a wasp flew out from under the car and bit him on the middle of his fore head. ( Still had a lump ) He went and got a gallon of gas... poured it on the car and the rest is history. We had looked at the car, the week before, and it truly WAS a school teacher's car. You could wipe your hand across the hood and the paint was like new. The car was mint, inside and out. The car lot owner was asking 200.00 for the Ford in 1968. Junk back then.

I once visited about 25 acres of 1940 to 1957 cars that had been burned to rusty shells from a grass fire. 48 Dodge convert, 49, 50, 51 Ford convertibles, Plymouth convertibles, several 55, 56,, 57 Chevrolet convertibles, Studebaker convertibles, several Ford woodys, a 47 Lincoln.... Then the bulldozer came and pushed the whole junk yard into a big pile in the woods. I think that one did permanent brain damage. I used to visit it just to look and cry.

Not far from the junk yard that caught fire was an old junk yard with 4, 55, 56, 57 Thunderbirds in a pile, upside down with several crushed cars on top

of them.

Two world wars got the biggest part of the nice old cars, according to my Dad. Wealthy people back in Syracuse NY, drove the cars to the scrappers for the war effort.

My 2 cents.

Bill H

I hate pictures like that.

[oldcarfudd]

When my father was an impecunious college student in about 1927, he did some work for a wealthy long-term friend of the family, Chester Lord of Binghamton, NY. Mr. Lord had a 6-car garage, and no longer needed one of his cars, so he told my dad to take the car into town and sell it for whatever it would fetch. Dad left early in the morning, and came back in the evening. "I went everywhere I could think of, Mr. Lord, and I sold your car, but I'm afraid all I could get was $100," Dad said. Mr. Lord replied: "That's about what I had hoped to get. You did fine."

It was a low-mileage, chauffeur-maintained 1916 Packard twin-six limousine.

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ

[Richard Lichtfel]

I remember the 1953 Glidden tour, Ford was one of the sponsors and at their banquet they showed a film of their first world war scrape yard. Brass cars were driven into the crusher,

nothing removed except the driver and they were crushed.

The audience got so riled up they had to shut the film off.

They probably still have that film.

RHL

[Sweepspear]

My Father used to tell me about a local shop in the 40's-50's that used a Duesenberg they converted as a tow truck.

[Guest prs519]

Not long ago on this site, there was a discussion about a wealthy woman, who in mad patriotism, delivered her nice Duesenberg sedan to the crushers. This made the papers as an example of the selfless effort some made to insure our win in the big war. Not sure how to look up the link but it had pics of the Deusy and some great comments. Viewers might key word war and Duesenberg.

[MCHinson]

prs519,

I think this is what you are looking for:

http://forums.aaca.org/f215/model-j-judkins-bodied-duesenberg-scales-276788.html

[Bleach]

When the photo was taken I'm sure they tought as we do today seeing a pile of 1992-1995 wrecks.

True. I couldn't care less about a pile of 92 or newer wrecks. I could not imagine someone will go through the effort to try and restore one of those electronic plastic clad appliances 50 years or more down the line. There are several decades worth of cars that are far more worthy of preservation than the stuff that's made these days.

It's just my opinion.

[Coley]

Just behind the old Car dealership in MT. Carroll, Illinois they used to take old brass era cars in on trade and then run them off of a cliff into the creek below.

They did this for years. Nothing left of them now.

I tried to buy a Model T sedan with a nice red interior from an old yard east of Mt. Carroll, but it had been bought and covered with a heavy tarp.

The new owners were to come and get it later. I visited that yard almost weekly and watched as the years took it's toll. That was 40 years ago.

That car was never picked up and when they had the sale of the yard a few years ago, all that was left was the engine and rearend laying on the ground.

Just across the field from my house there is a fellow that bought a 1929 Model A coupe and took it apart over 30 years ago.

I keep asking him when he is going to sell me the car, but he just smiles and says "Not yet".

The parts are scattered between 2 farms in sheds and the rechromed parts are in his house.

Probably not going to get this one either.

Time had removed everything else.

John McKay owned the yard and was the most honest yard man I ever knew.

I also had a deal to buy a doctor's buggy with a good top and side curtains from an old barn in the area.

The owner was in his 80s and had taken his bride home in the buggy when they were married. All I had to do was come out in the spring and help him clean the barn so we could get it out.

I came in the spring and was told he had died during the winter.

His widow knew of the deal we had made, but she wasn't ready to part with it.

I still drive by and think about the old buggy.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Coley (see edit history)