Remembering What You Saw At The Autowreckers Over The Years.

[8E45E]

How many times have we ALL been at the local autowreckers, be it a Pick'n'Pull yard or more expensive operation where the staff removes the parts and you see a car that was 'interesting', but not interested enough to give it more than a second look?

 

I recall seeing cars over the years that one learns later on are rare, or unusual where I wished I had at least written down the serial number/VIN before the days of iphones.  At least two of these cars I remember seeing in the wreckers in the 1980's were a picked over 1968 Mercury Park Lane two door hardtop with the 'Yacht Paneling' option, and a factory 1965 Meteor Rideau taxicab.  Again, interesting cars for some, but still odd enough.  And there were higher end cars including 1960's Cadillacs and Lincolns that made their way into the wrecking yard that I never gave a second thought of really checking out closely like I would if I saw one in there now.

 

Craig

[pkhammer]

A complete looking 1969 Mercury Cyclone "Cale Yarborough Special". That was about 1981-82. I thought it was very interesting at the time but not enough to ask the owner about it.

[Guest]

 When I was 15, I seen a coupe with a golf bag door in the rt. qut.

 I knew it was special but did not have the money to buy it.

[JACK M]

Several of my old rides.

[TAKerry]

I hate to admit but I have only been to a 'junk yard' looking for parts maybe once, and that was 40 yrs ago. A couple of years ago when my real estate license was active I was brokering a deal with an older couple. They owned a large yard and had sold it, I was helping them find a new home. Their current house was literally in the middle of the junk yard and I went there several times to see them. His yard was very well organized, almost looking like a parking lot with like vehicles all parked together. Directly behind his house were a few 'keepers' that he had stored. I know there was a 1980 Trans Am pace car, 78 pace car vette, a couple of other vettes, and some 60's mopar stuff. He also had a restored 70 GS buick in his garage.  I didnt want to muddy the waters so to speak and talk to him about selling any of them with my realtor hat on (big mistake) so I waited until the deal was done and I approached the new owners if any, the trans am in particular were for sale. I got a big NO, said they had no titles and were going to be crushed. They wouldnt even entertain parting them out. After the fact I am sure I could have worked a deal with the original owners. He was a bit of a curmudgeon, grumpy and hard to get along with but after awhile I developed a very good rapport with both he and his wife.

[John Byrd]

Three different cars that immediately pop to mind that made me "want" were a 54 Studebaker Drivers Training car with dual controls that I was able to purchase, a big 1965 Pontiac Catalina 2 +2 with a 421 4 speed and one of the 57 or 58 4 door hardtop Mercury station wagons that the yard would not sell... And yes, those two rotted and were crushed I'm sure.  So many others that should have been saved, but those 3 are my most instantly remembered from "junk yards" that I frequented in the 60s thru' the 90s.

[Str8-8-Dave]

So when the first of 3 1931 Buicks, an 8-86 coupe, came into my life in 1959 it showed up with a braze patch next to #6, aluminum pistons with rings sitting on top on cylinders 6, 8 and a terminally cracked cylinder head.  My older brother was the keeper of that car at the time and after learning of the cracked head and my dad coming home from Ford with 8 new pistons for the car my brother paid for a teletype search that turned up an 80/90 series chassis with engine in Spring Lake, MI, not far from Hickory Corners where the Red Barn car museum is today.  He loaded his Kennedy toolbox and me into his 1962 Austin Healy Sprite and off we went.  When we got there we were issued a 53 Plymouth yard car, the yard owner saw the roller skate wheels on the Sprite and decided to save a trip to where the Buick was with a tow truck to rescue a stuck shportz kar.  After getting our hands good and dirty removing the head and miscellaneous items from the Buick we took said yard car for a short jaunt around the old car section of the yard and it was amazing, it had a ton of cars from the mid 30's to early 50's with the odd 1920's car.  There were old bus bodies with engines, transmissions, axles, lights, gas tanks, radiators and on and on.  Many years later when I became keeper of the first Buick I tore the car all apart hoping to do a pretty good restoration.  I discovered the car was missing some parts and needed replacement of some parts.  I drove out to that old Spring Lake yard and it had been totally bulldozed,  no old cars, no busses full of parts, just late model stuff to be crushed and sold for scrap. 

[Harold]

In the early sixties, when I was about 10 years old, a local junkyard in Brooklyn had a Pierce Arrow behind a fence near the sidewalk.  I was too young to inquire about it but the car made an impression.   Another yard a couple of miles away had a Model T roadster up front.  Hope they both were rescued.

[JFranklin]

Here is a yard I liked.

[plymouthcranbrook]

We used to have several “junk yards” on the western edge of the town I grew up in. Most are now gone or completely changed in operation.  But when I was a young driver trying to keep junk running I spent a lot if time wandering through them.  Cars stayed in the yards for years it seemed and like Jack said my first car ended up in one after we gave up on it. I saw it for a long time after that.(1954 Plymouth if anyone is counting). I remember seeing all kinds of cars from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Of course then they were just old junks so most did not register in my long term memory. However being relatively close to the North Shore communities north of Chicago there were many wrecked foreign cars such as MG’s and Triumphs. I remember several Jaguar 120’s, 140’s and a couple of XKE’s.  Mercedes and Saabs,(the older 3 cylinder kinds) as well as Volvos.  Bring a sports car nut I had dreams of fixing one up but you can imagine how that worked out. I remember going on a Canoe trip back in 1989 near Grayling Michigan. One of the leaders was from there and was restoring a I want to say 1940 Ford panel truck. He knew where several yards were up there and we made a few short trips to look for parts.  I was just amazed at the variety of really old cars in those yards. Cars from the 20’s through the 60’s piled up everywhere. Some the yard owner said would start right up if he put a battery in them.  Now with yards stripping out and disposing of cars so quickly I suppose that dream is not available to any younger car folks.

[junkyardjeff]

I seen a 66 Custom 500 in a junkyard that had finned aluminum front brake drums like a Buick,should have grabbed them since I had never seen them on a Ford and never seen any since.

[NailheadBob]

I worked in a new car dealer, and would watch as a customer would come in and spend a lot of time picking out options for his new order of a car, then the car came in they were so excited, then they were so hard to deal with picking apart the car and repairs, then down the road many years later, I would go to the junkyard and there was the car they ordered, not smashed just just worn out.

[CarlLaFong]

2 hours ago, JFranklin said:

Here is a yard I liked.

I grew up near Ben's and went there often when I as a kid

[JV Puleo]

By far the best one I knew was Bill's Auto Parts in Valley Falls, RI. Bill had been in business since the 30s (at least) and his yard was literally full of pre-war cars. He refused to scrap them...I bought a PI RR (reduced to a stripped chassis) there for $300. In fact, that was his standard price for just about any car there. I also bought a 1918 Buick - largely complete but falling apart for the same price. The oldest car I remember was a very early 1 or 2 cylinder chassis. There was very little left but I bought the front tie rod from it for a 1905 Cadillac. It fit perfectly without any modification although it clearly wasn't a Cadillac chassis.

[greenie]

I was spoiled as an adolescent and young adult. My friend and his father operated a large auto recycling operation about 30 miles NW of Baltimore. I was afforded unlimited wandering privileges. Later my brother and I helped with some building improvements. One day I assisted with the removal of a weathered Duesenberg touring car that was destined to reside atop the frame of a Ford pickup truck frame. Sad, I thought at the time- but better than slowly rusting away. 

[Terry Harper]

A grew up in northern Maine hearing the various legends surrounding Calvin West's junk yard in Limestone, Maine. One summer when I was 16 or 17 a friend and I decided that we just had to check it out. When we arrived Calvin was working on an old steel wheeled tractor. After a few minutes of building up the courage I asked him if we could look around. He very promptly in very colorful and clear terms let it us know that wasn't going to happen. We quickly retreated to the car but than I decided to give it another try. So a I started helping him work on the tractor - asking questions about it etc. After a few minutes he said that that it was obvious we were not going away so yes we could look around but... we were not allowed to cross the railroad tracks the bisected the property and if we opened a door or lifted a hood he would promptly blow our knee caps off! Needless to say we followed his rules! After that, I was welcome anytime. In fact one of the last times I was there, just before Calvin passed away, I shot a bunch of video but now I can't find it! 

 

Best guess puts the number of cars at around 5,000. Most dated from the 40's and 50's with a few going back to the 20's Across those railroad tracks was like walking through a 1950's drive in movie theater that had all the cars left behind. Calvin bought very few wrecked cars. Being close to what was then Loring Air Force Base he got a lot of cars that were simply left behind when people were re-posted. I remember a Model T Ford truck that was allegedly the first mail truck in Presque Isle, Maine as well as a early ALF Firetruck from the town of Limestone. It was an experience! Now its just an overgrown field.

[JFranklin]

53 minutes ago, CarlLaFong said:

I grew up near Ben's and went there often when I as a kid

Do you remember seeing a model A peanut/popcorn truck? It was the most interesting vehicle on the lot.

[nsbrassnut]

Up north in Eastern Canada the weather ate most of the older cars that were left out in the weather.

 

But when i started to go looking in the late '70's there were still a couple yards with stuff back to the '30's. One of the more interesting was old Airplane Murphy's yard outside of Berwick Nova Scotia. The yard was started back in the 1930's, but regularly cleared out when scrap prices were high. But the last batch of cars that went in from the the mid '50s to early '60's were still in the yard. And of the better ones, no parts could be removed, but the price for the entire car was a bit high. So most ended up decaying into the ground.

 

But I did find a '36 Nash Ambassdor 8 twin ignition sedan in there. And fell for and nearly purchased a complete and at the time restorable '46 Packard Custom Super Clipper, the full classic one. Instead I purchased my '36 Packard 120 as I really wanted something with running boards and side opening hoods. And that Packard is still in the garage 40+ years later.

 

But one of the most surprising cars I saw in a private collectors junk yard in in Connecticut in the early '90's. Beside a '40 Ford convertable coupe, a Packard 400 and a couple of Nash Metropolitons and some other neat stuff, way back in the woods was a '57 or '58 Cadillac Eldorado Birarritz with the stainless steel roof. It was basically a parts car by then, but still one of the most surprising and interesting ones that I have ever run across in a junk yard. And that day I left my camera out in the car and don't have any pictures of the site.

 

Stay well.

 

Jeff

Nova Scotia

[nsbrassnut]

And I forgot to mention how Airplane Murphy got his nick name.

 

A few miles away was a BCATP (British Commonweath Air Training Program) WW11 training airbase. After the war there was the usual war assets surplus sales. His story was he showed up in his greasy work clothes and the base commander didn't believe he could afford any of the stuff (which was going cheap). He pulled a roll out of his pocket and convinced him otherwise. And later hauled away a Lockheed Hudson twin engine bomber, and at least one Avro Lancaster 4 engine bomber. Chopped the wings off with an axe, lift the tail wheel into the back of the pick up truck and away you go.

 

People called him crazy. But he made his money back and then some over the years. Especially when the Korean war broke out and the Air Force started to by back some of the Lancaster parts. Most of that stuff was gone by the time I got there, but one of the Hudson fuselages was still there and you could see bits of aircraft aluminum lying around the yard.

 

 

[nsbrassnut]

I confused the Cadillac. The correct model is the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham with the stainless roof. My bad.

[zepher]

Growing up the various Pick A Part lots were full of 50's and 60's cars that most of us here would love to have these days.

There was a private residence that had at least 20 of the first gen Big Birds just sitting in a side yard.

I don't know if those T-Birds ever got restored, parted out or junked but they all disappeared in the 90's.

[CarlLaFong]

1 hour ago, JFranklin said:

Do you remember seeing a model A peanut/popcorn truck? It was the most interesting vehicle on the lot.

Too many years ago to remember any specifics. I recall seeing perfectly good "A"s waiting to be dismantled. As a newly minted old car nut, it killed me to see them when my driveway was empty. Are you an old Sun Valley boy?

[John_S_in_Penna]

Here's an account out of the past, given by a

man I know who has written about his experiences:

 

In the spring of 1939, as a Dartmouth College freshman,

he was bicycling past Bailey Brothers' Auto Parts in

West Lebanon, New Hampshire.  Among the interesting

cars in the junkyard were a 1918 Cadillac model 57 touring;

a 1914 dual-windscreen Rolls-Royce;  a gas-lighted

Pierce mountain wagon;  and a 1920 Stutz Bearcat.

 

He bought the 1918 Cadillac because his family had had

one of those before he was born.  It was quite easy to

get running.  It had probably been junked because it was

thought obsolete, not because it was in terrible shape.

He drove it as his regular car and put 20,000 miles on it

before World War II. Now, 82 years later, he still owns it. 

 

Here's a picture taken about 4 years ago.  He's the man

with the dark umbrella:

 

 

[5219]

I don't get to them at all anymore, but back in the seventies, I used to frequent a lot of the junkyards in rural Southern NJ. The most unusual cars I remember seeing included a 1942 Buick Limited limousine with a divider window, a 1954 Eldorado convertible that was horribly rusted and had been picked pretty clean, and a rolled over Nash-Healey roadster with a dash plaque that said "1955 SCCA Certified Race Car". Once, in a South Philadelphia yard on Passyunk Avenue, I discovered a 1940 Oldsmobile six cylinder woodie station wagon that still looked pretty good except that one of the rear doors was missing. Also, in a yard in NW New Jersey, I once found a 1937 or so Terraplane convertible.

 

Going to junkyards in those days was a lot of fun.

[Rivguy]

I've seen some interesting cars in a local Pic and Pull, but it's been at least twenty years. A very worn, mid Thirties Packard limo, a nice '55 Packard sedan, and one of those aero Citroens from the 70's. Back in the 70's I found a very complete '57 Caddy convertible at another yard but passed on it. I haven't found a real vintage car at P&P in a long time. 

[f.f.jones]

Back in the '50's and '60's, my uncle ran a "wrecking yard" that had many interesting cars. I recall seeing Model A's of varying years and body types, '33-'34 Ford 3 and 5 window coupes. '37 to '40 coupes (some were former dirt track racers), a late '30s limousine with a foot rest and roll-down divider window and a '46 - '48 Ford Sportsman woodie convertible with electric (hydraulic windows). There was also the body, fenders and frame of an early '30's Chrysler roadster, but the demand was only for Fords. In the mid to late '60's I recall his giving me whatever body parts I might have needed to keep my "street machines" presentable. These included complete front clips from a '55 Chevy, a tailgate for my '60 El Camino, '58 Ford sheet metal. and lots of '59 Ford trim parts. He developed the business into rebuilding wrecked cars and I can remember counting five 1957 Chevys under "reconstruction" at one time, especially a convertible that was complete to the instrument panel, but without doors, interior or the rest of the body - just bare frame and rear wheels. He also rebuilt a Fiat 600, but had to wait for a  new quarter panel to arrive from Italy. When it finally came, it was for the wrong side and he had to re-order. That Fiat stayed around for a long time and probably turned a negative profit. Another project of his was mating the front half of a wrecked Toyota to the back half of another to make a driver for my cousin. She drove that thing for years and years trouble-free. 

Other cars in that yard (again in the '60's were Impalas, Corvairs, a Glas from Germany, '53 to '56 Ford and Chevy pickups and panels, and, most memorably, a 1967 Mustang fastback big-block, in dark green (ala Bullett).

When I was in high school, there was an old farmer who collected '30's and '40' cars from all around the local farms and small towns and sold parts out of his orchard where he had haphazardly dumped them. I can remember a buddy of mine roughly removing hinges from the doors of a '32 Ford 3-window coupe and torching off the center cross member of another '32 Ford frame for use in his latest hot rod project. He also removed '31 Chevy gas tanks to place in the trunks of Model A coupes he built when the bottom of the cowl tank and fire wall was cut away to make room for a large V'8.

In other yards, I found lots of Studebaker parts, Ford and Mercury flathead parts, and all the small-block Chevy engines and transmissions you'd ever need.

Great times back then pulling your own parts, until a kid was crushed under a car when the bumper jack he was using to lift it slipped. That really put a damper on my junk yard forays.   

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by f.f.jones
added photo (see edit history)

[junkyardjeff]

My local old junkyard had the remains of a 54 Skylark when I first started going there in the 80s.

[John Kelso]

JV I'm surprised no one else hasn't mentioned Bill's. In the late 70's I took a V12 Auburn and a 32 Packard

roadster out of there. Spent 4 days with a helper there taking them apart, even the frames so we could carry them out.

After I paid Bill and was leaving , a guy stopped and ask me how much Bill had paid me for that load of junk on my trailer!

I smiled said not enough and I was taking it back home, made my day.

[Shipping reccomendations]

About 35 years ago, my best friend pulled out a 1934 Auburn 850Y  8 cylinder complete sedan out of. Junk yard in New Jersey. I’ll second an earlier comment about Bills Junk Yard in RI. I visited once and in the trunk of a 1940’sish car was a bunch of 1936-1937 Cod parts.

[Terry Bond]

Does anybody remember the old wrecking yard near Hastings Michigan? Went there numerous times back in the 60s and could pull good Model A parts from cars or from storage buildings. First time I went with a friend who needed a good 32 Ford radiator shell. He picked the best of dozens hanging on the wall on an old building for $15.  There were Model Ts and even brass era hulks there at the time. There was some pretty neat stuff on the bottom of some of those piles of old cars. I'll never forget the sight of a 32 Ford on top of one pile of cars. The front end was pointing skyward and it was the first thing you could see when you were approaching the place. 

Think the yard was eventually cleared and the property sold. I believe it is now the site of a church.

Terry

[BHWINCVAP]

My father often tells of a very large field of what he claims were hundreds of Model A & T Fords that he use to drive past down around Chester Pa. during his stint in the service in the early 1960's. Story he heard was they were unsold cars when the body styles changed. 

Does anyone here have any pictures or info on what they were?

 It could have been at the Ford Chester Plant.. They were in operation from 1927 thru 1961..

Edited January 5, 2022 by BHWINCVAP (see edit history)

[Shipping reccomendations]

I once drove thru a snow storm up to Buffalo New York to Elmers junk yard and pulled a cord Transmission out of a Cord phaeton that had gone thru a fire at his junk yard.

[JACK M]

The local yard of my misspent youth always had the cars that would run parked along the front fence.

Priced from $35.

I bought several of those thirty five to fifty dollar cars.

Fixed em up a bit and usually doubled or tripled my investment.

Lots of high school buddys bought those cars from me.

I wont try and name them off as it would be a pretty long list, fun stuff.

Back then there was no insurance mandate.

[TAKerry]

Just drove by a yard on my way back from the lumber yard. They put some complete, solid looking cars out front on the edge of the busy highway. I suppose to entice a buyer (i assume they are for sale). There was a vw wagon, or whatever theyre called and a vw bus. Both looked pretty good for what they are (im not a vw guy). Not too long ago was a late 60's chevy panel truck.

[John S.]

Back in the early Seventies, I was at a junkyard, when a fellow drove up in a beautiful Pink and Black 1954 Plymouth . The junk yard owner gave him $25.00 for it. I went back a month later, only to find it pulled apart in a pile.

[JamesR]

About 10 years ago or so, I made several trips to a junkyard 30 minutes away that had lots of cars from the 1940's through the 1970's. I remember they had a hull (chassis, floor & basic body...no wood) of an early '50's Ford woody. This was back when woodies were kind of astronomically priced, so I was kind of surprised to see it there. They had a few examples of the wagon I had, too, so I picked up a fender and some other items. They went out of business several years ago, and I suspect (sadly) that everything was crushed.

 

And speaking of wagons, here's another car I was surprised to see in salvage a couple of years ago: a mid-'50's Safari. Behind it is a Buick, maybe (you tell me.) These and a few other old cars were/are out rotting in a small yard behind a body shop in town. It isn't a commercial salvage yard so isn't open to the public.

[The 55er]

I believe that's a 1957 Pontiac Transcontinental Safari wagon (a fairly rare item) right behind the 1955 Safari in the foreground. 

[8E45E]

A couple of no longer common ones that appeared after I got my iphone:

 

Craig

[f.f.jones]

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by f.f.jones (see edit history)

[f.f.jones]

One piece at a time...