Coolest thing you have ever found at a wrecking yard???

In my favorite bone yard about an hour east and a bit north of Kansas City, I found a 1960 Edsel. Even better was when I was able to buy the rear bumper along with some trim for my Fairlane. -Dave.

 

Picked up a Franklin QC for $75, and a 4-71 and 6-71 blower in a scrap yard about 4 years ago.

 

I found that I could not run faster than a junkyard dog that had broken her chain ! When I fell during the run; I yelled NO at the top of my lungs....... fortunately the dog understood English and just turned around and trotted away.

 

I remember my dad and grandfather telling me when I was a kid that they found a complete late 20's/early 30's Pierce Arrow. Said it looked like someone had driven it into the yard and walked away. They had nowhere to put it so they had to walk away too.

 

murphy's junkyard, sunset hills, mo. a 2-story high pile of flatheads. your choice, $10. ahh, the good old days!

 

The year was 1974. While scavenging for some misc. parts, I saw a Mustang with a large hood scoop. I had to have that scoop. Didn't need it but I wanted it. For $20.00 I got it home and my buddy stopped by and said, "Where did you get that Boss Mustang Hood Scoop?" Whaaat? I ran back to the junk yard and the owner said someone just bought that Mustang and was mad as hell that the scoop was missing.

 

10 331 hemis that had always been run on propane. $75 a piece. might as well been $7500 a piece at the time.

 

I used to buy a lot of AMXs and Javelins. There was an all AMC junkyard called Homer Brownings in western MA where he would get an occasional car I might want (2+ hour drive). I opened up the back of an old box truck he had on the yard and it was filled with NOS parts from an old dealership that had closed. Decent amount of parts for me! I also bought a real low mile 74 Bricklin with AMC engine at another junkyard. It was #323 which is my birthday so had to have it (so I told my wife). It ran over a large rock and damaged the front crossmember-it was welded to the frame not bolted and more work than I wanted to do after I had it apart so sold it. Always wondered if it was ever put back together.

 

About two years ago my dad found a 8 lug Pontiac hub and wheel in the scrap yard.
He spent an hour looking for the other three, No luck!!
Had to buy it for twice scrap steel value .

 

Reading this thread reminded me of a cool thing I found in a junkyard. It was way back in 1972 though. I was in San Bernadino visiting relatives when I needed to go to a junkyard for a part for my 66 Fairlane. In the yard stacked up on top of another car was a rust free 57 Tbird. It was mostly a shell and had a lot of parts missing but it wasn't wrecked or rusted. I hated to leave it there but I was 2,000 miles from home.

 

I had a man give me a late Merc. flathead, he was going to scrap. The block was junk but the crank was good.
However I had to remove the used (worn out) clutch and pressure plate for him reuse before I left.

 

I just remembered this one. Not in a junk yard...
I had a man give me in his words " The two old Ford flatheads in the barn, one has some kind of strange distributer and coil"
The distributer was a vintage Mallory YCM and a Mallory Mag-Spark coil

 

Ahhh..... no space or money. Have passed on a 1970 Boss 302. A 67 GT/CS Stang. A complete solid Sunbeam Tiger and worst of all a 40 Ford coupe

 

A 1966-67 fiberglass Comet funny car body sitting real pretty on top of wood bldg. in a junk yard in N.E. Ohio, the owner said it was not for sale! said to have been one of Ed Shartmans spares. 20 miles from there, also on top of a bldg. was a Logghe Chassis Anglia Gasser(now restored) it was a lot more fun a few years ago, but I'm still looking!

 

1983, in X-Ray school, Tyler, Tx. Room mate was always running late, and we we're taking my car most of the time. In my "haste" to get to the hospital and parked, as I backed into a parking space, I crunched the drivers side door into the concrete stand a light-pole was on. My college car was a new, 82 Chevette. I decided to replace the door myself, and we went to a wrecking yard for a door. After we got back to the house, while taking the door apart, I found a .22 Magnum Derringer in the door (???). Still have it, and it's in a holster on my belt right now (got my Concealed Pistol License in the mail last week, and need to get a "respectable" firearm). Had the Chevrolet dealership in town paint the door to match the car; car was a silver color I started saying was "gun metal grey". I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I worked at a junkyard in high school doing their computer stuff and online sales but the owner always used to give me and my friend free run of the cars we found a truck load of..... What's a polite way to put it.... Women's pleasure devices... Some of them very unrealistic in size! Also found a boot with a foot in it from a truck that had been in a head on collision surprisingly the guy lived but lost his leg and we found the foot that was attached to said leg by the time we found it it was skeletonized and the guy came and picked up the bones so he could put them in a box to remember the foot and leg that he lost in the accident

 

Right out of high school in 1959 I went to work at a wrecking yard that only scrapped, didn't sell parts. The boss did save a couple unusual items, one of which was a Cadillac V-12 OHV all aluminum engine. Supposedly a 1932. Also had an aluminum cased 3 speed that was so heavy, one guy could hardly lift it.

 

I bought 3 Chrysler 392 engines in Kentucky and after we had them loaded the cat said " how about another?"
I thought that I had enough in my pickup already and declined at the same time thinking of additional expense (they were $600 each). He told me that it was free and we loaded it. It turned out to be a cherry 300C engine that I still have. It is all correct and never rodded or changed, standard bore and crank. Those very special valve covers are still there.












I bought 3

 

My buddy and I found a hidden junkyard in Arizona in Dec 19. Out of all the jewels out there the guy had two 58 Pontiac Bonnevilles!! I was going to make a offer but he had some ridiculous prices.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Porsche 912 steering gear. Had been heartburning for months on what to use as a center steering gear foe my Mysterion clone. Ed Roth used some sort of linear actuator on the original car (doesn't look like a steering gear) Plus there weren't a lot of R&P auto options in '62!!

Was cruising the junk yard when I glanced in the front trunk of a VW bug and spied this. Someone had removed it frm a Porsche and dumped it there. Not an exact match but I am 100% sure it is what Ed would have used if it was available in the day.

 

el camino there too. would be fun to walk the place for sure.

 

40 Ford woodie rear fenders. Just sitting there atop a clapped out Toyota.

 

Several years ago, I went to Elyria, Ohio to conduct some business with the late Chuck Finders. He took me to a junk yard that had a neon Willys sign sitting on top of an eighteen wheeler trailer box. Long story short, I bought it and then the local Willys guys were pissed at me because they thought that they should have gotten the sign. You snooze, you lose.

 

12 years ago, while my youngest son was playing LL baseball, I discovered several 40’s to 50’s cars, wrecked and abandoned in a thick woods well beyond the outfield fence. When the field was built, about 25’ of fill dirt was imported- basically trapping the wrecked cars. During a boring practice, I picked my way thru the trees and inspected the cars. Most were rotting and slowly settling into the earth. One was a ‘49-‘50 Cadillac convertible. The sheet metal was rusted to the thickness of tinfoil. The front seats were just about flush with the fusing earth. Then I spotted the stainless steel trim band that ran over the top of the windshield. Over the next few practice days, I used nut buster and a variety of screw drivers and other tools to free the SS parts from the rotting hulk. I finally got it all loose and soon sold it to a happy buyer in Arizona. My kid thought I was weird- coming home after his BB practice covered with mud!

 

There is a ‘56 Lincoln Mk. II in that yard too. That makes the Bonneville pale by comparison.

 

60+ years ago I was in San Bernardino looking for Model A parts, and, in a separate fenced-in area was a maroon customized 39-40 Ford (maybe Merc.) 4-door convertible with full interior and chopped Carson-style top. I asked if I could buy it and was told it had no title and was in a storage part of the lot because of that (?). I checked two weeks later and was told it was sent to the crusher.

 

A set of four Aston Martin Borrani 16" chromed-spoked aluminum-rimmed wire wheels with good tires for $50. There wasn't another foreign car or part in the yard.

 

Back in the day 1964, went to a junkyard looking for a V8 chevy engine for my 57 210 2 door sedan I purchased minus engine and transmission. They had just brought in a wrecked 59 Impala ragtop, 348 Tri Carb, 3 speed manual with OD, 50k miles, made the deal for $150, came back the next day, picked it up and my first car adventure was on. gave it the spray can rebuild, mechanical progressive linkage, chrome air cleaners, Hurst shifter and my first Hot Rod was alive, have many good stories/memories from this car, sidenote, many trips back to same yard for trannys, 4:11 pumpkins, axels, tires, etc. The pic attached is not my car, but just like what I had only Way Nicer, I wished mine was this cherry, being a Wisconsin guy, rust was/is always an issue/PIA with all cars.

 

Four wooden metal clad doors from what turned out to be a 1916 Maxwell. My bud bet me I couldn't make something cool out of them.
HOT TUB

 

67 Chevy 2 . 2 door post car in Flagstaff ,Az. One owner 6 speed on the column. The woman that bought it new gave it to her daughter to go to college in Flagstaff at NAU. Well they were from the valley and didn't realize it did not have enough anti freeze in it and she parked and it got below zero.
she cranked it up and the block had busted between the freeze plugs so it went to my friends yard and sat there for almost 10 years.
I mentioned to him one day I was looking for a Nova. He told me about it and he delivered it to me at the Grand Canyon for $125.00 75 for the car and 50 for the tow. It had one rust spot about the size of a half dollar where the drain hose for the under dash A/C had rotted off. It still had the original exhaust system on it.
I welded the block and drove it for a year while I was building a 350 and a th350.