What's the coolest old car you've seen in a junkyard?

I saw a Pierce Arrow at French Lake Auto Parts quite a few years ago.

 

In the 80s, I was poking around a yard NW of Ft. Worth on Jacksboro Hwy. when I came upon at least 3 Anglias. They were all worth buying, so got a card and always meant to go back. The whole yard went away. I have been to several of those mentioned in this thread, and in Hemmings, that have nothing but old cars, but have NOT made it to Vintage Motors in Mt. Home, ID.
The COOLEST car has to be the 33 Willys sedan on the office of the yard on S. Alameda in LA.

 

When I was a kid the guy that owned the local
Junk yard had a 68 chevy short box with a 426 hemi
Mounted between the seats. It was a little
Rough, typical junk yard truck. It ran pretty hard and was way cool.

 

'36 Packard rusting away into oblivion, just saw it Sunday.

 

When I was gpoing to Texas Tech in Lubbock I would drive the dirt roads all over town. On the southside around a 108th was a corner lot junkyard that had a bevy of 20s, 30s cars, Buick Rivieras, and early Zephyrs. I had heard stories of the owner and always kept my distance from the place until I was able to catch the owner at the property one day. He was kind enough to let me walk around and dream being I couldn't afford anything at the time. Last I heard the owner passed and all the old tin was auctioned off.

 

Been a few .... but my coulda' woulda' doh' .... was in Beckley, West Virginia. '69 Boss 302 carcass, complete '71 Boss 351 ... and three winged Chrysler products ... two 'Birds and a Daytona. Yeah I know ... off topic, but every time I see this thread ... I wish to be 22 again with 43 year old brains. Oh well ....

 

A silver 1958 "Packardbaker" 2 door hardtop...completely intact...sitting on top of a stack of 4 other cars...just a few minutes before they picked it up with one of those crane claws, and dropped it in the crusher.


Coincidentally, #2 was also a Packard...a white 1954 Packard ambulance. Complete except for missing the head and the front bumper. No visible rust. Black tuck & roll leather with white piping. According to the yard operator it had been driven to the spot it was parked. I still regret not buying it for the $800 they wanted for it, but at the time I could not figure what to do with it or where to put it...It was HUGE.

 

When I was starting out with old cars 50 years ago we had Paneitz salvage in Fairbury NE. I hauled so many 30s thru early 40s cars out of there I can't begin to list them. Used to buy37-41 axle assemblies out by the trailer load. Bought 1 lot of about 50 45 fin Buick drums, I could go on. Other than model As and 40s probably the coolest car I found was a 36 sedan delivery. The deuces thru 34s had already been picked over and were gone.

 

About 13 yrs ago, saw a Corvair wagon shortened to a 2 door in an Arizona junk yard.

 

Thinking back maybe 50 years ago I do remember seeing a Amphicar at Ed Powells junk yard.

I had never seen one and ask Ed what it was,he told me it was a boat/car that a local man drove to the yard,Ed offered it to a friend for 50 bucks but he turned it down. HRP

 

This chopped & channeled 40 ford pickup done in mid-late 50's . Local body mans son in law got rear ended in it in 1964 story goes & I discovered it few years ago in a private "hoard" of a friend at her 5 generation farms fifth pasture of cars back in woods. I couldn't believe it ! That is possible the greatest thrill is the hunt & I had no idea it'd been there that long. I brought it home , pondered what to do with it & sent it to a loving home that is actually bringing it back. That makes me feel good to get it out of the sitting & rotting status. Old chops are cool ..... & it had hammered spindles........ Ohh wow hands down the best 100 bucks ever, it pays to be nice cause she sells to nobody, n I was there to ask about the 37 black Chevy coupe her 82 year old aunt has in the barn....... Ohh it's just super wow. But at 82 she's gonna fix it someday. Flux

 

Cool thread.


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In the 80's I saw a 1962 Dodge Polara 500 with a two 4 barrel 383 , automatic console floor shift . The next time I was at this yard they had cut the car in half at the firewall and rolled it over to get the transmission out . Made me sick . A couple of years ago I saw a 1956 Chevrolet sedan delivery in a yard about 75 miles south of me , first one I'd ever seen .

 

32 5W


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I cut the B pillars and quarters out of this '55 Chevy 2 door sedan last week, along with another set out of a '56, to do 2 door conversions with. Both were super stripped and the roof skins just peeled off, but when was the last time you saw 2 door tri-5's in the junkyard?

 

Well, when I was 8-9 yo, I would ride my bike a few blocks to a junkyard. All the front row cars were in the 20's, 30's and some early 40's. I used to go sit behind the wheel of many of them........they were coooool cars!

 

At the junkyards I used to frequent ----1979-ish, there were no great finds as described here that I remember. Any OT car that might even run was never for sale (I wonder if some were "hot"), a 69 roadrunner, green with an orange fender, 69 Camaro SS, yellow with a red interior (dented up, rusted, maybe got junked for being an ugly color combo!) what surprised me then was how used up some 6-7 and 10 year old cars were. interiors totally trashed, rusted out, engines had an inch of black grime, paint faded to chalk...and the yard: greasy black mud, pools of raw gasoline and antifreeze, psychotic mutts roaming loose, bees, ants , flies. So many parts damaged in the yard by stacking cars on top of another, or careless torch work. If there was a HAMB friendly car, sad to say I never cared: I was 100% 60's muscle car oriented, and the only HAMB ones I saw were dull(Not "dull" to me these days!), late 40's, early 50's anonymous black, pale blue, or white sedans that had been off the road forever... no customs, drag cars, Tbirds, vettes, or anything with a nice paint job. Or ancient farm trucks piled high with tires, cans and trash. The "junkyard" was also a dump then. I had a Javelin and was only there for Javelins. Of which there were usually several. Beat all to heck.

My local area was rapidly moving upscale, and soon all the junkyards got zoned out ... now are vinyl sided mansion on a postage stamp neighborhoods or office buildings.

Meanwhile, all my friends were gradually getting Celicas, Preludes, Corollas, I was junkyard trekking by myself.

Today's remaining yards are hospitals by comparison.

Best find by me: 1973 Yamaha RD350 stuffed in a van, yes they had the title for it and it was $25. never got it running....sold it for $100.

Best yard I've visited :French Lake Auto in MN.

 

Way back in December of 1974, I got the '55 Crown Victoria that my dad had purchased about a year before he passed away. My ex brother in law and I decided to go search an abandoned yard for some parts for it. The yard had been abandoned in 1971 when the state opened a new freeway that bypassed our town, and the owner left a ton of stuff behind. Only a few pre-war vehicles, a '35 Ford Fordor, a Model A pickup, and a '40 Chevy coupe stick out in my mind. There was also a late '40's Cadillac S&S hearse, a bunch of tri-five Chevys, mostly four door versions, a '58 Olds 98 that was the sad loser in a fight with something really solid, like a bridge abutment, some '55-'56 Fords, one being a '56 Sunliner with T-Bird 312, a '64 Sport Fury convertible, no motor or trans, but it had been a manual with a floor shifter, a pretty large selection of late '50's Mopars, and a Willys Aero Ace, among many others, along with a couple of abandoned short track stock cars. Adjacent to this property was another junkyard, that was still in operation. That yard had a slew of SS Impalas in it, and a lot of '58-'63 T-Birds. The one car in that yard that I remember the most was a '57 Skyliner, black over red, at a time when I was just learning about them. My uncle had been the service manager at a small local Ford dealer when they were new, and after the first one came in with warranty issues the dealer refused to sell any more of them. I used to enjoy those junkyard visits, there is one about 5 miles from me that I will wander through in the fall.

 

Chase's?

 

In the late 80's a buddy and I where searching for 60 Belair trim to upgrade the 60 sedan delivery he was building. We where up at along gone junk yard by Adams Friendship. From what I understood the yard had been around since the 40's. There where cars buried back in groves of trees that you could not even get to. there was one row of just 49 to 51 Mercs. But sitting in the weeds was a 1956 Dodge La Feme convertible, top was rotted away and so where the seats. The engine block was striped down so not sure what it was. But it still had some of trinkets in it like the under dash tissue dispenser, the visor mirrors and the Le Feme badges. It was still the factory pink and white. A very rare car built to target women buyers and it had to have been sitting there for decades. I did not even no what a Le Feme was until I read an article about them a few years later. I have come across some pretty cool stuff roaming around junk yards the last 50 years , but that was one of the cooler ones. Larry

 

Years ago I saw what was left of a 1956 Chevy convertible that had been
sent thru the crusher and flattened. I could tell it was once a nice looking custom by the tail
lights, head lights and color. I regret I didn't have my camera with me that day in 1997 in a south FL
metal salvage yard in Ft. Lauderdale. What a shame to see as it wasn't a rust bucket. Always wondered
who built it.

 

Yes I remember hearing about the yard in Colchester...don't think it was too far from the old dragstrip.

 

I saw a complete looking A 400 in a wrecking yard in Hawaii. I was in the service and had no money then. It was a long time ago. I have heard it was rescued.

 

If only I knew then what I learned later in life. I was walking around a yard on the edge of Naperville and Aurora, Il must have been 1980 or so and I came across the stripped remains of Joeshanes Joke a '57 that ran at Oswego with a L-88 427. No front end just the bare shell with rollbar in it. Pretty much straight from what I remember. All the drivetrain including the rear end was gone. Wish I had taken a camera with me but we didn't think like that then. Hell I should have bought it but it was just a used up old race car back then and Oswego had closed the year or so before. If only I had the foresight

 

Great thread. Thanks for sharing you junkyard tales.

 

Black '61 Chevy convert, 348 tri-power, four-speed back in the mid to late '70s. Stuffed in the nose, but fixable......

 

In the mid 1980's there was a 1970 Plymouth Cuda convertible, Plum Crazy with a white top in a local yard. The converts were really rare cars. This one was hit pretty good in the front and that was it. Must have went to the crusher when the yard closed. Back then with no repro parts and no internet you couldn't find parts to rebuild it. Now, they make everything. It's hard to imagine how many cars that today would be considered builders went right to scrap back then.

 

Just a general comment. You younger guys would be shocked at the junkyards in the late 60's to early 70's if you like the muscle cars. It was common to see SS396 Camaros, Chevelles, GT Fairlanes,Cudas, etc. Thats were they all went to die after my generation wore them out on the street and strip. They were not all that valuable anymore. And when the gas crunch hit in the early 70s, you could buy nice running, well kept big block hipo cars relatively cheap. 10 year old tri-five Chevys were a dime a dozen, I thought they would never be valuable.
Ahhhh...................the good ole days....

 

RE: the gas crunch years; yep; I remember seeing lots of ads in the classifieds for somebody willing to buy that 5mpg big block 4speed car so the owner could get a VW or Datsun. A couple of years back I found a Bentley in a yard in the Upstate of SC.... rough as hell, but a real Bentley. Trouble with the coast of South Carolina is pine trees and the humidity; a killer combination of sheet metal destruction.

 

Late 20`s Minerva town car.