Hot Rods REMEMBER THOSE SATURDAY MORNING TRIPS TO THE JUNK/SALVAGE YARDS?

all we have around here is corporate recycling yards, cars don't stay more than a month at most then off to China. it's always sad to see anything cool there since there just isn't enough time for people to get all the good stuff.

 

Ah Danny, you struck a chord. I remember going to wrecking yards around South Dakota and Sundance Wyoming in late 60s with my dad. Last time in Sundance was 1976 and there were so many OT muscle cars. I was in heaven.

 

I can almost hear the wasps and smell the aroma of pee in the hot sun.

Junk yards always reminded me of a desert. A place where nobody in their right mind would want to be. Except a certain few. Quiet. Nobody else around. Just the sound of insects and a rusted old panel slightly squeaking in the breeze.

One of the last notable things I got from a junkyard around here was from Warhoop's. A well-known salvage yard in the northern Detroit area. Closed in 2013.
I had a 1960 Chevy Apache pickup truck with a 6 cylinder. I was putting in a SBC and I needed a bell housing with the side mounts that the V8 would bolt to. Found one in an early '60s dump truck. Pretty hot and dusty that day. The truck was sitting near the shack. I got the sense that the young men who worked there were getting some pleasure in seeing how much effort I was willing to expend just to get a stupid old bell housing.

 

Have been hitting wrecking yards since I was 11yrs old. Always went with my older brother who could drive.
I remember in 1959 we pulled a complete rear end out of a '37 Pontiac coupe to replace his. Nothing like
the smell of 90w. Even though he is now gone, I can still go to a wrecking yard, close my eyes, smell the
90w and I'm back pulling parts with my brother.

 

Red bugs and snakes in the warm seasons. In the military in the 70s in Texas was amazed they had a Hoot and Holler circuit on the telephone system in wrecking yards. They could jump on and announce what they were looking for and other yards would jump on saying they had it. In North Carolina there is still an independant yard not far from the family hidden in the woods. If they know you they will give you the keys to an old LTD yard car to go look around the place. Last visit there was an OT Wildcat that had a mint body. Needed upholstery and running gear. Wanted it badly. Had a Wildcat back then. Would p*** everything but a gas station. Owners are getting old and kids have no interest. The Wildcat will eventually become an imported set of patio furniture at Costco before long.

 

Been to a lot of really great salvage yards all over the country and I'm not sure which was best. I was in one in Arroyo Grande, CA back in '68 looking for 94 and 97 carbs. I could buy as many as I wanted for $2.50 apiece. In 1961, I was 17, still in high school and went to a yard in a neighboring town with my father. Fellow that ran the yard had an absolutely cherry '39 Oldsmobile coupe and wanted $200 for it. I had the money, but my father refused to let me buy it. He might have been right, I might have screwed it up, but I held a lot of resentment about that for a long time.

 

Not really related but I just remembered an experience a friend had while removing a radio at a wrecking yard in the 60's, seems he dislodged a dried ****** finger from under the dash.

 

There was a junkyard in Suffolk Va called Matthews, near the Portsmouth/Chesapeake airport. My buddies and I practically lived there late '70s to mid '90s. There was so much cool old stuff there from '40s on up; old Hudsons, Studebakers, Packards, Chevies, Fords, Mercs etc.
The gas tank in my buddies '54 Ford Country Squire rotted out on the top, no way for us to fix it so the car was parked. Walking thru Matthews a couple weeks later looking for somethng altogether different, I happened to swing open the rear door of an early '50s Chevy panel truck. Lo and behold, a tank sitting inside looked just like Keiths tank. Talk about lucking out! Sure miss those days sometimes, (except for laying in the mud in winter pulling out a transmission, getting attacked by bees and watching for snakes).

 

A friend of mine went to a low end wrecking yard on a winter weekend, a while he was waiting his turn, the guy running the office kept calling on the intercom for one of the employees, that that was out in the yard pulling parts. After about 10 minutes of this, the yard guy came in and was all wet, and had a mud line down the side of his face in front of his ears . It seems, he was lying on his back, with most of his head under water, or at least past his ears, pulling a part from from the underside of a car, and couldn't hear the intercom.

 

My daily driver was my '39 Fargo and in Canada, you really need windshield defrosters. The wrecking yard had a forklift converted from an old Dodge truck with the steering wheel facing the former rear end so I took the defroster ducts off it. Definitely didn't tell the guys in the yard before hand where my parts came from. They didn't need them.

 

Used to go to this horrible old yard with a more horrible older owner-super nasty (like body) and mean.
Did get some good deals though, so we went back many times. One time he said he had a part at his house, follow him home and he'd get it for us. He opened an old garage door, got in a brand new Caddy in his greasy, filthy, muddy and worse clothes-right on the new seat. Got to his house, a two story like out of a picture book, with yardkeepers etc. He got us the part, we left in amazement. Later found out he had millions, junkyard was his toy to play with. Still didn't matter, he was one of the most filthy persons i've ever met, known, heard of. Ugh!

 

We used to go out every weekend to one JY or another. I remember walking one with my wife when she was due and trying to walk the baby out, and also using the kid's stroller to wheel back an armload of parts while my wife carried her back to the office. Those were good days.

 

My Saturday stories from the 60s are different than most. Dad bought an old salvage in '60. I went to work at the company that led to my retirement in '61, when I turned 18. I alway worked part-time for Dad but in the mid and later years I had a really screwy schedule. Worked my normal job, midnight shift. last day worked I got off at 7am Friday. Went to work at Dad's at 8ish. Worked 'til 6 usually. Then went to my bowling league. Really long day! Then up on Sat to do another 8-6.

 

We used to have a junkyard that did not need a dog because of the owner. He was a crusty soul that most people found difficult. He was a millwright that worked in the mill with my dad before starting the wrecking yard & towing business.. My Dad got along good with him and I tagged along. I found if you treated him with respect and not trying to be sneaky he was fair. He hated people trying to steal from him or try to get parts for next to nothing. I would tell him what I was looking and he knew exactly where to find them and pointed a person in the right direction. I would gather the parts and asked him what he thought was a a fair value to him and usually did okay. If he was a bit high I would ask him if a little lower price was okay. He would give it a second look and often lower his price. I got so he would tell me where to find it and let me go. Otherwise he would ****** people until they gained his trust. I was getting a VW bug speaker for a friend and the wrench slipped and a tab sliced across my knuckle to the joint. I sat on the bumper and held it closed. Paid for the part and then went to emerg for s***ches. The doctor said the freezing would hurt more than the s***ches. I told him to just s***ch it but went ahead with the freezing. Fun.
His son took over the business and stopped parting cars out. I drive by and miss being able to get access to the yard as it is the only wrecking yard within 90 miles one way and 200 miles the other.

 

Bright and early one Saturday morning my friend Sam and I went to Powell's junkyard in his '55 Chevy pickup, there was a creek that ran through the yard and we parked the truck beside one of the rows and carried the tools and jack to the other side of the creek.

We spent a couple of hours getting the parts we needed and joked about how quick we checked everything off our list, we knew we were going to have to make two trips so we grab the tools, jack and a few small parts, it was going to both of us to carry the rear axle.

awe were shocked when we got back to Sams truck, the drivers side fender was gone ads was the fron bumper, Sam was pissed and dropped everything and made a bee line to the office to confront Ed, Sam is a short guy with red hair, he was a fire ball when he was upset, when we got to the office he saw a guy loading the fender in a new pickup, Sam said that's my fender & bumper.

10 minutes in the office and everything was settled, Ed returned the guys money and he helped Sam put the parts back on his truck,I talked Ed's yard man Albert into driving the wrecker across the creek and hauling the rear axle and the miscellaneous parts back to the truck.

By the time everything was done it was past the one o'clock closing time, from that day on we were careful where we parked. HRP

 

I often wondered why wrecking yards were many times by a river then realized that is where a lot of car dumps started and a business was off and running.

 

I spent many a saturday, rain or shine, hot or freezing, wandering the several good yards in the Lynchburg Va area, scrounging Ford A stuff when my Dad was into them; then much later on when I got into Falcons and furrin jobs after that. Moved to Charleston in '95 and the few good old yards local had bellied up; some guys like Rock Salisbury still had decent stuff and weren't awful on prices, but progress had kicked in and it wasn't long before the good stuff got crushed and the yards turned into strip malls. Fast forward to where I am now, and I haven't found anything to write home about. Land costs too much to let it sit with rusty cars on it, I suppose.

 

Remember? That is where I got my nickname, I hung out so much at salvage yards! Lol That and I was kinda slim…..back then!
The salvage yard I pulled the 430 MEL out if a 58 Lincoln to put in my ‘55 Ford , back in about 1967 or so, is still in existence. Poor Boy’s salvage on South 24th street in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Same salvage, same clan!
Another salvage yard I haunted just closed its doors, after many years and two moves.
But….at this time in my life…..I am a quasi partner in one of only two salvage yards in the city limits of Muskogee!
A life long goal! I am finally “ somebody” lol




Bones

 

Anyone remember the Holiday sales on July 4th where anything you can carry was 50$ ( or some nominal price) ? No wagons, no dollies, no helpers. You could use the carts to get it to the designated spot then had to carry it 10-20 yards or so out the gate. The bit was to cut seatbelts and use those as "hump straps" to haul axles, transmissions, some guys I heard could even manage an engine.

 

True story, I was going to school in Abilene, TX and went to the local yard to look for a formula 400hood to replace my flat one on a firechicken I was driving. i saw a likely candidate under a 71 and slid it out to find a rattle snake lying in the middle of it. He wasn't coiled up but he started rattling! I was all elbows and ***hole up to the office where I reported my find. The good ol' boy behind the counter spit in a cup and told me not to come back with out jeans and cowboys boots. I didn't get the hood but I still have the boots!

 

I bought a complete 9” Rearend, and the path between cars was so narrow you could barely walk through. While I was figuring the best way carry it out, the worker showed me a trick. He grabbed 2 fan belts, slipped one on each end, and lifted it only high enough to clear the ground, and we waddled along until we were clear of the cars.

 

Earlier today I posted about my friend and fellow club member Sam's truck being robed of the front fender and bumper, I had a late lunch with Sam today and the subject came up, he reminded me of all the wasps and bees, but there was also a area close to the creek where the older cars were parked must have been a garden at one time, in the late summer watermelons were growing everywhere, we learned early to have a big stick when approaching the old cars and watermelons, snakes liked this area. HRP

 

Using fan belts to carry a heavy rear axle, now that's clever. HRP

 

Back in the 80's me and my pals would frequent the many Pick A Parts in SoCal. I worked a Chevon station and worked 12-9 so my mornings were free. Hell, me and my pal Thad would go 1-3 locations 2 times a week on weekdays and also on the weekends. We were always searching for mostly OT 60's stuff which was still plentiful then.

 

I am lucky to have one local junkyard that still has old stuff back to the late 30s,most have been on there over 50 years and the earliest plates I have seen are 1957. Even though I have been going there over 30 years I do occasionally find something I had never seen before and could live right in the middle of it.

 

Did somebody say wasps?
Several years ago, one of the yards I visited regularly decided to close up and crush everything. My youngest son and I made a final visit to grab whatever we could get. It was hot, probably July or Aug. The owner told us to look out for the red wasps, said they were really bad since it was so hot and dry. We looked around, grabbed a few parts we needed, then looked at a few possible project cars. Found a mid 60’s VW Karmann Ghia that looked to be in great shape. I had wanted one a long time, so we went over and opened the door, man this thing was mint! The yard was part of a used car dealers property, it was probably a trade in that had problems and he didn’t want to fix it. We about decided we wanted to buy it, then I opened the hood. I kid you not, there was the largest red wasp nest I have ever seen, covered with the Red Devils! I mean, this thing covered nearly half of the hood! I dropped the hood and we ran like our tails were on fire! We watched that car for half a hour at least, the Red Devils were still swarming around. Told the owner I wanted it, he said I had to get it out that day as the crusher was coming in on Monday, but he’d mark it so they wouldn’t touch it. Couldn’t get back until the next Saturday, and everything except a few things were gone. Still kills me to this day, but if those wasps had of ganged up on me I wouldn’t be here now, I’m allergic to them.

 

The only salvage yard I have been to since I moved to South Carolina is Temples in Batesburg S,C.with HRP and Deuce Roadster, it brought back memories of my youth in Philly visiting the big yards there.

I helped Danny pull several parts off a wagon while Randy was looking for a 9" rear axle, I found a few parts for my COE and went back later, I am told they are still in business.

 

That trip was a hoot, Randy killing that huge copperhead that was inside the ranch wagon I had been in a few minutes before, it scared the sh!t outta me! HRP

 

These days it’s an 8.8 and serpentine belts….lol

 

I used to go to the junk yards with my dad in the late 70's and early 80's. I would look for some suitable heads to buy cheap and Dad would look for parts for one of his projects. I would take the heads to high school auto shop and do a valve job on them and paint them up nice and the went to swap meets and sell them for a tidy profit. I miss those days.
One time in the early 2000's a buddy and I made the road trip out west and stopped in a large yard in Mitchell South Dakota. As I was looking for some Ford parts my buddy was inside a 62 Chevy Impala and all of a sudden he was screaming like a little girl. As I was looking to see what was going on I saw a full grown Ring Neck pheasant trying to get out of the car back side window that was not down and my buddy trying to get out of the car door. I laughed so hard I damn near pissed my pants! We still talk about it.
Oh, I miss those days especially with my Dad. He still works on his rods but no more junk yards as he is 83 now.