History Old Time Junk Yard Photos PIX 1920 to 1970

Given the nature of this thread, I cannot resist including this cool,
dramatic photo-comp.

We've shown pix here before of old cars used for wind breaks and
erosion control before, of course. But this not quite like any pic
I've ever seen. I just haven't seen such an attention-getting
shot of derelict cars, still performing service to us human beings.
Color and composition are just superb, reminding me of some great
work on this subject, BOTH by HAMBers and folks on other sites.
Junked cars are a POPULAR subject for amateur and pro photogs,
folks! While these cars may have little redeeming value, other
than for the purpose they were originally put in a line like this for,
the aesthetic appeal just makes you stop and stare, as though you
were looking at a graphic image in a gallery, eh? For the reasons
mentioned, I hope HAMBer Caddy-O from around Amarillio, TX,
doesn't mind that I add his shot to this collection!

 

Ran across a thread of BigRat from a couple of years back. The virtual yard tour at these guys' link is amazing, even though some posters said the prices ARE pretty steep. Still, a ton of fun to look at a really well-kept yard!

Search for Kustom King in Spruce grove, Alberta
http://www.kustomking.net/main1.htm



Just one sample of the hundreds and hundreds of cars in this yard

 

A walk in the Ardennes forest ?

Chevrolet Styleline 1952


Chevrolet Bel Air sedan 1953


Chevrolet Bel Air sedan 1954


Chevrolet Bel air 1953


VW

 

Who wouldn't love to have this for yard art? Put out to pasture long ago,
it cuts a peaceful scene, sitting there rusting away quietly in retirement, eh?
Somebody want to date and ID it? Twin6 posted it and feels it still has
possibilities. Whatcha think?

 

Ford anglia


Ford taunus


VW T1

 

Standard Vanguard serie1


??


??

 

Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: netherlands
Posts: 7


Re: Old Time Junk Yard Photos PIX 1920 to 1970
<hr style="color: rgb(229, 229, 229); background-color: rgb(229, 229, 229);" size="1"> question ?
are this original 1938 willys headlight rims ??
i cannot find other 38 willys pic's with the same rims


THEY ARE NOT original '38 rims...The '38's were round, and this is one of the many seal beam conversions that were available back then...most cars had the reflector and bulb set up (like a flash light) back then.
g-willys

 

UPDATE TIME!

Every few months, I think it's useful to do an update on
how the thread has shaped up of late.



FarmerGal posted this fab shot. The natural light could NOT be better!



Now that we've been searching out pix of old tin for 20 months,
we're at 1,000 POSTS! Per the original title, we probably have at
least 50-100 GREAT early black-and-white photos of junkyards from
about the '30s to the '50s. I should probably do an album, maybe?
Opinions welcome!


But almost immediately when the thread started, folks began
contributing pix of OLD IRON that's still sitting out there in junkyards
NOW, behind barns, in canyons, in river and creek banks, in the
woods and many more places. There has been the unexpected
sharing of genuine feelings of LOSS, as we've SHARED as we have
had to stand by and watch the crushing-out of junkyards that had
existed for many decades. And though junkyards are ALWAYS
under threat of extinction from various authorities, it has been
pretty surprising, to me, to hear and see just how many yards there
still are -- many well-known locally, and many that are near-
SECRET, except to the posters! LOL


I am pretty certain have now collected photos of U.S. vintage tin in a
"natural state" from (a) every state in the U.S., virtually all
Canadian (b) provinces, and -- quite frankly -- an
amazing number of other (c) countries! Along the way,
we've provided leads and links that, hopefully, have helped more
than one HAMBer to get a wished-for project car/truck or scarce
parts. One pleasing surprise to me was numerous vintage photos
(and accompanying info and discussions) about the World War II
scrap drives that swept away millions of vehicles built since the
birth of the automobile, all the way through the Roaring Twenties
and the Depression years. Amazingly, a thread about a somewhat
depressing subject has taken on a sort of vibrant energy and life of
its own! Where will it go? Keep checking in, and we'll just SEE!


Most of all, I -- and a surprising number of others -- have enjoyed
REMINISCING about countless hours enjoyed losing ourselves in
junkyards, all through the decades and still TODAY! Until I did Post
#1, I never realized how widespread the attraction is for old cars
lined up in junkyards! A junkyard visit can be a bit sad or
bittersweet, as one can't help feeling sympathy for the old war
horses that served people and families for countless millions of good
miles, before returning to the steady, verdant embrace of Mother
Nature. But unlike a human cemetery, auto junkyarding is mostly
an enjoyable quest for some rare discovery or precious part. And,
for sure, pros and amateurs alike bring home pictures, sort of like
trophies but ALSO as an historical record of steel and iron beasts
that are steadily fading away, never to return.


I would note that I take very few of the photos I myself contribute to
this COLLECTION. With an eye to a "best-of-the-best" goal, I
collect and add good VT shots from a plethora of sites -- and I
always try to give full CREDIT, even when pix are vintage and in the
public domain. (I think most posters here try and do this, as well.)
No secrets; just a few of the sources I've drawn on include Shorpy,
flikr, junkyards' own business sites, pro photogs' sites (usually with
advance approval), and the HAMB itself, of course. In all those
instances, I try and provide a good link so that folks can go and
actually SEE many more photos than I "borrow" for this thread.
Only fair. To date I haven't heard one cross word, so maybe folks
understand -- and maybe even benefit from their material being
shared here. I do hope so.


And SO, I hope everybody will keep on seeking out vintage tin --
wherever you find it -- photographing it and SHARING your
treasures . . . before old junk yards are just a memory.


Been fun, compadres! MANY THANKS! Let's keep it going! -- Jimi

 

As everybody knows, this thread has been about nostalgia, history, spotlighting surviving (and dying) junkyards in as many states, provinces and countries as possible -- AND it's an attempt to put IN ONE LOCATION a ton of outstanding, even artful, pix so that someone can sit down and take a cool virtual tour of junkyards WITHOUT having to hunt all over the internet. Some of the material, then, is new, and some comes from around the 'net and various HAMB postings. I'll continue to pick up good pix where I find them and, as usual, WELCOME contributions from HAMBers who run onto lost (and not-so-secret) yards where they find them. Obviously, we concentrate on pix of pre-1965 material.

But also, when we run across solid LEADS to junkyards possibly harboring trad and rebuildable iron, it would be great to include useful info like that here! On Post #296, I pulled together 15 or 20 links supplied by HAMBers to their personal visits to junkyards, and some include directions and/or contacts, so you can go there if you want.

To that end, I wanted to note that, as of the end of December, HAMBer RoadkillCustoms of Louisville (RoadkillCustoms.com) has further updated and improved his BIG national list of junkyards and salvage yards. Not only have guys helped him ADD lots of yards, but he's added new search features, as well. The latest link he's posted is: View Junk Yards, Salvage Yards and Auto Recyclers Database .

He originally posted in July '08 about his project. You can look further into details by searching his thread: "Junk Yards, Salvage Yards and Auto Recyclers" on the HAMB'net, folks! Who knows, the time spent reading his thread & following some leads could help you find your next project! Thanks, RoadKill for the "public service," and THANKS to the HAMB for being the best board for traditional rodders and customizers!!!

 

I didn't think you found stuff like this sitting outside anymore

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/<wbr>forum/showthread.php?t=578032

 

Whats left of an old yard in Eastern Colorado.

 

I like old Mercs, but that one's on the wrong side of the country for me.

 

YOU can say that again, Jim! Packard 180 must have cost $4 grand! The REST of
the stuff the ol' fella has isn't at all shabby, either! And it's in the northeast, too.
I can't imagine how it's not all rusted to heck!

 

Edsel Graveyard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hTf17ftn-4&NR=1

 

Jim, THANKS for posting that link. It is COOL to know that a guy in relatively arid southern California is preserving some 200 Edsels!

The viewer comments posted range (predictably, I suppose) from pretty sappy to pretty perceptive, didn't you think? The people who said that the cars should be covered up, or a building built to preserve them, again, don't address who would PAY the expense. The cash-strapped government isn't going to toss taxpayers' money at something that was NEVER a government priority. I say, thank goodness they are not in Ohio or New York, PA or Maine! They'd already be practically unrecognizable.

Like some other HAMBers I love the Edsel, especially the '58 -- Edsel as it was "SUPPOSED" to be, IMO. But I wish the posters on that video would do themselves a favor and read up a bit on how and why the Edsel was planned -- as well as the mutli-faceted factors that caused it to be a monumental failure. Retrospect, as the old saw goes, is 20/20, and Ford surely made a series of mistakes that doomed the Edsel.

The biggest irony is that the Edsel was not, and is not, a bad car at all (if you can overlook the electro-mechanical gearshift, that is!).

For anyone driven to understand the Edsel saga, I'd recommend searching our "extinction" thread, as I call it, for the pieces of HISTORY/opinion. And regarding Edsel running gear and RACING performance, there's a specific thread on Edsels in stock-car racing. To wit:

We ALL Love a DARE! PIX of TRULY Extinct Makes?

C'mon! EDSELS as STOCK Cars???





Thanks again, SunRoofCord/Jim!

 

SPEAKING of Edsels, here's one confused:1/2?)
at carsinbarns.com.



http://www.carsinbarns.com/Classics/Pg18Clscs.htm

 

The following pics are from a several trips I took to the Stan Reynolds yard in 2007 & 2008.

Stan is getting on in age and wanted to clean out the yard, his thoughts are that you can't take it with you and it will all get crushed once he's gone.

Now in his late 80's, Reynolds yard was actually started by his father who ran an early GM dealership from the 1920's up.

Reynolds advertised that they would take 'Anything in Trade', and they did.Reynolds took used cars, trucks, trains, Aircraft, Cats and Equipment, Steam Engines, Houses, Parts, Cattle and Chickens, Furniture but most importantly he was the guy that would give you a few $$ for your Dead, Abandon, smashed and/or crashed cars. He would even tow them for you!
Over the years, the collection of defunct and non running nameplates grew in the yard probably peaking sometime in the late 40's or early 50's.

The first time I toured the yard was in the 90's and there was somewhere around 1600 automobiles not including the huge collection of steam engines, construction equipment, aircraft, and wartime equipment.
The main yard contained about 40 small outbuildings and sheds along with many containers and tractor trailers filled with mostly organized parts. There were containers full of teardrop and lantern headlights, One semi trailer was allocated to Dashes and Instrument clusters, another was just for steering wheels and yet another was for car (tube) radios. Many of the out buildings were just full of misc parts that had not been organized as well as there was about a dozen sheds full of motorcycles and parts.

There was nothing newer than about the mid 50's.

The pics I took in 07/08 were taken about a year or so after Stan started to really move stuff out by pricing things a little more realistically. After all, most of the complete and running/near running vehicles had been removed over the years and the cars that were left were mostly off name marques or at least 4 doors Fords and GM's.

Sometime in 2006 Stan slashed the prices of everything by about 90% at which point many bare spots began to show up.
At the time I took the pics there was still about 800 vehicles left in the main yard and 5 orf 10 vehicles were being sold per week.

I don't know whats left up there but can't imagine that anything worth restoring is still there, mostly just tough parts cars even thought many would be of the rarest and almost obscure name brands.

Anyway, to start, here is the 2006 price list of what was still on inventory.
Most cars had a number on the fender or hood and that corresponds to the number on the price list.



























The email address does not appear to work, at least I got no replies from the several attempts I made to contact them.
The Phone number is your only hope and if you are interested in something then I suggest you call.
I am not associated with Reynolds yard and have no other info to offer so please do not pm me for further info.





.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

Wow, Moe, there's even a Maxwell and a Saxon in there?

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.