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

a 1950-1952ish Pontiac 4 door sedan with the long inline 8. Some of the glass was cracked, a few engine parts under the hood were missing... maybe a few trims pieces... but the rest of the car was there, knobs, interior, steering wheel, dash, ash tray. It was almost like a barn find. Just sitting in salvage yard for years.

-W

 

Bean-O, you said a TON there, both about how the so-called junkyard has changed for the worse and, secondly, how much FUN it used to be to wander and climb amongst the old cars. Owners didn't worry about liability back in the day, just let young guys loose to brouse and DREAM!

 

Back in the mid 60's I found a '37 Ford coupe in a junkyard between Cochranton and Franklin, PA. The car was in beautiful shape and must have been there since the 40's because there was a huge tree growing up throught the engine compartment ! The hood panels were in the trunk so it was a complete car. It had the V8 60 motor and I have to assume it was shot and just towed to it's spot. The junkyard owner only wanted $200 for the car, but he didn't want the tree cut down to get the car out. It was more of a undertaking that I wanted to get involved with and just let it go. I went up there maybe 10 years later and the car........and tree were gone. Just hoping it went to a good home and not made into a dirt track car.

 

Back in the late sixties, right smack in the middle of Elmsford, N Y, at Mickey Mouse Auto Wreckers, there used to be an old sprint car, model A based, dual carbs,, and overhead conversion etc,etc. Nicely built, probably in the thirties. Had it's own period trailer as well, with pipe ramps bumped over the tires. Could have bought it for ninty bucks. Heard a couple of brothers found it, (and it's original driver), and restored it. Ninty bucks!

 

Late 70's,Alliance,OH... A purple HenryJ. Chrome tube axle in front,big Olds/Pont and ladder bars out back. Set back firewall,one piece fiberglass front end and orange plexi windows. Really well patina 'd even back then and no engine/trans but you could still make out the hand painted lettering and graphics... "Satans Crate" on the sides and maybe a maltese cross on the back. But I couldn't come up with the $200 to take it home... Ohhhh,
the ones that got away....

 

Well, wasn't quite a junkyard... more like behind a shop parked next to a bunch of junk.. but still, it's not every day you run across an old GM Futurliner:

 

years ago, my dad had a great little, out of the way junkyard he frequented to get parts for his 50 Merc. I remember seeing a late 50's Chrysler ambulance based off of a car platform that still had the 392 hemi under the hood. It was just so unusual that is has stuck with me a 20 years later!

 

Not a car, but back about 1980 or so I went into a very small local "pull it" (small as in a one guy show)... went into the small office (about 12'x 15') and there on the floor laying on it's side complete with headers, carbs, distributor is an honest to god Ford 427 SOHC.....I was a dumb high school kid, but I knew exactly what it was... price tag was just under 1000 bucks, and I could not in any way afford it.....
Tom

 

There were two early Hemi's...392's supposedly...on a rack inside the main building of a junkyard around 1996. They were a matched pair, one spun backwards, from a boat of some sort. The guy wanted $750 each and would not split them up. No idea what became of them.....

 

I was at a small yard In Luck Wi. about 29 years ago and there was a Tucker.
I thought I wanted it but my friend said,"The Kinmounts are gone. Its not worth it".
There was also a Senior series Packard in the Pick a part in San Diego in the late 80's that had no biz bein there. I have the Packard script compass.

 

In Illinois a 1969 Hemi GTX & a early Front Engine Dragster !

 

back in 1980, in Vallauris, south of France near Cannes, in a junkyard, a clean two door 1951 Chrysler Saratoga and a 1995 fordoor Bel Air lying on the floor, but still nice and complete...in the middle of a bunch of Peugeot, Citroen, Simca and other european cars...

 

And would it still be there ? If so PM me where it is.

Ummm Wrong, the ugly comment hit the nail square on the head.

 

When I was into early Mustangs, I went to a Mustang salvage yard for some interior pieces. Waaaaaay in the back row, crushed almost flat, was a '67 Shelby GT. The owner of the place took pride in showing it off.

 

BS Find a story early in a thread and make up your own story about it. Way to go skippy.

 

Wasn't worth saving and the owner of the yard wouldn't sell it anyways, but there was 40-41 willys coupe that recently just got crushed here in western PA when the yard got sold. The bottom 2-3 feet of the car was completely gone, but I always thought it would of been cool to hang upside down from a ceiling. Supposedly that car had been in the yard since the 40's and mother nature just got the best of it...

 

A whole row of '49-51 Fords. Hadn't seen that many in one yard.

 

OMG You just made me get a very sick feeling in my stomach.
Gasser Girl

 

Cant say it was a junk yard but it all got scrapped just the same in 2010 .Back in 1978 in Illinois we had a massive blizzard & a Huge Mortin barn collapsed that smashed so many cool cars ,The owner Roy, would not sell anything & never fixed the building.The barn had a Supercharged Packard Hawk & to many Studebakers to count, '55 Cadillac convert, a Rickenbacker ,1920 Oldsmobile Roadster .Hudsons the cars were packed in so tight you could not open the cars doors !,He had several yards that all got crushed out around Joliette Il . I never saw what he had in the other locations but was told a Willys Coupe met the EPA tune up with the rest of the them .

 

There's a yard here in Maine that the current caretaker's father started. The caretaker is in his late 80's. My husband and i were there one day and found a 1940's willys frame. He told us that the car was in the way of getting some others out so he cut it up My husband and i couldn't talk for a good 5 minutes.

 

My dad and I stopped by John's Auto Salvage in Seguin, TX around 1996 to find some 40 Ford parts and as you approached the yard, up on an old concrete building foundation, behind a fence was a 34 Ford Coupe....bone stock, complete, extremely solid, old original looking paint...

......just sitting there, like some kind of magical white buffalo.

We just stopped and stared at it for so long that they must've thought we'd lost our minds.

It wasn't for sale.

I asked.

 

UUUMMM Your BLIND those WERE the Best looking trucks ever made ugly does not even come close!

Uploaded with ImageShack.us absolutely gorgeous.

 

That's not ugly, but it's far from the best looking.

 

My dad always talks of going to a yard in the early 1970's seeing a Cobra needing the Lt fender wheel and door. Said the guy told him $2k with motor and trans as it was. He thought that was high wrecked, man i wished he would have gotten it now...There is a yard close to me that has a 1963 impala SS 409 4 speen, why some one hasent got it out im not sure , not much left though...

 

Not the best or ugliest looking truck in the fleet.
But nearer fugly than cute. Still, I like it.

 

Well you know what they say, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder

 

1995 or so...waterbury area of CT. Used to be a huge yard on a main drag, on top of a 30 ft pile of cars was a complete Daimler SP250 Dart convertible. Looked like an advertisement piece for them. I hate/love junkyards.

 

yeah, me and a buddy of mine pleaded to the owner to sell it to us but the guy wouldn't budge. said he liked knowing that he owned a willys even though it really wasn't worth anything and there were literally no good parts on it. when this yard was crushed a few years ago, there was probably 150+ pre 1970 cars that got crushed-mostly from the 50's and early 60's. there werent too many of the bunch that you could have saved after being outside in the Pennsylvania weather, but there were sooo many good pieces still. other than the willys, i know a 57 2 door handyman wagon got crushed, 58 nomad, 38 2 door plymouth sedan (best car of the bunch), 61 olds bubbletop, 440 4 speed charger, and plenty of others.

 

last week end,1967 vette red roadster with top uo 327 4 speed,sitting 30 feet from a 1964 427 galaxie 500 ,black with white interior,motor still in it.20 feet from a orange 1969mach 1 428 cj,shaker hood . looked like it hit a deer way back. All i could do was jump up and down and point! Way TOO rich 4 my bloodline! I could name 50 more in there but those took the cake for me. The good news is they are still there for sale, not for junk!

 

Martha's Vineyard late 90's 37 or 38 Willys coupe rotted to death in yard getting emptied.Could not find anything saveable.Had been in yard forever,body had been unbolted from frame and was laying on it's side like a beached whale,was too stupid to take a few pics.Would loved to have seen it before the lengthy salt bath!