Art & Inspiration Salvage Yards

Most of my buddies were gearheads, to varying degrees! The ones I hung with the most were the real gearheads! One buddy I met in Oct of 1957, was one of my friends with the most and hottest ( we thought) cars! We still get together every few months for an evening meal and a few beers!
He went on to go to school to be a paint and body instructor at the tech college level, think OSU Tech! He taught many many boys/men a trade that they made livings from. One is my current youngest step son! He now has his own shop, built a second one, after two years in the first, because he needed more room! This really came in handy for me with a 94 year old mother still driving and a sister that can’t drive ducks to water! lol! My Mom finally gave up driving, almost! In a jamb she might drive to church 1 1/2 miles on dirt roads, she turned 100 last Dec!
You just never know how things will turn out! Back in 1957, I never dreamed my friend and I would got through 16 years of school together and he would teach my future step son how to fix my 90+ year olds mother’s car! Strange!





Bones

 

Back around '03 I learned of Hilliard's junk yard about an hr. away just north of Alma. That had a lot of vintage cars.
I went to check it out when I needed some trim pieces for a '56 chev 4dr. I was working on.
The owner informed me that no one was allowed in unless accompanied by either him or his son.
When I found what I was looking for I pulled out a 5in1 tool and started popping off the needed trim.
The owner thought that was just the neatest tool and since I had several I gave him that one.
After that he remembered me as "The 5in1 guy" and let me have free run off the place sans accompaniment. I spent many hours there, unfortunately it is also long gone now.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if we crossed paths on a Saturday. Anywhere from two to four us would load up and hit Cagle's and then swing by Audie's on the way back north. We made a Saturday of it.

 

Man that was the day! My Cousin, Benny Mac, married Audie’s daughter! Audie and me were tight, but that guy could surround a dollar! lol But I did manage to score a few things there! Audie is gone, as is my cousin and in a series of unfortunate events so are his grandson and great grandson! about year or so ago ……





Bones

 

First six years of driving would been much different W/O salvage.
The scene in Philly is reduced to maybe 2% what was

 

I was at some 'yard one winter with my brother. At the counter there was some guy playing with something he had found in a car... he had no clue what it was. It was a drafting lead sharpener. My brother offered the guy 25¢ for it and took it home.

 

When I was a teen I had four great junkyards I would frequent. One of them was Red's, Red had a restoration shop at the yard, he was a very stern and gruff man. However, even though he was very intimidating, I liked him and he liked me and let me go into the yard when ever I wanted to get stuff. He even loaned me tools to pull parts if I did not have them with me. He knew I was just a kid and did not exactly have money falling out my ass, so he was very fair to me on price. Good times when I was a young hell raising hot rodder.

 

Yep I remember Hilliards. It got bought by Fair Salvage. About 2015 I went there before the clean up and found new owners. They sold me a BUNCH of stuff for my Vista Cruiser. Reasonable. I took it a pull wagon with a jack on it and a bunch of tools, sawsalls, extra bartteries, etc. Dumped wagon twice due to terrain, i could hardly pull it! I w

 

One thing that I miss about the auto wreckers of my youth is the smell of old cars. It was a combination of old rot and whatever chemicals were used in those cars. Domestic cars had a different aroma than those weird foreign ones. Now with the passage of time, the smell is gone but I would love to get a whiff of that again.

 

We don't have much in the way of vintage salvage yards near here. One across the Columbia in Washington, but otherwise all the yards are late model stuff. I still go to them at times when I'm building and might find something that could be incorporated into the car build and not stick out as too modern.

 

I've read where people have said this before, but I can honestly say I've never seen a nodular case in a wrecking yard nor know of anyone either, really curious about the ratio of vehicles you found them in, musclecar versus truck.

 

That junk yard you are talking about was likely either called J & J Auto Parts, State Line Auto Parts, or Bear Salvage (depending on when you were there). Bear Salvage closed just before Covid. All were the same place, and one of the original owners was still there through all the name changes. He also retained the property rights after the last "official" business closed. He played with his Ford collection at the building there on the property through all the junk yard names, and after they were gone.

It would not have surprised me if Jim had given you a receipt with just about any name on it. He would have honored any issues surrounding anything to do with it, but he had a way of eluding excess income tax sometimes. Poor Boy Welding Shop was my welding shop, and the only "Poor Boy" anything in town for most of the 25 years I was in business. I've heard about many things "Poor Boy" has done over the years I had nothing to do with. Apparently, the name was easy to sell. LOL!

Jim Jefferies (one of the original Jims from the J & J name) was a hard core Ford guy, and he was the owner of the property at that IL Rt 75 business (and the original property on Markel Rd). His counter man under the yard name of J & J was Charly Craze, he also a hard core Ford guy and ran a successful business here in town after they parted ways. Jim nearly always ran a Ford powered car in the late model class at our local dirt track. He was pretty successfully towards the end of our local track. Jim was a good friend with one of the guys that was involved with the engineering and building of the NASCAR Ford motors, that were used up until a few years ago.

Jim passed away a little over a year ago from complications from a medical illness he has had for many years. He left behind a wife and two sons. Jim was a screwed business man with a lot of properties and connections here in the area. I'm sure his wife and sons don't have anything to be concerned about. He was a great guy to be on the good side of, but not one of those guys you would want to have mad at you. If you had a love for Ford stuff, you had a big advantage.

Jim was a couple years ahead of me in high school, so I knew him a long time before his passing. I'm not much of a Ford guy, but when I was selling Mopar only parts, Jim and his crew sent a lot of guys my way. I was more of an associate then a close friend, but he knew me by name.

 

There was a yard out near Canby called (I think), Whiskey Hill, never made it out there but had heard they had earlier parts at least into the late 80's.

 

Bones[/QUOTE]

Denny, all the nine inch N cases I pulled out of salvages were in pickups. But the odd thing, was the N cases were usually in the 1970s pickups that had 302 engines, with automatic transmissions! I never pulled one out of a 460 , FE or 351/400 equipped pick up! If I spotted a “ Sport Custom” pick up , I usually scored an N case! More often than not it was a 3:50 ratio with a trac-loc in it! Back in the 1980sand 1990s, there were tons of Ford pick ups in that salvage! Any rear end was $50! Any engine was $50! I also scored a Dana 60 1/2 ton rear end 3:55 gears with a track-lock! I was a,ways buying something I thought I needed!




Bones

 

Gene, the “ Poor Boys “ salvage I was referring to is in Muskogee, Oklahoma on South 24 St. It was an old established salvage when I bought that 430 in the late sixties.
It is currently being run by Allen Ellis, son of the man I bought the engine from. It’s been too many years , I cannot remember his name. But I think his father started the salvage. I’ll ask Allen , next time I stop in!








Bones

 

Don’t you know it! You could open the door blindfolded and tell if it was a GM, Ford, or Chrysler. I didn’t do much import stuff either, but all the VW Bugs I owned had a distinct smell, I could tell one as soon as the door opened.

 

I remember when Cagle was moving from north 69 and and you could get everything for next to nothing. my brother bought 37 chevy two door just for frame, kept fenders and scrapped body about 1983, I cut out a couple 46 - 48 Ford gas doors and surrounds with a chisel to put on my 30's fatfender Fords.

 

The odors out of the old cars was usually from the foam rubber seat material breaking down.
Decay if you will.
My attraction was the smell of oil soaked dirt.
When the row of yards in Philly ( Passyunk av ) was shut down excavators reported soil samples from 20' deep to be contaminated.
BTW they all sit within a spit of the Schuylkill river.

 

There was one place in Huntington NY, in 1989 this was the last hope to replace my rotted out '68 Chevy crossmember. The owner was a well known stock car sponsor and he knew where everything was.

He points me to a row of trailers practically out of sight. I had to cross a narrow creek walking over a narrow plank. Once at the trailers, it was "go fish". I located the GM trailer and dove in, no flash light. I had to take parts outside to identify them... and the trailers had rotted out wood I had to side step. If I were to slip and fall... they would find my body after it started to decompose.

I did manage to find one.

 

My dad had a junkyard with my uncle and grandfather here in upstate NY. I was born in 1949 and it was my playground/back yard. Started driving runable cars at 9. Closed in 1966.

 

There were several around Portland in the 80's and even 90's. One pick a part out in Boring Oregon that we frequented often, and had some old cars still. But they had one area with really old cars. Heck in the early 90's a few of the Pick N Pulls still had old 60's cars, and a few cars and trucks from the 50's!

 

It wasn’t until my thirties that I could actually afford building cars with new parts, I had bought a operating body shop when I was 27 and the first few years were a little touch and go. But through my teenage and twenties I made a weekly trip to the “junk” yards in a little town ten miles out of town. These places didn’t even have signs out front but were always open on Saturday morning. I don’t know how many big and small block mopars, four speeds, 83/4 axle assemblies, wheels even full sets of tires. I bought a couple cars from one of yards, he had a few late models wrecks and he would sell them with the parts needed.
Id go out and walk through them even if I didn’t need anything and come home with a load. I miss those days.

 

One of the things I did, that obviously nobody else did, was pick up bolts and clamps , brackets , stuff like that! Most of the time you could see bolts all over the place, in the road, on car and in cars! I gathered that stuff! I guess I rubbed off on my Son! I went to play poker with him and my grandson and others Saturday night! My son showed me his latest garage sale find….four buckets of automotive bolts and things! The guy actually gave this to him after he bought some other stuff! He was really proud of the score! I guess the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree! lol





Bones

 

I also did that very thing. Used to also pick up those little interior screws and fasteners.

 

During the late 70s early 80s I was hooked up with a junkyard east of town. I worked on his race cars for parts. I had a pretty good side business getting discounted parts from him and selling them on to fund my hot rods. I used to machine 28 spline Traction Locks to take 31 spline side gears. I also did a lot of 4x4 conversions which was also quite a business.. He eventually gave up the salvage yard and became a multimillionaire crushing and hauling cars.

I then hooked up with another yard south of town. I was buying Camaros at the time and parting them out I bought over 50 of them, stripped them for parts, and hauled the shell to him. He sold the shells to the local dirt track racers. When he would crush the yard out he would let me haul out cars that were going to be crushed to take off any parts I wanted to keep, then take them back Eventually he sold out to the Metro Park and I clead out his parts sheds for whatever I wanted. Transmission cores, Buick aluminum drums, driveshafts, and ever 8" or 9" Ford rear end in the yard.

I then hooked up with a never crushed year east of town. He got all my scrap shells, and I was his consultant on the older car parts, I had the Hollander manuals. The land was sold in 2007 for development, and again I got all the 8" and 9" rears he had. I still have a couple left.

The last local yard closed down about 8 years ago. He had hundreds of big trucks . The oldest one was a 1929 AA. I bought all the Guide and BLC headlights he had along with his entire stock of T5 transmissions and parts when he closed.

Since then I have to travel to get old car parts, no one local keeps anything over 20 years old. I'm 76 and only have a few cars left in me so I have been selling off some of my stock.

 

With the stock cars, we would scour the local 'yards looking for 9" Ford and GM 12-bolts with specific ratios. I carried a piece of paper (pre internets...) with ratio codes jotted down. People who worked there were impressed that I could de-code just about anything. Of course copiers were a rarity in most places too.

 

We used to go junkyarding all the time in the 70' s now there is one left on cape cod and the owner died a couple weeks ago he was living in a camper on his property. I see his son cleaning up the yard but it looks like its done . my buddy used to work in a huge one here an if we needed parts he would pull them and chuck them over the fence for late evening pickups. Good times good times

 

When I was a kid my grand father got his new '72 Lincoln Continental and brought his old car to the junk yard cuz that's what he did and my buddy's dad owned the junk yard about 10 minutes from our gas station it was a '56 Olds fiesta wagonblack and white with red gut it was still in nice shape. My boy used it as a yard car dropped the tailgate and mounted the torches in the back. He said it was the best yard car they ever had we still joke about it. It would be nice to have now!

 

What fun we ( my brother, sister, and I) had back in the ‘70s roaming and playing in the local junkyards. Our father owned a paint and body shop. He would take us with him and we would go play while the adults would talk shop in the office or gather up the necessary parts that my dad needed to repair a customer’s car. These days people would be horrified to think that a used part might be put on their car! Thankfully there are a couple of old yards around, and I still enjoy going in! And yes I will harvest small pieces parts, unobtainable small items, nuts , bolts, etc. Waste not, want not! Oh the fond memories of the good old days!

 

When I was running the ford garage body shop (71-73) We would substitute used parts for new as a way of covering folks deductable , thinking was the parts were the same age as there damaged parts , no harm , no foul (most adjusters new & didn't fuss about it) .