Anybody have an funny wrecking yard stories?

I'm lucky i guess that my relitives owned a yard and let me when I visited just roam about> My cousin & i often spent hours searching cars for lose change and kid collectibles.I remember early in 1970 A local trade -in lot brought a few cars down to s**** that just wouldn't sell. A traded in hudson hollywood,henry J,ramblers and a 56 old holiday convertible.The olds caught the eye of myself and soon my cousin had a idea how to save her from the crusher>Since the yard was so large we would move her here there and everwhere till we were old enough to rescure her from a rusty death.Years p***ed and our fancy didn't change we kept her safe untill my uncle sold the 50 acre yard and drive- in to a home developer.She sat on wood blocks in a old shed used to make planks in the 20's.When my cousin and i decided to take her to his house my uncle was dumbfounded how we managed to squriel her away so long with out the hint of being noticed.My cousin has restored the old gal and just before the orginal yard was grazed we parked her in the same place we found her in and shot a few photos.Neat thing here is we took the same photos when we found her in 1970 and she still sat next to the exact 2 cars then as in 1970.I have a copy of both in my office.they serve to show my students YOU can be the difference if you just try!

 

I can't think about a junkyard without thinking of my buddy and his "problem". For him a junkyard is a natural laxative. In 40 years, I don't think he has ever entered and left a junkyard without leaving a deposit in the back seat of some wreck. After a nasty case of poison ivy when we were younger he would rip up the seat covers for *** wipes. I think Fords were his favorite. Something about the GMs that didn't agree with him.

It took many years for him to finally wise up. He now carries a pocket full of napkins along with his tools for the inevitable dump in the back seat.

He has taught me to be very cautious when crawling around inside a wreck. It's a running joke that never fails.

 

A long time ago...Most of this happened at my friends house but bear with me. My buddy Bill, (lets call him) sold his truck to the junk yard cuz' he was short on cash. Totally beat truck but it had a freshly rebuild motor in it so he got a hundred bucks for it. Bill stewing over this "raw deal" he got that day decides he "wants that motor back and ain't gonna' pay for it". So as charming fella' he convinces a couple of us that fair is fair so we creep out to yard that night to get 'er back.
We break into the yard and wire the truck and drive it across town (Topeka, KS) to his house to pull the motor.
A couple hours I guess later we have it out when the Sheriff pulls up in front of his house. The Sheriff just sat there in his car for a few and took off. " ****, ****,****" we're busted we thinks. So not really knowing what to do we decide the best thing was to put the motor back in the truck and take it back to the yard as if nothing ever happened. Maybe fooling the law I guess. So we did. Drove it back across town with one headlight, stolen, etc. and dump it outside the yard.
That was it, no more Sheriff, nothing.
Ah, to be young again..

 

**** last week i was yanking the two front wheels of a 49 Ford woody. im slaving away trying to bust the lug nuts loose with a 12' pole when i hear banging and the sound of a sawzall clanging about 2 cars over. turns out my buddy thought the roof of an old ford truck was too high and decided he wanted to chop it right there in the yard.

my brother was also with us and made his girlfriend carry the 50lb tool box AND the jack. he took the bottle of water. now that was funny

 

We used to frequent a yard around here that an old timer ran more-or-less as a hobby. He'd collect freebie cars and trucks, then bring in a crusher when the s**** price was high. He was real cheap on prices for parts though, so we loved it.

We were after a 12 bolt Chevy rear and found one under a 1970 El Camino. We asked him about it, and he tells us $75 and he'll cut it out with the torch if we jack it up and take the wheels off. We agree and proceed to jack it up with a bumper jack we found in another car. We yank off the wheels and wedge a crumplded old oil drum under the back bumper to "steady" the car.

He comes by and says " I guess you're ready". We point out that the car isn't supported too sturdy before he crawls underneath. He responds "**** it....I'd rather the thing falls and kills the son of a ***** that'll be stealing the transmission out of it"...as he lights the torch and wiggles under the car.

He starts cutting and there's sparks all over. He burns through the trailing arms, brake cables and shocks...and the rearend nearly drops on his face. His sparks set the gr*** on fire and he holds the torch with one hand while he pats out the fires with the other BARE hand.

Somehow he gets done without bashing his skull or getting third degree burns. While he puts his torch back on his boom truck, we pull the rearend cover to check the ratio (just for curiosity sake...we were buying it regardless), one of us mentions "it's not a posi" and he gets all pissed off, thinking that now we're going to stick him for it.

My one buddy had long hair and wore a bandanna at the time. The junk man grabs the rearend cover and plops it on his head, saying "here's your helmet...go on back to Vietnam you hippie". Meanwhile we're laughing our ***es off.

We loaded the rearend into our pickup and paid the man his 75 bucks, then laughed all the way home.



At another yard, there was one section that was down in a big hole that had been excavated for sand and gravel. Of course the car we needed parts from was in the hole. We're down there stripping the parts....when this old truck comes down the hill and crashes right into the cars that were near where we were working.

We hear a bunch of laughing and another truck comes down the hill. They hook a chain between them and pull the first truck back up the hill. Now we notice that the truck doesn't even have an engine or any windshield or doors.

Once they get it to the top of the hill, there's a bit of arguing going on and then the truck comes down the hill again....WHAMO ! into the pile. These guys were taking turns riding this old truck down the hill and smashing it into the pile of junkers. It was like red-neck snow sledding...except there was no snow and their sled was an old Ford truck with no brakes!

 

the original ecology center in santa fe springs california used to be a regular trash dump that sold parts off old cars that had been dumped. one saturday i had been cleaning up the back yard and took a load of stuff to the dump,you had to p*** by the car section on the way in and out of the dump area.so i took the opritunity to check out this pretty nice 1963 nova hardtop sitting there.i couldnt understand why such a nice car would be junked ,i was inside removing parts for my nova,i had the arm rests off the radio out and was working on the sunvisers when i look up to see an old guy running to this car.he was having quite a fit and hollering "what the hell are you doing in my car?" ,seems he had taken the same opritunity as me and stopped his car to check on some parts on the way out. i had mistaken his daily driver for a parts car... he calmed down a little after i explained and i reinstalled all the parts i had removed!

 

Couple years ago a friend of mine was building a hot rod and he couldn´t find a front i-beam anywhere for decent price. So once I went to a local s**** yard and found an axle from old Ford Model AA with big rims and HUGE wheel drums, some springs, frame parts, barbwire and stuff hanging on it. I paid something for it and it was lifted over the high fence. I called my friend that there´s an axle for you, go get it for free but you need to pick it up today. He drove there at 4pm straight from his work with no tools and worked couple hours to get it on his lifted 4x4 Ford Pickup bed... I didn´t realize it probably weights a ton...

 

My brother in law found a junk yard on a farm way out in the country while traveling out of town. It was all Studebakers and he needed some small parts for his 53 coupe. He knocks on the farmhouse door and an old grey haired man slowly comes out and he asked him if he would sell him some parts off that 53 coupe sitting out front with the big tree growing thru the engine compartment. Old man says, "oh, that's my Dad's car", then yells "Daddy! There's some guy here to see you." So then this really old guy in a walker struggles to the door and he tells him what he wants. The guy says "I can't sell you any parts off of that one sonny, that's the one I'm going to restore".

 

Not really funny but we did find it amusing at the time. My neighbor worked at the local wrecking yard and we would occasionally hang out there.

A Corvette was drug in one day that a guy had blown his brains out in. You could still find small bits of skull and hair.

 

There used to be a really cool yard in town when I was a kid. Phil D****r was the owner. Nice old guy and he'd let you wander around all you wanted. He was going out of business so my little brother and I went to see what was left. Mind you, I was about 18 at the time. I spotted a primered 68 Charger 4 speed 383. Of course I yelled "WooHoo! it's the General Lee!" Yes I did jump through the window and proceed to start grabbing gears. BAAAAWWWWAAAAA! and just as I was hitting 4th gear I looked up and Phil was standing next to the door looking at me. "You like this one?" He asked and kind of laughed. If you're seven and making engine noises in junk cars it's cute. When you're 18 people just look at you funny.

 

Back about 1969 I needed to replace the engine in my POS Rambler and I heard about this guy who had a 327 Rambler engine and overdrive transmission out in Cambridge Illinois. This place was out about 5 miles from the edge of the earth. Anyway when we pulled in, we couldn't find anybody around so we started walking around and hollering for anybody there. I came around a corner and there was a real old time circus wagon - the kind with the bars on the sides. Well the end door of the wagon opens up and out staggers the owner of the place. A BEAR starts to follow this guy out of the door! He hollers at the bear to get back in there until the customers leave. The bear goes back in and he shuts the door. This guy explains that he has had the bear since it was a cub and on Fridays he goes into town and buys a couple of buckets of beer then brings them back and him and the bear drink it!!!! He says that when nobody is around, he lets the bear wander around like a pet. We got the engine and never went back there again! I'll bet he didn't have a problem with midnight parts raiders.

 

Went to the local s**** yard a week ago. They had a Czech Skoda there. Upside down, smashed and rolled... And a radio on... Kinda creepy. At the same yard they had a half-wrecked Nissan lifted on a top of huge block of congrete, front wheels in the air, motor running and wheels spinning... Too much fuel left probably... They must have a new guy working there, with a weird sense of humor haha.

 

up untill last week (crusher) there was an area in the bush just outside of town (near the airport! )that had a heap of old cars in it was started in the early eightys and was basicaly an unsupervised dump for all of the towns peoples stuffed cars, when I first went there as a kid- 98 with my dad. I got into and old 70 holden station wagon and bounced around on the seat, I shoved my foot down on the axcellerator with my streched foot and turned the key, The car roared up and went straight forward and smashed into the back of another car, the two two cars where still wedged together when I last checked.

 

I used to go with my dad all the time, up until he p***ed on in 2004. It would never fail, he would always find CASH. We would go hang out at yards all day long, and especially on saturdays (only a few were open on weekends) but everytime we would go he would find cash, not change, but freakin bills, weather it be $1 or $100 bucks one day we were lookin for some old '60's mercedes parts and found $100 under the back seat, then in another old mercedes, found $20 up under the drivers seat. Just in one yar in one day. It seemed everytime we went he would find at least a buck, I always teased him about how much $ we would make by going to the yard that day. I miss my dad, man he was the best. RIP Dad....july 4, 2004

 

You guys should go to the tractor junkyards with my dad sometime. We got to one place and the guy warned us to beware of the goats. We chuckled a little and took off into the yard. He wasn't kidding! One guy worked while one guy kept watch, mean dogs had nothing on those goats.
CHAZ

 

I took a swing at a lama with a corvair bumper. ****er was following me.

 

GREAT stories fellows. I've spent an enjoyable morning reading them all. Love to hear more.

 

the owner of a yard I went to got a few goats from somewhere, we called and asked if we could look around, he didnt mention the goats. so we took along a couple of beef jerky strips for the german shepard, fed him his bounty and took off in the yard. we were bent over looking under a car with a 9" and my buddy gets rammed in the *** by the goat and knocks him over. I scramble up on the hood of the car and he follows soon after, pretty soon there are 3 goats around the car ramming the sides of it with their head. the german shepard trots over and starts barking at the goats like he's trying to help us out, the goat take off after the dog and we can get away, that poor shepard got its *** kicked by the goats so we could get away. pretty cool dog.
the goats soon ate the seat out of the owners semi and met a bad fate in return.

 

So, a duck walks into a wrecking yard...

 

I was pulling some window mouldings and dash trim for a friend from a 37 Chevy coupe we had found in a yard. The car had 2 taillamps so I decided to get them too. I pulled open the decklid, and as it went up my head went in...to face the most hideous and toothy snarling & hissing critter I ever saw. I quickly pulled my head back, banged into the deck latch, fell forward into the trunk as this creature dove under the seat and disappeared. It was a possum! I had disturbed his afternoon nap. Got the taillamps and stands and a big headache too.

 

Central Texas yard, we spent the day searching and pulling parts. Late in the afternoon we hauled everything up front, paid the man and left. About 15 miles down the highway we started feeling itchy and uncomfortable, pulled over to the shoulder and got out of the truck. Quickly stripped to our shorts and were beating our clothes on the truck, yelling like banshees. We were covered with hundreds of little brown seed ticks!!
Our wives spent a good bit of time with tweezers and alcohol ridding us, and our private parts, of those miserable critters that night. We were horrified.
Next time we went up the owner and a couple locals advised us to take sulphur pills before coming again. My friend did buy a large bottle and dutifully took them daily until our next trip up. We still got ticks.
Guy asked us what we had done, we told him about the sulphur pills, he laughed and said, "Hell, boy, those just make you stink!", he was right.

 

theres a junk yard ran by this old man and his wife they are very cool people i needed bumper brackets for my 55 and we go out to the feild of old cars and he nows the history of each car out there who, what, when, and shows us this smashed 54 chevy tells us the how the guy had a brand new napa motor in it and he was racing around all drunk and tried to jump the river cuz the bridge was out and he died in there piled rite into the bank on the other side so he bought the car for the motor and was all pissed off that he got ripped off because even the crank was broke he reached into the car and pulled the dead guys leather shoe out from under the dash and says this was the only thing good left haha

 

Why not scan and post those photos?

 

sort of OT- my grandfather owned eastside auto wreckers on colorado blvd in pasadena (next to bobs big boy) in the 50's and 60's. anyone ever go there or have any storys? send me a pm if you did I would love to hear from someone who had been there.

 

Thanks for the stories guys. I'm sitting in my office laughing so hard my eyes are watering, my employees must think I've gone ****in nuts.

Only story I have, went to a small yard, looking for a bumper, mid summer, kudzu is taking over, find the bumper, along with a snake, yard guy picks the damn thing up and puts it inside his shirt. He cuts the bumper off and when it falls a giant (softball size) fully loaded wasp nest comes with it. I must have gotten stung at least a dozen times, never did go back for that bumper.

 

I just like the sign at the old yard here in indy. The owner is a compe***ion marksman. His sign has a picture of a gun and simply says "if you steal from me, don't bother running...you'll just die tired."

 

My parents own a salvage yard (newer stuff, not of interest here) and I would work for them during summers and breaks when I was in high school and college. I was working there one summer and we were putting together a car for me. We had taken the radiator out and had a drain pan with the old anti-freeze in it and my Dad told me to dump it in the tank that we stored the reclaimed anti-freeze in. I went over there and opened the tank that said anti-freeze and got a bath!!! I was covered head to toe in a mix of oil and anti-freeze. I opened the tank that had been filled for a couple months and in the sunlight the stupid thing was pressurized. Had to go to the bathroom sink and wash that stuff out of my hair and have a change of clothes brought down to me. Funny now, wasn't then (although everyone else sure thought so).

Cory

 

Had a buddy in high school named George.
We called him "Mark"...

The reason?

We were in a yard pulling an engine one day and George decides to slide under a Ford to see if it's a 9" and what the tag says on it.

Yard owner shows up with the hoist truck, the dog gets out, looks around and sees the bottom 1/2 of George sticking out from under the Ford. Dog trots over, lifts his leg, and proceeds to "Mark" his territory...

Owner laughed so hard he decided to give us the engine for free!
And "Mark" got himself a new 9", But he had to ride in the back with the parts on the way home.

When I went in the Navy in 72 I had a big box of "Necker Knobs" I'd pulled off of wrecking yard steering wheels. Everything from "Marylin Monroe ****" to the 39 Seattle World's Fair was on those knobs. Must have been 70 or 80 of them in that box. Some of them you could take apart to swap the picture, others were just wood or plastic or metal. A few were really customized. One, I found in a chopped merc had a br*** knob with a 10 dollar gold piece inlaid in the top. I gave the yard guy the standard 50 cents for it. He never looked at it.