Hey guys, I was wondering if any of you know of some good salvage yards with old sheet metal in them. I want to take a day off of work and look for some parts soon before it gets to buggy/warm and before all stuff gets s****ped and sent to China. The only one I knew of was Van's in Waupun. The owner got sick of people low balling him so he s****ped the whole yard. I'm located by Fond du lac, but I'm willing to drive just about anywhere. Thanks! Scott
Thanks Blown, I heard about that one too, I know my father went there a few years ago and the guy working the yard was a compete ****. Is it any better now? There used to be a place in Fredonia with a bunch of nice stuff, but the owner decided to let his son in law run it. All the sudden they started charging admission into the yard, it was only $2 but not a big deal. The next year, they decided not to let anybody in the yard, they were afraid that people were stealing things by putting them in their tool boxes.
Thanks guys! Keep the suggestions coming. I heard of some place by the Wisconsin river that has a bunch of obscure stuff. I'll be sure to take pictures if I can find it.
Check out Chase's Auto Salvage in Camp Douglas right off I-90. There's still alot of old cars in there yet too.
Great info guys...I've been meaning to drive over to Vans...gotta see it for my own eyes I guess...any more Wisconsin yards anybody knows of...it's greatly appreciated!
You could also swing by Sewards Auto salvage outside of Milton Wi. Has some old stuff yet. Hank is the owner, ok guy, typical junker.
There is a place in East Troy WI called Troy Auto there is some old stuff out there most of it picked thru you better get out there before the weeds get to tall and the ticks come out. Last time I was there I ended up with about 4 ticks on me. They are only open on Sat for a few hours.
Nice info guys! As I said Van's is useless now. He only kept some of the old mopars, since he's a mopar freak, if it's mopar he knows what he has so you might not get any great deals on it. EVERYTHING else went to the crusher :-( He's a nice guy though. Louver Dude I live in Brownsville, small world. My father has a 54 210 Sedan and a 53 210 Convertible.
The last time I was at Vans over a year ago, there was next to nothing useable left. They planned to crush the rest this past year. Steel prices far out weighed what they were making selling a part here and there.
OH ya ,Small World Grumpy Jerry ( Jerry's Service garage ) is my father 'n law. Back to the subject ther is one over by Adams Friendship and another by Princeton ...and the one Gerg from the HAMB showed a few of us , over by Cleveland WI. I'll Pm ya my addy ... VANS IS DONE ...they have nuttn
I remember when i was about 16 years old running around Van's it was like a playland then i was talking to Louver Dude about it and he told me it was crushed out sad times. If it was possible to find the phone number to the other guy over by Cleveland that would be great but so far no dice but if you want to head out there sometime drop me a line.
Troy Auto is a neat little place, I got some pedals out of a Zepher a few years back... I felt like Indiana Jones climbing through all the weeds and stuff though!
I haven't been in Troy's in quite a few years. I actually just forgot about that place. Thanks for reminding me about that place. I drove past Seward's about a month ago but they were closed that day. I never actually been inside that yard yet but I get people telling me he is a great guy to deal with. He has a interesting bus sitting there but I got to many projects going now. To bad you don't get along with Jack from the auto ranch. That is still my favorite yard that is still in operation. I've been hearing lately about people not liking him but I get along great with him but that might be because I talk to him almost every friday during lunch hour and we have quite a few mutual friends. I sure miss Van's in Waupun. I also miss the two yards that were between Watertown and Johnson Creek. Witt Bro's if I remember correctly and the old man down the street. I can't recall his name right now but he had different price tags based on what you drove in there, how you dressed, and your at***ude. He was a great guy. Always treated me decent but I always made sure to show up in my beater truck and dressed like I just came off the farm and spent time ********ting with him.
Tryoy's is pretty cool if you get a chance to go there is an old pole barn that fell down but you can still get in there I think that was his personal stash there is some cool stuff in there. When I went the weeds and trees were so over grown I got lost and just followed the sound of the cars on the road and came out about 100 yards down from the entrance. And yes watch for ticks.
I never had a problem with Jack but I know dealing with Joe customer can make you grumpy after a while. I used to be in the restaurant biz and eventually wanted to kill everybody. Fixin machines in a factory is relaxing compared to that. Only the German ones talk back. Sorry I got O.T.
Haha, yeah i know of Jerry. When i was doing my co-op at Kohler the guy I car pooled with loved the first gen cavaliers. Jerry had one sitting there so I stopped in and asked him about it, he told me I could have it for 100 bucks. I told the car pool guy about it and he stopped in to buy the car. Jerry told him it wasn't for sale, then he finally told him 500. I ended up buying it for 100 and dropping it off in the guys yard for him (no charge of course). Don't tell Jerry. There used to be a yard east of Theresa owned by a guy named Russ Waldren (I think). That thing was a hidden gem, although everything was so rotten. He had a bunch of first gen Camaros in there. A lot of novas and Chevelles and even a late 30's GM Coupe and a bunch of 50's cars. Last i heard it was all cleaned up. There is a place called Carl's somewhere north of 23 that had a bunch of old stuff in it last time I was there. It was pretty well picked over and that was two years ago. No idea what it's like now. He had bunch of tri-five stuff in there until tri-five dealer from Fond du Lac found it.
I just saw on the news today about a wally's salvage yard in beaver dam. never heard of them. They made the news about a fire at the yard. Looked like they had some stuff from the 50's and 60's in the background.
Wally's Auto Salvage & Service, W7354 State Road 33, Beaver Dam WI 920-887-0200. Physically, the yard is much bigger, but more sp****ly packed- 1992: 2005:
I have not been to Chase's in years but the last time I was there he did have alot of stuff but like BigNick said bring lot of cash but it still nice to go look around
There is a place called Tisler's in Menchalville that has some old stuff, I'm going there (probably) on Saturday to get some doors for BobK and hopefully some other stuff I saw the last time I was there. If anyone wants to come with let me know. Chet's in Whitelaw has a ton of stuff back to the 30's, I don't think they've pulled a car in there since the 70's. But you gotta know the guy and know how to talk to him to get anything. They generally don't want to sell any parts, they want to sell the cars whole. They did let me and my dad cut the roof off of a '54 Ford back when I was 15 for $35 to use on a top chop, but that car was wrecked anyway so they didn't mind. Vans was a great one. I can understand why they crushed when the steel was high, but it seems foolish to me that they didn't save any parts. They're on eBay all the time but they don't sell anything good out of the yard, they always have $2 sets of turn signal cams and **** like that listed. I went there at least twice and always came home with a bucket of treasures. There's another yard near Vans that's kinda hidden, the old guy has a bunch of Cadillacs and his yard isn't nearly as big but good stuff in there and pretty reasonable too. I don't know the name of it, me and Cliffy found it by accident one time. Would like to find that one again. I've heard of a place called "Sharkeys" but I've never been there. If anyone knows where that one is, let me know. I'd like to go check it out. Gibsons just outside of Appleton always has a few oldies but nothing really great. Mostly 60's stuff, but still worth checking out. KK auto salvage just out of Kaukauna has a 50 Fleetline and a 51 Chevy coupe if anyone needs stuff from one of those cars. They also had a '60 Edsel, a few Corvairs and some older trucks too. Fairly picked over, I was planning to go back and get the front seats out of those Chevys in case they get crushed. 2 door front seats seem to be in demand and it would be a shame if they went to waste. The guy who ran that place cut me a sweet deal on the stuff I bought last time I was there. My friend Paul has a private junkyard somewhere near ****sville that I've never actually seen but he gets me stuff all the time. I know him pretty good so one of these days I'm going to ask him to take me out there. A lot of **** is stacked two cars high and most is sunk in the dirt since he sold the tires off of most of them in the 50's and 60's. Lots of good trims though. Quast auto salvage (usually referred to as Barry Lake) had a TON of good ****, almost nothing newer than 1959, some stuff back to the 30's. They were kind of hard to deal with but Paul was a good friend of theirs so he got me in and I got a ****load of good stuff from them. Unfortunately the DNR shut them down so they completely crushed out about 2 years ago. I got 4 truckloads of parts and two complete cars while the gettin' was good. Struebings is a s**** metal yard in my hometown of Brillion, I haven't been out there in a couple of years but last time I was there he had some 40's thru 60's **** and always cut me a good deal. He has (had?) a '41 Buick fastback out there that I got a complete dual carb setup off of, including the air cleaner and the special exhaust manifold. I got a feeling he crushed everything out this last year but I could be wrong. My old boss Jewel has a private yard filled with mostly 50's and 60's Fords and Thunderbirds. He keeps most of it around for use in his bodyshop so he's not particularly cheap but you can get a good deal from him once in a while, he has lots of 55-57 T-bird parts which are hard to find. I know there are a few more. I'm not afraid to share the wealth when it comes to this stuff since steel prices might mean it won't be around for long. I don't like the people who keep this **** secret because they aren't going to use everything that's out there. Share and share alike I say. If anyone wants to do a few Wisconsin junkyard crawls in the next month or so I'm all for it.
****sville?!?! Rob, lemme know if you ever wanna go out there man. if your friend dont mind me taggin along that is... i'm like 5 minutes from ****sville! so, whats goin on this saturday? junkyard crawl? i know cowboy bob, 2b banjo and the rest of the Vagabonds are gonna be racing at WIR saturday night, but like paul said, if its early i'd be down with a junkyard run saturday
Check out Elmer's Auto Salvage in Fountain City WI; it's best to talk to Elmer and not one of his boys. It's been a number of years since I was there but he had lots of old stuff out in them gullies.
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