We've got 3000 fewer cars to pick off parts.

During my travels over the weekend I discovered that Leo Winakor & sons Salem CT,the largest old car junkyard in Ct (I Think), has been cleaned out. They bought a crusher in & Crushed everything.

What a waste. There were around 3000 cars there from the teens through the early 70's. The old man would sell parts but he was very pickey about about body moldings & trim. If you wanted the side moldings off a car he'd tell you that you had to buy the entire panel the car was on because if someone came in looking to replace a smashed fender they'd need the molding too. So alot of the cars were really complete.

When the old man died the son took over & it was anything goes for about the last 10 years. Now they're gonna build homes there.

The reason I went there to begin with (Yesterday) was to check on the 51 Ford convert with the Caddy mill & LaSalle trans for Tuck but what can you say.

Billy

 

Ouch!

 

Junk iron is the highest it has ever been.....

 

That place had been liquidating for a few years. I read about it in a trader (Cars and Parts?) 2-3 years ago. They sounded the alarm for that the place was going to crush those cars. He had a 39 Lincoln rag top with the 12 still it it. Plus about 2 dozen other I wanted.

 

That really ****s... when these guys crush this stuff, they dont realize they might make more $$ selling the whole car off for $2-300 bucks. If he was selling them for that price I doubt there would be much left to crush.
I just took a 70's F250 to the crusher today, no motor, trans, and bed FULL of metal. Weighed 2 1/2 tons. $275. So I doubt he got that on average for each car..

 

No way dude...

That ****S.

stop messing with this caddy mill and lasalle trans getting crushed it makes me sick...

besides we pronounce lasalle the wrong way in kanada, its la'sail!

I found my stick stuff afterall thank god.
Its gonna be hard to get stuff as time goes on...

Tuck

 

Nooooooooooo!!!!

 

seems like all these people hoarding all these cars end up crushin em WTF!!!

 

I've seen a few crush out. By the same virtue when I find something decent in these places - I don't have money to save 'em all, but if I can sell a couple for reasonable prices I go buy 4 or 5 more just to get 'em out of the junkyard and into someone else's hands.

Kinda hard to do that when people tell me my stuff is **** and overpriced and don't even make an offer on it, you know? After a while I just get stuff I like and don't care if I ever sell and when I see something like a '60 Chevy ragtop I say 'that's nice' and keep on walking.

There is a neat '55 Chevy 2dr sedan custom with quad lights and a mesh grille, no motor or trans but enough you could patch it up, I could go get. I think the guy is smart enough he won't crush that one, but you never know, he already crushed a nice '59 Plymouth 2dr hardtop that was really solid just because it was in the way of the loader. Just one example -

 

I absolutly hate to hear about things like that....
I went to Lawrence this weekend and driving the long stretch of road across Kansas I p***ed more than a few 'car grave yards' . Old farm houses with acres of land covered by rusting heaps of cars, I mean I saw what to of been over 30 cars on this one lot alone. most of them pre 60's. I asked one guy I knew about things like this, I stoped because he had a 58 el camino just sitting in his field and I asked if he would ever be interested in selling it and he told me he didn't think so, although when I asked him if he was going to restore it he was also not interested in that...These people seem to be content to just let these cars go to waste...Don't the realize treasures like this are quickly becoming an endangered species?
Erin

 

A '58 El Camino would be a rare one for sure.

JH

 

Good keep crushing them. Then the ones that survive will be worth more.

 

Why don't we ever find out until after it happens?

 

lol

 

???????? great idea lets make it so just the rich can have any fun I bet you voted for Bush too!

 

****!

 

man if i saw that 59 plymouth getting crushed in person i think it woulda brought a tear to my eye

 

Gotta be an ignorant mother ****er....

 

That sux.I would love to go to a salvage yard that had ol cars.I've never been to one that anything good.Full of 80s ****.

 

Sad to hear but can you see the light. Old **** iron will turn into a brand-new Hyundai! Seriously the price of junk iron is very high as roothawg said before. I heard that it was very high also in the early 70'ies, can you imagine what did they wreck then!!!

By the way, got any pics from Leo Winakor & sons Salem CT?

 

um, i think you people need to flick the "on" switch on your sarcasm detectors...

 

Yes, the prices of s**** iron did jump in 1970's. I was in 6th grade and could look out the cl***room window and watch truckloads of crushed cars go by. Me and my friends were already very into cars and Car toons magazine. The junkyard behind my friend Tom's house had a very nice 38 Chevy coupe in the middle of the yard. (We knew this because we would sneak in there at least once a week.) I can still picture that coupe, now crushed on the top of the pile on the flatbed rolling by the sixth grade cl***room window. When school let out several of us went to check and sure enough the entire yard was gone. That was a sad day in the life of a 12 year old boy.

 

Well this won't be a popular response, but! If all you whiners, *****ers and complainers had someone telling you what you could or could not do with your car you'd be raising all kinds of hell. Do you think the yard owner is in business for the purpose of storing your parts for when you may need them? No, he's in business to make a living and the way some guys don't want to pay anything for parts is some of what fuels the need to crush. I've been in a lot of yards around the country and some of them were no loss if everything was crushed as what was there was so picked clean as to be next to worthless. According to an earlier reply on this the yard that crushed 3000 cars was known for some time too be going out of business. So how many of you whiners were there buying cars? Did I hear no one? Now do you want to know how I really feel?

 

I agree Phat! Its funny the place has been liquidating for years so everyone had plenty of time to get stuff.

Reminds me of a guy I know that I ran into just the other day. He builds cars and then just sells them to make money. All because now the Rat rod thing is so popular. He builds something for $3K and sells for $7-10K. No problem if thats what you choose to do, BUT don't come whinning to me that now when you go to the swap meet parts are more! WHAAAAAAA..... Gee I wonder why parts are more now, duh because now your selling junk for big dollars.

So the guy starts asking me if I have any aluminum finned valve covers and engines and stuff, I'm like NO, don't expect me to sell you a pair of cal custom valve covers for $20, no way. Especially when your gonna turn around and sell the car.

Anyway just like everything else when it starts out is great, but when it gets popular and literally becomes a fad, then the prices hit the roof.

And yes I told the guy to his face "To bad live with it because your part of the problem, and if you want some valve covers then run over to the local speed shop and order yourself a set of new cl***ic edelbrocks!"

Satin

 

I agree - face it land values have soared thru the roof so if you want something you better go get it before the yard turns into a subdivision (pesky builders) -

Or we could start our HAMB junkyard

 

i'll give you another view!

we just last month bought a salvage yard that opened in 1952 and had around 1000 to 1200 cars from the 30's to the 70's. only way we could do the deal was get a loan and crush some to pay the bank back. with the high s**** prices we will have to crush around 400 to 500 cars. i hate to crush any but that's the only way we can save the good stuff.

what if the owner had sold out to a crusher company? all gone.

what made this deal possible for us was the high s**** prices. luckly most of the stuff we crushed was from the 70's and a little from the 80's.

 

Well, why not put out flyers all over, at car shows and parts stores and community bulletin boards, even the news paper? Put a big sign out in front of their yard saying "Everything must go" or "Auction this week" and set the prices at what they'd get from the crusher. If you think they really TRY to save of this stuff you're fooling yourself. Case in point, I probably live about 100 miles from this place and never heard a thing. Don't you think that any of the HAMB guys in that area would have posted if the word was out on community bulletin boards, etc.

Now, I agree, there is a point where you get tired of dealing with "nickel and dime mother****ers," and you feel like it would be worth it to piss them off just to crush it, but these are pieces of history, not a 1989 Mitusubishi. If you set the price at the s**** price and make it known that it will be gone one way or another, everybody wins and you at least had a chance to save it. I don't see this happening.

 

Give'm hell Bud

 

Hey Phuck phace, I usually hit that yard once a year & yes, I do spend $ there. I never read or heard about it clearing out from the owner & never thought to ask. When I was last there in April 04 it looked the same as it did in years past. I did'nt post this to whine, ***** or complain but it was quite a shock to see the place empty. I'd have poted a heads up if I knew they were clearing out. GFY.

Billy

 

yeah, tell me about it !