My dad was telling me the other day about a car he bought while working at a car crushing outfit in the early '70s. Someone had brought their '57 Bel Air convertible in because it had a rod knocking and they didn't think it was worth fixing. So he bought it from the yard owner for $50 and parked it at the back of the lot. Later that day, he got to watch one of his co-workers pick the car up and drop it in the crusher before he could tell him not to. Of course this was before Chevy converts were valuable - or even considered rare. They used to yank all the Chrysler, Dodge, and DeSoto Hemis they could find, then crush what was left. Finally, the boss got irritated with the pile, and since none of the employees had a place to keep them, he made them crush about 300 Hemis... So tell me some stories about perfectly good cars or parts that you know of that were mangled or butchered or crushed into oblivion...
I seen the famous (Dirty2) chopp up a 57 Chevy MoreDoor cause nobody wanted it around here. Almost made a roadster out of it. Took the good stuff off and scraped the rest. Piece by piece with a sawzall. Also took a Vega 2 dr wagon to the scrapper. Took the steering box off an forty dollars later it had forklift forks sticking through the windows. Everytime I go to the scrap yard there is always an old car of some sort. Usually a 4 door though
When I was in high school in 1973, I had a '68 Super Bee (still have it) and a friend had a nice orange '69 Mach I. We were going to Vo-Tech a half a day and had to drive 25 miles each day at lunch time to get there. One day there was snow on the roads, he was driving, and decided if we got stuck in a ditch we'd have a good excuse for not showing that day. So he sped up and kept romping on it getting it sliding into ditches. Only we couldn't get it stuck. He scaped up both sides and got several big dents in the sides on the primo body. He sold the car for a couple of hundred and bought a Datsun Z (POS).
I used to drive demo derbys and race dirt track. Among the cars I've destroyed are: '65 2+2 Mustang '63 T Bird '62 Chevy Wagon '63 Olds Starfire '55 Olds Holiday 4dr HT '64 Chrysler Imperial 440 engine "65 Impala 2dr HT '56 Buick Roadmaster '40 Pontiac Coupe Assorted Novas and Chevelles Lots of old iron has been sacrificed to the god of dirt track racing over the years. I am now older (much) and wiser (marginally).
first off id like to say this is an evil thread, but i do have a story to tell. my grandpa was big into mercs had a few 49's and 50's and being a farm kid once he was done with them theyd just park them behind the barn. a fews years past and stricter laws forced him to either put up a fence and be declared a junkyard or get rid of the cars. fence cost to much money and the local scrap yard wanted him to pay to have them take them. so he did what he could afford, chopped them in half and burried them in the field. mostly all two door coupes and one very nice convertible. me and my dad still rag on him about that. that fence would be pennies compared to what he woulda got for that convertible alone. how times change. a merc is on my list of things to do, figure with how many my grandpa killed it would be nice to atleast revive one. with cars back then thought to be "scrap" becoming todays gold, does that mean these hondas and toyotas we see as trash going to be our grandkids great finds of the future?
I don't get real upset about the past , about 10 years ago I took a 57 chev more door to the crusher,I had advertised it for parts twice and no takers.I will be taking a 70 mustang in this next week . In 1980 took the drivetrain out of a factory Hemi 66 Coronet and crushed it. I couldn't get $1000 out of it as a driver so kept the good stuff and away it went.
Went on a Bender roadtrip for two weeks in a Cherry 69 Firebird convertable until we blew up the engine. So we parked it behind the barn, Drank more beer, lit up some Cigars, and proceeded to shoot holes in it until the Sheriff showed up in force to see what was going on. We shot about 4,200 rounds through it with everything from 22's, 30-06's, 44 mags, and many shotguns. We told the Sherrif that we were "Sighting in" our weapons..., while we were standing knee deep in brass, bottles, and butt's...!!! That afternoon "WE WERE the FTC" (Firearms, Tabaco, and Alchohol)...!!!!!!!
my family is in the wrecking business... "Uncle Milty" as we call him (my wifes grandfather) claims to have single handely torched and crushed about 1000 model a's and t's in his day. My father-in-law can confirm because he used to use cut up the titles and registrations in the kitchen (wish he had those too)... aside from that countless other cars... now that i'm in the picture i've made them a lot more sensitive to crushing oldies.. we at least give em a chance on ebay before letting em go.
There was a salvage yard in a little town in southern Ok that had a Imperial. I remember it was a Hemi car w/ staggered 4s. That guy said he wouldnt sell it because then he would have to build a new chicken coop. I told him I would buy it and build him a new one. His replie " I have 14 hens giving an egg a day, I ain't gonna mess up a good thing" It was gone when I came back from the desert in 03, with all the rest of the cars. He passed and his kids mashed everyone of them. Honest Injian. Gabe
Buddys of my father law took bets in the late 60's on how quick a 58 chevy convert would go up in flames by just lighting the top. They had pulled the 283 and powerglide, but they figured the rest of the car was just scrap. They said it took 10 minute before fully engulfed just shoved into a pit and buried it when they were done. Good old South Dakota farm fun
Back in the day, here in West Virginia A man by the name of A.J. Manchin decided to clean up the state. They went around threatning people with fines for having old cars on their property. So most people got rid of them. MY family sold them for scrap and my dads family buried them. It is very rare to drive through wva and see an old car rotting away.
Cars I have personally cut up and WASTED (from worst to who cares): #1. 1941 Ford fordor #2. 1981 Ford Thunderbird #3. 1985 Cougar #4. 1984 Ford Ranger Thats all in the last 3 years. At least they are mostly 80's cars right? 20 years from now, some one will be shitting a brick about it.
"20 years from now, some one will be shitting a brick " No kidding, I wonder what cars today will be tomorrow's classics?
I really don't think it will work that way actually. I think that the production runs of cars are too high now-a-days for any of them to be collectable in the future. But, that's just my opinion.
When we were kids on the farm we totally destroyed a perfectly good 49 packard convert and a 33 or 34 Chevy 2 door. Hooked logchains through doors and windows and used the tractor to rip them to shreds. I still remember my buddys racing dirt were skinning out 57 2 door belairs for the sheetmetal and burying the rest. I still know one guy who has about 100 cars and he has at least 4 63-64 Super Sports they skinned out and one was a convert. And a skinned out 64 Malibu SS 4 speed car.
Came home from school one day and my step dad was preparing a load of cars to go to the crusher (happened about once a year for a while). He had eight cars on the ol' trailer house frame that he used just fer this. They were already on, roofs smushed, and he was cinchin' up the comealongs when I got off the bus. When I finally got to where I could see what was there, one on the bottom was a '68 Fury that I'd been lustin' after fer years. I think it had a Volare wagon on top of it. I tackled him where he stood. Then I turned around and did the same thing to one of my boys...but he was a lot younger (way younger...like 3). I had one of my type III vw's out at my moms and she took him into town to hang at the park for a while. When he came back "daddy old car" was up on its side ad we were in the middle of choppin' it into pieces just small enough to stick in a '81 Buick wagon that I was scrappin' out too. I thought he was gonna have himself a 3 year old coronary. Every time I dropped another chunk on the ground he'd wail. He was mad at me for days. Hope he doesn't read this...I'm sure he doesn't remember that now but he's almost big enough to tackle me. Olson
Ah yes, the ones that got away... I was going to school in Tulsa(80-83) and somehow got hooked up with a local that said his dad had all kinds of old tin. I loaded up my roomate(another local) and we headed to Talequah(sp). Seems he had spent a night in jail there so he knew his way around. First he showed me the jail that looked just like the ones outta the"B" westerns. Then I got to see one of the local sherrifs? get outta his cruiser, biggest guy I'd ever seen and a ponytail down to his gunbelt. Well we find this jy and the old coot that lived there. First he's gonna sell us the 61? Starliner,origpaint,low miles,352 w/AC $1,000 drive it home! (had a trickle charger on it.) Or the 50 Ford 2door next to it same deal. To much $ for us but he invites us to take a look around and it was I dunno 5-10 acres of OMG!! The newest car was the Starliner and they got proggressively older as you went down the hill. All the way to an A pickup upside down and 5-6 feet off the ground from trees growing up under it, fenders drooped from holding water so long. The whole bottom half was surrounded by a hedgerow of cowls,doors,quarters,frames and you name it. Had to be 10 foot tall and at least that deep and save for a grille shell here and there we couldn't even tell what we were looking at. While we were checking out all the complete cars that were hopelessly treebound a helicopter shows up and swoops down with a bullhorn telling us not to move.(we were jumping in cars to avoid all the old dead branches the heli was raining down on us) Very quickly a bun ch of state troopers show up and check us out,seems there had been a prison break and the heli spied us then got very suspicious when we started"hiding" in the cars. Excitement was soon over and I picked up some interior trim for my 57 delivery from a 56 there and gave the guy $100 for a 49 Merc 2 door, the only thing we figured we could drag out without cutting down sizeable trees. Unbelievable even now, complete and straight the critters had destroyed the seats,not a hole in it,1954 AZ plates and 25K showing on the odometer.OK,the heads were gone and it was locked up tight. Nearby 5? chevy panel truck was filled to the roof with flathead heads. So hows this story end? Well I never got it out of there before I moved back to Ohio. I still have the bill of sale as my only momento. Years later I read in Hemmings or somewhere that someone had purchased an old railroad passenger car in this town and that it ended up being Henry Fords personal railcar. My old roomate now cruises his then fathers 40 Merc (which I blew away at the old time drags in tulsa circa. 82or3 with my 57 delivery.)( He now wants a rematch...) and tells me that there's a subdivision covering what was once our field of dreams...
Hey, You're in luck, I still have most of the '85 Cougar here. I haven't actually destroyed it all the way yet. Come and get it if you want to SAVE it from a terrible fate. 80's cars are so damn ugly. Every time I see an "old" mid 80's Mustang I want to barf. You wouldn't beleive how many people I've talked to though that says, "Yeah man, I've got an old car I'm working on too"....Then they go on to tell me how bitchen their '93 Ford Taurus is...or how cool their '85 lincoln is. HA HAHAHA. Oh well, I used to be one of them. Until I chopped that '84 Ranger into pieces. I still miss it a little.
Scrapped a '34 Ford 5 window body - hey, it was rough in 1966 - today - cherry Crushed a '69 Hemi GTX - kept the engine, 4 speed and dana - sold the front clip - couldn't get a clear title and who knew in 1978? guess I helped make the survivors worth that much more. Sold a chopped '32 5 window body in 1968 for $150 - this is the one I'd like back. (the kid I sold it to eventually scrapped it) That's just a couple - there's been too many more between me and my buds in the last 40 years.
Worked at a guys house in Md. started talking about cars and he told me he burried a 40 Willys and a Henry J about 30-40 years ago on his property. When I asked about where on the property he said...do you see all those trees over there.
My grandfather would tell stories of the 30's and 40's, and even early fifties cars he and his buddies would buy, then smash out all the windows, headlights, etc. and then drive the wheels off of in the hardtop races in Fremont and the Bay. He'd get all wispy about all those great cars they just used up....Chevies, Fords, Plymouths, Lincolns, Mercuries, I'm kinda wispy right now...... later...........
I once swiped a shifter and and side emblems off an old Ford two door hardtop in an abandoned yard east of here. I had a collection of nameplates and numbers and a buddy of mine needed the shifter for one of his projects. I was sixteen and sort of naive. Nobody in 1980 wanted 64 or 5 Galaxies, especially around here. I still have the '427' emblems somewhere......... Then there was the 67 Riviera GS I traded for a snowmobile, at least it wasn't a four speed car.
Scrap is $100 a ton here in Houston today. Just took a load, thats way up from a couple weeks ago. Anyone with sensitive eyes stop reading now. I'm raping and pillaging a '40 La salle on Saturday. I truely do not like having blood on my hands so to speak, but sometimes they are better off dead. This one had its donor card filled out. So many of its organs are going to carry on keeping others on the road. This is far from my first and far from my last. As a matter of fact I'm supposed to be checking out a stash of '50s Caddy's this weekend as well. If they are saveable they'll be saved, but there are some that you just have to draw the line and keep the good and send the rest to be a bridge in China in its next life. There is a couple that tours the swapmeets down here in south Texas that have pictures of A's, T's, Dueces, piled 10-15 cars high in all sorts of disarray. Some on fire as they were burning the wood and interiors out. I hope this doesn't make me look like a bad person to you all, I swear I'm not. I guess I can see how those total restoration purest look at hotrodders, huh?
i once had a guy i worked with brag to me how he and his brothers destroyed his 68 roadrunner by taking it to a field in the back of his family's farm. they drained all the coolant and put a brick on the gas pedal just to see how long it would go before it died. took a while...nothing happened. then they drained 1/2 the oil, then all the oil. that finally did her in. the whole ordeal he said took nearly an hour at wide open throttle. after that they took target practice on it, then set it on fire and pushed it in a creek with a tracor. all because he was late on payments and they threatened to come get it. 20 years later all 3 of the brothers died from very painful esophogial cancer within 1 1/2 years from another.
I've driven through West Virginia (Huntington area) recently and I saw plenty of tin laying around. Do they still enforce this law?
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