History Anyone Else Hang Out in Junk Yards as a Kid?

Our yard was a graveyard for automobiles. At the end of the porch there was four stacks of wheels and tires were for sale for a dollar or two cash.

 

Man what a thread. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought junk yards were magical.
My Dad always drove cheap transportation cars and he usually shopped the bone yards for whatever he needed to keep them going. Growing up near LAX we mostly went east to Gardena (Broadway, Main St and Figueroa) to junk yard row. T.L. Brown's Auto Wrecking was always his first stop. T.L. was big black fellow, gruff and scary until he got to know you. My Dad and him hit it off right away. He let us roam as much as we wanted and he always had good stuff in that yard. The best stuff (4 spds, chrome wheels, aluminum valve covers) was usually pulled and stored in one of the box truck boxes so he could lock it up. My Dad bought me a '57 Olds Rochester 4-Jet carb to teach me how to rebuild carburetors. Later, he bought me a 354 Chrysler Hemi that I cleaned and did a 'ring and bearing job' on to learn the workings of an engine. We bought the engine for our family ski boat there - a '60 Pontiac 389 with 3x2s.
T.L. loved to quote a high price and watch my Dad squirm - then he's drop the price to almost nothing.
When I got older, my buddies and I bought Olds/Pontiac rear ends, cast iron Torqueflites, 348 Chevy 3x2 set up, all kinds of stuff from old T.L. I even bought a '56 Chevy 150 2 dr, a 394 Olds, and a cast iron Hydro core for my altered wheelbase project that died in my Dad's back yard. T.L. was the best.
Years later, I rented a small back house that had an all Chevy wrecking yard over the back fence. The owner was an A-hole and wouldn't let anyone in and never seemed to sell anything. My buddies and I would jump the fence and walk around looking at the stuff he had; Corvettes, Impalas, '57 Chevys, lots of nice lightly wrecked cars. I never did know what that yard was all about but it was fun to wander around in.
When I retired and moved up here to NorCal in '09, a neighbor suggested that I go to Valley Springs Towing and salvage. It was like stepping back in time. It was an old yard with tons of cool old stuff and a packed old warehouse. Just like when I was a kid, I could walk around in there for hours just soaking in all the stuff lying around. Frank and Jerry were great guys to deal with and helped me get a motor for my motor-less Jeep. I guess Frank had been there long enough because he closed the yard soon after.
Pick-n-Pulls are no substitute............

 

My friends and i used to cut High school after shop class and go to the junk yard.

 

I'm 9 maybe 10 riding my bike just a few blocks up to Mohawk road where I knew an old junk yard was.
Cross over to the other side lay my bike down and scan the front row line of beauties waiting for me to go sit and play in.
That wonderful mixture smell of tattered mohair and oil.........perfume!
Cars of every make and model and I don't think anything newer than the late 30's.
I was in car heaven!

 

.....as a teen at 13, 14......and still today at 67.....but mostly at the local yard now. The owner is in hot rods ,old hemis, nailheads, flatheads and he let me pirate his yard (SW gauges, tachs, flathead, hemi he don't want to use, etc...) in exchange for my colorfull car stories of the past......

 

I would love to go scour an old junkyard today. But there are none around anymore. Nothing but plastic auto remnants left, useless stuff to me.

 

Almost forgot about another really nice yard.It was called the hilltop.It was a little over half was between Vero Beach and Ft Pierce Florida.Maybe 80 to 100 acres.For the best stuff,you started at the back of the yard.That`s where the owner started putting the cars and trucks when he started the place.Stuff from the late teens forward.A friend and his Father went there so my friend could find some cars to"play with".He wound up with 5 32 3 and 5 window Fords for $800.00 tax,title,total and off the lot.All but 2 ran with a little work.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

There was a guy in Fayette that had a radiator shop with a junk yard beside it. I went there for the first time in 1977 in my OT 67 Mustang needing my radiator repaired. I went in and asked him if he could get to it, he told me to just sit it by his boil out tank. I told him, "Let me go pull it out.", he said he didn't have time to wait on me to go home and get it. When he found out I was in the car, and I had the radiator out in something like 10 minutes, he was impressed and told me most guys my age didn't even know where the radiator was {I was 17}. I talked to him while he fixed my radiator, and he must have took a liking to me. Next time I went, I went to check out some of the cars he had in the yard, he told me to just go find what I needed, something he wouldn't let many folks do. From then on, I would go about twice a month, checking out the new cars he got in. I bought a pair of 14" Torque Thrusts with nearly new 60 series tires on them from him for $20, a Holley 4 barrel for $5, a Mustang console for $5, lots of things I don't even remember now. He operated his yard kinda like pull a part does, he'd keep cars until the yard got full, then sort out a few that still had good parts, and crush the rest, then fill it back up again. His junked cars were mostly 50's and 60's models, with a few 70's every now and then. He kept any Studebaker stuff that he got a hold off, his driver was a bullet nose coupe! When he retired at about age 70, his nephew ran it a while, then closed up for good. I was lucky enough to be able to take my sons there to look for parts when they first started driving. Now, all the old yards around here are gone. I have to drive over to Birmingham to go to the nearest pull a part, about 80 miles, so I don't go very often. I miss the small local yards that were around here, the old guys that ran them have all passed away and their heirs had the crusher clean them out. Nothing like wandering through a yard looking at cars, wondering what stories they could tell if they could talk.

 

For me, it was 1957, in Cleveland, Ohio, on St Clair AVENUE. It was not a junk yard or a recycling center, it was a "wrecking yard".
On Saturdays, we would walk the yard, look at the horribly wrecked cars, trying to imagine what happened to the drivers.
We pulled our own parts, most of the time, but when the need was for a BIGGER part, "Phil" had his "parts pullers" do the job.
In 1957, my uncle sold me his 1953 Buick Special 2 door hardtop, straight 8 with Dynaflow.
Couldn't take the Dynaflow, so, with the help of my Motors Manual to do the job, and "PHIL" at the wrecking yard, he supplied me with the stick shift steering column, flywheel, bell housing, used clutch, clutch pedal linkage and fork, stick transmission ...... all for $50.00, but $50.00 was big, back then.
So big of a deal, that "Phil" would not pull the parts, until I gave a $10.00 deposit, plus my Dad had to be with me, cause "Phil" wanted to be certain this 16 year old kid had the blessing of his parents to convert this 4 year old Buick.
"Phil" kept his wrecking yard looking like the aisles at Home Depot, a place for everything and every thing in its place.
I still have the Motors Manual, plus still have the darn receipt from St Clair Auto Wrecking.
Some memories are so vivid, but I can't tell you what I had for breakfast today.

 

Anybody else from Northern CA remember SIINO'S in West Pittsburg? Lots of stories from that place.
The old man had big,mean dogs chained in numerous spots in the yard to keep thieves out.
Siino's used to buy cars from the Naval Weapons Base in Concord, cars left behind by sailors not returning during the Second World War. Almost all the cars were '30's, 40's and some 50's from the Korean War. The cars were piled three high on top of each other.
My interest was in Hudsons, the old man would show me every Hudson in the lot--he knew where every one was! I did manage to buy a few parts from him but most cases were difficult at best to get anything from.
I believe that Mr. Siino passed sometime in the 80's and after a shot at an Auction, most of the yard was sold and crushed for scrap.

 

This is from a private convo between me and a fellow HAMBer ..

So many threads I want to post on like the " anyone grow up in junkyard"

I lived for junkyards when I was young.
The goat was behind a body shop/tow yard / junkyard ...

Primered... 4 flat tires.. Quarter panel damage no hood .No interior to speak of but seats and door panels..other than that complete 4 speed tri power posi ...

We (my best friend at the time had road our bicycles there) it was his cousins shop. Long story short I paid him 800.00. My friend his dad /his cousin and I put air in the tires a battery in it and they let me drive it the 2 miles home. I was exactly 14 and 1/2 .....

Man the memories..,

 

Here's another recollection: When I was a sophomore in college, my friends who had come home from their colleges for the summer had old cars just like I did, and we needed to get some parts to keep them going. We all got off around 4 or so and went to a nearby junk yard in the redneck suburbs of KC. Not thinking that their business hours were the same as hours and that they'd be closed by the time we got there, we arrived at the still-open gate around 5 p.m. and hollered to see if we could find someone to help us. Not patient at 19, we decided to enter the yard, only to be confronted within minutes by the very short, stocky, down-to-business owner pointing a nickel-plated .38 right at my forehead from about 10 feet away. Apologizing profusely, we explained our dilemma. He explained that he had been robbed of a lot of aluminum and copper repeatedly and thought we were there for that. We left on good terms.
Fast forward 32 years later. I was working for the state transportation department, which was expanding a major interchange in that same area and we were meeting with affected property owners. He was at the meeting and we recognized each other, but he couldn't place where or when we'd last met. I could, reminding him that was the closest I'd ever come to being shot. We both had a laugh and maintained a good relationship throughout property negotiations and project construction.

 

1961/1963 I hung out in the 183 junk yard in Irving , Tx . I think those years are right . They built a mall there and cleaned up the area , but till then I was there 3 or 4 days a week . It was close enough to ride my bike to . The old man there would give me parts and tell me to clean them up and he would show me how to put them together . Ended up building a 265 and he gave it to me . My dad hated it .

 

When my son was in high school and got a car of his own, we went to a larger salvage yard to get a few things for it. We found what he needed, and it only took a few minutes, but the proprietor eventually noticed we'd been gone a long time and came looking for us. He eventually found us looking at a late-model that had been in an accident (hit a tree or pole); my son was taking a physics class at the time, and we had gotten involved in calculating how fast it was going when it hit the tree. The proprietor was impressed, and I can honestly say that a junkyard can be an educational experience!

 

Great story, T.L. was a meaningful part of your car years!
Any of you remember the movie "Stand By Me", the four or five kids who hung together. That was my group, we all lived for the junkyard tours.
Someone mentioned the smell of oil, as perfume, which struck me.
My old Chevys are now parked in my attached garage.
Depending on the inside garage temps., sometimes the "fragrance" of my old cars, the oil and their interiors, seem to fill the garage, which then remind me of my youth and those junkyard days.
Life, back then, was simple, uncomplicated and FUN.

 

I spent much time at a local yard here in the New Orleans area
hustling parts for my many relics. I was often pressed into helping
out on Saturday mornings. One Saturday I just showed up at opening
and went right to work without any formal discussion. That afternoon
the owner (one of three very rough and tough German brothers)
handed me a few bucks and some parts I needed and all was good.
The yard was called Airline Salvage and still exists today. These days
The yard is in the metal recycling business and does not sell parts
any longer. It was seven acres and held many treasures squirreled away
in old milk truck and moving van bodies. I remember a body we used to
stash motors in. Now this was the mid sixties and there were some really
nice stuff in there! They used to stack rear axle units around the body
and eventually they crushed it flat. I worked with them all through
high school and still did some welding and fab work for them well
into the 90's

 

My Dad owned a junk yard, so ya. A guy that worked there had a kid my age so we spent many summer days playing around in junked cars and trucks, and dodging rattle snakes. lol

 

Yes indeed and We always had a big collection at the farm. And I always wanted to own a junkyard . And that dream came true. I have my own personal junkyard.

 

i grew up about 6 blocks from Handley's auto salvage here in Springfield Illinois, they were into stock car racing and always had some real good stuff laying around to play in, they had a dr.pepper soda machine that was stocked up with orange and grape crush and pbr if i helped around there i got a soda if i was sneaky i got a pbr

 

Was that Howard's? I spent a lot of time there as a young teenager.

 

Since I was a wee sprout I explored my uncle's wrecking yard out in Mollalla, Oregon. I visited him last year and picked out a shoebox coupe, which is my main distraction now. I love that old place.

 

Man Ilike the wood stove the Gray Beard is setting in front of. how large is the diameter of the stove pipe! The entire stove looks to be a shop built heavy duty well engineered item.

 

In the 'Couve it as all about All American Classics. Todd runs a good yard and lets you roam it on your own... after you sign the release. If you have a chance to drop by it will live up to it's name. Still a lot of HAMB friendly cars and goodies to be found. Our brothers from North of the border never miss it when they are in town for the Portland swap meet.

 

Pick-n-Pulls have no soul.

 

OK, let's see if we can figure this out...

This is HAMB...
We've got all types of builds posted here...
Car guys and gals of all ages...
Pics, ideas, tips and techniques galore...
Parts wanted, parts for sale...
Trading, swapping and bartering...
Yeah, good chance that most HAMBERS have hung out at junk yards!

 

Had a few old yards in are area back in the day . Bachs junkyard in grafton was full of old tin . I had a 33 Plymouth coupe when I was 16 I went there looking for parts . Old man bachs house was right at the front of the yard.looking out the window of my car I could see two 33 Plymouth coupes so I knock on the door of the house and he comes to the door I ask him if I could look at the plymouth coupes and he tells me he doesn't have any I say but there right there .he says get the hell out of here. I go back to weeks later with a fresh haircut and he says oh yeah there's a couple more out back go get whatever you need guess he didn't like guy's with longer hair.we also had wallheads junk yard always had alot of neat old cars . These guys also ran the local small air port the runway was grass they kept it flat with a roller like they use for paving roads. The motor in the roller blew up .the one guys son was a machinest. We came in to there garage a couple weeks later and they had put a chevy 409 in it. We thought that was cool as hell.ah the good old days.

 

Growing up there was a weld shop, dirt track racer, scrapper about 1/2 mile away. He kept at least 20 cars on hand and all kinds of machinery that was getting cut up and hauled off. Very cool as a kid to go check out the battered carcasses of the retired dirt track cars.

A mile away down the RR tracks was another scrapper, kept a lot around for part outs, had rows of busses and box trucks filled with engines, transmissions. Got to know him well, he'd haul anything, no title cars got crushed with a dozer the same day.

 

About my junior year in high school 1957-58 I discovered a junk yard on Western ave in L.A. It became my second home and I kind of worked for parts. Learned the art of cutting frames out of cars that would be treasures today. Built my first car out of that yard starting with a '40 Ford coupe body and frame. Chased all over town finding doors, fenders, etc. Ended up with a driver. Wish I still had it.

 

weren't too many fence around those Enid yards - the one on the north side just off the rail road tracks I walked thru as a kid but old Jordan's spot up north of town behind the John Deere place was spooky - just took pictures from the fence line although it was cut through in places....33/34's you could reach through and touch....the one find was an Buick Skylark convert off Van Burren down south by the park with the train - it was just abandoned in a field...what did I know....

 

Back when I was in High School(Late 70s,early 80s)my buddies and I would practically live at Kosiski's in Omaha.They were always nice to us and we spent a lot of our hard earned money there.We all had parents who were into hotrods,restorations,and building fast boats,so we were there all the time.Later on in life,I ran a new car dealership,another owns a transmission shop,yet another owns a company that rebuilds engines for Uhaul,and my late best friend owned the Nissan,Toyota,and Honda Salvage yards in Phoenix.I guess you can say that was our tech school.Fast forward to 2000 or 2001:when my dad and I were parts gathering for his shoebox,he thought the prices were ridiculous on custom interiors,So I called Kosiski and got every interior piece out of a 99 Riviera for 400.00 delivered from Omaha to KC.He threw in stuff that we didn't need because the car was going to be crushed anyway.I about made my money back on the leftovers.Like they say"One mans junk is another mans treasure".