INSX did he mention anything about still having a rpu, im looking for one and most of the model A trucks I saw were pretty bad... and if it helps 3miles away and could possibly store stuff covered at my place for a little while if you need help w/ any of that PM me.[/quote] Not sure about the rpu. He does have a complete A fordor sedan in really nice shape and another complete A rolling chassis both stored inside that looks like someone started restoring as it's all painted. That might be part of a rpu project, but I didn't see a body or box. Most all the model A cowls and cabs outside are really rough. I don't know what might be stored inside or at another location till I get to call and ask about a few things I'm interested in. Maybe this weekend. I've been on house project duty lately so progress in the shop has slowed waaay down. Thanks for the offer for storage. I'm only about an hour and a half away but might come in handy.
My buddy had a car that came out of that yard in Holland Patent. It was barely good to make into a stock car shell, a coupe body with doorskins but no deck lid and no other body parts. Most of the cars have no frames or floors left and have been well stripped over the years. I want to get up there and see if I can find a top tin for my '39 Chevy stock car, or a hood top for it. Not holding my breath though, people have been picking those cars for 50 years or more. All my recent stuff came out of Smiths in Salisbury - nothing's left now except some bits and pieces and it all belongs to a scrap outfit in Little Falls. Much better stuff - Smith was hard to make a deal with and prone to change his mind, so many of the cars were darn near 100% complete. Three of the A's we got out of there still rolled on at least a couple of wheels. You guys aught to visit my friend's place in Mohawk, he has a lot of cars up there and pretty much everything is for sale. 1920s-1970s. A lot of them are decent cars, not junk -
so did you get the 37 ford stock car out of smiths place? that roof was rotten 20 years ago. and yes he was hard to deal with. when i was in there he had some good stuff, but all he wanted to do was talk about his stuff.
You guys aught to visit my friend's place in Mohawk, he has a lot of cars up there and pretty much everything is for sale. 1920s-1970s. A lot of them are decent cars, not junk -[/quote] rusty ny, you know if old george case is still alive?he lived downed the road from your friend. he was a friend of mine. you remember the junk yard that was near the little falls scrap yard, the one that sat up on a hill? that place had some nice stuff. i heard a big yard in cal. bought alll the stuff and shipped most of it out there. if you keep looking in that area you might find 2 39 ford rag tops, one has a rumble seat. and not far from the scrap yard there,s a 40,s hudson in a gully.
That place is Cold Brook, NY and is still there, Last summer I rode up there and walked into the yard, it is full of springs and water was running through every thing. A lot of 50's cars and a couple of Model A's with trees going up through them. It's a real waste I couln'd find who owned them and it was too wet to take a full tour.
i`m a transplant from c.n.y and i know both the yards of which you speak. the one is on Rt 8n in cold brook . they never sold any cars for many years... the story was they didn`t scrap any during the war so our govmnt tied them up. the other was owned by P boak. i bought parts for my 38 ford coupe , many years ago. i used to work with his brother , at rome cable
Did anyone there see if Terry still had that "homemade" helicopter???? THAT and the cleat drive tractor were some of the unusual items I most remember. He once had a '34 Plymouth sedan there - I got a couple parts from it for my coupe.
that place must be crawling...i swung by on my way to the outlaws in prospect and yes its mostly junk. same with the place in coldbrook with the swamp in the middle. i called the owner 6 or 8 years ago. nothing for sale.
Ha, its some ruff stuff alright, but not so a couple years ago! Took me several years to talk him out of it, but this roadster body came from Holland Pattent. Also, this pic of my dads street rod also came from there, and it was just as shitty as the cars were seeing pics of! One mans junk is another mans treasure! Hahaha.
Update on an old thread... Drove up today and found the scrappers hard at work. Everything is going to the crusher. I talked with the guys and they are not parting anything. I can't blame them really. It will be strange to not see the cars there after all these years.
What do you mean you dont blame them? Dude Someone needs to put a stop to it quick. But thats the country we live in, people just sit and watch everything be destroyed.
I was in that yard late 65' or early 66' just before entering the army. The car I remembered most was the Lincoln Zepher. Then many years later I see that car at the Cavacade of Cars Car Show in Hamburg N.Y. Talked to the owner and was just blown away that it was the same car!
Don- Yes the place behind the church. I went up today on my annual pilgrimage to see Terry about some more parts. The picking was getting pretty slim the last few years, but I did buy some banjo rears and transmissions a couple years ago. One had a nice surprise when I opened it and counted the teeth and found Zephyr gears! I drove up Church Street today and found what I had feared would eventually happen. I am really surprised it took so long. I talked to the guys doing the scrapping a bit; I guess they had been looking to clean out for a few years and finally made a deal.
What's to stop? These cars have been there in plain sight for decades. No one is connecting buyer with seller and truthfully there's really not alot to sell. Sure you might find a buyer for a piece of stainless here and there but like most old yards in NY, it's no goldmine. It's not like suddenly thousands of interested car restorers are going to come out of places far and wide to lay down in front of the mighty excavators to buy this stuff. Sad reality is that these cars are worth more as scrap than parts. And that is the country we live in.
While we're on the subject of old yards in upstate NY, does anyone know whats going on with Farr's old yard in Brownville? I know the old guy passed away last year and as far as I know, everything is still there, and it's HUGE! When my son was home at Christmas he showed me how to look at it on Bing Maps - Birdseye view. OMG -- thousands of cars and trucks from the sixties back to the thirties. I don't know how to link it, but look for yourself -- the north side of the Game Farm Road just west of town -- rust heaven!
Wow, that is too bad...but I can imagine that the pickings had gotten slim...I took 13 cars out of that place, not to mention misc. parts and an old gas pump. Terry would never let me in his parents house (big old farm house) but he went in and pulled out a really nice hood for the one 36 ford I purchased. I wonder what other treasures are in there... I remember his dad and mom.....she used to feed the chimpmunks by hand. Dad was pretty much gone when I started going there. Terry used to take us to a little bar for a buffet, I used to buy him a couple beers and the price of the cars would drop! To get that Lincoln out we had to cut down a dozen trees and move several cars just to drag it out. Then his tow truck got stuck pulling it up the hill. We got another wrecker to pull them both up the hill! The door popped off the zepher on the way up. It took me 9 years but I got what I think was the holy grail out of that yard. In the garage there was a 28-9 roadster that his dad put in there sometime in the 40's. The body is unbelievable... it is just waiting for the right time...of the cars that I pulled out, I still have 2. My dad has 2, both done streetrods. Another one is 1/2 finished at my brother in laws. One other is now on the east coast as a finished street rod. One also did not survive as the persone I sold it to passed and his widow crushed all his old cars.... It is sad to see this yard crushed, but time and stupidity march on.....
Sounds like you made some good memories there too, Don. I called my Dad yesterday to talk and told him about it. He was not surprised but sorry to hear they will be gone. We had a good adventure there a couple years back, him and my son and me getting a rear out of a '36 Ford. I had packed just about every tool I thought we could possibly need plus jacks and come alongs and my oxy acety. rig. The one thing I forgot was my striker for the torch. None of us smoke and I had no lighter in the truck. The thing wasn't coming out without some cutting and I was just about to walk downtown to the drugstore and buy a lighter when I thought of the chainsaw. I unscrewed the sparkplug from the saw and hooked up the plug wire again. Cracked the acety. valve and pulled the starter rope on the chainsaw and instant flame! We still laugh about it! A McGyver moment for sure. I had driven my two wheel drive Dodge truck down into the gulley and while laying on the ground unhooking my ratchet straps my foot kicked the valve stem on the tire and bent it over, cracking the stem. Now the tire is slowly going flat and my spare is pretty slim on anything that resembles tread but we made it up that steep hill out of the gulley and home with three banjos strapped in the back end. Three generation of car nuts smiling from ear to ear. Fun times.
I was lucky to be able to stop by at Holland Patent on April 5 and take one final set of photographs. See a few more in the "junkyard junkies photos" section. I've taking photos there for many years. I am extremely saddened everything is gone. Many people regarded the gully as full of junk. I saw it as art. I might produce a book of my images. RIP old friends.
What a cryin' shame. I never understood why there couldn't be an APB put out when an owner wants to crush everything, so a large group of HAMB'ers can caravan up there with our trucks and trailers, and give the guy at least double what he'll get in scrap steel fees...hell, we would even mow the durn yard and grill out for the guy! Leave the place better than we found it!
thanks for coming back to this thread and updating... though sad... ties a loose end as well learning of a few hambers were able to pull some great finds so that they can continue down future roads
I have driven past that yard a hundred times.I walked thru it about 7 or 8 years ago...everything looked pretty rough. Lots of Fordson tractors.I tried 3 or 4 times to contact the owner...guess I was in the wrong pub? Too bad it's all gone now
Everyone's known where this place has been for over 50 years. Plenty of stuff got picked over up there. Yard guys get sick of the bullshit of dealing with people eventually, when a scrapper comes and makes a good offer, it goes goodbye and all you have to blame is too many assholes not spending any money for too many years.
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