History Old Time Junk Yard Photos PIX 1920 to 1970

1956 Packard Executive, as shot by FlickR member "ReflectorBoy" Jim Butler. NICE job! Location unavailable.

 

Chatillon
Ford Custom or Deluxe 1950




Ford Custom ou Deluxe 1949 & Studebaker Commander 1950-52

 

Studebaker Commander 1950 or 51 or 52 ???

 

Y'all got some serious tin worms over there in Belgium.

 

Holy crap, Jazz! That's not a junkyard. It's heaven!

 

'51 bullet nose in repose, thanks to FlickR community member Martin Van Duijn! THANKS! Now, since the windshield is one-piece, this would be a Commander, right?

 

'57 Golden Hawk languishing (in good shape!) in an Idaho junkyard, again thanks to Martin.
Ya have to wonder if the supercharger is still there on the 289, don't ya? Actually, the pic
was already 14 years old when Martin ran across it in 2008, so, HOPEFULLY, somebody
rescued this very worthy Stude!!!

 

Unidentified make or location, but a nicely composed, available-light shot from 2007
by FlickR member Jer Baer.

 

also the 52 chevy hardtop! and maybe the merc too if its not too butchered

 

Great piece of history here, ca. 1952. Pic from an eight-page pamphlet produced by
Bethlehem Steel, apparently to put a constructive spin on what some in the Allentown,
PA, area saw as a public nuisance. A careful reading strongly points to publication in
about '52 during the Korean War when government rationing caused hoarding, even
among junkyard operators, and a resultant slowdown in scrap-steel supplies. It's very
interesting to read what constituted a "new" method for efficiently processing old
cars into useable steel for the ladles! INTERESTING that BURNING was still part of the
plan, but instead of breaking down the cars with a torch they were now smashing them
with a steel weight (no hydraulic crusher yet) and making them bite-size with a big-ass
shear. Most places nowadays, burning is banned, of course, engines and other hard
parts are removed, as are gas tanks. The car bodies are then flattened with a hydraulic
crusher and fed into shredders rather than shears.


Once you've smelled a pile of cars burning, well, I always thought it was worse than
a burning home, or even a tire fire! Not something you forget!


THANKS to HAMBer EhDubya who posted the above pic on the popular "Vintage Shots"
thread, here is a LINK where you can see the rest of the Bethlehem pamphlet:
all the sordid details here

 

Soooooo much potential

 

What would you give to find a decent '58 New Yorker awaiting some TLC?
Photo contributed on the 'net by HondaTech. The hood looks copesetic,
so that 392 is probably still in there!

 

1949 metro Cleveland area, posted by RaceRon on the "Vintage Shots From Days Gone By" thread.
THANKS, Ron! I suppose those AirFlows were regarded with about the same disdain in '49 as Edsels
were in '65! Ah! To run onto such material TODAY in a boneyard!!!

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1961 Ohio junkyard - "...and another one bites the dust..." Who can tell what that car is? I'd WAG a '54 Olds.
Originally posted by RaceRon on the "Vintage Shots From Days Gone By" thread.

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Daniel Strohl of Hemmings, whom all car people know, has been spreading the word about a trove of '50s Packards that are ALL being auctioned next Saturday, a week from today. There are 15 cars (no PackaBakers), plus many parts, that were squirreled away by a gentleman named Ray Barland of Lawrence, Kansas. I'll try and lend a bit of a hand getting the word out, but you can read Daniel's article in full at Hemmings Daily: Save these Packards - Lawrence, Kansas. Brian Barland, apparently a descendant of Raymond, said, "This auction is MAY 26th at 10am. Be there to save these from the scrapper. Many irreplaceable quality parts, trim etc. going to the scrapper." For more info, call Brian Barland, 785-840-7464, or go to KansasAuctions.net. The cars have been outdoors in a fenced back yard, but Daniel notes that they "appear not to have suffered from scavengers or hood ornament harvesters over the decades."

THANKS a MILLION, Daniel Strohl, for bringing this to light! And, thanks to Jim Davis (SunRoofCord) for keeping the pulse of Hemmings Motor News and the Hemmings blogs! A couple of the cars:


Photos courtesy KansasAuctions.net

 

Anybody here ever get the creeps when touring a vintage-tin boneyard?
Maybe as if there are spirits of past car/truck owners still haunting the
vehicles? Even ghosts of folks killed in car wrecks? If so, you might enjoy
perusing these HAMB threads. The specific slugs to search:


"Creepy" junkyard cars?

What's the coolest thing you found in an old car?

Coolest thing you have ever found at a wrecking yard???

 

Nah, ghosts don't bother me......

It's the rattlers, scorpions, wasps and hornets that make me squirm. I even had a damned crow swoop on me a few times.

And then there's the absolute worst.........a fresh pile of human dung.....still steaming, the flies haven't even arrived yet.......and you 'thought' you were alone......

uh, hey, about them ghosts.....

 

The Good Old Days...

 

I'm anticiapting the day someone invents a way to actually go into old photos.
When it happens, I'm going straight to the pics in this thread.

 

Dude! To me, it's a short step. Why I asked for people to post the pix that moved them most.

Guys (and gals, too) can talk a lot about thier enjoyment of strolling the junkyards of their youth. But, when you show one photo, it just seems to weave a dream image that doesn't take much imagination, in order to start walking around a given car and examining the details and imagining POSSIBILITIES. Not to mention, the HISTORY of the car/truck's previous owner/s!

I LOVE this thread, and I sincerely THANK everyone who keeps on contributing heartfelt material. There have been CLASSIC shots, plus cool personal stories, too! THANKS, all!!!

 

Point made here. SunRoof, what I wouldn't give to walk around a '50s or early '60s junkyard! THANKS for the pic!

 

When Georgia HAMBer Toby Denham posted this AMAZING photo a few days back over on Dog429's ultra-popular thread, "Vintage Shots From Days Gone By," I could not possibly leave it out of THIS collection, either!

There was apparently NO info, though this is obviously one of the more massive "errosion-control" uses of junked cars, I'll bet, any of us has ever seen. ANYBODY know when and where this might have been taken?

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If all we have is what we can actually OBSERVE here, my WAG is that the model years represented seem to indicate a photo date of later 1930s, or at least immediate pre-war. Surely, by the WWII scrap drives, a lot of this steel would have been snatched back off the riverbank to build destroyers and tanks, right?

 

These pics are of a 1934 Plymouth PE Convertible Coupe taken somewhere in NY, car was advertised in HMN approx 1966.

 

Prolific HAMBer Race Ron turned up a GREAT trove of vintage junkyard photos and posted recently to Dog427's popular thread, "Vintage Shots From Days Gone By." I try never to pass up rare V.T. shots like this, as relatively few photographers were interested in photographing the bone yards that MANY citizens felt were an eyesore anyway!

The Maryland pic (top) is just awesome to stare at and gets the imagination flowing. Seems almost certain that every one of these cars was soon to be swept up in the World War II scrap drives, right? (Note that there's a guy in a suit and tie down front there. An inspector?) Also, there seems to be at least one car burning in the background. I'd jump in the Way-Back Machine if I could to get that roadster, wouldn't you??? I don't see a rumbleseat handle there, but I'd still love it. Anybody spot any unusual makes in any of these pix?

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Maryland, 1942​

Tulare County, 1939

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Tulare County, 1939

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Santa Clara County, 1939

 

Missouri

 

can someboddy tell me where this photo was taken ???

 

Hey 56FRLN, what yard in Missouri was that?

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

....this has to be one of the best threads going on the HAMB, thanks to everyone who posted!

 

Jazz1, that Packard is one of my DREAM cars, buddy. Where in the dickens is it?

Rusty1, thanks for the kudos to all who followed my original invitation. I never dreamed this could be such a great repository of truly VINTAGE junkyard shots, PLUS shots of VINTAGE SURVIVORS today -- in the dwindling number of old-timey junkyards. DUDE, vote us a FIVE-STAR at the top of the page and help us keep folks alerted to find shots in their closets, family albums (I'm amaxed they keep being found!), OR just go our and shoot vintage tin where they have seen it -- before it disappears forever.

THANKS, guys. And God Bless the HAMB!