History Wrecking yards from days gone by

Horopito Wreckers, New Zealand. Our best known yard. I took this pic nearly 45 years ago. JW

 

Some from the yard above. JW

 

Notice the chop. JW

 

Horopito is 20 acres, this corner is looking the other way from my 1st pic. JW

 

Hello,

We lived and played in the whole Westside of Long Beach. A short walk from our house was a treasure trove of cool places. Public and private. The Long Beach/Los Angeles harbor was about 1-2 miles away. The industry that catered to diesels and boating were a few blocks away. The other places as we found out was a cool Coca Cola Bottling Plant and a Weber’s Bread Factory Shop/Warehouse and Bakery. What more could we want? A Coke and nice soft freshly baked bread!!!

At a certain time of the afternoon, the air was filled with the aroma of fiberglass spray fumes, freshly baked bread, fast food charbroiled hamburger smoke and other fumes from the nearby businesses. As we got closer to the Coca Cola Bottling Plant, we could always add in the fumes of oil and gasoline. There were gas stations on almost every corner and the “junkyards” with their own aroma were just down the street.

Most of the old junkyards were in that area of Long Beach, but a few blocks had a string of junkyards associated with the City of Wilmington. We used to call it junkyard row. Some of the bigger yards had the crushers that was always good for entertainment.

The biggest stretch of junkyards was another mile or so West to Main Street that ran from Wilmington North into Los Angeles. If we could not find what we were looking for locally, then a short drive to Main Street led us the largest groupings of junkyards with plenty of huge piles of cars, crushers and a zillion parts.

Jnaki

If anyone has ever seen the old Terminator Movie where the chase Terminator (Robert Patrick) gets
liquified in a giant workplace vat, this movie was shot on the Terminal Island side of the giant drawbridge and near the old Terminal Island Scrapyard.

In the late 50s and early 60s, it was a place to dump old cars, make a giant pile, take them apart, get them ready for transport back across the ocean to be reconstructed into metal beams, car parts, and other heavy metal objects for the U.S. Economy. A 53 Chevy becomes a metal toy for the new generation, etc.

This photo of Ed Roth was supposedly taken at the Terminal Island Junkyard.

The junkyard was popular as the word spread for the So Cal, hot rod guys, the San Pedro/Wilmington guys and even the South Bay hot rodders. It was a treasure trove of old parts. Sometimes, the stories of those midnight raids, like LaSalle transmissions and valuable parts were all part of the local lore. You just had to be extremely quiet and fast.

The area was closer to the draw bridges, not the Tuna Processing Factories and the actual fishing harbor. When our dad used to take us for a drive with the whole family, we would pass the big pile of wrecked cars on the way to the places he lived and played back when he was a little kid up to college.

We all were at one time or another, affected by the goings on in those early Terminal Island days. No, not the junkyard escapades, but the neighboring factories and warehouses. Since we all ate tuna sandwiches at school lunchtimes and picnics, the majority of tuna processing was done on Terminal Island. They were within walking distance from those early junk piles.

The island is relatively barren today versus the high daily activity back in the 50s and early 60s. The only active place is the Federal Prison at the end of the main road, on a peninsula. When we were docked in Cabrillo Marina with one of our sailboats, the Terminal Island Federal Prison channel was a backdrop or windbreaker. (primary winds from West)

It was the best place to make the perfect spot to drop the sails after spending hours on the water from Seal Beach to Palos Verdes. The nearness to the famous “Hurricane Gulch” was cause for the search to drop sails in less heavy winds. We did wave to those guys looking out to the harbor waters.

 

I am not a Corvette person, but I am impressed / depressed to see a Corvette junk yard, especially with so many C-1. and C-2 models.

 

Note the 1941-1948 Chevrolet tail lights on the trailer.