Your best junkyard/ swap meet/ barn find

I guess my latest good score at a swap meet was 4 chrome 682 headlights for $5 each. I only needed two but for 20 bucks it was a steal.

 

When I was a teenager, a buddy and I went to look at some parts that were listed in the paper. He was looking for something in particular and I was not. When we opened the shed I immediately spied an old Ford air cleaner and snapped it up. my buddy was too slow to do anything about it. He whined and I told him too bad. He bought the stuff he wanted and I bought the air cleaner for $10.
It was an original dual-quad 427 air cleaner.
Sadly sold it when I was still young and dumb for more money than I paid for it, but not for what it was worth.
r

 

At a pick-n-pull on a half-price day, wandering around and spy a 63-ish Buick 4 dr sedan. One perfect 45 fin drum sitting on the ground. the other side just had to take the spindle nut off. Think I paid like $20 for both, no broken fins and no scoring on inner surface.

 

There's a junk yard near me that crushes everything, they don't care what it's worth. If you don't catch something as soon as it comes in it'll be crushed. I bought a 29 coupe body with frame, lots of rust and dents but still repairable, for $68. They weighed it and sold it for scrap price. I got a Dodge hemi out of a 54 truck for $100, a couple of flatheads for $100 each, and last year a complete 47 Ford 1/2 ton for $500.

 

it was ot but in 79 right before i joined the navy i found a straight hemi super bird setting on the frame. car was complete other then wheels and not for sale. since then my love of cars has changed a lot.

 

Got this one back around 1978 when I had my shop. I was looking for a motor for a car and they had this 1958 buick special sitting there, getting ready to crush. I asked them how much they wanted for it. The guy said $150.Well I brought it back home and put 2 front wheels and tires on it and a generator.{they were missing}Oh and a battery too. Put a couples gallons of gas in it and it fired right up. Drove that old girl for the longest time. Still wish I had her.Bruce.

 

A guy right next to me at the local swap meet had a third member laying in the gravel for sale. I walked over and chatted him up...said he thought it was a 55 chevy unit and he wanted $50 for it..a couple other guys wandered over and were watching the deal. I gave him his $50 and carried it over to my stall and one of the spectators followed me over. I checked it over while the guy watched patiently. Wanted to know if I was gonna sell it and I told him it was a '57-64 Pontiac/Olds 9.3" with a 4.88-posi gear in it. He said he knew it and when I asked him why he didn't buy it from the other guy he said he wasn't sure what it was...cost him $300 to "make sure" that day.

 

BIG difference in size between a 9.3 inch ring gear Pontiac/Olds and a 8.2 inch ring gear 55-64 Chevy! Just carrying the Pont/Olds third member to your spot was work, hahaha. But good for you Rocky making some quick cash for the knowledge.

 

Found a C list add for car parts, owner said it has $300 in scrap value. Had to take all for $300. Made over $1000 in profit. Guy had purchased house years ago with stuff left in garage attic, attic collapsed and guy was rebuilding garage. Ended up loaning him my trailer to haul every thing away from the demo. He agreed to leave all metal for me to scrap and had it mostly loaded when I when to pickup trailer. I got 3 41 chevy hoods, 1 NOS. 4 61/63 SW rims, 57 chevy hood and fender. This fell in my lap about a week before fall Carslise

 

Wandering thru the Golden State wreckers in Turlock, peered inside a '50 Ford Mail truck...scored 4 Dodge aluminum steering boxes (Saginaw) and 5 mint '48 Merc 15" X 5" steel wheels. Next to the wheels were the stainless MERCURY dog dish caps. $10 each for the steering boxes, $3 each for the wheels. He threw the caps in for free...
Down the road from there (Witzel's auto wrecking) I discovered a '37 Ford tube axle...Mr. Witzel said I might be able to use it for a trailer. $8.
My bud Lester and I went to Silva's auto wreckers here in Atwater. Les looks thru glove boxes, collects owners manuals. A perfect Olds station wagon (O/T, late model) still had the owners manual, Les fingered thru and found FOUR $100 bills inside the jacket!
Old folks used to keep $$ in cash in case of break downs, etc. He said he often found cash in glove boxes, spare tire compartments, etc.

 

Not my best find, but one time in a scrap metal yard I realized I was standing on something shiny buried in the dirt, dug it up - it was a Edmunds intake for a WWII era Chevy straight six.

 

some years back I went to a neighboring towns garage sales with my wife. I came upon a set of 64 GTO hubcaps the optional spinner type. The seller wanted 25 bucks I talked about needing something for my trailer, and not interested for that price. I finally talked them down to seven bucks. I sold them a couple months later for $225. Also a local weekly auction at fairgrounds. Among the scores there Corvette knock off wheel 5 bucks, narrowed olds pontiac rearend 7 bucks, NOS 50 Dodge fenderskirts 2 pair in box 5 bucks, finned T bird valve covers 50 cents. OT Pantera dealer sign 6 bucks. sold for 600.

 

Answered an add in the paper when I lived in Az. Went to the house and the woman told me her husband had left with another woman and she wanted pay back. I loaded a pickup load of small block Chevy race parts and blocks and transmissions. He was a drag racer. Paid her the $100 she wanted and left. Sold a lot of parts like a DZ block and crank to a guy from Chicago who drove his 69 Z -28 to Arizona to pick it up. Ran a little junkyard for a while and one day a women drove a 64 Galaxie 289 3 speed in and asked if I would buy it. Rust free Az. car Gave her $ 125.00 and she left happy. Did not like driving a big car and wanted a Civic . The Honda dealer wouldn't take it in on trade.
Those days are gone since the crushers got most of the old stuff. Now people think it is all gold.

 

Waiting to see someone post in this thread about the great deal that they got on it.

 

Bought a '64 Mustang at a yard sale, guy says that it's not worth much, doesn't even have bucket seats (had the rare bench seat option) and no motor...so how about $300? Take it home do a little cleaning, get the trunk open (had no keys) and there is a Mustang under the dash A/C...then check the VIN and it is a K-car....sold it at a swapmeet 2 months later for $1,800!!!

 

I've been very lucky over the years when it comes to this subject.
My latest, '61 Impala w/348, two owner, 80,000 miles, stored 35 years in that pole barn.

 

Believe it or not this car was stored for over 46 years in a barn in northern Indiana. After the original owners passed the car was sold at an estate auction. It is in show room condition still sporting the original paint. It has since been lowered with 2" drop spindles and short rear springs. Amazing how good these cars look by just lowering and adding decent wheel and tires.
Gary

 

I lived in rural Utah several decades ago. While there the guy down the road asked if I wanted to take the old car that his brother had left in the cow pasture, free of course. So I go to look at it in the weeds over the hill.
It was a 23 Dodge touring in really rough shape, not really interesting. When I moved the weeds to see what was in the engine compartment I found a pair of chrome Imperial hemi valve covers looking back at me!
The brother had put a '58 392 hemi and transmission in the car years ago and then abandoned it in the field. It didn't take long to drag it home.
Sadly I had to let it go several years later when we moved out of state.

 

In 1970my best friend told me his wife aunts had a Ford Convertible in their garage. I made arrangements to look at it. Turned out to be a '37 convertible with even the tool kit in the trunk. After checking with a couple of people about a fair price I offered $400. After hearing nothing for a couple of weeks I asked my friend if he had heard anything. He said the aunts thought I was crazy offering that much money and sold it to a kid for$100. Only barn find I ever found. Car was perfect.

 

Had a similar deal,offered 40 dollars and when I went to pick it up they said just just give up 25 but they did not sell it out from under me.

 

MY 31 "A"

 

South cross I agree with you .Everyone on .C.L or Flea bay thinks their rusted out junk is worth a fortune today.Bruce.

 

Nice find Gary!!!! Bruce.

 

Bearing Burner, man that would of mad me real sad!!!! Bruce.

 

Bearing Burner.I wonder what that kid did with it ???? Bruce.

 

junkyardjeff, not around here.Every one thinks they have a pot of gold they are sitting on. Bruce.

 

Alex's was the best! Very cool dude, and fair prices. I loved going to the "the jungle" with my dad. It was a neighborhood of wrecking yards. Millers was cool too. I worked at Master Auto Parts for about a year, when Denny Miller found out I liked '66-'67 Novas, he'd call me everytime he got one. I bought a running '66 Nova Tudor hardtop 230/Glide, for $100. Can't remember the name, but one of the yards next to Alex's had a '64 Olds 442 convertible 1 of less than 200 made, bought it for $250 in 1984. It became one of favorite street race / bracket cars.

 

It was my first parts car that I bought back in 79 for the front sheet metal and I did get 20 dollars for it when I junked it so for 5 dollars I got a complete front clip and seats but should have taken the clutch parts from it.