So I’m driving north on highway 301 in Florida today and pass a trailer full of crushed cars, not an uncommon site. As I speed by the truck something catches my eye and I slow down. I see magnesium and aluminum rims. All old school. As I look further, this is loaded with cars from the 50s to the 70s. I see chevys, fords, and mopars all crushed. The most disturbing of all was I didn’t see a lot of rust to warrant crushing. It made me sick to think of all the vintage tin that is now gone forever. I don’t think I will sleep for days after what I saw. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Old yards are crushing out all over the country. The owners get old and die, their kids just want the quick cash and the scrappers are called in. The worst part is probably no one local knew it was coming until it was too late, and probably no parts could have been bought once the scrappers were contracted. Gene
toqwik Just look away...Look away You can't save them all I tried... I had 38 cars in my drive. all projects After some personal loss. I had to let go and got down to 7 Car's for a few months all my car should be scrapped and probably will be some day that day has not come yet so still wrench....Sp
You are so right. I still have to stare at part of a bumper from a 57 GMC Suburban, the GMC version of the Cameo, that had been sold to me the day before it was crushed because the owner of the yard never passed the word on to the manager or the staff. At least they felt bad enough, that they stopped the operation long enough to cut off the remaining pieces of the bumper. Every time I look at the pieces, I think of the truck. Bob
These yards with old cars probably have those cars sitting there, no parts sold off of them for years. If they can't sell the cars or the parts, what do you expect them to do with them? It comes to a point where you have to dispose of them.
That happened not far from me a few years ago. The old guy that had the yard opened it in 1939. There had to be four or five hundred cars from the 30's up to the 80's. I bought a 40 Ford tudor from in in 1968 for $100.00! He was heavy into Fords and would hardly ever sell any old Fords but we got along good and he let me buy the rough 40. I dealt with him right up until he died in the late 80's. The stand out cars in his yard I remember were a 50 Crestliner, a 54 Merc SunValley , a 56 Chevy convert, a 53 Olds Fiesta, a 56 Fairlane he bought new and a bunch more. These cars were all in covered garages or sheds. The yard was full of muscle cars and tons of 50's and 60's stuff plus the newer cars and pickups. After he died his son tried to run it for a while but it didn't last long. He called the crushers in and now my once favorite junk yard is a cow pasture with no cows, just scrub land no good to anyone.
I hate to see that too, but a lot of the cars are to picked over shells . As some may have been in the yards for 40 plus years
Are you talking about Keith Zimmerman? I bought a '56 Mainline from him way back (and a lot of other stuff over the years), best deal I ever had on a HAMB friendly ride. I miss those guys, tons of stories from there.
Being that they had magnesium and aluminum rims still on the cars, I doubt they were from a wrecking yard. More likely some old guy's stash. He passes, the family comes in and starts by selling off everything in the yard to a scrapper. Or pays someone to clear out the yard lock stock and barrel. Now I'm wondering what fate his garage/outbuildings full of parts met?
It makes me sick to think of all the cool stuff getting crushed every single day. Most of it we never even know went away.
When I skipped through the "sitting and rotting" thread ,I realized how invaluable land is. People park a worthless POS on what must be even more worthless land, and wait for the perils of time to catch up with them. If you approach about buying them, then the insanity glazes over in their eyes (or maybe the reflection of moonbeams in their eyes) Personally, I would rather look at nice scenery than rusty crap everywhere! From an economics point of view, every one of those cars that go to the crusher, will make our cherished cars more valuable. You can't save them all
There should be a new federal law passed -"Any vehicle more than 30 years old which is being disposed of, must be made available to any HAMB member, for scrap rates, before being going to the crusher".
A guy in town that had a classic car junkyard sent everything to the crusher years ago. I don't really know the story but I think it had something to do with the city jerkin him around on some bs and he just got tired and said screw it. Really hated to see that happen. The worst part about it was my friend who was friends with the owner tried to buy a '40 Cadillac limo (or something like that I can't remember) for much more than scrap and the guy wouldn't sell it. The old guy was just bitter about the whole situation and sent it to the crusher with everything else.
Well, while I'm not happy about it, I do understand it. Guy buys stuff, when it's available - not necessarily just convenient, ties up *his* bucks = lost-opportunity-cost (yup - his free choice), may or may not, ever get to finishing it or them. Even if he decides to sell, where're all the folks that constantly moan about how they need to be saved w/the coin to buy them? Trying to " " him down, scam him, or tell him just how bad they are. Then mocking him (damn hoarder(s), crazy prices, etc) everywhere & on everything, that his price is too high (read : dude doesn't have the coin in his pockets, or he's just toying w/the seller) & the guy should essentially give them away so that the "buyer" can flip or brag how cheap he got it? Who the hell needs or even wants that kind of grief? Uhmm, nope - if the coin isn't needed, they get scrapped/crushed/etc. Just read a lot of the posts on here to see. Scrapping is a whole lot easier & way less stressful than dealing w/the CL fools, crackheads, thieves, be-backs-later/tomorrow, & "ya-gotta-leave-some-meat-on-the-bone-for-me" asses, fkn flippers, not-to-mention-the-damned-attitude, etc. Most of the time, they're not really worth even parting out, due to the grief n time involved. Got a handful myself, debating on whether they're beginning to own me or not. Legit trading, swapping, or outright gifting, as long as it's a no-strings-attached, win-win deal, = no problem. But that's rarely the case. Marcus...
I was at the local scrap yard about two years ago when a 1959 Ford retractable came in on a rollback. I thought about it, maybe on a good day it had $200.00 worth of parts that would take $400.00 of billable time elsewhere to remove. You can't save everything. Bob
I have been helping with an estate for almost 2 years that is on 30+ acres in southern Oregon that is covered with cars and parts from the 20's through the 90's. The executor started a conversation the other day regarding what to sell & what to crush because there is so much, and there isn't the interest to get the value out of the cars to keep managing it. I do what I can to veer him away from it, but some cars are just too far gone. I have got him to start having me advertise ones like these at $750 each Sent from my SM-G930R4 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I know of a junkyard with a stash of 50's tin. The owner won't let you see what's in this sealed off part of the yard. So I went around the back through the woods and thick bushes... What is prized collection is is tin can material not restoration projects, cars are broken in half, disolved by the rust on the bottom 1 foot. Even the big trucks are up to the hubs in the ground with their cabs crumbling. These deserve to be crushed because they are no good to anybody and stop polluting the ground.
Sometime Hords of old stuff like steel3window showed are so far off the beaten path that even if they hold an auction it's hard to get decent bids on a lot of stuff and the scrappers get it. Or like an auction I was watching a month ago they lumped three or four vehicles together in groups rather than taking online bids on them individually. They cost the seller several thousand because a lot of us didn't bid because we didn't want to make three or four 300+ mile round trips towing a trailer to haul several vehicles to get one.
Yep! Always got great stuff when old Keith was alive. When Brother took it over and his wife Mary went a little nuts, not so much. Did you know the two tone blue 56 Ford Keith bought new was in the movie "Mischef" that they filmed parts of in Nelsonville?