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

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by jokerjason, Jul 23, 2009.

  1. evs1
    Joined: Oct 3, 2010
    Posts: 160

    evs1
    Member

    Back in the late 70's I was an Operating Engineer Apprentice and I had to travel all over the state depending where the work was, plus go to Charleston or Clarksburg every Friday night for classroom training. You burn up a lot of miles like that and I usually drove late 60's / early 70's Mopars. Furys, monacos, polaras, satellites, usualy pick them up for 300-500 bucks and drive them for 6-10 thousand miles before they weren't worth fixing anymore.
    I was at a local yard that had several cars out front with titles. Found a '77 Monaco, 360 2bbl full police package car with 14300 original miles. It had been crunched on the front end but the price was right at $700. Sitting right next to it was a '74 Coronet Sheriffs car that had a great body, it was just wore out. Had them both towed to my in-laws body shop and about a month later I had a showroom new looking car for about $1600. I drove that car for 7 or 8 years then sold it for $1500, with 96k miles. Money wise that was the coolest thing I ever found in a wrecking yard.
    I got $300 out of the Coronet, should have kept it and redid it too. It had a 400, factory duals, and an EPA certification sticker labeling it as a Non-Catylast vehicle.
    I also figured out that the Monaco was identical to about half of the State Police unmarked cars, so I got the same antennas they were running, kept the dog dish hubcaps and blackwalls and I had a Q-ship! Usually got waved through sobriety checkpoints, game check checkpoints and thing like that a lot.
     
  2. A complete top-loader 4 speed ford tranny with all the Hurst linkage sitting in the back of a pickup at [of all places] U-pull-it where tranny's were 35 bucks with a 10 dollar core charge..
    .......and I didn't have 35 bucks with me!
     
  3. LN7 NUT
    Joined: Sep 9, 2010
    Posts: 2,165

    LN7 NUT
    Member

    Same thing happened to me, except there was 2 of them and it was all you can carry day and my dad was with me, so I put a hood on my back and he loaded me up... we started to load on all sorts of crap we didn't even want just to make it a bigger pile! LOL I just carried the load across their 50 foot marked area like Atlas carrying the world!
     
  4. T.KITCHEN
    Joined: Jan 19, 2008
    Posts: 154

    T.KITCHEN
    Member

    ITS STILL THERE IN A SOUTH FLORIDA JUNKYARD!! Clear at the back of a junkyard is a '63-1/2 Galaxie all "jacked-up" with big wheels and "Stump-Jumper" painted on the side. Funny(?) thing is that its a real 4 speed"R" code car (427-2x4s). It would take a helicopter to get it out!
     
  5. LN7 NUT
    Joined: Sep 9, 2010
    Posts: 2,165

    LN7 NUT
    Member

    Any idea what they would want for it?

    Some of us are crafty enough to get something like that out!
     
  6. Liquid Wrench
    Joined: Mar 3, 2014
    Posts: 60

    Liquid Wrench
    Member
    from Maine

    Found a set of 5 knock-off wire wheels at our local dump a few years back. The guy who manages the dump mentioned they were from a 1960 MG A. Sold 'em on ebay for 500 bucks.

    When I was a kid, I worked at a Honda Triumph motorcycle dealership. They were were dropping Triumph and had me load up a basement full of NOS Triumph parts and take 'em to the dump...
     
  7. indianhead74
    Joined: Mar 3, 2005
    Posts: 159

    indianhead74
    Member

    1955 pontiac starchief 2dr hardtop stainless mouldings and bumpers. Yeah
     
  8. sadsack
    Joined: Jan 29, 2014
    Posts: 72

    sadsack
    Member

    I didn't find it but I bpought ma t10 out of a 64 studie hawk for 45 bucks. those sere the days.
    sadsack
     
  9. hot rust
    Joined: Sep 18, 2007
    Posts: 779

    hot rust
    Member

    Attached Files:

  10. DAVEG2
    Joined: Feb 27, 2010
    Posts: 332

    DAVEG2
    Member

    Back in the mid 60's I found a 36 ford 3 window with a blown up Olds in it. I did't have the $75 to buy it.
     
  11. TimeWarpF100
    Joined: Nov 9, 2010
    Posts: 310

    TimeWarpF100
    Member

    :Mid 70's Ford truck with a Boss 429 AND a 429SCJ sitting in the box.
    Bought everything in box for 300.00 !

    A bunch of other good parts too!

    I better find the pics . . .
     
  12. Barn Hunter
    Joined: Feb 15, 2012
    Posts: 1,514

    Barn Hunter
    Member

    In Miami, early 70's I found a 58 Corvette body missing front cap in a junk yard...didn't ask the price. Around the same time a local transmission shop had a 64 AC Cobra with no motor or trans for $1000. Didn't have the $$ at the time.
     
  13. Walked through a SC U-pick last fall and looked in an '80 Riviera and it had the factory AM-FM-CB-Casette radio in it. $25 later it came home with me and I sold it on eBay for $175.

    I also pulled a tilt out of a '79 Pontiac Phoenix with no rust to it, got $125 for that. Phoenix is a Nova in Pontiac drag, so I figured somebody would want it.


    I always look because the year before there was a straight, solid, bare '66 Coronet 2-door in there I should have taken doors and fenders from, and a '57 Chevy I probably should have pulled fenders from. Only so much room in the van and I only had a couple hours to screw around that day. It's always fun to go through a yard where most of the cars in the place have less rust than the one I drove down there in.

    I did sell the '57 steering wheel for $50, though. It wasn't great, but some polish and paint could have dolled it right up.
     
  14. ol'chevy
    Joined: Nov 1, 2005
    Posts: 1,283

    ol'chevy
    Member

    When you come down this way, look me up. I have a line on an old yard Nearby I need to visit. The Columbia, sc pull a part usully has a good amont of old stuff in it.
     
  15. lrlforfun
    Joined: Nov 10, 2005
    Posts: 23

    lrlforfun
    Member

    OK Hamb People: I bought a 63 Riv. Got it home and there was all this First-Gen Riv jewelery wrapped in newspaper in the trunk. My wife who has almost 0 interest in my old heaps got the biggest charge as I unwrapped every piece and not only told her what the part was, I told her for what car it was for. She even unwrapped a few pieces too!
     
  16. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,753

    Deuces

    A brand new 1969 vintage fifty dollar bill...:)
     
  17. A smashed flat 56 Olds 98 with a brand new engine and transmission in it. Got it for fifty bucks.
     
  18. .
    .Wouldn't happen to have been out of Redmond, would it? Maybe a red and white 98 rag top?
     
  19. Rob68
    Joined: Jun 16, 2011
    Posts: 495

    Rob68
    Member

    I went to the Classic U Pull it in Boring a few years back for a specific part (the brass distribution block for the brake lines) $10 bucks for the part and $60 for the box of new in bags parts for the same truck I have. I figured there was about $600.00 worth of parts in that box. The show room was full of old grills,bumpers, and all kinds of trim (not the female kind though) and the yard was full of old stuff. Went out there last week and its all gone. Just another yard full of new junk.
     

    Attached Files:

  20. It was blue and white, the guy lived up the gorge and was taking it home after the engine install when he rolled it, this was back in the 70s. We put the engine and trans in by brothers 55 Ford pickup.
     
  21. A 1934 Ford Ambulance! Had the gurney in it and all! While I was loading it, my wife managed to sweet talk the yard owner into GIVING her an old Harley 250 dirt bike! :eek: I've never gotten a junk yard guy to give me anything!

    Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

    Have to edit this slightly, looking at pictures today, and I think it might have been a '35, not a '34.
     
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2014
  22. Maverick Daddy
    Joined: Nov 26, 2008
    Posts: 3,130

    Maverick Daddy
    Member

    1957 Ranchero, with canted quads, tube grille, and one of the frenched,ribbed lakes pipes hanging on. it was in a yard behind sheppard A.F.B. in texas. Also found a foot, still in a shoe, in a wrecked Fox body in Alabama.........
     
  23. 2NDCHANCE
    Joined: Sep 11, 2007
    Posts: 997

    2NDCHANCE
    Member

    A couple years ago I found this 11 ft. surf board in my local salvage yard here in Nebraska. He made me pay $100 but I sold it for $400. SURFWAGON1.jpg
     
  24. SanDiegoHighwayman
    Joined: Jun 26, 2012
    Posts: 951

    SanDiegoHighwayman
    Member

    The ENTIRE FRONT CLIP off a rear end wrecked Crown Victoria for $50 [ back in 1966 ] to install on my 55 Ford County Sedan wagon I'd paid $35 for because it'd been front end wrecked -- this was the beginning of my Beulah!
    [ no pics from back then but THIS is her after -- :cool:

    4rescuefronthouse.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2015
  25. alphabet soup
    Joined: Jan 8, 2011
    Posts: 2,017

    alphabet soup
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Wanted a radio out of a '70 Polora. Had to take the a/c duct work out of the way. A mans ruby ring fell out and hit me in the head. Still have it today. My uncle used to collect change out of the junk yard cars. When he passed away. My aunt found a shoe box and 7 cigar boxes full. I think it was about $1100.00 or so.
     
  26. 327Eric
    Joined: May 9, 2008
    Posts: 2,116

    327Eric
    Member

    I got one of my Henry J's out of a yard in the 90's,car wise the list goes on, its how I made my money for a while. Sadly, most of the cool stuff had to get sold to survive. The coolest thing was an old Scheifer aluminum flywheel. It had been sitting in the back of an old school bus for years. No one could identify, and many had tried. I took a Gamble, and gave 50 bucks for it Later that night I was unloading the parts I picked up that day at a buddy's house(trade deal for a truck he had) and I mentioned I had this weird flywheel. He needed a flywheel for a 354 Hemi he had going into a Model A. So we walked into his garage, and set the flywheel up against the flange and It fit. 40 minutes to identify it and sell it, 35 of which was drive time. That flywheel, and some other vintage stuff I had gathered, old rims, 59 ford truck 9 inch rear and similar items for his build,turned into a 68 Ford truck in a trade right there, which turned into 800 cash 2 hours later, and I hour later I paid off the one day old loan that got my 59 El Camino. I coulda sold the El Camino that night for $3500, but I finally had my dream car.
     
  27. IMAG1141.jpg
    this bus with a running Y block
     
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  28. Fordtudor37
    Joined: Jan 5, 2011
    Posts: 273

    Fordtudor37
    Member

    Lifting the hood of a '76 Ford F150 to look for a 302/C6 powertrain package and get greeted by a wasp nest the size of a basket ball !
    While running away came from the wasps I across a '61 Oldsmobile two door slant back (don't remember the name, Star fighter ?) but it had the sloping big back window and odd fins on the rear, the engine was a 331 or 341 CI with an automatic.
    Either way I had to sell it not long after I got it from the junk yard for $150 and it was drivable in 1982 !
     
  29. hotcoupe
    Joined: Oct 3, 2007
    Posts: 588

    hotcoupe
    Member

    `53 & `53 corvette exhaust manifold, only thing was, two bubba`s were under the truck taking off the exhaust pipes! asked them if they wanted the manifold, they said "no" [ i guess they thought they could bolt up the dual pipes to their manifold]. it cost me $10.00 sold it for $600.00.
     
  30. godlemmy
    Joined: Apr 5, 2006
    Posts: 61

    godlemmy
    Member

    My dad and I had worked at a few yards in the past and found all kinds of cool stuff. Got a set of caddy
     

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