WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I used to work in a yard where everything was junk exept the parts that hang on the motor. We'd yank engines out with a forklift, not even taking the hood off the car. The owner was kind of a psycho we thought. We were right. He ran his wife, a real piece of work in her own right, through the crusher in a 55 Dodge pick up. I say just dont drink if youre fighting with your husband and he has a crusher.
I remember as a small kid when my family would head out for Florida on vacation. We would be in Mississippi close to Mobile Al. and the yards along the highway were huge. This was in the mid to late 60s and the fence seemed to be 20' high and the cars were stacked 3 high over the fence. And they always seemed to have a nice looking car up on polls in the front 57 chevys or Model As. I always wished I could have stopped and looked. I think most are all gone now.
Makes me appreciate my Model A still in the "uncrushed" stage...... Great Editing and choice of Music.
Anyone else notice all the cut off roofs in the picture of the junkyard? Did they have that many rollovers back then?
Your story was boss but you didn't mention getting bit by snakes, trapping animals in car trunks, pondering the gruesome story behind all the blood stains left behind? We had George's Junk Yard, Pleasant Grove area of Pensacola growing up by Naval Air Station, back gate and an even older yard that was shut due to big brother IRS. Good Times my kids won't have cause you gotta be 16 to even come with an adult...
Junkyard work trucks are another interesting story, and as others have mentioned, the characters and hired help in the salvage yard business. The 324 Olds engine (the one in my avatar) was purchased in 1963 from Rectangle Autowreckers in St. Catharines, Ont. They had pulled it for someone else who then backed out of the deal. It was sitting under a tarp behind the "office". That engine still lives today. As for "the Crusher" there are not enough of us scavengers to keep up with the supply of "raw materials" coming into these places. These guys are in the salvage business converting wrecks (some in better condition than what I drive) into profit the most expedient way they know: The Crusher. Money talks.
You're a sick monster to post such awful footage lol...check out carsinbarns you'll see very disturbing images like these
Saw my first crusher in "Goldfinger" in '64.when I was 12. Made me sick then,too,and i didn't really care about the Lincoln..
That just makes me want to cry. Many lessons and bonds where made in a junk yard growing up in the sixties. I miss uncle nicks junk yard in bucks county Pa.
Growing up south of Indianapolis, I used to go with my dad to Peanut Sledge's junkyard near Bargersville, Indiana. There was a cool looking black '53 Studebaker with a chopped top, '56 Packard Clipper taillight housings (lenses missing), and VonDutch style flying eyeballs painted on the dash. That was around 1961-62. That car lingered in the yard for a couple of years; I don't know why it was there because it wasn't wrecked, but there was no hood, engine, or wheels... A few years later when I started driving (1964), Peanut's yard was the source for a lot of '55 - '57 Chevy and Ford parts for me and my buddies and, still later, replacement chassis and body parts for my stock car. The old place is gone now, replaced by a housing development...
Yeah,a lot of those cars were siting in back yards and the guy wanted $35 but kept getting offers for $10-15 so they got scrapped. Still plenty of old time yards around the 5 state region but the owners of most are in their mid-late 70's. Co-part and others like them are buying the yards for the license and location.They squish the inventory and only do late models. Get your stuff while it's around.
The last old junk yard in Mt Gambier, South Australia, is about to close, the owner is retiring and no one wants to deal with EPA and Govt. regs. so no more old stuff to pick over. The owner is into vintage speedway and used to look after local hot rodders and speedway guys a bit but I guess that too will be lost.
Those cars in that video,They were going somewhere,but they came back.They went to JAPAN.They came back as Toyotas,Hondas,Mitsubishis,Suzukis,Nissans and others. hmmm?
thats why our cars are so valuable and the price of parts is gonna go up we all almost have to go to Hemmings to find parts any more
My dad was the advertising manager for Pettibone for about 25 years; they made heavy lifting equipment that was used in the yards a lot. He'd sometimes bring home photos... Sometimes he'd also bring home promo films of the equipment at work until he saw it was upsetting me too much. Now I wish I could've kept them just for history's sake...
My first junkyard memory was back in 1967 dad took me to a junkyard that was owned by my moms cousin,dad got a antenna and other parts for the 55 Ford that was damaged on the trip to Michigan a few weeks earlier. I raided the glove compartments and acted like I was driving and remembered them removing the body from the frame before the body went on the scrap pile. I finally installed the antenna in the early 90s and a few years ago installed one of the few windshield washer nozzles he got on that trip,that antenna got replaced recently since it was a aftermarket antenna and installed the NOS antenns dad picked up at Hershey in the mid 70s.
Man, lessee, two junkyards you guys might remember better than I: Cavin Auto Wrecking on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach (twins named Dan and Don Wehrly pulled a '32 three-window out of there in the 1950s); and Atwood Auto Wrecking in Placentia. In the 1990s, I saw a '36 Ford sedan with a chrome dash that supposedly used to belong to Stan Betz. Good stuff.
Man, in the Eightees I and my friends lived in the junk yards. We used to sneak in at night and peruse the cars for what we needed. "GI Auto Salvage," had a river that ran around the entrance to a bridge. In the winters around late December, four or five of us used to get our tool boxes and drive there in my best friend 's van. When the water froze, we would cross the river with the boxes in hand to get what we needed. I think about how wrong it was to do now; but we were young and stupid and mostly - broke. There were rumors of dogs, but they were all false. The worst thing to fear was the bums who slept in the buses and vans. Man, they scared the pe-jesus out of us a couple times; but they left us alone for the most. Things have changed; most yards won't let you in b/c of insurance now-a-days.
I was thinking the same thing...at least until the mid 80s when they started getting steel from non-recycled sources. The time machine is still being perfected - when it's ready, I'll be otta here (as in2013). Stirring vid, J-B.
We had a junkyard behind the house growing up. My papaw worked on cars for a living out of the garage at his house next door, and there were probably fifteen cars out there. He passed away when I was five, so I couldn't have been more than four years old. I'm now 27, so this would have been around 1990. Best I can remember, they were mostly mid 70's GM intermediates and big cars. I can remember playing in those old cars, and how they smelled more than anything. When I was 20 I bought a 74 ElCamino, and it had "the smell." So do both of my C10's. I could take it in for hours, just flick the dash knobs and wiggle the steering wheels. Makes me feel like a kid again.
I grew up in mass and there was a great junk yard my dad used to bring me to... Called curboys junk yard!! It was in Sturbridge mass. I believe there in the circuit know but back in th day they had a section closed to the public.. Full of pre sixties cars!!!! My dad ran a small body shop out there!!! One of the coolest places I can remember being!!!
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