I remember going to our local yard back in 1983 when we were 12, they let us in. we cut off more caddy hood emblems, vw signs and made necklaces out of them like it "escape from New York." One of the junk guys had a 69 datsun pu with no brakes he'd pull up to something hit it, back up and hit something else almost comical. The saddest part of seeing all these videos is all the cars that have great bodies, sheet-metal. We fix shit boxes these days and what they threw away was gold back then. I know most will say "if I'd known it would've been worth that much I'd kept a few". But surely we won't be saying this about 89 chevy berettas in 35 years. I've bought a few cars some ot muscle cars just cause hell they are getting fewer and farther in between. If they are hard to find now 5, 10 15 years later only be higher in price and harder to find.
After seeing that, I'm a little prouder of myself for collecting and saving salvageable stuff. If I get old and am hit with the realization that I'm not really "going to get to it someday" my stuff will really make some young guys day.
Stock car races, auto crushers and choppers (sorry about that) really thin the heard on the old car market.. As a kid my dad was in the salvage business for a few years. He would scour the country buying Model T's A and anything he could. Drag them to his yard and the first thing he would do is burn them out.. Once cooled it was my brother and I's job to strip the copper out of them and other things. (Often wonder what kind of cool iron he trashed)
Definitely some fond memories of bombing the junkyards as a kid in the 80's.. Back in the early 90's there was a salvage yard called Southend Auto Salvage in Flint, MI (where I grew up) and this old guy with a ruddy, alcoholic's complexion named Craig ran it. Super nice guy, especially toward us youngins who he knew were broke. I bought a complete black interior out of a '77 Caprice one time there, no tears, cracks, or anything for $50. He had alot of stuff for 70's Z-28's and quite a bit of late 60's-early 70's oddball stuff, and the occasional 50's ride came through. Last car I remember coming through that was tragically complete was a first-year Hemi powered New Yorker, loaded to the gills, even had factory gold plated emblems, and a complete Firepower 331 Hemi under the hood. That place was a souphole nine months out of the year- and like most of the old salvage yards, it was eaten up by a late model- only conglomerate. It's all gone now. All that is left is the memory of the smell of old grease and cigarette smoke wafting through that old building. Another shame is where I live now- I came across an old guy in Heber Springs, AR- the guy was a crotchety old WWII vet, very no-nonsense. He lived in a travel trailer in his junkyard.. He had a stash of solid Southern metal he had collected since he got back from the war, all kinds of trucks and cars. He drove a hard bargain, combined with being fairly anti-social and in an obscure location that wasn't easily noticed, most of what he had was either complete, or very close to it. I bought some 64-66 Chevrolet truck sheet metal from him. He died back in the mid 2000's, and the only heir he had was an idiot burnout son who spent more time in prison than he did outside of it. His son was at the yard for a few months, and did his best to make every irrational decision that one would expect from a meth head- and the price of scrap spiked not long after. The asshole scrapped every last relic the old man had treasured, and disappeared. The lot has remained barren and empty since. One particular complete vehicle he had there that comes to mind was an old late 60's Tempest. which had the original OHC four barrel equipped inline 6 under the hood. The car literally looked like a battery and fresh tank of gas would have driven it out. I am sure that old Poncho has long since been shipped to China and turned into some useless crap sitting on a Harbor Freight shelf.
Just watched the first 2 minutes and couldn't continue - I hate HORROR films!!! But thanks for the Junkyard memories. That and the dump will live on in our minds as places of adventure. Not so for our kids.
Any ct guys familiar with waterbury? There's an old junkyard across the highway from albert bros scrap yard that's loaded with old stuff. There's cars and trucks that probably go back to the 50's up to the 80's. Unfortunatley it's closed to the public, but I've always wanted to go in there and explore.
On a more positive note. Each time one of them is crushed it makes the ones on the street more valuable.
My family has been in the junk yard buisness since the late '20s. Scrap was how they started out, then they figured out they could sell parts because people kept showing up wanting parts. I have so many great memorys of being a kid and playing in the yards. This was mid 80's to about mid 90's. Well i still do it. On rainy days i go next door to ecology and look at the old cars and 70's vans. Seeing that big claw in the video reminded me of this time me and this guy dragged an old city bus a few miles down a dirt road to the scrap yard. I rearended the backhoe three times which was fun but as i was backing the bus up (pushed by backhoe) the claw operator droped the claw through the back of the bus and grabed a seat and pulled it up through the roof. I came outta that bus pretty fast. I got all sorta of old pics and stories that could fill a book, most before my time.
The Jalopy Journal
