In Wizz Con Son the yards have been crushed out of existence. A couple hidden stashes but far and few between. This is my buddy Louie in front of a Mercury woodie.
I saved this factory 4x4 IH from the crusher. The most amazing part is I found someone else to buy it instead of me!
As much as I share the feelings of many who have already commented on these cars, the cruel shame of this is reality. As I have found over the years, the good stuff is already gone and the best of these cars would cost way more to restore than they are worth, but they are not good enough to make drivers out of. So its a grand to get one to either coast unless you have a trailer and 3-4 days to go pick one up providing that any of them even roll. We bought a Jag XKE that we had been trying to buy for 20 years;took a whole day to cut and drag it out, was it worth it, yes only because these cars are worth at least 75k restored, otherwise it was a pile of rust. Kills me to see so many cool rides rotting and crushed but nobody wanted it enough to get it before, so unlikely someone will step up now. Having said this our last three driver/rat rods were bought off the rollback on the way to the crusher.
Has anyone told Skip from French Lake Auto Parts about this? I'm sure they could come in, make an assessment, and decide what's worth keeping.
Depending on what hardware is left a relatively easy sell for $1500 or so. What did it scale for? $200?
Month ago I saw a 1951 Mercury Woody wagon in somewhat better condition get crushed. Ironically, it was also in WI.
It seems like a parts place would buy this lot. To sale what people are looking for. or this place would just ebay parts that we are looking for.
Having been in the auto salvage business as a manager I can tell you it's a tough racket. On the one hand you want to save all the old stuff just because it's old and you don't see it anymore. But the sad reality is that not only is the price of scrap going through the roof, but that space those cars is taking up is valuable real estate. Put your emotions aside for a minute and consider this. You're in business to make money right ? Let's say you have 100 old cars that are mostly beyond repair but still have a few good parts. 4 doors, not so desirable makes & models, etc. Truth is the good stuff is gone. If any 2 door cars that would make good hot rods ever came through the gate they were sold off almost immediately. Now you're running out of room in your yard. Nobody ever calls looking for 49 Packard parts, etc. The price of scrap is to the point where a complete car from the 50s is worth $400-$600 on the scales. You can fill up the empty spaces you'll gain with Hondas & Toyotas and sell damn near every part in 3 months. Each time you scrap an old car for $500 you reinvest that money buying a late model wreck that you stand to make $2000-$3000 on by selling the parts. Speaking as a hotrodder it sucks. Speaking as a businessman it's a no brainer what you have to do to keep the lights on. What I did at the last place I managed when the woman who owned it told me to scrap all the old stuff was I ran an ad on craigslist for several months and also put out the word among the car guys in the area that we were cleaning house. Anyone who wanted any of the old stuff should stop in and make an offer on whole cars or parts. Guess what ? We didn't sell shit. After it was all gone everyone complained about what a damn shame it was to see it go. It's not a museum,, it's a business... That being said it sounds like this "Dennis" guy who owns this place is a dick wanting double the scrap price to sell any cars. If it was me I'd have taken any offer that was about what the scrap price was just so see the cars go to a good home.
I know someone who rescued a 30's dodge coupe on it's way to the crusher. Literally chased it down the road. It's in CT if anyone is interested.
I worked in a "recycling" yard in the mid 70's, I tried to get the owner to advertise in Hemmings or some such and he said it was too much bother,Now looking back I can see that, everything had to be done by snail mail and it took weeks to see anything, fast forward to today with the advent of the internet and car clubs and organizations that are on it I would think that it would be much simpler to run adds in many of these web sites most all are free, but thats me I've been away from it for years.
Among other reasons blame every last one of these people who go into a yard expecting to buy everything for dirt because "its a junkyard". That causes a lot of cars to get crushed. There is a yard near me that has been around since the '50s that crushed a bunch of muscle era stuff(Cudas, Challengers, Mustangs, Camaros, etc.) a couple years ago specifically because the owner refused to have any further dealings with these cheapskates. A friend of mine works for them when they crush cars driving a truck and he asked the owner to let him sell some of these more desirable cars on the owners behalf. The owner however was so bitter about dealing with cheap people, into the crusher they went. Having bought and sold cars and parts since I was about 14, I can't say I blame the guy.
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