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Remember old time wrecking yards? - READ ONLY

50 messages,  Last post on Nov 16, 2001 at 6:58 PM

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Messages Page 5 of 5

#41 of 50 Memories........... by avalanche325

Oct 24, 2001 (1:53 pm)

I high school (class of 82) my friends and I were always working on late 60s/early 70s muscle cars. There were several junk yards in the area around Myrtle Beach, SC. One we always went to had a "any motor for $100.00 policy". They would hook this tractor with a makeshift boom up to the motor, cut the motor mounts and just rip it out. Oh yeah, you got the tranny with it too.
 
We used to find Chrysler station wagons that had 440 four barrels with hardly any milage all the time. Drop them in a Challenger or Cuda, change the oil and go Trans Am / Z28 / and Corvette hunting. (Yeah, good old redneck southern boys)
 
My friend and I tried a nostalgic trip to the yards a few years ago. Most wouldn't let us in and the ones that did had nothing of interest at all. Another part of my youth that is slipping away.......

#42 of 50 A Dark Side of Wrecking Yards by spokane

Oct 24, 2001 (9:33 pm)

In 1965, two of us went into an unfamiliar wrecking yard and happened to park our car out of sight of the office. When we asked about a spring for a common-model Ford, the guy scowled, told us he didn't have one, and generally made it clear that we weren't welcome. As we walked to our car, we glanced through the fence and were stunned to see 20+ Edsels, more than we had ever seen in one place and most were in pretty good shape. We slipped through the fence and were dazzled to find neat rows of 55 & 56 Chevies, a whole section of just 57 Plymouths, etc. They had the spring we needed, plenty of them. Many of these cars weren't wrecked - just missing some parts. We high-tailed it just in time. And some people wondered if car theft was big business in that area.

#43 of 50 There are still a few yards that will let you by wilcox

Oct 31, 2001 (11:12 am)

have at their inventory.
 
Not too awful long ago I went looking for additional horns to put on my car (it only came with one puny horn from factory).
 
After alot of searching and sightseeing, I found a recent model LHS. The old boy took them off for me and I paid $5.00 for both of them. "Five dolla" (smile)
 
wil

#44 of 50 Mopar junkyard in SE PA .....gone. by seeburg222

Oct 31, 2001 (3:24 pm)

Like most of the readers of this board, some of the fondest memories of my teens & twenties were of junkyard adventures.
 
We had a somewhat eccentric Chrysler dealer in town here who never auctioned any of his used cars. If he couldn't sell them, they went to his 'junkyard' just outside of town. He was in business from the 40's thru the 70's. In this yard you could find rows of '57 & '58 Desotos, Chyrslers and more Imperials than anywhere else! Although parts were usually missing from most cars the guy would never sell you anything off of them. Only way you could get anything you needed was barter!
 
 My first car was a 64 Chrysler 300. He had several in the yard. I needed a wheel opening moulding badly - was the only thing that kept my car from being near perfect. After 3 years of trying to find one elsewhere and begging him to sell me one he finally agreed to a 'deal'. I had found a '64 300K in another yard and stripped it of all I could get. I rescued the hard to find little 300K badges but couldn't use on mine. He owned 2 'K's in his old car collection (his old car collection was another neat story!) and was willing give me the moulding for the 'K' badges. That made me VERY happy!
 
Papa Berger as he was known amongst the local Mopar heads passed away and his family sold off everything. All those great cars in his yard got towed away to nearby 'modern' yard and were immediately crushed. What a shame. Those cars could have helped so many restorations.

#45 of 50 Wilcox... by isellhondas

Oct 31, 2001 (7:05 pm)

Around here that horn would have cost within five dollars of the price of a new one!
 
Sounds like the good ol' days!

#46 of 50 Salvage Yards by a_l_hubcaps

Nov 01, 2001 (11:11 am)

My brother is restoring a 1977 Toyota Celica ST. He recently bought a front bumper, hood, headlamp bucket, and assorted other components from a yard in PA for a grand total of $65. The parts need to be restored, but they are in decent condition. There are still some cheap yards out there.
-Andrew L

#47 of 50 junk yards by wtd

Nov 08, 2001 (6:16 pm)

I just went to a local junkyard yesterday that has mostly all older cars. This guy restores old cars and sells them. His place is not even listed in the phonebook. He lets you take off your own parts and doesn't charge much. Has alot of late sixties impalas & caprices, buicks, pontiacs and alot of other things I didn't have time to look at. I was there looking for parts for my 70 Monte Carlo. I saw one thing that wanted to make me cry. He has a 69 caprice 4door that had many options including power bucket seats which were laying out on the ground next to the car. You don't find buckets in these cars very often, not to mention power ones. Car also has the hide away headlight covers which are still intact. Power windows and locks and it was an original big block car. Motor, tranny and rearend are gone. I used to have a car just like it but it didn't have all the options this one has.

#48 of 50 I might head to the junkyard on Saturday by andre1969

Nov 08, 2001 (9:21 pm)

There's a local yard that specializes in Mopars, and I'm going scouting for a pair of 15x7 rims for my '79 New Yorker. I used to have a '79 Newport that, with those wider rims, handled suprisingly well. In fact, I bought it from that junkyard for $250.00! I think the norm for these cars was something like 15x6. I still had a set of 15x7's left over from when I got rid of that Newport. I think I paid something like $15.00 each for 'em. Hope they're not too ridiculous nowadays!
 
I'm kinda looking forward to just walking around and exploring, too. This place is pretty cool, and they'll still let ya do that.

#49 of 50 Andre... by isellhondas

Nov 16, 2001 (6:39 pm)

The DOG ! Watch out for the DOG !

#50 of 50 Well, that junkyard trip wasn't as fun as I thought it would be by andre1969

Nov 16, 2001 (6:58 pm)

There was this old guy at the front counter who was kinda nasty, and told me up-front, $35.00 per wheel. They keep all their rims on a rack back there, but he didn't want me touching it, although he did let me walk around some. But he told me to let him get the rims.
 
Well, I walked around some, and then when I came back, said I'd take a pair of cop car rims. Well, the guy came back with the conventional 15x7 rims that Chrysler's been using forever. In fact, these had "1962" written on them in pink marker. Main reason I wanted the cop car rims is that they're offset a bit more, which gives the car a wider stance on its tires. Also, the cop wheels are slotted, which makes them a bit lighter (prob'ly not much, though!) And I guess the slots help with cooling the brakes a bit.
 
I did finally run into a familiar face there, a guy who's been working there for as long as I've been going there (about 13 years now). He said that he knew the wheels I was talking about, but they were out of em. I guess the cops finally wrecked all the Diplomats and Gran Fury's they're going to wreck, so there goes the parts supply! This guy knows my taste in cars too, so he pointed me in the direction of a '68 Dart GTS they'd just gotten in, and had stashed, that they want to sell whole. Runs good, but has the typical rust issues of the era.
 
Well, I guess it wasn't a TOTAL waste...

Messages Page 5 of 5

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