More a story of youth and arrogance. My buddy was helping me put a posi unit in my 69 Wildcat. Granted we had never done it and knew nothing of clearances, lash, etc. Out came the one wheel unit and in goes the posi. We broke a shim on the install so we headed to the junk yard for a replacement. We found a good posi unit and proceeded to take it out for the shim. We tossed the perfectly good posi into the dirt and paid our $2.00 for the shim. In hindsight what an amazing waste that was. the good part is that the shim was perfect and the posi worked flawlessly, no whine and no chatter. I wouldn't even dream of trying that again. I guess sometimes you just get lucky. Cliff
My Junk yard story happened on a Family Vacation back in the 90's. We were visiting family in California and we rented a car and were taking a side trip to Lake Tahoe . It was the wife, myself and my 3 daughters . While driving down the Highway all the kids and the wife were snoozing and I spied a junkyard close to a exit ramp and I knew I needed a fender and inner fender for my 69 Convertible project. So off the ramp I went stopping in the junk yard parking lot . My wife woke up and looked around and asked what was up . I said its lunch time and there's a McDonald's down the street take the girls and get lunch and you can pick me up after. I found a car with both a fender and inner fender with no rust so I paid them and said I would pick them up in 2 days on the return trip. I tied it to the roof rack drove back to the wife's brothers house and separated the fender from the inner fender. went to the airline got a bike box and placed the fender in the bike box and brought it back to Ohio on the plane . My brother in law shipped the inner fender back to me .
And the stories continue! It looks like some people have been real winners at the junkyard. Andy, you never told me your car was about to enter the junkyard. I’ve seen that 1965, 442 at his shop. It’s going to be awesome!
The cow story reminded me of a yard I visited late 70's/early 80's. It was just south of Baltimore and they kept pigs in the yard. Just to make it a little worse they fed them with rotting produce that was dumped amongst the cars.
I went to this little junkyard in downstate NY circa 1990. Heard about it from my grandfather who lived in the same county. There was a literal tarpaper shack I'm not even sure the guy lived in or not. There was no signage, no fencing; you turned onto a narrow rural road and it was right there. Guy was tall & skinny, and what I remember most is that his eyebrows moved randomly and independently of each other as he spoke. Eugene Fryer. I remember the little scruffy dog there's water dish was a Rambler poverty cap. My girlfriend & I went there, I asked him if he had any Pontiac 8-lug stuff, and he did; led us thru narrow walking paths thru brush & tall grass, and I bought I think 4 or 5 rims from him. My girlfriend was stalked by his rooster and twice he almost got her in the heels. I also got the Mount Orange roadsign from the side street he must've pilfered at one time, it's still hanging in my shop. 1994 image :
Biggest yard I ever went in was DeNaples in Scranton PA, early 80's. It was on a mountain side paralled to one of the main highways, and seemed to go on for miles. I remember a fairly complete 64 Riviera with the factory dual quads still on it, and several 64-65 Sportwagons. They also had a good assortment of early 60's Cadillacs, including several convertibles.
Another story for me was when my second wife and I went on our Honey Moon to Hawaii. We were on Maui and having a great time. We had rented a new Toyota and went everywhere. We heard about this one beach, so we went there. It was all locals. Parking was tight and among a lot of small trees. As I backed in I took the drivers side mirror off the car. Bummer. So next day I call the Toyota dealership to get a mirror. I know that if I take the car back it's probably gonna cost me big bucks for the repair. They tell me no problem they can have one shipped in in 2 weeks . So now I'm looking to see about yards on the island. I find one, buy some tools an head there. Nothing that fits the car. I measure what I need and I find one that looks right, but only 2 of the 3 mounting screws fit. NP installed and looks great. At the end of our time there I take the car in to return it. When I produce the paper work the clerk says "this is the car". I say what. She replies one of our people were at the beach when you destroyed the mirror. I said that I had it replaced. They went and looked and closed out my rental. So how many of you have gone to a junk yard on your Honeymoon, let alone in Hawaii? Bummer is there was a sport wheel on the wall in the office that would have fit in my luggage and I didn't ask about it.
Thats got to be the biggest yard I have ever seen. At one point they crushed almost everything, but now when I go through there I see lots of cars all over the hill. Probably all rice burners.
I remember Athens, Ga in the late ‘80s had a family named Alewine (pronounced A-leewine) that ran several yards in and around town. Bo Alewine’s was nicknamed ‘Fiat on a Pole’ due to his sign. I pulled a 455 ftom a ‘70 Electra there that had rear shoulder belts, a four barrel intake and AFB from a 340 LeSabre and lots of smalls. At one time they had a ‘66 Riv GS that was complete except for valve covers; he wouldn’t sell it. The ‘in town’ Alewine’s had a ‘64 Wildcat vert (too far gone to save). Lot of hours spent in those yards! Patrick
In the 70's there was a small private yard out in the countryside near Frederick MD. The owner was a hoarder and had a nice selection of late 20's, 30's and 40's cars. Went there with a friend from the area who had been there before and knew the drill to gain admission: share a 6-pack with the owner, and leave another 6 to keep him busy while we roamed the yard. Wasn't anything there for me, but my friend scored stuff for his 32 Ford and 39 Hudson.
Believe it was / is south of Scranton, E of Interstate 81. Stopped in there once, can’t remember when - was probably mid to late nineties. A lot of fifties cars literally becoming joined to the earth. Very little usable or salable parts, some stainless trims, perhaps. So that must have been before the big crush.
Back in the mid 1980s my 18 year old brother got home about 10 pm and says his VW bus broke down about a mile away and he asked me to drive him back to take a look. We hopped in my truck and drove to the intersection where the bus broke down. The thing was sitting very low at the right rear. A quick look showed that the right rear axle shaft that passes through the swing arm sheared off at the outside shoulder. The tire and wheel were jammed up into the wheel house. Being young and broke, he didn't want to leave the bus on the narrow, quiet road to get towed, but the nature of the damage was such that there was no way I could tow it. We decided to fix it on the side of the road, but where to get an axle shaft at 10 pm? Well, a good friend of ours owned a VW parts business and had a small junkyard inside a fence behind his shop. We called him two or three times but he never answered, so, we decided to go get the shaft and then beg for forgiveness the next day. It wasn't easy. First we had to load up a large floor jack and the tools we knew we would need to remove the axle, including a large pipe wrench for the nut on the shaft that holds it in the swing arm. Getting us and the jack over the 6 foot fence nearly got us killed when the jack slipped from our hands and almost landed on me. Luckily we found a partially disassembled bus of the same vintage that gave up it's shaft in about 30 minutes. It was now nearly midnight and we still had to get to my brother's bus and fix it. Once we were back at the location of my brother's bus, we where able to quickly raise up the bus and dislodge the tire and wheel from the wheel house. Changing the stub shaft was surprisingly easy, given it was well past midnight and we were working by the light of a two cell flashlight. By about 1 am we had the bus fixed and we're heading home. The next morning we went to our friend's shop and told him the story. He was not amused that we broke into the junkyard, but we offered him $40 for the $20 part (back then) which he took and then forgave us, eventually. Fast forward about 35 years and my brother still owns that same bus and it still has the axle shaft that we stole that night.
Zerniaks in Brockport New York. In 1991 picked up a complete 1968 GTO hideaway headlight front bumper. Just plug in. $100. Guy walks in who worked there as I was paying said holy cow. A coworker tried to buy it and boss said no. Glad that guy was off that day. Squeezed in my 71 GTO for the long ride home to Long Island after visiting family and going to Empire State Nationals at New York International Raceway Park now Empire. Great week.
Rob Ross and I were in a junkyard in Flint, MI (there are many) in the mid 80's and we stumbled upon a GSX Steering wheel in a 4 dr skylark. I think we paid $10. I believe my dad sold it to Mike Garrison for $500.
