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- - Ever go to junkyards just to wander? (http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55587)

Two near legendary salvage yards here were Hudson's (near Harrah) and Wilson's (near Lexington). In the 1980s and 1990s we used to meander through those places just for the history lesson. Sadly, they are long gone now.

Whoa! An X1/9 ! And not completely rusted away!

Had one in the late 70's. They were so prone to rust that Road and Track or Car and Driver mentioned that the carpet was a "structural component" in their review. LOL

I used to love roaming the junk yards when I was younger back on Long Island (Long Island Ave in Deer Park). For liability reasons a lot of junk yards won't allow you to do that these days. There's nothing quite like climbing into a car to remove a part and being attacked by a swarm of wasps! Hey, it builds character! :)

Maybe I'm just nuts but junk yards make me kinda sad. Each old car rusting away and torn up was new and shiny once and had sort of a "life of it's own"..... if they could talk some of their stories would be pretty interesting.... but now they're just rusting, abandoned, and sad.

Useful for parts yep, sure....but still kinda sad.

Junkyards are like time capsules, lots of interesting stuff.

When I was a kid, my friend and I decided to build a go-cart so we rode 10 miles on our bikes to the dump and found a bunch of aircraft tail-wheels, seats, lawnmower engine and stuff.

We had to stash our stuff aside as it took about 4 trips over the course of 2 weeks (woa...80 miles) to get all the stuff home, and we crashed in the ditch a few times on the way as we didn't have a good way of securing all the stuff on the bicycles so we carried, tied, dragged stuff the 10 miles home.

That's the era when kids had great unsupervised adventures and you didn't need to be watched over every second as a preteen.

That X 1/9 brings back memories. I owned a '78 from almost new to 1985. Great little mid engine slot car that lacked HP but made up for it in amazing handling . Easy to work on and fun to drive. I love my Boxster but I wish I had never sold that little Fiat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retroman1969 (Post 434026)

Retroman, just curious how an Okie knows about Red Green, a Canadian icon?

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulofto (Post 446641)

Retroman, just curious how an Okie knows about Red Green, a Canadian icon?

I am from the South, Red Green used to come on our PBS (Public Broadcast Station).

Yeah, every time I walk out in my garage... [rim shot]

Seriously though, around here most "dismantlers" are closed yards.

Back in the 90's when I was still a proud (and broke) VW owner there was a place called Bry's in West Seattle. You would talk to Bry, who looked like Burt Rutan complete with side burns, and he would suggest a car you could find the parts on. You could even borrow his tools to remove the item.

Once you had it off you would pay him. He made change out of his wallet and no paperwork was involved. Times were good.

The last time I was there it was a closed yard, as are most yards around here now. They pay people minimum wage to take all the parts worth a crap off the vehicle, label them, price them and store them inside.

It's a better business model because you don't loose all the "extra" parts that people shove in their pockets doing it old school, and you don't need to worry about some guy gutting himself like a fish on a rusty fender. The parts are also inside where they last longer and the transaction is much quicker.

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That Lancia Beta Coupe is a cool one (one of my favorite cars from my youth). There was one just down the street that someone had in their driveway. One day it had a for sale sign on it. It hadn't run in years and the guy pretended to know nothing about it. I considered it briefly as a chump car candidate. Happily someone else bought it before I fell victim to my urge to have it.

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I occasionally stumble across the Discovery show "Fast and Loud". I'm STUNNED when I see people willing to pay $3-5K for a completely rusted out hulk of a car with virtually no redeemable parts. That Datsun roadster would be considered a prime candidate for restoration in comparison to what some people start with.

Ghost towns, graveyards and car scrapyards all have that nostalgic allure. They are quiet, withdrawn and bring up feelings of wonderment and conjecture as to the miriad of histories that are attached to each relic! Gotta love it!