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I haven't hit the wrecking yard for a while, but Alameda-based reader Chris went last week and spotted two Malaise Special Jensen-Healeys and a fairly complete-looking Alfa Romeo GTV, right there among all the ho-hum Corollas and Excels in the import section. Whoa, does one of them have a small-block Chevy V8 under the hood? Make the jump for all the photos and Chris' description. galleryPost('DOTJJensens', 6, 'Jensen Healeys And Alfa GTV Sit In East Bay Wrecking Yard'); I live in Alameda, you've featured my roomate's car before - 1966 Coronet Vert ...... BTW, he sold it, had a strong 440 in it - getting a complete frame off soon by the new owner. Now he has a '74 Ghia Convertible, parked in the same place. Anyway, I have an eBay business on the side, sell vintage Euro parts (mostly overseas). A lot of BMW 1980's stuff, Volvo 240's, Mercedes, etc..... So I'm at the yards a lot. Came across some interesting Euro Trash........... two Jensens...
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Even though the black-bumper Midget was a cruel parody of the ridiculously fun pre-Malaise version, it's still saddening to see one among all the Hyundai Excels and Geo Prizms in my local self-service wrecking yard. This one has the dusty, bleached look of a car that spent a decade or three rotting in a back yard prior to its final ride behind a tow truck. Look at all those good parts! Doesn't anyone want Midget parts these days? galleryPost('Junk75Midget', 6, '1975 MG Midget Down On The Junkyard');
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Digging through one of my many ( too many) boxes of old car parts, in search of a coulda-sworn-I-had-one Ford V8 emblem for the race car , I dug up this greasy relic from my past. Back in the days when I didn't let lack of cash prevent me from keeping an alarmingly large stable of wretched hoopties, I'd frequently obtain a particularly decrepit heap with a fuel system completely gummed up with rusty varnishy ick, from tank filler pipe to carburetor. How do you get such a vehicle from the vacant lot or half-collapsed garage where you bought it to the last remaining street parking space in your neighborhood, without paying for a tow truck? What the cash-strapped hooptiephile must rig up at that point is the extremely safe Field Expedient Fuel System… That's right, we're talking about a gallon gas can zip-tied somewhere under the hood, with a junkyard electric fuel pump hooked directly to the battery (or, if you're doing a really sanitary job, off a jumper wire plugged...
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While Lincoln-Mercury dealers sold the European-made Ford Capri in North America, the cars themselves had no marque. Just to make things more confusing, Ford branded the later Fox Mustang-clone and Mazda 323-based Capris with Mercury emblems. Anyway, none of that matters for this car, which I spotted in an East Bay wrecking yard last weekend, because it has a date with the cold jaws that will get it ready for another spin of the steel-reincarnation wheel. galleryPost('DOTJ76Crapi', 3, '1976 Capri Down On The Junkyard');
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We like to see a sampling of junkyard wares from around the world, and Slantsick has added to our Rusty Iron Grand Tour by photographing some of the more interesting vehicles at C.I.A. Salvage of Limerick, Maine. Make the jump to see the whole gallery and read Slantsick's list of vehicles. galleryPost('DOTJSlantsickMaine', 3, 'Old Cars And Trucks Down On The Maine Junkyard'); Pics taken at C.I.A. Salvage, Limerick Maine- May 5, 2008. I'll leave it to you to wax poetic about the cars if you so choose and/or make jokes at rural Maine's expense, etc. 1) 1946-48 Dodge sedan 2) hood mascot of same 3) 1952 Kaiser Manhattan 4) same 5) 1955 Kaiser Manhattan 6) 1957 Ford firetruck, January 08 7) same, May 08 8) 1960s Falcon Clubwagon 9) 1964 Imperial Crown Coupe- one of 5233 10) tailpanel mascot of same 11) rear side view 12) 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II- 273 V8/auto, For Sale sign on windshield asking $2K 13) nose of same 14) rear 3/4 of same 15) 1967 Chevy Bel Air 16...
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With the optional VW/Audi four-cylinder (same engine as the one in the Porsche 924) under the hood and its snazzy faux-convertible landau roof, you'd think this '78 Concord would be worth keeping on the road. Apparently not, as I spotted this very solid-looking AMC being prepared for a stint on the stands at a local self-service wrecking yard. After that, it'll be Crusher time. galleryPost('DOTJ78Concord', 6, '1978 AMC Concord Down On The Junkyard');
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It was Half Price Day at the local self-service yard last weekend, and I had my eye on a Porsche 928 that had been there the week before, thinking I could buy that purty Porsche intake manifold to hang on my wall . Sadly, the 928 had already gone to The Crusher, so I decided I might as well check for other interesting stuff... and, sure enough, here was a super-rare '74 Datsun 610 wagon. The L20B is still there, and so is the factory 8-track player. Well, the 8-track was there, since I felt compelled to grab it. After buying all those 8-track tapes for the Junkyard Boogaloo Boombox , I need a backup deck! galleryPost('DOTJ74Dats610', 3, '1974 Datsun 610 Wagon Down On The Junkyard');
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You don't see any Honda 600s on the street these days, although they didn't sell too badly back in the early 70s . You see them at car shows , and that's about it. That leads me to wonder where this example I spotted at an East Bay self-service wrecking yard has been hiding all these years. It looks like the interior is packed with engine parts from several other Honda 600s (or maybe Honda motorcycles), so maybe this was a "last resort" parts car that was finally used up by a 600 freak and discarded like an empty sake bottle. Not many parts left, but a few bits and pieces might be worth salvaging. galleryPost('DOTJHonda600', 12, 'Honda 600 Down On The Junkyard');
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There was a time, maybe a decade ago, when Cadillac Eldorados with high-compression 500-cubic-inch engines were plentiful in self-service junkyards. These days, months can go by between sightings of non-Malaise 500s. As I learned when I helped a friend pull a 500 one sweltering, bloody-knuckled day, the Eldo's front-wheel-drive setup makes engine removal approximately 50 times harder than your typical Detroit rear-driver, but so what? Five hundred cubic inches! Power was a little down in '71, but this car's engine was still rated at 365 horses... and an 18-wheeler-esque 535 foot-pounds of torque. galleryPost('Junk71Eldo', 9, '1971 Cadillac Eldorado Down On The Junkyard');
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Many of you felt very strong emotions upon seeing the junked '64 Volvo Amazon and its eventual partial redemption at the hands of one of our readers. But how about the Volvos made between the Amazons but before the ubiquitous "brick" 200 series cars (yes, we know there was some production overlap)? I've owned a '69 144 and, well, wasn't exactly overwhelmed by love for the thing, but you rarely see the 100-series cars these days. Here's a reasonably intact '72 145 I spotted in a local self-service yard, just waiting to donate its parts to its still-rollin' brethren before its final date with The Crusher over at Schnitzer Steel. Do we care? galleryPost('JunkVolvo145', 6, '1972 Volvo 145 Down on the Junkyard');
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Imagine an alternate universe in which the SUV never annihilated the big Detroit station wagon, a universe in which Ford dealers stocked row upon row of gleaming new '08 Country Squire wagons. Would faux-woodgrain siding still be available? And how many cupholders could you fit in a Squire? Sadly, most of the original Squires have long since been crushed; here's one that managed 36 years before landing in an East Bay self-service wrecking yard. Still, it looks like it has yielded up some useful components, enabling other big Ford wagons (or at least LTDs) to live a while longer. galleryPost('Junked72CountrySquire', 6, '1972 Ford Country Squire Down On The Junkyard');
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While we don't see many French cars still on the North American streets, they do show up every so often at junkyards; we saw a '69 Renault 16 not long ago, and I stopped by the same junkyard last weekend and found this '76 Peugeot 504. The 504 is the only French car I've ever actually driven and worked on for any amount of time, and I recall thinking it was a very pleasant car to drive, when it ran... which was seldom. Most of my quality time with my Peugeot was spent staring at befuddlement at some broken mechanical device apparently designed in a parallel universe where every facet of automotive engineering diverged from our present course in about 1920. But it had factory 8-track, and you can't ask for more than that! Make the jump for Gallery #2. galleryPost('Junk76PeugeotTop', 6, '1976 Peugeot 504 Down On The Junkyard Part 1'); galleryPost('Junk76PeugeotJump', 14, '1976 Peugeot 504 Down On The Junkyard Part 2');
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With Maximum El Camino Day beginning to draw to a close, it makes sense to answer the uestion of where these beautiful beasts go to meet their final end. No matter how useful that car's truck bed might be, at some point an El Camino owner often decides that it's no longer worth fixing the ol' Chevy. Or perhaps- in fact, more likely- parking tickets pile up like Saskatchewan snowdrifts and even a plaintive note can't ward off the Tow Truck Man. Either way, many El Caminos end up as parts donors as they await their final journey to the cold steel jaws of The Crusher. In honor of Maximum El Camino Day, I stopped by an East Bay wrecking yard over the weekend and photographed these five examples: three 70s examples and two from the 80s (and, yes, I know the one with the shell is a GMC Sprint). Make the jump for many, many more photos. galleryPost('JunkedElCaminosTop', 9, 'El Caminos Down On The Junkyard Part 1'); galleryPost('JunkedElCaminosJump', 55,...
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