Its amazing what people throw away at the local pic a part.

[chargerbr549]

I thought I would list some of the vehicles I have run across at the local pic a part just in the last couple of years, it amazes me what i see out there sometimes. I am sure there are title issues and other reasons but a lot of these vehicles were restorable or even usable with little work being done to them. Most of these are basically rust free.

79 Chrysler 300 complete
77 Plymouth Trailduster 360 basically complete
96 Impala SS
58 T Bird
63 T Bird
73 Buick Convertible 455 Red with White top.

I don't know a whole lot about european cars but there has been some mid 80's Jaguars plus some other smaller convertibles that I couldn't tell you exactly what they were.

There are others but that's all I can remember at the moment.

[ws23rt]

I know what you mean. When I go through them I feel the same way. I just shake my head and think of it as a perspective that most don't think about.
I'm sure that if we worked in the business it would look somewhat different.
In my work (industrial construction) I have learned to not look in dumpsters at large sites. Too often I will bring stuff home that I may use later but have stopped doing that. When you see something cool or looks perfectly fine and has value the temptation is to grab the opportunity. But if one were to turn around and see a thousand ton pile of the same things it changes the perspective.
This is how I think of large used car lots with hundreds of used cars that all may very well run fine. I wonder how many will live out a life of service?
I can also understand how a car manufacture may want to recycle a large bunch of their new cars because of a problem that would cost too much manpower to recover all the good parts before the melt down.

[69bronzeT5]

Some stuff I've found at the local Pick A Parts over the years.......

[fy469rtse]

oh my god , you found al bundy's duster,
and i wonder if the staff at mopar action know thats where the green brick is 

[Mike DC]

                                               
I saw a '69 Charger arrive at a local yard in about 1998.  

It got picked clean FAST.  Nuts, bolts, clips, welded-on stuff  . . .  everything.  It was unrecognizable inside of a week.

[Shakey]

Near Roswell, NM a number of years ago was a '69 R/T SE that was hit lightly in the front end.  A new rad support and some sheet metal would have had it back on the road in no time.  This thing was solid as the day it rolled off the line with not a spec of rust anywhere and straight as an arrow other than the damage noted above.

The fella at the yard told me it arrived about 6 weeks prior to me seeing it and when I saw it all that was left was the shell.  I did manage to get some inner fender sheet metal splash shields and some other nuts and bolts.

Sorry no pics that trip.

[Shakey]

Take a look at the links in this thread if you want to see some decent cars at salvage yards.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,114529.0.html

[wingcar]

One man's junk and is anothers treasure........

(I try not to walk around that many junk yards as my dreams far exceed my skills to bring these cars back to life...)

[squeakfinder]

   

   At least there at a place for people to make use of them. Not rotting in someones backyard.

[Charger454]

More importantly than the gold Duster, why did somebody throw away that '97 Avenger?

[Patronus]

Hey! I need that rear bumper!!

[69bronzeT5]

Hey! I need that rear bumper!!

The car was crushed a few years back I bought the headliner, door handles and tail lights off it. When I saw it last it looked like this....

[ACUDANUT]

Sorry, but IHO a duster is a turd and shall return to dust.

[Mike DC]

   
Pretty much any RWD car with chrome bumpers is on my "save" list these days. 

[Kern Dog]

Sorry, but IHO a duster is a turd and shall return to dust.

They sure sold better than any Cuda ever built.

[6spd68]

Sorry, but IHO a duster is a turd and shall return to dust.

They sure sold better than any Cuda ever built.

And the Cavalier sold better then the Camaro, point being?

More importantly than the gold Duster, why did somebody throw away that '97 Avenger?

Screw that! Gimme the K-Car coupe!!!  lol 

[HPP]

One man's junk and is anothers treasure........

Very true. The stories on how these cars end up there are as varied as the people who drove them.

They could be abandoned, sold cheap in a divorce, traded for drugs, stolen or involved in some other crime, or just viewed as an old car with no value because the engine/trans/rear end was bad and Grandma Gertie couldn't see spending $3000 to rebuild a car that she only paid $1800 in 1978. They may have been traded at a dealer who took them to auction to be sold only to be snagged by a yard instead of another dealer. I'd imagine most dealers tend to want newer cars or fully restored old cars.

[wingcar]

Back in my Hi-school days I gave my 1969 RT/SE Charger to my parents as I had a new toy, a 1970 Challenger RT/SE.  (Both were loaded cars in excellent condition that I would love to have back today...)  My father wanted to replace the headers on the Charger's 440 with stock manifolds and so went to a local junk yard....what he came back with was a set of early super stock manifolds, which of course wouldn't fit the newer B-body.  I tried to talk him into keeping them as I had an idea they would be worth something in the future, but he traded them back in for a set of newer manifolds.  A week later I saw them sitting in the back of a Road Runner that was to be "recycled" the next week.  This same yard had numerous Road Runners, including a 69 440 6-pak in addition to other Mopars.....and it wasn't a Mopar yard.  But, then back in the late 70's they were just old cars with little worth...that would all change within ten years!

[ACUDANUT]

Sorry, but IHO a duster is a turd and shall return to dust.

They sure sold better than any Cuda ever built.

Only because they were cheap "no thrill "car.

[69bronzeT5]

Sorry, but IHO a duster is a turd and shall return to dust.

[Kern Dog]

What does IHO mean anyway?

Yeah, the Duster didn't have the street cred of the Cuda but I would take any Duster over almost any Cuda EXCEPT for the AAR model. I also will clearly admit that while I am a big fan of the A body platform, I never cared for the first generation cars...For me they became cool in 1967.
Car guys that piss on cars they don't like, especially ones within their car family are not cool. I don't like Aspens or Volares but I wouldn't insult a person that does like them.

[HPP]

I've most commonly seen it used as "In Honor Of".  Occasionally as "In His Opinion" which would be an awkward third party reference to yourself as used by acudanut . Maybe "In my Honest Opinion" while neglecting to include the "My".

[ACUDANUT]

IMHO. Dusters are granny's car. Ugly and slow.

[HPP]

True, that's why they morphed into the most sophisticated cars in Pro Stock in the 70s. NHRA was trying to attract the granny demographic.