Scrapyard Memories

[mercrocker]

Amazing place back in the day, though, Adversane.

[Hooli]

Yeah it was a huge old yard.

I once pulled a XR3i off the top of a three car stack there when trying to undo the strut top. I'm glad it tipped to lean on the stack the otherside, not the one I was hanging in.

[DodgeRover]

Bridges yard is big at Crawley but they aren't letting people in anymore. Parts prices can be mental as well

[Hooli]

I got a complete Orion injection exhaust system with manifold from there for £25. Looked odd taking it home in my Midget as I wasn't trying to split the joints.

Put it on a carbed onion with a XR3 carb n it was as quick as injection onions.

[LynehamHerc]

My Ghia Injection would just spin the wheels even on a completely dry road, the suspension was far too soft for the power.

[slowanimals]

I think I know where those scrapyard pics are and it won't be a quick job - up in the attic.

Anyway, here are some that I've taken since then of other yards....

Can't remember the name of this one, only that it was in Corfe Mullen, Dorset. Bloke who owned it had a decrepit W123 in that dog-dick pink they did. Fantastic Dosset accent and he regaled me with tales of the ones that got away, such as a Red Label Bentley (proper 3 Litre not the cruise ship celebrity ones). This was taken about 1999....

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Canada now, Hearse Corner at Dom's Auto Parts near Toronto. 1983.

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British Car Row (you'd think it be a lot fuller than this shot conveys!) Rare early Devon there with the small headlamps - 7 inch were required in USA but not Canada....

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Also Canada, this is a yard whose name I forget but it was in the township of Brooklin (where the expensive diecasts were named for) Ontario.
L-R - '39 DeSoto, '47 Mercury, 46 Ford. Again, this was on a 1983 visit.



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Garfields, Bishops Waltham, Hants c.1985. Got some bits off this Zephyr 6 for mine - it was the same colour but had a different interior and in the event nothing colour-specific was any use so I just bought a load of small bits of chrome and some bracketry....



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France - Casse-Auto Crouzilles near Poitiers around 1998ish. In some parallel universe a French AS colony is going apeshit...
I was in here looking for a radiator for my Mk3 Granada before it became blindingly obvious that it had actually shit the cylinder head as well.


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Last one is back in Blighty, again I forget the name of it but there was a cluster of yards in Sipson, West Drayton that had Yank gear in them.
I'd been in here a week or so before looking for a new front end for my '79 Pontiac after I biffed a Cortina with it (looking at a bird's legs when the lights went red....). He said he couldn't help me but on the way out I saw a bit of familiar trellis-work poking out of a skip and there it was - the whole front grille and headlamp assemblies with just a couple of cracks! Anyway, I spotted this '57 Imperial looking rather complete so three of us went back up for a look and possible purchase but none of us went through with it....That's my late mate Chris on the right whose Chrysler I now own. And, no, I'm not the one in the fucking hat - I took the picture. Sometime around 1993/4 I reckon.


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I went to the yard in your first picture in 2003,I think it was called Langfords but possibly my memory is at fault. Didn't take any photos for some reason but there was a Mark 2 Consul which had sat atop a P4 for so long it had snapped in the middle and sort of sagged at each end over the poor Rover. Another yard we visited around the same time was Tytes or Tates (can't recall which) a few miles away. Got some good photos there, will try and find them later when I get home.
Regarding the '57 Imperial in your last photo, someone raced one at the first Civil War to be held at Arena Essex (2005 or so), I wonder whether it was the same one. Definitely got a picture of that sitting in the pits before its heat, another to try and find later on.

[mercrocker]

Yeah, there was another yard nearby but if I recall he was a bit of a wurzel and didn't really want us in there....I wouldn't be surprised if the Imperial got raced, it looked good but had already had something dropped on the front n/s wing which was full of plod and red oxide.

[Hooli]

My Ghia Injection would just spin the wheels even on a completely dry road, the suspension was far too soft for the power.

Aye the 1600E alloys and XR3 suspension helped there.

[59Impala]

Ah scrapyards, they used to be so good to wander around back in the 70's. Sadly back then I didn't have a decent camera (and film plus developing was expensive) so no photos. There used to be two yards on the A20 in between Sidcup and Swanley, the first was ZB's which had a pre-war Wolseley Hornet atop a pole (the Hornet was always mistaken for an Austin Seven), they might be still in business. Just a bit further along was another yard that I recall having two of those 50's BMW V8 saloons sitting at the front by the fence. There was another yard near there tucked away down a country lane that I visited in 1976 looking for twin headlight buckets that I could adapt to replace the ones on my 1959 Impala that had rotted away. Loads of stuff but to my surprise they had a very complete 1960 Impala 2-door hardtop which looked in decent shape apart from the Farina Oxford that they had plonked onto its roof. I remember that a guy there told me that the chassis of the Impala was broken which was weird as it didn't have any significant damage.

I do have photos from yards in the USA but I don't know where they are, now if only digital cameras had been a thing in the olden days.

[slowanimals]

Yeah, there was another yard nearby but if I recall he was a bit of a wurzel and didn't really want us in there....I wouldn't be surprised if the Imperial got raced, it looked good but had already had something dropped on the front n/s wing which was full of plod and red oxide.

The chap who came out of a ramshackle bungalow at Tytes /Tates was perfectly friendly, when he learned we liked the older tin he went back in and got his dad, who must have been in his eighties if he was a day. Delightful old boy who was quite happy to show us round and didn't seem to mind at all if we took pictures. You've seen the pictures before since I posted them on the beige about four years ago but when I find them (not long home from work and cba before dinner) I'll whack them up here.