I was thinking of old uncommon cars in the junk yard many years back and recall a 70 Cutlass Supreme 4 speed car, I think it was the only one I had ever seen. Thinking a 4 speed Supreme is much rarer than a 4 speed S or F85 ? Thoughts

 

Other non-Olds rarities I recall was a 400 4 speed 73 Grand Am , a 65 Catalina Safari wagon with a 389 factory Hurst floor shifted 3 speed stick and Safe-T-Track rear

 

Definitely very rare. Although any 4 speed I see in a non performance model I assume was originally a 3 speed swapped for a muncie. Late 80's when I lived in Flint I was in a junk yard looking for a non smog iron 4 barrel 455 intake. Found one on a wagon on the top of a 4 car stack. Looking down I noticed a bright blue Cutlass under three other cars the next row over that had red inner fenders.... yep, W30. Wrecked, completely stripped and horrendously rusted slowly sinking into the Michigan mud...

 

Oh man that hurts seeing a dead W30. Yeah this Supreme was in an engine fire or something but I also don't consider Supremes to really have base 3 speed type equipment being a higher level model but could be versus a F85. Anotehr rare one was a red non-SS 71 Malibu convertible bench seat 4 speed 400 badged car (402 BB) , I bought the 3.31 posi 12 bolt out of it

 

For me I passed on a 67 Vista Cruiser's plastic front wells. Grabbed an exhaust manifold off a 65 Jetstar I, scored trim and a front clip off a 66 Sfire and grabbed emblems off a 64 Cutlass badged as a 442. In NJ these days are long gone for finding this stuff in the scrapyard. Cant say I ever saw a W30 or even a 442 sitting in a junkyard here.

 

Back in the mid-70s, I pulled the 3.42 anti-spin rear out of a 1970 W-31 in a wrecking yard in Worcester, MA. Being an impoverished college student, I couldn't afford the engine. Of course, it wasn't a BBO, so I wasn't that interested anyway...

 

I wish I'd paid more attention in the junkyards of the 80's and 90's, but back then I was mostly crawling over old VW relics. Unfortunately progress here has eliminated all but the most private collections of classic "junk".

Oh to know then what I know now...

 

back in the early 80's me and some buddies were going thru a yard for some chevelle parts.saw a 70 4 dr impala with 454 emblems so opened the hood.and there sat an olds big block of some sort with a complete 3x2 set up.thought damn that might be worth some bucks so went back a couple weeks later and it was gone.

 

I grew up in NJ and there were actually quite a few good junkyards. I remember going to Cozzes junkyard in early 80s with my brother and a neighbor friend near Clinton NJ (recently closed). My father was building a 40 Chevy streetrod and was getting SBC engine, tranny, steering column, etc from newer GM cars. I remember tons of mid 70s trans ams with birds and 400 engines, Camaros and mopar, ford etc. and a few mid year vettes (my dad is also a vette guy). Lots of regular cars but also some muscle cars. Most with just normal accident damage that were very restorable by today's standards. A few chevelle SSs and 70-72 cutlass convertibles, a 65 442 hardtop hit hard. However, the one I remember like it was yesterday, was a 70 442 W-30 convertible. Auto, White, black interior and stripes. Hit a tree or telephone pole hard, head on but would be very restorable with a new nose. Someone had taken the steering wheel and bucket seats, but was mostly complete with its engine and shattered OIA hood. Fender W-30 emblems and Still had SS1 wheels. Red Inner fenders were cracked pretty bad and not sure if it had gauges, but console was there and had power windows and locks. Was not a rust bucket, probably like many of those cars, bought as a 10 year old used car by a high schooler and trashed and totaled. Came back a year later and it was gone, crushed. They moved inventory in and out quickly. I wonder if the engine, rear bumper, etc. were salvaged. I wonder how many of these cars got crushed over the years with rare options or parts still intact.

Also went to many other good junkyards like Hazleton PA, Washington NJ.

Unfortunately, these days of old car junkyards are long gone.

 

I kept the cowl tag. Can't believe I found it.

ST71 34487LAN313789 BDY
TR 933 26 26 PNT
02D

I believe it says 71 442 viking blue blue bucket seats 4th week of February 71

 

1964 442 found in small junkyard out in the country. I was able to buy it.
1970 GTO Judge in a junkyard in TN. Seen it for sale the following spring at the BOP show in Atlanta.
The best find though was 2 girls laying out in the sun in a junkyard!!!

Although not rare I did find my first Olds; a 1975 Supreme in a junkyard. Someone had wrecked it hard in the front end. My buddy and I found his first car in the junkyard as well. A 1977 TransAm. Sort of odd walking along in a junyard and look up and there is your old car there smashed. Brings back a lot of memories.

Don W

 

heres a rare one..

70 Rebel Machine..Y code VIN and all...390 4spd 3.54 posi...found it in a junkyard in southern indiana
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One time I found a 66 Vista that had a police certified speedometer. I bought the windshield for a 67 Vista. Naturally when I went back for the speedo, it had been crushed.

 

Was the yard in Washington N.J called Koba's????

 

I have a lot of memories from walking junk yards. Nothing specific but, wish they were still around in a nostalgic kind of way. Its not the same today.

We had lots of wrecking yards around our area. As you know, most have gone away.

Its the sheer amount of iron that used to be there, everything under the sun. Every brand and most any model, covering acres of land. Thats what gets me. These places were loaded with old clunkers even heavy equipment.

A notable mention to a little place in northern Arkansas that had nothing but 50's Cadillacs. That was a step back in time for 1987.

Wish I had pics.

 

Wow. How long ago was that?

 

I remember a time here northeast Ohio you would do the Saturday circuit on going to local junk yards to find parts to keep the $500 beater going. I learn the differences in engine recognition from my brother and friends. I miss the the simpler of just hanging out talking about cars and girls. I remember a lot of big blocks just laying around ,that now people are paying big money for.Most of the cars in OHIO got their annual salt bath every winter , bodies where gone but engine and transmission still had a lot of life in them.

 

Yes, Kober's or Kobars (sp?) in Washington, NJ. Tons of stuff, my cousin who still lives down there said it closed due to environmental regs and they crushed everything. A lot of A bodies and even cool stuff like a Caprice (68, 69,70 era maybe) with buckets and console and hideaway headlights. Dodge chargers, everything you can think of.

 

I think it was around '82, My future 1st ex-wife & I went to West Virginia for a weekend to visit her aunt & uncle. We went out for a drive & found a small junkyard in the middle of nowhere. She liked cars so we found the owner & he let us in so we could walk around. Off in the distance I saw what was a '69 442 or cutlass convert. I was just an empty shell, it was smashed in the back corner,the other good quarter was torched off. As I got closer I could see red showing through black paint on both frt wheel wells! The owner wanted the pricey sum of $25 for the pair! I couldn't get back to her uncle's house fast enough to get some tools!

 

I was 17 and bought my 2nd car out of a small TX town junk yard. Traded
an old 57 Ford 2 ton box truck chassis for it straight across and the 'ol boy
even got a title for me. Had been sitting in the back lot for some time but only
was missing the carb and had a smashed passenger side fender. 66 442 cpe. with air, buckets, console and sidewinder tach....Those were the days.

 

If only I had had $200 back in 1985 or so when I saw my first Rallye 350 in Black Land Wrecking by Dad's house. It was already stripped of the 350/TH350, Hood, Wing , Buckets , console etc but was otherwise straight and intact with 3.23 Anti-Spin, the yellow wheels etc.. They were willing to sell it that day. That's when I went to learn further about this special model and and went and bought the book Muscle Car Mania with all the old car ads in it. That Rallye had Delco Air shocks out back and light duty trailer hitch as well as one of the inner fenders up front was black painted over Red oddly...

 

2 yrs. later I found a low mile 70 W-30 dual gate a/c car
for $1895 on a used car lot in Amarillo!
It might as well had been priced at $18950 for me then.
That didn't stop me or my buds from test driving it a few times though.

 

Since we've just jumped from "junkyard cars" to "the one that got away"...

Freshman year in college (that would have been 1976), I had a chance to buy a real 1969 Boss 429 Mustang for $1500. Spun bearing but the engine ran. As above, it might as well have been $150,000... (and today, it WOULD be ).

 

Yep, That was one. I remember another. It was a 68 GT CA special that
had been parked in the weeds for a few yrs. I thought I had time to get
a few thou together at least, then go back...It was gone a month later.

 

Dang Joe, a Boss 429 WOW ! , there was a Rebel Machine at a junkyard I bought parts at in Quinlin TX years back in the early 90's , wasn't a desirable car then or now IMO but rare yes. A cousins husband had a old dirty white 69-70 Shelby GT350 in the garage 15 or 20 years ago I thought it was kinda funny looking but knew it was fairly valuable. Not sure what he got for it.

 

maybe 8 or 9 years ago..the place was full of big Pontiacs and AMCs and a **** load of 66-67 Sprint lemans and tempests..

i used to tell people about places i went all the time..but now days, pretty quiet about where ive been...too much crazy stuff goes on..like what i write below...

i told a guy about the Machine and almost instantly it was gone...and some dousche in Ohio is driving around a tagged Machine..i cant remember his name..but i know what he did and who helped him

also on top of a tractor trailer box was a K code 66 fastback mustang

also a 68 Coronet R/T convert....it got pulled and probably re-tagged too..almost sure of it..

was a bunch of 61 bubble top big GMs including Olds and Buicks..

I dont even know if the old man is still alive but heres the info..and ive been gone so long from there..i'm never going back..and he was old and his kids where trying to take the place away and crush it out..i dont know any more..

Twin Cedars auto salvage..Corydon Indiana..

be prepared...its redneck owned..and all the old man wants is someone to take a little time and talk to him..then you get free run..ya come in hot and pushy..he will run you out with a double barrel...no exaggeration...none

 

Cutlass SX which donated console and dual gate to me

Pontiac with the OHC straight six 4-bbl motor

Yard near Woodland CA, c.1987

Also found a 68 442 engine there, it a 70's Big Car.. C heads and carb number guided me to buy it with my last dollar and no way to haul it

Still have it.

 

Any members out there from the western NY area remember a junkyard near Lockport that had lots of musclecars back in the '70s?? I mentioned this yard in another post a while back. The yard was a gear-heads dream. The owner ran a regular salvage business but he loved high performance cars. All the cars were organized by brand. He had a lot of vettes also. Some were for sale as running vehicles,others, too far gone, were parted out. I saw my first '69 W32 there! My buddy at the time needed an engine for his '69 442. The guy had a complete(less carb)'70 W30 stick motor for $450!! We were still in school & my buddy was washing dishes at the local country club in Lewiston at the time so $450 might as well have been $4500! He ended up buying a nice 330 4bbl out of a '67 Cutlass for $50!!

 

Autotrader ad from 1983. Someone got a great price on a used car, but not me. I could barely afford the bike he was selling in the ad.

 

In 1986 I bought a 69 442 from a junk yard for $150 with a froze and cracked engine block, bucket seat AC cat, same week I bought a 69 442 4 speed car from a storage unit for $50. heads were missing everything else was in the car, Put them both in a BIG BAG and shook it real hard, came out with a 4 speed AC with anti spin that I drove for 10 years.

Johnny

 

In Edinburg Indiana about 30 years ago or so I remember seeing an SX or two & in another yard we saw the remains of a W30. Hood was all smashed up & it was mostly stripped but I'm sure there were good parts left, if I only knew... Seems like back in the late 80's & early 90s there were at least 3-4 Cutlasses in every junkyard.

We were in a junkyard out west (Arizona? Oklahoma?) in the mid 90s, don't remember exactly where but the yard had many, like a few dozen or so, ex dirt track like race cars, most of them had flat head v8s & lots of vintage speed equipment on them. We were ignorant of those cars but thought it was way cool none the less.

 

The golden age of cheap cars was in the mid to late 1970's.

Here is a sample of cars that came my way:

1. 1968 Shelby GT500 fastback. All black, one owner, 48k miles for $4,800

2. 1970 Hemi Cuda, red with black top and interior, with shaker, totally disassembled for $4,500

3. 1965 Cobra, 289 with webers, under 10k miles, for $7,000

I could list about 100 more. Once the oil embargo hit in 1974, the prices of these cars dropped like a rock. You could buy musclecars all day long for 1500-5000.