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How many of your personal cars ended up in junkyards?

2 that I know of, I had a 74 Satellite Sebring Plus, sold it to a guy in the Navy, he took it back to Florida and then wrecked it, hard! They said the motor came through the firewall, they said he ended up in the hospital in a coma for 3-4 weeks.
2nd one was a 72 Road Runner GTX, I wish I would have kept that one, I could have restored that one, still kills me that it went to salvage yard.
 
Unfortunately 1, in 1976 my 69 roadrunner was stolen stripped and dumped. Ended up in a wrecking yard.
 
None, personally.
Extended family has over the years. A few notable vehicles that passed the 250k miles mark from the 90's, a caravan and a Lumina.
Father in law got 380k miles on his 1990 grand Caravan. Drove it to the local yard in first gear because it wouldn't shift into second and he wasn;t going to put a third transmission in it, the engine was burning oil.
When I was younger, Dad scrapped the 63 Ford farm truck. Got an offer to buy it from an old guy who saw it from the road. No go, king pins were so bad Dad wouldn't drive it on the road anymore. Plus by that point not sure any of the body would have stayed attached going over 20mph in the wind. Ran good yet.
1980 Ford LTD. Grandpa bought new, sold to my Ma for a song when he got a 1983 Grand marquis. By 50k miles the Ford "302" was blowing blue smoke. Family outgrew it anyway and Dad picked up an 84 Caprice wagon(that was a nice car) so my brother got the LTD. Exhaust fell off. OD went out on the transmission, local mechanic swapped a C4 in. Rear brakes seized. Dad held the pedal to the floor and got it backed over in front of the machine shed and it sat. Brother got a different car. Couple years later I need a car(high school) tried to get the thing to start. Engine seized. This car had like 70k on it, no rust(in WI!) and was actually a fairly nice looking car, dark red metallic with a pin stripe, chrome stuff yet cause it was a 1980. It got junked, Dad had enough with it.
Knowing what I did at the time, oh well. Knowing what I did 3-4 years later? That car could have gotten a roller 351/c6 and any rear end out of any panther car and been a real ripper, sleeper. That was the only car in my life that I wish hadn't gone when it did.

Otherwise? this is WI. If it runs and drives someone has 1200-2000 bucks for it. I know enough from fixing my own stuff when it is sketchy and time to part ways. And there isn;t much reason to not wait until then, because this is WI. Anything older then 2005 is worth 2 grand. Grandma's cream puff 40k mile Olds 88? 2 grand. 1996 Grand Am with rotten rockers and blows blue smoke? Runs? 1500 bucks. It is like this because the working class in the midwest is poor, dealers laugh at you if your car is over 5 years old here, so people just keep stuff because no one can make them right on price out there anyway. So there is on the one hand, all the used cars everywhere, but none are for sale, and at the same time all the used cars for sale, but they are all mostly either sketchy beaters or the random cream puff you need to be on point and in the right place/time to snap up.
 
Just one, '64 dart vert, /6. Blow a hole out the face up side and I was shipping out in 4 days so had a junk yard guy come by and tow it. Didn't know a whole lot about cars then. This is how I got my 1st '70 Charger when I came back from patrol 3 months later.
 
'78 Wagoneer (T-Boned by a
drunk illegal), '66 Pintiac
Catalina (stolen & recovered-
stripped), '85 Mustang GT
convertable (stolen &
recovered-stripped and
burned), '12 Mustang GT
(flooded during a hurricane
in Houston) 857 miles on
the odometer..
(before the flood)
image005.jpg
 
Most of the cars I drove for the first 20 years from mid 1980's all came from the junk yard Most of them were 1 or 2 years old that had been written off and we cut and pulled and welded new parts back on Then all the new rules and regulations came out and put a stop to that :( My very first car I had I kind of rolled over into the ditch on some black ice one night coming home about a mile from our driveway It did return to the wrecking yard :)
 
Just last May I drove our old 94 Suburban spare car to the U Pull U Pay and got $625 for it. It was rusty, moldy, seat belts wouldnt retract etc. Didnt want the liability of selling it to someone. Plus after 10 years of using it sparingly, I was tired of looking at it.
 
I junked a ‘68 New Yorker and a ‘68 Imperial, both 4 door hardtops in the late 80’s. I pulled the 440’s and 727’s as well as the 942 sure grip out of the Imp. Both were in good condition but wouldn’t pass the Pa. state inspection without work. You couldn’t even get $100 for them without valid inspection stickers. And they had too many doors.
 
I dont remember ever sending one of my old winter driving beaters to the junkyard in buffalo, normally they would end up at the bottom of Lake Erie when they got to where the ice broke.
64 pontiac grand prix, 64 falcon, 66 chevy wagon, 70 impala 4 door.........

The trick was getting it onto the ice from the shore at Woodlawn beach. No I wouldn't even think of doing this today.
 
a couple.

1969 Roadrunner 383 auto, sent it to a junk yard in Nashville Tenn back in later 70s when I bought the green one that followed

All the following are still in the yard I sent them to , But all are beyond repair now with rust
1969 Roadrunner 383 4spd , It was getting rough and ragged around the edges. I parked it in the early 80s and it slowly migrated to the back 40 for junk and got parted out .
1971 Duster 225 auto. locked up the engine and said no more
1970 Coronet 500 vert 383 auto. overheated it and that was the end of it.
1975 Duster 225, auto. This one was a rust free driver I sold it to a friend of mine and his girl friend wrecked. He drove it for a few years after but eventually parted it out for junk. THAT one was a shame. bright red , white half top and white bucket seat int, slant six with working A/C
 
5 originally, but I got 2 back (so 3)
long story short
my mom told stepdad Bob to thin the herd, they wrongfully took my cars
& quite a few of his too, he was pissed
mine #1 a 69 RR 383 4 speed & #2 a 69 Charger R/T 440 4 speed dana 60
with both cars trunks, full of race-parts too,
I got them back mostly, I was Pissed to say the least...
They didn't have the titles, I did !!
& I threatened to get the Police & Hwy Patrol involved
to do an audit of cars they had there, they brought them back, post haste
no more questions or arguments...

#3 a 76 PowerWagon, I just finished building 'sort of',
new front end & locking hubs, lift & springs, wheels & tires, 2 tone paint
like 1984-ish (?)
(the only one that drove off from the wreck)
that got sandwiched between 2) MMM Carpet 1-ton vans, full of carpet
on the 680 frwy, between Concord & Lafayette
they didn't see traffic stopped, they were racing each other to a job site
playing grab ***, swapping lanes, they couldn't stop, didn't see traffic stopped
until too late... crunched me in between them,
It was way too extensive of damage, I took parts that could be salvaged off it,
rest I sold/hauled away for scrap, got a measly $12k from the insurance company
all parties involved, all had State Farm insurance, go figure

#4 a Pinto 73 (?IIRC) bought for $50 we used as a beater
on a dirt track on the property, not much of it was worth anything after we jumped it

#5 a 51 Ford Tudor chassis & floor-pan,
I got the whole car out of the Sonoma area off a rice farm
it was buried up to the frame, got it on a rollback & cut the floor out of it
lifted the body off, I kept the main body, put a 49 hood & grill bumpers on it,
to meet the Nostalgia racing rules of 49 & earlier
to make a Pro-Gas 8.50 racecar
I had the org. crap
engine, front/rear suspension/steering, trans, rear end & floor-pan
hauled away
 
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-1969 Torino GT 390 auto fastback. I was DUMB for junking that car! Locked up the 9" rear (never checked the fluid!). It was a nice one.
-1966 Satellite hardtop, 383 car with auto. Junked it because I broke the crap out of the RR spring during an "unauthorized speed trial", and didn't have $$$ for a new spring set.
 
My first car....
'73 Charger, 318, 2bbl, auto.
Taken from me by a drunk driver while my girlfriend was driving. T-boned in the passenger door by a late 60's Caddy at appx 50 mph (multiple witness reported). Deep "v-notch" in the right side 3/4 ways to the drivers door sheared all kinds of things. Tail of tyranny, drive shaft, leafs and rear end all dragging on the street.
Lucky she was alone that day and not the passenger as was usually the case or she probably would have been toast.
 
This is a sad topic for me I’ve posted about a few times, but will do a repeat version since it has application. Sold my cherry ’67 GTO all-optioned vert to a dipshit in town. I would see it in town and every time I laid eyes on it had more damage; caved in fender, rear, later the front, busted windshield. One time saw it parked at a shopping mall and decided to take a closer look. Damn it was pathetic, inside was a garbage can, his girlfriend was sitting in it with her feet up on the dash. The POS walked back to the car and I just had to say “WTF have you done to my car, you could eat off the gas pedal when I sold it to you?” He replied “Ain’t your car anymore.” Replied had I known what you’d do to it, never would a sold it to the likes of you.

Not long after, spotted it at a dealer’s junk lot I’d drive by on occasion to see what they had sitting there. Yep, it was in much worse shape, sitting there with the windows open, top partially up-ripped up, hood up (well the hood wouldn’t close being bent ta chit. Went to the dealer to ask what they would sell it for. Lol, 750 bucks! Sold it in pristine shape for a grand! Swore I’d never sell a car I cherished to anyone within 100 miles so I’d never have to see it again.
 
My 1970 Chrysler Newport went to Pick A Part in the early 90's. It was even a running driving car!
 
Back when I was racing my 66 Barracuda, I bought a 1971 Duster 340 4 speed for parts. Back then they were just old cars. I grabbed the 340 and the 8 3/4, and I was going to junk the body. A neighbour kid bought it and put a 318 and 4 speed in it and kept it on the road.

66 racecar.jpg
 
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