I do sort of miss the good old days when you could go to the wrecking yards
& score some good stuff or a complete car, that wasn't a total POS
died about 1985-87, they all started crushing everything
these cars weren't worth **** to them, not back then (weren't valuable)
or considered collectors just old gas guzzlers
lil' chump-change here & there for picking parts
when I worked at Union Ice Delivery, in Concord Ca.
there was a place right around the corner, I'd browse at lunch time
buy a crapload of GM stuff, or 4x4 or Jeep stuff
rarely any MoPar stuff ever, in any of the ones that were local
if they were, the owners or his sons, gobbled it up or hoarded it all away
there was a Wrecker in Martinez that had a few MoPars every so often
always picked to death, nothing left...
(Most pickers were cheapskates like me, going to pick them too)
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a lil story I've might have told already here
My mom had 5 of my cars hauled away to that place in Martinez
3 68-69 Charger R/Ts, 1 68 RR & 1 69 RR, all would be killer build cars today
the 1 68 Charger R/T had a full trunk with all my engine build parts
1 68 RR had a trunk full of 727 parts, most were for my 2 builds
(my **** got caught in the cross fire, in abeef between mom & Bob)
she got pissed because my step-dad Bob had a bunch of stuff
several boats, dismantled parts trucks, Cushman, & a few old crap/junk bikes
cars, with no engines or trans some just sitting on the ground
no tires, rims, suspension or rears etc. (hulls)
Was a 68 Firebird fully caged, tinned tubbed (1 left of 5, of Bob's old racecars)
I'd like to have now...
**** he tore apart, left where it layed, strung out on our property 15 acres...
'for years'
All mine was all neat & tucked away & covered not unsightly,
she just had it (or they took it) mistakenly, all hauled off...
I was pissed, my step-dad called & told me
my Mom knew it was a mistake to take mine,
to her credit, she called them & I got 'most my stuff back',
it was a mistake that, 'they even took it'...
They didn't have the titles either, I was away at school...
I had stored it away, safely or neatly, as to not get my Mom mad...
The wreckers rummaged thru them, broke the trunk locks
& sold or stole a few parts out of the trunks...
You can imagine 'I was Pissed'
I had them pay me dearly for them,
I knew exactly what I had
Much of it was new stuff Hot-rod parts, race parts,
Crower Injectors, Enderle Hats, Hilborn pumps & bypasses
boxes of forged Venolia pistons & Alum. Childs & Albert rods, bearings, rings,
various cfm's of Holley carbs/2300 2bbls, STR intakes, Edel. intakes,
Mallory dist.s, headers, converters, good gear sets, 727A trans cases
& 2 complete Clutchflights, cans, clutches & all...
They had no right to the cars or the parts, to begin with...
Wreckers were mostly shady m-fers back then too...
I had the county DA on their ***, they didn't want to give all mine back...
They had to make restitution, "at retail prices"
The DA threatened them;
he'd do an inventory of all the **** on their property
& make them show titles for all of it, they relented pretty quickly...
Post haste...
I suspect "it all" wasn't kosher...
My mom wasn't letting Bob's **** come back,
she gave them titles on that crap...
Today some of it would be worth a few bucks "maybe",
it was mostly unusable junk, hoards of crap...
But it was "His/Bob's Junk"
My step-dad Bob almost divorced her over it...
He has that hoarder gene...
But he never did leave **** sitting/strung all over the place 'ever again',
he got the hint, until they moved to Oroville, started doing it again...
That when Mom said "clean it up or it's gone, she meant it"
it wasn't a bluff...
carry on, just a tale...