Historic junk yard tour with J. Flanagan

[Rodney Bullock]

Went on a 4 hour tour today with Joe to a junk yard in Va. We saw so many Plymouths and dodges that your head would have spun out of control. Joe wanted to take all of them apart or take them home. We found a good heater core and some small parts for his car. Joe is fearless in his methods. He had his famous tool however I was the one that got to use it:) This junk yard is really a amusment part for old car guy's, in fact there where a number of small groups of folks in the yard. We spoke and continued our search for parts. We pulled parts for a number of our friends as well, all this rnnning around is tiring me out. Here is a pic of Joe at his best, there were so many vines on this car he could hardly get the door open:D Joe wanted this cars seat, I hope he can sleep tonite, he kept looking back at the car as we left:p he really wanted that seat, you'll get it next time Joe !

[Rodney Bullock]

I kinda wanted this spotlight however I did not have a big enough knife:cool:

[Rodney Bullock]

I bet by june you will not be able to see anything

[Joe Flanagan]

Rodney,

Who's the doofus in the first picture? It's not me.

I had a great time down there in Culpeper. Fellas, Rodney is right. This place is like a museum of the American automobile. The most amazing salvage yard I have ever seen. Well, I saw something that rivaled it outside Durango, Colorado, but this was right up there. The guy gives you a hand drawn map when you go in that looks like a kid's treasure map. He's got an index drawn on a board that breaks the cars down in alphabetical order by make and that is keyed to the map. I found the 49 Rodney was talking about pretty well overgrown with vines and a lot of them have thorns on them. The front seat (the horizontal part) is in great condition. The springs are very firm. I couldn't get it out because I couldn't open the doors because the growth around the car is too thick.

Anyway, I was going to take lots of pictures to post here but the memory on my camera was full and I didn't feel like messing with it. Lots of old Mopars there. I'm learning a lot from Rodney.

Rodney, I'm thinking about taking another trip down there next week. I'll call you.

[Johnny S]

Just looks like down-right fun ..... go for it! Grab some of those screws that attached the inside sunvisors to the window frame / support. They are stainless and not something you can find in ACE hardware. I could use 6 if you can grab them Joe or Rodney! Joe, they are for the P18 so I'm sure they are the same as yours if you need to take a peak at them.

[Rodney Bullock]

Johnny, We are going back on Friday, I will try to get some for you:)

[Johnny S]

Thanks Rodney .... much appreciated.

[Don Coatney]

He had his famous tool however I was the one that got to use it:)

Rodney;

Can you explain this a bit better? I am not sure exactly what you are talking about:confused: :rolleyes:

[Joe Flanagan]

The crowbar, Don, the crowbar.

This is in backwoods Virginia. The guy has these old stinky dogs lying around and he has warnings all over saying that he releases them into the yard at closing time. They don't look very dangerous but they might come up to you and stink you right out of the yard, I suppose. He closes for an hour at lunch and locks the place up. If you aren't out by then, you get locked in till he comes back.

[Allan Faust]

This is in backwoods Virginia.

I don't know much about the US, but could this be the point Don was trying to make???

Allan

[Joe Flanagan]

Don will have to enlighten us about his meaning. But given the atmosphere and the management, let's say that there was a good bit of joking about backwoods places in general. I started humming a certain banjo tune and Rodney's buddy AJ said, "Don't do that!"

[Rodney Bullock]

Man, I just got to be careful. This junk yard ids very rual. When we got back to the office to pay for our stuff, there were two guy's with the owner that did not look friendly:mad: Joe spoke to them however I did not say anything. Then after the payments were made they unlocked the gate a let us out. I was looking at Joe and it looked like he let out a sigh of releif, You know he wants to go back there friday:eek: he must be crazy. I'm a meek guy however when I hear banjo music, yodelling or pig calling I tend to get nervous:( after all I can take ccare of myself however if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it does it make a sound? I can't wait for Don to come back to our area, he "is" from Tenn. is'nt that where "Deliverance" was filmed. If I was casted in the remake I would have to be Burt R. maybe we could get Don to play.......Ned Beatty:D

[Don Coatney]

Tenn. is'nt that where "Deliverance" was filmed.

Georgia. Contact Tim Adams for more details:cool:

[Rodney Bullock]

hahahahahahahahahaha:D you are to much!

[50PlymouthSled]

You guys are lucky, all we have out here is Sweet Water auto wrecking. It's a Mopar yard, but mostly for Muscle era things, and the latter of that nature. But alas, they have some flathead stuff? Haha.

[Joe Flanagan]

With my luck, it will turn out that this guy is a major serial killer and next time I go out there I'll find the junked bus where he's been hiding all the bodies. It definitely looks like that kind of place. Also, he doesn't want anyone taking cameras in there, supposedly for "insurance reasons." But maybe it's because when you're trying to pull that seat out of the car, you might uncover the odd femur or skull.

What I want to know is why you never find girlie magazines in old cars anymore. That was one of the main reasons we went to the junkyard as kids. Probably they've all been picked over. Sounds like a question for our hero, Alfred E. Newman.

[Young Ed]

Joe some of the yards here are like that too. They think you are an EPA spy.

[50PlymouthSled]

Haha, girlie mags, wow, I guess I really missed out on the old days. And what does EPA have to do with a presmog regulated yard?

[Rodney Bullock]

The EPA is very interested in how they get rid of gas left in gas tanks and anti freeze left in radiators. The EPA is needed however some of the restrictions are hurting our hobby. A lot of the shops I grew up with had to be closed because of regulations. A lot of them moved. All kidding aside this guy id a car guy and he holds on to he old cars for us until you hav egotten everything off it you need. We have been going there for about 10 years. I guess because this yard is so far out they don't hassle them. This guy has a one man operation and I think he handles it well, aside from the fiddle that hangs on the wall 125.00 plus tax:rolleyes:

[50PlymouthSled]

Ah, yeah, I guess that makes sense. But still kinda ridiculous they are so stringiant. But I guess there is no real way around it. So gotta live with it. Europe has worse regulations, so that's a plus, I s'pose? And that's cool, maybe I'll have to pay the yard a visit, I sure do need me a new fiddle. Lol.

[Young Ed]

This yard has a no picture taking policy either. And for them its not completely paranoid behavior-they have gotten in trouble for a few things.

[50PlymouthSled]

Like trees growing in the engine conpartments? Hm. Is there really that much to worry about when it comes to pictures? Do people really try that hard to get these people in trouble?

[Joe Flanagan]

They're probably afraid someone's going use it as evidence to make them clean it up or close down. It's just a simple fact that these places are very toxic.

Yes, girlie mags. We used to find them in junked cars back in the 60s and 70s. Being young and impressionable at the time, I can still recall some of the things I came across. They were tame by today's standards. My brothers had all the luck with that stuff. One of them even found a silver dollar from 1875 in the back seat of a car. I would always go straight to the car that had the wasps nest under the hood or an old pair of ladies' bloomers in the back seat. Usually, the only reading material I found was stuff like notices for non-payment of child support. I could never pick out the right cars.

These cars that Rodney and I were looking at had nothing of the kind inside them. If there was any "cultural" material in them, it is gone now.

[Don Coatney]

I recall a friend who once bought a nice old car. There were several dirty magazines stuffed under the front seat and he first thought he had a treasure trove. However these magazines were guy type gay magazines. Be careful of what you find under the seats.

[Joe Flanagan]

THAT would be the car I would get. A bunch of "men's" magazines under the front seat, a wasp's nest in the back, a pair of dirty bloomers in the glove box, and a dead possum in the trunk.