The scrapyards here in Western Canada are currently under a blanket of snow (or have turned into mud pits, if unseasonably warm) but I thought I would share a tour from the last time I made it out to one of the local yards. We’ve got a bit of a smorgasbord with some big American yank tanks, a Japanese grand tourer, German diesel, car based pickup and a Canadian market specific model.
As you enter the yard there is always a small lineup of complete vehicles to purchase. It is mostly populated by late model sedans and minivans but sometimes a more interesting vehicle will be on offer like this W115 chassis Mercedes Benz. It is a 1975 300D with the larger five cylinder diesel engine. It didn’t look too rusty but certainly needed some work to get back on the road. The price tag of $1999 seems a tad optimistic to me given that I can’t get anywhere near that for my older manual transmission 220D.
A souvenir hunter had already made off with all the Mercedes badges. Shame about the automatic transmission but the MB-Tex upholstery seems to be upholding its reputation for durability.
Anyone want to take a stab and identifying this big classic?
The front three quarter view helps with an opportunity to see those distinctive doors. This one was labelled as a 1958 Cadillac and looks to have been someone’s parts car. They seem to have only partially stripped it as there is still some chrome and all the glass left on it. I suspect there is little demand for the four door specific parts which is why they are still intact.
This car is well beyond salvation but there are a few smaller bits that could live on in another Cadillac. A rear passenger ashtray is something that is just not seen on modern vehicles.
Near by lurks this Chevrolet Malibu. The body looks pretty solid for a 1970s junkyard dweller. The front end trim has been well picked over.
While the earlier Datsun Z cars had been proper sports cars, the ZX version retained most of their looks while transitioning to more of a boulevard cruiser. This one appeared to be picked over but looked like it might have been in reasonable shape before entering the yard.
A 2.8L straight six still powered the Z car for 1983 and the far forward placement of the air filter housing made for a tidy looking engine compartment.
Not surprisingly, someone has snapped up the desirable five speed manual gearbox, which will likely replace a four speed unit in an earlier Z or 510. The very ’80s digital dash looks a little odd next to the very 70s auxiliary gauges in separate pods.
At the rear we can see signs of rusting, but by Datsun standards it doesn’t look that bad.
These first generation Acura Integras are getting quite rare to see. The four door sedans, even more so. As I understand it the four door sedan was sold in Canada but not the United States which only got the three and five door hatchback models. Looks like very little demand for parts on this one thus far, but its engine has likely been harvested by a Civic owner.
The yard labelled this Dodge Rampage as a 1986 which is obviously incorrect given that production halted after the 1984 model year. A front clip would have helped to narrow it down to the exact year.
Rather colorful seats and a mostly intact interior.
It is rare to see a Rampage in the scrapyard as these little trucklets have quite a following. The rear accident damage would have made it tough to economically save this one.
The concludes this portion of the tour. We’ll rejoin the tour with part two in a few days.
Oh how I wish some automaker would have the courage to make or import a Rampage style truck-let now………
Every time I see or hear or read about truck-lets I’m reminded of a friend and his comments. His employer replaced the shop trucks (Rams) with the much smaller trucks that Dodge imported from Japan (some variety of Mitsubisihi I suppose). Pat pointed out that while the truck-lets did indeed get twice the mileage of the Rams, they also only held about half as much, so it took two trips to move the same amount of stuff. In the end the only change was more time got spent on the road.
Yeah, I hear you. At work at one time I was given an assignment and a new 2004 Ranger. Loved the truck but it was such an incompatible pairing of vehicle and task. We have plenty of need for just a Ranger, and I used it frequently for other tasks, but when you gotta have something big (like an F-350 with a dump bed), a Ranger is false economy.
But for my personal use, it’s a different story. Living in a townhouse, I don’t even need an F-150.
Thanks for this tour David. Shame about the Rampage, and it’s funky seats, given the rarity of these.
The white Malibu reminds me of the 1976 Montreal Olympics themed Malibus and Chev pickups, GM sold in Canada at the time. They were popular.
There is one that looks to be someone’s daily driver around here. Quite rare now I’d imagine.
A row of Escorts! Outside of it’s stout body, my 02 was substandard in almost every way, from suspension control to powertrain refinement, but, still, it had it’s charms, in it’s own crude, brutish way.
I’ve got a COAL on my 1999 Escort coming soon – stay tuned!
I’ve got a COAL on my 1999 Escort coming soon
Cool.. We can compare notes.
As I said on Facebook, I’m pegging this as an ’84, given the seats, console and tape job. Of course, you could always check the door sticker. My ’82 had beige slabs with no seams or anything, but it was a former armed services vehicle-spray-painted blue (originally a cream-color-The previous owner apparently thought it would look better spray painted, I thought it looked like a rolling cloudy sky) and a hideous aluminum cap that came off as soon as I got it. I don’t have any good pictures or I’d post them. Aside from A/C and an automatic, it was a stripper, though that shelf behind the seat was handy. It scooted pretty damn good, also, and was able to haul a respectable amount. It had the 2.2, but I don’t believe that was an available option package until later years. Kinda miss that one. At any rate, good tour.
Seeing this thread a few months later than the last posts…… The Rampage is an ’83 by the looks of the hood and graphics. In 1982, the 2.2 graphics “package” was not an option (but you could get that engine). In 1983 the hood had a coin shaped medallion for an ornament. That changed in 1984 to a pentastar mounted on the new front facia for ’84. If you look close in the pictures, the hood scoop is missing, but the coin shaped medallion is still there.
p.s. I have an 83 Rampage like that one out in my garage.
Call me a glutton for punishment, but I like that Benz. Like you, I would prefer a stick though.
Amazing how different that 58 Cadillac looks from the back without fins. My kneejerk reaction was some kind of Nash, but then I saw the remains of the Cadillac ornamentation on the trunklid.
My kneejerk reaction was some kind of Nash, but then I saw the remains of the Cadillac ornamentation on the trunklid.
I saw the shadow of the script and V on the trunk lid, and figured it for a 57 Chevy
…and the shape of the rear door window!
The 10th digit in 17 digit post 1980 VIN tags determine model year, if ever unsure.
The codes for the years can be found on KBB and other car sites.
I don’t think that Rampage was in an accident. I think somebody was having fun with the fork lift in the junk yard and crushed it down
Very possible as that is strangely shaped damage.
+1. Dicks, every single one of them. Funny how there is most likely a sign on the front door warning YOU not to vandalize but yet these clowns get free reign on destruction. I always make a point that they(the yard) just lost $x amount because some joker bashed in a good piece of sheet metal that I happen to need. Same reply every time. Who gives a fecel matter!
No need for the front facia to be there to determine the year it’s right under the hood on the emissions sticker, you can check the VIN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_identification_number#Model_year_encoding or look at the data plate on the door or door jamb though that will tell you the date of manufacture which can be misleading since the model year starts before the end of the calender year and sometimes exactly when that model year starts varries.
I spy with my little eye, a 5-door Mazda 626 behind the Integra.
I’d bet that someone cut the fins off the caddy to make one of those car-sofas.
I’m thinking somebody’s building a custom. Usually those couch guys take the whole rear clip.
Or it was a parts car for restoring a more valuable two door model.
I can tell you exactly why that S130 280 ZX is in the yard: the floors are rotten. No, I haven’t seen this particular one personally, but I owned an ’82 ZX Turbo, and between that and scrounging for parts I have become intimately familiar with the floor issues these cars have. See, the sealing between the T-roofs (which this car has) and the frameless windows is really bad, and there aren’t any drains in the roof gutters. Hence all the water, rain, snow and what have you funnels right to the floor. And compounding the tendency of Japanese cars of this era to high-speed tinworm, the rear part of the floor couldn’t have been better designed as a water trap. The outer rear seat mount and outer trailing arm bracket are six inches apart, and on even decent looking examples it is not unusual to have that complete area be totally rotten (if not missing). If you look carefully at the rear 3/4 view you can see the rust feathering in the fenderwell — never a good sign.
Oh, and that air cleaner might be a tidy installation, but it is a really bad design (and I am a Nissan fan). The L28 engine is not a crossflow design, with the intake manifold directly over the headers. the air comes in from the right-hand fender behind the headlight, through the filter, makes a 90° turn through a 3″ hole in the rad support, and then to the throttle body. The setup is identical for the Turbo motor, making installation of an intercooler an extremely difficult and quite pricey proposition. I just lopped all that off and used a cone filter right off the MAF body: .
Here’s a good overhead picture of a typical intercooler setup. These cars are notorious for fueling issues due to overheating of the intake from the turbo; Nissan even installed a little squirrel-cage blower fan running over the top of the cam cover in stock installations. Instead of an intercooler I ran a water-alcohol injection setup. Since i was autocrossing my car, having a system set up for short duration and a lot of throttle modulation was more important.
Thanks for the insight! Always good to hear from folks who in-depth knowledge of a particular car.