canadiancatgreen is one of our most prolific Cohort posters. He doesn’t even shy away from visiting junkyards in the depths of winter in Canada. So let’s tag along and see what he’s found, starting with this 1968 Impala sports coupe.
1978 Ford LTD
1964 Mercury Meteor. Yes, in Canada this was a Meteor.
Lookie here; it’s our mystery car from two weeks ago: a Dodge Wayfarer or Plymouth P19 two-door sedan. Or more likely a Canadian combination of the two, as in a Plodge. That means a Plymouth but with Dodge grille and badges.
Corvairs were built in Canada at the Oshawa, Ontario plant. This 500 coupe is identified as a 1960. The coupe didn’t enter production until mid-model-year, so they were always a bit rarer.
1968 Fairlane.
1959 Morris Oxford.
1974 Mercury Cougar.
1966 Plymouth Fury
1962 Buick Electra
1958 Austin
1967 AMC Rebel
1973 Ford Maverick
Another 1964 Mercury Meteor
Last but hardly least, a 1974 Lincoln Continental Mk IV
Didn’t some “Plodges” have more than just badges changed? Didn’t some have a whole front clip exchanged?
They are essentially a Plymouth with Dodge trim and front body work (sometimes narrowed).
Two Austins? they cant be common, first is a A55 Farina second car is a A50 55/6, mechanically very similar.
Plodges & De Plotos were assembled and sold in NZ, but not all the varieties usually one version of each flavour all with a flathead six
With the second Austin I’m going to suggest an early short boot A40 or A50. These have the circular back lights on the rear panel. The later run A55s have composite rear lights mounted higher up on the back wings and a lower boot lip. As I understand it the mechanical element was pretty much a direct carry over to the early A55 Farinas. There’s something quite poignant about scrapyards, all of these cars were once brand new and somebodies pride and joy. Over here we don’t tend to put the cars on old rims though they just get left resting on the ground which is probably safer.
Seconded. Much more likely the A50 variant, given this is an export market. These were terrible rusters even in Australia when I was a kid; I’m amazed it survived this long in Canada.
Wow ;
Some nice finds there .
Is the ’58 Austin a ‘Cambridge’ ? . I bet there are parts I could use .
I was always told “there are _NO_ old cars in junkyard anywhere in Canada !” . nice to see there are still coming out in dribs and drabs .
Also very nice to see them all properly sorted most of the big LKQ self serve yards in So. Cal. are just jammed together higglty – pigglty, this means of course there are now vehicles salted away in random rows that I have to go looking for and I don’t like the spend the entire day walking the yards .
Keep ’em coming C.C.G. ! .
-Nate
“Most of the big LKQ self serve yards in So. Cal. are just jammed together higglty – pigglty, this means of course there are now vehicles salted away in random rows that I have to go looking for.”
LKQ posts their inventory online, so you can run searches from the comfort of your couch. For example, while sitting at home here in Colorado I can see there’s a 1966 Chrysler Imperial sitting in Row 4, Space 3 of the Ontario, California yard.
When I lived in SoCal, I used to check the inventories at 10 or 12 yards on Friday, and then head out Saturday morning to check on any interesting finds.
Parts of BC and Alberta seem to have a lot of old cars still. Edmonton area in particular always has a lot of neat classics turn up. Quite a few come off rural properties and have been sitting a long time and thus need everything. I suspect those Austins, for example, have been sitting in a field since the 60s.
Do you ever watch Cold War Motors on You Tube? They are east of Edmonton in Ardrossan, and they go to some interesting yards from time to time.
Yes, I have seen a few of these videos. My friend Rod and I saw one of their members at an auction a few years ago.
Wow you don’t know this guy? Mentioned on occasion here:
Coldwarmotors
The doors on the early A40-50-55s are interchangeable with A90 Westminster doors.
Wow! What a variety of cars. And it seems this yard is neater and more organized than the ones I’ve visited. Although it’s been a few years.
When our son, now 34, was first driving, I took him to visit a local yard where I knew there was a 94-95 Buick Park Avenue like the one he was learning on.
The car had been hit very hard from the rear, pushing the bumper into the back seat cushion.
But from the front, it looked normal.
He walked over and said “hey dad, it’s just like our car. What’s it doing here?”
Then he saw the rear end and said he never would have imagined a car of that size being wrecked that badly.
I explained that it could have been a truck that hit the car.
That stuck with him and he is one of the best driver’s in our family.
I don’t see anything worth dragging home here, but quite a selection. I can’t imagine the challenge of operating a British car in an Edmonton winter, but many must have done it.
Great post!
These shots remind me of my younger days prowling the U-pull yards, yes even in the snow. “That ’68 Impala might have a 327, lets check it out”.
I haven’t seen a yard with ’60s or ’70s iron in a long, long time though. Most of the yards I frequented are now gone, with housing developments in thier place.
Rural BC does indeed have a lot of old iron sitting in fields, but most of the deals are long gone. Everyone thinks that rotting hulk out back is a “Classic”!
Oh the stories these cars hold. A shame to see them end up here.
I love junk yards and junk yard posts. Although I have to say that it’s hard to look at that Corvair and think about how it got there. Looks like it took quite the front end hit.
This is the Plymouth compact, not the Wayfarer. The Concord was a true fastback while the Wayfarer was a sort of 2.5-box type with a bustle. This could be a Plodge, since I believe the Plodges in those years were basically Concords. This one has narrow taillights so it’s a 49.
Some of them may have accident damage that we are not seeing, but many of them look like they shouldn’t be there. Safe to assume they have been there for quite some time, thus parts removed and nature taking it’s course on deterioration.
Like someone else said. Oh, the stories these old cars could tell.
That blue Corvair must have been responsible for at least one fatality, if not more. As I recall, the steering box was located behind the leading edge of the front bumper by mere inches, and had a solid shaft from the flex coupling at the box to the steering wheel, with no collapsible section as everyone has today. Front end collisions with front engine cars of that era with solid steering shafts were grisly enough, but the Corvair must have been exponentially worse, since they has relatively little structure in the front, and crumpled badly, as we can see here. Of course, the early ones without the revised rear suspension often swapped ends in an accident, so that may have mitigated the lethal potential a bit, if that’s any comfort.. Otherwise, can you spell shish-kebab……….
Exactly my thoughts (and that steering-box location issue was another of Nader’s absolutely justified critiques of the car). That wreck is a touch creepy to behold. I’d practically bet that that A-pillar has been cut to try and help the driver, or perhaps just for removing him. Yuk.
Didn’t notice this first time around, it’s totally destroyed at the front. I’m cured permanently of Corvairs now.
The Morris Oxford a nice suprise. I have never seen one before.
Good photos. Many of these still have some good trim parts left. The white Meteor has a complete Breezeway window unit, both bumpers, plus other minor stuff. I wonder if the Plodge has a different frame under it. The bumper is a front unit off a ’85-’94 Chevrolet Astro or GMC Safari, and the ‘custom’ runningboard/wheel flares are interesting. The blue Meteor may be a Mercury, as the impression left on the quarter panel where the nameplate was looks like ‘Monterey’ to me. Either way, it started life out as a convertible.
What yard/pick & pull still has any vintage before 2000?
In CT the upstate yards go back to about the late 1990s, and that’s considered Jurassic in those parts.
Such yards just don’t exist here any more. Even the remains of anything locally-made from Ford or GM-Holden has a value, often a stupid one (to my mind), so such places have long been raided to nothing. Remarkable.
Though on another view, I find the continued survival of things like that Oxford or Cambridge or whatever, to be mildly depressing: they were slow, leaky, ill-handling and, with those oversize fins, narrow-guttedly ugly. And the bastards were in junkyards when I was young!
Of course, thank you to the intrepid canadiancatgreen. A braver man than I. And besides, I like green cats.
“Such yards just don’t exist here any more.”
In my part of the world, these places are also becoming increasingly rare, too.
Of course it’s all about “environmental protection”. However, I can’t shake the suspicion that it’s at least as much about letting a cheap source of spare parts for old carts dry up (and thus making these old carts disappear from the streets – and thus make folks purchase/lease a new car …).
Ditto…thought I think it probably has more to do with “not in my backyard”. Junkyards are considered unsightly by many, I think they actually help the environment since parts you obtain in one can extend the life of an “already made” vehicle that you otherwise would have to take off the road (and I guess normally would buy a newer one if not new). The environmental cost of building a new vehicle from scratch is likely more than keeping an existing one running (if it smokes or pollutes I guess that becomes more debatable).
Off the subject but my Dad was a semiconductor process developer since 1956, when he got his chemistry degree. He’s gone now, but I don’t doubt that he’d get a chuckle over the “chips” act trying to get semiconductor processing back in the US. For some reason people overlook that as my Dad well knew, it is just another chemical business, and uses pretty nasty ones that have to be disposed of…which is likely a big reason it was allowed to go overseas in the first place. Yes, it is “high tech” but like nuclear power plants has a nasty problem with what to do with the waste generated. Just because the public image seems to be people running around in a clean room wearing bunny suits doesn’t do justice to the reality that there are really dirty chemicals involved and environmentalists should be wary (or maybe they should have considered that as part of the decision to bring the industry back).
The 1962,Buick Electra could be restored. It is a beautiful and timeless design.
Another great source for junkyard knowledge is Steve Magnante’s Junkyard Crawl. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=steve%20magnante%20junkyard%20crawl
Unfortunately he came down with encephalitis. He is slowly recovering and looking forward to doing more features.