A few more shots from the US National Archives. The images were taken near Portland, in 1974. According to the caption: ‘Stacked autos are scrapped and shipped to Japan, to return as Datsuns and Toyotas.’
If so, nothing really strange there, goods are goods, and any profit from raw materials is always welcomed. That said, until now, the idea that my family’s ’78 Datsun F10 could be haunted by the ghost of some old Galaxie had never crossed my mind.
Can anyone actually go through the entire process whereby these cars, and millions of others became Japanese cars – or is this just a meme that has seems to be some sort of a ironic humorous kharma statement?
It seems too neat and complete to be true. Too much of a superiority statement regarding turning treasure out of trash, of taking the competition’s waste and making them compete against it, of the superiority of one race or nationality against another.
There’s a lot to unpack with this claim that damns us and our society at that time. Please no pat answers – if you can point out where this was a repeated process and system, that would be great!
I kind of blame Paul for thinking this way. He repeatedly debunks stuff we didn’t really think through and doesn’t accept auto fables. His pièce de résistance was the popular “winter party” reasoning behind Chrysler’s ill-fated early 1960 designs. Then, and at other times, he nuked my world with undeniable facts. This “US trash to Japanese Gold” smells like one of those auto fables, doesn’t it?
Maybe it was the case in 1974, but today it’s Japanese trash to Chinese Gold.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-boost-steel-scrap-usage-by-23-next-five-years-2021-07-07/
I was going to sat the same the ex JDM imports were have by the thousand only stay few years before they die then head to China for recycling into a refrigerator we buy back, its a circular system.
Fragmented steel scrap is still shipped between continents dependending on supply and demand. It is not impossible that the junkyard in these pictures had a contract to supply a Japanese mill. If it was Aichi Steel then these American junked cars would likely become steel in a Toyota.
“Not impossible” doesn’t sound like there is a lot of certitude. The repeated meme says that it was and there didn’t appear to be any waffling around it.
I have no doubt that these were bound for Japan. Portland is of course a major port for shipping to Asia, and Schnitzer Steel has been a major steel recycler for a long time there (it may have been another outfit too). Since there were no major automotive plants in the PNW, and the US economy was in recession in 1974, there’s little doubt that the demand from Japan for steel was being met this way.
Thank you
So – the US wasn’t recycling auto steel? Instead they just bought new material? Was recyled steel more expensive? How is it that we are so comfortable in claiming that our junk cars became Toyotas, Hondas and Datsuns?
You have repeatedly taught us, through your work, to question these simple statements. I believe it is not completely true – possible, but not completely true. I suspect that it is a dig at our lifestyles as well, deserved, but not as factual as this comment implies.
Thanks, as always!
Can I guarantee it’s 100% true. of course not. But logic (and the facts I gave in my previous comment) give me every reason to believe it’s true.
The US steel industry was heavily geared to using virgin steel back then, and most of that industry was in the Rust Belt. Shipping scrap back east from Portland was undoubtedly not viable; meanwhile the Japanese were willing to pay top dollar.
The US steel industry went through a major revolution since the 80s; mini-mills put most/all giant old steel plants out of business, and the mini mills can utilize scrap steel.
Oregon has a long history of exporting its resources to Asia. When we drive to Port Orford, we pass the harbor in Coos Bay, where we see ships loading up tens (hundreds?) of thousands of logs headed for Japan (or China) constantly. And ships loading up mountains of wood chips, to be turned into the cardboard cartons our stuff from China comes in.
I believe this caption to be true. Logic trumps unfounded skepticism.
As someone who has lived in the Portland area, not too far from the Columbia river,I saw plenty of boatloads of scrap cars heading west toward the sea back in the ’70s.
What I can tell you is that at our local land fill and dump, while you have a limit on how much household junk you can leave there each year, they’ll take all the metal you can pack into your privately owned pickup, truck load after truck load.
They sell the metal. To whom . . . I have no idea.
But drive through the old steel mill towns in PA and you’ll see nothing but empty skeletons (if even that) where there were once monstrous smoking steel mills pouring forth their liquid gold.
Maybe all this metal ends up in USA domestic mini mills.
https://www.businessnorth.com/around_the_region/u-s-steel-announces-new-mini-mill-plans/article_c48dad0a-73b7-11ec-afb2-375f1205bc70.html
In the 70’s where the metal ended up probably was determined by where it was. The stuff on the west coast almost certainly went to Japan while stuff from the mid-west and east coast probably went to the US steel mills that were still in operation. Now the stuff on the west coast goes to China.
Here’s a shot of Schnitzer Steel’s facility at the port of Tacoma showing the massive pile of shredded steel and the open boat that is going to receive it. Whether it is a car body from a wrecking yard or a tin can placed in your curbside recycling if it came from WA ID or MT it almost certainly ends up at that facility on its way to China. https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2678942,-122.3692153,246m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
Schnitzer steel is the owner of the Pick-N-Pull chain of wrecking yards and they purchased wrecking yards to ensure they had the source of metal. It is also why cars get pulled from those yards, not necessarily because they have been stripped of saleable parts but because a ship is due at port and they want to have a sufficient pile waiting when it arrives.
Junkyard images from this period (1974) that show lots of 50s-early 60s iron always make me sad. I spot an uncrushed `58 Impala, a `62 Gran Prix, and a `59 Mercury among the discards. I picture what they must’ve been like to own back when they were fairly new. (heavy, mournful sigh….)
Not to mention a ’58 Buick Limited up on top!
The ’58 GM cars–possibly the most garish cars ever.
I’m glad I’m not the only one to recognize this rare Buick.
The Continental in the middle of the third photo strikes pain in my heart. Would guess it comes from the early 60’s. Rust along the bottom edges precluded it from restoration.
Cars a little more than 10 years old. Destroyed by salt? Or just out of fashion?
I would image a little of both. Also, the mindset of the 60’s & early 70’s was cars were disposable. After 2 or 3 years, it’s traded in. This was reflected in the lack of maintenance.
Today, some car financing is 60 to 72 months….ouch!!!
Better take care of it.
Engines and transmissions didn’t last as long as they do now. So just like today when the cost of repairs exceeded the value of the vehicle they often went to the scrap yard rather than getting repaired. The value was so low in part because they were considered worn out but also because they were considered “old fashioned” at 10 years old.
By 1974 you also had to factor in the spike in fuel prices caused by the oil embargo which really killed the value of low mpg vehicles. There were also a number of safety enhancements that made some people considered those late 50’s and early 60’s vehicles “death traps”.
Rust.
Many of you weren’t around “back in the day” to remember, dare I say, that a large number of those cars were absolute rust buckets. That, combined with high gas prices in the 70’s deemed many cars not worth keeping/repairing.
Why is rust over the rear wheels so prevalent in current American pick ups and SUVs today? I know owners of 5, 4, or even 3 year old vehicles where rust is already well established (Fords excepted). I don’t know why consumers put up with it. I won’t even go into rotting frames. Rant over. Sorry.
Seem to remember I learned here (on CC) that high-finned ’57-up cars were only partially primer dipped in production, and higher and more pointed fins were bare metal inside, at the top.
Might have been on a Plymouth story.
What is most amazing is how recognizable so many of these partially crushed and dismembered old cars are – not just the brand but in many cases also the year and trim level can be quickly and accurately discerned. Try that with a bunch of 10-20 year old cars on their way to the crusher today.
Considering the quality of Japanese automobile steel in the 70s, I’d be surprised if it came from these cars. Unless they watered it down somehow in the process.
Though elementary school, my bus passed both a car junkyard and a scrap yard. It was fascinating to see the piles of cars and piles of shredded metal shrink and grow over time and watch the heavy equipment shifting them around. As a kid, junkyard operator seemed like the coolest job ever.
Japanese steel was just fine in the ’70s; their rust prevention methods were lacking. All steel will rust if not protected one way or another.
I say this book pretty much explains the junkyards.
The Waste Makers is a 1960 book on consumerism by Vance Packard. It was bestselling when it was released. The book argues that people in the United States consume a lot more than they should and are harmed by their consumption.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Makers
I’ve said it before in comments, but it does always come as a surprise to me just how young cars are when scrapped, and that was several years on average younger in the 1970s than is currently the case.
The average age of a car on US roads is now 12.2 years, and while that seems mighty young, it helps to remember just how many cars are on US roads. So if 12.2 is the average, then there are still a ginormous number of cars still driving around that are older than 12.2 years. Also, there’s certainly some confirmation bias going on with me, and likely a bunch of other CC readers, in that we tend to focus our attention on that portion of what’s on the road that’s definitely older than average. It’s what we see.
https://www.spglobal.com/mobility/en/research-analysis/average-age-of-vehicles-in-the-us-increases-to-122-years.html
Still, I am always amazed when I pass one of those flatbeds full of crushed cars headed off to eventual melting and notice that nearly every recognizable car on the truck is younger than what I’m driving (and I’m generally driving something that’s “only” 15 years old). I’m not sure where those cars are headed for their ultimate recycling (I’d guess China, even here on the East Coast), but my first thought is usually, “Gee, I’d probably drive that if it weren’t so flattened”.
In 1975, a 1965 automobile with 100k very likely was ready for the scrap heap, unless it was fastidiously kept.
In 2023, a 2013 car with 100k is quite likely to be a good used car with plenty of life left in it.
Ca. 1985 an appliance repairman told me the odds were good that my old washer and dryer would be reincarnated as a Toyota, Subaru, whatever. If you’re the recipient of the scrap metal, it probably doesn’t much matter whether it’s a car-size chunk or several appliance-size chunks.
Is recycled steel as good as new steel? Can both used equally when making cars? Or would there be a reason to use virgin steel instead of recycled steel in car manufacturing?
Yes. Yes. No.
Steel, like aluminum and other metals, can be recycled infinitely. You can’t damage the steel molecules, and they are of course smelted down and reprocessed with whatever other minerals to make the specific type of steel desired (there’s lots of different final product “steels”).
It takes considerably less energy to use recycled steel than to create it from scratch. Hence the strong demand for it.
A Peugeot 406 wagon I owned had the recycling process in the owners manual and the mandated amount of recycleable material contained in the car,
cars over here are called shredder steel at scrap yards and either become rebar wire or whatever The plant is not far from me or the are exported when a scrap ship in in port a steady stream of trucks load nearby and head for the port those ships are Chinese owned and thats where they are going, so that shiny car you liked so much when you got it home or not is a cube of metal going to be reborn.
My local Pick and Pull will strip and crush cars then send them off somewhere. I see them leaving the yard, and occasionally on the freeway. There are portable crushers that are towed to the sites of those old wrecking yards that were tucked away in the woods. It all hinges on the price of scrap steel.
I’ve read that “virgin” new steel has better properties than steel made from scrap, as it has fewer impurities from mixing different batches of metal together. It was probably easier to work with new material, especially when there were still a lot of American companies producing steel.
There was a memorable pile of junked cars in Emeryville in the 1960’s. It was near the Sherman Williams “Covers the Earth” animated lighted sign. It was clearly visible from the freeway. It was my favorite landmark as we drove to Berkeley to visit my Grandparents when I was a kid.
Pick N Pull is owned by Schnitzer Steel so they almost certainly are going to the nearest Schnitzer facility to be shredded, put in a ship and sent over seas. The primary reason they created and expanded the PNP chain was to ensure a steady supply of metal to their primary business. So when the cars get pulled and sent off often has more to do with the need for the metal than it does on when the car is picked clean of saleable parts.
Such is the issue of finding used parts here, my cars are both NZ new sold by the brand agents, I can get a used tail light for my 66 Hillman with one phone call the same part for my 03 Citroen took a week of searching and I got one 2 kms from where I live go figure, A local Citroen specialist garage found and fitted a used heater hose for my current C5 in a day they arent available new, great LOL
Recently I was at a friends house and she mentioned she finally got her car through annual inspection findin a rear light took a month she drives a 06 Toyota Corolla Fielder wagon I see thousands of the every day on the road but a light or any common part is nearly impossible to get and dont bother phoning Toyota if they dont hang up on you their prices are eyewatering, such is the joy of buying used imports the are zero parts for them and no they are not the same as export new cars. mazda has changed that their cars are the same everywhere so Im told
I had forgotten all about that scrap yard. “Cover the Earth” and junked cars next to each other … that lasted long enough to go from a little kid’s landmark to seeing the irony as a young adult. Thanks for the memory! Now it’s just IKEA and Home Depot.
I well remember that sign along with many other long gone Bay Area landmarks I saw in the early 70’s. This picture combines both thoughts. An excellent shot by Mr. Fitch from back then in the 60’s.
I love the third shot with the Lincoln Continental on top of the upside-down 62 Dodge Dart – would these two cars be the alpha and omega of US automobile styling in 1962?
The Continental is said to have been overbuilt in its large unibody in the pre cad days of engineering, the stack where its midsection barely seems to have lost its door alignment from the crusher while everything above and below it has smooshed and buckled seems to support that
I always wanted to go to a junkyard that had stacks of cars stories high like this, it had to be quite the sight in person, but I suspect it’s an outmoded practice, at least around here where I’m pretty familiar with all the regional junkyards and neighboring facilities.
There was a junkyard that had stacks of cars like this near me when I was a kid. As an avid car emblem collector at a young age, no stack was too high. Climbing up 3, 4 or 5 cars was exiting, and dangerous, but at that age danger was not thought of so much. A fall could be deadly. Only dopes would fall and die! Sometimes the cars would move or even slip to a different position under your weight. I think that that is why you don’t see junkyards like this anymore. That and junkyard dogs don’t climb stacks of cars.
Here you have the book ” The waste makers”. It’s interesting to see how marketing worked in the fifties.
https://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/0303critic/030320wastemakers/wastemakers.pdf
I have, but it is a time capsule of how we really can’t foretell the future. Packard was unable to see an economy based on values other than material. He was quite the dedicated Marxist, which was still credible in 1960. He made many obvious errors. For example, Packard repeatedly compared consumption during the Great Depression to Post-WWII consumption! Oof!
“The people of the United States are in a sense becoming a nation on a tiger. They must learn to consume more and more or, they are warned, their magnificent economic machine may turn and devour them. They must be induced to step up their individual consumption higher and higher, whether they have any pressing need for the goods or not. Their ever-expanding economy demands it.” – Packard
LOL! Dude – if you were alive today, you’d be pretty embarrassed.
As a little kid in 1974, I would have found most of these junked cars as anonymous overwrought, relics of the past. Good riddance! As I grew older, I learned to identify most of them, and appreciate them more. But generally speaking, I never warmed to the overstyled cars of the era. And felt most of what Detroit was putting out, was an insult to good taste. Even the more modest designs of the 60s, I generally found spartan and/or unappealing. Took me a long time, to appreciate what I felt were old-fashioned cars, from someone else’s generation.
I’m fascinated by the unbroken tail lights in the lede picture, and am thinking that if I had those today, they’d probably be sell-able on eBay for close to what those cars were worth as scrap in 1974.
Almost certainly true, considering $50 in 1974 is the equivalent of $309 today.
They still stack ’em three high in my local scrapper here in Glasgow.
No oily and rabid Alsatian dog though – they’ve got cameras now.
Ah, but dogs respond so much faster than a camera.
One of my relatives and his (now wife) came to stay with my parents from Slovakia 20 years ago. At that time they were between their 4th and 5th years at university (5 years are the norm there); my Mother prearranged work for them (one reason besides seeing the US for their visit) which was fortunate in that schools there let out for the spring in June rather than May which is more typical here, and most of the summer jobs had already been taken (they were looking for other jobs to supplement their hours, as they worked for a resturant that gave them variable hours). They now work for US Steel in Kosice; that town has a pretty long history of metal work going back to the 1200’s, and used to supply steel for Soviet tanks (during the cold war).
I used to live up north and rusty cars were normal, but also had to replace my exhaust system pretty often (every other year or so)….we now live in Texas, when I first moved here didn’t have body rust issues on cars but my exhaust system still needed to be replaced fairly regularly (maybe a bit longer than up north, maybe even double to 4 years). But my current car (2000 VW) came with a stainless steel exhaust which is still original (bought the car new) whereas I think my previous cars had aluminized exhausts.
I have replaced the catalytic converter, but that was due to a rich exhaust caused by bad ignition coil which fouled the converter. Anyhow, I’ve owned my current car almost twice as long as the prior one, partly due to not having to worry about body rust, but now the other components seem to be lasting a lot longer….but one thing I can’t figure out is that I used to have to replace CV joints pretty frequently (maybe every 3-4 years) but the ones on my 2000 Golf are still original….plastic and rubber parts seem to degrade quickly on cars in the sun belt, but for some reason these have lasted (my previous cars were also VWs)
Yes, Japan bought loads of steel in the 50’s & 60’s, it was a regular news item .
Stacked junkyards are seriously dangerous .
I too loved to climb the stacked up 1940’s cars but more than once the stack slipped and someone lost a limb or was crushed to death so I stopped climbing long ago .
-Nate
When I was designing sheet metal computer enclosures, by the late nineties Japanese preplated steel was considered the best, for finish quality and fabrication ease. Even for parts fabbed in the PRC. And CC Effect: today I drove past Schnitzer Alaska while looking for one of the few places in Anchorage where I could fill up our van with potable water for free. I had never heard of Schnitzer before seeing this post.