So I’m walking around my buddy Chad Ehrlich’s Nobody’s Auto Recycling, in Great Bend Kansas on Friday morning when something he says strikes me as funny and awesome all at the same time. He’s granted me access to the yard so I can wander around taking pictures for a blog item here on BANGshift, and I’m so enamored with the stuff he has that I can’t hardly control myself. If I had a moment alone, it might have been ugly. Thankfully I was supervised, and had no way to haul anything home with me on this trip.
There are some really, REALLY, cool cars, trucks, and parts there, lots of them with great stories that Chad is intimately familiar with since he and his daughter Addie have both personally hauled each and every one of them to the yard from wherever it is they last sat. And did I mention that virtually everything there is old and cool?
Anyway, I digress. As we are walking from the GM F-Body section around a corner, I see this bitchin early C10 sitting on the ground in a row of cars that define the property line between Chad’s place and the neighboring farmland. I comment on how cool it looks, and Chad responds that it is way rougher than it looks at first glance, and that not much on it is worth keeping. He’s right. There are a couple little spots you might cut something worthy out of, but most of the sheetmetal is so thin it is amazing it is still holding its shape!
Then he says something that makes me smile and want to hug him. He says “There was really no reason to buy it, but I couldn’t just let it go to the crusher.” He sounds like someone describing a dog at the pound. He laughs out loud when I tell him how much I love him for saving a truck for no good reason except to let it go back to the earth from which it came. This dude has a sickness. A sickness that I have. One that makes me want to own a wrecking yard more now than ever.
So…if you had the space, would you ever buy a vehicle just to save it from the crusher, even if you knew it would never live to operate as a car or truck again?
I seen people who have “saved” cars from the crushers only to see them being absorbed by the earth. Just let it die.
Seven years ago I bought a 66 Chevy Shortbed for my wife. It was a running driving all original truck that needed EVERYTHING, so my son and I blew it apart down to the frame. Kinda wish now I would have just made it “safe” to drive and been enjoying it. If I get serious about finishing it, I am still a year away from driving it.
If it’s too far gone to bring back, there is always the “yard art” option.
No. If it’s too far gone that means all the useful and valuable parts that would have made it a parts car are gone or unserviceable. And if it’s that far gone it’s not a suitable project anyway. You can’t save ’em all.
Yep. Makes great yard art if you’ve got the space.
Only trouble is this new “what a waste!” movement of keyboard warriors who, having seen said yard art, do nothing but give you shit over it… “what a waste”, “give it to someone to save”, “selfish, you’ll never restore it!”
Well, newsflash, where were you when it needed saving? Why don’t you show me some cash, maybe it can be yours.
Maybe I just like looking at old rusty art, so better at my place than yours…
Sure did ,now I need to figure out what to do with a 41 Desosto coupe.Its rough but it could be used
Many of my cars are in that category, Two Consul Capris that are very rough and missing many impossible to find parts. One was bought to use for parts for the other but it is no better… but i’ll save ’em both.. My Meteor wagon was pretty close to being that too.
Yep. Most people would have written off my Marquis LTS as too far gone but I don’t believe it is and I WILL put it back on the road!