First, a little inside baseball. The way my daily routine works at Drag Week is as follows. Wake up early and post stuff on the site, meet in the lobby of the hotel, head to the track with Freiburger and then get ready for the live broadcast. Once we are done, we grab the same directions that the competitors are using and drive the same route. Somehow we manage to stretch five hour drives into 12 hour drives leaving minutes instead of hours to sleep, but that’s certainly not a complaint. The reason the drives take so long is because of places such as the one shown below. DF and I stop and check out anything that looks cool, weird, or interesting and Bud’s Salvage in the tiny town of Aline, Oklahoma was one of those places. Hundreds and hundreds of cars from the 1950s-modern stuff, this place is a dream come to life.
We nearly drove through the fence when we saw the Cadillac up in the air with the BUD’S SALVAGE name painted on the side. From our vantage point, we spotted dozens of cars that we wanted or knew other people wanted. We stalked up and down the fence like animals at the zoo, blasting photos and going, “OH MAN…DID YOU SEE THAT ONE?!” We probably cooked 20-30 minutes there. Trust me on the fact that I would take the 20 minutes of less sleep to spend 20 minutes looking at a place like this. I’d go on but the photos do a far better job of exposing the size, splendor, and sheer flipping greatness of this place. Incredible!
Oh! The other thing is while the stuff is weather beaten in the yard, none of it appeared terminally rusty.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PHOTOS (OVER AND THROUGH THE FENCE) OF BUD’S SALVAGE IN ALINE, OKLAHOMA
To the Hotrod/ Drag Week staff: If ever Freiburger or Lohnes collapse for any reason, skip the smelling salts and wave a picture of Bud’s Salvage under their nose and step back!! 🙂
Haha :).Good comment John!!
I need the front clip from that 65/66 Galaxie for my sta-wag!
That Pontiac ambulance is deelish.
Went to Bud’s with my dad when I was a kid. Good memories.
They have several old vehicles in back that are complete, ready to be restored
Ah I grew up in Aline! It was weird seeing something written about the ultra tiny small town haha. They run a great place there.
I enjoyed your article. Bud’s Salvage was started by my Grandpa, Bud Anthony. After he retired my dad, Cary and uncle Rocky took it over. My dad retired last year. Several other family members have worked there and it holds many find memories for each one of us. I’m glad you enjoyed your stop. Janna
One of my favorite places on earth! they’re about 2 hours from me and we did business with them for years (you won’t find a more honest and knowledgeable wrecking yard). I became very good friends with one of the family and try to make a trip up there as often as I can just to gawk at the unique cars. Surprisingly there are some very complete and sought after cars left in the salvage that have not been drug out of there yet. I’m not talking station wagons and 4-doors. I’m talking 2-door hardtops and convertibles. there’s cars in there I had to google to figure out what they were. Definitely a place to look up if you’re in the area Monday-Friday or they ship as well if you can’t make it there.