CLASSIC GARAGE

Hello Ashley, reading your editorial in the April Classic Car you have written, “Holden took the bold move of shifting production of front and all-wheel drive Commodores offshore.”

I think it would have been better to say, it was General Motors who made that decision.

And if the new Commodores were based on Vauxhall or Opel cars, General Motors do not own them any more (or even a share-holding in Isuzu).

Peugeot has owned both since about 2015, and if so, based on these cars, how long before we see these back in New Zealand and Australia badged as Opel or Vauxhall?

Recently, I read that General Motors was saying there was no market for right-hand drive cars!

European car manufacturers must have looked at General Motors sideways and laughed when they made that statement.

As for the small ‘Holden’ cars, getting cars from China and putting a Holden badge on them does not make them a Holden — people could see through that ruse.

Yes, you’re right Matthew, it was indeed the decision of General Motors to move Commodore production offshore. I’m sure that the buying public are well informed as to what they’re buying these days.

Years ago — more than I care to remember — when I started my Ford Mark One Zephyr Convertible Register, I saw an advertisement for a book in an American auto magazine. Diamonds in the Rust was written by Pat and Larry Kytola and subtitled American Junkyard Jewels. The promotional picture showed a white convertible in a paddock with other derelict ’50s cars. It looked remarkably like a Mk1 Zephyr, many of which did make it to the US back then. About 10 years ago, I found a copy of the book and the Covid lockdown provided an opportunity to read it again — and be reminded that the potential Mk1 Zephyr was in fact a 1952 Packard 250 convertible. It was still a great read, though. The writers did not disclose the actual locations of many of the cars featured — perhaps protecting owners from hordes of sightseers or blokes with trucks and tools.

‘Car wreckers yards’, as we call them, or ‘breakers yards’ as they are known in the US, have always drawn me like a mouse to cheese. A few years ago I travelled around some 17 US states, and breakers yards figured prominently. Cadillac King and Caddy Daddy in the San Fernando Valley area of California specialized primarily in Cadillacs. As we had a 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood at that time, we also had a list with about 30 nice-to-have-but-not-vital items on it.

When you talk Cadillac parts, think telephone numbers. If it’s for a ’59 model, then multiply that figure by 10! For example, the monstrous big chrome end for the front bumper was US$900!

Happily, the owners let us wander around looking. Photos were allowed, but no videos, as they didn’t like people selling the video later. At that time, we never thought we’d ever see nine 1959 Cadillacs stacked on top of each other. Caddy Daddy had a showroom-type venue from which you could purchase a runner if you wanted to. After our visit, UK TV actor Robbie Coltrane bought a 1950s Cadillac from Caddy Daddy and drove it across the US to the East Coast. He made a documentary in the process. They couldn’t stop that video, which was all the more interesting as we knew many of the players involved.

Further north, Illinois was still in the middle of winter and everything was either snowed in, frozen over, or both, but one yard owner in Victoria gave us free run of the place while he huddled over a potbelly stove in his office.

“Just help yourself to anything you want,” he said.

He neglected to warn us that attempting to prize Cadillac emblems from car bonnets at minus 20-something degrees would freeze our fingers to the metal! It was still great to wander around for a couple of hours, interrupted only by return trips to the car every 20 minutes or so to warm up the frozen video camera. We did get one Cadillac bonnet emblem and an old Pepsi Cola bottle. Another yard that had been closed since early 1970 had a number of fairly complete cars that were quite feasible restoration projects. In among all the cars, the most recent of which was a 1967 Chevrolet, was a 1957 Ford retractable. Apart from a missing wheel, it was complete. The owner explained that it had no title so it could not be sold. It was destined to go to the scrap metal dealer for US$90 per ton! Another drawback was the yard’s distance from the nearest port on the California coast. It would have been a four- to fiveday drive!

It got a bit warmer — 30 degrees — further south in Arizona and we spent a full day happily wandering around Desert Valley Autos, which boasted a yard with 6000-plus vehicles. We were not allowed to actually remove bits; they had ‘gophers’ for that task. The owner warned us about poking around under the seats, as rattlesnakes were coming out of hibernation! At that time, I needed one of the cables for the Caddy’s power seat, so I just found the car and the gopher did the rest. Much later, I got a number-plate surround for our 1962 Thunderbird from them via the internet — just six days from removal in Phoenix to delivery in my office here in Christchurch!

We visited six or seven breakers yards but we didn’t even scratch the surface, as there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of sites where American motoring history is ‘rusting in peace’. Unfortunately, with the advent of savethe-planet types, there is continuing pressure on these sites to clean up their acts, and much American motoring history is being lost to the scrapheaps — or to make more Toyotas and the like.

Yet, there is still much cool stuff out there to enjoy. If you cannot actually get over to the States to visit these places in person, then the good old internet will be happy to take you there virtually. One such Youtube series is Barn Find. The host drives all over the place in his 1939 Ford Woody and takes you through yard after yard of once-hidden gems. Some are for sale, some never will be, but at least we can get a look at them for now. The saddest part is the owners saying, “I’ll get around to restoring it one day” and you know they are going to have to do it in the next couple of years, as it doesn’t look like they’ll live much longer than that.

A while back, I found a couple of pics of two 1930s Cord automobiles that had been in a yard since probably the 1950s. They were both pretty rusty and had what were obviously auction numbers on the screens. Imagine my surprise when I found the Youtube clip of the actual auction! They both went to the same buyer for just under US$60K. Well, where else would you find one?

In New Zealand, too, wreckers yards are unfortunately becoming a thing of the past. Horopito Motor Wreckers in the central North Island is probably still New Zealand’s oldest and best known. It’s worth a visit if you’re in the vicinity.

Be careful out there!