Discoveries

Our intrepid salvage yard explorer brings you junkyard jewels from across North America.

1. Volare means ‘to fly ’i n Italian, but unfortunately the Plymouth Volare (1976 to 1980) was about as flightless as a dodo. And having been plagued with numerous recalls, it would follow a similar fate to the extinct bird. By the mid-Eighties America’s junkyards were full of them (and their Dodge Aspen siblings), and they had all but disappeared by the Nineties. In fact, this is only the second Volare to ever appear on the Discoveries pages. This 1977 example has spent its life under the Californian sun, and despite numerous other issues, doesn’t have a spot of rust on it.

2. The 1960 Cadillac was a sleek design to begin with, and without any wheels, looks even more streamlined. This burned-out parts car was photographed in Texas.

3. A nasty shunt over the offside rear wheel arch was presumably what caused this Chrysler New Yorker four-door hardtop to spend the past 20 years in a Californian scrapyard. Since then it has been picked over by parts hunters. The V8 has long gone (in fact so has the entire front end), and with so few decent parts left to salvage, its days are surely numbered. The ‘62’ scribbled on the front door really initially confused me, as it is of course a 1964 car.

4. This 1959 Rambler Super American two-door’s bodywork really is as good as it looks in the photograph. Which begs the questions, how did it end up in a junkyard, and why hasn’t anyone saved it? Manufactured by AMC between 1958 and 1969, the Rambler American was frequently the cheapest US-built car on the market.

5. It must have been raining when this 1977 Cadillac Coupe de Ville drove for the final time. Billed as ‘The next generation of the luxury car’, the 1977 Cadillacs were smaller and lighter than the previous generation. Powered by a 7.0-litre V8, they managed 60mph in 11.6 seconds, continuing to a top speed of 113mph. This rust-free example was found in southern Idaho.

6. What’s that coming over the hill? Well it used to be a 1962 Plymouth Valiant Signet 200 two-door hardtop coupe, but unfortunately it’s little more than scrap metal today. From this angle it doesn’t look too bad, but this is definitely the car’s good side. The blue sky visible through the nearside indicator orifice reveals that the driver’s side is almost completely missing!

7. The Nash Metropolitan only weighed 1785lb when it was complete, and this example is a shadow of its former self. It probably explains why a passing scrap metal merchant hasn’t bothered to drag away the carcass from the waste ground it resides on.

8. This 1985 Pontiac Trans Am first arrived at All American Autos of Vancouver, Washington, some 19 years ago. Since then it has been stripped of just about anything useful, and its days are now surely numbered.

9. A 1954 Pontiac Chieftain two-door has done well to survive for 67 years. It’s one of several similarly aged (and equally as dilapidated) cars I discovered in an Arizona yard.

10. It’s easy to understand why so many classic cars get weighed-in every year, as they’re often worth more dead than alive. Take this 1969 Ford Fairlane for example. It’s been parked up in Denver, Colorado for more than 20 years, but how much has it actually earned its owner in that time? Probably not much at all.