If you've never had the chance to visit a card scrap yard, you should go if you have any interest in cars at all. You're bound to find something unique, an old car you've never seen, or some cool emblems to put in your collection. Here's some pictures from earlier in the year.
(P.S. the spoiler on that Sypder is now on my car. You can read about that by clicking here.)
Of course, the Fiero winking is one of my favorite pictures. Both my father and I had tried to take that awesome emblem, but they're put on the car in a weird way that makes them hard to take off. When we went back yesterday, someone had raided ALL the Fieros for their emblems. Props to them, because that's really hard.
We went to visit my father's old 90's Ram 1500 truck too, which had previously had all of the dashboard taken out. However, the Ram was not there anymore, so it's probably either crushed into a cube or already been made into new metal. I hope it becomes a new vehicle for someone else to love.
Onto the high quality pictures!
Luckily the tag for the car is still there, so you can see it's a 1973 AMC AMC- just kidding. It's a Gremlin X, something my father was super excited to see. He was shocked that the front part of the door frame was just gone- it's interesting to see what people take. There were no emblems to take, which is sad, but such is life.
Did you know Subaru made trucks at one point? Two in fact; the Baja as pictured above, was made from 2002-2006, and the BRAT 1979-1994. Anyway, here's a Baja blast from the past. I would drive one of these goofy things in a heartbeat, or an El Camino. Love me some truck-cars. Sadly, the Emblem had been taken so no Baja emblem for me.
Crunch is the sound this car makes. I think it was a Plymouth or a Chrysler from the 90's, but I could be wrong. You can tell this one was in a crash; and I found the shape of it quite interesting. You can side-impact crashes in videos, but seeing this in real life makes me beg other driver's to leave my Civic be. As safe as an 03 Civic still is- it's a crunchy little 2000s guy and I like it a lot.
Now I can't promise this is the same winking Fiero, but I found this shot really interesting. I miss pop-up headlights, they were so much fun.
Some surreal photos of gutted cars. I know the white one is a Firebird, I think from the 80s, but I just find something so liminal about how empty these cars are. It would be interesting to hear the stories and watch the cars get taken apart over time.
And the last of the high quality pictures, here's a row of the cars in the miscellaneous section of the yard. Most of the previous photos were there too. It's where they keep odd things like buses, large vans, ambulances, and classic/vintage cars. Although sometimes you find an older car among the rows of late 90's to early 2010's cars, as my father and I did yesterday. Now, it has started to snow some and was VERY cold, so I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted. I want to go back in the spring and take a large shoot where my fingers won't turn into icicles. However, I find this picture inspiring.
As I walk through the yard, I find it looks like a grave yard of old cars. Rarely do you find a car that you say "why is this here, it should've been sold to a new driver?" My father and I found a 90's Cadillac we felt was in great shape and shouldn't rot here. But when I checked out with my haul of emblems yesterday, we got talking with the employee at the register. Either he was a higher up, a manager, or a senior employee who knows a lot. Because he called the place "their playground" as in, for the yard's racing team. They participate in local and state events, and the car that was being stored in the front of the store was a Chevrolet Cobalt. At least, it's temporary, but they've found people like seeing the car. "And when something breaks, we go looking in the yard for the parts we need. It's our playground."
That changed my view on how scrap yards are. I walk through them and say "I wish I had that car," or "that poor thing, it's just rotting here." I saw them so negatively, but hearing that made it so much more positive of a place to be. My mom called the Ram an "organ donor," and I think that's really what makes this a playground. People tear apart cars for what they need- in May, my father spent almost an hour collecting tail pipes for his 1986 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser off a 1990's Buick Roadmaster sedan. Meanwhile, I ran around and collected emblems, prying off the ones I could get. We both had fun that day- and I felt safe enough in the yard by myself when my dad was there. (I look like a 14 year old kid to most people, I always get asked for my ID when I enter the yard.) And that day it was a playground- whatever I could brute force off I'd take. And I think that when it's not cold, it'll be a photography playground too. I'm very excited to go back in the spring and hang out with my father.
Anyways, with my musings aside- some of the Civics had VTEC and I wish it was as easy as taking an emblem because I want VTEC in my little guy! They were sitting there and taunting me. Although, I have no idea if any of those engines ran.
Here's my emblem collection over time. Not pictured is a second Impala emblem and a Pontiac emblem.
My haul from the playground in May: From left to right: the middle of a Mini steering wheel, gold Toyota emblem, 2000s Chevrolet Impala emblem, 2003 Honda Civic word badge, and Honda emblem.
Now, the Mini one is because a friend of my mother's LOVES Mini cars, and we couldn't find a good badge, so we grabbed that one. She still loved it.
My haul from yesterday. From left to right: 2000s Saab emblem, 1980's Chevorlet Caprice Classic emblem, 1980's Monte Carlo knight emblem, late 2000s Subaru Outback K lettering, and 2003 Honda Civic word badge.
"Why did you only take the K?" you're asking. My mother's Outback has a broken K.
The K is missing it's leg. I kept joking with my mother that I'd get her a new K next time I went, so I decided I would. Sorry, this is the only picture I have of it. Anyways, I got yesterday's emblem haul for the price of one- it paid off to go on Black Friday!
Now I mentioned that I have two Impala emblems, a driver's side and passenger side one. I also now have two Civic badges. My plan is to put the badges on the side of my Civic like names used to be put on classic cars. Is it silly? I dunno, probably. Do I care? Nope.
But you know what's more silly? I'm gonna put the Impala badges where they would go on a Chevy Impala. That's right, anyone who doesn't know cars well won't have any idea what I drive. I want to do it because they look so dang natural on the Civic's almost basic sedan design in 2003. And the wider Civic community hates the 7th generation Civics, so I won't be committing a sin and do something silly to a "sacred car." Just kidding; I don't really believe in that. Do whatever you want to your car as long as it's legal.
Anyways, that's the end of this post! I hope you liked it, and I'll see you next week!
-Rosetta 💖