![]() As you can see, there wasn’t much left to take from this thing, but the body seemed to be in reasonably good shape. I also stumbled across this Dodge Dart Sport not unlike my own Project Yankee. Despite some rust, it seemed potentially savable. While I didn’t see any of the ultra-valuable ’68-’70 Chargers in the yard, I did find this early ’70s model that had already given up many of its good parts. For some reason, Turner’s has quite a large selection of these early Chargers, so if you own one and are looking for parts you know who to call. Sticking with the Mopar theme for a moment, here we have the equally recognizable fastback shape of the 1966 Dodge Charger. It was one of several early ‘Cudas on hand. There were plenty of popular and iconic machines in various states of disrepair and destruction, including this first generation Plymouth Barracuda. And while there are exceptions, the vast majority of these vehicles were built between the early ’50s and the early ’70s.Īnd don’t think for a minute that this place only has the undesired cars of history. GM, Ford and Chrysler are all well represented, but there are also plenty of cars from brands which vanished a long time ago. Walking through Turner’s is like traveling back to an era when the roads were dominated by big rear-wheel drive American passenger cars. ![]() There was actually enough material for several posts, but I think I’ll limit my findings to two stories – this one for the American stuff and another for the imported stuff. With acres and acres of automobiles to see, there was no time to waste. While the most common reason to visit a junkyard is to find parts for your car, I take great enjoyment from just walking around and discovering cool stuff, and that’s exactly what I was planning to do on this beautiful fall Saturday. ![]() Access is generally off-limits to the public, so when my dad told me a group of his car club buddies had been invited to look around the place, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to tag along with my camera. Unlike the chain wrecking yards, you can’t just show up at Turner’s, pay a couple of bucks and walk around the yard with your tools. It’s a sprawling 70-acre facility packed full of junked cars that not only deals with local customers, but also ships parts all over the world. I’m talking about Turner’s Auto Wrecking, located in the heart of the Central Valley, just outside of Fresno. This past weekend I had the chance to take a walk around what’s likely one of the most impressive junkyards in the state, and it happens to be in my own backyard. It turns out there are still wrecking yards full of genuine nostalgic treasures in California – you just have to know where to find them. Yuck! That’s not to say you won’t find cool cars occasionally, but the days of going to the junkyard and being presented with row upon row of cool vintage machinery and parts from yesteryear seem to be gone. These days, most of the public wrecking yards in California are packed full of Saturns, Cavaliers and other crappy cars from the ’90s. ![]() Not only does its mild climate help to preserve cars that might be completely scrapped in other locales, but the sheer number of vehicles that have traveled California’s roads ensure a massive supply of donor cars and parts.īut with that said, heading down to your local Pick-A-Part surely isn’t what it used to be. I think it’s safe to say that California might be the junkyard capital of the world.
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