Hello fellow Autopians! I’m back from a short hiatus after our last adventure with what may be the world’s 4th-most-popular base model Dodge Stealth. Great news for anyone who is a fan of up-cycling anything on wheels: David Tracy has green-lit a recurring junkyard series here featuring Yours Truly! Here’s a look at the latest gold that I found in my nearby Wilmington, North Carolina junkyard.
Writing my “Gossin Motors Backyard Shitbox Auto Rescue” adventures here since we started the site last year has literally been a lifelong dream and one of the coolest opportunities ever. A more frequently recurring series is next level, and I won’t let David down. I’m wicked pumped and hope y’all are too!
I wanted to start this piece with a pirate-themed “gold” reference per the series name “Gossin’s Gold: Graveyard Garbage & Grievance” (which is The Bishop-approved; high honors) but it felt a bit cheesed and too on-the-nose. The “grievance” part of the initial title (which David, the headline-master, changed) was placed there not only for its alliteration properties, nor to conjure images of one of the antagonists in “Clone Wars”, but to instead convey the main emotion I feel on my weekly junkyard visits. That emotion is anger; it pisses me the hell off! “WHY THE %^&*! WAS THIS JUNKED?!” is said multiple times each visit.
Since I’m there every week, I’ve become friends with a few on the staff (big shout out to Scott Johnson who has helped with parts for many of the cars you’ve read about here the past 18 months) who have told me deeply frustrating tales of perfectly running cars being driven to the junkyard to be crushed for a few hundred bucks. Such monumental waste makes this environmentalist motivated to save as many as possible from that eventual fate at those junkyard gates.
I understand why it happens, though, as each person walks their own path in this world and their choices, finances and property is their own to do with as they please. I’ve been there as well. Certainly not with cars, as I’d have to turn in my Autopian Credentials to David if so, but instead with Robbie Williams’ “Millenial” album. I just got over doing anything further with it. But I never forgot it.
I’m sure many of the owners of the cars sitting in my local yard and those yards around the world feel the exact same about their junked cars as I did with Robbie Williams. It’s part of the nature of capitalist consumerism and has been happening to both loved and under-loved cars for over 130 years now. Regardless, that doesn’t make the grievance any less. I’m still pissed. It’s those wicked cool, semi-unique, reasonably-rare ones that we hope for a better outcome to befall them.
So, my fellow Autopians, let’s journey together to “the yard” and see what makes us angry, but also what makes us smile. Let’s see if there’s anything to stir up some old memories of days past where these old machines played either a central or supporting role.
Sidebar: The Pirate lore where I live (The Cape Fear) is legit, as Blackbeard was based out of Ocracoke, NC and Pirate Queen Anne Bonny ran the Cape Fear River in my city of Wilmington. That said, I still chose a British pop star that I don’t really like as the starting metaphor for this series. It’s a strange decision, yet I feel as though the central theme here is going to be strange and bad decisions, so it feels right.
So with that, I present to you, the first installment of “Gossin’s Gold,” mateys! Let’s go!
’82 FIAT Spider
Jason Torchinsky’s favorite poet, Robert Frost, wrote “Nothing Gold Can Stay” in 1923 when he was only five years older than I am now. In that piece, he describes the transience of life, beauty and youth. This Fiat Spyder, a nugget of green gold, seems to have navigated its 41 year tenure on this planet well to be one of the few remaining. At least for its final 30 days.
The metallic green paint looks even better in person; obviously this car was garage kept for most of its life and the clearcoat shows that. No accident damage and the interior is in decent shape so I’m guessing this was junked out of disinterest, mechanical failure, or due to rust in the wrong places (structural, brake lines, fuel lines, etc). There are only a few small quarter-sized rust spots on the deck lid that I could see.
When was the last time you saw a green, stick shift, ’82 Sypder? I think this is my first time seeing one.
’88 VW Fox Wagon
To me, this era of VW was the last one that you could backyard wrench upon without needing to purchase software, scanners, modules, electrical diagrams, learn German, and befriend your local dealer. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but VW products from the Aughts forward have always given me some grief and have been quite challenging for my limited skillset.
No body damage, and an intact interior. Plus that glorious stickshift. This one deserved a few more miles. I’m guessing it was mechanical failure, since the rest of the car is pretty clean.
’89 Audi 90
I’ve been going to this particular yard every weekend for 13+ years and have never seen one of these cars. And there are about 2,000 cars there rotating on a 30 day cycle. This one didn’t have any Quattro badges on it, so perhaps it is a 2WD car. Our own Mark Tucker may know better, since I believe I recall him saying that his family used to rock a similar car.
The massive “Toyo Tires” banner in yellow really takes over the front view of the car; perhaps this person just really likes Toyo tires that much.
Beautiful pearl-white paint with a decent interior and no rust or body damage. I anecdotally have limited exposure to these cars and have a slight fear of them due to a lack of understanding. I’m guessing this was junked due to a mechanical failure.
’71 Opel 1800 Wagon
Social Media Pete helped me make a digital Reel with this gem a few months back on The Autopian’s social media empire. What a rare bear. Just think about the very small Venn-Diagram center of the equation that this car sits within: green, wagon, in NC, & Opel.
I’ve never seen another and I doubt that I ever will again. This one was junked for $350, and rumor has it that the roof rack (that’s sitting inside the car now) is worth double/triple that. I just am not sure I have the space to store it until that one guy in Poland who wants it sees my eBay ad for it in 2027.
Such a cool rear end design. Sadly this car will cease to exist in the next 2 weeks.
’11 Mini Cooper
I love all things with wheels, so it’s rare-to-never that you will hear me badmouth anyone or anything. Do I feel that the entire MINI experience is built on artifice with a German company pretending to make (terribly unreliable) retro British cars with BMW parts? Absolutely. Do you see an endless stream of 9-12yr old, relatively low mileage Mini’s in the junkyard with bad engines and a litany of other issues? Absolutely. Does this make them some of the cheapest cars to buy used? Absolutely.
Thomas Hundal and I recently had a conversation where I was making the claim that the cheapest cars on FB Marketplace in every city in the US are 11-23yr old broken BMW products. Thomas is a BMW fan, He countered with something along the lines of “They’re just misunderstood and mismanaged by neglectful, clueless owners.” Fair enough.
It also means that there are a ton of them consistently in the yard that are ripped to pieces. This works to your advantage when you will inevitably need those hard-to-reach parts; they’re already looking you right in the face.
’08 Mercedes R350
Speaking of cars that you consistently see in junkyards: the 15yr old Mercedes. Somebody paid $47,265 in 2008 for this car, which is $67,107 today. The final owner got $750 for it when they sent it to die 15 years later.
Near-perfect exterior and interior means that it’s probably something electrical, suspension or transmission-related, as these engines are pretty stout. After swapping the ABC suspension on that ‘03 SL500 last year for steel coils (the dealer wanted $8K to fix the ABC system), I get why Mercedes of this era are junked in great condition.
’73 Jeep
When you work for David Tracy, you need to close on a DT-style note. Jeeps are cool for what they are, but they aren’t really my thing. I’ve had a few on them over the years and my mom drove an XJ in the mid-90s. Nothing bad to say about them, but I don’t have a life-altering love for them either like others around here (Weekend Youngster Rob “Plates” Spiteri: “The Voice of The Youth” is also a big Jeep fan and just bought an XJ).
[Ed Note: Thing looks mint! -DT].
This old CJ-5 just looked so strange and out-of-proportion in a good way that it was almost comical. That type of uniqueness is cool, period. This Jeep will become an I-beam in a building in China in the upcoming weeks.
The Legend of Gossin’s Gold Continues!
So there we have it, fellow Autopians, the first episode of cars that I thought were cool while hanging in a junkyard in Wilmington, NC on a Saturday morning.
Many other customers and a few employees gave a few weird looks at the dude that was taking 100+ photos of junked cars in his free time, but that’s just our style around here. Let’s keep those wrenches turning, my homies. Until next time!
All Photos by Stephen Walter Gossin
- Is The $1,200 Beat-To-Death Pontiac Grand Am For Sale In Every Town Worth It? I Found Out.
- How I Got Six Years Of Service Out Of A $220 Car
- What I Learned Trying To Flip Two Dirt-Cheap GM “J-Body” Coupes That Nobody Wants
- How I Saved A Once-$90,000 Mercedes SL I Bought For $1,900
- Why The Dirt-Cheap Broken Jaguar X-Type For Sale In Every Town Might Actually Be Worth Buying And Fixing
- I Took On A Bad GM Design In A Hail-Mary Attempt To Fix My Friends Broken Suburban But It Was Too Little Too Late
- I Asked The Internet Which of My Cars I Should Sell. Here’s What The People Said
- I Have More Cars Than Parking Spaces. Help Me Decide What Stays And What Goes
- What It Was Like Owning And Fixing My First Jeep After Owning Over 100 Non-Jeeps
- How I Saved My Buddys’ SUV After It Died At The Most Embarrassing Possible Time
Always check Audis for the super-lightweight scissors jack. As a bonus, the design makes them a worthwhile purchase just as auto art
Hate to see the Opel there. Not many left. The Fox I can sort of understand, as, even when I was into wrenching & VWs, their reputation made me shy off. Not even a Jeep guy-I never really got it-but that one did produce a lump I can’t quite swallow, damnit
edit
Little Hasselhoff goin on in the pic there. And, I think you carry it—good on ya, SWG (thumbs up)
Are you kidding. Those jacks are trash and nicknamed the widow maker haha
Didn’t know that.
20 years ago a buddy brought me one. Fit my 82 Rabbit nicely. I picked up a couple more in the next decade just cause they looked cool.
-glad I never had to use one, I guess
The only reason i own one is it is OEM for my Fiat it is never being used
Yes, that Audi is an automatic, and therefore 2WD. Quattros were manual-only until the 1990 V8.
I enjoy your writing and this looks like the start of a great series.
I did a fair bit of wrecking yard hunting in the 1970’s and ’80’s here in SW Ontario, Canada. At that time accidents and rust seemed to be the main reason for cars being there.
Last time I wandered around a wrecking yard, even in this road salty environment, I saw cars and wondered why they were even there. I guess the cost of parts and labor kills the incentive to fix them these days, long before the rust demon takes hold.
The rust demons came a lot quicker back then. Unless you have a 2018 Ford Explorer (a guy I know uses one for work), in that case, it’s right on track to have rust holes at year seven.
great content SWG!! and no shirtless pics.. shame hehehe
There are some real philistines out there junking cars!
My thoughts exactly! Just wait until episodes 2 & 3 drop, then you’ll see some real heart-breakers.
Thanks for reading and for the comment!
Very sad too bad the column isnt doing anything to stop it
Is DT on his way to trailer that Jeep yet? We’ve all seen him start with worse.
It was inevitable. With amateur boneyard squire David Tracy trading rust for fur, Autopian had to call in a professional.
A legacy sequel to Josie and the Pussycats; David and the Pussycats.
Don’t tell my boss, but I loathe cats.
The above does not apply to Mercury Cougars, Ford Panthers and Jaguars though.
Mercury Bobcat is sad it does not rate in your pantheon of kitty cars.
I forgot the DeTomaso Pantera as well! All are in the “acceptable feline” category over here.
> I loathe cats
There just had to be a fatal moral defect behind the amazing writing, million dollar smile, and wrenching fortitude.
You’ll come around.
I always had a soft spot for the old Ford Pumas (the ‘sport compact’ ones, not the new SUV), even if they were based on a Fiesta chassis.
Of course DT would green light a junkyard series. Hollywood David needs to live vicariously. Always enjoy your writing SWG and looking forward to more.
Fix the Fox!! The only one worth looking at IMHO…
Fiat is total rust bucket, look at the front edge of that hood. Combined with body damage and interior damage, it’s sadly not worth the money to restore.
Protip: Anytime you see an early to mid 90s audi, pull the driver’s kick panel, and if you see a big double wide relay #329, grab it. Throw it on ebay later, easy enough to ship:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192593420145
wow, $75 for one!
But has parts too bad no yard contact. Used to be you gave credit and a shout out to a helpful business. Now not so much
Come for the Catopian content, stay for the SWG eloquence!
I live quite close to one of the few salvage yards in my area, yet the vehicles interned are no where near as interesting as what you get. Also not as interesting as the Buy-Here-Pay-Here/anyone qualifies/sketchy salvage-repair dealer a couple blocks the other way.
One of the things that always irks me along the lines of your thesis here, is how much these vehicles get beat up after arriving at the yard. Presumably the yard wants to sell off as many parts to pullers as they can, so why do they beat every body panel to shit with their forklifts? It’s just lowering the value of their inventory.
100% agreed; the forklift/front-loader dudes are pretty rough. I’ll have more on this subject in upcoming episodes. The big money for these types of yards is in steel and catalytic converters though, part sales are secondary.
Thanks for reading and for the above comment!
No minimum wage employees and the lack of knowledge of valuable parts based on y/m/m. I once bought a pile of parts on a car that the yard thought was picked over. They let me pick apart the vehicle and newbie negotiate the $70 price. I sold a OEM roof rack and a few bits for $700. That was a discount for club members. It is getting tougher getting deals now.
Good to see your byline again. We’ll have to start referring to you as The Messiah as you’ve raised more dead than Jesus. Depending on what Idalia does, we might be testing your water walking skills, too.
A very sincere thank you for the above kind words and for reading! It really does mean a lot.
I have a fun rescue adventure in the oven right now that should be ready shortly and this one pushed me to my limit.
Re: Idalia, hoping it’s just a rainstorm by the time it gets here, but its sadly looking as though quite a few flood cars will be showing up in FLA yards in the next 60 days.
Look forward to reading about the next adventure. Good luck with the storm. I’m about 150 miles south of you, so I guess I’ll see the effects first.
I think most of these vehicles are well beyond saving. You’d have to find someone who doesn’t mind taking a big loss in order to save the car. That VW Fox however doesn’t look like an impossible project to me. If the body is solid, you can find a replacement powertrain and have a funky little runabout without throwing too much money into the abyss. You’d never see your investment back in resale value, but the fun of getting it back on the road is something you can’t put a value on. If nothing else we have to save any vehicle that you could possibly call a shooting brake since they have vanished from current lineups.
“Well beyond saving” doesn’t really register over here on the same level as it does for others.
If it runs and moves on its own power (and there isn’t a personal or public safety issue) it shouldn’t be junked in my eyes. I’m not sure what the over-under is with the rest of Greater Autopia, but I believe a majority of our fellow inhabitants would feel the same.
That VW is pretty wicked though, right? “No frickin’ way!” -me, a couple Saturday mornings ago when seeing it
And that “can do” attitude is why we love your exploits in saving cars that would otherwise be turned into flatware. You probably could have figured out what the hell was wrong with my 2009 Escape after I and my very trusted local shop had spent 6 months failing to fix it. I had a 2003 Camry to fall back on, so getting rid of the Escape was an easy choice. I have to get to work 5 days a week, and I have no interest in spending my non-work time screwing around with an appliance vehicle that has worn out its welcome.
I like to think that someone picked up that Escape for peanuts and got it running well again. It probably wound up in a junkyard however, which is a testament to the blue oval’s skill in pooping out vehicles that reach the not-worth-repairing point way too soon.
What’s up with the Disco sitting next to the Merc? Sad to see one of those in the boneyard. That’s more desirable to me than any of the other cars
If it could be had for cheap, the CJ5 could be a starting point for a project for a skilled fabricator. Keep at least part of the tub to preserve the VIN and build a crawler.
Every single one of those cars is a shitbox in the right place.
The fact that this is currently the most up-voted comment hurts my soul.
That’s sad. Formerly worked on a route near a recycler, and watching the trucks go by full of flattened former owner’s prides used to wrench at me. Fact that I anthropomorphize machinery didnt help
I refuse to accept anything “Gold” is pirate themed. This is Huell Howser themed.
I’m not sure if this is a deep-cut, or a California-cut, but Mr. Howser is new to me. Old-school programming/shows like his were awesome.
Its a great show, he was so wholesome and excited about everything. I’d absolutely watch a show of a guy going through a junkyard like that.
I just need The Autopian Finance Dept to authorize the film crew flying from HQ (in LA) to Wilmington to follow me around the local yards along with post-production and a healthy insurance policy increase.
I’m not saying it’s a tall order, but it might be an above-average-height order.
…for now.
Thanks for reading and for the comment!
The Motor Trend streaming people actually made such a show: Roadkill’s Junkyard Gold with Steve Magnante. You can still stream it if you have the Motor Trend app subscription.
I know, watched every episode. Always found Steve pretty chill. Its a shame they didn’t keep it going, but you can say that about almost everything interesting on MT these days.
Very excited for this recurring series even if it makes me sad. SWG’s articles are generally my favorite on the site. He’s living my dream until I can convince my SO that we need to move to a house with more space so I can get all the random unloved but good condition cars on FBM.
Loved my ’69 Opel Wagon with the 1.9 engine. One of the very few cars that made money for me. Think I paid about $500 for it in 1978, probably put 15,000 miles for work (and took the IRS mileage deduction), then was rear ended (and “totaled”-took the insurance offer of $500 “you keep the salvage”), found 2 tail lights for $20 each (this is probably 1980), banged on the hatch a few times so the hatch would still close (if not lock) and gave the car to my brother (who drove nonstop from Phoenix to Perth Amboy, NJ without incident.) He kept it another year before it finally died.
Fast forward 40+ years. Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale actually sold an immaculate red Opel Wagon of similar vintage. At first, I thought I needed a bidders pass. But, after thinking for 5 seconds, I realized I probably wouldn’t want a nice one. I would only relate to one with “experience.” Thanks for the memories, Stephen.
It’s a shame you don’t still have it; you might be the only person on the continent that would pick any parts off that thing
Ahem. Fiat Spider. Not Spyder. There’s no “y” in Italian.
Thank you! I’ll get that fixed asap.
[duplicate]
“There’s no “y” in Italian.”
Well that explains a lot then. (-;
It’s why we don’t eat spaghetty.
This is a great series! I wish I had a walkable junkyard close to me, just to look around and dream
Shit the first car in the first article has the rear end I need for my 79′ spider… why must you be all the way in north carolina?
Now that i scrolled back up its got some good looking bumpers too… and that top looks weird… Is it a hardtop?
Yes. It’s an aftermarket top.
The Fiat is there because just the cosmetics – body, paint, and interior – would exceed the value of just buying a better one, before you get into the mechanicals
The VW Fox is likely because it’s too old and has the wrong transmission for used car dealers to have been interested in putting it on the lot.
I’m really surprised that much of the Spyder’s interior is still there (shift knob even)…seems like a lot of that stuff would be unobtanium at this point and so would be the first stuff people would pull for their own restoration projects. Or are ’80s Fiats just that undesirable?
its the opposite. They are so popular that alot of that stuff is available repop’d. and basically from that picture all the things that typically look crappy/crack are exactly that.
Man, that Fiat Spyder and Opel 1800 both deserve to be rescued.
If the issue is engine failure, they’d both make excellent EV conversions or diesel swaps.
While I agree there are only so many people who are going to actually see a project like that through to completion. Someone would buy it with good intentions, make good progress for a bit then life will come up and a few years from now we would be looking at a partially complete EV conversion with outdated technology in the same yard.
I think it will probably take 2 generations of battery tech to pass for the price point, size, weight and feasibility of EV swapping cars like these to make any kind of sense financially.
Emotionally speaking though, I’d love to EV swap my ’94 LeBaron.
Thanks for reading and for the comment!
I think a much more doable route would be a PHEV swap. Ideally your donor vehicle is FWD + MT but was available in an AWD variant (or at least shares a platform with an AWD vehicle and you can get lucky with rear suspension/subframe parts that can accommodate CV axles and a diff). That leaves you needing to source a relatively low-power electric driveline for just the rear wheels; a Leaf off Copart would do the trick nicely. Leave the manual trans in neutral and drive in electric mode until the battery gives out, then fire up the engine and drive around like any other car.
Or you can go series hybrid. Remove the transmission and bolt up the power conversion tech from a junked Volt to keep your battery topped up at all times via the engine.