John's Salvage Co in Sequin TX plus other PICS. Sat Road Tripping!

Hi Gang. I think you folks are going to get a real kick out of these pics. First, as always, the story.

Dad and I jumped in the Roady wagon early this morning and headed about an hour and a half southeast of Austin to just about my favorite salvage yard for old car parts searching, John's Salvage Company in Seguin Texas.

I went down there to find an exhaust manifold for my buddy Mitch's 76 DeVille...but also to go marvel at all the cars John's has. He does not crush cars, and has stuff going back the at least the 1930's. Sadly we went about a month late, as the spring vines and shrubs are covering a lot of the cars. In the winter you can see them all. But I think you'll get the idea.

This is what you see on Fox Trotter Road as you approach the office at John's:


And pulling up to the classic car nut's version of Disneyland:


To start, here is what we went for:


When we got there, John told us to go to the "Manifold Bus" and see if we could find a manifold already off. We walked out the door to find row after row of old school buses jam-packed with parts. One was full of carburetors, one full of hubcaps, one full of tail lights, and one full of exhaust manifolds...and I mean FULL. Dad and I spent about 5-mins looking and all the manifolds and then started laughing. You could spend DAYS searching through there and not find the right manifold.








We walked back over to the office to suggest we go look in the Cadillac's and pull one off a car, and one of the old guys in the office sighs, gets up and says "Come On" and walks out the door. He walks into the manifold bus, and no joke, comes out less than a minute later with this:



We set the broken manifold next to the one he came out with, and it was a perfect match. Dad and I were both shocked. The old guy just smiled and said "All you had to dowas look".

So now that the "chore" was over, Dad and I walked down the hill into the yard to take in the sights. Ready to go? Here is what we came to first. Need a perfect hood for your 57 Chevy?


Moving on, your come to transmission land.


Followed by engine land, with some neat cars in the background. Check out the 65 Impala SS with the front end falling off!


You wanna be Starsky, or Hutch?


It's the Deathmobile from Animal House


I freaking LOVE 1st gen Toronados!


1958 Chevy 4dr hardtop


Couple big Oldsmobiles



Couple 70's-era Cutlass


Olds Dynamic 88


Very picked over 69 Cutlass


68 Olds Cutlass Wagon


Dodge trucks


Cool Dodge Truck Emblem


Plymouth Belvedere


Dodge Polara


Toyota Land Cruiser on 70's Dodge Tradesman


Row of classic Chevy trucks


Now how many headlights do you really need?


Wood-sided Country Squire wagon


Turbo Corvair Monza Spyder on top of the stack


Another Corvair Monza, not a turbo, but solid!


Stacked Ford Fairlane's


4dr hardtop Corvair and 68 Firebird shell in the background


A TON more Corvairs and a 70's Buick Centurion 2dr hardtop


Hey Dude it's a Stude!


I spy a 2dr Citation...ha!


Grand Prix and Malibu wagon in front of stacked classic Chevys


Very complete Laguna S-3 with a 58 Chevy on it's back


67 Firebird with some big fender flares


Lincoln


Kojak Bang-Bang!


Monte Carlo


Two 79 Buicks...parts for me!



Stacked Chevys



61 Chevy


60 Chevys



Stacked Pontiacs...very solid Tempest on top


Batwing 59 Chevy


It's KITT! I wondered what happened to him!


More stacked Chevys




Neat old Pontiac



1955 Pontiac


1952 Olds


60 Buick 4dr hardtop and Oldsmobiles in the background


Very worn Z-28


Hey another X-car...and look at the grill on this Buick! SHARP!



Gorgeous 57 Oldsmobile





56 Plymouth


1940 Buick


I'll let these pics speak for themselves...


















Nearly totally complete Hudson Hornet



Smiling Buick


59 Edsel



Ford Town Sedan



DeSoto


Corvair Van


58? Ford



Cadillacs




Valient and Polara


Neat Plymouth Wagon


Imperial


Valient with 69 Charger behind it


Just cool. Check out that Chrysler lettering


Rambler Wagon



Hey it's Harry Potter!!


Big woody Caprice wagon


It's weird, it's orange, it's SAAB!


71 Lemans and 74 Firebird


Stacked Pontiacs - Firebirds behind Sunbird Turbo ragtop




67 Catalina and late 70's GP


Another Tempest


Wow...GTO


Another 67 Poncho and a 69 GP


More stacked Pontiacs. Firebird on top


69 LeMans 2dr hardtop


Neat old 5-window Chevy


El Camino!


Check out the bumper on that Buick. 2dr hardtop too


Cool T-Bird


C3 Corvette stacked


T-Birds


63 Chevy Wagon


65 Impala SS stacked


Inside the office/shop


And outside the shop.


55 Chevy Sedan



Ford


Toys!


Impala 2dr hardtop


VERY SOLID Buick sedan


Fords






I "think" this is a Plymouth. 2dr hardtop. Neat!


Another solid 55 Pontiac



Mercury Comet


Plymouth


Falcon


57 Ford Ranchero



Very sharp Imperial


Ok that was John's....keeping in mind we never walked down the 60's Mustang row or the AMC row. Will do those next time. Place is AWESOME and if you have the chance, go walk through it!

-Mike

From John's we decided to head down to San Antonio and hit some yards down there. On the way, we stopped in downtown Seguin to see the World's Largest Pecan!

On to San Antonio for some afternoon Pick-N-Pull yarding. Not "classic's" like John's, but some good pickin! Was DUSTY down in San Antonio. MAN they need rain!

Roady wagon




LT1 Sedan


Monte Carlo LS


Chevy with familier colors!


95 LT1 Roady.


Very complete G-body Cutlass


And Cutlass Wagon


Kicking myself here. This GP had all four 15x7 Rally II wheels. They were only $9.99 each....and I didn't nab them! Stupid!


More Roady Sedans


VERY CLEAN and SOLID 91 Olds Custom Cruiser. I got my exhaust heat shield off this car.










Another Roady Sedan


Very complete and solid Cutlass.



Burned Roady Sedan. Ouch!




Another G-body Cutlass


LeSabre Sport Coupe


Solid 78 Caddy


9C1 Caprice


Pick-N-Pull has an entire Caprice/Impala Section...sadly this is where the batteries in my camera died.



Really a Fun Day! I ended up getting the 76 Caddy exhaust manifold, the exhaust heat shield for my Roady wagon, and a perfect passenger front door panel speaker/door handle trim piece.

Headed back north to Austin and got home about 6:30. Parked my very dusty Roady wagon, said by to my father, popped the T-tops off the Cutlass and loaded my wife and the kids in the Cutty and went to the Sat evening cruise-in. If you've not had your fill of pics, I'm posting those in the Events section next.

Needless to say that was a LONG day, but a good one!

-Mike

I think I would rather go to John's than a car show. Looks like you had yourself a good weekend.

Tom C.

Man... It must take you HOURS to make a thread!!!! Holy crap.

I love the engine and transmission gardens! Are they expecting them to grow??? LOL!

And my favorite was that 58 Olds 4 door. Do want.

I'm jealous. We're lucky to find anything as far back as the late 80's around here. Everything else has long rotted away and been crushed. I can't tell you the last time I saw a 60's or 70's ANYTHING up here...

Awesome pics Mike and Thank You for documenting all your fun.I can almost feel and hear
your enthusiasm for these wonderful old cars thru your pictures.Man I wish we had your
kind of junkyards up here in Va.There are some big ones still open but they are out in the
western part of the state.Cant believe the condition of some of these cars but I guess that
the Texas sun has something to do with that.
Thanks Again
Jim Gordon

nice stuff,.

i would love to have the occ for a donor for the palamino,.

Nick

I agree with Crovo, that Olds in John's was SO cool looking. Love the rear window. Also got a kick out of the Hudson Hornet.

Lets be honest, I got a kick out of that entire place!

Such fun!

-Mike

Oh wow, that OCC has the cloth 3rd seat!

That would be a neat mod for you Mike.

Cadet57 wrote:

Oh wow, that OCC has the cloth 3rd seat!

That would be a neat mod for you Mike.

If my Roady had cloth seats I'd have nabbed it. The entire time I was looking over that car I was thinking of the $350 one for sale here in Austin. I could have made it really nice by parting that car out.

Did you see, way up in the John's pics, the white 80's Grand Prix? It had a huge factory power moon roof. So cool, and rare on a GP.

Man that was a fun day.

I love the randomness in the pics from John's. Such as the pile of classic cars, and a K car, lol. Stick em where you can I suppose, lol.

Great pics.

Great thread again bud! I LOVE LOVE LOVE me some 4 door hardtops and hardtop wagons.


Thank you, for real.

I am amazed at the condition of these very very old cars.Obviously they all need paint and
dent repair but their overall condition is remarkable.I would have thought with your location and proximity to the border that those late models would be "Down South" and not in a junk
yard.I guess it would take a little more effort to fix up than our neighbors to the south are
willing to put forth.Anyhow Mike if you do anything else this week please,please buy another
BATTERY for your camera as a back-up so we dont miss anymore of your pictures.I have said
it before and I always go to your post first because of your pics and the way you document
them.I will buy you another battery Mike just tell me the model number.
Thanks Again
Jim Gordon

Keep in mind Mexico is a good 5-7 hour drive from me, and most of the Mexican's don't even do that much shopping here locally, they take I-35 north and buy rusty pickups, vans, and SUV's from Minnesota, Illinois, and such car dealers that took them on trade and don't want to send them to the auctions.

There are "Tejano wagon trains" of these cars on I-35 daily. An old rusty Explorer pulling an old rusty Nissan pickup, in transit tags, Kansas/Illinois/Minnesota plates, all headed for Nuevo Laredo. I've even seen rusty dump trucks with a rusty S-10 Blazer in the bucket.

In any case, the really old cars don't get pulled across the border much, which is good.

This wagon train stuff keeps me entertained on my many trips from Austin to Dallas and back.

Glad you like the pics!

-Mike

Are they so poor down south that they have to import even our "RUST"to their country via
our old rusty cars and trucks?If something dont change down in Mexico it will become a
completely LAWLESS country.The drug "cartels"already run huge portions of that country
and they are gaining power daily.I feel for the honest people of Mexico as their numbers
are decreasing daily.Hell of a way to live.
IMHO
Jim Gordon

They could care less how a car looks down there. They just want the cheapest running vehicles they can get. They're great at patching cars together mechanically, and they want trucks, SUV's and such. Cars don't hold up down there.

When I worked at the shops a lot of my techs were mexicans, and in talking to them they say one of the most sought after jobs is taking the bus to Chicago or Minneapolis with a wad of cash in thir pocket and a tow bar. They go to car dealerships to buy all the rusty junkers traded in. They can buy these for next to nothing.

As long as one runs, they'll get they tow bar and strap a non-runner on the back, and head south down I-35. You'll see chains of 7-8 rusty junkers towing other rusty junkers.

In Texas, since cars don't rust out, most dealership trade-ins that are not put on the lot end up at auction and show up on "tote-the-note" used car lots. Mexicans rarely shop here, as trade-ins are not at give-away prices in Texas.

The one exception is with Craigslist, which is easy access to used cars for mexicans.

My red 96 Suburban, which I really adored, but my friends nick-named "the Taco Wagon" because it was a mild conversion with lots of stripes and running boards and looked "south of the border" to them, sadly ended up living up to it's nick-name.

I put it on Craigslist and a mexican guy showed up that same day with a giant roll of 10's and 20's, and was up front that he was heading for Laredo in it....using it to tow another truck he was buying. Sad to me, that was a CLEAN Suburban....you know how I keep my vehicles, but I was buying Misty the black '03 Suburban and got more from the mexican than the dealer was going to give me to trade it in.

I'm sure the "Taco Wagon" is now filthy, dented, the inside is now torn up, but it is still bouncing around the roads south of the border today. Poor thing.

That Saab 99 was red. The paint has burned orange in the sun. Mine was getting to be that color, and I lived in New Hampshire.

But, yes, it's weird.

81X11 wrote:

They just want the cheapest running vehicles they can get. They're great at patching cars together mechanically, and they want trucks, SUV's and such.

You aren't kidding at all on that. One of the u pull it yards I go to is a haven for the Mexicans. On the weekends the place will be full of them, pulling the craziest things to fix their car in the parking lot. Plugs, wires, hell even wiper blades, they are thrifty that is for sure, lol. Of course since most every employee at these yards is Mexican themselves I figure they get discounts.

Planning to head back to John's over the hoilday vacation next week. Between the drought and being winter now I should be able to see a lot more of the cars.

Pics to follow.

-Mike

81X11 wrote:

Pics to follow.

Now you're talkin'!

My buddy with the Pacer needs some parts and they have three down there. Have not set the day yet, but sometime next week.