Okay here is a lesson I learned sadly over the weekend.

I moved to SC almost 2 years ago. Since then I have mentally mapped every old car rotting away in someones backyard that I could find but have not yet knocked on any doors in an attemp to aquire any of them.

In a small lot next to a local body shop were a bunch of cars and some old farm type equipment. Included in the cars were 2 54 (ish) Fords and a 46 Chrysler (Im guessing thats what it was). The Chrysler had seen better days but was definitely "roddable" and the 2 Fords looked pretty good. Well bein gthat they were at a body shop I figured they were projects for someone and I never asked. Well I decided over the weekend "what the heck.." I'll go ask about them.

To my suprise when I arrived the lot was cleared of everything... no farm equipment, no cars nothing. I pulled into the parking lot of the body shop and asked the gentlemen outside what happened to them. "Sent 'em for Scrap last weekend" was his bone chilling response. aparently they plan to do something with the land so it had to be cleared.

I cant believe in this day of all junk being gold on ebay that someone would simply scrap somethign like that. Oh well. I have learned my lesson and will be visiting a few houses soon. I will soon be known around town as "that guy that always wants peoples cars"

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to mourn..

Good point! I have a few I need to look into! BTW any 68-72 novas out yourway?

Very soon all the old cars will be in CHINA , so we better start to stash them away!! My favourite wrecking yard in Tucson ,AZ is crushing everything! most of the yards I was going to in the last 5 years are gone. Price of metal has been driven high because of China"s demand for scrap. We keep buying there crap, so I guess we know who's to blame???MEL

I heard about a high demand for scrap but I couldn't find anyone willing to pay anything at all for body I just junked. I couldn't even get rid of it whole and had to cut it into little pieces to get rid of it. (It did amaze me just how much damage I could do with a sawzall in so little time.)

Price is high for good steel, aluminum, etc.....iron / tin / sheetmetal is $30 a ton CLEAN! out west..

Sorry... The only 68-72 Novas I have seen out this way have been on the road. I'll keep my eyes open though.

One more story to convey. Years ago... I was about 16/17 so about 10 years ago. there was this car lot in Pontiac, MI known as "Ricks". Well "Ricks" also owned a lot down the street where he had atleast 2-300 classic cars- LOTS OF REALLY NICE PROJECT CARS. Especially for MI. Well he put an add in the paper that the township ordered the lot cleaned and he had until "X" date to do it. MY dad and I drove out to see what he had. We wandered around for hours looking at all the cars... I love junkyards and thi splace was HEAVEN! For some reason my father decided to be evil and said "sorry son, no room in the yard for any more cars.. your mom would kill us".

Im not sure why we went if he didnt want to buy anything but it was fun anyhow. So we left and the end date came and went. The lot was right across from "Dixieland Flea Market" so one day we snuck back to the lot to see if the cars were actually gone. My heart sank... The only car left was a NAsh Metropolital with "Save" spray painted on the window. All the other cars were gone and although I dream that better things became of them, they were most likely all crushed.

All the big finned Caddys, convertible early 50's Chevys and even some 60s musclecars all cry out to me in my nightmares... "Why didnt you save us?"

And to make it worse, I got into Restoring orginal radios shortly after... when I think what rare radios could have gone to scrap it makes it worse.

Anyway I am done being negative.... lets see how many I can save now.... How many do you think it would take before the word "DIVORCE" comes up?

Radio Joe,

Do you have a website on what services you offer? Is it just restoration of radios, or do you do more? For instance, it would be nice to have my radio look correct but be able to catch FM channels. Or add a CD changer to it hidden in the trunk?

Tom C

Larry's fond of telling people that "it's in the book!" Maybe I'll start a new saying - "It's in the links!" ;-)

Tom - Radio Joe's website can be found in the links at left:

[www.joesclassiccarradio.com]

Since you want something more modern, you probably are not interested, but if you want restoration only, check out Fred at:

[www.fredsclassicradios.com]

One additional source, with systems sold through one or more of the Vair parts vendors, is Custom Autosound, at:

[www.custom-autosound.com]

Thanks Steve O!

Tom C,

Yeah there are a few different options available for your car. It can have an AUX input added to it so you can play a CD Changer, portable CD/ MP3 player or SAT Radio. We do Digital conversions and Custom radio work. Email me and we'll talk about what fits your needs and budget.

A few other sites are:

www.antiqueautomobileradio.com- Restos, conversions and parts

www.originalcarradios.com- Original radios for sale

www.wonderbarman.com- Restoration of Delco Radios.