Junkyarding and old car hunting.... all in a day's work.... Part Two

I hopped back on the highway to head to the first car I had heard about, a 1972 Plymouth GTX Road Runner (GTX was an option in 72 on the Road Runner).

It was in a small suburb of Chicago, not far from where the first junkyard was. So I used it as a starting point, and pulled the good old Rand McNally map out to see where I should go. GPS's are nice, but doesn't have the same feel of accomplishment when you get somewhere.

I found the general location of where the car was suppose to be on the map, found where I was and mapped out a general search area of where the car is suppose to be. I would drive up and down the streets searching for the car.

Getting to the general search area was fun in and of itself. The way I mapped out drove through some of the not so nice areas of the south side of Chicago. I never felt in danger, I just wouldn't like to stick around too long.

The way I mapped it out, I didn't realize it was a stop sign every other street, which slowed down my progress to a near crawl. My 93 RamCharger isn't the best vehicle for stop and go traffic, so I had to take it easy. I did make it to the search area without incident and began the search.

Going back and fourth for a while, down each street I began to loose hope I wouldn't find the car. Then, I came down this one street, and there it was, sitting in the driveway. It looked like an original 72 Plymouth Road Runner GTX to me. I was going to stop and knock on the door, but sadly time wasn't on my side. I had wasted too much time driving to the location, that I didn't have enough time to investigate it.

I snapped a few pictures from the road, noted the location in my little black book and continued on my way. Ironically at the end of the street, there was a 70-72 Duster sitting in a driveway. I did the same as before, snapped a few pictures, marked down the location in my little black book. Hoping to return here in the future.

I sort of knew where I was, so I made my way up some major streets back to 90/94 and went home. On the way home I found the new Toyota Field or something out in Bensenville I believe. I didn't even know it existed!

I hope to return to these cars in the near future to further investigate them.












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Junkyarding and old car hunting.... all in a day's work.... Part One

A few friends of mine from the online forum, RamCharger Central and I were meeting up at some of the junkyards located on the south side of Chicago to rescue parts we need for our ever aging Dodge trucks.

We all met up at the first yard and made our way in. The first car we come across walking in is a mid-70's Ford Mustang fastback. It had Mach 1 stickers on it, but looked like a regular one; someone stuck the stickers on there later. It was a complete wreck, but for as cheap as it was. It would make a good project for someone.

As we made our way into the yard, we made a bee lined it for the old Dodge trucks, not expecting much else.

When we arrived, the pickings were slim and most if not all were in worse shape then our vehicles. They did have a few odds and ends that we needed, so we worked them over and continued on.

We made our way over to the domestic regular section of the yard. 99% of the time there is no rear wheel drive vehicles around. We were very lucky today.

The first car we come across is a 1977ish Dodge Monaco Cop Car. Oh boy was this thing just oozing with cool, it had the police spotlight still, cop car 440, and miscellaneous other items. I began grabbing whatever I could off of the car.

I was able to only grab the dash bezel, and cop light. I didn't have the tools to get the speedometer or such out of there sadly.

Sitting there in the engine bay was a cop car 440, heavy duty cooling package, huge alternator, and the works. All of my friends looked at each other trying to devise a way to get it home... and none of us could. We just didn't have the time or money to get that thing out of there. In informed some people about the car, and I hope one of them grabbed the engine.

We continued on and discovered an 83 Chrysler Cordoba. It was a cool little car, but with nothing that we required. So we left that yard in good spirits.

We continued onto the next yard where there would be no old cars, just trucks. We hoped to come across a few more old Dodge trucks to pull parts, and we succeeded! We found a whole bunch of 1980's Dodge trucks at the new yard, even a 70's Dodge Step side.

We muddled around that yard for a few hours, I didn't find much for my RamCharger, but the others found stuff for theirs, so we were all happy.

So we parted company and went our separate ways, most of the group headed back to the Lemont area, while I headed back North, but my day was far from over...