It doesn't make any sense

[forthlin]

This '56 Ford has been setting up there for around 10 years & until recently it didn't have a back window. It was supposed to have been driven in & scrapped about 15 years ago & hasn't been started since. Somebody bought the back window about 12 or so years ago when it was in the yard so you can imagine what the interior & floorboards must look like after setting that long without a window. Up close the body looks to be in excellent shape. Why would someone even think of junking this? And why leave it up there to sit & slowly rot away? Edited June 14, 2015 by forthlin

[Ace-Garageguy]

Why would someone even think of junking this? And why leave it up there to sit & slowly rot away?

Because to the majority of people, old cars are unreliable, impossible to fix, dangerous gas hogs. And to many folks in the scrap-metal business, an old machine isn't a worthwhile thing of beauty with a history and character, but just another few easy bucks...that's why.

[ranma]

4 doors are less desirable to most collectors for some reason, even if that is a ford it's a sad fate to sit and rot.

[chunkypeanutbutter]

Wife told him to get rid of it. Car burned oil. Ran out of money. Really could be anything.

[Jmaracing]

That's crazy to let it sit like that. There is a Chrysler dealer about 20 miles from my house. They had a 70 challenger on the roof for years. Went by about 2 weeks ago now there is a nascar taking its place.. Wonder ware the challenger went????

[Krazy Rick]

Because to the majority of people, old cars are unreliable, impossible to fix, dangerous gas hogs. And to many folks in the scrap-metal business, an old machine isn't a worthwhile thing of beauty with a history and character, but just another few easy bucks...that's why.

Your correct Ace, the majority of people are & always will be total idiots.

[Harry P.]

Your correct Ace, the majority of people are & always will be total idiots.

It has nothing to do with being an idiot.

The majority of people just aren't into cars. To most people, that car is a worthless piece of junk. Only a very small minority of the population sees it as something worth saving. Does that make people who are not into old cars "idiots?" Of course not. We all have different interests.

What if you saw that your neighbor put an old "Speed Queen" wringer-style clothes washer out to the curb to be picked up by the garbage man? Well, most people wouldn't give it a second thought. They would see an old, useless, worthless piece of junk. But to a person who actually collects old washing machines, he would see a treasure! But the fact is, most people don't collect old washing machines and don't assign any worth or value to them.

Know what I mean?

[Hemified71]

Doesn't make any sense someone paying $40 Million for a rare Ferrari... But they DID... Does that make them an idiot? No. It make's them RICH.

[Tom Geiger]

I used to run in the demolition derby back in the 1980s. You'd see some really cool old cars being entered. By the time I'd see them, they had already been gutted and cut up for the derby so it was too late to save them. But the story was always the same, "I had this old car, I advertised it for sale for 6 months and nobody bought it, and I needed to get rid of it." So they took it to the demo. Others drove them down to the junk yard or called up some charity to take it away.

In my day, I saw a lot of great old cars in the junkyard. Sometimes the junkyard owners would put them up for sale whole and someone would put them back on the road. Other times the junkyard saw more profit in selling the 60,000 mile engine, so they got scrapped. I've bought cars from the junkyard. One yard I used to frequent called me when they got in a 64 Valiant convertible. Seems the owner, who was doing a half vast resto on it anyway, wound up in the county clink and his family junked his car.

I had it for maybe five years. Kept it in the garage because the roof was bad. I'd drive it around on sunny days. Eventually sold it to a guy who said he was going to restore it.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Tom Geiger

[fractalign]

I had to do a double take when I saw that image I thought that was yard here in OZ. My fellow countrymen seem to prefer 4 door sedans over two doors for some weird reason, so I can imagine if that was over here someone would have offered vast sums to buy it. As for the general public, they do not like cars full stop. Most of my country men hate our locally built cars and would rather own a Chinese built or Korean built auto. So as far as the majority of people go this is just another old bomb.

[disabled modeler]

I understand what everyone here has said but to me it seems to be just a waste of a decent condition old car even if its a 4 door...seen way too many done that way around here...one was a 70 Plymouth Superbird a guy let sit in a hog lot and it eventually just rotted away to the point where once they did move it the car ripped in 1/2... ...I offered to buy or trade something for it for over 10 years but the guy said he hated it and it was going to just sit there as it did which he later scrapped it...I just cant get myself to understand people like that.

[freakshow12]

Yeah, it's a 4 door so it can sit there. Lol

[Southern Fried]

I started trying to buy a '67 Mustang Fastback that was sitting in a back yard back in 1975.

I kept stopping for almost 5 years. I always got the "Gonna fix it up" reply.

It's STILL sitting there today.

Not worth even trying to restore now.

[69NovaYenko]

Because to the majority of people, old cars are unreliable, impossible to fix, dangerous gas hogs. And to many folks in the scrap-metal business, an old machine isn't a worthwhile thing of beauty with a history and character, but just another few easy bucks...that's why.

4 doors are less desirable to most collectors for some reason, even if that is a ford it's a sad fate to sit and rot.

Ditto to both comments.

Parts are hard to next to impossible to locate, very costly to restore ven if you have the skill and tools to do such.

To folks in the scrap-metal business it`s just another fist full of dollars in parts.

And, unfourtunatly it`s a "four door"; which is not the most sort after restoration project in the eyes of many.

[Tom Geiger]

I started trying to buy a '67 Mustang Fastback that was sitting in a back yard back in 1975.

I kept stopping for almost 5 years. I always got the "Gonna fix it up" reply

It goes both ways... I had several old cars that I owned for many years. Kept them in the garage, but never did get to restoring them. When I finally had to let them go, I sold them to guys who did the song and dance that they were going to immediately restore them to perfect yada, yada... well, several years later these cars haven't progressed an inch. And now they're sitting outside and rotting! Sad!

[PeeBee]

Think of it this way: It would take about the same money (and effort) to restore a '56 Ford convertible as it would to restore that boring old 4-door sedan.

And, even with the convertible, you have to be careful about how much you're going to spend on a restoration vis-a-vis what the car will bring on the market. You wouldn't want to dump $80-100K into a resto for a car that's never going to return that kind of money. Imagine the bath you'd take on that 4-door (if you could even find a buyer)!

That's one reason why that car is sitting on the roof of a junkyard.

PB.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Think of it this way: It would take about the same money (and effort) to restore a '56 Ford convertible as it would to restore that boring old 4-door sedan.

And, even with the convertible, you have to be careful about how much you're going to spend on a restoration vis-a-vis what the car will bring on the market. You wouldn't want to dump $80-100K into a resto for a car that's never going to return that kind of money. Imagine the bath you'd take on that 4-door (if you could even find a buyer)!

Right. Which is why almost all of the 4-doors in my sphere of influence are kept as drivers, and the money is only put into more desirable body styles.

It's always a mistake to think you're going to make money on a restoration though, unless you have something like a Ferrari Testarossa you got for $200.

Even to restore a Pinto to true Pebble Beach concourse condition could easily top $100K. Filling a car with bondo, shooting a crapp paint job on it, and fiberglassing the rotten floors is NOT restoring...though I know a lot of folks who seem to think it is. So if you can't do it right...don't.

Restore a car for the same best reason you build models...to enjoy something YOU particularly love. Then, whatever time and money you put in it will be worth it.

[Spex84]

It's funny that as classics get older and tougher to find, and all the truly iconic classics are becoming increasingly unaffordable, 4-door sedans and wagons are starting to stage a comeback. Especially overseas, where any american classic car is a cool novelty.

A few years ago, somebody down the valley from me entered a '57 Chevy in a demolition derby. Naturally it was destroyed in about 2 hits. The youtube video is full of commenters blowing a gasket that anyone could derby a '57. But for decades you could barely give them away.

Across the valley from me, there are some cars that were chopped into pieces and pushed over a bank, partially covered in dirt. A 55 Chevy. A '50 Mercury....and more. But they were all sedans, so they were evidently stripped for useable parts and then disposed of. This probably happened around 30-40 years ago.

In the year 2040, 1950 Dodge 4-door sedans will be desired and sought-after!

Oh, and all the restaurants will be Taco Bell

Edited June 18, 2015 by Spex84

[Harry P.]

It's simple. Two door coupes are "desirable" and bring the big bucks.

More and more of them have been snatched up. So what does that leave us with?

Sedans. An untapped market.

[Chuck Most]

Doesn't make any sense someone paying $40 Million for a rare Ferrari... But they DID... Does that make them an idiot? No. It make's them RICH.

No, it makes them both an idiot and rich.

[Mike 1017]

001.JPG002.JPGThis '56 Ford has been setting up there for around 10 years & until recently it didn't have a back window. It was supposed to have been driven in & scrapped about 15 years ago & hasn't been started since. Somebody bought the back window about 12 or so years ago when it was in the yard so you can imagine what the interior & floorboards must look like after setting that long without a window. Up close the body looks to be in excellent shape. Why would someone even think of junking this? And why leave it up there to sit & slowly rot away?

I drive from Chicago to Fenton Mi. at least once a week. I think that I pass this place. Yes? No?

[Greg Myers]

[JohnU]

OH THE HORROR!!!!

[Daddyfink]

Well, if you hate to see the car in that condition, what have you done to remedy the situation? Have you offered them money for it, help to restore it or talked to them about it?

It is easy to lament the situation, but, who here is actually willing to step up and do something?

I don't want it

[BIGTRUCK]

I remember the cars on the spike at the mall on harlem ave in the south suburbs of chicago, they got rid of the spike o' cars and the flat pinto on the wall some time ago.