My Office 21 years ago ( Warning Scrapyard Pictures )

[Matt]

Yes  swapped the pinto for a 2.3 V6 and resprayed it blue  

 

Shame that it only lasted until 1997 having had that much effort put into it not long before hand.

[Stixy]

I spent 20+ years of my existence on this earth as a spanner monkey in similar establishments,

started my "career" in the early 90's.

 

Enjoying your photos and memories very much.

 

Thank you.

 

It was a good time to be doing the job  , all we did was drain the fuel coolant  oil and brake fluid  remove the wheels and stack them , 

[CreepingJesus]

I remember trawling the scrappies in the early 90s with a mate of mine, for Lada and Skoda bits. Particularly the nicer 'luxo' bits - twin headlight fronts, velour interiors etc. He'd lob them in his van and go up to Campbelltown to meet the Russian factory trawlers. Parts (and eventually whole cars) were exchanged for vodka which was flogged off once he got home. Tidy profits, and more than a few missing weekends courtesy of Russian fire water...

[junkyarddog]

It was a good time to be doing the job  , all we did was drain the fuel coolant  oil and brake fluid  remove the wheels and stack them , 

I was employed to remove stuff to order,as well as the above.

 

Tearing about in a Forklift with my toolbox on the step and the oxygen/propane tanks strapped to the back,

and my trusty consaw by my side.

 

The free fuel was a nice bonus too

[Stixy]

Shame that it only lasted until 1997 having had that much effort put into it not long before hand.

 

 I sold it in early  96  but even in 97  it was still nothing special just a thirsty old car , shame though 

[Stixy]

I remember trawling the scrappies in the early 90s with a mate of mine, for Lada and Skoda bits. Particularly the nicer 'luxo' bits - twin headlight fronts, velour interiors etc. He'd lob them in his van and go up to Campbelltown to meet the Russian factory trawlers. Parts (and eventually whole cars) were exchanged for vodka which was flogged off once he got home. Tidy profits, and more than a few missing weekends courtesy of Russian fire water...

 

Next to my Escort there is a Skoda  this was scrapped in 1993 because the owner got fed up of not being able to sell it !   it did go back on the road though  

[HMC]

If someone had said in 20 years time this will be worth ££££ they would of thought you were having a laugh. White 2 door escorts always remind me of the rothmans sponsored rally cars.

[Stixy]

If someone had said in 20 years time this will be worth ££££ they would of thought you were having a laugh. White 2 door escorts always remind me of the rothmans sponsored rally cars.

 

The hard thing to remember is most of the cars back then wouldn't have lasted another 20 years   most were under 15 years old at the time . 

 

It is upsetting now though thinking about it  

 

The Escort was a freebie  as it was the unpopular mk2  version and a 2 door  !  everybody wanted mk3's    2 door cars were hard to sell back then 

[CreepingJesus]

Funnily enough, Escort scene tax I could see coming at the time: the big brother of a lassie I was at school with, scored a chisel nose RS2 in signal orange quite cheaply. A few months of welding and fixing, he'd made himself a fair few bob, even after screaming around in it for a month or two.

I seem to recall proper Group 2 material like that never really being properly cheap. Lotus Sunbeams, twink Mirafioris and so on.

[Matt]

If someone had said in 20 years time this will be worth ££££ they would of thought you were having a laugh. White 2 door escorts always remind me of the rothmans sponsored rally cars.

 

I think about this often, even mundane stuff. For example if in 1979 you asked if a 1969 Morris Minor would be desirable in the 90's say, they'd probably say no (speculation, I wasn't around then but I'm sure you see what I mean). But what is the equivalent of that 2-door Escort in 1993 right now?

 

The 3-door MK1 Ford Focus is in the same position that the Escort above was in 1993 in some ways. They drove well, sold well, had rallying success but right now they litter scrapyards and are worth little money. It sounds daft right now to say that a 3-door MK1 Focus could go the way of that Escort but it could well happen although potential developments in environmental concerns and subsequent legislation loom larger on the horizon now than they would have in 1993. Maybe buying a mint Millennium edition and converting it to electric would be a smart move right now...

[Hendry]

Not wanting to hijack thread, i found these in my office drawer from a similar time... car at theother end of the spectrum from your shots. all now gone too...

 

P1360904.JPG P1360906.JPG P1360905.JPG

Love those pics! Any more?

 

Slightly O/T but I remember from an advert you posted for your employers a while back that your stock was quite a lot of recent/nearly new cars with low miles, but looking at the website it looks like now the stock is older and higher mileage. What’s the story there? Harder to acquire newer low mileage stock these days?

[kinkersaab]

Love those pics! Any more?

 

Slightly O/T but I remember from an advert you posted for your employers a while back that your stock was quite a lot of recent/nearly new cars with low miles, but looking at the website it looks like now the stock is older and higher mileage. What’s the story there? Harder to acquire newer low mileage stock these days?

 

you have to stock what you can sell.  I despise the whole shiny showroom, shiny suited salesman, and £6 grand frappy chock cappa chino coffee machine type places, I also don't really go for finance.pcp or any of that jazz.  The big guys have that market sewn up and are welcome to it.  I generally sell to those buying the car within their means, who are happy with a mug of instant coffee.  Without pushing the add ons, its impossible to make a decent margin on newer stuff, and its constantly depreciating. the old days of buying up ex motab stuff, pre internet, when you were only competing against whoever else was advertising in the local paper and people had loyalty are long gone.   it used to be a much smaller world back then, and in most ways I think I preferred it. God I sound older than 40.!! 

[Burnside]

Thank's for sharing those pictures of Cuttler's Stixy. I can remember sitting in my Dads 1988 Fiat Strada while he visted that yard back in the 90's! I only got to go inside the yard once just inside the main gate to fetch some Fiat wheel trims my dad had off an early MK1 Fiat Uno. 

 

All houses on there now I believe? 

 

My dad told me back in the mid 80's he had a terrible MK4 Ford Cortina L in red which was a total rust bucket. Don't recall it as was only 2/3 years old at the time. Anyway one night he went to open the boot and lock fell inside the car due to the rot! 

 

He went down Cuttler's and got a bootlid off a Brown Ghia which had been T boned. As the car was about 3 shades of red due to all the previous repairs my dad reckoned it wasn't a bad match! 

 

My dad traded it in after 6 months for his first decent car, a last of the line 2nd hand Chevette Estate from Wilnecote Motors [ Vauxhall Main Dealer In Tamworth ].That Cortina was then sold to a chap who lived at the top of our street. He replaced the rotten four doors with some metallic blue one's and then rubbed the whole car down and resprayed it one shade of red. 

 

All the local yards around Tamworth my dad used to go to are now gone. There was one near Fazeley my dad told me about that he can remember a mobile mechanic fetching a petrol tank from,after the one on the same Cortina fell off on the Glascote Rd just after he filled it up.

 

My Dad had x2 Datsun 120Y, the Cortina, X2 Marina Vans, MK2 Escort Van, HA Van, Chevette Estate, Strada between 1982 ish to late 90's and all at some point would have had something from Cuttler's or nearby local yards.

[Stixy]

 

All houses on there now I believe? 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes unfortunately .

 

There were a few yards around Tamworth back in the day

 

Marston motors    was opposite the Argos at ventura

Tamworth Auto salvage    was behind  Tamworth accident centre at Two gates   

Taronis  at fazely   ( used to be humpries comercial breakers )

Bob Riley  at birchmoor    now  moto services  but Bob is still at Grendon 

 

Ask your dad if he remembers Charlie burns at Atherstone ? 

[Burnside]

 

 

Ask your dad if he remembers Charlie burns at Atherstone ? 

 

 

 

I will next time I see him.

 

Marston Motors I can vaguely remember passing it. Think Tamworth Auto Salvage was the yard the mobile mechanic used to get him a replacement fuel tank for the Cortina. 

 

When I was a teenager late 90's early 00 we visted more often Becon Metals at Fradley or a yard in Nuneaton close to the railway station. Forgot the name. Both now gone too. 

 

Tried to talk my dad into buying me and my brother a car, a fair few times from both yards before we were anywhere near old enough without success! 

 

A friend of my brothers scrapped a MK1 Fiat Strada Auto at Cuttler's after the rear suspension collapsed. Which was a mixture of rot and bridge jumping in the early 90's that I just remembered about too.