Junkyard Jewels NI Easter Monday 2018

[Datsuncog]

One very close to my heart now - a Vauxhall Viva HC, 2dr in Honey Starmist.

Very similar to one I owned many moons ago.

It is, of course, pretty far gone - with the front end hacked up for a quick 'n' dirty removal of the little 1256cc engine.

The blocky 'Viva 1300 L' badging suggests a later 1970s car - earlier cars came with a rather delightful swoopy-script Viva badge.

Much like my own ended up - chock full o' holes.

Ancient sticker for 'Save Our Moyle Services' suggests a car that spent an earlier part of its life in North East Antrim, so possibly not a GB car like so many in here.

A proliferation of black Hammerite suggests some desperate last-ditch repairs to keep this old stager on the road.

The yard always wins, though.

[lesapandre]

As Neil Young sings..."Rust Never Sleeps" or even Shakespeare in Macbeth:

 

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more..."

[lesapandre]

Now here's a bit of a rarity...

 

20180402_121218.jpg

 

Austin A60 Cambridge Estate.

 

20180402_100114.jpg

 

Eco-friendly aerial, too.

 

20180402_100257.jpg

 

Pure rotten.

 

20180402_120750.jpg

 

20180402_120759.jpg

 

Deffo a Cambridge, this one.

 

20180402_120754.jpg

 

20180402_100253.jpg

Kind of Oxford  V Cambridge Rust Race.

[Datsuncog]

Rover P4s also make up a sizeable amount of the cars in here.

Like the Consuls, I suppose they were popular and over-engineered enough to survive in significant quantities beyond their life expectancy, surfed the classic boom in the 1980s (I seem to remember a time when every TV advert seemed to feature a Zephyr or Zodiac, denoting '50s cool' which I'm going to blame on Shakin' Stevens) and eventually fell on hard times when owners became infirm and the cars were shunted to a corner of a yard to decline... ah now.

I can't say very much more about this battleship grey example, other than it has the wider 3-piece rear window so must date from the mid-50s onwards.

[Datsuncog]

On 4/11/2019 at 2:19 PM, lesapandre said:

As Neil Young sings..."Rust Never Sleeps" or even Shakespeare in Macbeth:

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more..."

Very true...

I can't speak for Shakespeare, but I gather Neil Young has a fair bit of experience with rust, being a consummate shiter…

Those are just some of the cars on his ranch. Apparently he has dozens of old wrecks, some of which he's restored (including all-electric conversions). Others he just likes to observe, gently returning to the earth. Fair enough.

[lesapandre]

That red and black rotbox could well be a side valve Minx I reckon. Not certain though.

I think it is - it is one of the later ones...MkVI maybe where they tinkered with the rear roofline and gave it a bigger boot. This may have been one that finally got the OHV engine - which was then used in the Audax range which may explain why the engine has departed - it went in lots of later Rootes cars so was desirable to someone.

[Datsuncog]

Next to the Rover, another Ford 100E - maybe a Popular, maybe an Anglia.

You can see just how tight access is here - and also that it's really not that huge a yard, really. There's only about 80 cars in this Zone - just packed quite tightly.

[lesapandre]

Rover P4s also make up a sizeable amount of the cars in here.

 

20180402_100035.jpg

 

Like the Consuls, I suppose they were popular and over-engineered enough to survive in significant quantities beyond their life expectancy, surfed the classic boom in the 1980s (I seem to remember a time when every TV advert seemed to feature a Zephyr or Zodiac, denoting '50s cool' which I'm going to blame on Shakin' Stevens) and eventually fell on hard times when owners became infirm and the cars were shunted to a corner of a yard to decline... ah now.

 

20180402_120652.jpg

 

I can't say very much more about this battleship grey example, other than it has the wider 3-piece rear window so must date from the mid-50s onwards.

You have hit the nail on the head with some of these cars. Probably 'enthusiast' owner until some big bills came in and 2nd hand parts began to dry up pre-internet. How much to rebuild a P4 engine for example when people had mortgages and families...or just when Uncle Fred died his family cleared the garage of his 'old car' that was his hobby. There has always also been lots of unfinished restorations about...impossible to finish or house by most people so they get dragged off to the yard.

 

Lots probably got so rusty they were unweldable...

 

Every car has a story here.

[Datsuncog]

On up next, another frayed example of the Rootes Audax series...

A lowly Minx model, from the plain paintwork and lack of ample brightwork.

[Datsuncog]

The blue Anglia 105E alongside hasn't been captured terribly well, I fear.

Here's an extreme crop taken from the top corner of another pic.

No registration number evident.

[lesapandre]

On up next, another frayed example of the Rootes Audax series...

 

20180402_100457.jpg

 

20180402_100654.jpg

 

A lowly Minx model, from the looks of things.

Minnie the Minx well stripped but hopefully the parts went to save another that is still about...maybe.

[Datsuncog]

And on the final lap up the side, now...

Next to our old friend, the shagged Mk3 Cortina estate, here's an equally ragged Triumph 2000, jauntily wearing the 'Tina's bonnet skin.

Don't much fancy taking this on as a project, I'm afraid.

RUST. Not sure whether the Vikings were responsible of not.

[Datsuncog]

Another ADO16, one of the yard's other familiar faces. This one's doing the usual 1100/1300 trick of looking mostly ok up top while having massive great holes down below.

Ew.

Bootful o' brambles.

[Datsuncog]

Nomming the brambles next door is this magnificent beast, which I believe from the just-visible single headlights in the preceding pics of the ADO16 is a Humber Hawk  early Super Snipe without the twin lamps.

EDIT: Learning new things here - excellent!

[Datsuncog]

And one space to the right is this - I think we're looking at the mortal remains of a Vauxhall Victor FB here, though there's a fair few styling similarities to the PB Cresta.

Yeah, I'd be confident this is a Victor, albeit one whose structural integrity is far from satisfactory. Interesting that all three of the truly broken cars in here have all been Griffin-badged products.

A glitzy interior - once.

No known registration.

[lesapandre]

Nomming the brambles next door is this magnificent beast, which I believe from the just-visible single headlights is a Humber Hawk (and not a Super Snipe).

 

20180402_100043.jpg

I think the side flash gives it away...it's an early MK1 Humber Super Snipe. The radical US styled Humbers were very chromed at the beginning and as that fashion waned Rootes progressively de-clutted the cars. This one probably has the early 'clap-hands' wipers. Of all the cars here this is one that would deserve saving IMHO depending on how far gone beneath. The six-cylinder engine on these was designed and built by Armstrong Siddley.

[Datsuncog]

Now then, another big Humber - a Hawk Mk VI, perchance?

Yup, that says 'Hawk', I do believe.

Patina here is off the scale, people.

Again, this was once a view designed to make the driver feel a bit special.

[Datsuncog]

Another Oxford, now, a mid-50s Mk II model - right in amongst the final tangle of metal right at the far corner of the yard.

Some chancer's had the front arch lips off this with an angle grinder

Interior could use a bit of work. Possibly a lawn mower.

[Amishtat]

That Super Snipe is a Series 2 with that style of side trim

[Datsuncog]

To the bitter end now - and one of the few Minis that hasn't been nabbed by the eBay freaks for "restoration".

Possibly because it would literally crumble to dust if touched.

Yeah, that's rough.

Spare wheel still there, so it's not all bad news.

[Datsuncog]

Engaged in a perpetual fender-bender with the Oxford then - another head-scratcher.

MG Magnette ZB? Wolseley 15/50? I'd go with the MG, based on the bootlid and the colour.

Interior is ick.

The skeletal Consul beside provides another view.

[Datsuncog]

And finally - triumphantly - the very last car in the yard.

It's another Humber Hawk - nearly entirely complete, and gently decaying.

Even the hubcaps are still in place.

Poignant, and fitting. It'd be a job getting anything out of here.

They're places of reflection, scrapyards - maybe that's why I kind of like them. 

The view from the back fence shows a multiplicity of different cars, all of whom carry stories we'll never know. Their remains exist here, and in the dimming memories of those who owned and drove them, and in fading photographs in sideboards. Some of these cars will surely have been mentioned in the context of "I wonder whatever happened to my old _____?"   but, barring a miracle, for most here their time has gone.

But that's okay. That's the way of things.

At the time of taking these pics, I had no absolutely no idea that my own car, my early and faintly exasperating Renault Laguna RT Sport, had already completed its final journey.

Less than an hour later, on the way home from Junkyard Jewels, the engine grenaded on the motorway, and it had to be brought home on a flatbed. Further investigations revealed it was completely destroyed. Unlike these old stagers, the Laguna was not to receive a twilight of slumbering in a field - I imagine a hiab through the roof, followed by a metal shredding hopper and the slow boat to China, was all it received in the way of retirement.

I guess that we can recognise that all things must pass, and a loose accumulation of metal, oil and plastic is no different.

A while ago, that used to bother me a lot, but now... I think I kind of get it.

Roots and time will move concrete and iron
And ivy and water will loosen any mortar
And all that man has built will crumble down to silt
And all of this will again be green space.

This too shall be reclaimed.
 

I'm okay with that.

Cheers for all the comments, advice and everything else, folks - glad you've enjoyed this somewhat damp virtual journey through a small and rusty corner of Northern Ireland!

And hopefully I'll be back there again in a few weeks, to see what's changed...

[Amishtat]

They were all loved once, but as we've plainly seen it really doesn't take long out of use in a damp climate before they're totally fucking fucked. Thanks for sharing these pictures, I've loved a virtual wander through a Northern Irish scrapyard on a sunny Essex day. Reckon any of will have gone when you return? (As in been purchased not the rather more likely total structural collapse)

[bunglebus]

Love this thread, shame it's over - and I have to say that hearse gives me massive want face, even if it is entirely bollocksed. Modern ones with huge glasshouses are truly shit - I want my last ride to be in something properly shite.

[Datsuncog]

On 4/11/2019 at 4:32 PM, Amishtat said:

They were all loved once, but as we've plainly seen it really doesn't take long out of use in a damp climate before they're totally fucking fucked. Thanks for sharing these pictures, I've loved a virtual wander through a Northern Irish scrapyard on a sunny Essex day. Reckon any of will have gone when you return? (As in been purchased not the rather more likely total structural collapse)

No, the general environment isn't doing them many favours... but yeah, I'd estimate maybe five or six will have gone in the space of a year - and a few more new ones in. Be interesting to find out, anyway! Glad you've enjoyed the tour!

 

On 4/11/2019 at 8:52 PM, bunglebus said:

Love this thread, shame it's over - and I have to say that hearse gives me massive want face, even if it is entirely bollocksed. Modern ones with huge glasshouses are truly shit - I want my last ride to be in something properly shite.

Yeah, there's a certain presence about proper old hearses... I agree that the latest ones look like a greenhouse shagging a Mondeo, and that is not dignified.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some more pics soon - and, if not, I've quite a few other scrapyard pics in the archives. Cheers!

[aldo135]

Honey Starmist must be an actress.... great name! Only looked at page 9 but amazing pictures. Will come back and go through it later, pre warning for the all the annoying like notifications you are going to get!

[Datsuncog]

On 4/10/2019 at 3:45 PM, Amishtat said:

That hearse is a spectacular find! That's the third Irish hearse I've seen with a lower roofline than English ones, is this a recognised thing or just coincidence? The others were a Wolseley 6/110 and a VdP 4-litre R, but both were on the oval and I didn't get photos of them.

 

On 4/10/2019 at 4:30 PM, Datsuncog said:

Don't honestly know if it was a thing, although I've also seen a few archive pics which show hearses over here with the same roofline as the standard saloons - not sure whether reasons of cost, structural considerations or aesthetic preferences all played a part.

There was a pic online of a Mk1 Granada hearse with a low roofline in a breaker in Co. Galway... must have a look for it, assuming it didn't vanish in the Great Photobucket Unpleasantness.

Managed to find that pic I mentioned, plus a few others...

This is the pic I'd seen before...

And here's the same vehicle, being taken away when the yard was cleared a few years back.

I'm not sure who built this one, but the roofline does seem pretty low compared to the Coleman-Milne versions.

This is a different car, but seems to be quite similar - same coachbuilder?

Having asked around, it seems that the rise in taller-roofed hearses was to enable double-decks to be installed, which meant that two coffins could be carried - one up on the top deck, level with the windows, and one down below. With the post-war rise in cremations, this made it more cost-effective for funeral directors to order hearses which could bring along two coffins at once to the crematorium, removing the need to return to the funeral home between jobs.

As cremation rates in Ireland remain much lower than GB, with most interments taking place in rural churchyards, there was limited need for the double-deck system - hence hearses coachbuilt in Ireland tended to retain a single deck construction.

Every day's a school day, etc...

[petermchugh79]

Could be a Byrne built body they specialise in ford hearses built in Dundalk Ireland, funnily enough there's another coach builder in the same town that does nothing only merc, there called Duffy's they do serious work and are one of the few with mercedes factory approval

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

[Datsuncog]

^^^ Cheers for the info there - quite possibly both the Zephyr/Zodiac and the Granada are from Byrne's then.

I'd posted the Z-car pic on another forum and someone mentioned that it probably wasn't one of Duffy's, as although they did carry out Zodiac hearse conversions back in the '60s, the rain gutters always stopped at the B-pillar - so the one in the Stewartstown yard isn't one of theirs. Byrne's seems a likely contender then - thanks!

[bunglebus]

These's well-known '59 Chevy hot rod hearse converted in Ireland, apparently the standard of the bodywork was somewhat amateur...