WARNING! Ungodly amounts of photos to follow…
I was told that I just had to visit this place and I am grateful that I was told about it. Certainly I have seen my share of wrecking yards, automotive recycling yards, car junk yards, whatever you choose to call them, but I have never seen a working yard quite like this one.
Most of these companies are driven by the assumption that if a car sits around for more than a couple of weeks it has been stripped of its monetarily useful parts, and is more valuable if it is crushed and sold for its metallic constituents than it is to let it sit in the yard taking up valuable space.
I suppose that the folks who keep the books have done all the necessary calculations to confirm this, but it often means that some classic or near classic is shipped to a steel mill and ends up becoming a clothes dryer or maybe a truck lid.
Such is life.
But not here. Not at French Lakes Auto Parts (FLAP). Here you can find cars sitting around that have not seen a road for multiple decades. And they don’t have trees growing through their trunks either. It is a restorer’s paradise.
Just look at all these cars:
Slowly the more modern cars appeared.
Oh, that must have hurt! And that reminded me, how so few of the much older cars had been involved on a collision. Was it really representative of the crash rate? I don’t think so, but it was interesting none the less.
This was quite the unexpected experience for me. One last snap as I left through the office:
Wow! Just wow.
Looks like I need to take a road trip, rat material for sure
Any plenty of it!
I have spent many hours at French Lake. It amazes me how much it changes between visits. The rat rodders have a tremendous resorce here. Why is it that the old iron, with the paint worn off by the sun, survives practically rust free?
I can only guess that it forms a protective layer, much like the oxidation on the copper of the Statue of Liberty. At least its not subject to road salt while it is sitting at FLAP!
WOW wouldnt of believed it. heaven for the RAT RODDERS.
The last pic of the desk top brings back some good memories. See that red hand squeeze game? They used to put that on the floor for me when I was about 5 or 6 and I would put my feet on it and then pull. I still don’t think I could ring the bell. My Dad was a regular customer of the yard and I would always go with him. The Nolan’s are a great bunch of guys.
Tony – what a great memory! When I saw that stuff on the desk I could tell that it was really special. Its great when places aren’t just a business, but good people that are friends.
That was over 30 years ago too.