One of the nice things about my house in California was its proximity to the Oakland Pick-N-Pull. If I needed an ’85 Civic starter at 4:50 PM, I knew I could be at the yard before its 5:00 closing time. Now I’ve just discovered a well-stocked self-service yard within a few miles of my new home in Denver.
This Amazon is pretty well beat up, although I’m sure that won’t stop lovers of vintage Volvos from tearing up when they see the lack of Midwestern-style rust-through. The high-altitude sun does a good job of scorching paint off the upper bodies of old cars around here, but the low humidity means the Rust Monster must work slowly.
Check out the C.W. McCall-grade Royce 23-channel CB! I thought about buying it, but I’ve already got a Johnson phone-handset CB for my van.
Complete Gallery
Despite Vintage CB, Amazon Wagon Won’t Be Spared From Crusher
October 15th, 2010
October 16th, 2010 - 11:34 am
Nooooo!
That body’s nicer than the Amazon wagon I use as my daily driver! Please, sir, tell me that this car may yet be saved? Is there rot-through on the fenders, hood, lift glass, or doors? And a roof rack! If you could stash those away for me, I’ll send you the money immediately, and pick them up on my next trip through…
Too bad I live 2000 miles away. 🙁
October 16th, 2010 - 11:35 am
Hell, what’ll he take for the whole damn car???
October 16th, 2010 - 5:42 pm
I know a guy who will pull/ship parts for you. Let me know.
October 17th, 2010 - 6:57 pm
What a coincidence. I had been trying to buy a 122S sedan from 2K miles away, but the seller has gotten all inscrutable. Craigslist, what more can I say. I hope mechimike gets all that he needs from this one. If this had been on a midwestern driveway with a For Sale in the window rather than picked-over like this, it would have been worth well more than scrap considering how relatively straight and rust free it appears. I need to go pet my dog to cheer-up now!
October 18th, 2010 - 8:14 pm
mzs – if you’re interested in a 122, let me know. I have several, and am usually pretty good about locating more. Apparently I have Amazon-dar. Where are you located? I’m in the Southeast- SC, to be precise.
Dear admin- I _really_ need a front driver’s side fender. The passenger side one there looks pretty rough, as does the nose- was the driver’s fender decent? If it has the SUs still on it, I’ll always take spare SUs. I also need the mini-bumper overiders on the back. They are wagon-specific, and usually rough or missing. I’d love the roof rack, if it isn’t badly pitted or messed up.
My wagon could be this one’s twin, save for mine has a white hood.
October 18th, 2010 - 10:44 pm
mechimike – I live about 40 miles west of Chicago. I really dug your story about the ’69 barn find Chicago Caddy not too long ago, I’ll send you a PM at that place with my contact info. I have gotten in touch with the owner of this beauty and he is on the look-out for me as well. Thanks a ton!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82046831@N00/4940462090/in/set-72157624661823345/
PS: I’m a Mike as well, go figure.
October 19th, 2010 - 12:19 am
That’s a pretty four door. The four door 122s are really the hidden value in the Amazon market. Everyone wants a 2 door or a wagon; you can get decent 4 doors for nothing. I just bought a pair of them for 1000…one of which is now sharing daily driver duties with my wagon. The cool thing about Amazon 4 doors (you may know this) is the roofline is the same as the 2 door- they simply shortened the front doors and added a pair behind them. So its actually kinda hard to tell its a 4 door- even harder if you remove the rear door handles. 😉
Glad you liked the Caddy story. It garnered a respectable view count, but not many new viewers, which is what the contest was about. I suspect some hard-core social networking and/or computer games were involved with the top 20, neither of which is my bag. *shrug* it would have been nice to crack the top 20 on sheer writing ability, but the reality of it is I probably couldn’t have given up my weekends for 6 months for the gig anyway. One fellow suggested I submit my prose to Hooniverse, which I might do…
October 19th, 2010 - 3:51 pm
mechimike – Yeah it happens:
http://www.saabsunited.com/2010/10/vote-for-phil-again-at-jalopnik.html
I think a lot of the readers are simply younger than we expect. Here’s a story. My wife and I we used to go to this dance place in a bowling alley. It was a crowd our age, alcohol, older music, was a blast, everyone danced. So they folded, and new younger hipper owners did their thing. We went once, it was not the same. There was still alcohol, the music was a little harder to dance to, but nobody except us and another older couple were. All the new crowd were sitting there and fiddling with their phones. It blew my mind, I mean guys there’s music, women, and alcohol, what are you waiting for? But to them social life is now so much about social networking, I hope they grow-up someday.
But no more about crap like this on this site! Sorry. You’re right about the time it would have taken and I hope to see contributions from you where ever! Anyway did you get my email address?
October 19th, 2010 - 8:56 pm
Hey, you’ve got a Johnson Messenger 130 or 130A for your Dodge? Great! Definitely the way to go, particularly for that timeless “Why yes, of course I have a radiotelephone” look. I’ve got a couple myself (one for parts). You can download the manual and other useful info here:
http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/ef_johnson/messenger_130_130a/index.htm
and the Vintage Advertising link is worth a look.