How to Find Classic Cars... Some Assembly Required
This wrecking yard in Colorado might not be as chock-full of Volkswagens as the boneyard at Airkooled Kustoms, but skulking around there to see what's there sure wouldn't suck. That's one tactic for how to find classic cars.
If you're wondering how to find classic cars - especially cars you could use as a core for your VW or Porsche restoration project - one way to go about it is to look through wrecking yards like this. The body might be a hot mess, but there may be usable parts you'll want, maybe even original parts that aren't typically available these days.
At Airkooled Kustoms, we've worked with clients from all over the country - and even some overseas - and getting your project car to us is easier than you might think. We do it all the time!
But, what if you want to know how to find classic cars that are in near-drivable condition?
Not a problem at all. Just one of 00Dub's mystical powers is finding sound project cars that don't look like squashed accordions... and nobody beats Roger at negotiating a good price. (Have you seen him at the swap meet area of a car show? Dude's gotten some incredible deals.)
Some of our clients come in with heirloom cars - the VW or Porsche they had as a teen or young adult. Some inherited their ride from its original owner (like Mojoe). Some have been hauling their classic Volkswagen around with them for a decade or more (like LB).
But some come in with nothing more than an idea of their dream Dub, and we take it from there. That's the story with RDC. Ron knew what he wanted, a double cab, badass to the hilt. We found one, got it shipped here, and it's well on its way to being something so subtly sinister that none of us can help but drool a bit when we go back to the corner of the shop where it's getting transformed.
So, if you're out in Colorado, maybe go visit the Corns' wrecking yard. If you see anything you like - or anything that makes you feel things 🙂 give us a call and a big check, and we'll get going on building you a brand new, very old Volkswagen or Porsche that'll turn heads and make you smile.
Here's a great story about how to find classic cars in Colorado.
A bright orange Ford pickup sits wrapped around a tree. The truck dips in the center from the force of impact, its headlights shoved around either side of its arboreus lover. Surprise though! The tree embraced by 1978 chrome isn’t the one that did the damage. Automotive artists Gary and Alice Corns sat the crumpled Ford against the tree in their wrecking yard as a visual joke, and visitors to Colorado Auto and Parts enjoyed it so much that it’s become a permanent installation. “We moved it once and people asked us where it was, so we had to put it back,” said company president Alice Corns. It’s just one of the quirky presentations you’ll find in the parts yard’s 38-acre recycling facility.
Alice Corns’ parents started the auto recycling business in 1959. Now she runs it with her husband and sons, Eric and Adam. “Back then it was called a wrecking yard or junkyard,” she told us, “but now I get mad at my kids for calling it a junkyard. They still do though.” With that in mind, we’ll go with wrecking yard for the rest of this post but bear in mind that the Corns’ business involves much more than simply crushing metal. The majority of the land is a self-service parts yard like it was when Alice’s dad ran the business, but there’s a section to the side that will blow your mind. See, Alice’s pop was a car collector, and when an interesting classic or muscle car came in during the 40 or so years that he ran the place, he’d stick it off to the side. He restored some, but most just sat there. “I don’t really know why he kept them,” said Alice. “Maybe just to say he had them?”
About a decade ago Alice and Gary moved all the classics out of the self-service yard. “People will destroy a perfect door to get a door handle,” she said. “We didn’t know what we were going to do with the cars, but we knew we didn’t want them crushed.”
Walking through the rusting rows for a car person is like visiting your local animal shelter. “Take us home,” begs a row of crumpled Cougars. A DeSoto grins hopefully at you through a row of broken chrome teeth. A cute, blue Corvair still looks perky, even with a wrinkled hood and shattered windshield. A sleepy-eyed Packard gazes up with double headlights and perfect dagmars. There are some rare machines tucked behind the Mustang-lined fence. Bullet-grilled Cadillacs and Mach1 Mustangs are interspersed with Rolls Royces, Mercedes, and Buick Rivieras. You want classic trucks? Metro vans? A Studebaker? Here, here, and here. How we left without a full load on a flatbed is a triumph of willpower. Oh, speaking of which, here is a Triumph.
So can you buy these cars? The Corns have been selling some of the nicer, titled cars on eBay while deciding what to do with the rest, but now they’re ready to find new homes for the Mustangs, Chryslers, Buicks, Lincolns, and Caddys you’ll see in these photos. “There’s no reason for these cars to sit,” said Alice. “If someone buys them or the parts, they can get a brand-new life. I’m pretty big on recycling, renew, and reuse, and making old cars into hot rods and customs, that is recycling.”
Contact Colorado Auto and Parts on Facebook or at www.coloradoautoandparts.com to see if the yard has what you need, and if you just feel like window-shopping, scroll on through the gallery below.
Read more This Colorado Parts Yard has been Collecting Classic Cars for Decades.