The Junkyard Gems of Jim’s Vintage Automotive, Idaho

“To some people we’re just another auto graveyard, junkyard or salvage yard, but we like to refer to ourselves as a collector of historical items awaiting a second chance to put a smile on an owner’s face,” explains Jim.

We spent an enjoyable afternoon exploring the amazing yard just prior to the Covid pandemic, browsing the 1000 or so rare parts cars and potential restoration projects. Although the inventory spanned about eight decades, the vast majority of cars and trucks dated from the 1950s and 1960s. Of note, there was also a proportionately high number of Nash’s, especially Metropolitans.

Mountain Home, Idaho, started off as a Post Office on the Overland Stage Line, and then grew when a railroad arrived at the end of the 19th century. Today it’s a city of more than 12,000 people, and growing all the time.

Fortunately Jim’s Vintage Automotive is far enough outside of the city limits for it not to have been engulfed by urban sprawl, which is what’s closed down so many other traditional junk yards. The bulk of the vehicles we saw were parts cars, like this 1948 Cadillac.

Southern Idaho’s climate is kind to sheet metal, which explains why there were lots of rust-free project cars scattered around the 40-acre site. This 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Car was a great example, as it barely had a spot of rust on it.

Thanks to those 8 km/h safety bumpers, the car was 5.9 metres long, making it one of the longest cars ever produced by Ford.

We left Jim’s Vintage Automotive wearing a baseball cap with a picture of a Nash Metropolitan on it. That’s because the yard is synonymous with this British-built car. During our visit we spotted several of them in various states of disrepair.

Like Nash Metropolitans, the tiny Crosley has a surprisingly high survival rate, presumably due to its novelty value. Many have ended their days painted in garish colors and mounted high up on plinths outside salvage yards, acting as advertisements to passing motorists. This one however hadn't been subjected to such a humiliating end, and had instead been allowed to retire with some dignity.

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Crosley manufactured its microcars from 1939 to 1952, finding 23,489 buyers in total. We reckon this station wagon hails from 1948.

From the front this was instantly recognizable as a Ford Falcon, but it was a very different story from the back, as there was very little left. Although, considering it was half the car it used to be, it still had plenty of useable parts.

We reckon it was probably built in 1959, the year of first production; it was the first compact car sold by Ford in North America.

The first Lincoln Continentals were so called because they shared styling cues with European cars of the time – such as the spare tyre located behind the boot. Of course by the time this 1972 Continental Mark IV rolled off the line, real tyres had been replaced by a fake trunk shape. In actual fact the spare tyre was located on a ledge in the trunk behind the seat.

You’d be searching for a long time to find another 1961 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight eight-passenger limousine in a salvage yard, in fact anywhere for that matter. This incredibly rare car was built by Cotner-Bevington, and had stood the test of time well. The bodywork was straight and solid, the driveline was complete, and the interior was pretty good too.

Its scarcity was not reflected in its value, as we were surprised to discover that it had a $3500 price tag. Surely it’s long gone by now.

How’s this for an impressive pair of tailfins? They actually start on the driver’s door, steadily rising along the length of the car, finishing in a spectacular angular crescendo. They belong to a 1960 Chrysler Windsor four-door sedan which had definitely seen better days.

In total 41,158 Windsors found buyers, accounting for more than 50% of Chrysler’s total production that year.

The 1952 Nash Statesman Custom four-door sedan wasn’t built for speed. With its 88bhp, 3.2-liter, in-line six-cylinder engine, the car would manage 100 km/h in a lethargic 19.7 seconds, a quarter mile (400 metres) appeared in almost 22 seconds, and the top speed was just 124 km/h. This one hadn’t turned a wheel in decades.

It looks like someone removed this Buick Eight’s rear fender, but then changed their mind. Perhaps it was too expensive, or maybe they decided that it required too much work.

While it had its fair share of surface rust, structurally it was still a very solid car. In fact it was hard to believe that it was more than 80 years old. Of course, this has a lot to do with the state of Idaho not putting salt on its roads in the winter.

Designed by Elwood Engel, the fourth generation Lincoln Continental (1961 to 1969) received much acclaim at its launch, even picking up a bronze medal from the Industrial Design Institute. One of its key features was its rear-hinged doors. These were of course popular in the early days of car design, but were a novelty by the time this was launched.

This is a 1968 four-door sedan, and would have cost $5970. It was the most popular model, accounting for 75% of Lincoln’s 39,134 sales that year.

Judging by its modern license plate, this 1968 Dodge Dart four-door sedan hadn’t been off the road for long. It appeared to have had a light rear shunt, which had smashed the taillights, and dented the rear fenders and trunk lid. We wonder if that’s why it ended up here. Whoever owned it didn’t even bother to remove the radio aerial before disposing of it.

1970 was the final year for Cadillac Coupe DeVille's third generation, and it was perhaps the most elegant of the bunch. The car-buying public certainly appreciated its external appearance and distinctive V-shaped grille. This was reflected in the sales figures, with some 76,043 leaving the showrooms.

While Idaho’s climate had been kind to this 1970 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight’s sheet metal, it had been less forgiving to the vinyl roof. Oldsmobile sold 633,981 cars in 1970, of which just 21,111 were two-door Holiday coupes like this.

This 1944 FWD SuCOE is one of 2700 4x4 6-tonne trucks built for the US Army Ordinance Department by the Four Wheel Drive Auto Company (FWD). Capable of carrying heavy loads over rough terrain, they saw active service in Europe during the Second World War. This one had a machine gun turret hole in its roof.

Although it was missing its driveline, grille and body, we reckon the $3500 asking price was still very reasonable for such an interesting rust-free restoration project.

In more than 30 years of exploring US salvage yards this is the only Ford Thames van we have ever discovered. Built in England between 1957 and 1965, it was available as a panel van, pickup and minibus. It sold well, with 187,000 leaving Ford’s plant in Dagenham, Essex, including the Thames 800 and Thames Freighter export models.

During our visit, Jim Hines explained that this example (complete with homemade wooden bumper) spent its working life in Mountain Home. It had already attracted the attention of a British collector, and he was confident that a deal was about to be struck. Thames is certainly one of the more obscure brands ever operated by Ford; it operated in Britain between 1939 and 1965.

This fabulous 1956 Nash Ambassador Super four-door sedan looked like it just needed a good polish and a new reversing light, before going back on the road. Of course there must have been more to it than that, or else it wouldn’t have ended up at Jim’s Vintage Automotive in the first place.

According to the dealer badge on the back, it was originally supplied by Hollenback Motors of Spokane, some 800 km north of its current resting place.

This Riviera is a third generation car, which of course featured the Corvette Sting Ray-inspired boat-tail styling. It was good to see that someone had bothered to wind up the driver’s door window; after all, the winters can be harsh in this part of Idaho…

This 1963 Pontiac Star Chief four-door hardtop had parted company with all of its headlamps, although a pair of them appear to be on the ground in front of it.

Despite the Star Chief name only surviving for 13 years (1954 to 1966), Pontiac produced six different generations of them. Note the three chrome stars on this fifth generation car’s C-pillar, which differentiated it from a Catalina. 

We have a rule when photographing junk cars, and that’s never to touch anything. If a door or trunk lid is open, then it remains open for the picture. Likewise, if a doll is attempting to escape from the back seat, we refuse to mount a rescue mission…

The car it was trying to get out of was a rare 1952 Dodge Coronet Sierra four-door station wagon, one of just 4000 built.

Someone had scribbled ’46 Hudson’ on the roof of this one, which was really helpful. What a shame they didn’t go a step further by identifying whether it was a Commodore or Super Six. Like most manufacturers, when the second world war ended Hudson rolled out its 1942 models again. The only notable change was a new grille, so from this angle they’re pretty much identical. 

We had a good look around this 1950 Studebaker Champion four-door, and structurally the body was sound. It was a shame it was gradually being stripped of its parts, as we reckon it could have made a great project for someone.

Studebaker sold 320,884 cars in 1950, which would be its best ever year in terms of volumes, and enough to make it the America’s eighth best-selling model out of 19. Some 270,000 of these were Champions.

Jim’s Vintage Automotive had more than its fair share of Nash cars, and this 1956 Ambassador Super really caught our eye. Check out the condition of that grille and front bumper, and how good the chrome was too. Hopefully the parts found a good home.

This Olds had been pretty much stripped bare of parts. That said, those rust-free fenders must have been of use to someone. Oldsmobile was celebrating in 1940, having sold its 1 millionth car, and had just put on sale the first car with automatic transmission. By the time GM closed the brand down in 2004, total Oldsmobile sales stood at 35 million.

With a missing grille, it’s hard to identify what year this Nash Ambassador Custom was built, but we’re going to hazard a guess that it’s a 1953. The Custom had everything the Super had, plus additional delights like an electric clock, automatic interior courtesy lights, and two-tone upholstery.

Built between 1971 and 1973, the Buick Centurion had a particularly short production run. While the standard engine was a 175bhp 5.7-liter V8, this particular example was specified with the optional 250bhp 7.5-liter 455 four-barrel, which would have cost an additional $200.

Some 110,539 examples were sold during the three years it was in production, fewer than 17,000 of which were 1973 two-door hardtops.

The handsome 1955 Chryslers were the handiwork of legendary car designer Virgil Exner. With Imperial becoming a marque of its own in 1955, the luxurious New Yorker Deluxe was Chrysler’s top-of-the-range car. Of the 52,178 New Yorkers sold, more than half were four-door Deluxe sedans like this one.

It never ceases to amaze us just how many 1970s MGBs survive in US salvage yards. That said, they’re normally in slightly better condition than this example was. We reckon the only thing this one had going for it was that it’s lost its ghastly rubber bumpers...

The US was the manufacturer’s biggest market by far, and of the 512,243 MGBs built between 1962 and 1980, some 298,052 crossed the Atlantic.

Here’s a far rarer, but considerably less desirable British import. It’s an Austin A55 Cambridge, but was known in the US as a Cambrian, seeing as Plymouth was already using the Cambridge name. Not only did the car have some fire damage, but as you can see, it had been shot at too.

Back in the UK, the Austin Cambridge and it’s MG, Morris, Riley and Wolseley badge-engineered siblings, were the cars of choice for stock car racers in the 1970s and 1980s. Tens of thousands of them were destroyed on the tracks.

If Jim’s Vintage Automotive decided to rent out this campervan, we’d be the first to book it for a week. After all, look at the stunning scenery right on your doorstep…

The homemade conversion was based on a 1957 Studebaker Commander passenger car, possibly a station wagon. Whoever did the work made a pretty good job of it, although the rear-view mirrors were a bit crude.

Here’s another Studebaker Commander, only this one would have been slightly less comfortable for a vacation… It looks like a 1955 four-door sedan, which judging by the license plate, originated in neighboring Oregon.

Commanders accounted for half of all Studebaker’s 116,333 sales in 1955.

This International C-120 was a true junkyard gem because, despite being around 60 years old, it was still working for a living as the vehicle used by Jim Hines to work on the 40-acre salvage yard. 

It had picked up more than its fair share of battle scars in the line of duty - Look at all those dents and dings, it was just oozing with character.

Judging by the scrapes on the hood, roof and side, this Land Rover Discovery had clearly rolled over. How on earth did those roof bars manage to stay on during the accident?

It’s a facelifted Discovery Series 2, which is easily identified by its larger headlamps. These were manufactured between 2002 and 2004, so it was easily the newest car we spotted in the yard.

Although at first glance it looks like it’s covered in surface rust, this 1950 Pontiac Silver Streak was painted in copper/brown. In actual fact the paintwork was in remarkably good condition for a car of its age. That said, in other areas it wasn’t so healthy.

1950 was a good year for Pontiac, which achieved 446,429 sales, making it the fifth best-selling marque behind Chevrolet, Ford, Plymouth and Buick.

We confess to being a little confused by the true identity of this Packard 200. The car was produced between 1951 and 1952, with minimal changes, so our first challenge is attempting to estimate its year of manufacture. Seeing as it didn’t have the ‘Packard’ lettering on the front of the hood, we’re going to guess at 1952. But here’s where it gets really confusing.

The three ‘jet louvres’ on the rear fenders tell us that it’s a Deluxe, but that grille belongs to the Standard model. So, presumably at some point someone has swapped the original toothy grille. Taking all that into account, our best bet is that it was a 1952 200 Deluxe, one of only 7000 units built.

Jim’s Vintage Automotive had a good selection of retired workhorses, including this pair. Closest to the camera is an FWD HR, which probably dates to about 1950. Sat next to it was what appears to be a 1946 Studebaker.

FWD was founded in Wisconsin in 1909.

Ralph Nader claimed that the rear-engined Chevrolet Corvair was “unsafe at any speed”. If this one arrived at Jim’s Vintage Automotive on the back of that rickety old trailer, then we are inclined to agree with him… This appears to be an early example, probably dating back to 1960. The exterior was in great condition, but a missing windscreen had caused some damage to the interior.

Is there a salvage yard anywhere in the US that doesn’t have at least one old school bus? Normally they have a handful of them, often packed to the rafters with spare parts.

This mid-1970s Ford B-Series spent its working life in neighbouring Nevada, according to the license plate. Ignoring the windscreen, the bus was in great shape.

This International KB2 truck, which would have been built between 1947 and 1949, used to be the property of Drake Plumbing & Heating, based in Boise, Idaho. The firm today is now called Drake Mechanical, and it began in 1909 and is still going strong today.

Incredibly it’s the same story with International (now called Navistar International), which was also founded in 1909. As of today it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Traton, which also owns European truck brands Scania and MAN. Traton is majority-owned by Volkswagen.

This 1976 Grand Marquis coupe was gradually being stripped of all those hard-to-find parts.  

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