LA Junk Yard

[mclewis]

I saw this post on the autoblog.com site, based on an article in Town & Country magazine about a salvage yard in South Central Los Angeles that contains dozens of junked cars, including several valuable old Mercedes.  According to the article, the current owners of the yard won't let anyone in to view the inventory, but there are pictures of the yard included in the autoblog.com post.  The second to last picture seems to show almost a dozen W113 bodies.

http://www.autoblog.com/photos/priceless-collection-of-barn-finds-in-south-central-la/#photo-4768128

[Jack Jones]

Hey, stop peeking in my garage!!

[Bonnyboy]

I did a google search for an aerial photo of the place - pretty cool - all those Porsches and pagodas on racks.

Address is:  8935 s alameda street los angeles

Growing up I went to the local wrecking yard with my dad quite a bit.  He would stay in the office and play bullshit poker while I went looking for treasures or tires that sort of matched and would hold air.  No pagodas or gullwings that I recall.  Ian in

North Vancouver.

[49er]

When I was a teenager back in the early 60's, my brother and I spent many an hour in those junkyards scrounging parts for my 1930 Model A Ford. Lots of original parts back then. It was a great time in my life and gave me an appreciation of automobiles at an early age. Wish I had that car now.

Don't remember any stacks of MB and Porches though! Ouch

John

Sorry, I know this is way off topic.

[Jordan]

John, I really have to take my hat off to the men and women that take the time and money to restore any car back their glory.  That is a beautiful Model A.

Back to topic, it would be nice if someone from the LA area could get into the yard and take photographs of each Pagoda and their corresponding VIN and ID plates so we could list them here in the directory.  If for no other reason that we would know where they ended up, even if just for parts.  Maybe we should start a "Pagoda Graveyard" section so that details could be posted on Pagodas that are unlikely to ever see the light of day again. :'( :'(

[Tom Colitt]

I have been to that yard several times and even bought a lot of the remaining parts (small bit parts) close to 10 years ago. At one time, shortly after my Pagoda had been stolen I came across a Blue glove box that I though was mine. It wasn't. Otherwise, the story is quite out dated. The last I heard was that the last of the Pagodas was sold years ago as a lot and probably shipped off in a container to Germany. There is also a guy near San Diego who collects many Pagodas just for the fun of it, so maybe one day someone will have a barn find there....

[DaveB]

I know the San Diego fella. I think he bought some of those W113s from the LA salvage yard, because he told me he'd bought several cars from a place in LA that had them up on racks. One was a 5-speed, unknown to him until after the purchase. One of his other cars, not from the LA yard, was a 280sl that had been cut into quarters. It had been a good car so it was a mystery why it had been cut up - revenge by a jealous wife was our theory. He also had some 190sl and other desirable older Mercedes. He restores them, doing much of the work himself, and ships them to his place in Germany. I think some are sold on but most are stored there.

[Tom Colitt]

Yes. That's him. He too has been a victim of theft and so he is fairly reclusive.