Save Them from the Crusher! Stash of Vintage Cars & Trucks
Located in the woods near Loudon, New Hampshire is a salvage yard that contains at least fifty old cars and trucks. There are more than that out there, but those are just the ones we could identify from some fifty-five photos that are provided. Posted here on Facebook Marketplace, we’re told these cars are headed to the crusher unless someone steps forward to save one or all. Most look like parts cars on a good day, while the rest are too far gone to save. Thanks, AMXBrian, for the heads-up on this stash!
It looks as though these cars are the property of Lane’s Garage & Auto Body who has been serving the salvage business for more than 50 years. Their Yellow Pages listing says they’re in a variety of related businesses, including an auto body center, full-service auto repair, used parts, and auto disposal (which may be how most of these cars ended up here). All this sounds well and good, but Yelp says that Lane’s is out of business, so perhaps this is a liquidation sale.
Most of the visible inventory covers the 1940s to the 1970s and the usual assortment of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler products. But as you stroll through the photo library, a few oddities pop out. Such as a 1959 Chevy El Camino pickup that has Lane’s name and phone number on the doors. That means it used to be the company truck and ended in the field when it was all used up. But the rarest of the cars just might be the Borgward and Goliath that are also sitting out in the elements.
Goliath
This car looks like a Goliath 1100, which was a small German automobile built from 1957-61. Goliath as a company was a subsidiary of Borgward. The 2-door coupe, like the one seen here, came out in 1958 and was powered by a 1094 cc inline-4 “boxer” motor. In 1959, the Goliath name was dropped, and the car was rebadged as the Hansa 1100, recalling Borgward’s prewar model of the same name. Few of these cars made it to the U.S. and this machine probably has an interesting story, if you could track it down.
Borgward
German-company Borgward built a car in the 1950s called the Isabella and this auto looks like it could be one. Production started in 1954 and ended when the company did in 1961. Though it was positioned as more of an upscale car, it only had a 1493cc engine as was kind of slow. It, too, didn’t see much action in the U.S. so finding one of these today, even in a junkyard, doesn’t happen very often.
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Comments
Go ahead and crush the Pacer! it will look much better that way.
Hi
A Lost Place junkyard. Make some photos before crush it. The Borgward Isabella is a 2 door limousine, So it isn`t worth to save it, but some parts from it would be. The Goliath (or Hansa, doesn`t matter) is a coupe and not the 2 door limousine (complete stupid, I know). So it`s quite rare and perhaps somebody in the world will make with a restorable limousine and this car one rare car. Some of the other cars on Facebook are intressting partcars. Studebaker Hawk, Covair and some of the older stuff. But what is this strange station wagon on Facebook? Is it an Rampler Cross Country Wagon? Is it worth to save it?
Best regards and sorry for my rusty english…
Till J.
The Volkswagen Corrado parked next to the Goliath was the most unexpected find in that yard.
You probably should get there before they get snowed in in a few weeks.
Doesn’t look like any car there is salvable for restoration. A lot of good glass and some trim bits are all that’s left. Too bad all the cars sunk into the ground.
The Roadkill guys would love this find! They love cars with more rust than steel.
I checked all the pictures and didn’t really see anything that caught my eye, but I’m sure someone will want parts off of some of those though. They look to be really spread out. Yeah get to them before it snows or the crusher does.
I used a Pacer front suspension on my ’47 Chevy 1st series. (1941 thru first half 1947). It was an easy install and a great improvement over the stock straight axle both in handling and ride. Id save that one for the front suspension uf nothing else.
Yes the ad is on Facebook, but it is not Marketplace, are the hiding the good stuff?
New England winters can eat cars really bad, but there are some interesting parts that need to be saved from the crusher. The glass on the 59 El Camino is pricey as it is.
“Inline boxer” is an oxymoron.
My parents had a summer cabin on the water at Lake Wentworth, just north of Wolfeboro, NH. We had car problems one summer in the mid 1960s, and the local garage in Wolfeboro told us about a junkyard outside of Concord, called Lanes Garage. They had the part we needed for our 1960 Olds 98, and off we went. They would pull the part, but we had to go get it.
On arrival I saw a tiny German car, red with a white top. I’m 99% sure it was the Goliath shown here. It had come into the yard recently as a running car, but it didn’t have working juice brakes, just the e-brake worked. This was a VERY nice, 100% complete car that had been kept in a garage, only driven in the summer months. Don’t remember the mileage on the odometer, but I doubt it was more than 25,000 miles.
I was 15 and didn’t yet have a driver’s license, so I wasn’t able to drive it, but the guy I talked with clearly saw I wanted that little car. He said it was mine for $55. $35 to tow it to Wolfeboro.
Dad, the keeper of everything financial in my world, was a man of few words when it came to things like this: “NO”. Practicality prevailed, there was no garage to even put the car, we had only the basic tools, and we were there only during the short summer months.
Now over 55 years later, I have the opportunity to buy it again. “NO” re-entered my mind, however this time it was my decision, not dad’s. I wanted it then, and I want it now!
This is the second car from my youth that became available just this week. Among a large selection of Packards in another Barn Finds feature is a 1955 Packard Patrician, VIN 5582-3050. I remember that VIN very well, it was not just my best friend’s car, but the first antique car I ever drove, and the car that got me interested in Packards.
Reality tells me that my age and medical conditions are going to keep me from buying both cars. Oh, well.
At least I get the opportunity to shout “RAN WHEN PARKED!”
Bill, whether he realizes it or not, is my salvation in this nutty world. His real life automotive adventures of the past, which was just living at the time, hits a nerve with anyone over 60 here. $55 dollar cars,( from a time you’d barter in $5 dollar increments) salvage yards more than willing to help, memories you simply CAN’T have today, it was a fun time to be a gearhead. We didn’t think of it as the old car hobby. which it morphed into later, it was a hobby that happened to include old cars, all we could afford. I can almost guarantee, Bill feels the same way I do about the hobby today, me and Bill, and many others from that time, really had it made, and we’re wealthy souls because of it. Thanks for your stories, Bill, they make my day.
Howard, your kind words came at the right time my friend. Today I found out my favorite all time musical group, The Moody Blues, had one of it’s co-founders, Graeme Edge, pass away at the age of 80. The world has lost an important music performer and writer.
Yes, we really have lived in a time of great change. I look back at some of the crazy things I’ve done [mostly legal!]. I credit part of my adventures to my constant search for the unusual and different, caused by what they now call ADHD. I’ve never been satisfied with “average or normal”.
When I was a young teen I discovered vintage luxury cars, thru Packards. One day I saw a Rolls-Royce at a car show, and I promised myself someday I would sit in one. That happened when I was 15. It was at that time I realized I wanted an older Rolls-Royce too. That took some time because other thing kept me busy. But when I was 35, I bought a Rolls-Royce 20-25 James Young Limo. That car had me hooked. While I still kept finding Packards, Soon other Rolls-Royce cars ended up in the collection. Then a couple of Bentleys appeared in my building.
Now back to the original posting; You and I have truly seen quite a change. I was 7 years old when the first manmade satellite circled the earth. Today, a rocket sending a spacecraft into a billion mile voyage thru the stars, doesn’t even make the morning TV news. But our experiences mostly don’t come close to my grandfather’s generation.
My grandfather grew up before the automobile, where he was an officer in the US cavalry, and rode horses, not trucks. After he retired from the USDA, and went to Pakistan to head their government’s introduction of a new cotton crop [that saved their #1 export], it was expected that he not ship over his 1956 Buick Century Riviera hardtop, because as an American in Pakistan, he would be driven everywhere by chauffeur. It wouldn’t be correct for him to be riding in the back seat in a 2-door car!
So Dr. Wright gave my parents the Buick after he visited Capitol Cadillac in Washington DC, where in September of 1958 he bought a new 1959 Fleetwood 75 sedan. I had a ride in it only once before it was shipped overseas. My parents rode in the back seat, and as I was only 7, but already crazy about cars, I HAD to ride in the folding jump seats!
Grandfather Wright knew what he was doing all along, he never planned on bringing the Caddy back home. After just under 2 years he came back, but in the middle east, the big 7-passenger sedan was worth about twice what he paid for it new, and he sold it to the Pakistani government for a nice profit. I however, was not happy! But on returning home, He did buy a new 1960 Cadillac 60special sedan, in dark blue.
60 years later, if he was still alive, and needed to visit Pakistan again, it would probably require a security team and a well armored SUV. Just knowing he was an American would put a price on his head, for those who like to cause trouble.
Bill’s story puts this back into my memory bank: ’49 Crosley $39, ’32 Ford coupe with juice brakes, dropped axle, ’48 Mercury flathead, needed paint, $500, totally restored ’34 Ford V8 pickup in primer swapped even for the ’32, coupe, ’53 Studebaker coupe minus engine and transmission and needing paint $35, first of many Porsches, ’56 Cabriolet, running/driving needed paint, $450, ’59 Porsche coupe from original owner, needed nothing, $900, and it still goes on with the rust free rolling chassis ’60 Bugeye Sprite for $1,500 we are presently building into a vintage car. Never stops does it?
First two cars I owned were Model T’s, bought for $20, drove ’til mistakes made trying to “work” on them and then taken to junk yard. Sr. year of H.S. bought rumble-seat A coupe which I still own. Also an A sedan which during the following summer built the sports car from plans in Popular Mechanics. Wish i still had that low, fast attention-grabber! Kids today can’t/won’t be able to get into the car “hobby” as cheaply and care-free as was available in the 50’s and 60’s.
I would love to have the 59 Elcamino one great car but it is there and I am not!!
Howard, your kind words came at the right time my friend. Today I found out my favorite all time musical group, The Moody Blues, had one of it’s co-founders, Graeme Edge, pass away at the age of 80. The world has lost an important music performer and writer.
Yes, we really have lived in a time of great change. I look back at some of the crazy things I’ve done [mostly legal!]. I credit part of my adventures to my constant search for the unusual and different, caused by what they now call ADHD. I’ve never been satisfied with “average or normal”.
When I was a young teen I discovered vintage luxury cars, thru Packards. One day I saw a Rolls-Royce at a car show, and I promised myself someday I would sit in one. That happened when I was 15. It was at that time I realized I wanted an older Rolls-Royce too. That took some time because other thing kept me busy. But when I was 35, I bought a Rolls-Royce 20-25 James Young Limo. That car had me hooked. While I still kept finding Packards, Soon other Rolls-Royce cars ended up in the collection. Then a couple of Bentleys appeared in my building.
Now back to the original posting; You and I have truly seen quite a change. I was 7 years old when the first manmade satellite circled the earth. Today, a rocket sending a spacecraft into a billion mile voyage thru the stars, doesn’t even make the morning TV news. But our experiences mostly don’t come close to my grandfather’s generation.
My grandfather grew up before the automobile, where he was an officer in the US cavalry, and rode horses, not trucks. After he retired from the USDA, and went to Pakistan to head their government’s introduction of a new cotton crop [that saved their #1 export], it was expected that he not ship over his 1956 Buick Century Riviera hardtop, because as an American in Pakistan, he would be driven everywhere by chauffeur. It wouldn’t be correct for him to be riding in the back seat in a 2-door car!
So Dr. Wright gave my parents the Buick after he visited Capitol Cadillac in Washington DC, where in September of 1958 he bought a new 1959 Fleetwood 75 sedan. I had a ride in it only once before it was shipped overseas. My parents rode in the back seat, and as I was only 7, but already crazy about cars, I HAD to ride in the folding jump seats!
Grandfather Wright knew what he was doing all along, he never planned on bringing the Caddy back home. After just under 2 years he came back, but in the middle east, the big 7-passenger sedan was worth about twice what he paid for it new, and he sold it to the Pakistani government for a nice profit. I however, was not happy! But on returning home, He did buy a new 1960 Cadillac 60special sedan, in dark blue.
60 years later, if he was still alive, and needed to visit Pakistan again, it would probably require a security team and a well armored SUV. Just knowing he was an American would put a price on his head, for those who like to cause trouble.