The junkyard gems of Valley Auto Wrecking in Thatcher, Arizona

We had called in a couple of times before, and had always been impressed with both quantity and quality. The yard was founded in 1967 and had built up an impressive collection of rot-free cars. However, just prior to our last visit, the owners culled a large number of classics, leaving a lot of empty space. Fortunately, as you can see in these pictures, some of the better cars were spared death by crusher. 

The yard is still in business today, but we can’t vouch for how many older vehicles it still has in stock. There certainly aren’t any on its Facebook page anyway. We hope you enjoy looking at these largely rust-free cars as much as we did taking the photos:

This elderly Nash was certainly the oldest car we spotted on our last visit to Arizona’s Valley Auto Wrecking. It appears to be a 1936 model, which is the year the manufacturer launched its bed-in-a-car feature. By hinging the rear seat back, two people were able to sleep with their feet in the trunk, effectively forming a double bed. Unfortunately nothing remains of this example's interior.

Here's another lucky survivor from Valley Auto Wrecking, a 1955 Packard Clipper. We were told that the car had been sold a few months prior to our visit, but the new owner doesn’t seem to be in a rush to rescue it. 

1955 Packards sold reasonably well, with 55,247 finding buyers. However, just 8309 were Clippers, making this a rare car indeed.

There are several reasons why salvage yards crush cars. Often it’s a case of cashing-in on the high price of scrap metal, or simply running out of space. On other occasions it’s because the cars in question are so undesirable that nobody is likely to ever want anything from them, or that they have already yielded all their useful parts. Sadly this 1951 Chevrolet Deluxe seems to fall into the latter category, and we fear its days are numbered.

And here’s another pair that are destined to temporarily satisfy the crusher’s insatiable hunger. Ford Taurus station wagons are rapidly disappearing from US roads, but the real rarity here is the yellow AMC Concord above it. 

Built between 1978 and 1983, these Hornet replacements initially sold well, but by the early 1980s when this one rolled off the line, sales were hovering around 50,000 per year. They didn’t have a great survival rate, and comparatively few are on the road today.

In 30-plus years of visiting salvage yards, Valley Auto Wrecking is the only one we can recall that stores its cars like this. While we can see the benefit of doing this in a damp climate, so protecting the underside from wet earth, the yard is located in the desert.

The balancing act seen here is being performed by a desirable 1970 Pontiac Catalina 400 coupe. Some 70,000 of these 6.5-litre V8-powered two-door hardtops were built.

Lifting them off the ground is certainly a great way to inspect the underside, but you’d be braver than us if you ventured underneath this 1963 Chevrolet Corvair. We reckon you’d only need to sneeze under there to knock it off its precarious perch. Ralph Nader once famously described the Corvair as being unsafe at any speed, but this looks unsafe at a standstill too…

Produced from 1960 to 1970, the Ford Falcon was the first compact car produced by any of Detroit’s Big Three automakers. This scaled down Galaxie was supposed to help fight the invasion of small European and Japanese cars that were taking an increasingly big bite of the US automobile market.

Although considerably smaller than the rest of the Ford line-up, they weren’t as compact as this 1960 version, which has lost most of its rear end.

Considering that AMC only sold 17,414 Marlins in its short three-year production run (1965 to 1967), a surprisingly large number of them still appear in salvage yards. This example is one of 10,327 built in 1965, easily its most successful year. 

When specified with a 327cu in V8, a Marlin could manage 60mph in 7.1sec. The six-cylinder cars were rather less exciting, but what they lacked in performance they more than made up for in style.

There’s no mistaking what make of car this is, it’s heart-shaped windshield immediately identifying it as a Kaiser. It’s a Deluxe four-door sedan, and was built in 1951, the marque’s most successful year by far. With 139,452 sales, it became the US’s twelfth most successful domestic automobile maker, ahead of Hudson, Cadillac, DeSoto and Packard. 

What’s more, its Henry J brand notched up a further 82,000 sales. But ultimately it couldn’t compete with the Big Three, and the plug was pulled in 1953.

Both Ford and General Motors were importing cars made by their European subsidiaries in the 1970s. While Ford was selling the Capri through its Mercury dealers, General Motors was bringing in German-built Mk1 Opel Mantas like this one, and distributing them through Buick dealerships.

Although they initially sold well, fluctuating exchange rates and consequent eye-watering price increases put paid to that in the mid 1970s. Instead GM began importing Japanese-built Isuzus, pulling the plug on Opel in the US. Early Mantas are hugely popular in Europe, and we’re surprised more aren’t repatriated.

“In 1962, nobody beats Valiant for value! It is, as it has been since its introduction, king of the compacts,” claimed the sales literature. The Plymouth Valiant was 183.7in long and 70.4in wide, which although more than 20in longer and 3in wider than a Volkswagen Bug, was still compact by early 1960s US automobile standards.

The car sold well, with half a million of these first generation (1960 to 1962) examples finding buyers. This is a 1962 car, one of 145,353 to leave the showrooms. 

Thatcher, Arizona gets roughly 10in of rainfall per annum, compared with a national average of 38in. This explains why there’s a lot less rust in Valley Auto Wrecking than some of the other yards we’ve visited. This 1968 Plymouth Fury III barely has any rust on it, and seems far too good to have ended up here.

This 1954 Nash Metropolitan coupe would cost a lot to put right, but a restoration certainly isn’t out of the question. Built between 1953 and 1961, these cute compacts never sold in huge quantities, yet seem to have an incredibly high survival rate. There can’t be too many classic salvage yards that don’t have at least one awaiting rehoming.

These early 1950s Ford F3 Step Vans don’t seem to have the same enthusiastic following as their similarly aged International rivals. This means there are still quite a few around, languishing in salvage yards, waiting to be rescued. This rust-free example is just crying out to be restored, and converted into a coffee/hamburger van. Of course you’d need to source a new engine for it.

Not only did the 1968 Pontiac Le Mans handle well on the road, but this one is also proving to be perfectly stable while perched on four wheel rims…

We wonder what this hardtop had under its hood. The entry level engine was a 4.1-litre six-cylinder unit. It generated 175 hp, which was enough to propel the coupe to 60mph in 10.4sec. You could have shaved 3sec off this time with the 5.8-litre, 320hp V8 though.

Not once, but twice someone has scrawled “1975 Ford” on this car’s shattered windshield, when in actual fact it was built 10 years earlier.

It’s a 1965 Ford Galaxie, which featured new angular styling, and vertically stacked headlights. Also making its preview this year was a new 3.9-litre six-cylinder engine. At the other end of the performance spectrum was the 7-litre V8, which generated 425 hp, and could do the quarter mile in 14.2sec.

Thank you to whoever it was that scribbled “1973” on the side of this Ford Ranchero, making our job that little bit easier. Then again, as we’ve just discovered, some of Valley Auto Wrecking’s identifications aren’t always that accurate.

Ford of Australia built the first coupe utility vehicle in 1934, and it would be a further 23 years before the concept was brought to the US. While the Ranchero led the way, it only had the market to itself for two years, as it was joined by the Chevrolet El Camino in 1959.

This lot look like they’re lined up at a bus station. Which one are you going to board? The one closest to camera is on its way to a 1970s High School, while the one next to it is bound for church.

Buses are a common sight at salvage yards, where they’re normally used to store spare parts. That’s certainly the case at Valley Auto Wrecking.

Although it was marketed as a personal luxury car rather than a sports car, the original two-seater Ford Thunderbird certainly looked sporty. But this would quickly change, and by the time the fourth generation cars (1964 to 1966) emerged, few of its sporty traits remained. 

It was big and heavy, wallowed into the bends, and took almost 11sec to muster-up 60mph. That said, it still had plenty of appeal with the car-buying public, and nearly 75,000 of these 1965 models found buyers.

Fifth generation Thunderbirds (1967 to 1971) were larger again, with Ford choosing to emphasise the “luxury” part of “personal luxury car”. The biggest change was the demise of the convertible, which had been rapidly losing appeal. It was replaced by what we see here – a four-door variant. Like the Lincoln, which the Thunderbird was increasingly aligning itself with, it featured reverse-hinged doors.

British automotive journalist Will Shiers has been photographing abandoned American cars for 35 years. He has visited all 50 states on his tin-hunting trips, exploring barns, fields, deserts, ghost towns and salvage yards, while searching for hidden treasures. 

Will has been contributing to car magazines for three decades, and is the author of Roadside Relics - America’s Abandoned Automobiles.