Wow! Can you guys even derby something that rusty? looks like one good hit and it will fold in half!
That, to me, is the whole problem. It seems that it's not the cars in that condition that get derbied, but rather the nice "survivors" and "drivers" that end up in the derby.
I won't go to derbies. I hate them. It started when I was a kid. A friend's uncle bought a '59 Chevy sedan delivery, basically a 2-door wagon with no glass behind the driver. The car was in nice shape. It was painted yellow, the body was straight and didn't appear to be rusted. It had a V-8, a floor shifted manual trans, bucket seats and mag wheels. All of us kids just thought it was the coolest car. One day, his uncle showed up driving a different car. I asked my friend where the '59 sedan delivery was. His reply was "My uncle derbied it. That's what he does with all of his cars when he gets sick of them." I never said anything, but that did it for me. I loved that car and have hated derbies ever since.
Move ahead to the present and I hate the fact that I can't find a C-body parts car around here anywhere. I can't afford to, and don't want to, have to pay shipping on every little part, but in my view, the reason I can't find a parts car is because the derby guys grab them all as soon as they go up for sale.
In some places, Imperials and other C-bodies are no longer allowed in derbies because they have an unfair advantage over other cars. I would like to see a rule that wouldn't allow cars over 35 years old to be derbied. Too much of our automotive heritage is being lost forever. Too many potential projects and parts cars are being lost. There's a local business here that enters cars in derbies. They recently derbied a '64 Mercury. The car was a 4-door, but all of the front sheet metal, the hood, the bumpers and mechanical parts could have been used by someone restoring another 4-door, a convertible or a 2-door hardtop including a Maruader.
The other thing that pisses me off are the people who don't part out anything and send it straight to the scrapyard. When I say scrapyard I don't mean boneyard. I'm referring to the places that don't sell parts, they just shred everything that comes in. I was looking for some parts for one of my classics one day and thought I'd check out a place that I hadn't been. I walked into the office and told them what I was looking for and was told that they don't sell any parts.
I used to know a guy like that. He would never sell or part out any of his cars. When he got tired of a car he always sold it to a scrapper that didn't sell parts. If he didn't want it anymore then no one else could have it either.
:rant:
