Mike,
You should have seen them before they crushed most of their stuff around
1990! Windy Hills had 14,000 cars, most of them 50's. More than an entire
square mile carpeted with cars parked in rows like a parking lot. No trees,
just rolling prairie, thus "Windy Hills". In the early 1980s, I had a 57
Buick Roadmaster. I went to Windy Hills looking for the small stuff that
always disappears over the life of a car. I noticed a large population of
57s, so I started to count them. I gave up at 50 and I was not even through
half the yard. I figured at least a hundred 57 Buicks. Every 50's make was
just as well represented. They saved 6 to 10 of the least picked over of
each year and make. About 90% became crusher food.
French Lake did the same about 1995. They had 12,000 cars, mostly 50's. They
crushed about 70% of the old stuff.
Both have reasonable prices. I make a pilgrimage to one or the other every
year.
Dave Homstad
56 Dodge D500
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Sealey [SMTP:mopar2ya@YAHOO.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 11:32 PM
> To: L-FORWARDLOOK@LISTS.PSU.EDU
> Subject: [FWDLK] Minnesota Was Great! (loooooong)
>
> Wish you all could have seen all the cool places I saw
> while visiting Minnesota. Special thanks to "MoPar
> Mel" Bohnenkamp of the FL list for his hospitality.
>
> French Lake Auto Parts is one of the biggest auto part
> recyclers I have ever seen. Imperials include a couple
> of '69 4dr HTs which looked like nice cars before
> their 440s were removed (grrr), a '66 Crown Coupe with
> a solid body but still in need of a full resto, and
> numerous others from '51 to '82 (FL is well
> represented here). I was also surprised to see a '50
> DeSoto Sportsman, a '50 Dodge Coronet Diplomat and a
> '51 Plymouth Belvedere, all of which represent the
> earliest example of 2dr hardtop for their given makes
> and all of which looked very restorable indeed. Plenty
> of cool Forward Look stuff as well, including a rough
> '57 Belvedere convert (Mel, it's no worse than some
> you already have waiting for resto), and many others
> including numerous 2dr hardtops that look like they
> could be brought back.
>
> Windy Hills Auto Wrecking was very cool. They've tried
> their best to put like next to like, so there was this
> row of '60 and '61 Chryslers, a row of '57-'58
> Plymouths (anybody needing the rare station wagon
> taillight lenses for these, they have 'em), and so on.
> Lotsa MoPars, '41 and newer (and possibly older as
> well, we didn't check everything out). One downer
> about Windy Hills is that because they are so
> organized, many of their cars have been picked clean,
> but if you're in the Midwest and in need of sheetmetal
> you'll probably find what you need here.
>
> For total Forward Look immersion, it's hard to beat
> "MoPar Mel" Bohnenkamp's yard. Numerous Imperials and
> other things being parted out, including a '61 DeSoto
> 4drHT and a '58 Regal Lancer. (All who were flaming
> Mel about his parting out the '60 Phoenix with 25K,
> blame the previous owner for not washing off the salt
> before it ate the car alive instead...) Many cool cars
> for sale as complete projects. I had some big
> fantasies about the '56 Coronet D-500 2dr sedan with
> the stick (only a single carb, but hey...) It was also
> cool to see the gorgeous '58 Belvedere convert Mel is
> in the midst of restoring (he's actually doing it as a
> red Fury replica, kind of a Christine convert clone,
> per the new owner's instructions).
>
> Going back home with no small sense of satisfaction,
> and a newfound respect for the Midwestern practice of
> stashing nice cars when winter comes, leaving the snow
> to the disposable beater cars...
>
>
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