All the Hidden Valley wrecking yard photos

[Gil]

http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=514479&page=4&pp=15

I tested this link and it should work this time.

I am not sure if they are selling parts for cheap or giving stuff away? I see a few cars I'd like to adopt. It's a good thing this place is thousands of miles away!

Gil

[Mike Self]

(Sunbeam Rapier, Peugeot 403, Triumph Herald coupe) plus some I didn't even know were imported (Simca Aronde pickup truck, Citroen AMI 6).

Is that yard in AZ or in CA? wish it was closer. Dang...even a sunroof Renault Dauphine with an Abarth muffler on it!

Sigh...nothing like that around here!

mike

[clc]

Hidden Valley Auto Wrecking of Maricopa, Az

[mattmcginn]

[jimk]

I tried to find that place last Christmas while I was there and got lost. It's way to hell and gone out there out south! If I had found it, I probably would have still been there picken around.

[Mike Self]

the US...buiilt 1959-67 on a Dauphine floorpan--kinda Renault's Karmann Ghia. Thru '62 they had a 40hp Dauphine engine; in '63 they got the 956cc (later 1108cc) R8/10 engine of about 50/57 hp. The last two years they had very nifty 32mm dual throat Weber carbs and an all synchro 4 speed gearbox.

Car pictured has a removeable hardtop; they also had convertible tops and could be bought with either or both tops.

If they had only put the R8 Gordini engine (1108cc, 105 hp, dual Solex PHH40 carbs!) in the Caravelle, they woulda had a running machine!

cheers

mike

[mattmcginn]

that thing is beautiful.

A good friend of mine passed (about 10 years ago) on a pretty decent but forlorn simca bertone (or something...pretty car...)

[Mike Self]

Simca Bertone. It was basically a Simca 1000 (Simca imitation of a Renault R8) with a beautiful Bertone coupe body--somewhat similar to the Fiat 850 coupe (also a Bertone body). I've only seen one or two of 'em when I was a kid in Florida--never one since. Too bad as they are very pretty little cars.

mike

[mattmcginn]

You know about some obscure stuff, thats for sure. Thought you were a one trick pony!!

There is something so cool about italian bodied little teeny cars...

one of my favorites is the ASA 1000GT. Werent there some Moretti bodied Fiats that are cool looking??

[Gil]

I think you are referring to the REALLY sweet looking Moretti 850 based on the Fiat 850 chassis and driveline. They looked sort of like an ASA 1000GT.

Then there was the Simca Abarth 1150. It used some Fiat 850 bits too. (I'm using a Simca 1000 ring and pinion set in a Fiat Abarth replica project.)

There were quite a few coachbuilders that built some really nice cars based on Fiat 600s and 850s and other models like the 1100s. I recently saw a local Fiat Ghia 1600GT. It looked like a grown up version of an ASA 100GT in a way.

If I could get to the HIdden Valley wrecker, I would take the 850 coupe windshield....

Gil

[Mike Self]

1959 Moretti convert (600 based) with less than 1k on it mouldering away under a rotting tarp in a carport...along with two American Austin roadsters (a 33 and a 34)...tried to buy one or all from him for years but never succeeded. All gone now, darnit--don't know where either.

Growing up in Ft Lauderdale in the late 50s-early 60s we had all sorts of exotica there--from Chrysler T & C woodies to Tuckers (a guy in Ft L had 16 Tuckers at one time!) and every little foreign car you can think of...the national Lloyd importer was in Ft Lauderdale!

With two Topolinos and 3 4CVs, I'm kinda partial to funny little furrin cars!

mike

[Guest Anonymous]

Renault Caravelle. Don't know the year. But all of the cars shown in this photo are no longer there, and they did not have any idea of what I was talking about. I visited Hidden Valley Wrecking Yard two weeks ago (May 2007). Lots of old cars, but none of the foreign ones seen in the photos.

[Guest Anonymous]

I visited the old site yesterday just to see that everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) was gone. Not a part, not a fence, not even a bolt left on the ground. I went to the new site a couple of miles further and was very disappointed to see only a fraction of the original vehicles left in the much smaller yard. I talked to the owners and it turns out that from the 9000 vehicles on the old lot they managed to save about a thousand before the new owners of the land took possession of it and had the remaining 8000 cars...... CRUSHED! It took them 4 months straight to turn pieces of automotive history into piles of twisted metal. This is an incredible loss in my eyes and something that never should have been allowed to happen. None of the 'foreign' vehicles that were in the old lot made it to the new lot, so treasure these pictures, since it's the only thing that is left.