A Visit To Legendary Turner Auto Wreckers – The 100 Acres Of Cars And Parts Are Amazing, But Jerry Turner, Age 93, Is Even More So

My short but intense visit to Turner’s Auto Wrecking in Fresno, California to pick up the transmission for my truck confirmed the fact that people—the right people anyway—are infinitely more interesting and compelling than cars. Even if it’s 100 acres of cars, a substantial percentage of them vintage cars dating back to 1928.

This reality influenced my coverage of the yard, as it’s not nearly as comprehensive as I thought it was going to be. Sorry. Why? I much preferred hanging out with Jerry than with his cars and parts. He’s a truly amazing fount of knowledge and stories, and his warm demeanor, treating every visitor and caller with sincere attention and consideration, are qualities that even the most fascinating car out back can’t hope to compete with . I would have loved to spend even more time with him, but he’s a very busy guy, fielding a constant stream of calls and telling his guys over the radio just exactly where a certain car or part is on the vast property. And yes, he’ll be 93 in a few weeks. And no, he has no plans to retire.

I arrived at Turner’s Auto Wrecking at 10pm on Sunday night, and parked in front. I had about as good a night’s sleep as one can have some thirty yards away from a major train street crossing. I woke early, at about six, to the repeated blasting of another train’s horns. This time I got up, stepped out, and looked around a bit to see where I had landed. The red sun in the hazy sky was just rising over the 100 acres of cars beyond the fence.

The sign on the fence, painted on an old car door, sums it up.

There was quite a pile of items out front. I forgot to ask why. Freebies? Overflow?  It’s all just part of the setting. Turner’s is obviously not at all like one of those big corporate wrecking yards.

I stepped back inside my van to make some breakfast. At about 6:40, I heard a vehicle pull in and park next to me. It was a slightly battered somewhat older white Chevy pickup. I stepped out at the same time the driver stepped out. Over the sound of another train rolling though the intersection, I said:

You must be Jerry Turner.

Yes I am. Welcome.

You always come to work this early?

Always. I have some things to do first, so we’ll get to your transmission at nine. Feel free to look around.

I went back in the van and finished my breakfast. When mother nature called, I went in the office and asked if I could use the bathroom. I have facilities to deal with that in the van, but if I can use a bathroom or outhouse (or a remote cat hole), I prefer that.

Jerry was hard at work looking over his piles of notes and requests and such. The bathroom’s back over there in the corner.

Somewhere on the other side of this mountain of parts.

There’s also a wall full of pictures and mementos. More on that later.

Having done my business I headed out back. As I said, this is not going to be a comprehensive look at everything. There simply wasn’t enough time, and it was just too overwhelming. It’s just so vast…

When I first saw this forest of sticks pointing skyward, I couldn’t figure out what they were. As I got a bit closer, it was obviously a vast collection of steering columns. This is a good preview of things to come, all in great multiples.

Transmissions? Did someone say transmissions?

Rows and rows of them.

And more rows.

And then there’s a whole building full of them. No wonder Jerry had a T-85 for me. And of course he knew that he did as soon as I called him. His memory is absolutely mind-boggling. I felt brain dead in his presence.

Need a radiator fan?

Drums and hubs; both outside and inside these two buildings, which look to be some old farm outbuildings.

Jerry’s family originally came to California for the Gold Rush in 1850 but found their gold in ranching and farming. I’m guessing that Jerry’s interest in cars and motorcycles was a lot bigger than in growing beans or picking fruit. So he started this wrecking yard in 1960 on part of the family ranch. It pretty well took over most of it, but he’s got a couple more that are dedicated to orchards and such. But he seems to spend all or most of his time here, Monday – Friday, and Saturday until noon.

For some reason, way too many of my shots turned out fuzzy. Looks like power brake boosters on one side and steering control arms on the other.

Transmission innards, I assume.  I suppose Jerry knows what a lot of these are, or maybe this building is getting away even from him?

Lots more drums, discs, and hubs. There’s more in the distance.

And more.

Not done yet.

A pile of more recent plastic grilles that don’t deserve to be sorted and stored properly.

Rear axles. About an acre of them.

Rows and rows of windshields off in the distance.

More transmissions.

That leads to the engines. Looks like a slant six there in front.

A mixture of the two.

Most of the engines are in this vast building.

Some of these shots are fuzzy. As was my head, from the combination of a short night and the sheer overwhelming aspect of it all. I didn’t really stop to look at stuff in detail, just walking and shooting randomly, mostly. There’s just no way to properly absorb it all, unless you want to spend a week or two. Or maybe hire on as a part picker.

How much of this will ever get sold and reused is a good question.

It’s mixture of vintage and more recent engines.

For some reason, this one caught my eye. And you can be sure that if someone called Jerry looking for a head for a 216 Chevy six, he’ll say yes and know just where it is. And what kind of shape it’s in. And what you’re going to want to do with it.

There’s more transmissions in here too.

Need a straight eight for your Buick? Jerry’s got it; almost certainly more than one. I saw a good number of very old flathead inline engines from the pre-war and early post-war era.

Manifold manifolds.

The exhaust manifold farm. They grow well here on these trellises.

Time to head out to where the actual cars are. Lots of other stuff too.

 

This VW 411 caught my eye.

Ford F-1 hoods, anyone?

 

I meandered into the motorcycle section on the way out to the cars.

Here’s a bike I’d pretty much forgotten ever existed: the Yamaha TX750. A new parallel twin designed to replace the older and well proven XS650.  The 750 had a number of advanced features, including Omni-Phase balance shafts. But engine failures started happening not long after it arrived in 1972, and required several recalls and numerous fixes.

This was quite atypical for Japanese bikes, and the 750 quickly got a bad rep. It was withdrawn from the market after only some two years.

A Grand Prix among the bikes.

This little Suzuki two stroke looking like a club racer also caught my eye.

Old wire wheels. There were some old wooden spoke wheels too, but the dry weather and sun undoubtedly made them useless.

An interstellar interloper has landed among the bikes.

Not just cars and bikes…stoves and other appliances too.

One of the many sheds.

The next shed over is the house of carbs. Sorry about the blurry picture, but seeing rows and rows of these four barrel carbs is worth it.

Lots more in these racks.

And on the shelves.

Generators galore…enough to light up all of Fresno.

And a couple of intact cars too.

Time to head out and walk in some direction; any direction.

Sweet little Fiat 1100.

This Avanti was quite intact and certainly not being parted out.

 

Looks pretty much road-ready.

The old ranch house and water tower.

More cars, as far as the eye can see…

Newer as well as older.

A-Bodies.

Japanese cars of all kinds and vintages.

 

An Opel GT.

Lots of VWs. Not any that are salvageable, though.

Ramblers.

A rare aftermarket extended-cab Mitsubishi.

First year Ranchero.

 

Old timers.

A Ford section.

A Mercury “Montchero”.

Jaguars and other Europeans.

Looking across the irrigation ditch to another vast tract of cars over there. Too much…

This Lincoln had “Do Not Part” written on it.

As did the matching coupe.

An older Lincoln coupe.

No, I didn’t walk the south 40.

I just held up my phone to share a sense of the vastness of the place with you. A golf cart would be just the ticket.

The irrigation ditch is dry these days. That’s the office way off in the distance.

Corvairs.

Chryslers

Mish-mash.

A fine old DeSoto hardtop coupe.

I was spent. It’s just overwhelming. And as I was walking out to the gate, here comes a new arrival.

A Mercedes W126 that looks to have had an engine fire.

There’s a whole other large yard across the street, that seems to have only vintage cars. I didn’t go in. I should have; look like mostly 60s and 70s cars. Next time…

You should go see it for yourselves.

I headed back in, seeing it was about nine now. Among the many pictures on the wall, I noticed this one, signed by the legendary race car driver, Bill Vukovich. From Fresno, Vukovich started out in midgets and quickly worked his way up, winning the Indy 500 in 1953 and 1954. He was killed during the 1955 500 while in the lead, due to a chain reaction crash started by a spin out by Roger Ward. Many consider him to be the greatest American race car driver. I read about him as a kid in the 60s.

 

I asked Jerry about the picture, and he immediately launched into a story about Bill and his two brothers, whom he knew very well. He grabbed the pile of papers from his desk and told me that he had been sent what he considered the most definitive analysis of the crash that killed Vukovich. The pile was tall, and about half way through of sorting through them, keeping some and discarding others, he gave up and just told it to me verbally, as well as some of the early history of the Vukovich brothers.

I was in the thrall of a man who could undoubtedly tell compelling stories all day long; every day, for that matter, as he’s lived a very full life and seems to remember every detail.

But Jerry has work to do, as the phone rings regularly. I took this very short and random video of him doing what he does, although that’s hardly all he does. He has a wonderful phone voice, and from the first time I called him about my transmission, he was extremely courteous and warm. Everyone gets that same treatment, including some tourists who walked in asking if they could tour the yards. Most certainly! But not before he insisted on giving them each a bottle of water from the fridge.

Jerry told me he’s had busloads of 20 Swedes show up, as well as other Europeans. And in the last 20 years, the business has become national and international, with some 50% of parts sold being shipped out.

Here’s Jerry in 1950, when he was 18. Motorcycles were obviously a big part of his life. I wish there had been more time to hear more of his life story.

Lots of pictures on the wall, and above the fridge there was something of a memorial to his son that died quite some years back. I did hear one of the yard workers, Kip, call Jerry “gramps” on the radio, and I saw him briefly in the office, and noticed a certain family resemblance, so presumably the torch will be passed to him when the time comes. But a tremendous amount of knowledge will be lost when that happens.

Jerry had one of his most capable guys take the overdrive off my transmission and mount it to one from the yard with a broken O/D case, due to a broken U-joint.  Jerry inspected the insides carefully and called it good. It was original, which actually makes me more confident, since mine had been “rebuilt” by a transmission shop, but obviously they made a mistake assembling it, as some of the little roller pins from the bearing that failed had fallen out. I had found them in the bottom of my pan when I changed the oil in it two years ago. I posted about that, and a number of commenters told me it was likely just a matter of time before that bearing went bad. It did just that, two years later.

It’s a more involved job than I might have anticipated, and it took a couple of hours. Jerry popped in several times to see how it was coming and to offer advice and help as needed. There was a bit of a hitch near the end, and Jerry took charge at that point. His knowledge on just this one transmission was as if that’s all he ever did, work on old transmissions. Not so. It’s rather mind-boggling, actually.

Jerry is a living legend, and made a vast number of friends over the decades, quite a few of which are no longer alive. It was a privilege to meet Jerry, and when he said “goodbye my friend”, they were words that will resonate with me for some time.

At a time in my life where I sometimes feel like I’m getting too old to take on certain jobs (like changing my transmission) and ponder how to prioritize my time and ponder whether “retirement” has any relevance to my life, meeting Jerry has given me some fresh perspective and put some new spring into my step. I’m 25 years younger than he is. You don’t stop living fully, working and doing things until you do…by choice or necessity. Like Jerry, I’ll take the latter.

We loaded the transmission into the van just before noon. I had anticipated having to stop somewhere on the way home for another night. But I wanted to get home, so I gulped down a quick sandwich and pulled out at exactly 12:00, and hit the road home. 660 miles later, I pulled into our driveway at 9:55 pm. Just under ten hours, average speed 70. Two quick gas stops.

Now to get that transmission back in.