Ever wondered what it takes to make a Junkyard Outtake post – or wanted to do one yourself? In this week’s Junkyard Outtake, we’ll pull back the curtain and show you how it’s done.
Until recently, CC’s weekly junkyard feature has been something I’ve worked on alone. In that time, I’ve been fairly content with how it’s turned out. And even with five months’ worth of weekly junkyard tours behind us, there remain interesting sights to be shown in the foreseeable future.
Winter has made gathering new pictures difficult. (FYI, U-Pull shots come to you within hours of being taken, but the Back Forty shots were stockpiled last fall and are being spread out during the snowy months).
Come spring, there still are three more yards I frequent which haven’t yet been photographed, as well as two more-secluded spots I want to take you to, including one private yard with lots of ’60s iron, and one off-the-map operation teeming with AMC products. Rest assured that the Junkyard Outtake had not run its course.
But lately I’ve been thinking that the Junkyard Outtake could benefit from some fresh input. You’ve all seen several slices of junkyard life from my GM-centric, Midwest-based perspective… perhaps the time is right for some new points of view.
One of Perry’s finds
I was happy to see our editor, Perry, throw his hat in the ring this past weekend by writing a Junkyard Outtake of his own. It was great to see some fresh cars and get a closer look at some I might otherwise have overlooked. Hopefully others will follow his lead.
That said, let’s take a peek behind the curtain. What does it take to write a Junkyard Outtake?
I start by taking a camera to a junkyard. As I walk the yard, I try to take at least four pictures of each vehicle that seems interesting. An “interesting” vehicle might be one with odd options, an uncommon model or package, a sought-after or notorious model, extremely high or low miles, one that’s significantly older that those around it, or anything else that stands out.
Once the pictures have been shot, the review process begins. I aim to run at least five cars in each post, with around three shots per car. The pics that make the cut get resized and optimized; the rest are archived for possible future use.
With the pictures ready to go, it’s time to begin writing. I’ve developed a sort of format for the Junkyard Outtake which seems to work well, so we’ll stick with that.
The first thing we’ll need is a lead picture. This picture has to be attention-getting, but it can’t be one that either repeats later in the article or give away something we want to mention later. (Sometimes I’ll shoot a picture specifically with this in mind.)
Next, we need a sentence to the effect of “Hey, it’s Friday, and time for the Junkyard Outtake.” This might not seem important, but the more we tell you that the Junkyard Outtake runs every Friday, the more likely you’ll be to expect a Junkyard Outtake each time Friday rolls around. That way, hopefully, you’ll visit CC on Fridays and look for the Junkyard Outtake. Every Friday. Because it’s the Junkyard Outtake. Yeah. Junkyards. Fridays.
With that done, we now need a brief introduction, usually something semi-entertaining that relates to the content of the article. Sometimes it’ll even involve lightly bragging about how nothing can stop the Junkyard Outtake from appearing every Friday (see what I did there?). In any case, the idea is to get you interested in reading more.
With the intro out of the way, it’s time to get to the meat and potatoes. I generally run the cars in the same order in which I saw them (it makes things easier for me to keep track of). Each picture gets a caption–usually one line, but can be longer when necessary.
Let’s try a few, shall we?
Storytelling is a major part of the captioning process. So it would be fitting to start with this shot–and to tell you that this 2003 Suburban was one of two vehicles that drew me here today. The other was…
…this 2006 Chevy Express van. When I saw the two of them pop up in the yard inventory, I knew it was time to pay a visit.
I needed a back door handle from the Suburban. Unfortunately, this one has a lift gate, and not barn doors. All the other goodies I might have wanted had also been picked off. No good here!
The van was intriguing because as a 3/4 ton, it was practically guaranteed to have a 6.0 L V8 under its hood (er, doghouse). But I quickly lost interest upon discovering that it had covered over 400,000 miles. None for me, thanks.
Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed by the outcome so far. But as I was departing the truck section, something caught my eye. Could it be?
Yup – this beaten-down Chevy pickup was wearing factory “454 SS style” wheels (for lack of their proper name). A quick sweep of the area revealed that all four were present, and even had decent rubber. I’d never owned a set of these before, so I happily grabbed a wheelbarrow and loaded them up.
With my business completed, there was nothing left to do but roam the yard for more interesting cars.
Like this Impala, for instance. That’s a hot mess if I ever saw one!
One man’s blunder is another man’s opportunity. (Did it run fine before the fire? Apparently, somebody thinks so.)
Sometimes finding the right cars to photograph is just too easy. This ragtop Sunbird had no problem grabbing my attention.
Its top was even in decent shape. Where was this one when I needed it?
Holy white vinyl, Batman! I would have taken these buckets home with me had the left one not been truly holey. (You can’t see it from this angle, but the inside of the left bolster was shredded.)
I also like to occasionally revisit cars that were featured in past Junkyard Outtakes, especially those which weren’t shown in detail but still generated interest. This 300D is one such car.
Last time I only got one shot of this car, because I didn’t want to disturb the party who was working on it. But today I have it all to myself.
Underhood shots are nice. Snow-covered underhood shots, not quite so much.
More-or-less creative hacks, such as this tin headlight mount, always make for good material.
Sometimes a picture calls for a witty caption. Hmm… how about this: “Winter is temporary, but MB-Tex is forever.”
And with that, we just captioned 17 pictures! That wasn’t so difficult, was it?
Typically, there will be anywhere from 15-20 pictures to arrange and caption. After that comes a short teaser which highlights what’s coming next week… and we’re done! A couple of rereads, some last-minute changes, the usual once-over by our editor, and it’s ready for your enjoyment.
So there you have it: One more Junkyard Outtake done. As always, I hope you enjoyed it!
Next week, we dig into the Back Forty archives for more rusty gold… assuming Project XJ6 doesn’t find a way to kill me first. Don’t miss it!
That Suburban looked awfully nice to be junked. Sometimes I look at a car and try to figure out why someone gave up on it. Then there is the Impala – no mystery there. And nothing uglier than the aftermath of a dashboard fire.
Keith you left out one important instruction: Never include a single teaser picture but no other shots or information on the car at all – like that early Dodge minivan. It’s even Woodie Week!
Seriously, an enjoyable tour, as always. Thank you for traipsing around in the Minnesota snow so that the rest of us can look at these cars from the warmth and comforts of our homes or offices.
I could do Junkyard Outtakes all day long here in the desert. Sadly, they would make folks from the rust belt sob audibly.
> the more we tell you that the Junkyard Outtake runs every Friday, the more likely you’ll be to expect a Junkyard Outtake each time Friday rolls around.
I can hear the announcer in my head. “Friday! Friday! Friday!” Except if most of these cars travel another 1/4 mile, it will be their last.
The composition of the lead-in pic is funny, but in a sad way…
Those three look rarin’ to go for one last drive. “Pick me! Pick meeeee!
The red one even looks like it’s standing on it’s haunches.
I’ve done quite a few junkyard posts in the past as well. I’ve got a few lined up ready to be written. Summer definitely offers better junkyarding here in Canada though.
I look forward to reading them!
RE: 2003 Sub’an
Somewhere, [here or other] I read that theft recovery vehicles get scrapped instead of retitled, in some states. Steve Lang would know.
Or, it just had over 300K miles?
Wild guess: oodles of miles, a fair bit of rust, then the transmission went. Sticker shock then led its owner (who clearly bought it used) to junk it and walk away.
The reason most theft recoveries get written off is because of the theft of their cat.convertors. The replacement cost for the cats on this particular Suburban is well over $1k. Add in the occasional air bag or the fact that the theives shelled the motor or transmission than it’s easy to see how these recoveries end up here. Sometimes they aren’t even stolen. Just innocent victims parked somewhere where they shouldn’t have.
BTW those “chrome steelies” on the GMT900 came on the more docile V-6/SBC trucks too. But the real “wow factor” is that you could also get them on the Express vans up to the 2002 model year.
Got those wheels on my ’98 G-1500, with certainly not a 454, but merely a velvety smooth, 5.0.
Wow that Express is pretty dang new and it could pass for a 2014!! While the Econoline is cruder, less user friendly, and has that dangerous rear overhang it will just keep going forever. However, I hear sometimes their AC system will fail. The Chevies are more refined and more user friendly especially the ones with the 6 speed tranny, but they have random annoying stuff go wrong with them which is annoying.
One of my favorite collections of “Junkyard Outtake”-style photography is the work of the photographer Troy Paiva, which can be found on Flickr or at lostamerica.com. It’s all night photography, and captures fantastically the collections of some massive California yards filled with ’50s-’70s iron. Definitely worth a look.
I think I’ve seen that Troy guy’s work. It is AMAZING. Damn sight better that looking at newer stuff which doesn’t particularly age very gracefully!
BTW, I’m an old SAAB freak as well.
That Sunbird convert looked great! I wonder why it ended up in the boneyard…
That Sunbird breaks my heart. Aqua with white interior–exactly how I would have ordered one.
I wish I had time…maybe after my never-ending house project is done and I’m onto to the classics in the garage.
I’ve always loved junkyard doggin, back to when I was a kid. But the only pix I have are in the back of my mind.
Like the white ’59 Plymouth 2-door wagon from California sitting in my cousin Ralph’s junkyard in Brattleboro, VT in 1981. Also, a yellow ’48 Chevy panel and a ’55 Handyman to name two others…
Herbie, a junkyard operator on the other end of the township from me, became a township supervisor in the ’70’s and has been in office ever since. Herbie got an ordinance passed that there could be only one junkyard in our township…LOL!
Herbie usually goes thru stuff quickly as he’s all about the crusher and selling the scrap. But on the borders of his yard set a ’47 Chevy Fleetmaster and similar vintage Chevy truck among others…they’ve been there since I moved to Burgettstown 27 years ago.
Unless CC uses a different version of WordPress…speaking from experience as my employer uses WP as well…it works best with Firefox or Chrome. IE…er, not so much.
GMT800’s almost never show up at our pull-a-part. Like two in the last 10 months. Perhaps one day they’ll start appearing in numbers and I can begin the process of deuglifying my beater truck but for now they apparently still have too much value in almost any shape to end up there.
It’d be an interesting study to see what is over and under-represented at the self-serve yards. From my own observations biased by my parts hunting needs, V8 ponycars NEVER show up and the lower trims that do appear skew a bit older and rougher than the yard average – most of those cars must end up in specialty yards, rebuilders or as parts cars. Crown Vics must be the most over represented by a larger margin – there could be a separate Panther section from GM, Chrysler & Ford on the domestic side of the lot. Sebring convertibles also show up in much larger numbers than you would think.
Here the junkyards do not allow entry except into the office. I’m tired of hearing the same old “insurance company will not allow it” excuse. Even if its true I still don’t want to hear it.
The only thing that solves my need to view old cars is my daily trip to the scrap yard where I can see all the old twisted carcasses I want. Also our shop tends to do all the difficult jobs that other shops won’t touch (like the rear shock cross member on a late 90’s exploder that was pretty much dust when it rolled in) so we see a large number of CC’s in the run of a month.
That silver Volvo wagon…many years newer than my ’88 745T wagon. Always feel kinda weird visiting a boneyard (either in person or, in this case, virtually) and seeing stuff much newer than the one for which I am seeking parts. But, then again, it’s Volvo.
I guess I’m spoiled by always having lived on the West Coast where rust is not an issue. It’s enjoyable to me to be able to keep one vehicle on the road for 30+years and not have to deal with rusted bolts and decaying frames and body shells. No state inspections is a big plus, although I know what is necessary to keep a vehicle safe. Appreciate what you do, dealing with extreme winter to provide CC readers with eye candy. If I could only remember what day to keep an eye out for Junkyard Outtakes!
It would be nice if they were ran at set intervals.