Sometimes you’re just walking along minding your own business and something catches your eye that causes you to wonder aloud “What The F@%&?” This, my friends, was one of those times. At first I thought I was looking at some sort of Gambler 500 entry or similar but no, this Buick looked bone-stock. Bone-stock, except for the massive, yet thoughtfully and caringly padded with quality Michelin steel belted radials, replacement front bumper.
Perhaps this helps one disperse traffic jams up ahead, I know if I saw this coming up behind me, I’d pull it over right now as if Jon and Ponch were pointing and yelling at me. My old 1982 Subaru Wagon elicited a similar effect due to a mangled front right fender and assorted other damage, I felt like Moses parting the San Francisco area traffic with that thing. Upon examination, this here is just a massive assemblage of square tubing, yet welded and finished including what looks like good paint to a pretty good degree. This took some thought and doing.
It’s bolted both to the strut towers as well as the radiator support, as well as being cut into it in order for the hood to close properly. I didn’t want to get down in the snow and dirt and I still couldn’t find that Chevy Nova rear bench back cushion to lay upon but it’s likely tied in underneath as well.
It appears that the battery was moved to the outside of the car. Normally it’s located just inside the underhood area to the right, I suppose the supports would have been in the way of if it needed to ever be replaced so this was thought to be the better idea for the long-term. Which if nothing else shows a lot of, or at least enough, forethought. And lights? Who the hell needs lights, there’s no reason to worry about running into something with this Mad Max assembly! Pity the fool that stops in front of you.
Here’s a better close-up of the battery area. This would make things easier for the fellow that Paul found a few weeks ago using a jumper cables to power something inside the car, no need to mess with opening the hood. I love how the yard put another support under the bumper assembly itself, perhaps it’s so heavy that including the engine it might otherwise topple forward and crush a shopper clutching a fistful of dollars. Safety first!
Other than that, it’s just a regular old later model A-Body Buick Century, one of the supposedly best assembled cars in North America of its time. Curiously, this isn’t even the first A-body I’ve found locally with a modified front end, a couple of years ago I found this Cutlass Ciera with an interesting Home-Depot-brew front lighting setup. Yes, folks, this is what happens in areas with no vehicle inspections. Welcome to the Wild West, now get the hell out of the way!
This has to be some kind of cheap yard mule that uses the extra traction from front wheel drive, and the outboard battery tray for jump starts. There sure was a lot of trouble taken in building that structure, although some of the welds look a little scary.
That is definitely an unusual basis for a yard car. But it just screams that was what it was built for.
Padded bar to push them, big hooks to pull them back out and a battery in the open for jump starting.
It would be perfect for that with, a Dual Post Battery- side and top configuration.https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dual-Post-Battery/41982016
Now, THAT is a Bumper!
That bumper just screams “Don’t Fu– with it!”. I like it.
But on a Century? Well, at least it has a V6 for some credibility. That wouldn’t have happened with an Iron Duke.
If they had included some hydraulic cylinders on the mounting arms that would have given some of that 2.5 mph bumper feeling.
Yes that is what it looks like but not for this place, they don’t use yard cars. The ones around here that do use yard cars never modify them here, they just use the big forklift when something needs to be moved around. On top of that the bumper didn’t show any signs of damage and the paint was in quite good condition on it as well.
Yes, definitely not a yard car from a wrecking yard.
The more I look, the more I have to know the story!
I guess it could belong to somebody’s really fledgling scrapyard.
But surely he’d have a truck, or a tractor!
Mostly likely uses were,
Tow yard, the kind that is big on impounds, private and municipal,
Auction yard, the type where those donated cars go.
A guy who is half collector and 1/2 used car dealer.
Demolition derby push car to move wrecks off the course? Crash test push mule (too new)? Neighbor who got tired of you blocking the front of his Century in? Fast lane / Tailgating genius?
I’d have liked to see it getting pushed into place by whatever the pusher they were using in the yard. 🙂
They all (around here at least) use machinery very similar to the Volvo that Johannes coincidentally posted in the next post down, just fitted with a very long forklift front. In fact most of them including this yard actually use Volvos as well. They just scoop the cars up and place them down but also come into the yard with them on occasion and carry an engine block etc as needed to checkout, or lift and reposition a car if someone needs a component or something inaccessible otherwise.
Wow, thing thing has a story to tell, it’s a shame that it ain’t talking.
A high-volume auto-auction lot would be my guess. It was probably stored indoors with that external battery setup, and all of the added dental work looks way too rust-free for being parked outside.
It reminds me of those old photos from the 40s where old Packards and Marmons were cut down into tow trucks for use in wrecking yards.
I second the race track push car theory too. My $.02 worth. I just applied for a part time counter job at my local self service yard.
My personal opinion…..some guy got tired of his wife damaging the car by running in to everything. So here’s the solution. Brilliant!!
I was thinking yard car, too; but the comments discounted that theory. It was definitely a “pusher” of some sort; I’m going with the auction yard. The kind of auction that services the cheaper cars. We have one here in Jacksonville that really doesn’t compete with the Manheim, Adesa, or Copart. AAA, formerly Jacksonville auto auction, a/k/a The Pig Auction. Because you could actually auction pigs at one time. Many of the cars are “pigs”, too.
But I went of on a tangent, there. What struck me was that incredible, heavy steel push bar, bolted to the strut towers. Certainly not for road speed use or any sort of “ramming” duties. No crumple zone in that thick steel.fabrication…bolted to thin sheet metal? With only a few more feet before the driver’s chest, I wouldn’t want to hit anything going more tha 10 or 15 mile per hour.
Bumpers can be too heavy. A friend had a ‘65 K20 with a 6” concrete filled pipe bumper. At about 25 mph he broadsided a smaller car on the passenger side. Caved it in all the way to the driver’s seat. The truck? Didn’t damage it at all or even bed the pipe bumper. No, I’m lying. It did bend the the left side frame rail under the firewall down just a bit; the front clip was sort of “tilting” down a few inches on the driver’s side. That and the oil pan cracked, but he braised that crack and reused it.
That bumper was stronger than the truck, and for a ‘65 K20, that’s saying something.