CC reader Ted M. sent me this incredible gallery of mostly old Chryslers he found at a “dealership” in Fredericksburg, Texas. Did they go out of business in 1964? Or maybe these are all for sale? Maybe there’s a “Two for One” special on this one.
Either way, these are a superb find, and the fact that it was a rainy day brings out the colors in their patina that much more.
Aaaagh, I want to rescue every one of them.
The CC effect is still working flawlessly – Mrs JPC and I took a drive to a nearby town on Sunday and while waiting to make a left turn I was passed by a worn but clearly operable 55 DeSoto sedan. I would have tried to follow it, but was prevented by traffic.
And then I stumbled on the Mercury-lover’s counterpart to this place.
JP, we need photos!
Those cars and trucks have been there for years I remember them being there since I was 5 but I have wanted to buy an old truck that’s actually in the I think 3rd or 4th picture but I can’t figure out who owns them to ask if they are willing to sell
Wow, those 57/58 Plymouths are surely calling out to me for help.
Which is surprising, because I thought they could repair themselves 🙂
What a collection, too bad most of them are not economically viable to repair.
I agree. Unfortunately with the possible exception of some of the forward look models, I’m seeing parts cars there.
As much as I like vintage Mopars, I think my favorite would be the ’57 Olds wagon.
At least in Fredericksburg the cars wont rust rapidly. I am sure we all hope that the owner has some sort of plan for the wonderful cars.
btw The Nimitz Museum in Frederickburg is superb, not to be missed if you find yourself in the area.
I’m guessing the owner has the usual plan: “Those are my project cars”.
Today there is Crenwelge Motors in Fredericksburg and nearby Kerrville (both CDJR and GMC in Kerrville too). It is located at 815 W. Main (Hauptstrasse). It has been around for years but I don’t know if there is a connection with this collection.
I was in San Antonio this past weekend. Maybe on my next trip there I will make the one-hour drive to Fredericksburg and look for this amazing bunch of MoPars though I admit my favorite in the images here is the Jeep station wagon and I wouldn’t turn down the Oldsmobile Fiesta wagon as a gift.
Yes there is a connection, George posted an ad for them below, when they were an Imperial Chrysler Plymouth Jeep dealer in the 60’s and that address is where the cars are currently located with some them being present since 2016.
WOW!
Was in Fredericksburg last week – gorgeous part of the state! Missed these Mopars somehow….
Explaining the Olds might be a puzzler, but that did that Jeep wagon wind up there with its future brandmates in a display of prescience?
In rural areas it wasn’t uncommon for the Chrysler-Plymouth dealer to pick up a Jeep or IH franchise so they had trucks to sell. The ad George posted below shows that yes the owner of Crenwelge Motor Sales had a Jeep franchise as early as 1967. The current owner’s “prize” or at least prize of the junkers in indeed a Jeep or at least that is my take as that is the one that has been blessed with a stop under the canopy.
Assuming this is private property I wonder how the photographer got the pix? Judging by the look of these formerly formidable Mopars, they have been sitting for decades. Perhaps its a private pic a part 🙂 Damn shame. I had a 63 Imperial and wanted some of the DeSotos I see……….
FOR SALE: 1957 DeSoto Fireflite 4-door. Blue & White. Half off. Your choice, front or rear. 😉
Back in the mid-80’s I discovered a bevy of old cars just outside of Bowling Green, Mo. collected around an old building which may have been some sort of radar site.
The cars to me looked like they were from the 30’s and 40’s. Several looked like the type that may have been a General’s staff car.
I went by again, maybe 10 years later (with so much time gone, who can remember?) and they were all gone.
Might anyone have any info?
What a gold mine of patina, Love the Olds Fiesta wagon. This might warrant a very long road trip
Fascinating to see these today–where are you gonna see a duplicate trove like this?
It’s a silly way to categorize, but to me the ones where the weather is staying out of the interior (even if vermin have visited) seem slightly less “gone” than the ones with broken or missing windows–I guess the same could be said of abandoned homes.
I’m not particularly a Chrysler guy, but I’d enjoy seeing all these in person; I have zero idea if the ad below is at all related:
Good sleuthing, google maps confirm that this is the location of the cars. The historical street view is interesting showing a dealer that kept all the 70’s signage until the 10’s when they left this location, though the Pentastars on the front of the canopy behind the Imperials are there in the 2019 street view where you can still see the ghosts of the lettering.
The fence behind those Imperials went up in mid 2013 in preparation of moving the collection there apparently.
The real find though is a 70’s Wagoneer that went under that canopy after the dealership moved, before the fence went up, and appears to have been unmoved since the fence was built until the most recent street view.
Wouldn’t you want to do a TV show where you take all of one model and try to build a complete running example from the best parts of each, then move on to the next candidate? For example, those two Furys from picture 12 could be combined to make one good one by taking the less damaged front end with the V from the 4 door and putting it on the 2 door and salvaging as much of the chrome trim and other parts as possible, then sending it out to be massaged, painted and then sold or auctioned. Then move on to the blue and maroon Imperials or the 300s.
I really want to know the story of the two piece car. at first I thought maybe the bottom had rusted to the point that it just pulled apart when they tried to extract it from where it sat.
I do wonder if this is a case similar to that of the old small town Chevy dealer that was auctioned off years ago. In that case it seemed as though some of the used cars that didn’t sell were just taken out to the field and left. I wonder if that is the case with these. Once they sat on the lot for too long they were taken to a field somewhere where they sat. Well at least until 2013 when they started to return to the same lot where some of them likely sat as shiny new cars.
All project cars, just got to decide which to work on first……
That Olds Fiesta Hardtop Wagon is neat – and apart from the crash damage, does look pretty solid! These must be rare enough to make this one worth saving – no?
It’s likely all of these were trade-ins on new cars & trucks. Because they were probably well over 15 years old when traded in, the trade value was fairly low, and the dealership owner just let them sit in the back area, rather than trying to pawn them off to reluctant wholesale used car buyers, who didn’t want cars older than about 10 model years. I seriously doubt the owner ever had any interest in preserving or collecting them, he simply never did anything with the vehicles. Sad, really sad.
Good possibility. There was a long time Dodge dealer in my hometown that would do that. His property was large and deep and he kept an accumulation of older 1950s-60s stuff way in the back up into the early 1990s. I regret not making an offer on some of them at the time.
I like how most have been fanned out like a hand of cards. Somebody went through some effort to do that. There don’t seem to be many signs of life around there but someone is doing basic custodial work to keep trash and litter from accumulating. What is the plan for all of this? I’m seeing lots of good parts cars and a few ambitious restoration projects.
Another hoarder of cars? Did the man have a plan to restore? Yes, in his mind he did but he just used that to rationalize hoarding the cars. Now, in the end, most are too far gone and will end up being crushed one day. I know of a similar person with at least 53 Oldsmobiles. Being in his late 70s they also will never be restored to a driving status nor sold since you will need to be vetted and it is a rare person that passes.
Or as mentioned a dealer taking them in that is possible. Yet, if so, this dealer wasn’t very smart as it became very obvious in the 90s that these cars would be desirable to restore while still in a decent condition to restore. Therefore, the dealer/owner would have missed out on a far amount of money in sales. So much for car sense.
I’ve seen it way too many times, where a scrap dealer/junkyard owner only sees the actual scrap metal value of every vehicle that comes into the yard, and would rather make a quick $100 profit in purely metal value, rather than set the car aside for later sale, at a possible increase in sale price.
And the new car dealer who treats every trade in based on only 2 types: late model vehicles that can be quickly sold, and any other type of vehicle. That second type is often considered to be valueless, and either tossed aside [as in these Mopar vehicles?], or sent off to the junkyard for a quick low price.
About 10 years ago I was driving on I-495 [The DC Beltway in Maryland] when I saw a rollback truck carrying a vintage Vanden Plas Princess limousine. I took the next exit and got back on headed the other direction, but by the time I finally figured out where the limo had been taken, it was already too late.
The car had been delivered to a local scrap processer, one that is known for quickly turning vehicles into scrap metal. I arrived only to see the remains of the car. Those limousines had a large thick aluminum body over a wood frame, and a forklift had already run the forks thru the windows and lifted the main body shell off the chassis. As the owner of 2 Princess limousines, I tried to buy what was left, finally offering up to $1,000, but I was rebuffed, being told they didn’t sell parts or vehicles. I even tried to get him to set the car aside for a few hours and I would pull parts off and pay cash for them. Nope.
To put this idiot’s thinking in perspective, a 4 liter Princess limo’s good used cylinder head is worth $2,500, and rebuilt front wheel cylinders are currently selling for close to $400 each with exchange. Good used brake drums are $250 each. The Smith’s Jackall hydraulic pump is going for $3,000 or more, because it’s identical to the hydraulic pump used on Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud Mulliner-ParkWard drophead convertible coupe top hydraulics, as those cars are being re-created from the sedans, for a whopping $250,000.
But he was able to quickly process that old limo for probably around $200 in scrap value that day.
I think the good stuff is inside the building. I’m seeing a lot of 4drs that if they were taken in as trades were probably in pretty sad shape to not have sold out of the back row. Most 4drs are not profitable to restore. Since this was a new car dealership restoring stuff that had sat out in the field for years would have been a distraction at best.
I’m betting this is a case of cleaning up the property where they had been and moving them to the no longer used old dealership so founder can see those cars and possibly tell the story of the car and previous owner. Or for the current family a way to remember Grand Pa and the cars the current owner remembers from running around the dealership as a kid.
Still and all, nice to look at and dream….
-Nate