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Freiburger here ready to do one of my
favourite things which is the junkyard
prowl what I'm going to give you on this
particular Roadkill Extra is junkyard
free association
this will just be mind barf from what I
think when I see various cars here at
Colorado Auto Parts in Englewood
Colorado like for example this right
here now this is I'm going to call
'62 or '63 Ford Ranchero let's see
what this claims right here I am correct
it is a 63 Ford Falcon Ranchero what
this reminds me of is when they first
came out with these cars
I think 1961 or two they gave one away
to Ohio George Montgomery when he won
the US Nationals the NHRA gave it to him
went for winning the gasser class and he
had won it with light blue is lettered
on the side with the NHRA win and
everything maybe it was white I could be
wrong I've mostly seen black and white
photos of it but he had that car forever
and just sold it like five or six years
ago it was really neat looking through
the hotrod archives at all of that old
stuff when they used to give away like
brand-new engines to racers from the
ohi's and brand-new cars like that
okay cool Ford truck I think this is a
67 this is what they call a bump side in
73 the Ford trucks change and they look
really similar to this but instead of
having a bump right here they are
concave this being convex so that's a
bump side and the later ones from 73 on
up are called dent sides this looks like
it was a 63 or for Biscayne or Bel Air
or Impala which by the way those three
cars are the same body different trim
levels Biscayne as in Key Biscayne
Florida is the lowest level trim that
they had on these Chevy full-size cars
at the time then there was the Bel Air
then there was the Impala and if I look
at the taillights real quick I can tell
you that this particular one is a 63
oh this is a Studebaker truck a lot of
people know Studebakers for one of two
vehicles either they're really weird
like 50 stood that's called a bullet
nose that has one big round emblem in
the middle between the two headlights
it's crazy-looking or they think of the
later like starlight coupe which is the
super super swoopy looking vehicle but
this is the vehicle that they also made
the Studebaker pickup truck these have
been successful in land speed racing at
Bonneville because they fit in the
full-size truck class because it's
obviously not a compact truck but it has
much less frontal area than other trucks
that people run which tend to be like a
you know 88 kind of Chevy truck and not
only that but those things are super
super stylish ooh
dodge truck this one having four
headlights means that it is pre mid 1965
in 1965 they had two different models of
Dodge trucks they had the ones with four
headlights that have the grille that
sort of swoops up like this and in the
middle of the year they changed to the
ones that only have two headlights which
I think are super super cool but either
way they both have this neat door handle
this is what a lot of people call the
refrigerator type door handle and they
changed this in let me think I'm going
to say 1967 they went to a regular push
button type handle whereas this one uses
the old-style refrigerator door handle I
like these trucks a lot because they
have much bigger cab room there's much
more legroom than the Fords and the
Chevy's of a similar era
here's another dent side let's see what
else we have okay I don't know anything
about Volvo's but I know that I dig
these things because they look a lot
like a five eighths version of a 46 to
48 Ford one of those would be cool to
have some day what else can we do ooh El
Camino I love El Caminos I don't know
why they came out with them in 59 and
they made them in 59 and 60 and then
they stopped and then they started to
again in 1964
versus a chevrolet in 1964 and v is a
very similar body style then 66 and 7 is
got a different sort of front clip kind
of like that but then in 1968 through
1972 they came out with the cars that
look essentially like this personally I
really like the 1968 this is a 1970
right here and the reason that I know
that is from this grille design once
again for headlights up lights up right
center grille section that's a 1970
model what's curious about these though
is that even though the front clip is
different the 68 to 72 s are the same in
this part of the body and even though
this is based on a Chevelle as a matter
of fact this might even be a Malibu they
take a different front fender than a
Chevelle the El Camino and station wagon
quarter panel has no bulge in it whereas
in 1970 and 71 72 they went to a bulged
front fender and a bulged quarter panel
on the passenger car version version of
the Chevelle but the El Camino in the
station wagon takes a different smoother
front fender because they don't have
that bulged quarter so there's just a
little bit of trivia on that for you the
frame on these are very very similar to
Chevelle but let me think but they have
a flatter crossmember in the back
because the way the bed is designed
here's something neat this is a 70 2 or
3 Chevelle which I know because it's got
the round taillights like this if I look
at the front really quick I can tell you
if it's a I'm sorry not 72 or 3 it's a
71 or 72 and I can tell you it's a 72
because the front marker light does not
have a bar through it in 71 the front
side marker light which is the orange
thing on the corner has a bar right
through the middle of it and then in 72
they didn't so this is 72 but the reason
I walked over here is that it's got this
cool dealer badge on it for ever since I
was a teenager I have loved collecting
photos of dealer badges and there's a
bunch of them here in this yard and I
haven't collected the badges themselves
because I don't like to take them off
the car
they're cool even when they're broken
and when they leave the outline of where
the Sun has bleached them and stuff
sometimes I'll even go home and Google
those dealerships and find out if
they're still around because to me this
there's sort of a history to it there's
a really really cool one here in this
yard that is called Rambler land I think
that's what's called a Rambler Ville a
Rambler town or something like that
there's cool dealerships from back in
the day
this is neat because as you know I've
got a kink for flat fender jeeps which
is what this is and I happen to know
that this is a world war two model why
do I know that okay a siege a to a flat
fender starting in 1946 as a civilian
model would have been the first with a
tailgate the military World War two
models do not have a tailgate the world
war two models also have these tool
boxes in the back right here if you're
really really sharp you'll also know
that the button that opens the toolbox
the shape of this little indent in the
body changed a couple of times on the
Ford models because these are built by
both Ford and by Willy's most people
know the story about how Willy's was
given the government contract to build
these jeeps during World War two but
they couldn't keep up and build enough
of them and so the government took the
blueprints gave him to Ford said you
have to build these things Henry Ford
says I really don't want to do that they
said tough cookies you got to do that
and so Ford made their own and there's
just a few small differences between
them
the earliest Ford ones called script
bodies have they say Ford right here but
they were not allowed to do that and so
you don't find it very often this is not
a Ford script body they would have been
very very early in the war and so what
Ford did is they said we want to make
this thing identifiable as one of our
vehicles and so they stamped a Ford
script F on virtually every part of the
entire vehicle check this out here's
some right here very very difficult to
see maybe if I lick my hand and wipe it
right there you can see that pointing
this way like I'm this would be the
framing to look at it that is a script F
there's another one right there
see the F stamps oh that's an even
better one you can really see that see
the F on
grab handle they stamped every single
part to go this is not a Willy's part
might have been designed by them that is
manufactured by Ford and so this would
be a 1941 to 1945 Ford gpw the World War
two models also had this beep gas tank
in them that you won't see in the
civilian models also the indents here
for the shovel and axe kit that went on
them and also the civilian models don't
have a glove box here like the the World
War two one does so that's a super cool
find what else can we do free
association on here dodge dart right
here this is a a body this would have
been very similar to what they first
came out with in 1967 for the dart in a
larger boxy or platform and what's
interesting is the quarter panels from
here forward on them are the same from
1967 through I think 1976 but they're
different back here because they use a
different cap on the end of it when they
went to the later models that had the
federally mandated impact bumpers on
them and the cars got really ugly this
one is a 74 which I can just tell
because the trim on it so there's a
whole bunch of that in Detroit cars from
the mid-70s where it's like it's close
to good but not because it started out
as a really cool 60s or 70s design and
then it got wrecked by all the federal
mandates for the 5 mile an hour impact
bumpers and all of this stuff ooh
so camera Dustin is standing on a really
cool van this is a Ford early flat-faced
van the dodgems are kind of more popular
the Dodge a100 vans that are built this
way you can see they're completely flat
on the front and the engine you can see
through the window there is right
between the seats they're almost like
mid-engine and you would think of this
one as being an Econoline but what makes
it cool is because this is a full window
van when they initially sold these and
attempted to sell them to
regular passenger car type consumers
rather than selling them for commercial
use they changed the name of this model
to the Ford Falcon van because they had
been so successful with the Falcon car
you see the emblems on this thing say
Falcon and it has the Falcon engine and
transmission in it so that's just
interesting point of marketing that they
did with these things back to see that
door that's right behind the engine
sitting in there with the light on it
says Falcon right on it
whew this is neat
unfortunately that is not a convertible
that is a hardtop with the top cut off
that is a 1965 Chevy Impala to me one of
the coolest looking cars ever I know
it's a 65 because the way the taillights
are designed here of a 66 is very
similar but doesn't have the three
taillights like this so here maybe you
can help settle an argument when you see
this on social media
Finnegan thinks that full-size Chevy
impalas of the 60s are worthless no one
cares no one builds them whatsoever in
that I'm insane for liking them I think
they're pretty cool I really like a 67 I
really like a 65 68 Tsar okay 66 is
there okay not really into the 63 or
four but we just built that blown big
block version in 69 and I initially
didn't like that body style but with the
blown big block I'm really digging it
okay let's look at just a couple more
cars here
this is a 1969 Mercury Cougar so the
Cougar is the mercury version of a Ford
Mustang it's the same underpinnings they
have a longer wheelbase it's interesting
they actually have longer leaf springs
in the back in order to stretch the
wheelbase which they did for like
smoother ride quality and stuff like
that other than that underneath it is
just a Mustang and the body styles of
them sort of follow the years of the
original Mustangs obviously the Mustang
came out in 64 and a half in R and in
1966 before the first big body style
change in 1967 that's also when Mercury
launched the Cougar is in 1967 the 1967
and 8 look very similar just like the
Mustang went
slightly larger in 1969 so did the
Cougar that's what this is a 69 you can
tell the difference between the 69 and
the 70 because the 70 has a large center
right here in the grille it sort of
sticks out more its integral with the
hood it's in my opinion not quite as
attractive this thing also because it is
a 69 it has the Windsor engine in it
instead of the Cleveland because in 1970
they went to the Cleveland I'm looking
at this now realizing that we might need
parts off of it for the episode that
we're shooting here later next week this
thing is also a convertible which is
super cool oh this is a 66 or 67 Ford
Fairlane these are really cool-looking
cars I bought one of these for rob
cannon at Hot Rod Magazine circa 1994
1995 and we painted the thing for a
cover story and I just I fell in love
with that body style at the time and
okay here's what we'll end with here's
kind of what Finnegan is dreaming of
doing these days he wants a somewhere in
the early 60s Cadillac Coupe de Ville
got to be a two-door and he wants to put
his twin turbo boat motor in it and turn
one of these into a full-on race car and
run it at the standing mile which is
pretty nutso but I approve maybe you'll
see that someday on roadkill meanwhile
this has been junkyard free association
craziness with Freiburger on roadkill
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