1965-76 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow I

 

Rolls built the Silver Shadow I from 1965 to 1976, and the Silver Shadow II from 1977 to 1980. The only thing that identifies this one as a Silver Shadow I, is the grille slots below the headlights.

Stay tuned to find out if she survived the fire.

1972 AMC Javelin

This Javelin resides at the wrecking yard that burned. Did it survive the heat? Stay tuned for “after” pictures to be posted soon.

1975 – 76 Jensen GT

I saw this Jensen GT on my way home from work a few days ago. Every time I approached to pass, he would look at me, smile, and speed up. My ’85 Brat was no match 😳.

1974 Volkswagen Beetle

I’ve always preferred Beetles from the mid-1960s and earlier over later models, so it’s always been a bit more difficult for me to identify the specific model year of a Beetle from the 1970s. After researching it I can confidently identify this Beetle, which I found on a residential street in Salt Lake City, as a 1974 model. It came down to three features. First, the large “elephant foot” taillights make it easy to pin this one as a 1973 or later. I learned that the front turn signals were moved from the top of the fenders down into the front bumper for 1975, so that narrowed it down to ’73 or ’74. There at first didn’t appear to be any significant exterior changes between those two years, but I finally discovered that ’73s didn’t have the plastic end caps on the bumpers that this example has, so I was able to settle on 1974 as this Bug’s year.

1974 Volkswagen Beetle

Another junkyard Volkswagen. This one looks like it’s led a bit of a rough life, going through multiple color changes and finally ending up being parted out. Besides the missing parts, which have likely been removed since arriving at the wrecking yard, it looks like it would have been restorable. Even though it’s a bit sad that it’s been permanently taken off the road, Beetles that show up in wrecking yards here usually get picked over pretty well before being sent to the crusher, so at least this Beetle’s parts will go on to keep other Beetles alive.

The car is gone now, but while it was still in the yard I saved the picture Row52 had of it in a slightly more complete state.

1970-72 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (C3)

I saw this beautiful Corvette Stingray convertible on my way home from work a few days ago. I love my Celica convertible, but I couldn’t help feeling just a little jealous of this convertible…

The chrome bumpers on both front (you can see a tiny glint of chrome in front of the wheel) and rear indicate that this Corvette is, at the newest, a 1972 model. The chrome on the front was dropped in ’73 and the rear was restyled with an integrated plastic bumper for ’74. The last year for round exhaust cutouts was 1969, so this Corvette was built somewhere between 1970 and 1972.

1975-79 MG Midget

This is an older picture, date stamped 17 October 2014. I believe my brother Luke shot it for me as we were driving that day.

1971 Volkswagen Type 2 (T2)

Another find in southern Utah. This second generation (T2) VW Bus is easily identified as an early production model (1968-1971) by the front turn signals being mounted below the headlights. In 1971 the Type 2 received front disc brakes, along with new wheels that had brake ventilation holes, as seen on this example. Assuming the wheels are original and haven’t been retrofitted to an earlier model, we can narrow down the year to 1971.

1974 MG Midget 1964 Ford F-250

The ugly rubber bumper pieces on this MG identify it as a ’74.

The F-250’s grill gives it away as a ’64.

1974-89 Mercedes-Benz SL and 1978 or ’79 Chevrolet Monte Carlo

Too bad it was rainy when Taylor spotted this Mercedes-Benz SL. On a nicer day it may have been driving around without its removable hardtop, like this example. It’s hard to positively identify the year of this SL, since they were built for nearly two decades without many exterior changes. Most year-to-year adjustments were made under the hood, but one significant change made in 1974 was the addition of huge “park bench” style bumpers which were designed to comply with US safety regulations. Many new cars in the US received unfortunate new bumpers for the 1974 so they could survive a 5 MPH collision with no damage.

We also appear to have a 1978 or 1979 Chevy Monte Carlo photobombing in the background.