In business since 1961, Leon's Auto Salvage is a 105-acre, 10,000-car junkyard located in the heart of the Virginia Piedmont (within a 50 mile radius of the estates of presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe). Frankly, Leon's is a sprawling, incomprehensible mess. If you love old cars as much as I do, Leon's can be the most depressing place on earth. Simply put, everything at Leons is rusty trash -- the cars get pushed around by bulldozers, and fellow parts scavengers often times neglect to close hoods and doors (if you frequent junkyards too, PLEASE close anything you open!). This is especially sad considering what lives at Leon's:

  • 1956 Lincoln Premiere Convertible (Long, low, and luxurious: the ultimate way to take full advantage of President Eisenhower's new interstates; today, fully restored examples are blue-chip investments.)
  • 1953 Cadillac Convertible (When I go back I'll scrutinize it more carefully to see if it's a DeVille or an Eldorado -- I know it's a '53, though.)
  • 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960 Cadillac Convertibles (I know there are others as well)
  • Several '40s and '50s Buick Convertibles: click to see a yellow '57 or black '57. (Don't you think that post-war Buick convertibles make more of a statement than concurrent Cadillac drop-tops?)
  • 1970 GTO Judge (no drivetrain or front clip)
  • Edsels!!!
  • Several post-war Packards (and at least one pre-war one as well: I remember it because someone had extracted the crank from its straight-8, and as you can well imagine, it was pretty long (technically, however, Packards had straight-8s through 1954). God, I love Packards!)
  • A rare '54 Ford Skyliner with a see-through plexiglass "bubble" roof (the bubble is long gone)
  • Several Studebaker Hawks (both Loewy Coupes and GT Hawks -- some of the most beautiful cars made in South Bend -- and America)
  • A 1970(?) BMW 2000 that had a Supersprint header ($400 retail value) which I glommed for $30 -- it's now serving with distinction in my own '76 BMW 2002.
  • My old Fuji instamatic camera (if you find it, please email me.)

And, of course, there are many Corvairs (and that's what you came to see, right?):

A few words on the Spyder convertible: with no engine, dashboard, or trim, it was almost impossible to distinguish this '63 Spyder from a non-turbo Corvair. Two clues gave it away, however. The holes on the hood where the engine badge once went were at one o'clock and seven o'clock, thereby denoting that a "turbo-charged" emblem was once there. Secondly, despite the fact that the special Spyder dash was long gone, the housing for the windshield wiper controls was still in place -- on Spyders these controls were under (rather than on) the dash, in their own separate pod. This car was black, with a white top and (remnants of) a red interior. It must have been really breathtaking on the dealer lot all those years ago.

my corvair

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