It has been about a decade since first I wandered into Classic Oz Wreck. Typical of many ‘old school’ Aussie wrecking yards, this business had plenty of cars – mostly Holdens – stacked in a yard behind a big shed, itself stacked with plenty more parts.
As regular readers will know, I’ve breathed life back into several old Commodores (with its more than four decades of heritage, probably Australia’s most popular project/collector model right now) in the past few years and this biz is where I bought plenty of the parts.
In fact, I reckon I’ve spent $15-20K at Oz Wreck, buying everything from dashboards and interior parts, to struts and axles, to doors and lights, to sections of wiring looms and sound proofing, to air-conditioning components to body sections.
Significantly, Oz was one of the few places where a customer could bring their own tools to remove parts, including sawing-out components as I did to source Commodore sills, noses and rear quarter panels.
Yes, I wrote was. A few months ago I handed fiddy bucks to owner Greg Snape, on his official last day of trading, before Classic closed and Greg retired (sort-of!).
The thing is, this joint was more than just a place to buy parts. As I genuinely love mucking around with old cars, and I love a good scrounge, the yard of 150 or so cars was a big fun park. On average, I reckon I visited there once a fortnight just to get out of the house; just to go for a cruise somewhere; just to clear my mind.
Years ago, after Greg figured out I wasn’t a total pest, he and I became good mates. Often I’d arrive with coffees; we’d talk shite and attempt to solve the problems of the world together over the shop counter before I grabbed whatever I needed for my project’s progress. Greg’s little mate Mr Dook – a staffy cross – was also part of this earnest conversation, especially when I arrived with a fish ‘n’ chips lunch. WOOF, WOOF!
But yeah, it was a genuinely amazing place to get parts. I’ll never forget finding four good door trims. They’d been removed from a yellow Commodore, and kind-of scattered all around the yard, as does often happen.
One day it dawned on me that I’d been walking past four brown door trims – on the ground and in a car or two – for months … I picked them all up and, hey presto! A complete set! With new backing boards, those four vinyl door trims were perfect for my ‘Bombodore’ patina project VB Commodore V8 sedan.
There were plenty of other ‘gold’ finds too, among the more humdrum purchases, such as doors and bumpers. For instance, one day, I found a super-rare Commodore glovebox trim in a car I’d been pulling parts from for years.
This delicate component had escaped being destroyed – and found before now – by somehow ending up on the floor adjacent to the seat runner. It often pays to look closely and dig deep when raiding cars in yards!
Another time, I noticed a set of high-performance Koni adjustable dampers under a car I’d walked past dozens of times over the years. Another handy find was a scrap of Caprice rear-seat cloth, perfect to repair a ripped Recaro.
And on it goes.
So yeah, that last $50 note I gave to Greg was the end of a glorious era. I’m grateful I managed to buy/collect just about every part I need for my next couple of Commodore restorations, but life won’t be the same.