Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Two vehicles spring to mind for me. One, an abandoned Leyland FG flatbed, left behind a shop. I'd regularly sit in it, amongst the broken glass, to play at driving.

Another was a rotten Fiat 124 Coupe, pulled to pieces and left for dead in a local car park. We'd regularly mess about in that too, until a stern tall gentleman in a pointy hat had a word in our ears about removing parts from its battered dashboard.

RJ
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[peter scott]

Across the field at the back of my parents' house was Bell's Garage and behind it sat two Chevrolet CMP trucks kitted out for distributing lime. A friend and I used to play in the cabs of these.



Then when on holiday staying in a farmhouse on Mull there were various abandoned vehicles because it cost too much to transport them to the mainland. The most complete was Morris 14 Series that had chickens living in it and also me when I got the chance.



Peter
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https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Rootes75]

Where do I start?

As a child my Grandparents ran a proper village scrapyard, it had 2 fields containing cars from the 1930's to the late 60's, none stacked as yards are today.

As children we would be allowed to roam free go in any cars we liked. There were some superb cars from my recollection, but our favourites a lot of the time were the small vans, Fords / BMC / Rootes etc.

In the sheds though they kept some of the gems and we were never allowed inside them, a lovely 1920's Rolls Royce, big 6 cylinder Austins and a lovely 33/34 Morris Ten.

Such good memories but alas it was all disposed of when I was a teenager.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Keith D]

I can't remember playing in abandoned cars as a kid, but I do remember spending a lot of time at Southend (Essex) airport in the 1950's. This airfield had been RAF Rochford during the war and there were many wrecked aircraft laying at one end of the airfield.

A number of us boys used to creep through the damaged fence and climb over and into these wrecked aircraft and imagine we were fighter aces or bomber captains. One aircraft that stands out in my memory was a Westland Lysander, but there were plenty of others.

We'd also sit on top of a nearby wartime pillbox and watch the freighters take off on the Channel Air Bridge almost alongside us. We never strayed near the runway and I can't remember anybody chasing us away. Great days.

Keith
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1926 Chrysler 60 tourer
1932 Austin Seven RN long wheelbase box sedan
1950 Austin A40 tourer
1999 BMW Z3
Its weird being the same age as old people.
You are either part of the problem or part of the solution

[petelang]

When I was a lad....
Yes there were many old abandoned cars lying about. We used to play on the old Hornchurch RAF aerodrome which by then had been abandoned, including the remains of the control tower overlooking the runway. Although we didn't have any left over Spitfires to play in, there were some Austin A40s Morris 8s and several more I did not know at the time.
There was a knocked about Vauxhall Cresta at the bottom of our road and a bunch of the local yobbos decided one day to trash it whilst I was in the vicinity and the local Bobby was called. A visit by said copper later to my house caused great concern from my Dad, followed by a "damn good hiding" for being stupid enough to be anywhere near.
Compensation was demanded but I'm fairly sure was never paid as it was really only fit for scrap anyway and I think the police saw the owner was trying it on. Still, unable to sit down comfortably for a few days I kept well clear of abandoned cars henceforth.
But at least we didn't have all that elf and safety nonsense and we could roam about discovering things and enjoyed a level of independence that today's kids could only dream about.
Peter

[emmerson]

I used to play in what i thought was a Morris eight at our local garage, whilst my dad filled up his Ford 10 van and Bedford O type. I later found out that the car was the much rarer Singer Bantam.

[Ray White]

There seemed to be quite a few abandoned vehicles where I lived as a child. The massive Victorian Barrack complex had been vacated by the military and the derelict site attracted wrecks of all sorts.

I was an odd kind of kid and liked to collect car badges and mascots. I also had a collection of glass reflector lenses all taken from derelict vehicles.

As to playing in abandoned cars; I recall my brother and I playing in what I later learned was an abandoned 1920s Morris "snub" nose van when we were on holiday in Charmouth, Dorset. Many years later the Automobile carried a report of what was most likely the same vehicle being rescued for restoration.

[colwyn500]

In the mid-'60s, before H&S and environmental controls, we lived in a terraced house almost next door to a scrapyard. People would dump cars outside the gates when it was closed and they might not be dragged inside for days if it was busy. The whole area was soaked in used oil and I clearly remember that rank odour.

My Dad never owned a car, so I'm sure that the experience as six or seven year old boys, sitting inside what must have been 1940's and '50s cars, must be a major contributory factor to my adult obsession with older vehicles.

[62rebel]

When I was between 6 and 10, our neighborhood had a few old heaps that the kids played in until the adults figured it was time to get rid of them (the heaps, not us kids)... we moved to my greatgrandfather's farm and lived there for the next four years; he had an old Dodge coupe, and my Dad had his old '55 Ford sedan out back of the tractor shed... so, I had a couple more old cars to mess around with... until adults got wind of it, and scrapped the cars... (damn adults)... we then moved to a small orchard out in the country, no cars on our land, but my neighbors had a treasure trove of old scruffies in the woods.... until they scrapped them all out. Now, I have to play in my OWN abandoned old scruffy, my '63 1/2 Galaxie fastback...
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