Scrapping Grandad's Car at Meadway Spares Birmingham November 1969 

Allegro was probably one of the worst cars in the world. Luckily, my grandad's friend managed to stop its production.

@@johnhealy8513 The Allegro wasn't one of the worst cars in the world in the world by a long way. I don't really like them but there are cars that were far worse.

@@lewis72 Yes it was because that was what came out of Walton v Leyland 1978 and I should know because the Allegro victims had just been to tea at ours shortly before their horrendous crash.

@@johnhealy8513 A valid point, which I wasn't aware of. However, the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Corvair must be considered as worse cars.

@@johnhealy8513 there are yes some cars like the old lada riva and Skodas were junk and we knew that because I worked at a scarp yard when I was a young fella in Northern Ireland

you must be white

XOP was indeed a Birmingham registration, issued in 1959. Unfortunately many of those 1950's monocoque car bodies were very prone to rust and the thing could be falling to pieces well within 10 years, just like the first generation of imported 1970's Japanese cars into the UK. A friend of mine owns an early F-type Vauxhall Victor, which is now an extremely rare car, and most of those had already rotted away and been scrapped by the end of the 1960's!. Modern stuff is vastly superior structurally as far as rustproofing goes. What kills them is the cost of repairs when the electronics or something major mechanical packs up. Many of these once ordinary, everyday cars, are now a very rare sight because they were built down to a price when new, and were often run on a shoestring by their 3rd/4th/5th owners back in the day. The ones that still survive are generally the cars with a low owner count, or were only ever driven for low mileages and laid up under cover when all the hard-used, multiple owner, examples were being run into the ground before being crushed.

Indeed - note the 2F Victor in the yard near the start of the film. That would certainly have been less than ten years old. In fact, look at any of the Pathé films of cars being scrapped in the early/mid 60s and F-type Victors feature in them, and they were by no means an old car. The following FB Victor was nowhere near as bad.

You can see on the front panel where the bumper bar is located, the front and rear wheel arches and the left-front passenger door where rust has been. Love the reception "office" - an old caravan with its wheels removed!

@@HowardLeVert Yes, you're right about the FB Victor. I've just restored one, and although it needed welding, Vauxhall's attempt at rustproofing helped it survive longer.

@@TheHorsebox2 Yes, comes as no surprise. My father sold our FB Victor Super at the height of the Oil Crisis in 1973 and replaced it with a Mk. IV Zodiac - our family was just about to get bigger. To my pleasure I saw our little Victor sitting proudly on the garage forecourt for sale at £150 :) Which model have you just restored?

where was Meadway spares located , exactly .......somewhere near the mackadown ?

@@wackadakka3134 meadway spares was on Bordesley green road next door to hughes biscuit factory which later became crypto peerless,

@@malcolmsandford5335 oh thanks

Good to see safety and environmental concerns being ignired😂

You haven't seen many modern fords then

Your right, old 50, 60s cars did rust quickly then. I've got a 2003 clio now, and there isn't any rust on it at all.

@@THISISAANNOYING VW's, surely. Hanging wings, tailgates etc.

In October 78 I bought a 72 cortina, scrapped it end of January 80 coz the back chassis were rotted clean out of it. Completely done at 8 years old. Still I had fun in it lol

A few weeks ago I saw a 1 year old Chinese van with more rust on it than that wolesley

Sheldon Dave Arhh that’s so wonderful to hear! Thanks Dave, yes he lived in Whitecroft road in Sheldon he was a lovely grandad.

Wow!

I lived on Cranes Park, 1972 - 1984.

Blau Bär ... I think they poured a load of water in there 1 st.

Blau Bär oh man I could do your job now but not back in 82 I would have felt sick destroying 60s & 70s cars, especially the wagons and full size Chryslers

Blau Bär i presume when a car was set light to the oil would burn also

No, they would not have been litres, we used civilised measurement back then - gallons; anyway it was water.

"Shows how we treated our environment in the past." - You think it's any better now ? We have so many throw-away plastic products, the micro-beads in cosmetics and washes... it's a different kind of bad now but I think worse.

Here in ireland It wasn't only health and safety, that's at the owners discretion, there was a big scrapyard up Near the boarder woth Northern Ireland that took care of the bombardier fleet and the last of the Leyland Atlanteans from Dublin Bus and older buses from Bus Eireann (Irish bus, the main public transport provider outside Dublin) I was supposed to be going up to help a friend and a few others get parts for the buses they preserved but I got a serious stomach bug and so I wasn't able to go. He rang me when he got back that day so angry. When my friend and his gang arrived at the yard the guy he spoke to that worked for the company told him he couldnt go into the yard, not because of health and safety but because transport photographers had been going into the yard, some with permission, some not over time, and helping themselves to souvenirs without paying. None outside of staff could go. In the yard. You then had to pay a yard worker to get the part and pay for the part itself . I also suspect that was also because scrap metal prices had dropped. Most of the buses were left in a field for some time until the council intervened and told the company ground water was being affected and the buses had to be disposed of. The company still exists, hence I've not named it but it's no longer a scrap yard, it does bus conversions.

I remember finishing up in hospital after an accident getting a part from a scrapyard for my first Hillman Avenger. I got the part I needed but leaked blood onto the floor. I still drive a Hillman Avenger but it's been over 20 years since I was able to get any parts from a scrap yard for it.

georgeh ... he DROVE the car in !?

@@marksommers6764 yea, they filled it with water in the yard..

Last August my 94 caddy fleetwood was sideswiped by an 18 wheeler and insurance company totaled it. The night before they came to pick it up I literally coasted into the gas station on fumes after work and put 1 gallon of gas in the tank, just enough to drive the 6 short miles to my house.

Before new rules all fuel was strewn all over the heap, It wasn't saved, where I worked anyway

We saved all fuel and still do

Earlier today I came across another video which was about the glut of abandoned cars prevalent in the English landscape of the 70s. I guess scrapping cars had not been particularly profitable and owners were sometimes actually charged to take away their cars. So they imported a much more automated mass-scrapping factory setup to be established throughout the country, and thereafter the abandoned car issue was somewhat cleared up.

@@denniseldridge2936 I saw that video and I think it was from the early 60s not the 70s because the narrator said they'd be building the factories in 1967

Pity they didn't save the badge on the radiator. Just shows though, like it or not, how rotten the old cars would get in a fairly short time. Now of course it's the electronics or engines that go, like the Rover K - series, or those Vauxhall Corsas unlucky enough to have the 998 cc 3 cylinder lump...

Just the same throwaway society then as we have today. Just done a bit more crudely, that's all.

10 years! Wow they deteriorated fast! I won’t tell that to my well kept 1974 Daimler Double Six VDP then...

I wish I had more, I’ve uploaded all my dad filmed on his cine cam, the rest were just family home movies👍🏼

Hi Paul, I think it was a Morris Traveller😂

A crappy blue chevy nova.

MrRoverone no they closed around 5 years ago. Still scrapyards next to where meadway used to be.

@paul austin Yes. Great gasser material. The early Thames panel was a favorite with me.

Same here

Same!

WayneB27 Arhh that’s nice to know. Wonder if any of his family know he’s on this film!

Vic you are so right. The building/construction industry had a particularly appalling death rate back in the 50s and 60s.

@Vic Denton Vic Could not agree more. Not everything in the "good old days" was that good. I grew up in the 60s and 70s and can remember seeing blokes tying wooden ladders together with rope. I mean no one with all their marbles would suggest that outlawing that on building sites is nannying.

snoozinghipo think it’s water, they filled the tank to dilute any remaining fuel, there’s no way grandad would have taken it in to be scrapped with much in the tank!

I couldn't believe them dumping all that gasoline on the ground after the worker punched holes in the gas tank.

Very common at the time. Quickest way of dealing with it.

Hello Robert, yes of course you can share and thank you for linking to the video. Grandad would have been astonished at the response to his cine film! 👍🏼

The Meadway, Birmingham. Pretty much Aston.

I was brought up in the area it was on the Sheldon Heath Road up the road from the pool way shopping centre and lea Hall fire station.

They sucked the remaining petrol out and then filled the tank with water

@Vic Denton I see the water going on to the petrol tank. Now you mention it.

Sparks won;t ignite the fuel under the fluid level.

We don’t know, sadly. The car didn’t look that bad so hopefully a fair price!

bonkey dollocks to get rid of all the wood inside

@@paulbackhard6315 oh yea before the crusher, got it.