The charming junkyard gems of Old Car City, White, Georgia

And having spent two days wandering around the place, we’re inclined to agree.  There are three distinct parts to the yard. First there’s the forest area, where you’ll find mainly 1950s and 1960s cars and trucks, many of which are in poor condition. Then there’s the lake, which is the oldest part of the yard. This heavily overgrown area contains cars dating back to the 1930s and is strictly off limits to everyone.

Having said that, we did manage to spend a few hours back there after signing a disclaimer stating that we wouldn’t sue the owners if we were to be attacked by a poisonous insect or reptile… Finally there’s the front yard, which is the part that can be seen from the roadside. This small lot boasts about 200 vehicles, many of which have been dragged out of the undergrowth. These are the more restorable cars, and are for sale as complete projects. Here’s a taster of what we found on our visit some years ago:

Blinded in all four eyes, a sorry-looking 1959 AMC Rambler is being slowly swallowed-up by the Georgia countryside. Although the car is as rotten as a proverbial pear, it still has plenty of useable parts, including an extremely straight grille and bumper.

This ultra-rare 1942 S&S Cadillac ambulance appears to be 100% complete, right down to its red emergency flashing lights. It is located inside an old barn, in the heart of the yard. S&S was founded in 1876 as the Sayers and Scovill Company, and unlike many competitors, successfully made the transition from horse-drawn carriages to cars. Now known as the S&S Coach Company, it is still going strong today.

Between 1968 and 1972 almost 60,000 British-built Austin Americas found buyers Stateside. A rebadged two-door Austin 1300, these compacts competed directly with the Volkswagen Beetle. A lack of rubber pads on the overriders, and missing sidemarker lights on the front and rear fenders help to identify this one as a late 1960s car.  Old Car City has a small European section, and you can just make out a British-built Ford Anglia directly behind the America.

1953 Chevrolet station wagons are reasonably rare these days, making this quite an usual find. Unfortunately the car has sat in the woods for at least four decades, and the damp conditions have played havoc with its bodywork. Visit Old Car City on a very quiet day, and you’ll probably be able to hear it rusting…

They made less than 15,000 1966 Pontiac Catalina convertibles, and if you're in the market for a decent one you'll have to part company with the best part of $50,000. Or you could of course save yourself a fortune and buy this sorry-looking example instead, then spend the rest of your life attempting to fix it up. Needless to say it doesn't run, needs a completely new interior, and has a floor that’s holier than the Pope’s socks.

GM's B platform, on which this is based, ran from 1926 to 1996 (albeit being re-engineered at least a dozen times). The 1965–1970 version is the fourth best-selling automobile platform in history after the Volkswagen Beetle, Ford Model T, and the Lada Riva.

This 1972 Dodge Charger is definitely worth saving, or at least it would be if it wasn’t in the middle of a forest. Vast areas of the 36-acre site are totally overgrown, meaning a lot of tree-felling has to take place before anything can be dragged out. Pack a chainsaw…

Here’s one for all you Volkswagen fans. This rare split-screen T1 bus has literally been raised off the ground by a couple of trees growing out of its wheel arch. It’s one of several automotive wood sculptures we spotted at Old Car City, including a tree with a Mustang hubcap embedded in its trunk.

Tri-Chevys are well represented at Old Car City. Not only were there 10 of them in the front lot during our visit, but we found plenty more in the undergrowth at the back of the yard. In fact we spotted no less than 19 1955s, 12 1956s and 19 1957s, but there could have been plenty more hidden under the brambles.  According to the sign in the windshield, this 1955 two-door Bel Air is ‘cheap’.

How's this for a great advertisement for a salvage yard? Whereas most yards specialising in older vehicles tend to stick a Crosley or a Henry J on a roadside pole, Old Car City uses this wonderful 1954 Cadillac Fleetwood to attract the attention of passers-by.  Just 16,200 lucky people found the $4680 needed to drive one of these beauties out of the showroom in 1954.

This 1956 Chevrolet has definitely seen better days, and unfortunately even its straighter body panels have quite a bit of corrosion. Parking cars in forests definitely isn’t a good way to keep the tin-worm at bay. Damp leaves settle on the cars, and get into all of the crevasses. And then the thick foliage above prevents the sun from drying out the metalwork.

Even wearing a porcupine disguise, there’s no mistaking this 1948 Hudson. According to the licence plate surround, the car was originally supplied by JW Goldsmith of Atlanta, Georgia. This dealership, which was in business from 1909 to 1954, was America's oldest Hudson dealership and its second most successful too. Only Courtesy Motors of Chicago sold more automobiles.

Look what we found sitting on the banks of the lake, right in the heart of the property, a 1967 Buick Riviera. The big improvement in 1967 was the introduction of a new 430 cu in V8, generating some 360hp and propelling the car to 60mph in just 8.2 seconds.

The chrome has lasted a lot better than the paintwork on this 1950 Oldsmobile Futuramic 88. The Futuramic, which came equipped with the year's new high-compression overhead-valve V8, is widely considered to be Detroit's first big-selling muscle car. It certainly dominated NASCAR for a couple of seasons.

With 6.5 miles of tracks through 34 acres of woodland, you never know what you’re going to unearth next – like this rare 1947/48 Kaiser. Despite having been parked in the undergrowth for almost 40 years, incredibly it's still quite solid. A restoration certainly isn't beyond the realms of possibility. Between 1946 and 1955, some 760,000 Kaisers were built.

Here’s a hugely desirable and almost complete 1969 Plymouth Satellite. Depending on which of the V8s this car was fitted with, 60mph would have been reached in anything from 6.3 to 10.5 seconds.

Take your pick – will it be the 1962 Mercury Comet on the bottom, or the 1963 Ford Fairlane 500 perched on its roof? With such an abundance of space in this yard, it’s unusual to find any cars stacked on top of each other.

There aren't too many clues to its identity, but our best guess is that there's a 1970 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 hiding under the undergrowth. This car was the height of luxury in 1970, and the long list of standard features included power steering, climate control and a 375hp V8 that was capable of propelling the giant to a top speed of 121mph, while reaching 60mph in just over 9 seconds. The options list was impressive too, featuring both cruise control and Guide-Matic (which dimmed the headlights on the approach of oncoming cars).

Although this Javelin would have rolled off the line in Kenosha, Washington, the model was actually built in a total of five countries; the others being, Mexico, Venezuela, Germany and Australia. AMC's answer to the Ford Mustang was in production between 1967 and 1974.

We’d love to know if anyone has since been brave enough to buy this 1970-and-a-half Camaro. At the time of our visit Old Car City was only asking $1595, but it certainly needed a lot of work. The all-new Camaro’s launch was postponed until February 1970 (hence the 1970-and-a-half) designation, because of slow sales of the 1969 model. GM didn’t want to introduce the new car until dealers had run down stocks of the old model.

A Bel Air slowly returns to nature. The Bel Air name first originated in 1950, and was used to identify the two-door hardtops in the Chevrolet model range. But by 1953, when this model was built, the name was used to designate premium trim levels. The famous name would exist in this way until the mid-1970s.

Ralph Nader famously declared the Chevrolet Corvair to be “unsafe at any speed”. Well this convertible doesn’t look particularly safe at a standstill either. It's certainly going to need some serious cash spent on it if it’s ever going to take to the highways again. And we reckon the wheels might need realigning too...

Although the GT is arguably the most desirable of the 1968 Ford Torino range, we don't reckon this one is worth too much. In fact we’d like to bet that the kid's ride-on toy in the foreground would fetch more than the Torino on eBay.  Check out the Mk1 Capri in the background. The car went on sale in the USA in 1970, and sold relatively well. The lovely European (as the sales literature described it), was sold exclusively through Mercury dealerships.

Lincoln Premieres are as rare as hens’ teeth, but unfortunately this example’s floorpan has more holes than an alopecic porcupine. Just 4200 people were prepared to hand over $5945 needed to buy one of these luxury four-door sedan hardtops in 1960. The car was adorned with creature comforts, and the extensive options list even included a remote control boot lid.

While the feathered Lark is perfectly at home in trees, this 1960 Studebaker version appears to be somewhat out of its comfort zone! Launched in 1959, the Lark was an instant sales success, achieving more than 130,000 sales in its first year as it rode the compact wave.

In pristine condition 1967 Buick Wildcat convertibles sell for decent money, but this one can’t be worth much more than its weight in scrap metal. The interior has long since rotted away and a plague of tin worms have feasted on its bodywork. But it does still have some hard-to-find parts.

The dense vegetation cover, and the permanently damp environment it has created, has not been kind to this 1952 Mercury. While the chrome is still in pretty good condition, the bodywork has rusted through in several places. If that isn't enough to put off potential restorers, the Swiss cheese-like floorpan surely is. Just over 17,000 of these 300 Deluxes found buyers, the vast majority opting for the six-cylinder engine over the dearer V8.

This 1953 Buick Super Riviera two-door hardtop is 95% complete. The bodywork appears to be relatively solid, and the interior looks surprisingly youthful too. The coupe was a popular body shape, and some 90,000 found buyers. This car was for sale at the time of our visit, but may well have found a new owner by now.

Look at this wonderful Cadillac Fleetwood. According to the Georgian licence plate it was last on the road in 1976. The car is well concealed by the undergrowth, making it difficult to identify the exact model. Our best guess is that it's a 1969 Brougham – one of 17,300 built.

In 1957 the Premiere was Lincoln’s mid-level offering, sitting between the Capri and the Continental Mark II. The big V8 would power this 2105kg (4630 lb) giant to 60mph in just 9.1 seconds, continuing to a top speed of 116mph. But drive it with a heavy foot and you wouldn’t even get close to the estimated combined fuel economy of 11 MPG.  Although some of the body panels look pretty straight, we don’t fancy its chances of long-term survival.

How’s this for a rarity? This commercial vehicle was of course based on the station wagon, only didn’t have any side windows in the rear. Trim was shared with the Biscayne, which meant that luxuries were few and far between. There aren’t too many of these left today, and you certainly don’t expect to find them in junkyards.

From this angle we’re struggling to determine whether this 1956 Packard Clipper four-door sedan is a Deluxe or a Super. Either way it’s a rare car, as just over 5000 of each were built.  Although lacking its V8 engine, this is still well worth saving.

The Nash Ambassador received a major facelift in 1957, including fender-mounted parking lamps and America’s first four-beam headlamp system. But despite the innovation, the manufacturer was struggling. The marque’s market share amounted to a pathetic 0.06%, and although the four-door Custom sedan was the most popular model in the line-up, just 5627 found buyers. This would be the final year for Nash production. This example is remarkably complete, right down to original wheel trims and optional Continental tyre mount.

This is one of two Henry J’s we spotted at Old Car City. We were told by one of the guys working in the yard that it’s a 1952 Vagabond, one of 15,900 built. This was the entry level model, and the options list included tail lights, reversing lights, a heater and even an opening trunk lid. It’s amazing how many of these quirky little cars still turn up in classic salvage yards, although curiously they are often mounted on plinths, acting as advertisements to passing motorists.

This distinctive rear end belongs to a 1967 Chrysler Imperial. At the time this was one of the most luxurious cars money could buy, and it was packed full of interesting features like a rear seat heater and a swivelling front passenger seat which, according to the sales brochure, allowed the front occupant to play chess with whoever was travelling in the rear.

This 1968 Dodge Charger is one of the desirable 440s. But unfortunately the Magnum V8 is missing. Back in the day, this hell-raiser would have done the quarter mile in 14 seconds, continuing to a top speed of 123mph. We’d like to bet that there are more Chargers of the same vintage in the back of the yard. The famous General Lee in the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard was a ’69 Charger.

Like many of the vehicles at Old Car City, this 1959 Ford Thunderbird is good for little more than providing a handful of spare parts. The engineless wreck doesn’t have a straight panel on it, and the roof is completely caved-in. The second generation “square birds” differed considerably from their predecessors, and of course featured an additional two seats.

This monstrous Cadillac Fleetwood Imperial four-door limousine looks to us to be a 1952 model, which means it’s one of just 800 built. These range-toppers sat on a 146.8in wheelbase, and were laden with more bells than the Vatican and more whistles than a referees’ convention. Sadly, in this condition, the 2152kg (4734 lb) giant is probably worth just as much crushed.

This 1948 Pontiac has been a resident of Old Car City since the mid 1970s. It has slowly been engulfed by the undergrowth, and has sunk axle-deep into the earth, so it’s no surprise that it looks a bit rough around the edges. But even if it was in better condition it would stand little chance of ever being rescued, thanks to its location deep in the woodland.

This 1963 Chevrolet Impala two-door hardtop is the SS (Super Sport) model and was dragged out of the forest in the hope that it might find a buyer. And if a new owner needs some parts to go with his purchase, he might want to spend some time searching through the undergrowth. There must be another dozen 1963 Chevys back there, including a pair of Impala SSs.

Rather than a working salvage yard, these days Old Car City appears to be more of a museum. And what an amazing museum it is too! With exhibits like this 1962 Mercury woody to admire, it’s well worth the $20 entrance fee.

Learn more about Old Car City and plan a trip of your own by visiting the Old Car City website