Glenrock Man Has 5 Acres Of Rusted-Out Vintage Cars That Have Potential To Be Jewels

GLENROCK — At 72, the kid who snuck Hot Rod magazines into his classrooms at school and fashioned his first speed machine at age 16 remains alive in Gary Dickinson.

A great-grandfather who is preparing a new car for the Rocky Mountain Hard Top Division at the Casper race track this year has 5 acres of rusted, faded and diamond-in-the-rough classic cars on the old rail right of way northwest of Glenrock.

From above, it looks like the ultimate “before” photo of dozens of rare and coveted vintage cars just waiting for someone to restore them for the “after” shot.

“The Junkyard” on Highway 95 is so much a classic salvage operation that when Dickinson’s cellphone rings it plays the theme song to the 1970s sitcom “Sanford and Son.”

“I just naturally like doing this because nobody else around here does anymore,” he said. “It’s a true classic yard. That’s what I’m about and I enjoy doing it.”

Dickinson has been the car business since he was a young man growing up in Oregon. His dad liked to buy old cars, fix them up and sell them.

As a 14-year-old without a driver’s license he spent a lot of time at the wheel of an old car that was attached by a cable to his dad’s as they drove from the point of purchase to home.

In 1968, he said he and his dad found a 1944 Ford convertible and bought it. At 16, he put a Chevy V-8 engine into it and got it running.

“That’s when I started playing with cars,” he said. “I had that car for over 30 years.”

Dickinson defines “classics” as vehicles at least 50 or 60 years old. He has a section of his acres that have Ford Model T and Ford Model A frames that go back nearly a century as well as a 1918 Buick. He laughs when he shares a story about a teen calling and asking for an “old car” from the 1980s.

Dickinson believes his is one of two junkyards in the state that deal with classic cars. They are getting harder to find, but that hasn’t stopped him from searching for them at auctions in Kansas, Colorado and other states in the region.

“Scrap metal went through the roof about 12 or 13 years ago when China was buying it,” he said. “That wiped out a lot of the old cars.”

Finds On The Ranch

Sometimes he gets a call from a son or daughter who is inheriting a Wyoming ranch, and they want to clean out the rusted vehicles that have collected for a generation or two. There he sometimes comes across a gem.

He said the problem is getting access to the ranches.

“There are still cars around,” he said. “There’s some of these guys who collect cars for years and then they realize that they’re never going to get to all of them. I’ve been to auctions where there are 200 or 300 cars and they’re all basically classics.”

At a ranch auction in Lusk about three years ago, he bought a four-door 1935 Ford that had been sitting in a barn since the 1960s. It had the original pin stripe on its paint.

The ranch family had bought it when it was new, but had trouble finding the right tires for it and parked it.

“They used to drive it from Lusk out to Oregon back in the day, and then they quit driving it,” he said.

He sent a photo of the car to his son telling him, “You’re not selling that car.” It now sits in his son’s shop and he’s working to restore it.

Walking down the narrow 5 acres of cars at The Junkyard, Dickinson has tried to keep the various models and years together.

There is a section for the “tri-five Chevys” meaning the 1955, 1956 and 1957 model years; one for Camaros and Firebirds from the 1960s that are much more picked over for parts; Chevy trucks from the 1950s; older Ford trucks; Oldsmobiles; and a rarer section of Chevelles and El Caminos.

Dickinson said he just had a man from South Dakota show up because he couldn’t find an El Camino part that he was looking for anywhere else.

At The Junkyard, Dickinson mainly deals in parts for classics, and also will sell whole cars, but the buyer has to arrange for transport.

Car Gems

Among his prizes is a Kaiser model from 1950. A buffalo symbol adorns its hood.

Other treasures are a 1949 Pontiac, 1946 Mercury, a 1958 Chevy Biscayne and a Packard. He is unsure about its year.

An old Jeep Wagoneer with wood paneling also is a hot item for collectors now. He has one.

In the “classic” junk business, Dickinson said it is important to stay on top of what people want. He watches auctions on YouTube and follows trends — especially vehicle values. He said the generations have played a part in determining what is hot and pricey and what is not.

The generation that wanteds the Ford Model Ts and Model As are dying off, and the next generation that wants to restore the 1950s and 1960s are the ones with the money now.

“The hardest vehicle to get ahold of anymore are the ‘parts’ vehicles, because they are fixing those cars that 10 years ago you would have used for parts,” he said.

Currently, he said the market for classic cars is high and he needs to know his parameters and what he can get for a vehicle when he goes to auctions to bid.

At the Glenrock yard, he’s had people seek him out from New Zealand, Texas, Maine and elsewhere in the U.S. He said many are just passing through and do a search for a local junkyard and come by to see his inventory.

As for his own love of cars, Dickinson said he had his first body shop when he was 20. In Oregon, he owned junkyards, and when he moved to Wyoming owned two of them in Casper.

He bought the land for his Glenrock business in 1997 but didn’t start his “classics” business there until 2013.

Personal Projects

He has passed his love of cars down to some of his children and grandchildren.

That love includes racing cars — something he started in the 1970s and plans to continue this year. A racer frame over by the fence carries the wounds of a crash last year in the Rocky Mountain Hard Top series.

A new framed car sits beside it awaiting an engine for the races this year. And then there is his new “classic” ride project for the streets.

“Underneath that pile over there in that back corner, there are 1932 Fords, which are the holy grail of hot rods,” he said. “They’re real hard to find. And when you do find them, they’re very expensive.

“And then my thing, I’ve always been a nut for 1940 Fords.”

One painted bright yellow sits among the rusted relics in the front part of his junkyard. He bought its core in Montana seven or eight years ago.

It’s been his restoration project, and he put a 283 Chevy motor that gleams inside it. It has a three-speed manual transmission on the column. He still needs running boards and a few other things before putting it on the road.

“I had one like it in high school,” he said.

Dickinson said has no plans to stop doing what he’s been doing since he was a teen. He learned then that buying and selling cars was a lot easier than working on a farm during his summers.

He characterizes the junkyard business as his retirement plan, making a joke about those who have “401(k)” investments versus his junkyard.

“I say, this is my 401-J,” he said.

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.