Horopito Wreckers, New Zealand

[LanceNZ]

I was in the central North Island this week and visited one of the worlds great wrecking yards - Horopito Wreckers. It lies in the the shadow of Mt Ruapehu on the edge of the Tongariro National Park and has an unbelievable collection of old cars. The photo was taken in the Morris Minor corner but you can get an idea of the size and variety of cars here - Model A Fords, Austin 7s, all manner of pre war english and american cars even the occaisional wooden whell still attached to a chassis. Visiting the palce gives me mixed feelings of enviromental disaster mixed with priceless collection of old car parts![frame][/frame]

[Blades]

Great photo Lance, wish we had some thing like this near me

Nick

[customjob]

Your right there blades, nothing like that here in the uk, Maybe NZ could export back to the uk as scrap. the club could then set up it's own breakers yard. now there is idea.

[philthehill]

We used to have but nearly all cleaned up in the name of enviromentalisam (hope that I spelt that right).
Does anybody remember Harry Buckland's scrap yard on the B4063 between Cheltenham & Gloucester in the 1960s.
It was a car enthusiasts dream. At the front were the remains of very old cars some so old that they had seperate cylinder blocks with non detachable heads (remove the block & turn upside down to get at the valves). There was a sleeve valve Daimler parked up for many years next to the shed. I remember it had a telegraph to communicate with the chauffeur (note: not the driver). Further back were the 1930s cars. I remember a front wheel drive BSA being there and behind the shed was a Railton fitted with an Hudson straight eight (first straight eight I had ever seen but strangely enough a couple of years back I sorted out a timing gear problem on a Morris fitted with a Hudson straight eight). Further back was the then modern stuff and the scrapping area.
Many a college lunch time was spent trawling over the cars. Got my Riley 1.5 drum brakes from there and many other parts over the years. I went past the yard a couple of years back and all the old stuff had been swept away. Hardley recognised the place

[morrisminorbzh]

What an incredible place !! The archaeologist in me would like to sort that lot out, put the restaurable ones aside (all makes) in a huge hanger. Don't think the wife would be to happy.
I wonder what the percentage of saveable examples is ? 1% ?

[chesney]

That first van - there have been worse 'resto projects' on eBay over here.. The rest not sure, definitely good for parts though.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

You needn't worry about the environment. Nature will reclaim these soon enough.

[philthehill]

But what happens to all the oils and contaminants when nature has reclaimed the metals i.e. bodies/engines/gearboxes/back axles etc? That is why scrap yards similar to the one above have all been swept away over here and those remaining are supposed to have impervious surfaces and catch tanks for the crud.

[Dean]

Yet another case where governments should pass the "compulsary classic rebuild bill". People should be forced by law to restore these moggies whether they like it or not. The MMOC still has some way to go before it takes over the world and confinds the infidel eurobox to the dustbin......

[sparesman]

Horopito is an amazing scrapyard. I spent a couple of hours there last Easter before going to the NZ Federation Easter Rally looking for splitscreen surrounds for the Club Spares. If only it was closer. All the minors have been shifted to a far corner of the main yard and there are several lowlights amongst them. Someone had had most of the screen surrounds but they forgot to take the centre clips !! All those rust free MM body panels just sitting there.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

An incredible place. Definitely on my future holiday itinerary.

[davidmiles]

Can the mods save this to the scrapyards thread please.

[TDV102]

Way back in the late 70's there was this sort of a yard close to Croft racing circuit. Outside was 40's to 60s, inside the cavernous workshop were spares and cars going back to the 30s. I had my Minor there for welding once and got a tour while I was there. They also had a Ford Pilot and MG PB which I couldn't afford at the time, they were £250..! A couple of years later the whole place went up in flames. A friend's Minor was in there at the time and was a total loss.