Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 13, 1991 TAG: 9103130535
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOHN MALONEY/ THE RICHMOND NEWS LEADER
DATELINE: LANEXA (AP) LENGTH: Long
He covets his merchandise and delights in stripping it apart for customers.
His life's work sprawls across 33 acres of rolling hills in New Kent County, as only thousands of old cars can sprawl. He has collected cars since 1955. Since 1964, he has towed them onto this parcel of his family's land.
Although no exact count is available, Philbates believes he has at least 8,000 cars in his rural salvage yard.
Some yards are bigger, but none on the East Coast has as many old cars made before 1977, Philbates said. Other salvage dealers concur.
The oldest vehicle left in the yard is a 1924 International truck. Like everything here, it is for sale, parts or whole.
Demand for parts from Philbates' cars is steady, and sometimes hectic, especially in the summer, when several hundred people might search the yard in a day, Philbates said.
Only Philbates knows where to find specific cars. Enabled by a photographic memory, he can find any car in the yard, his wife, Rebecca, said.
"I can sit right here and tell you every car in that yard, and not miss a dozen, and even get the color," he said.
Philbates bought an IBM computer on which to log his inventory, but he left the machine in the box when he found it would require 15 minutes to record each car.
Philbates said he does not have 8,000-times-15 minutes to spare in his six-day work week.
Just then, customer Buddy Dearing of Virginia Beach walked in and asked if Philbates had a window regulator for a '64 Skylark convertible.
"Yes," Philbates replied automatically, before summoning a helper with a walkie-talkie to fetch the part.
Dearing said he previously had put his part request on a coast-to-coast teletype only to find Philbates' yard was the best place to look.
Telephone inquiries for parts are Rebecca Philbates' responsibility. The calls come from everywhere, including a party line that connects more than 70 salvage yards across the state.
Last September, a man who claimed to represent the late King Olav V of Norway called about an electric window opener for one of the king's parade cars, she said.
"We got the call Thursday, and on Monday a man came in" for parts for a '66 Lincoln Continental and offered to buy the whole car, she said.
The Norwegian Embassy in Washington confirmed that the family monarchy has several old American cars, parts for which can be found only in the United States. King Olav died this year.
"That's the same as a Jag or a Rolls to us," and Europeans need everything from sheet metal to taillights, Philbates said.
A 1989 request for a '63 Buick Special is memorable because the buyer was calling from Kuwait.
"I started to give him directions, and he told me it was a little too far to drive," so we shipped the car C.O.D., Rebecca Philbates said.
Foreign journalists have trumpeted Philbates' reputation for old car parts in various car magazines for many years. Philbates said his only advertising is his business card, which he distributes whenever he can.
Although the Philbateses don't use a computer, they do have another inventory system for stripped parts that goes beyond sheer memorization.
At least 30 gutted school buses packed with parts dot the salvage yard. There is a bus for Chrysler lights, and another full of Vega rears, for example.
A shed houses 20,000 matched hubcaps, and a few hundred more lie on the ground nearby, waiting to be stored.
There's a bus for Volkswagen windshields, and another for Beetle doors.
In time, there's a market for any car part, Philbates said, standing beneath a '54 Mercury Sun Valley that bridges two buses.
"Someday somebody will buy that," just for the glass roof, he said. The car costs $1,995, and the roof alone goes for $500.
Philbates has a '46 Cadillac ambulance for the same reason. He had to buy 60 junked cars for $1,200 to get the ambulance, which he said he thinks will draw a good price someday.
A few narrow footpaths separate the endless fields of idle cars. A pile of axles rises here, a lone engine sits there, and Philbates knows everything by model, make and year.
The selection is stupendous.
Yard visitors stand little chance of finding what they want alone, so Philbates or a helper walks them down the main road and points to the car they need.
By late afternoon, Philbates' ailing left leg swells from walking, and he has to lean on a cane for balance.
Thirty-six years of work in salvage yards has taken its toll on the man.
On Jan. 20, chest pains put him in the hospital for a week, and doctors ordered him to reduce his work week to six nine-hour days, down from 12 and 15 hours per day before.
"There's limitless income here, depending on how much a man wants to work," he said.
While calls from abroad make good conversation, the Philbateses know the backbone of their business is in small-order service, such as a '73 Olds tail light, or two Rambler door handles for $10 each.
A '64 Cadillac Eldorado convertible yields about $1,800 in parts over the years, and sells whole for $2,000, he said.
"I enjoy taking something nobody else wants and making a living out of it," Philbates said. "To me that's recycling."
The salvage yard doesn't have a sign on Virginia 249, but the place is hard to miss with its smorgasbord of automobiles for sale out front.
by CNB