Junkyard Find: 1957 Nash Metropolitan
When we had a 1960 Nash Metropolitan Junkyard Find a couple months back, you may have thought “Well, that was a once-in-a-lifetime occasion!” As it turns out, finding examples of the little Austin-built proto-AMC commuter in cheap self-service wrecking yards isn’t difficult at all— here’s another one, discovered at a yard in Denver.
This one is much rougher than the ’60 in California; it’s not very rusty, but its paint has been well-nuked by many decades in the Colorado sun.
You can smell the decaying horsehair through the glass of your computer monitor.
The BMC B engine, a larger-displacement version of which went into the MGB, looks intact.
Worth restoring? No way. Still, some good parts await pulling by owners of nicer Metropolitans. In fact, the trunk contained some NOS Pleasurizers.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I saw this one in the yard. I was amused that the ID sticker on the side said 1957 MGB. I was wondering why someone didn't restore this, until I opened a door and the whole thing felt like it was going to collapse. The rust wasn't very visible on the outside, but the structure of the car was definitely compromised.
It’s underpowered, impractical and probably unreliable — yet I want one, in coral and white, in the worst way. :-)