Pennsylvania man turns old car parts into giant yard sculptures

Image: Schaefer Family Page A Pennsylvania man named Richard Schaefer began turning discarded car parts into sculptures in 1988, and his roadside front yard in Erie has since grown into one of the region's most unusual local attractions. Visitors driving along Hershey Road will spot a two-headed dinosaur, a rocket ship, a bumblebee, a spider and a figure called Automan, all welded together from old engines, brake shoes and other salvaged automotive pieces. Here’s how the collection started, what you can see, and how to plan a visit, drawing on the artist's own family website.How Richard Schaefer started making car part sculptures in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1988Richard Schaefer is an Erie native who first became interested in auto art in 1988, using welding and fabricating techniques and basic automotive knowledge learned from his father. The attraction was formerly called Dick's Auto Art and is now known as Schaefer's Auto Art.The raw material came from close to home. Schaefer's brother ran a junkyard called Denny's Auto Wrecking, and Schaefer spent a lot of time there, then began bringing car parts back to his own yard to work out how to weld them together. His first project joined...