Rusty Acres Automotive in Jacksonville closing after being open for more than 50 years

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local salvage yard is officially closing its doors on Tuesday.

For over 50 years, Rusty Acres Automotive has served the Jacksonville car community.

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Bob Eubanks is the owner of the business and he made cars his lifelong passion.

“I was known for favoring Ford, I used to race the dirt tracks in south Georgia and north Florida, and people knew me by the Ford and I decided to specialize in Ford,” Eubanks said.

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Monday is the last day the business will be open.

“I’ve got a lot of memories to look back on,” Eubanks said.

Eubanks is retiring and one of the reasons why is he said since the pandemic, the industry changed quite a bit.

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“It got tougher to buy cars to be able to sell,” Eubanks said.

And the other: His son was working to take over the business, but he died unexpectedly in 2021.

“With the death of my son, I just lost interest in fighting it anymore,” Eubanks said.

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Eubanks said there used to be over 600 cars in the yard, and now there are about 20 left, which they’ll have to clean out.

As Eubanks cleans out the yard and looks back on a lifetime of memories, he said they are in the process of selling the property.

“We are negotiating that right now,” he said.

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