just a passing thought of days gone by
Ditch-Runner
Member Posts: 25,232 ✭✭✭✭
I would say some of you did the same
when I was younger I hit up the local "junk yards" for tires , batterys , even common replacement parts that were not that expensive but 1/2 or a 1/3 cost was a huge benefit when making 1.65 a hour
I remember battery's were 10.00 to 15.00 and so many small parts were ahh just give me a couple bucks and take it . tires were a hit miss as a newer car crash ment newer tires and I think the local used car dealers kept close watch it was hard to get a matching set .
and it was also great to just wonder the yards pulling my own parts . I actualy did make a few dollars on hard to find parts. I would find and sell thru the local trade papers ( mostly mustang and camaro parts )
for a short time I lived a few miles from a wrecking yard every saturday moring I was at ther gate by 9.00 and would spend most of the day
I would just make a pile of parts and around closing just point to it and say how much 😁 and the owner would always get a kick out of me but it was always on the cheap .
( he died some years ago and a was good old fellow. he was a deputy sheriff also ) he took me to his house a few times where had a pole barn of nice muscle cars and odd ball cars in nice shape he had put away as his retirement collection nothing great but I always wondered if he got to sell them or the family did oh well
any way how many on here due to budget or just thrifty shopping visited such places when needing a part
car and parts swap meets were a given . many weekends I would be piling on the miles up and down the aisle ways LOL
I did so for many years but its been at least 25 + years for me . several reasons so many places stopped customers from going in (insurance I was told ) and the parts I was looking for dried up way before then
not counting so many repo parts were starting to be made , from what I know you can build a complete 1st gen mustang or camaro even tri five chevys all reproduced parts every bolt on up . I am sure the list has been added on too
but when I was a kid it was find a used one or do with out
Comments
One of my fondest memories go back to my Jr. year in high school. Had a nice looking gal in a class that asked me if I would take a look at some front end damage on her 64 Ford Galaxie 500.
The car had suffered damage to the left front headlight brackets and housing. We both took a long ride out to the local junkyard and spent a few hours wandering the acres of various wrecks before finding just the right car for the job. I did all the R & R that she needed and made a new girlfriend in the process!
Now days, whenever I hear that old Beach Boy's song; "Help Me Rhonda" I see that gal in my mind and wonder about her.
We had a local junk yard that an old timer owned and never had anything crushed.There were cars,trucks and motorcycles from the 20s up to the 80s.There were Mack trucks from the 20s, ex police Harley 3 wheelers from the 30s and 40s even some old scarce foreign stuff like early Mercedes and BMW that we had never heard of at the time.To get to the office there was a path through a mountain of old tires holding water and you were attacked by thousands of mosquitos in the summer.When the owner died in the late 80s or early 90s,the new owner had everything crushed for scrap.The original owner is a legend around here. RIP Noah Smith.We still miss you.
Last time I went to a junk yard was back in '86. We were on vacation in Florida and the alternator went out on our '84 Olds Cutlass. The parts stores were ridiculous in price so I went to the local junk yard and got one for $20 bucks and put it on out in their parking lot. It lasted longer than the one that came on it.
We did not go to buy at the junk yard but mostly to sell. We used to sell newspapers and copper mostly.
Our usual Saturday was fishing for brook trout in brooks way out in the country. Then lunch, sardines and crackers.
Then we would stop at several local dumps on our way home to strip copper from appliances etc.
We would then take the copper wire home, put it in a 55 gallon drum and light it off to burn off the insulation.
I found a lot of parts at the salvage yard when I restored my father in law's 94 Toyota truck.
There is a U-Pull-It yard near me, seems to be busy all the time. I have a deer stand on an old oil well road that needed a mirror to keep me from wearing my neck out twisting constantly. I stopped by the yard and found a good one on an old moving van that had a bracket mount. I had to paint the stainless steel back of it to camo it. Works great for $7.00!
...Years ago, I went with a friend to a junk yard so he could get some part...it was summer and the temp was 100+...1 1/2 hours round trip...an hour or so roaming around thru all the HOT trashed vehicles...almost 2 hours to get the part out...best part of FIVE hours total...and the part was not installed yet!...
...I ask him how much money he thought he had saved by not buying the part at the parts store..."probably $20-$30 he said...WTH!!?....I NEVER went to a junk yard again... my time was worth a lot more than $4-$6 an hour...friend owns a full service shop and been using him for years...I even use a small, private owned oil change shop...
I remember going to a combine junk yard and crawling into an old Allis Chalmers combine and removing the straw walkers. I'm talking 40 years ago.
I agree no way on that trip that's extreme
But as a kid there was two auto parts stores in my town and the internet was generations away . Reproduction parts were unheard of parts swap meets local trade papers and the junk yard was the options
Now with a flood of Chinese parts that are dirt cheap just about any part can be shipped to our door . That Changed everything
Also web sites that specialize in used parts even auto body parts . many shops and people use them they carry postings from countless wrecking yards around the country they list condition color and details and prices
To allow at home shopping
Pick a part places are still popular and still a way to save money
But like you stated distance and local price or even internet and our time make a huge difference in the value of any product
Sr yr in HS had a get out of jail free pass to leave the school whenever we had to go get a part for auto mechanics. Spent many of days just wondering around junk yards..
I think some of my cars must have come from junk yards, but I only had to scrounge parts a couple of times. Never was much of a car guy; I spent a lot more time on dirt bikes.
Got a 79 Land Cruiser in the back garage. Sure wish junk yards had parts for it😕
Most of my trips were to the tractor boneyard in Sikeston. My brother had a 67 F-100 that needed a motor we found a old 4 door Mercury that had a 428 turned out it was a old police interceptor bought that motor for 50 bucks that old F-100 ran real good with that motor
asop
this is just one site there is more
it has many auto recycle places ( what many years ago were junk yards but thats not a nice word ) list parts
just do a search for used auto parts
a lot of body shops and garages use these sights as well as back yard DIY people
Ditch-I thank you.
In my teenage years,Dads best friend was the manager of the largest junkyard in my area . Got many deals / parts ther thru the years.
Back in the day i restored PV544's and 164 Volvos. 122's were not my bag. Knew where all the yards were within 100 miles. All the local owners knew me by name and would say look out "Here comes the Hiking Viking". In the early days I opened my trunk and carried my heavy tool box to the counter where the owners would point me in the right direction to save me some time. On the way out the yard you stopped at the counter and paid a reasonable amount for the parts you removed.
Then over the years a lot changed. I watched the ownership go from Grandpa to Son to Grandson and many times the wife of the Grandson tended to be a bit greedy. Then the owners got knee deep in the EPA and DEC. and eventually you were no longer allowed to do your own picking. Insurance became a big problem for some owners. It became harder and harder to find Volvo parts as domestics were overwhelming. Then a lot of yards started to melt down perfectly good aluminum parts and pour into ingots. Then came the crushers and all but the best of the best got crushed. It was very painful to see a Volvo that i needed be reduced to 4x4 block! Somewhere along the way the junk yard dog became part of the scene because bad dudes would break in at night and would not pay for parts they removed. At some point you could not remove or buy a part that was part of a larger assembly which was reasonable.
At my last visit to a yard years ago I took note that these yards are all linked and if one does not have it the other does. Much of the human element is gone forever where you could have a conversation with the owner and other pickers.
My wife has been on a walker for six years now. She loved her 164 Volvo that i restored for her and her S80 T-6 that I sold about two years ago. Pictures about two days before buyer took it away. I would give away the rest of my life if my wife Diane could walk out side and drive the 164 away.
I had a lot of fun in the yards. They kept me out of trouble in my early years and a great memory now. It is what it is.----------------------------------Ray
2001, A few yard parts in that one.
Ray
I can relate to your story in so many ways.
When the old owners passed down to kids to grandkids they went the same way good for business not so much for local diy .
Many years ago I had a uncle who worked for years at a wrecking yard .he did not make much but loved cars and his job
The kids took over made him retire and also started the hot line as they called it like you stated connected the wrecking yards
Need a part or posting what they had Nation wide
Again great for business not so much for people like me
Now all just fond memories .too many stories to even try and post
But lol one last
Out in my pole barn I still have my junk yard tool box with 90 % of all the tools I needed to remove parts . I would say close to 30 years since it has even been opened .
D-R, the owners were the lucky ones i guess. They collected the $$$$$$$ You and i had to fight the wasp, yellow jackets, copper heads and horrific heat in the dog days of summer. Never seemed to be any shade trees in the yards i picked in. Oh yes, and I forgot about all the busted knuckles.😀 ---------------------Ray
no snakes but the rest is spot on
in closing I will say I met a lot of great "good old boys " back when the wrecking yards were just more a local parts source. a little effort and a little cash went a long way . it also supported my car hobby picking parts I knew I could make a little money on I know 10 or 20 dollars seems like chicken feed now, ( well it is with todays cost ) to most but back then it was a weekend of gas and food for me and a date LOL
thanks for sharing your stories
and NO COMPUTERS NEEDED, the counter guy at the local junk yard could tell you what part you needed and from what various years or even other vehicles that would interchange. go to a parts store now and if you don't give them the life history of your vehicle for them to punch in the computer they can't/ won't find the part..........
just a passing story, I was interviewed for a job once driving a rural route for the post office, was told they had 3 mailmen retireing within the year. in the meantime my truck blew a headgasket, 89 ford F150, had the straight six, 4 speed. my neighbor offered me a 302 from a totaled granada he had just rebuilt, I figured it wouldn't be that big a deal to swap in the 302 and an automatic, since I was getting the motor free and the post office job was looming in the background I knew the auto would fit the job better and cheaper than trading vehicles.
that is when I learned you could go back 20 years and interchange parts on a chevy, but ford didn't do that, they had their little "family" of motor/tranny combos, and truck and car parts don't interchange easily, I had to find an oilpan that had the well on the other end, then the dipstick went through the block and layed in the shallow end of the oil pan, so it didn't read right. tried to braze a dipstick through the side of the pan but it leaked, guy from the junkyard finally told me to look for one out of a ford van, they made them through the side of the block factory. took me the best part of a month of scrounging the junk yards to find everything I needed.
when I sold the truck I gave the guy who bought it a list of all the parts and what year they came off of, tranny, motor, transfer case, shifter steering column, ect, it was about like the johnny cash song about the caddy that was a 59, 60,61,62,,,,,,,,,,
My frankenstine projects
Biggest one I had a 64 Ford pick up used jeep axles and independent transfercase .a 302 and front seat from a 70,s torino and a buch of assorted parts to make it all work I had no welder or torch to modifie any parts but just a lot of junk yard searching
Another was a friend's pinto he had one the engine blew wantedme to put a v6 in it .same deal found a Mustang and started pulling parts and looking for the odd ball things but got it going Nota hard project as the Mustang jj and pinto was close but just enought to be a pita
Later on a welder torch and many tools made projects a bit simpler
And agree the old junk yard guys were a wealth of knowledge but then I also remember the local Napa owner had the 4 feet of books in a flip thru book .
But I could go in and say I need a xxx for a xx year and model 90% of the time he knew from memory what interchanged and would walk back thur all the shelf and have it with him
No computers jback then as you stated just years of experience
It all boils down to one word "Experience." You get a lot of "Experience" picking in the yards for years. --------------------------Ray
Friends & I would do this back in the 70's.
I once pulled a brand new set of black leather bucket seat from a 1970 T-Boned Cougar Eliminator for just $20. My freind pulled the console, and steering colum. Another friend wanted the 428 Cobra Jet from under the hood, but they wouldn't sale it to us.
Trinity+++
Odd they would not sell it to you with out at least a reason
The fellow my uncle worked for drag raced in the late 50's early 60's
He had a factory Galaxie race car he bought new it had been setting for years the body at one place the engine stored away at the wrecking yard it was a big block but been too long to drag up old memories I think it was a 427 .he also had a tilt nose Angela I think what the car was
Those two cars were untouchable when ask to buy them .I am sure a huge bag of cash may have but i know I did not have it and many more tried .but that was 50 years ago now the internet would opened up endless buyers
Not sure what ever happened to the cars when the old fellow passed away
Odds are his sons just seen money and took it
Slim chance they kept 5he cars I would wager they were sold