God bless THE JUNKYARD

[trinacriabob]

I've learned I love junkyards. About 2 weeks ago, the theater dimming on the dash on the '92 Regal went on the fritz. I walked into Borders one evening, had coffee for an hour, and came back to see that the dash lights were STILL ON. I had to pull the panel fuse every time I left the car at night.

I contacted a couple of Buick parts departments and they told me the dimming feature and the "lights-stay-on for 30 seconds after shutting door" was in the expensive light switch...a light switch costing over $ 300!!! I had to go to Portland over Columbus Day, so I found several old Regals at several pick-n-pulls. Swtiches were generically priced at under $ 10. I just installed it...it was of the plug-and-play variety...and IT WORKS, dimming and all.

I also found out there are only 3 (!) pods beside the instrument gauge cluster in this car: the light switch, the A/C controls and the radio, the latter of which was also replaced via junkyard for $ 35 about 4 yrs. ago.

This all made me feel good after having to pop $ 250 + labor for a radiator that started to leak yesterday...oh well, after a quarter of a million miles....

Any good examples of kick-ass savings from junkyards?

Edited October 19, 2008 by trinacriabob

[Satty]

I haven't been able to find anything for my LeSabre at any local junkyards. I did see a Pontiac Safari in a KFC parking lot yesterday and thought about stealing it for the parts I could use.

[daves87rs]

For my old Cavs....I was able to pick on bumpers, a wheel cover, interior bits...

I saved a good amount of the trim piece from the back of the ol' RS....saved 100 bucks.....

[Camino LS6]

Sadly, most of the junkyards around here are gone.

[XP715]

Sadly, most of the junkyards around here are gone.

Plenty of junkyards around here, but they're all filled with Hondas and Acuras and Toyotas. Scrap goes up like 30 cents a ton and all the yards around here are like OMG CRUSH ANYTHING WITH STEEL BUMPERS NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW!!!!!! On the rare occasion they still get something old, regardless of condition or completeness, they want at least double what top dollar is because THESE GO FOR ALL KINDSA MONEY ON EBAY, Y'KNOW, even though the guy telling you so dropped out of junior high school before personal computers were even invented.

There's exactly one cool junkyard in my area that still has old iron and know that it's not worth its weight in gold. I wish I had more time to go through that place before some sue-happy eco-weenie eventually cuts his vagina on an old rusty fender and the place gets crushed out for condos.

[Camino LS6]

...and so I can't find a '77 A body A/C box.

[daves87rs]

I wish we had an old junkyard around here...

There are still some here, but not as many cars....

[Sixty8panther]

I've got a "rolodex" of specialty junkyards in my head, the

plce I pot photos of from time to time... with all te 1950s

cars, they even have cars with wooden wheels and such...

Sadly for every super-cool junkyard I know of that exists I

have three stories of junkyards that are long gone, but at

one point were full of ultra-cool pre-war cars & such.

One story involves a certain junkyard in Maine that was a

toy-chest of fat-fendered pre-war cars, Model-Ts of ALL

years/styles, coachbuilt professional cars, WWII era army

trucks, 1950s HEMIs etc.

One day some company from M-ass bought the junkyard

and brought in an 18-wheeler crusher, a few days later,

noting was left but memories.

[balthazar]

Not junkyard-sourced, but : I had my '73 Charger Rallye 440 for a short while. While driving around, I spotted a same-era Satellite a rescue company had off to the side to practice using the jaws of life on. After asking politely, I got a solid battery tray, good horns and a host of other miscellaneous for nothing but my time. A short while later, a guy in my apartment complex had a beat-to-S Charger on a trailer- I believe he was going to build a drag car out of it. For a single bottle of beer, I grabbed pristine black vinyl upper door panels and another armload of miscellaneous for my car. This is the same car that came with a good $10 of change thruout it, including sprinkled over the engine compartment. Good karma with that car.

I sold it to a MoPar nut / drunk for his son. This was a very solid car with only half-dollar sized rot hole in the rear quarters, a triple black car with the Powerdome hood and the original 4-speed in the trunk. 2 years later I stopped by and the completely stripped carcass was half on a trailer headed for the scrapman. "Too rotted," the jackass explained.

[capriceman]

late 90's Lincoln Contentials with air ride. Those sensors go bad all the time and the dealer quote $230 a sensor and at a junkyard got all of them form under $20

Edited October 20, 2008 by capriceman

[PurdueGuy]

bought a black interior for my SC2 last week (front & rear seats, carpet, door panels, trim around doors, entire dash, floormats) for $265. Got an engine & trans a couple weeks ago for about $160, and a bunch of other stuff for cheap. Half price day at the pick-n-pull FTW. Having to drive 2.5hrs to get there, not so much win.

[balthazar]

Bought a set of non-ripped white buckets out of a '66 Catalina in a yard for $50 and turned them around for $325.

Scored a good 'squirrel cage' for the blower motor of my B-59 (out of a '63 Riviera) for $5.

[Camino LS6]

I may have found the answer to my problem with a lack of good junkyards around here.

I used junkyarddog.com today.

I filled out the form and in a few hours had two positive responses from yards that say they have the part I need.

I'll post how it turns out.

[XP715]

I know we all have those "if I won the lottery" ideas, but, mark my words, I WILL own my own junkyard if I win the lottery. Everything will be neatly arranged and nothing will be stacked.

[Camino LS6]

I know we all have those "if I won the lottery" ideas, but, mark my words, I WILL own my own junkyard if I win the lottery. Everything will be neatly arranged and nothing will be stacked.

Hah!

Me too!

But mine would be "private" and under roof.

[Sixty8panther]

Hah!

Me too!

But mine would be "private" and under roof.

- Indoor storage for the good/solid stuff restorative, parts cars...

- Outdoor storage (no stacking) for the rotted to death lawn ornaments

(too cool to crush, rotted like the Titanic)

- Outdoor storage, lots of stacking crushing: Modern Japanese/English money pits.