Wrecking yard-101

[Keith True]

At a yard near me I saw a fellow walk back up front after looking around out back.He had spotted a Pinto with a new exhaust system from stem to stern.He asked the owner if he would pick the car up for him to take it off.The owner said sure,when I pick it up throw some wheels under it.He drove the loader out,picked the car up,the guy piled wheels under it,dropped the car back down and left.When the guy got the exhaust out he carried the parts up front and laid them out in the parking lot.When the owner came up in the loader he looked at the exhaust and said,how about five bucks?The guy said how about three? OK.He climbed the loader and handed the owner three dollar bills.The owner started the loader and drove off,right over the exhaust.He hollered back,that's a three dollar exhaust system.He just ignored the guy that tried to run after him.The guy started to sputter and swear he wasn't leaving until he got his money back,but he got a look at the gang working there and decided his three bucks was uncollectable.The yard I worked for at the time used to buy the Boston police cruisers that year.I would haul them back to the yard and the first thing we would do was to pull the rear seats out.The cars were supposed to have the seats pulled after every shift,but apparently they got a little lax on it.We would find bags of weed,powder,pills,rolls of cash,wallets,knives and guns.Something must have happened because because at some point things changed.Every cruiser I went after had the seats taken out than thrown in the back again.

[zzlegend]

The owner started the loader and drove off,right over the exhaust.He hollered back,that's a three dollar exhaust system.He just ignored the guy that tried to run after him.
Now thats funny Keith.

[Tom Wesenberg]

That's unbelievable that someone would try to go cheap on a new exhaust for $5. I spotted a VW diesel Rabbit on it's side with a new exhaust, and when I asked about it the guy gave me a look like "who would buy exhaust from a junk car" but said I could have it for $5. BTW, that was a mint Rabbit and the reason it was in the yard was the glow plug fuse was blown. The owner didn't know that the glow plugs had a fuse, and when the glow plugs don't glow, the engine won't start. I tried to buy the whole car, but they said they weren't allowed to sell cars. Another one of Minnesota's stupid state laws,............. probably started by car dealers.

[Manuel]

I wish I could go back to some of the old wrecking yards and remove the old Fords that went to the great wrecking yard in the sky.
I can still picture the old Fords sitting on top of each other......
A few of the yards did not even have fences around them.

Manuel in Oz

[700rpm]

In 1961 when I was 16 I climbed over the fence of a local wrecking yard on a Sunday afternoon because I could see a bunch of Model A's inside. There were no dogs around, but much to my surprise the old man was there, Mr. Plew. And he was a piece of work. The whole family was, for that matter. He immediately placed me under citizen's arrest for trespassing. He was right, of course, I was trespassing. But I just wanted to look. Honest. He was unmoved, until I told him I was in math class with his grandson, and he should call him to verify that I was a good guy. He did it, and his grandson stood up for me, and I got out of there, as quick as I could. I never did that again!

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

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2 MEAN Dobermans in a wire enclosure inside the front gate, charged with guarding racks of high $$$ small parts! Took me 2 weeks working there 'afore I could go into DOG HELL, spent half my lunch money for NOTHING BURGERS for them +*^$^$@+DOGS! Howard hugged & patted me on the back one day at the GATE to HELL, we just walked RIGHT IN!! I can still hear him LAUGHIN' & LAUGHIN' & LAUGHIN'+*^$&%^ He could have well been Chief's BROTHER!! (School of hard knocks? HA! how about the School of RIDICULE?) Bill W.

[CRguy]

Originally Posted by 700rpm

In 1961 when I was 16 I climbed over the fence of a local wrecking yard on a Sunday afternoon because I could see a bunch of Model A's inside. There were no dogs around, but much to my surprise the old man was there, Mr. Plew. And he was a piece of work. The whole family was, for that matter.

That reminds me of the wrecking yards around here in the 60s. Lots of good old cars & parts in them, but the owners were a crazy bunch and usually wouldn't sell. Lots of good Model A stuff just sat there and rusted away. Used to find stuff at old dump sites also - at least that stuff was free.

Mel

[dumb person]

Originally Posted by CRguy

That reminds me of the wrecking yards around here in the 60s. Lots of good old cars & parts in them, but the owners were a crazy bunch and usually wouldn't sell. Lots of good Model A stuff just sat there and rusted away. Used to find stuff at old dump sites also - at least that stuff was free.

Mel

Same here, even in the 90's-2000 era. They died & it was all lost.

[Craig Lewis]

Once I get inside a wrecking yard, I never want to leave. There's so much to see in so little time....

I used to buy, fix & sell and soon found the larger the pile of parts you brought to the counter - the cheaper each item became.
If you return 2 or 3 times you'll pay far more, so make a list.

One thing that burns me is stripping parts from an unusualy clean car at some yard and realizing it's way nicer than the pile I'm fixin'

You sure gotta be cautious driving in a wrecking yard cuz the ground is literally paved with half buried sharp objects. I once drove through a big mudpuddle and ran over a leaf spring which sprang outa the water, hooked right around, and thwacked the door of my brand new truck!
...a nice $300xx dent, although I did get the ashtray I came for.

[dave in australia]

There used to be a wrecker at the back of one of the Air Force bases I was at. They had a $15 cash and carry. Watching people with a tailshaft across their shoulders and doors hanging off them was funny as their legs began to buckle. The owner stopped the person before he did himself an injury, but the let his mates help him the rest of the way without a surcharge, and saying "for f*&^% sake, help him before he does a hernia. On the same day, another person had a stack of parts on the bonnet of a car and a seatbelt going from one front corner, around the back of his neck then back out to the other corner.
Also at the same wrecker, somebody was doing a cut out with oxy-acc, and then the car caught on fire. The owner was quick to get to the fire hose, and as he was running towards the fire with the hose reel spinning hard, he found the total length of the hose was not enough and he stopped suddenly. He was running that hard, that when the hose stopped, his upper body stopped but his feet didn't, a true keystone cop moment. Luckily there was enough water pressure to make up for the lack of hose length. What did I get, some nice Falcon GT bucket seats for a mates GTHO, who couldn't get to the wrecker, and another mate who I went to wrecker with got a stack of faux rear brake scoops for a Falcon coupe as well as a GT steering wheel and some Falcon bonnet scoops.
What I actually miss here locally is that the local tips used to allow the dumping of cars, and the tips themselves were unmanned, so before you went to the wrecker, you'd go to the tip, see if anyone had dumped a model car that you could scrounge from. Picked up two sets of rust free complete sets of front bolt on panels for my charger, plus a few spare laminated windscreens, and an R/T dash. And the best part, every thing was already unbolted, just needed to be picked up and put into a trailer.

[Tom Wesenberg]

When I was stationed at Ft. Bliss in El Paso there was a wrecking yard in town that sold parts by the pound for the scrap value of the metal. This was the best place I'd ever seen for value because all glass, rubber, and upholstery was free, and the scrap values of metal meant you could buy a good engine for under $10. A complete door might cost $2.

[zzlegend]

Very similiar story as Ray. I was 15 in 1961 and went to the best junk yard with the best parts on a sunday morning. I took an 8 pack of hot dogs and met a wierd kid that lived in an old house down the street. A large dog met us at the gate and started with the barking and white drool coming out of his mouth. The wierdo kid started slipping the hot dogs under the fence while i went around back and climed the fence. What a score. A rochester 1 barrel carb and a set of radio knobs and choke cable for my 49 chevy i just bought for a few bucks. Came back to the front gate and saw the last hot dog being eaten by this kid and he had the dog laying up against the fence and he was stroking the dogs privates. That dog wasnt going nowhere. Keep in mind this kid was missing two front teeth and liked to spit alot. I always thought he was a little different and don't where he learned that dog thing but i stopped hanging around with him after that.

[Pickupman]

Originally Posted by zzlegend

very similiar story as ray. I was 15 in 1961 and went to the best junk yard with the best parts on a sunday morning. I took an 8 pack of hot dogs and met a wierd kid that lived in an old house down the street. A large dog met us at the gate and started with the barking and white drool coming out of his mouth. The wierdo kid started slipping the hot dogs under the fence while i went around back and climed the fence. What a score. A rochester 1 barrel carb and a set of radio knobs and choke cable for my 49 chevy i just bought for a few bucks. Came back to the front gate and saw the last hot dog being eaten by this kid and he had the dog laying up against the fence and he was stroking the dogs privates. That dog wasnt going nowhere. Keep in mind this kid was missing two front teeth and liked to spit alot. I always thought he was a little different and don't where he learned that dog thing but i stopped hanging around with him after that.

lmao

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

ZZ,
What ever became of the WEIRD kid? Maybe he became a dentist or a Dog Whisperer?? When starting this thread, I was lookin' for tech tricks, etc, but these stories are even BETTER! Some old wrecking yards were like Museums! One in town displays a HUGE radial engine, said it came from a TANK! but it's a diesel?? I remember toting a note book when doing junk yard "engineering" so's we could write down the make, year & model that each part came from. Early Cadillac front motor mounts were at a premium. All nuts, (not us!) bolts, & washers were FREE!
I asked Howard why he charged that one kid $4.00 too much for a generator? He smiled, "Didja' see his L/F pocket bulgin'? Them ain't acorns!" (SMART MAN!) Howard found a wad of keys in the drive & puttem' in his pocket. Later saw a punk goin' out front with 4 upside down hub caps & tossed them in his back seat, started lookin' for keys, strolled back & inquired. Yep, Howard has them, they'll cost you $40.00----PLUS TAX! I never, ever saw that crook again!
Saw a kid totin' all the steel brake lines from a '46 Ford, he looked like "SPIDER MAN!" He almost couldn't get out the front door.

Mr. Tube would like this,
To test my "RECONDITIONED" vacuum wiper motors, I used a refrigerator compressor as a vacuum pump. I "smoked" 2 before discovering that they have a START winding & a RUN winding!! Mr. Tube'll know what I mean! At least I DIDN'T electrocute myself, Chief did well when he taught me that Model A 'lectrics were SAFE, BUT, plug 'lecrtics can make bulbs lite up, BUT also can put YOUR lights out!! Chief claimed that his hair was kinky from gettin' shocked once at Orville's Radiator Shop??? Is there somethin' STRANGE about radiators that I don't know about???? Maybe Negative Ground ELECTROLISIS?? He also said his hair was grey because of me! (What did he mean???) Bill W.

[700rpm]

Here's one of my favorite places. It's still there, about 18 miles outside of Mineral, S.D.

[zzlegend]

Morning Bill. Sorry i got a little off topic, but just thought i would share the story of that weird kid. Don't know what ever happened to him. I think he came from back hills of Kentucky and i could be wrong, but i was watching TV the other nite and thought i saw him on that new show called "Moonshiners". Although now he has a beard as grey as mine and was wearing a ragged old hat and it looked like he was still missing those two front teeth. But what gave it away was that he had a dog by his side. That dog had a slight limp and seemed to be somewhat smiling and would not leave his side. Hum,,,,,,,,,,,,,,wonder why?
And Ray, I hope that picture is what heaven looks like. Might find out in the near future. Thanks for posting.

[TD]

I have been stung more than once by bees and wasps. Worst time was when I was using a cutting torch and the wasps came out from the other side of the panel. I always keep a can of bee spray handy now.
TD

[Curt Campbell]

I grew up in the auto salvage and auto body shop business. My Dad owned a large salvage yard (30 acres) and a large body shop in southeast Iowa. ALL my spare time was spent there from the time I could walk.

Dad's original yard was only about 10 acres. In the late 50's, he bought an old time salvage yard (30 acres) that the owner had gotten older and hadnt paid much attention to for several years. So, Dad moved his good vehicles to the new yard and sold the small one.

The new yard was FULL of 100's of old treasures that we would kill to own today, a lot of them complete and in running condition. I can remember the rows and rows of Model T's, A's, and everything thing else you could imagine. Back then, as most of you know, there was not much value in those vehicles and they were mostly considered scrap metal. I vividly remember an entire row of Studebakers....old to the newer torpedo nosed ones. My buddies and I would get an old car to run and then just drive the piss out of it in the yard...we were years from having a drivers license. One car in particular that I fondly recall was a COMPLETE and RUNNING 39 Cadillac LaSalle. Perfect interior...we destroyed it by playing bumper cars.

I know what you are thinking...boy I am going to pay someday for destroying all those treasures! Dont I know it!!!

The saddest part of the story is a couple years after buying the new yard the price of scrap went up like crazy. We crushed and scrapped all the old cars and hauled them to Alter and Company in Davenport. Truck load after truck load. I have imagined for years since what I would have had today if I had known what value that stuff was to have in the future. I remember folks bringing and driving their Model A's and T's to the yard...and my Dad giving them 10-15 bucks for them. Amazing.

It was a wonderful childhood and made me the TOTAL car nut I am today. I had two shepherds..junk yard dogs...I named them Cutlass and Tempest! I wish I could turn back the clock....those old cars have occupied my thoughts for the last 40 years.

This has been a great thread. Thanks to all for your contributions.

[Terry, NJ]

Each of us has their own private hell! We never know what something is worth until it's gone! I have my own coulda, shoulda, wouldas!
Terry

Originally Posted by Curt Campbell

I grew up in the auto salvage and auto body shop business. My Dad owned a large salvage yard (30 acres) and a large body shop in southeast Iowa. ALL my spare time was spent there from the time I could walk.

Dad's original yard was only about 10 acres. In the late 50's, he bought an old time salvage yard (30 acres) that the owner had gotten older and hadnt paid much attention to for several years. So, Dad moved his good vehicles to the new yard and sold the small one.

The new yard was FULL of 100's of old treasures that we would kill to own today, a lot of them complete and in running condition. I can remember the rows and rows of Model T's, A's, and everything thing else you could imagine. Back then, as most of you know, there was not much value in those vehicles and they were mostly considered scrap metal. I vividly remember an entire row of Studebakers....old to the newer torpedo nosed ones. My buddies and I would get an old car to run and then just drive the piss out of it in the yard...we were years from having a drivers license. One car in particular that I fondly recall was a COMPLETE and RUNNING 39 Cadillac LaSalle. Perfect interior...we destroyed it by playing bumper cars.

I know what you are thinking...boy I am going to pay someday for destroying all those treasures! Dont I know it!!!

The saddest part of the story is a couple years after buying the new yard the price of scrap went up like crazy. We crushed and scrapped all the old cars and hauled them to Alter and Company in Davenport. Truck load after truck load. I have imagined for years since what I would have had today if I had known what value that stuff was to have in the future. I remember folks bringing and driving their Model A's and T's to the yard...and my Dad giving them 10-15 bucks for them. Amazing.

It was a wonderful childhood and made me the TOTAL car nut I am today. I had two shepherds..junk yard dogs...I named them Cutlass and Tempest! I wish I could turn back the clock....those old cars have occupied my thoughts for the last 40 years.

This has been a great thread. Thanks to all for your contributions.

[Steve Plucker]

Originally Posted by BILL WILLIAMSON

While working at a wrecking yard in the '50's, I learned SO many tricks & ways of doing things that help me to this day and that I probably would NOT have learned elsewhere.
Would others share your "TRICKS" you learned while "GAINFULLY EMPLOYED" at or just "SCROUNGING" in those "HEAVENLY" PARTS PLACES? Bill W.

So Bill...

Just what are some of YOUR tricks that you have learned in the past?

Pluck