One reason why the HAMB is doubly important nowadays. We can usually find the info on whatever it is we're lashing up and ask for that. The local Pic a Part still allows 'browsing' and I usually buy more than I went in there for so that's advantageous for them. The other yard, long time locals have a pretty nice crew. Slighty higher prices and they escort you into the yard although I've been allowed to wander it if they're busy. Kinda nice to have the parts pulled for you, the only prob is you may not get the specialized nuts, bolts, brackets etc. You'll get em if you ask, but forget and you'll just get the item. Thought I needed flex plate to crankshaft bolts on the engine in my 31. When I bought the engine they pulled the converter & flex plate and I didn't care cuz I was going with a new one. Bless their hearts, I found the stock bolts screwed back into the crank.... Sometimes we have to travel out of town to Needles, Mohave or Yucca to find something the locals don't have, but we make a day out of it. Someone in the gang always needs something....
Comes from to many people being in yards that should'nt be,,getting hurt then not taking responsibility for their own actions. Lotta place round here that have been forever have ended up that way,,though some of the oldtimers are still around and if they know ya they say "you know it is " also aalot of yards have been bought up by lazy ass people who just want the quick buck from the easy pull parts,,
I have to admit, the last time I was in a junkyard was about 1972. After that I've always had a pretty good paying job, and order stuff out of a catalog, or just buy the whole car, and scrap what I don't use. The thing that turned me off about junkyards was they really have a mentality complex. They are almost always grease-balls, so when I come in with clean jeans and a T-shirt, they assume I don't know anything about cars, and start with the juvenile jokes. One guy actually tossed me a condensor out of a distributor and expected me to catch it. Sorry guy, seen that joke in 1962... The guy had to be 40 years old, with the mind of a 12 year old (yep, no teeth, 3 day stubble, one eyebrow). That's my rant.
Trent.....come on down here. We still have 4 or 5 yards with full access...some charge a buck or even 2 bucks for the privilege but it's always worth it. There are always a few old cars/pickups in inventory too. I think the yard owners only buy the mega-cheap salvage so they don't suffer losses when the little stuff gets stolen or busted up. The price of scrapping the car after it's been picked to death prolly covers those costs.
When i bring in a vehicle the first thing i do is take off the gas cap and duct tape the bottom 1/3 of a beer can there. If i dont the gas caps dissappear and rain gets in the tank. We make very little from walk in customers. And i dont have any insurance. If you come by and want a specific item i will try to help you. If your just looking goodby im not running a museum. I have sold Items to HAMB members that have advertised in the wanted section of the HAMB classified,s with very favoriable results. OldWolf
Hey, thanks for the pic! I would love to see it out with a ruler in front of it for reference. Rock, I may look into a trip that way, might not be until fall however. Yeah, many of these counter guys prob don't even change their own oil.They are some of the same folks you see at car shows talking about how they wish they could build a car like that. And with close to 20 years in customer service , I can tell you myself they missed the point. Like C9, I prob would have walked out of either place buying $100 in junk. Carlas van needs a front bumper skin, $50? I have also been toying with doing a rebuild again, there is 8-15K I will prob spend with someone. By not wanting to ask me, the customer the right questions, they lost out on some sales.
this is why I keep the "secret Yard" a secret. I don't want it to go away. I also don't want the 4 cars I have out there "pillaged"- I told the owner of the Yard what I want off of them, and he marks it with a big red X. then there have been cars I that I have asked him if he wanted (rusty 70 vista cruiser body, for example.) when I went out later, my next round of parts were either free or extremely discounted. why? cause the parts he sold off of the stuff I brought him made him money. one hand washes the other. His policy on walking the yard is interesting. You only get to do it by referral-meaning someone who has been going there for Years has to assure him that You aren't a complete douchebag. he also has a guard hobo. transient.homeless fellow...make it however p.c. You want, but it's still a dude who lives out there, in a school bus with a broken axle shaft who will brain You if You are in the yard after sundown. Brilliant! he's a recycler, and has a way to help the homeless. this man is a genius, I tell You!
Ya kinda have to understand their point of view too. They are tired of idiots destroying a 400 dollar part to get at the 5 dollar one they want, and probably real tired of folks just flat out stealing shit. There's a yard here that has a good compromise. A yard man accompanies you while you look for your part. once you find it they mark it, and THEY remove it. You can come back later and pick it up at the counter.
No different than some of the $4000 bicycles I sold. Can't sell it if you don't let the folks test ride. Sure some dildo may tip it over and break something but that is just part of business, especially RETAIL. The first yard ran off a FAMILY employee that knew his shit as well as their main guy, a 20+ year vet of the place. They are just bad business folks and you can see the decline. Locals are talking.
Waivers are worth only the weight of the paper they are printed on; if negligence is involved, you WILL be sued. The yard operators are only too aware of this, and the reality is wrecking yards are "inherently dangerous..." Too many scum-balls from ALL sides have screwed it up for the rest of us...
I'm good friends with four different yard owners. Three of them will let most guys pull their own parts and two of them will let you wander all day if you want to. One if those is well known in the pnw and I'll have to say that a guy might be taking his life in his own hands sometimes the way they stack cars. It's only time until someone gets killed in there by a car falling. One yard is buy it when you see it because it will be crushed soon but they mainly deal in the disposable cars and are usually full of mini vans and front wheel drive stuff. The yard with the best stuff closed to the public going in and pulling parts a couple of years ago due to insurance costs rising and the destruction of good pieces because some clown wanted a three dollar piece out of a hundred dollar column or the such. As far as destroyed parts, how many of us have driven a distance to a yard that has the stuff we are looking for was destroyed because some clown was pulling a switch or light bulbs out of it. I have to agree though that one of the biggest problems we have is that too many people are way too sue happy and the greedy lawyers that promote it.
I have both ends of the scale where I'm living now. One yard will let you wonder to your hearts content and the other will let you wonder the office. The stupid part of this is they're right beside eachother. I don't know about the rest of you guys around but I've hurt myself at the wreckers before. Like cut myself taking somthing out, bashed my knuckles on the part(s) infront of the one I wanted or tripped over something on the ground (old powerglide...long story). The point is I said to myself, "yup it happens" and moved on. I have a real problem with the select, and ever growing, part of out society that has decided that they need money so I'm going to get injurred (on purpose or not) and make someone else pay, or that they did something incredibley stupid and make it someone elses problem. And todays legal and insurrance systems are quite happy to help this along. There, thats my rant for the day
Around here almost all of the yards except the two 'pick-a-part' type places have closed public entry. I remember 10 years ago things were tightening up and a lot that used to be open to the public have since closed their doors. This is within an hour circle of a major metropoliatan area though so most of the early tin is LONG gone at these yards. The "pick-a-part" places here (both owned by the same people) charge $2 a head to get in plus you have to sign a waiver and show them inside your tool box before you go in and on your way out. They also happen to own the large yard next door to one of their locations. That yard is not open to the public. I think anything that they get in that is "old" (around here that means probably pre-'98) goes staright to the 'pick-a-part' yard or anything else that's been pretty much stripped clean from the main yard ends up there for a while for the "vultures" (me) for a few weeks before it's finally crushed. I can't blame them. When I was in Vo-tec lots of they guys I went to school with would steal small parts they could get out when they'd let us back in the yard. I never would- it's wrong and bad salvage yard karma. Why they thought it was ok to rip off a resource that was helping them was beyond me. Also never thought it was worth compromising my ethics for a $5 part. It'll be a sad day when you can't browse the yard to get ideas, take measurements and find that buried treasure you need. Too much a lack of personal accountability and responsibilty and too many people trying to make a quick buck in this litigious world now. Jay
Lux, my buddies yard here in Corpus is pretty much the same way. He has a couple of homeless( call them homeless) guys who have a god sized really old mobile home, he has set up for them. They keep watch over the place at night, and he treats them well. In return they treat him well too. They work during the day pulling parts and what not for customers, and by night they keep eye on the yard. He even give them $$$ and helps if they become sick and need to see the Dr. His yard is one of very few left around here, where you can actually walk through and take your time. My kids love it. The yard next to him is STUPID. They have the NO ACCESS BS goin on. They have lost a TON of business, while Kenny maintains a Steady flow of people. I do the same as you, I am always bringing him things, weather it be cookies the kids and I made, or cars I am done stripping what I need off them, parts I have accumulated I no longer need etc. I send as many people his way as I can. He has a Model A too, and a ton of other cool cars and trucks that are his personal vehicles. It is the same thing I scratch his back, he scratches my back. Best advice I can get is, hang out at a few yards, get to know the people who run them, treat them right, make conversation, ask them, If there is something they have been looking for or have a priority customer looking for, and maybe you ca help out.
Here's the deal and its the cold hard truth. Junkyards are closing every day. The EPA wants them GONE. Every yard in the country should be doing its damndest to hustle up new/more busines! Not turning folks away.
theodore panik must have an associate up there or finished in san diego ran a lot of buisnesses out, hit our junk yards too
also most junk yard buisness is not from walk ins its from body shops and dealerships that need factory parts. the chinese parts new are cheeper. Walk ins just give you a bunch of problems 90% of the time, and people get sick of all the crap and close up, street and sons auto wreaking est 1933
We've got a yard by our shop, with some old model A's and some old trucks...I went down one time to shoot the shit with the owner and ask him about the A's (he'll get 'em out of the building and off the top of the pile someday for me.....) and he's got a homeless fellow(meth head) working for him, got his own camper and everything...When I was down there he had him stripping wire...with a razor blade (he had about 5 50 gallon drums full to do) He just gave him some beer and $10 every now and then and a place to live.. There's some cool shit at the yard, and it's for sale but he won't put a price on anything.
Yeah there's 2 decent ones in Carter Lake, a U-Pull it, and Lakeside. It's like $2 to get in...no big deal.
The U-pull-it yards charge admission to get into the yard weather you brouse or buy and that money pays there insurance coverage for the tourists. The other yards are doing business how they see fit. Whether they let you brouse or not, pull parts or not or just the mood they happen to be in on that particular day. Or, maybe you have a booger hanging from a nostrile hair and that offends them at the moments. Who knows, some yard owners have more mood swings than a pregnant woman.
hey trent that isnt new when i was in high school the only yard that i could ever walk was the one just east of the kmart. the rest were a no go. i just chalked it up to be ing a punk
Tman, this has been a complaint of mine for years. Back in the North East most of the places I frequented have become the same way. There was a place that was a 2.5 hour drive for me that allowed you to go if they had vehicles that matched what you're looking for. About 20 minutes into looking around they'd send a guy out to make sure things were copacetic. It's something they do, I think to avoid having to say, "no" to people and I never minded it. It was actually nice because I'd drop items into his golf cart and have him bring them back for me. There is something that has forced this change. I say this because it's happened all over. Here in UT we have plenty of places to walk through and peruse, however I haven't been here long enough to know what are the "good" places. We'll always see change and unfortunately it's most often change we don't like. It's one of the reasons why I like that many HAMBers will work with other HAMBers on parts costs or payments, etc. It's a place that improves/helps our lives rather than the alternative stressers we can find elsewhere.
The Jalopy Journal
