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Remember old time wrecking yards?

isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
In another thread here, a poster has talked about old time wrecking yards.

This reminded me of a different time...

Back in the mid-late sixties when I first started driving, if it weren't for those "junkyards" as we called them, I would have been walking and not driving!

I remember walking in..." Do you have a radiator for a '55 Chevy?"

" Yep...got a couple that look pretty good...did ya bring any tools?"

Then the owner would point out a couple of Chevys in his huge lot that he thought might still have decent radiators (or whatever) in them.

He would then caution us to stay out of the area where the dog was tied up (generally a 100 lb. German Shepard) and warn us not to throw any stuff over the fence to come get after hours, etc.

An hour later, we would show him the radiator and any other trinkets we might have found.

" Well....how does 10.00 sound"? " I'll throw in that tailight lens too"

=================================================
Now, it's 30 plus years later....sigh.

That old junkyard is long gone...real estate values etc.

Today we have Auto Dismantler Yards!

Everything is neat, clean and expensive! No longer can we wander around, pulling our own parts. Heaven Forbid, we might get hurt and sue them!

Now, they can't dump oil and anti freeze into the ground (a good thing, I guess..) everything must be recycled!

It was amazing what 10 or 20 dollars would buy!
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Comments

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    I always wanted to open a yard where I could weigh people when they came in and when they left, and charge by the pound.....all you can carry!
  • dranoeldranoel Member Posts: 79
    I remember riding my bike to the nearest junk yard, as we called them at that time, in the late 40's. One time I remember buying a horn button and the hood ornament from a 1936 Cadillac for my collection.I think the owner charged me a total of $.50 A few years later, 2 good used 5.50X17 tires and a front bumper for a 1936 Chevy cost me a total of $10.00. A friend of mine used to get free used motor oil from the same yard for his 1931 Model A Ford. I can remember seeing some neat old classics in the yard--early to mid 30's Lincolns, Packards, Pierce-Arrow,etc.--all eventually went to the crusher, I'm sure.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    When my 1951 Ford Woody (gawd I wish I had it now) broke a rear axle, guess where I had to go?

    An hours worth of FILTHY labor liberated an unbroken axle from a donor car.

    Price - 5.00!

    I wonder how broke 17 year olds can keep their cars running today?
  • speedshiftspeedshift Member Posts: 1,598
    fathers and sons bond these days, now that junkyards are cleaned up or on their way out. My father always took me with him, and in Florida those yards were a real adventure: a big pile of cars in a clearing hacked out of the wilderness, with all kinds of vermin living in them, run by a guy out of a Faulkner short story. It's probably all been paved over for Disneyworld now.
  • egkellyegkelly Member Posts: 17
    This brings back memories. When I was in college, my roomate's father ran a junkyard in Springfield, MA. This covered a whole hillside, and he had all kinds of interesting wrecks. he used to sell a lot of body parts to repair shops-bumpers, hoods, fenders, etc.-why don't shops use salvage parts anymore-are the newe parts cheaper? Anyway, one day I was with my friend-we were delivering a nose to a local repair shop, We were going a bit too fast, and a gust of wind blew the whole thing off the back of the truck! It was smashed beyong use-buy was be POed!
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    In my area there is a group of wrecking yards all owned by the same company.

    They have seperate yards for different makes.

    Japanese, GM, Chrysler, European.

    They are squeaky clean inside and out. They wold never let a customer into the back to remove parts.

    Instead, most everything is inside their huge front showrooms. Everything is cleaned and labled.

    If you need an engine for your 1990 Toyota Pickup, they will probably have three or four to pick from. All sitting in a row, with the number of miles that the wrecked truck had when the engine was pulled, compression readings and prices. Of course, the lower the miles, the higher the prices.

    And, the prices are NOT cheap!!

    These guys are pretty savvy now. If they know a new disc brake rotor is, say, 50.00, they will charge 35 or 40 dollars. they know if they are too close to new pricing people will just buy new.

    egkelley,

    I think body shops still do use used parts, especially when the wreck isn't covered by insurance. It must have been something to see when you guys lost that front clip in the street!!
  • carnut4carnut4 Member Posts: 574
    in Corvallis, Oregon there are still some great wrecking yards that tell you what section to look in, and then let you go get the part yourself. B$R Auto Wrecking, the local yard that's one of the best around here, has everything online and organized, so they know what they have and where it is, but they still let you look. A few years ago I was wanting a lower control arm for my old Dodge Van. Sometimes they have a "shuttle" which in this case was a clapped out old 71 Ford 4door, which the grease guy and I bombed around in till we got to the section where we found the part. The old Ford had a 390 that was still chugging and poured out the smoke-no hood, etc, but it was half the fun just to be driven to the section in that thing while we hooted about the car. He then left me there with my tools. "I'll come back a little later" he said. They aren't too worried about insurance yet. We're still kind of backwater around here. Lots of two lane country roads, etc. Great for a car nut! I wondered how long that Ford would last if a brick was put on the throttle. I loved Shifty's story awhile back about his wrecking yard days! And I remember, back in 1966, how I couldn't give away the 265 out of my 55 Chev [with 46,000 miles on it] after putting in a 327. I finally was allowed to just dump it at one place in San Jose--for 5 dollars! My how times have changed. Good topic Isell.
  • badgerpaulbadgerpaul Member Posts: 219
    I always kind of enjoyed just wandering through the yard. The old guy who ran it tolerated us. Depending on what we were looking for he would kind of size us up to see if we were capable of pulling it ourselves, if so he would just kind of point in the general direction of where to find it. If not he would take you out to it and offer suggestions on how to remove it.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    Once while poking around, I guess I wandered too far. Anyway, Rin Tin Tin (the old guys will know) decided he didn't like me. To escape, I had to climb a pile of cars. The top one I was on teetered as the mutt tried his best to get to me.

    The owner came along with a bull whip and got the dog off my tail. My buddy who was along laughed so hard he literally peed in his pants!

    carnut...yeah, I know Corvallis..you should have paid that guy ten bucks top place the brick on the gas of that Ford. I'm sure he would been happy!
  • netranger4netranger4 Member Posts: 149
    Growing up there in the late 40's-early 50's and going with my Dad to several yards for parts for our family cars was a real experience. One yard must have had the corner on '41 Plymouths. The yard is still there and run by the owner's son who is always p/o'd about something. However, he knows every car in there and what's still left of the carcass. Last visit revealed a '24 Buick, '37 Buick w/sidemounts, several '50 & '51 Lincolns,
    Some '40's and '50's Packards, '25 Jordan Playboy
    Roadster, '35 Nash Eight Sedan and the rest was pretty much later '70's and '80's stuff. When prices for scrap steel were low, they sold parts and when scrap was up in price they cut the cars up and sent them to a huge scrap wholesaler just down the road. The better cars still running fairly well, they sold.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    Once, a buddy of mine took a trip up the coast from So. Calif in his 1954 Chevy.

    Somehow, on the return trip, he managed to run over something that put a small hole in his oil pan. He had budgeted barely enough money for food and gas, so this was a big time disaster!

    He managed to limp into an old time junkyard that had closed for the night.

    After sleeping in the Chevy, he discovered that this junkyard did, indeed, have a donor car among the collection.

    Only one problem...the car was siting on it's brake drums on the ground!

    Since the car was about to be crushed, having already surrendered most of it's usable parts, the kindly owner told him he could have the oil pan for free!

    Good thing my buddy was (and still is) skinny!

    Using an Army entrenching tool he carried in the trunk, he had to DIG a large trench under the donor car so he could crawl under the thing!

    He managed to get the pan off after about four hours of the nastiest, filthiest work you could imagine. Luckilly, his old pan gasket had remained in one piece.

    After this was over, he stripped naked, used an outdoor shower and threw his clothes away before changing.

    Ah...the "hungry years!"
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    Our extra car happens to be a 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee....I know...don't say it!

    Anyway, the radio has been acting up recently. The AM quit working etc.

    Since it's a third car that we don't drive much, I figured the easiest and cheapest way to solve the problem would be to find a good used unit at a wrecking yard and replace it myself.

    I guess this topic spurred these thoughts on!

    I had already checked with the local stereo shop who wanted 300.00 to replace it with an Alpine cassette unit and install an Alpine CD changer I already have.

    Well..Since our other cars already have upgraded CD systems, I figured that a stock cassette unit would make more sense. After all, I still have lots of cassette tapes, motivational stuff, books, etc.

    So, off to the "junkyard" I went...

    As I mentioned earlier, there is a large chain of yards not far from me. I went to "ACME" domestic.

    I walked into an immaculate showroom. There were rows of car seats, tagged with (high) prices.

    On the wall was a sign...MINIMUM LABOR CHARGE
    50.00!! Wow...what if I had needed a tailight lens...?

    The friendly counterman was happy to help. He asked me what I had. A stock AM-FM cassette unit with the equilizer...no big deal.

    Ah...but it WAS a big deal! I was informed that I had the upgraded unit...AND...they had one in stock!!

    And they wanted a measly 200.00 for it!!!

    I honestly think I'm in the wrong business!!

    No..I didn't buy it! I'll either beat on my dash to make my AM work or I'm off to the stereo shop!

    I think I'm getting old....
  • dollcdollc Member Posts: 1
    My husband owns a wrecking yard in Oregon and he has so many classic car/truck parts (chrome, etc.) that he needs to get rid of at a bargain because he is closing the yard up to move permanently here to Texas. He has a 1935 Ford panel truck, a real project car. A 1941 International, '53 Chevy car parts, '53-'56 Ford pick-up parts, etc. Let me know if anyone of you are interested.
  • stealth1969stealth1969 Member Posts: 162
    Here in NC there are some Pick-U-Parts where you can still go and pull your own parts, the prices aren't too bad compared to some others. There is even a yard here one Saturday a month you can get in for $40 and can keep what ever you can carry out. But you have to carry it yourself.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    A slightly used big block Chevy engine!

    Grunt....Nope! Can't quite lift it!
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,652
    ...just south of Culpeper, VA, on Route 29, has over 100 acres of old cars. They opened in 1961 or so, and as they ran out of room, just bought up more farm land.

    Back in 1978, my grandfather took me down there with him to look for parts for a slightly mangled 1953 DeSoto Firedome he had just bought from his brother-in-law. I remember us finding a DeSoto...I didn't know the year (I was only 8), but knew it was a DeSoto by the toothy grille, and it was also the same color as ours...kind of a pale turqouise/sea green. Well, we finally did find a 1953, and I recall us getting a hood, driver's side fender, grille, and bumper for something like $125.00

    I went down there for a nostalgia trip in 1992, and, believe it or not, the '53 was still there! I found the other DeSoto, too, and this time I could identify it...a 1955 Fireflite Coronado...triple-tone turquoise, black roof, white spear.

    Leon's started crushing cars in 1994, when money started getting tight and Nations Bank was threatening to forclose (or so he said). The last time I was down there (1997), a lot of cars had been cleared out, but mainly newer 60's, 70's, and 80's stuff...common cars he had plenty of.

    I remember he said that the '53 DeSoto was still running when they got it in the early 60's. It was just an old car that nobody wanted anymore, so it got junked. In fact, at one point, when they expanded their junkyard, they actually started it up and drove it to its current spot. Actually, they had a lot of cars like that...just old, outdated cars that nobody wanted so they were retired. Of course, I wouldn't put too much money on that '53's old 276 Hemi firing up tomorrow ;-)

    -Andre
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    It wasn't a big deal to crush a beautiful 54 Chevy Bel-Air hardtop with a PERFECT So. Calif body.

    I watched this happen in around 1969. The old Powerglide had given up.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,652
    I almost bought a beautiful (in the eye of the beholder, at least ;-) 1965 Chrysler Newport from our local junkyard. They had just gotten it in...383 2bbl, 2door hardtop, engine sounded beautiful. And it was in much better shape than the '68 Dart I was driving at the time. The only problem was it needed a new tranny.

    I would have bought it, if I hadn't just bought my 1982 Cutlass Supreme a couple months before. I had bought it because it seemed like a good deal, and I wanted to take the Dart off the road for a while and fix it up and repaint it. In retrospect, I would have rather had that Newport than the Cutlass, but it's over and done with now.

    About 3 years later, I DID buy a '79 Newport 318 that needed a new tranny and was pretty good otherwise, but it just wasn't in the same league as that '65!

    -Andre
  • carnut4carnut4 Member Posts: 574
    more recently, at an old junkyard around here [Corvallis, OR] a fairly complete and pretty decent looking 57 Olds super88 4dr hardtop-just sitting there looking forlorn. Sure, it was a 4dr, but still it looked a little too nice to be sitting in a junkyard-at least these days. This junkyard [Benton Auto Wreckers] has since had a fire in their building and closed up. Don't know what happened to the 57 Olds.
  • stealth1969stealth1969 Member Posts: 162
    Exactly. But you can still get some nice odds and ends and be able to carry quite a lot.
  • a_l_hubcapsa_l_hubcaps Member Posts: 518
    There are still some old-time salvage yards where I live in NJ. Pagano's Auto Exchange in Cedar Knolls is small, but good if you own a common car. GI Auto Salvage on RT 46 is a big "you pull it" yard with reasonable prices. I was able to find the long rubber trim part that fits between the rear bumper and the body of my 1986 Pontiac Parisienne Safari and bought it for $10 to replace the deteriorating one on my car. I had to spend a long time removing the bumper from the donor car though...that was the only way to get at the part. I don't think the traditional junkyard will ever be totally stamped out. There are just too many cheap do-it-yourself car owners out there.
    -Andrew L
  • speedshiftspeedshift Member Posts: 1,598
    is that you almost felt like you had entered another dimension. Banged up, parted out cars scattered haphazardly, sunk into the mud or stacked in a big pile. Makes and models you hadn't seen in years.

    The last time I was at a yard it was a pick-your-part with careful rows of mostly late-model cars. It looked so neat and tidy I think they vacuumed it.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    We did a cartoon once in Road & Track about modern wrecking yards. Some guy is standing in front of the fence and another man comes out of the yard, dressed in a long white shop coat and shiny shoes. The wrecking yard employee is saying:

    "Hello. My name is Jason. I'll be your salvage counselor for today"
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    My family is from NE Pennsylvania and there is a U-Pull-It junkyard in West Hazleton which is only a few miles away from my parents' house. For only $2.00 admittance you can go in and browse for whatever you want. This yard is huge and full of vintage 1940s, '50s and '60s vehicles.
  • speedshiftspeedshift Member Posts: 1,598
    Shifty, you and Egan are the two reasons I still take Road & Track. Well, that and a certain reputation for journalistic integrity. But I don't fit the typical reader profile--I don't own a yacht.
  • nasdaqrobnasdaqrob Member Posts: 8
    you worked at R&T shifty. Great mag, great content. Love the charts that break down and compare the test cars. One thorn in my side tho, why'd you guys have to go and change the dimensions of the mag-- it doesn't fit neatly on the shelf in my room any more. Sure there's the added benefit of room for extra content, but i think your editor, Mr. Bryant, should have considered how the new shape would affect the reader's archive system... :)
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Well, come talk to me about that in the "Ask Mr. Shiftright" discussion in the Sportscars Board, okay?

    And thanks for the kind comments!
  • speedshiftspeedshift Member Posts: 1,598
    I wonder if old-time wrecking yards started disappearing after Ladybird Johnson made them build solid fences so the public couldn't see them. Remember that? This small but onerous act may have tipped the balance away from yards run by unlovable eccentrics to the sanitized mainstream business it is today.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Most definitely I think her...was it "Make America Beautiful?" campaign had an effect. It's too bad, some of the effects of her "jihad against junk" were good, but many of these old yards just packed up rather than come up with acres of fencing. So wrecking yards became more highly capitalized ventures, and, of course, then had to pay for themselves. So things went upscale.
  • carlnut50carlnut50 Member Posts: 1
    Back in the 70's when I was dating my darling wife of 27 years,we were sitting in her living room one night very close to each other.After a period of silence,I said to her,"sweetheart,I would rather be here with you than to be in the junkyard".She knew right then how special she was to me.
  • crossedrealitycrossedreality Member Posts: 72
    Upscale junkyards...*shakes head*
  • jgmilbergjgmilberg Member Posts: 872
    Almost all the junk yards near my house are "up scale". they have the cars in perfect rows on blocks or welded together rims, all gravel or blacktop, no more trudging through mud puddles. One of the newer yards is 100% concrete!!!!!!!! The only time you can even enter the yard is when you want to pick out a fender or door, and you MUST be with an employee, no wandering around or scavenging for little tidbits here and there. Only two good old style you want it go get it yourself yards nearby anymore, and they are all full of old cars from the early 80's to early 90's, and if you don't get there when the car gets there it gets stripped out fast and how. It's crazy, 10 years ago I could go into any yard anywhere and get what I wanted "shopping" for little stuff like trim rings for rims, not anymore.
  • speedshiftspeedshift Member Posts: 1,598
    I wonder how much of this change is just a reflection of the current corporate obsession with "unlocking shareholder value"--trying to look good to investors by squeezing every cent out of their operations, at the consumer's expense. Of course investors are also consumers so I wonder who comes out ahead, especially when Joe Lunchbox, small-time investor, is laid off so his company looks good to Wall Street.

    I also wonder how much of this is due to injury lawsuits. A junkyard can be a fairly dangerous place even if you're careful. Everything from trip-and-fall to having a car fall on you.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    Or having a leg removed by a 130 lb German Shepard!

    I think that the liability aspect killed the self-serve junkyards. Sad...some people just look for reasons to sue someone.
  • rea98drea98d Member Posts: 982
    I'm suing the junkyard for emotional damage!
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    The U-Pull-It junkyard I go to has you sign a waiver before allowing you to search for parts. This is one way around those litigous jerks that ruin it for the rest of us. I'd hate having to go someplace to get a desperately needed part and being told they don't have it when I see it sitting right in front of me.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    Even when waivers are signed people can still sue...and win!

    Sadly, there are folks out there who go through life looking for someone to sue so they can quit their job and retire.

    Lots of "fun things" are no more because of this...sad.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,652
    ...in one of our local junkyards. I remember it was on the trunklid of a late 80's H-body (either a LeSabre or Bonneville). I reached into the trunk for something-or-other, and when I pulled back and raised my head up, I whacked right into the edge of the trunk lid.

    Bled like a stuck pig, ended up getting a few stitches out of the deal. Felt plenty stupid! The thought to even try suing them never even crossed my mind, then or today. It disgusts me that some people probably WOULD sue over something like that, and win!
  • tjparkertjparker Member Posts: 25
    I remember this amazing junkyard I visited in about 1972, where my friends and I managed to dismantle a 1929 Ford "crackerbox" cab for my 29 pickup and fit it into my dad's '66 Dodge van. That yard had *nothing* newer than about 1940 in it. Mostly Fords and Chevy's, with a few other makes. Most of the cars and parts were mid 30's vintage, but there were about a half dozen Model A trucks, a couple of Model T's, and a mid 20's Chevy or two. It was somewhere on the eastern outskirts of Lancaster, California, owned by a "Colonel Hayes." I wonder if any of it's still there.
  • avalanche325avalanche325 Member Posts: 116
    I high school (class of 82) my friends and I were always working on late 60s/early 70s muscle cars. There were several junk yards in the area around Myrtle Beach, SC. One we always went to had a "any motor for $100.00 policy". They would hook this tractor with a makeshift boom up to the motor, cut the motor mounts and just rip it out. Oh yeah, you got the tranny with it too.

    We used to find Chrysler station wagons that had 440 four barrels with hardly any milage all the time. Drop them in a Challenger or Cuda, change the oil and go Trans Am / Z28 / and Corvette hunting. (Yeah, good old redneck southern boys)

    My friend and I tried a nostalgic trip to the yards a few years ago. Most wouldn't let us in and the ones that did had nothing of interest at all. Another part of my youth that is slipping away.......
  • spokanespokane Member Posts: 514
    In 1965, two of us went into an unfamiliar wrecking yard and happened to park our car out of sight of the office. When we asked about a spring for a common-model Ford, the guy scowled, told us he didn't have one, and generally made it clear that we weren't welcome. As we walked to our car, we glanced through the fence and were stunned to see 20+ Edsels, more than we had ever seen in one place and most were in pretty good shape. We slipped through the fence and were dazzled to find neat rows of 55 & 56 Chevies, a whole section of just 57 Plymouths, etc. They had the spring we needed, plenty of them. Many of these cars weren't wrecked - just missing some parts. We high-tailed it just in time. And some people wondered if car theft was big business in that area.
  • wilcoxwilcox Member Posts: 582
    have at their inventory.

    Not too awful long ago I went looking for additional horns to put on my car (it only came with one puny horn from factory).

    After alot of searching and sightseeing, I found a recent model LHS. The old boy took them off for me and I paid $5.00 for both of them. "Five dolla" (smile)

    wil
  • seeburg222seeburg222 Member Posts: 24
    Like most of the readers of this board, some of the fondest memories of my teens & twenties were of junkyard adventures.

    We had a somewhat eccentric Chrysler dealer in town here who never auctioned any of his used cars. If he couldn't sell them, they went to his 'junkyard' just outside of town. He was in business from the 40's thru the 70's. In this yard you could find rows of '57 & '58 Desotos, Chyrslers and more Imperials than anywhere else! Although parts were usually missing from most cars the guy would never sell you anything off of them. Only way you could get anything you needed was barter!

    My first car was a 64 Chrysler 300. He had several in the yard. I needed a wheel opening moulding badly - was the only thing that kept my car from being near perfect. After 3 years of trying to find one elsewhere and begging him to sell me one he finally agreed to a 'deal'. I had found a '64 300K in another yard and stripped it of all I could get. I rescued the hard to find little 300K badges but couldn't use on mine. He owned 2 'K's in his old car collection (his old car collection was another neat story!) and was willing give me the moulding for the 'K' badges. That made me VERY happy!

    Papa Berger as he was known amongst the local Mopar heads passed away and his family sold off everything. All those great cars in his yard got towed away to nearby 'modern' yard and were immediately crushed. What a shame. Those cars could have helped so many restorations.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    Around here that horn would have cost within five dollars of the price of a new one!

    Sounds like the good ol' days!
  • a_l_hubcapsa_l_hubcaps Member Posts: 518
    My brother is restoring a 1977 Toyota Celica ST. He recently bought a front bumper, hood, headlamp bucket, and assorted other components from a yard in PA for a grand total of $65. The parts need to be restored, but they are in decent condition. There are still some cheap yards out there.
    -Andrew L
  • wtdwtd Member Posts: 96
    I just went to a local junkyard yesterday that has mostly all older cars. This guy restores old cars and sells them. His place is not even listed in the phonebook. He lets you take off your own parts and doesn't charge much. Has alot of late sixties impalas & caprices, buicks, pontiacs and alot of other things I didn't have time to look at. I was there looking for parts for my 70 Monte Carlo. I saw one thing that wanted to make me cry. He has a 69 caprice 4door that had many options including power bucket seats which were laying out on the ground next to the car. You don't find buckets in these cars very often, not to mention power ones. Car also has the hide away headlight covers which are still intact. Power windows and locks and it was an original big block car. Motor, tranny and rearend are gone. I used to have a car just like it but it didn't have all the options this one has.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,652
    There's a local yard that specializes in Mopars, and I'm going scouting for a pair of 15x7 rims for my '79 New Yorker. I used to have a '79 Newport that, with those wider rims, handled suprisingly well. In fact, I bought it from that junkyard for $250.00! I think the norm for these cars was something like 15x6. I still had a set of 15x7's left over from when I got rid of that Newport. I think I paid something like $15.00 each for 'em. Hope they're not too ridiculous nowadays!

    I'm kinda looking forward to just walking around and exploring, too. This place is pretty cool, and they'll still let ya do that.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    The DOG ! Watch out for the DOG !
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,652
    There was this old guy at the front counter who was kinda nasty, and told me up-front, $35.00 per wheel. They keep all their rims on a rack back there, but he didn't want me touching it, although he did let me walk around some. But he told me to let him get the rims.

    Well, I walked around some, and then when I came back, said I'd take a pair of cop car rims. Well, the guy came back with the conventional 15x7 rims that Chrysler's been using forever. In fact, these had "1962" written on them in pink marker. Main reason I wanted the cop car rims is that they're offset a bit more, which gives the car a wider stance on its tires. Also, the cop wheels are slotted, which makes them a bit lighter (prob'ly not much, though!) And I guess the slots help with cooling the brakes a bit.

    I did finally run into a familiar face there, a guy who's been working there for as long as I've been going there (about 13 years now). He said that he knew the wheels I was talking about, but they were out of em. I guess the cops finally wrecked all the Diplomats and Gran Fury's they're going to wreck, so there goes the parts supply! This guy knows my taste in cars too, so he pointed me in the direction of a '68 Dart GTS they'd just gotten in, and had stashed, that they want to sell whole. Runs good, but has the typical rust issues of the era.

    Well, I guess it wasn't a TOTAL waste...
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342

    Well, it's been thirteen years (!) since this topic was active and it seems that most of the old wrecking yards have vanished. environmental concerns, neighborhood beautification efforts,
    probably liability issues seem to have spelled doom for these places at least in my neck of the woods.

    So, where are these wrecked and junked cars going now?

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