"Recycling centers"---WTF!

I went out to local junkyard--opps--Recycling center today--had a couple things I was looking for,nothing too big,just little stuff.One thing was a brake proportion valve and bracket for a project I'm doing--I could fab up the bracket,but I thought as long as I'm lookin,maybe I'll grab one off the junkers.$2.00 bucks to get in--no problem--look at mostly 80's- 90's-rice cars--but found what I needed on an old S-10 p/u--take the bracket to the idiot lady at the counter and she says--$15.00!!--FOR A BRACKET. I say thank you,no--and go back lookin for other crap. But it pissed me off--thinking"how much are they gonna stab me on something else". So I left. But it was all worth it in the end---on the far side of the parking lot/yard was a pile of parts--maybe 20 feet high---that was due for crushing. As I walk by it--I spot the BRACKET I was looking for! So I got it for free--anybody run across this crap beside me?

Oh yea--called a friend at a Chevy dealer--he checked and said bracket was available--for $12.00 NEW!---Fuck those "recycling"bastards!

 

I went to a local "junk yard" the other day to get a plain old 15" GM steel wheel . Go up to the counter and ask if they have any, they say yes do you want the tire too? I say how much? They say $45.00 for the wheel with a tire that will hold air. I say how much for just the wheel. They say $35.00. I turn around and walk out.

 

My local U-Pull-It has a price sheet they'll give you before you hit the yard but you have to ask for it. I know up front how much most major items will be.

 

the pick a parts in mesa have a list on the wall doesnt mater what it came from. like window regulaters $15 power $25

 

I have found if you bring in a 6 pack of beer you will get most anything cheap or free!

 

Considering the price of land and insurance, plus the grief and regulations they have to put up with in that industry, we are lucky to have much of anything useful anymore.

Just a though that comes to mind. Happy wrenching,

 

Good plan,unfortunatly here in British Columbia that will cost $15!!!

 

At least it'll be Unibroue or something good

 

so like 5 bucks real money?

 

There is a great boneyard (notice I avoided the whole recycling center/junkyard debate with that one) not too far from here. All the cars are up on stands, on either paved or gravel surfaces (no mud), you pay your two bucks, go find what you want, and get it yourself. They have everything priced up front. An alternator is an alternator- regardless if it came from a pinto or a Mercedes, so you know up front how much you're going to pay. It's where I stumbled upon the remains of my T-Bird. That was a fun day.

Take a peek:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&sp=Point.r2726v82gc2w_Untitled%20item___&encType=1

Click on the little city icon on the left to see the satellite view.

 

No...in "real" American money it would be $14.09!
We're almost equal now!!!
It's to the point where the biggest issue for buying State side is shipping.

 

Maybe they have to charge $15 for parts like this to cover the parts that are being stolen from the recycle pile on the other side of the yard...

 

Like the rest of life, it's "who you know". I'm in really good with the yards around here and I get stuff reallllly cheap. Of course, the yard I can get the best deals at tends to crush a lot of the older stuff, but still there's always fresh stuff from at least the 70's and up.

 

SOUNDS LIKE YOU WERE AT "PULL YOUR PART" IN SANTA PAULA

ITS LIKE THAT EVERY TIME NOW, I DUNNO WHY

 

There used to be a place like that in Enid, OK. Bill Whites Auto Salvage. They were great, and sold part reasonable. I havent been there in a few years (changed jobs so dont go that way anymore) but I hear he sold and crushed it all. If its true, I cry a little inside when I think of all the parts that I still needed to buy from him!

 

I found a 34 five window at a junkyard the other day...they wanted 1500 bucks for it!!!!....that's crazy money.....for 1500, I could get a three window.

 

Now thats funny !!!

 

maybe you should try another yard !

 

Nope. Have you seen exchange lately? $1.00 US is around $1.04 Canadian.

 

That yard was okay when it was Pick Your Part, although it had a slow turnover. I wonder what happened to all the old cars in the yards that used to be out there in Santa Paula. I go to Pick Your Part in lovely Sun Valley, and try to buy most stuff on half-price weekends. One's coming up in 2 weeks.

Thanks,
Kurt

 

Boy, you hit it on the head--I used to live at all those yards on Mission Rock Rd--now it's just garbage--but close to home.

 

Went to a yard down the street from the house, they wanted $40 for a donut spare. Went to the pic-ur-part a couple miles from home all wheels(with tires or not) are $5. MOst small parts, bracketry, pulleys etc. aren't listed on their outside posted "MENU" but I've never paid more than $5-10 for a handful or hubcap full of pulleys, brackets, fasteners etc. They did charge me a dollar for a complete air cleaner assembly including the formed plastic intake hose, and another 50 cents for a stainless air cleaner spacer. The wheels we used on the 32 3W were $5 each, 3 had tires and one had a hubcap, plus I got all the lugnuts I could carry. Wheels are something like 88-94 Ford Crown Vic Police Cars. They use a large , say 3/4 wheel size hubcap with a Ford oval in the middle. The darned hubcaps were $42.50 each from Ford but damn they look good and everybody asks where we got them!

Here in the Houston, Conroe area prices for odds and ends are pretty good. We got the leather trimmed seats and seatbelts from a 92 Honda for the coupe for $75 seats and $25 belts. Other odds and ends for pennies or free!!

 

I've got one wrecking yard that I got to anymore, because I used to race with the guy, I can go look and see if he has what I need FREE, I'm about fed up with this 2 or 3 dollar bullshit, if I go to a yard and pay, I'm walkin out with that much in bolts if thats what it takes to get my money's worth! Anyhow, the one I frequent is really cheap, picked up a Model A spring for 10 bucks, dizzy with brand new parts and bushings for 10 bucks, and he's got alot of old stuff I rob knobs and such from he usually lets me have.

 

At least one of the yards around here stopped letting you in the yard at all, citing insurance regulations. They now want you to give them the part name, year, make & model and pay for the part up front. They then go out and take off the part and hand it to you you at the counter - it's yours whether it's right or wrong!

$2.00 to get in and pull a part that I know is right, sounds pretty good to me.

 

At our pick a part there's a premium area where they put the "premium" stuff, I don't know who decides what goes in that area but that's where most of the older cars end up at. but the pay counter is right between both areas so I've heard that if you just walk around to the regular paycounter they charge regular prices, that's what I heard anyway.

 

Ask how much related parts cost. You may have found that for $25, that bracket could have been hanging off a late model alternator or power steering pump Onsie twosie stuff tends to kill ya at those places.

But the counterman can make or break ya. U-pull it that I go to, if you're cool and friendly when you sign in, the dude doesn't let you say what you have. "Oh that's a such and such from such and such!" You just smile and nod cause he's telling the cashier what to ring up and knows how to exploit loopholes in their price system. I imagine when dicks sign in, stuff gets expensive! lol Hope that dude never quits.

 

That why i just toss small shit over the fence and come back after hours to pick it upif the prices are bullshit if they are fair i'll pay but fuckem if they want to try to midas a turd into gold

 

I went to Memory Lane when it was in Sun Valley. I needed the rear window end caps for a 65' Chevy Biscayne. In 65', they were metal. In 66', they switched to plastic. They aren't made in repo. So I rummage through the yard and find a 65' Chevy Biscayne. Pull the caps off and go to the office. Understand, it was the last piece of my project, it isn't made in repo and the only yard that had another chevy biscayne was in Washington. I'd pay anything..........
Get upto the counter, show the counter guy the caps, he said, "See ya!" Tell him that I got them off of one of their cars, how much???? He said, "See ya!!!"
Guess not everyones a crook.

 

Is Memory Lane still around? I remember when Ecology started sending all the good cars to them. Before they started doing that you could find decent stuff at Ecology.

 

nice, is that parts galore? i need to go up there one of these days...