History Drying up all over the country

I have a few around me... all bought up by the same group. Used to be called "Crazy Ray's" now it's LKQ pick your part.
$2 to walk into the yard.
I use it mostly for stuff for the kids cars or the DD's. Tail light and turn signal lenses, plastic trim bits, an occasional body panel...
The problem (one of the problems) with cars today is that they all break in the same spot at the same milage.
Or rust through on the same body panel...
So even if you find the correct car in the yard it probably has the same problem you are trying to correct on your car
Chappy

 

I don’t know of any old car yards left around here except for one on hwy 30 near Silver Creek, NE. Before I went into the service there were at least two in the Grand Island area. When I returned home in 1971 both of them were gone. There are what they call U-Pull It yards in Nebraska. Omaha has at least two, and Kearney has another. The one in Kearney does have some 50-60’s cars in it. You pay them 2-3 dollars to get in. So at least you can use them for rearends, engines,transmission.

 

20-30 years ago there were 6 or 8 good ones in the area that had a treasure trove of 40's thru 70's cars and trucks, even muscle cars to pick over but times have changed. Some of the better ones when the owner died the kids just went in and had everything crushed. Others crushed all of the older stuff when scrap prices went up and mostly just have late model stuff now. There are exceptions. Leon's auto parts off of rt. 29 just southwest of Culpeper Va has a treasure trove of old cars and parts. He only lets people in for an hour or two early in the morning then nobody else gets in for the day.
I called and inquired about Buick nailhead engines recently and he said "Sure, what year ya lookin' for, I got a few Rivieras up in the woods". Not sure how much longer this one will be around but this winter I plan to go haul out everything I might want or need before it meets the same fate as the rest.

 

We do have Wildcat Auto Wrecking here in Oregon that is a Mopar-only yard. https://www.wildcatmopars.com/gallery#! The only aspect of their business that doesn't align with traditional older-car yards is their prices.

- EM

 

My uncle ran a wrecker service in conjunction with his Chrysler Plymouth delership all his life and my first cousin continued that business. They had old cars lined up for acres and acres on some farm land. When the price of scrap metal got really high around 2012 or so, my cousin scrapped them all. He told me he scrapped $300k worth!

There were a lot of Mopars there but all the Hemis had been salvaged by a local speed shop before the prices went through the roof. I sure would have liked to have had a chance to pick over the bones before they got crushed.

 

I have my very own private stash of chevy trucks. Ive been selling and parting the 73 and newer trucks. just this week I let a customer remove some aluminum trim & door parts from a 75 truck. If he removes it and damages it he still buys it. I set in the shade drinking a beverage and watched him. I did have to help him remove a electric window motor and regulator. Ive had thieves sour me on letting anyone roam unsupervised in my hoard. If you expect to get thru my gate you better know what your looking for. and I will tell you if I have it and how much cash buys it today. other wise you will look elsewhere. There is a place near Quitman Ark. If I won the lottery I would buy. Its a myrad of mine tunnels that they carved in the solid limestone. big enuf to drive huge pit trucks inside. That would make excellent place to hoard vehicles ect. no one could see them. out of the weather. dry and a constant 60 degrees year round. You could secure the entrances. even build a house & shop inside. folks spend all day driving 4 wheelers around inside those tunnels. Ive heard there is a similar place full of vehicles in Missouri near where I 67 connects with I 55 ?

 

Desert Sky Wrecking In Wendell Idaho (PH 208-536-6606) With 10,000 Cars.

 

Bob Owens still has a 100 acres of old cars and paets in Wellington, Texas, I have bought a bunch of parts from him when I was building the Ranch Wagon. HRP

 

Walking through an auto wrecking yard is a memory that less and less people will have, fun while it lasted. Bob

 

Times change Old car guys like me are getting old. The pretty police sick the authorities on you. My corner both state hwys are now designated as Senic Roads. and everyone who works for the various government agencys thinks they have a right to Robb you. The implement permit rules,fees and taxes to ensure that you pay your fair share. When it becomes a chore and is no longer any fun The old farts say fuck it. and sell out or crush everything. or they die and their heirs do the same and you cant blame them. I hoping my Grandsons have the old car / hoarder genes and I live long enuf to see them take over. The two in my avatar are my shadow and that's fine with me.

 

" How about you guys is there any yards left in your area that you can do your parts shopping? HRP "....
Wish there were...Living in far west Chicago Suburbs Yards are almost all late model stuff....Im back into doing a project and parts are best found on internet or word of mouth..friends..I was 20 ..early 80s when you could go into Bone yards & find a few cars from the 50s & 60s alot of 70s stuff ...not anymore..I think the Yards moved on as the people running them did... Selling the land ..selling out Etc.

 

There was a yard out near Canby called Whiskey Hill or something like that.
Have you gone to that one Greg?

 

We had a yard here called Moore's and seeing the other post about a yard with that names spurred this thread.

I was looking for a seat to use in my Model A pickup back in the early 70's and found a Datsun pickup with a nice seat, I pulled it out of the truck, removed the material and cut 12" out of the middle, then slipped small pieces of tubing in the rails and welded it back together.

At that time they didn't have a wire service and the sold parts local, there was no crusher and they had tons of old parts.

I bought the seat for 15 bucks, that doesn't happen today. HRP

 

Just north of Los Angeles we had Memory Lane. They only had 70's on down vehicles. It was nice not having to go thru modern cars and not see anything as Squirrel mentioned earlier. But this is California so bye bye it went.

 

Had a few around 20 years ago
Now they are all pick a parts
And new model stuff
Heck an 80’s anything is old now

I’m looking for a late 70’s t bird or Lincoln to do a disc swap on my merc and have turned up bupkiss this whole summer.

Many a Saturday in my teens and early 20’s spent roaming the yards looking for junk it was a lot of fun

 

If your in the Portland Or. area over in Vancouver Wa. is a place called American Classic auto salvage.They keep cars up to 1975.They allow walking in the yard.Cars are in order by make.They are in a line by year.They ship too.Last time I was in there a couple years back they had a school bus with the side cut out,and it was used to store engines.They had a number of flatties at that time.

 

See post #11.
For many years, back when I hit the NW swap meet trail regularly you could expect to see Todd who now runs the place and his dad Connie pushing a parts cart already half full and I was diligent about getting in to swap meets early.

 

Sounds familiar Doug. I think I did about 15 years ago when looking for Studebaker stuff. There was/is also another (very small) yard just past the old McMinnville dragstrip. The last time I was in that one was 20 years ago. It's still there but they may have newer cars now

- EM

 

The few that I can think of are so picked over or over grown with weeds that I would not even waste the time. Larry

 

There's only one yard left in my area, used to be 4-5.The owner is 3rd generation, and he's got to be in his 60's bu now. Only rarely something old. He used to let anybody walk the yard, now you have to be known to him. Even most the late model stuff he has is worn out. Not much value in going there.

Devin

 

There is one yard near me that charges $5 per person just to get in, however is not access to the whole yard, only a couple acres of vehicles for that specific area. The main yard you cannot get into & that’s where anything good is located. Thus, I won’t go there, I have an issue with yards charging you to enter. I don’t think there’s a store in the mall charges everyone to enter their stores.....


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Remember Cars and Parts Magazine? They used to have a salvage yard tour in every issue. I think almost all the ones they featured in Oregon are gone now. I'm going to have to dig through my stacks and see if any of them are still around.
I think there's a classic yard out around Boring. I cant think of it's name right now though.

 

Pshaw, that ain't no 10k. (No ... I didn't count 'em.)

 

In my neck of the woods there are more private yards, than pick n pulls. But you have to know the owner. And if he’s going to fix it up one day, it’s not for sale. But sometimes you get lucky. There one classic yard not to far from me, but you better bring copious amounts of money.


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I get folks wanting 50 thru 66 chevy truck parts and 55 & 56 chevy parts. And I tell them no not for sale. and will not even let them look. I know I will never fix them up someday. However they want to buy my best parts and nit pick. I don't much like it when someone wants to play with my marbles and they choose the best ones. So I don't sell any parts from the type of vehicles I currently am driving and using or have plans for future use. When it is a private yard most guys are like me. They save the best stuff for themselves. they bought it because they liked it. You gotta pony up a big pile of cash that they like more than the Hoarded item.

 

I talked to a friend last week that has a large yard of pre 75 cars and trucks. He got a call from someone in SC about a 40 Buick coupe he had for sale that didn't have a motor. He went down to his lower yard to look at another Buick parts car that had a motor. He then noticed the 50 Olds next to it. Someone got in while he wasn't there and sawzalled out the grill, one fender, the dash and half of the decklid. He's in the process of buying cameras and a couple of dogs.

 

cameras wont do any good. if you catch them the law will not do anything much to them. I had a real mean jersey bull that did the job. I got rid of him because I was afraid the grandsons would get hurt or killed by him. ive had a mean billy goat in the past. He got me down a few times. However the smell he got all over you was horrible . and he liked to get on top of vehicles and jump around.

 

This is basic economics. If you think about it objectively you know why they are drying up. The classic parts market is in recoil for older stuff coupled with older stuff being basically gone. If it was worth keeping it was probably already kept or used. Otherwise it was scraped. Scrap yards keep cars they can sell stuff off. They can sell stuff off newer cars because that's what most people drive. So finding old tin in just about every bone yard is a thing of the past. You would need a specialized yard and there just isn't enough "stock" to support many of those.

 

Pik n Pull self service are the only ones that let you in around here. I was in one a few years ago. Every once in a while something off beat will come in. This day, tucked way back in the corner was a 1950 Dodge fastback. It still had the hood ornament on it so I decided to pull it. Took it up to the counter and the clerk asks me what it was. I told him it was a hood ornament. He asked what a hood ornament was for. I told him it was an ornament that went on a hood of an older car, like a decoration. Got it for $6.

 

Got a yard(HUGE ONE) on the east side of nowheresville....Marion, SC. Its the old style with crap just piled up 3 and 4 cars high and covers 3 or 4 city blocks. No telling how far back it goes. HUGE! There's bound to be some really good finds in there but.........I've never stopped there! I only see it passing through.
It looks like its been there forever with vines and weeds growing around and through some of the cars. And that's just the ones I can see from the highway. They are behind a fence and cars/trucks are stacked above the top of the fence.
6sally6