History Drying up all over the country

High scrap prices a few years ago cleaned out a lot of old rigs that had been "out back" at a couple of yards in this area. One still has old stuff but it is more than picked over and his prices are high. I probably gave him 50 cars over the years and he still jacks me over on prices.
I've got one friend who has a yard that has mostly late model stuff but he does get some older rigs. Cars with a lot of nice parts go into the part of his yard that his guys pull the parts, then when the good stuff is gone the car gets moved over to the pull it yourself section and from there it goes to crusher row.

 

Right now Im actively parting out 16 OT 73 and Newer square cab chevy trucks. I advertise stuff on the Facebook market place. And those parts have been selling real good. Lots of folks still driving those here. and many places crushed those trucks when the scrap was high. I have to drag the ones Im parting away from my keepers because if the people see the good stuff in the background in the pictures that I post they want to message or call me and ask about them. and sometimes get upset when I tell them not for sale. It takes a thick skin to deal with the public.

 

Everything is relative. When I started driving in 1966 my '53 Mainline was 13 years old. Seemed "old" at the time, but parts for it were still around in the yards. Now today that would translate to a 2006 Honda Civic, so not surprisingly that's what we find in the few remaining yards.

 

Thought you all might like the picture of the ole mean billy goat We had guarding our hoard. He had a lot of energy. He was always in a bad mood looking for a fight. He would see his image reflected in something and would fight with it. continually peeing on his front legs and beard. stunk up the place.

 

While there's not much available in yards, anymore, you can go online and find guys who have all the parts. Yards have been replaced by fanatics who brought the collections home.

 

Fanatics Hoarders ect whatever you wish to call them? Its better they have it than the scrapper.

 

If you stop and think about it, that's a good thing. Somebody had the foresight to rescue or save parts that otherwise wouldn't be around today. I don't mind paying a little more for a rare or hard to find part, especially if I can do it from my desk chair and not have to drive 100 miles to fight snakes, wasps, and ticks just for a rusty half usable part. Lots of folks tend to specialize in brands or certain cars, so you don't have to look through thousands of parts that won't fit to find those that will. It's just the way things are now, nothing we can do to change it.

 

When I lived in Virginia there was a junkyard called Matthews, I think, near the Portsmouth-Chesapeake airport. Had a bunch of stuff 1940s to '80s. I practically lived there as it was a gold mine of parts for nearly everything. I left in 1996 but had a chance to go back in 2016. My buddy told me when the old man died everything was sold or crushed. What a shame, lotta fond memories, left a little blood there from time to time too.

 

I absolutely think it's a good thing. Hell, I am one of those guys. I saved a lot of early Ford parts and have distributed them to dozens of people over the years.

If it was for those types, rebuilding my Olds/Pontiac rear would be pretty tough. I upgraded from 59 backing plates to 63/64s to have upgraded adjusters. I don't know where I would find them had it not been for a place with stacks of them.

 

It is rather depressing. The only place where I can wander is the pick and pull place. Sometimes I think of some "modern" part that I could use for something I'm doing only to realize that what I consider late model is 30 to 40 years old and not to be found and that I am something of a relic myself.

 

When I was a teen, back in the early sixties, all the local wrecking yards would let us wander around. In fact, they would encourage it. You usually got things cheaper by pulling it yourself, anyway. The only wrecking yard in Covina was forced out by the city in the mid 60's, that left us with a couple in Azusa and they stopped letting you rummage sometime in the 70's. There is a wrecking yard, here in town, that will let go back into the yard but they only have late model stuff.

Thank God for people like Bob Owens who still know the value of "old iron" and don't try to rob you every time they make a sale!

 

Aha. Just thought of two more yards that have some older stuff kicking in the rows that let you go walk back and do your own thing. And free.

 

, my buddy found a 1957 Ford Crown Victoria in the Stockton Pick-N-Pull[/QUOTE]

That would be one of one....

 

Last year they closed Classic Auto wrecking in Hayden, ID.
Owner retired and the neighboring wrecking yard bought everything. They gave like 4 months to sell whatever they could then crushed the rest. I saved 4 but there were tons more. I ran out of time and money. I tried.

 

Paneitz Salvage in Fairbury NE. was the go to place when I first started in the old car game. I bought countless 57-59 Ford rears for my chassis business, so many early Ford front ends I lost count. I used to strip them for the spindles which I sold to Speedway and the axles to a dropper whose name I can't remember. I found an old car full of trim rings which filled the back of my pu, took them to the nats in OKC and sold them for 2 dollars apiece. Hauled countless early cars from there but one that I remember vividly was a 36 Ford sedan delivery which I paid virtually nothing for and made big bucks. One other item I remember was finding a mint 33 Ford hood tucked away inside a car body, another money maker. They were my source for Vega boxes when they became popular and I bought all they had. Sadly a man who was only interested in late model stuff bought the yard and the early stuff went away and now the yard is closed.

 

IN Virgina there is a yard near Culpeper called Leon's Used auto parts. Its 115 acres and most I all pre 72. Lots of stuff is pretty picked over but it has been a great place to find stuff, lots of 40's 50's and 60's cars, all the 30's stuff is gone or rotted into the ground. if you don't go during the week, you have to be there at 8 AM on Sat for him to let you in. He will only have the gates open for about 30 min. He will let you in and lock the gate and come back at noon to see what you found. Been going since I was in high school, haven't been in a few years but its still there. He even has maps of the yard, with numbers on it. if your looking for say a 57 Buick part, you look on the list in the main shop building for Buicks, then find the years and write the number down. The map has numbers on it, fin the number closest to the one for you 57 buick, and it within about 40 feet of that one, all the cars have numbers painted on them.

here is the address ,
Leaons Used Auto Parts
6207 James Monroe Hwy, Leon, VA 22725

and number
540 547 2366

 

Here in Kansas City we had a pick n pull lot that had a good hoard in the back of the property, I went a couple months ago and it was all gone. They said “there’s no money in the old junk, We can sell Honda hoods all day”
We have a place called Lorenz auto salvage, about an hour east of KC, the address shows Corder, Mo but can’t miss it on 20 highway. He primarily has 30’s (trucks)-early 70’s. I bought a 57 Pontiac rear axle, complete from drum to drum for 200. And he pulled it. 660-394-2423.


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Back when we were racing street stocks in Buffalo, we knew where every 64-67 chevelle was located and what parts were good. Now the parts are like gold. In Nebraska we had a couple yards that were huge and had the parts we needed. They are now farmland/housing. In my travels I found a couple in Kansas that are still operating. Just south of Gred Bend is a place that has a few hundred vehicles.

 

There is one in northern MD that I'll go to every now and again, but for the most part, what they have there is too far gone to use, especially in terms of exterior sheet metal.

Even though it sucks to lose the yards as time has gone on, the aftermarket has expanded incredibly in terms of providing quality replacement parts for these old rigs. For certain cars especially, I couldn't imagine buying used parts when I could just jump on the internet and have a perfect brand-new one delivered to my door in 2 days. It's a no-brainer.

 

..............Haven't been to Leon's in decades, but there used to be a sign out front that read, "Leon's, The Walking Man's Friend". I never could figure out if that meant if you were "walking" because your car was broken, you could find the part to fix it here or if you were willing to walk around this huge yard you probably could find what you are looking for!

 

I haven't been to a junk yard in over 10 years. The last time was at Hockter's in Maricopa AZ, went there to grab a windshield for my '64 Dodge. Nowadays I find everything at swap meets, by word of mouth, or via the internet.

 

Yards started going away in the sixties, starting with First Lady Lady Bird Johnson's interstate highway beautification program and it's gone downhill from there. Land is at a high premium, here in south Florida and we only have one sizable pick-n-pull left. They only have one row of HAMB friendly vehicles. I only went once as security procedures are very similar to a TSA gauntlet and firearms are prohibited. If my firearm is not welcome, neither am I and I don't go to those places.

The link is to a story my brother wrote for my website years ago about the way things used to be called
Loose Cannon, a tale of engines, junkyards and dogs

http://www.laroke.com/larryk4674/2001/jr14.htm

 

Couple years ago drove by an old junk yard with a phone number on the fence. Called the number and guy said I could come over. I was looking for some miscellaneous parts for a OT V6. Older guy probably in his 70’s. Place was really run down but you could tell it had changed fro selling parts to recycling. There were parts in piles divided by steel, aluminum and cast iron. Walked around a bit but much of the cars still intact was being overgrown by Kudzu. Flipped open a hood of a very early S10 pickup only to find a copperhead laying on the air cleaner. Decided really didn’t need anything that much. Not many old time yards around anymore, those still around think their stuff is made of gold.

 

Gotta love a stink'in billy goat'.............pisses in his own face!!! What an asshole!
6sally6

 

About the only thing left around here, are the "Pick-A-Part" yards, and you have to PAY a dollar (probably more now) to even get in. Then they check your tool box out before you can go through the "exit" doors. Last time I was in their yard was to retro-fit my DD, OT, Truck, to manual windows and door locks, from the electric ones that only worked when THEY wanted too. Did't cost me much, but it was no-where as fun as going into Ray's Auto Wrecking in South Everett years ago. There are houses/neighborhoods there now. He used to have stacks/mountains of frames from every decade, old engines/transmissions in another pile, and a wood stove in the office that burned continually to keep his cat warm. He always gave you an "odd price", like $2.73 for a 2 barrel carburetor. You did't go in there if you were a minority, had long hair, or less than a masculine voice. Ray was a WW II Vet, and proud of it; always flew the flag, and was still p*ssed about being permanently injured in the war. I miss that place. Go buy your girlfriend an ice-cream cone Ray. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

COOK’S AUTO WILMINGTON

Hello,

We lived in the Westside of Long Beach. The Western side of our original Long Beach house bordered on the Terminal Island Freeway. Beyond that edge of the city, the City of Wilmington and the refineries spread out over the next several miles in all directions. The so called “junkyards” were situated along several streets in the more (or less) undeveloped portions of the city and in the Carson area.

Main Street was the busiest street with most of the “junkyards” or auto wrecking yards in the whole area. There were so many of these auto wrecking yards that any auto part was available in that long area of properties.

One of the most famous, for us, was the Cook’s Auto Wrecking property. We had seen the sponsored dragster at Lions many times and each time, it sounded and performed well against the other late 50s-early 1960 race cars. The one that sticks in our minds was the Cook’s Auto Wrecking yard, because our burned out Willys Coupe was deposited there after our drag racing incident in August of 1960.


Jnaki

Cooks Auto at Lions 1958-60

So, every time we thought we needed some stuff, it was a short drive to Cook’s Auto Wrecking or one of the plentiful yards. But, over the years, they kept disappearing. Although, we kept going back to those places that were still around, for small stuff we could not get anywhere else.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...o-deal-with-rust.1149798/page-3#post-13208005 Model A story to Willys ending up at Cooks Auto Wrecking yard

In the big OC, there used to be a cool wrecking /parts yards in almost every city. The local authorities and the EPA put a finish to those nearest the homes, schools, and apartments. They have turned into RV storage facilities and now serve the community in a different way.

In the 80s, I could not find a rear door to our station wagon, so I had to drive all the way to Carson, near Long Beach to a similar place like Cook’s Auto Wrecking to find a door that no one in three counties (LA, SD, OC) had in stock. But in the long run, they are like dinosaurs and eventually bite the dust.

 

I'd say the biggest thing that stopped being able to walk through yards is lawsuits. That and people pulling parts without asking. You pull a small part and it might kill a sale of the part it's hooked to. If the part is hard to find it will be for the next guy too and spoil a larger sale. If a place is nice enough to let me walk through I always ask if it's OK to pull the part and what he wants for it.

 

Hey, these things were meant to be able to fend off coyotes, wolves, even a cougar if need be. It's got to be a tough old beast to live in that world of predators. Look at the way it's built, it's all business.

 

Like the others, the only thing left around here is the pull your part yards, and they are few and far between.

Scrap metal is big business. It's been about 30 years ago now, but I spent a couple of weeks doing a major repair job on a larger wheel loaded once at a scrap yard down in the docks in Long Beach, it was the yard that every other yard in land hauled their scrap to, and they loaded it onto ships from there headed overseas, where they melt it down and make new cheap crap they sell back to us. I was amazed how there was an unending supply of scrap metal, the end dump trucks just kept rolling in, day after day they would be lined up in the morning, waiting for the place to open, and they'd keep coming in all day long, hauling in all kinds of junk, including old cars, engines, transmissions, axles, everything. There were huge piles of it with trails leading through the piles just large enough to drive a truck or a wheel loader or large forklift with a complete car dangling off the extended forks through. Complete cars would go into a shredder and come out the other end as just a bunch of little 1 or 2 inch pieces, the upholstery would go out another shoot into a big pile of fluff. Once in a while the fluff catches on fire and stinks like hell. And sometimes a gas tank would explode inside the shredder. And the trucks of scrap just keep rolling, day after day after day after day, all day long, early morning to sunset, there's no end in sight. That has been the end of many classic cars.

 

And for lovers of OT old Toyota pickup trucks, they're all getting scooped up and hauled off to Mexico. In my day job I make a lot of driving trips between So Cal and the Phoenix area, and on every trip I will see at least 1 Mexican guy driving an old Toyota loaded up with stuff, and pulling another one also loaded up with stuff. Sometimes there will be up to 6 or 7 of these in a long train, but I will always see at least 1. They drive them from as far away as WA & OR, drive them down to AZ and cross the boarder and another couple of trucks are gone, out of circulation up here. I know this is OT for this forum, but the Toyota truck guys are losing their resource of old trucks & parts too. Some day they'll be going to Mexico to buy the stuff back.