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While motoring locally yesterday afternoon, I spied the remains a fresh automobile entanglement near a treacherous stop sign. Past the misshapen and twisted pieces of plastic, I saw a chrome plastic grille. I pulled over and checked and to my surprise it was intact and the mounting tabs were not even broken. I can only guess that it was dislodged and had taken flight during the accident without experiencing direct impact. I offered it a ride and it eagerly jumped into my trunk. A little research with the Ford part number stamped on the back and I am now the proud new owner of a 2011 to 2015 Ford Explorer front grille with the optional chrome accents. Looks like a couple of these in similar used condition have sold on eBay recently for $250. Hopefully I can help this poor guy get back on the road soon, riding up front and proud at the head of some eBay buyer’s Ford Explorer.
John-Boy
The Happy Vagabonds -
Smart. We’ve found some weird stuff on the sides of roads when we pick up litter in our county.
I’ve always wondered why guys who own junk yards arent spending their days stripping the wrecks of usable items. The one junkyard I know just lets his cars rust and deteriorate.
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The junk yard I frequented as a young man told you where the car was that had the part and recommended you bring your own tools. Whatever parts you pulled they made up a price once you got back to the office.
The last time I bought a part from a junk yard was a little more sophisticated. I bought a jump seat for a pickup truck I had for $85. I never used it and sold it for $185 locally. I had it on ebay for $250. I considered going back and buying all of them they had, but it was bulky.
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Lot of work to strip a car, and then you have to have plenty of shelf space and an inventory system. Also model-specific parts are easier to locate if they’re left in situ.
This junkyard, Vic Berry’s, managed to cover Leicester in asbestos when it caught fire.
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Yes, I regularly drive past a mint-green and white two-door Plymouth (I keep on meaning to stop and find out what model). It’s been in someone’s driveway for at least five years, with another car at the back of it covered in a tarp. The owner’s recently put it up on axle stands and removed the back wheels. The houses in the area were built in the 1960s, when British cars were about 5 feet wide, so an American car stuck in a 6-foot driveway looks like a beached whale.
Someone in the area did manage to hoard five cars; three in the 20 foot wide front garden and two on the road. As far as I remember it was two Range Rovers and three Reliant Scimitars. He died after hitting a lamp post in a Scimitar. Neighbours said six German shepherd dogs were found (in good health) in his house.
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In the ‘70s, transforming the auto salvage industry with corporate consolidation and sophisticated inventory systems with all the parts removed, cleaned, inventoried and shelved indoors or under cover was all the rage. Now, national chains like Pick-A-Part have gone full circle with leaving the cars mostly untouched and outside again, with buyers doing the part removal. Many of the yards have been prettied up with gravel lots and orderly rows and a relatively quick turnover of the cars.
Many yards are back to the old days, though, with car placement left to the whims of the forklift driver. Crooked rows and muddy lots. At least you don’t usually see the cars stacked any more in yards where the customer pulls the part. It gives me the heebie jeebies to think of what I stupidly crawled into when I was a teenager.
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In the early part of the century I would go to a local auto salvage with my toolbox to pull parts needed for those I was selling at my dealership.
They are all orderly now with computerized inventory and online sales but still have a few acres of what they call the ‘Ewe Pullet’ lot.The counter guys all knew me and gave me great prices on the larger items and when I told them I had a dozen or so small bits in my tool box they just nodded and let me have them.
Those were fun days, I often think about going back just to look through the glove compartments and trucks for interesting resale items but they’ve probably already been gone through.
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