Junk Yard Trips

[bilbo]

There was a program several years ago called “junkyard wars”. 2 teams are gave their own stocked yards and a timed project to build.
I always wanted to do something similar, “build” a car/truck from what I could find. I see photos of some of your guys ‘yards and I wish my local yard was that nice, clean & organized. At least mine has vehicles in manufacturers sections (ford section, gm section, ect) but its weedy, muddy when its wet and there’s always the worry of snakes or wasps. (nothing like popping a hood to find a snake looking back at you) Wd-40 does work on getting flying wasps to land. I hate when I find what appears to be a driveable rig just thrown away. I could spend all day easy scavenging. Wheels are hard to come by though, I think they take those off right away & cash in the alloy ones.

I loved that show! No drama, just building. It was on PBS when I was growing up. I believe the former governor of ND was on the show for a couple episodes.

 

[bilbo]

I absolutly love junkyards.

Theres a guy about 10 min from me that has a MASSIVE collection in his woods....unfourtantly its not an official yard and the guys a grumpy old prick...but i would give a left nut and right arm to go browseing through there. He has had it since the mid 70's.

There was a guy near my old house in ND with the same. He was grumpy too, but once he warmed up to you he was ok. I bought quite a few ranger bits from him, and would just stop by from time to time to BS. Besides the junk cars he had some neat ones that he kept and drove, including a 1931 Packard.

 

[oldgeek]

I remember an article in something, about 40 years ago, of a high school auto class that put together a 59 Cadillac entirely from parts from the junkyard. Looked good.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

One thing that baffles me about junkyards is how they bust up the car moving it around. They stick the forks right through the glass or grab it from bottom and tweaks driveshafts.
You would think glass and driveshafts would be commonly wanted parts and good bread and butter. These idiots bust up the good stuff to stack stuff only randomly useful.

U-Pull-It in Omaha advertises on tv that they will pull parts for you. I offered to prepay for a 98+ Supercab 4wd rear driveshaft if they would pull it before they moved it with a payloader. My inlaws live pretty close, it would be nothing to have them swing over and grab it. For as dirt common as those trucks are it shouldn't take long to get one in. No, they can't do anything like that.

So it took me like 3 mo of looking to find a truck that was junked because the trans was bad and it was hauled in with the trans and driveline in the bed in a different yard.

They love to crunch doors too.

When I was in college there was a neat yard on the way to school. It was the old school JY and was really cool. Can not find the dang thing on google maps anywhere, not sure if I am on the wrong page or if it closed and is all gone now. There was also a place that had a bunch of returns from like ebay and JC Whittney. I remember them having a bunch of first gen grilles that were new/perfect. I don't see them in the little town, there is a probable building which looks long vacant. I remember it was about the only thing in Emerald Nebraska.

 

[RumPunch]

U-Pull-It in Omaha advertises on tv that they will pull parts for you. I offered to prepay for a 98+ Supercab 4wd rear driveshaft if they would pull it before they moved it with a payloader. My inlaws live pretty close, it would be nothing to have them swing over and grab it. For as dirt common as those trucks are it shouldn't take long to get one in. No, they can't do anything like that.

So it took me like 3 mo of looking to find a truck that was junked because the trans was bad and it was hauled in with the trans and driveline in the bed in a different yard.

They love to crunch doors too.

When I was in college there was a neat yard on the way to school. It was the old school JY and was really cool. Can not find the dang thing on google maps anywhere, not sure if I am on the wrong page or if it closed and is all gone now. There was also a place that had a bunch of returns from like ebay and JC Whittney. I remember them having a bunch of first gen grilles that were new/perfect. I don't see them in the little town, there is a probable building which looks long vacant. I remember it was about the only thing in Emerald Nebraska.

If you download Google Earth pro you can go back to the historical images and find stuff that is now gone. May be worth a shot. If you know your in the right area just toggle the years back it goes all the way back to the 80's usually. Pretty neat. Obviously image quality diminishes with each but I would think you could tell a junkyard.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

U-Pull-It in Omaha advertises on tv that they will pull parts for you. I offered to prepay for a 98+ Supercab 4wd rear driveshaft if they would pull it before they moved it with a payloader. My inlaws live pretty close, it would be nothing to have them swing over and grab it. For as dirt common as those trucks are it shouldn't take long to get one in. No, they can't do anything like that.

So it took me like 3 mo of looking to find a truck that was junked because the trans was bad and it was hauled in with the trans and driveline in the bed in a different yard.

They love to crunch doors too.

When I was in college there was a neat yard on the way to school. It was the old school JY and was really cool. Can not find the dang thing on google maps anywhere, not sure if I am on the wrong page or if it closed and is all gone now. There was also a place that had a bunch of returns from like ebay and JC Whittney. I remember them having a bunch of first gen grilles that were new/perfect. I don't see them in the little town, there is a probable building which looks long vacant. I remember it was about the only thing in Emerald Nebraska.

Exactly, I don't get it. They poop in their own water supply, and still manage to make gold out of it. How do they stay in business destroying their own inventory?

 

[Eddo Rogue]

There was a program several years ago called “junkyard wars”. 2 teams are gave their own stocked yards and a timed project to build.
I always wanted to do something similar, “build” a car/truck from what I could find. I see photos of some of your guys ‘yards and I wish my local yard was that nice, clean & organized. At least mine has vehicles in manufacturers sections (ford section, gm section, ect) but its weedy, muddy when its wet and there’s always the worry of snakes or wasps. (nothing like popping a hood to find a snake looking back at you) Wd-40 does work on getting flying wasps to land. I hate when I find what appears to be a driveable rig just thrown away. I could spend all day easy scavenging. Wheels are hard to come by though, I think they take those off right away & cash in the alloy ones.

There is a show now called "Junkyard Empire" that is pretty good. Its mostly based on the son taking over the junkyard business from dad. Son kind of nerdy and uptight, dad is cool and you can tell partied back in his day. This is what got my attention of how they bust up so many good parts stacking cars. Also the son has a side shop where he fixes and flips certain vehicle. I seen some hack jobs I would never buy. They straightened a frame on a jeep, which was still so tweaked that they couldn't fit the hard top on it. Their solution was to put a soft top on it. Then they stuffed a hemi and crap ton of aftermarket suspension and junk on it and sold it for big bucks. One scene they couldn't fit the shocks, so they sliced up the bracket the clear the reservoir....yes, they were mounting them upside down.

 

[RumPunch]

I have seen a few episodes. But when you have people coming and getting used tie rod ends and spark plug wires(I've seen both in person) who needs to sell driveshafts. There's seldom places specializing in 80-90s stuff .

 

[Eddo Rogue]

I have seen a few episodes. But when you have people coming and getting used tie rod ends and spark plug wires(I've seen both in person) who needs to sell driveshafts. There's seldom places specializing in 80-90s stuff .

Annnnd that is the rub as shakespeare would say. They spend hours of time, calories of labor for a junk part. They could have used that time and labor to make more than enough money to buy new ones, with change in the pocket. Meanwhile useful stuff you cant buy at autozone gets destroyed. double idiots.

 

[RumPunch]

RumPunch, where on 58 is that yard in Suffolk? There were some at the Chesapeake–Suffolk line on US 13–58–460 (West Military Highway), but LKQ bought them all and closed them to the public. One of those yards had specialized in Ford parts, and it got me out of a few jams with past Fords I owned. Not any more.

The salvage yard at Johnson's Mustang & Truck Parts in Chesapeake has a few Rangers, but most of them are 1990s models in really bad shape or rusty. Barely worth looking at.

Here is the yard I went to, with as many that are in this area, I will definitely make a day trip to this are once the weather cools off and all the grass dies.

 

[RumPunch]

There were 5 yards along that 4-5 mile stretch!

 

[ekrampitzjr]

There were 5 yards along that 4-5 mile stretch!

View attachment 82880

Thanks for pinning down the location. I know exactly where that yard is. As mentioned, the LKQ yards up the road on the photo used to be several different independent yards, but are closed to the public.

 

[Ranger850]

Yes. I love junkyard therapy. Sometimes I go just to look at the cars with nothing to buy.

 

[superj]

thats a great day, just walking the junkyard and looking at stuff.

when my youngest son was really little, they would let him come with us "on the side", since he wasn't actually old enough to come in, and he would check the ashtrays and those little change holders. he would come home with around 20 bucks every time he went. i kept saying to myself i need to actually check those little areas for money too but i always forget because i am looking at some hard to find car or rare optioned thing.

the city trucks get towed in their with the lp system still on the engines. i keep thinking that would be something really cool to have but haven't actually pulled anything from one yet

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Yes. I love junkyard therapy. Sometimes I go just to look at the cars with nothing to buy.

You must not have enough junk at home. It just gives me anxiety. I just look at they way they bust up those cars during the junk yarding process, and see all the waste. I could run it so much more effieciently, and make a killing preserving things they destroy, like driveshafts, glass and doors/hatches.

When I move the eff out of Los Angeles aka lost angels aka hell hole full of devils, I wanna buy some land and open a junkyard. Maybe a motorcycle salvage yard too. Not for profit, but to repurpose/ rescue good metal.

I cant believe we use/scrap/waste metal like its nothing. creating metal from earth elements is not easy, let alone forming it into the hardness and shapes we use today.