Hive recommendations for SoCal Junkyards

I have spent years reading in Car Craft/Hot Rod/JP/4 Wheel and Offroad/Better Carbs and Garages about how you can walk into a southern California junkyard on any given Sunday and its half price all the big blocks, Dana 60s, and t56s you can carry.  As a result I have always wanted to just walk the aisles to check out all the rust free Citations and LeCars while making myself sick over what counts as scrap in a rust free area.  I go to California for work fairly regularly and finally have an opportunity to  get a little free time over a weekend in a couple weeks.  As a result, I want to go junkyarding!  

I know there are a few board members that are current or former California residents so I wanted to see if there are any recommendations.  Im looking for something with a large selection of stuff GRMers would think is cool.  Google tells me there are several yards, but I assume they are not all the same.

Any recommendations?  I will be in the Orange County area but will have the whole day to myself so I don't mind driving a couple hours in any direction.

I can only say that the LKQ in Sun Valley has nothing of interest. I’ve been here a few times, it’s full of 90s econoboxes. Boring ones. 

I used to frequent Sun Valley also.  As noted above, the cool cars are not likely to be in the regular yards anymore.  I know there is (was) a yard next to the normal pick-a-part that was only for classics but I never went in and I don’t even know if it was self serve.

That said I have had loads of fun in those yards just exploring and messing around.  Dropping the drivetrain out of a Corvair without a jack was... interesting.

The time MIGHT be right to find RX8’s in those yards.  The last time I went there with any frequency it was the period when the 2nd gen RX7’s where hitting the yards pretty heavy.  Finding 3 or 4 in the yard was pretty common.a

Looking at a map it looks like LKQ mentioned above is the yard I went to, but it looks like (from the satellite view) the classic yard is gone.  

Lived there for ten years-five longer than we wanted to thank s to the Great Recession!

Depending on where you start, LKQ has two yards close to each other in The O.C. - Anaheim on Beach Blvd, and on Katella (drive south on Beach till you get to Kattella, make Left and one mile up on the right).

Once you're done there, head south on Beach to the PCH and turn right. You'll be heading wets (north) towards Wilmington where there are two more LKQ yards. I found three 944's (85.5 and up) in one day at those locations. 

I've gone to the others, which have large yards worth seeing if you have the time to drive out east for them (45 min to an hour).

I remember when I was there was when LKQ took over the pick-n-pull in Sun Valley.  Depressing.  They used to have a ton of awesome old stuff but they started going the cookie-cutter route since that is their bread and butter.  There are a few good pick-n-pulls up there still from what I understand.  The real utility of Sun Valley is the high concentration of brand-specific yards.  My E30 got all kinds of upgrades from the BMW yard up there.  Same for my F250 and the Ford yard.

I wish I could direct you to a specific one, but I left LA about the time cash for clunkers started.

Unfortunately the junkers know what's hot and they'll take the cool stuff and dismantle them. Then sell the parts online or on eBay. Most of what you'll see are cars that can't pass smog: 80s/90s Euros and 70s-90s domestics with lots of Mitsubishi and Nissan's sprinkled about.

The LQK in Ontario CA or was it Fontana? Always had a few cool cars. Last time I went they had a modern SL63 AMG and a Lancia Delta. 

Sounds like the LKQ yards are as good a place to start as any.  I don't head out for a few days so I have some time to check thier online inventory to see what looks promising.  Thanks everyone!

You are better off staying away from the chains (LKQ) and from the larger metro area.   I've had good luck in the Hesperia area.   But my best JYing has been in the PNW.

There are people that go every morning  to  grab parts ,  plus Pick A Part pulls the gas tanks etc before they are put out ,  and who knows what else ????

So trying to  find rows of "Virgin" un-picked cars is impossible , 

Plus the "shelf life" is only a few weeks before they are pulled and crushed , 

The ones out of the LA basin  do not crush them as often since they do not get enough new cars , so take a drive up Hwy 99 in Bakersfield - Fresno etc .

The Half price sales are not every week , mostly on holiday weekends,

many years ago I went up Hwy 99 and bought all the 1960s-early70s  Mercedes front fenders and front and rear bumpers , since they had no rust you could remove them in about 10 minutes each......sent them back to Gewrmany.....

Have fun

I have had a slight change in focus and will now be looking for a place with a healthy selection of 80s vans.

lots of vans at the Wilmington yard

And don't forget the LKQ yards have their inventories on-line so you can get some prelim recon out of the way from the comfort of your couch.

Try Row 52 to check some of the online inventories.   It doesn't cover every yard, but you might get lucky.

Sparkydog said:

And don't forget the LKQ yards have their inventories on-line so you can get some prelim recon out of the way from the comfort of your couch.

I spent some time tonight doing this.  I looked at all LKQs within 100 miles (I have time for an adventure!).  Pickings are slim all over now that I am looking specifically for 75-91 Ford vans.  The Wilmington store has 4.  If I am feeling froggy I can head to Chula Vista as they have 5.  Everybody else has only has 1 or 2.  Ive seen some of the parts I want in the pictures, but you never know if they will still be there.  Luckily I genuinely enjoy hanging out in junkyards so there is no such thing as a wasted trip.

Cooter said:

Try Row 52 to check some of the online inventories.   It doesn't cover every yard, but you might get lucky.

Thats a pretty cool site.  Ive never seen it before.  Unfortunately it came up dry.  I found a couple other yards with inventory online but they didnt have many if any to choose from.  

californiamilleghia said:

lots of vans at the Wilmington yard

I am definitely hitting that one after looking at their inventory.  plus its only 20 miles from my hotel.

I had a horrible flight out.  I arrived 14 hours late, did what passes for sleep at OHare using my laptop bag for a pillow after we were deboarded at 2am and put back on at 6am.  I wasn't sure I would have a trip to a yard in me, but turns out I did!

I paid the 3 bucks for Wilmington and took a tour.  It was 40% off today.  I was shocked that the yard was paved.  Thats awesome!  Not that you ever have to deal with stomping through mud and snow in southern California.  I assume its an environmental thing, which makes sense considering some of the toxic pools Ive seen in the midwest yards. But anyway...

I was able to score a couple things.  A new plate light holder, a arm rest thats in really good shape (but the wrong color) and a fender emblem.  All the vans I looked at in the PA yard and here had destroyed arm rests on the drivers door.  I will use this one until I stumble across the correct brown.  Im missing both front fender emblem sets, the "Econoline" and "E100". I think these are going to be very hard to find.  Especially the "E100".

Cooter- keep your eyes open for the emblems.  I gotta feeling I am going to need all the eyes I can get looking for them.  

If things go as planned I am going to hit 1 more yard tomorrow before my coworkers start arriving and ruin the fun by acting like grownups 

Great job!

If you're like me, you always have another JY walk in you. I'll keep an eye peeled, but those E100 emblems will be just as difficult as you suspect. 

EDIT~ Looking through eBay, I wonder if your emblems should just say "100", since you already have emblems that say "Econoline"

I think our '81 only had emblems that called out "150", but it's been decades since I sold that van. 

Big car swap meet today, Sunday at Long Beach veterans stadium since you are close by , starts at 6am , pretty much done by 11am , I am in line now to sell.......

californiamilleghia said:

Big car swap meet today, Sunday at Long Beach veterans stadium since you are close by , starts at 6am , pretty much done by 11am , I am in line now to sell.......

I wish I had checked in on this thread earlier!  A swap meet would have been cool.  

Cooter said:

Great job!

 

If you're like me, you always have another JY walk in you. I'll keep an eye peeled, but those E100 emblems will be just as difficult as you suspect. 

 

EDIT~ Looking through eBay, I wonder if your emblems should just say "100", since you already have emblems that say "Econoline"

 

I think our '81 only had emblems that called out "150", but it's been decades since I sold that van. 

Actually,  I am starting to think I only had "Econoline " emblems, no numbers. I believe you are correct and it would only be "100" not "E100". 

I was looking through the pics I took last weekend and my fenders only have the 3 holes that match the Econoline.   No spot for the 100 badge.

Since Im still on Eastern time, I used getting up at 4am to my advantage and arrived at the LKQ in Chula Vista when the opened the gates.  Why drive all the way past San Diego?  Their website showed 5 vans in inventory.   It was a successful trip.

I picked up a second econoline emblem, the only hood rod bushing I have seen still in 1 piece, a set of rubber pedal covers in much better shape than mine, some connectors I need to put the Ford distributor on my CJ5, and a couple 150 logos to experiment with.

I learned Ford has a couple different styles for the fender emblems.  The one with the black line is the older style.  I bought 2 so I could see if I could make a "100" logo and it not appear a hillbilly glued it together with squirrel guts and bailing twine.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't find a spare hubcap.  In fact, the only dog dish style hubcap I saw at either yard was this banged up newer style.

One of them was a 3 on the tree too.  Thats where I got my pedals and connectors.

I got some ideas for the interior! 

If you are in Socal next weekend head out to Pomona swap meet , it's 3 times larger than today's show and starts at 5am