There to die. LKQ content.

I stopped by the local LKQ today with my son. While he was pulling the parts he needed, I walked the yard to see if they had anything interesting.

First up was a Thunderbird Super Coupe. Basically stripped to the shell. I forgot to shoot a picture of it.

Then in the back of the lot were these.

I always hate to see them. I wonder how many of them sat for years because the owner was going to restore them one day.

I did score this:

It's the furnace out of a mobile pet washing van. New, $1000+; used, $200-$400; LKQ, $25. They didn't have the foggiest idea what it was and took my offer. Works like a charm.

That 64-66 T-Bird still looks reasonably solid.

What is it??!?!?!?

I like LKQ, Ive dealt with the same guy at my local LKQ as long as Ive been in the auto industsry. They have so mnay cars nationwide, that they have good stuff, and to them its just car part, so you can get most stuff for the less common car pretty reasonable.

Example going rate for a C5 cluster is 300-600 for a used on. Bezel alone is worth like 60-80 and the buttons are another 80. Bought a complete one from LKQ for 125 shipped. To them it was just a gauge cluster for a car

GVX19 wrote: What is it??!?!?!?

It's a propane furnace for a RV. I've been looking for a stupid cheap one for several years for a project.

I think I have some new controls for an RV propane furnace. My father bought them to install and then sold the RV. He asked me to put them on eBay and I forgot all about them. I'll have to see what I have.

Those cars in those photos are in better condition than many cars up here in the rust belt.

If that is a 65 t bird I had one exactly like it.

Those cars has no business being in the junkyard.

I've always figured someone could make a nice living buying these cars and getting them back on the road. That T-Bird should bring a nice price back in running condition, never mind fully restored. A tiny piece of me dies each time I see cars like this, knowing they are probably destined for the crusher.

ncjay wrote: I've always figured someone could make a nice living buying these cars and getting them back on the road. That T-Bird should bring a nice price back in running condition, never mind fully restored. A tiny piece of me dies each time I see cars like this, knowing they are probably destined for the crusher.

if the cars were that easy to save and if there was enough money in it, the junkyards would do it and sell them as runners.

you don't need the thermostat sold by the RV parts dealer to control a Suburban Propane Heater. I hacked a Honeywell digital programmable thermostat to operate the furnace in my motorhome. it is overkill, but I had the thermostat sitting in a drawer after I installed the Nest in the house.

In reply to windsordeluxe:

I snagged the thermostat while I was there. It's nothing but a simple close on fall temperature switch.

novaderrik wrote: </cite if the cars were that easy to save and if there was enough money in it, the junkyards would do it and sell them as runners.

You've no idea how many perfectly good parts we scrap at work just because the space is more valuable NOW than any potential future earnings from maybe selling it later. And believe me it's difficult to stop myself from extracting things from the scrap pile Every so often we purge the stuff we do save because we figure if we had no use for the connectors from X wiring harness or whatever, we probably won't need it ever.

Junkyards are like that, too, with even more distancing from the products. It's all just metal. In the end it's a balance between potential income vs. time spent. Speaking to one local operator, he said that as a general rule, anything over five years old goes straight to the shredder unless it has some interesting value, then it stays for two weeks before being picked apart and then shredded. 80/20% ratio of insta-shred to making it to the yard. Sure, that's a nice MGB... but the previous owner didn't want it for some reason, and who has time to go over that when 30 more cars are coming in today?

Can you even grasp the stuff that must've gotten shredded/scrapped/melted over the years?

I shudder to think.

It's like watching older WW2 movies where they burn and flip and otherwise destroy all that old military iron like MB's and Command Cars.

Or CHiPs, Quincy, Rockford Files, A-Team or Emergency! Where all those 60's, 70's and 80's land yachts are junked

Pushing planes off of carrier decks is the one that always gets me.

I hate to see them and always hope all the good is gotten off of them before the shredder get them. There are 6-8 of them just about every time I'm there. Tempting to find out what they want for them, but I definitely don't need another project.

There is an Opel GT, two MGBs (one of which is a GT) a Triumph TR6, and an e23 BMW 745 Turbo in my local yard. It's painful to see. There's also a GTV6 in another nearby yard that popped up on here earlier. Unfortunately, my garage is already at capacity. :(