How do y'all dress when going to the JY?

I'm looking at a visit to the yards near me, but  don't want to be total Noob when I show up at the front gate. 

tools ......cart.....gloves.....PE???......sidearm?????

I've been only twice so this is perspective at best. Boots. Jeans. Five gallon bucket with some tools and a pair of gloves in it. Wasp spray. Some ziplock bags and a sharpie. Get crazy. 

Depends what you are up to, if you plan on pulling apart anything messy then coveralls are nice to slip into. The yards I go to up here have wheel barrels and carts to use but that may be different at the yard you are going to. Typically nothing with a flame or makes sparks is allowed (so no battery grinders/torches but usually sawzalls are good to go). Battery tools are great if you have them.

Pro tip - grab a trunk liner out of something and throw it on the ground if you going under something to lay on.

looking to pull a coolant recovery  tank out of an GMT360......envoy  trailbazer  bravada...uh what is the general demeanor of the personnel present  at said JY's? 

Down here they tend to be very dusty. Don't wear your best shoes.

Bring a friend?

Most people there are going to be like you, DIYers trying to save a buck.

Remember that you're going to be carrying your tools around so pare down to the essentials needed to take things apart. Don't need the extra weight of a filter wrench.

Also think about the ride home if you care about keeping the inside of your car clean. Bring a towel for the seat if you're not wearing coveralls.

I use a long sleeve tee over a short sleeve and take the outer layer off when I'm done so dirty elbows aren't on the armrests. Other than that, work gloves and boots.

I wear flip flops, cargo shorts, and a T-shirt.  Depending on what I'm looking for I might bring my whole junkyard tool kit or the bare minium.  I recently removed a 3/8s bolt using a diagonal cutter because I guessed wrong.  Biggest hint is look up the yard online and see where you need to go.  That way you just walk up and say here's my $4, no I don't need a list, have a nice day.

Same as I always dress when working on stuff.

If you forget a tool just search the ground or trunks of vehicles for tool kits. Cutting through wires with a broken cut off disc found buried in the dirt can be effective but not recommended.

I say make it a black tie formal affair.

ProDarwin said:

I say make it a black tie formal affair.

you would......wink

Like big pockets inside your coat?  

JK - a place by me charged higher cause of what fell into everyone's pockets.  

My normal is this side pouch thing that my wife got me.  It has a strap the goes around my shoulder and one that goes around my waist.  Big center pocket, some exterior pockets, a clip for my keys, and a hidden pocket for my personal protection.  Boots.  Depending on the weather I'll do coveralls, heavy outdoor overalls, or just old cargo shorts or jeans plus an old shirt.  Definitely gloves.  If it's been raining a ton I'll bring an old oilcloth tablecloth or a tarp or something to lay/kneel on.

I usually wear whatever I'd wear working in the garage. Jeans I don't care about too much, older shoes and an older shirt. I usually pack a small, light tool bag with basic tools then leave some more extensive backup tools in the car, just in case. No grinders but sawzalls are okay as said above. An impact can be really helpful if you're doing more extensive work. I'm also the shiny happy person who cuts wires/hoses to quickly remove certain things instead of spending forever fighting the connectors. So I take decent cutters. 
 

Fuses and bulbs are always free at the junkyard ;)

Edit: gloves. Always take gloves so when you get back in your car for the drive home you don't have greasy hands. 

Proper JY attire... Only on GRM. 

Tattersall double breasted.  Who do you think I am, a peasant?

I bring my own wagon full of tools and dress like a scumbag. 
 

same as every good get together. 

In reply to ProDarwin :

I actually have a tuxedo tee shirt that I pretty much only wear to the yard

Poor people get better pricing at the yards. Dress down. Don't carry flashy tools. If you walk up the the counter wearing expensive clothes with 500 dollars worth of Milwaukee electric tools in your bag, you're going to get charged accordingly.

Obviously this scenario excludes the yards that have posted prices for everything.

I dress like Frieburger pretty much every day of the year (camo cargo shorts, tee shirt, crusty ball cap) and carry my Harbor Freight tool bag with cheap tools in it. Skip the flip flops, that's just dangerous. Wear some sort of closed toe shoes.

Back in my JY'ing hay-day, I used to visit a local place named King of the Road Auto Parts (KRAP.)  With a name like Krap it has to be good!  Evey part you bought was marked KRAP in crayon...ha.  

KRAP was one of these places where you pulled your own and then the guy at the counter gave you a price total at the end that he just totally made up.  I would dress to get dirty and possibly muddy.  I dressed down because if you looked to be "in need" the price would be accordingly.  Another thing about this place is they cared about big parts and metal generally pricing the big parts and gave away the small stuff.  This was about 2003 and I discovered that they had 7 Gen1 MR2s on site.  I approached the desk with a rear deck lid (for the rare, one year only LED brake light spoiler) but along with it I had plastics.  These plastics were radio surrounds, headlamp knobs, ash trays, side air vents, rear window visors, b-pillar trim, etc.  I think I paid $75 (or the price of the trunk lid) and all the other stuff was...free.  The real answer is the small stuff was worth more than the metal trunk lid!  

At places like this I remember they always asked, "what car did this come from?"  I would play it down and might answer, "a Toyota, back there with the Corollas."   I figured that MR2 might cause the part to cost more than a Corolla.  In general, play down the quality of the part.  I would often point out the flaw.  Like for the trunk lid, I would say something like, "its got some rust at the edge but I think I can improve it."  The reality being that I just wanted the plastic spoiler, but the mounting screws were notorious for snapping off and I wanted to treat them with penetrating oil before attempting and it was easier to just undo the 4 bolts at the hinge and get the whole lid.  

In the new era, with corporate places like Pull-a-Part, they have a price list for everything.  When leaving, the person at the counter really doesn't know that much about car parts.  They might ask you what the part is.  Spend some time with their website price list.  One item could have various names in their price list.  The name you give them could result in the part costing more or less, even as the same part.  

Here is an real example from the pull-a-part price list

RADIATOR COOLANT EXPANSION TANK  $15.38

RADIATOR OVERFLOW BOTTLE  $6.99

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

I also want to accentuate that trunk liner carpets are great to lay on the ground. If not that, floor mats or I've even used whole rear bench seat bottoms from sedans. 

Old cargo shorts, steel-toe shoes, GRM shirt and a big hat.

I'm also a fan of the two trip method: Leave all your tools in your car, pay the fee and go walk the entire yard. I'll do this and make a list of what parts I've found and what tools I'll need. Then I grab a wheelbarrow and go back with tools to grab everything. 

Oh, and don't forget to check the trunks. At least in my local yard, it's common for people to pull desirable/valuable parts and hide them in the trunk until they can come back with the money to buy them. 

Our yards here are always dusty so I wear carhart jeans, boots and a tshirt.