Ever wander through the salvage yard and see stuff you have no need for but know is a good, rare, and valuable item? Just saw an '88 Fiero with 4 new calipers on it. Only fit one year, hard to get in re-man and expensive when you find them. Saw a brand new 3.1 V6 cylinder head on a W-body. Yet, I have no use, (currently) for this stuff, but still feel the need to buy it if only to keep it out of the shredder.....
You could always grab it and huck it on ebay.
Johnboyjjb wrote: You could always grab it and huck it on ebay.
+1
I have zero luck with that sort of thing...
Well at least you didn't pull a steering column, only to have some ham fisted pudger screw up the column on you making you go pull another column...
Oh wait... you did ;)
It is all about buying it right.
I pulled 2 BBS center caps off a RX7 convertible. Taking the whole rims would have been cumbersome and people loose these caps all the time. I paid $5 each (lumped in with a big purchase) and netted about $60 for each cap!
eh...the second column is in better shape anyhow.
I always get frustrated when I need something, ask the price before i pull the part/engine, whatever, then get to check out and the price jumped $50 more then when I asked. It's happened 2 times at 2 different yards, mostly on odd and rare parts.
Like it happened on a 350 engine and tranny, they said I could have it for $100, then that turned into $200. I rebolted the engine back into the car, my addition was lots of green and red loctite on the thread of most of the bolts though.
I don't go back to that yard anymore.
Andrew
I've made friends at the two local self service yards simply by being at each of them at least 3-4 times a month, and always walking out with weird stuff. They like to ask me what i'm doing with it, what it came off of, etc etc etc.
Because of these "friends" that i've made, i think i usually end up with at least a 50% discount. This comes easy when you're looking for strange, hard to find trim parts that aren't easily identifiable.
"What's that?"
"I dunno, thought it looked cool, so i pulled it."
"Hrmmm... don't have a price listing for that. How's $1 sound?"
"Fine by me!"
I've pulled the better part of the entire interior out of an MX3, Escort, Tracer, and Protege each, and i think i've got about $60 into all those parts.
Making friends there is a very good idea..., too bad every where around here is staffed by jerks....
I don't know Jeff, we made friends while we were there. The lady at the sign in window blowing me kisses (was that a lady?) the guy screaming at me by the roach coach, the lady at the counter trying to charge you double.
Yeah, the area I used to live had an awesome pull-your-own yard. If you got in good with the counter guy, you could walk out with stuff for cheap/free, especially if he was busy with someone that was pissing him off "Hey, how much for this?" "Huh? You? Eh... get the f--- out of here".
My current local yard, on the other hand, I'd rather firebomb than set foot inside. I pulled an exhaust manifold (posted price for manifolds: $35) and they charged me $70-something for it, because I didn't strip it first. A friend of mine was pulling a tranny with a mangled driveshaft they couldn't get off, they tried to charge him for half of a driveshaft (he left that one on the counter). I've been in a few other times, and these guys nickle and dime me for every last bolt.
I found a they-pull-it yard about 40 minutes away that's about the same price everything said and done, and I just call them, drive over, pick up my parts, and GTFO.
MUCH better.
in panama city there where 2 yards i'd frequent... one of the owner guys knew my father in law and I went in with him (F-I-L) and would chat with him and i was golden...
also was a pizza guy and would randomly bring in pizzas for "the guys"... went a long way towards cheap prices to the point of being flicked off (friendly) when i asked the price of odds and ends
The last time I went I needed a parking brake pedal for my brothers Ranger. (I don't know how he broke it). The only one they had was in a mangled cab. It took me about two hours to free it, using a jack i found to move the hinge pillar a little at a time to gain access to the bolts and get it away from the column. When I went to leave they didn't charge me because they had been watching me on the security camera and had a bet going on if i would get it out or not.
My oldest sweated for hours pulling a steering assist from a Granada (that's how we learn!), only to find that the owner overrode the counter guy and doubled the agreed-to price. My son called me, I told him to walk.
They had some nice stuff, and I hope they get to keep it a long, long time.
The other day, I spent about two hours climbing through deep, oily mud in a junkyard looking for an engine to swap into my Jeep. Out of about 25 Jeeps, I found two that were decent donor candidates. Both had "Clunker" written on the windshield: Engines can't be legally sold.
Thanks, Barack.
There are two yards near enough for me to go check out. I guess one of the junkyard chains bought so there is less competition. One of the yards is cool and if I bring a strange vacuum connection they'll just charge me 1.99 or whatever for it. The other yard is a little more savvy and will charge you for all the little parts that you don't really need, but don't want to take apart at the yard.
Most of the stuff I need is little so it pays to go to the place that doesn't care about little stuff. Last time they gave me 3 CIS injectors for free with because they'd never seen them and didn't want to learn what they were.
You'll need to log in to post.
