In a junkyard on a hot day...........................

[FRANKIE]

The day before yesterday, I went up to Pennsylvania to a junk yard for some parts. I had found out that my Acura needed a A/C cooling fan because the motor in mine had died. This was a large junkyard up on a hill near Quakertown which is just south of Allentown, Pa. It was screaming hot but there was a slight breeze. The part I needed was for my 2000 Acura 3.2TL. The problem is that when finding a car like yours, it may have been in a front end collision and destroyed the fan. By luck, I began to realize that a Honda 3L engine around the same year had the same setup. So it took about 2 hours to look through all the suitable cars to find what I wanted. You can't test the motors right there so I got 2 of them in case one was bad. In the mean time, I looked for parts for my wife's Isuzu Rodeo '99, which is like looking for hen's teeth. Her SUV just doesn't die so we keep it up. By the time I found the ONLY Isuzu Rodeo in the whole friggen lot and took the parts off of it, I was thoroughly roasted but drenched in sweat. She needed a driver's side mirror and a few other items. The problem here is that these cars are so hard to find that when you get one and it hasn't been in an accident, maybe the engine or trans went bad, the body is perfect and all the parts are good. You say to yourself, Hell, I might as well take off whatever little parts I can get because you never know when you'll need them and where am I going to find another car like this one? and you're HERE NOW, and it's 110 miles from my house so what the hell. So I walk back down the hill to the office pulling a wagon I'd brought along. It's a garden wagon that can hold 600 pounds. By the time I was walking down the hill, my 68 year old a$$ was REALLY dragging and I had to stop every 20 yards and bend over at the waist to relieve the intense back pain that I was feeling. Yet I felt insufferably pleased with myself for finding such a treasure trove of parts. I was barely able to drag myself up to the check out counter. The guy behind the counter took one look at me and handed me a bottle of ice cold water which they normally sell. I drank it in about 10 seconds at which time he handed me another one and said You'd better take this one too... The payoff was that installing the fan shroud into the back of the radiator was a snap. There are 2 teeth that fit into the bottom of the radiator frame and 2 ten mm bolts that secure it up top. I got into the car and turned the A/C on and it was ice cold. Ahhhhhhhh....what a wonderful world!!!!! So I drove in comfort all the way home.................................Frankie

 

[t-tony]

Good to hear you fixed it Frankie. I used to love doing just that, wondering around a breakers yard but thanks to our over the top health and safety laws you cannot go past the counter into the yard anymore. Got to love AC on a day like that eh?

Tony.

 

[mwpe]

Great days when you could go into a scrapyard and do that. Can't do anything now thanks to elf n safety.

 

[Althulas]

Nice end to a story Frankie keep them coming. Used to be good to have a good rummage at a scrappy, plus take a fantasy drive in some of the old stuff knocking about.

 

[andyglym]

Great job mate

 

[Mint]

Great story Frankie, pleased to hear you've got your AC working

 

[Mazza]

I ran most of my cars in the early days on parts from breakers yards (junkyards).......thats when parts were cheap.

Allentown PA is a blast from the past for me.........In the early 80’s I was working for Metal Box Engineering and used to buy Westinghouse motors, and they were based in Allentown.

 

[t-tony]

I ran most of my cars in the early days on parts from breakers yards (junkyards).......

Me too Malc, I recycled several Chrysler and Talbot cars.

Tony.

 

[FRANKIE]

Nice end to a story Frankie keep them coming. Used to be good to have a good rummage at a scrappy, plus take a fantasy drive in some of the old stuff knocking about.

I often think......there are many things that make people happy. For some reason, one of the things that usually put me over the top was finding a recently arrived car in the junk yard with almost brand new tires of just the size I needed. Years ago, tires in the junkyard were dirt cheap and sometimes someone would get into a wreak a few days after buying four new tires and a fifth one in the boot for (new) a spare. You could get them for a song and end up saving one or two hundred dollars to boot. I was always afraid to tell this to people as I thought they would look down their noses at me for climbing around a junk yard and feeling so happy for finding the tires...........Sometimes not having a lot of money has its hidden benefits..................Frankie

 

[t-tony]

Sometimes not having a lot of money has its hidden benefits..................

Or, what I was brought up to understand "Needs must" My first really nice car came to me at 50 years of age. Before that it was buy cheap and keep it running.

Tony.

 

[Althulas]

I often think......there are many things that make people happy. For some reason, one of the things that usually put me over the top was finding a recently arrived car in the junk yard with almost brand new tires of just the size I needed. Years ago, tires in the junkyard were dirt cheap and sometimes someone would get into a wreak a few days after buying four new tires and a fifth one in the boot for (new) a spare. You could get them for a song and end up saving one or two hundred dollars to boot. I was always afraid to tell this to people as I thought they would look down their noses at me for climbing around a junk yard and feeling so happy for finding the tires...........Sometimes not having a lot of money has its hidden benefits..................Frankie

To true Frankie what I used to spend on food as a student eating reasonably well and reasonably healthyish and still manage to have beer money. All about willing to go to different places but one time I was in the town near where I was doing my training my mother bumped into me with a basket mostly of beer and a very few food items for my needs and gave me a nagging about the amount of beer and made me put it back and put more food in the basket and she paid for that lot after giving me a cussing about wearing ripped jeans and looking scruffy and told to get a hair cut. Back to the point I never used to think nothing of buying second hand parts and still don’t as the same as the rest of for certain items for our Zeds. To be honest push come to shove I would for tyres now but thankfully I’m not in the position to have to go that route but if ever a bargain comes up I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I stay away from remoulds though after I my brother bought some for his Capri 2.8 wheels spun off and so did the moulds .

 

[FRANKIE]

To true Frankie what I used to spend on food as a student eating reasonably well and reasonably healthyish and still manage to have beer money. All about willing to go to different places but one time I was in the town near where I was doing my training my mother bumped into me with a basket mostly of beer and a very few food items for my needs and gave me a nagging about the amount of beer and made me put it back and put more food in the basket and she paid for that lot after giving me a cussing about wearing ripped jeans and looking scruffy and told to get a hair cut. Back to the point I never used to think nothing of buying second hand parts and still don’t as the same as the rest of for certain items for our Zeds. To be honest push come to shove I would for tyres now but thankfully I’m not in the position to have to go that route but if ever a bargain comes up I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I stay away from remoulds though after I my brother bought some for his Capri 2.8 wheels spun off and so did the moulds .

Did you at least TRY to explain to your mother the benefits of drinking dinner?.............Frankie

 

[FRANKIE]

Or, what I was brought up to understand "Needs must" My first really nice car came to me at 50 years of age. Before that it was buy cheap and keep it running.

Tony.

I might have mentioned here that once I went to a wedding with one of my old but well running junkers and a friend of mine got into the parking lot a few moments before me. As I was getting out of my car and he was walking past me, he suggested I keep the window open just a bit in the event that someone might throw in a 20 dollar bill into the car as an act of charity.........Frankie

 

[Althulas]

Any of your junkers you wished you still had Frankie? I love old American cars 50’s, 60’s and 70’s such vintages Stingray, Develle, Camaro and a old Chevy truck. Owned any of these?

 

[FRANKIE]

Any of your junkers you wished you still had Frankie? I love old American cars 50’s, 60’s and 70’s such vintages Stingray, Develle, Camaro and a old Chevy truck. Owned any of these?
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All my junkers were just that, junkers. They were often cars that people were getting rid of because the cost to repair them was not worth the car. Since, in these cases, labor was the most expensive component of the repair expense, and my labor didn't cost me anything, I could often get a car for nothing. I remember once speaking to someone who had what they used call a 'K' car, which was a small economy car, that was parked in front of their house for a while. When I asked them about it, they said they always had trouble starting it, and one day it just wouldn't start at all. They were going to have the junk man tow it away. The car looked a little old but not really in bad shape. They signed over the title to me. I went over the house the next day with a friend and opened the bonnet. At that time, the cars still had points and condenser. I had suspected that the gap on the points had started to get smaller and smaller and there was no longer any gap at all preventing the secondary ignition system from working. I pulled off the distributor cap and took off the rotor and lo and behold, no gap in the points when the car was cranking. I reset the gap and put the rotor and cap back on, cranked the car and it roared into life. To the old owner's surprise, I drove the car home. Five minute fix. What some people don't know!!!! I drove the car for a few years. My problem was that I would come across cars like these too often. I've always made it my practice to have a car like this on the side in case the car I was driving gave out. I've often told people that when you need a car is not the time to look for a car. By then it's too late. You're stuck with whatever is available at that moment. And sometimes you're locked into paying up the rear end for something you don't really want but have no other option at the time. I would find something that I could fix and would like driving and could get for nothing or next to nothing, get it home and repair it and have it sitting ready to put on the road the day I needed it.
There are two cars I didn't buy when I had the chance that I kicked myself later for not buying them. In 1985, while I was still working in the casino, I was also delivering pizzas for my friend's shop. On a delivery there was a 1964 Corvette parked in the driveway. The car was in great shape and he said he wanted $16,000. for it. Pricey for me at the time but not impossible. I thought I was being excessive and decided not to buy it. Mistake......... I found a picture of what it looked like...

Oh, well...............
The other car was in the driveway of one of my brother's customers. My brother was an interior decorator and the customer had tons of money. This was about 1970. It was before prices for used Mercedes went through the roof. I had to bring something to my brother when he was working at their house and I asked the owner about the car. They said it needed a valve job but if I was interested, they'd sell it for $1500.

Stupid me.............I said no thanks. Many years later, I saw a guy driving the same car out of a car wash and asked him about it. He told me that he had just bought it got a bargain price for it....$19,000.00. This was about 20 years ago. Now they're selling for between $100k to $200k...............Maybe one day the Z ///M..............................Frankie

 

[mrscalex]

As a 19 year old I had Mk 1/2 Escorts.

I used to go to an out of town scrapyard between Swindon & Oxford. I won’t say breakers/dismantlers as they didn’t do that. They bought scrap cars, left them in the yard for a few months, you personally removed the parts you wanted and after they were picked clean they were sent on their way.

It’s almost inconceivable now but they use to pile the cars 3 or 4 high with no support and let you crawl around them.

 

[t-tony]

All very true. But how many people do you know who got hurt doing it? Personally I know of no one, and we used to lift shells and chuck wheels under them. Good old nanny state protecting us from ourselves eh?

Tony.