Junkyard diving!!

Frank Rizzo

Banned
Jul 25, 2007
478
0
0
41
Fixing your girl's car
You guys might get a kick out of this story:

So I suit up with full rain gear, tools. I head to the junkyard for the valve shims, and cam gears.

Take's me about an hour to remove the cams. I grab the shims, and put the cams in the interior of the car, just trying to be nice (hey you never know).
So I go inside to pay. The guy needs me to explain what the shims are. He says $50 for everything. I said no fucking way. I said $10 for shims $10 for cam gears. I mean, let's get real here I pulled them MYSELF with MY tools and they are USED.

He then copped an attitude, stating,
"You just tore apart a motor for this shit?"

I was dumbfounded, speechless.

I asked, "Is this not a junkyard?" "I didn't know there were rules"

He says, "Yeah! there are!!" But doesn't tell me them, nor are they posted anywhere.

I wholeheartedly said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know there were rules, you should have told me in the first place."

He stated, "Let's go out and see what you did to this car"

I agreed, "Ok, lets go!"

Here's the good part!!

We get to the car and he says this, "Dude WHAT THE FUCK!!! You just tore apart a $1000 motor!!!"

This is a 7M-GE we are talking about with one of the head bolt heads stripped. To me, that speaks volumes.

I said nothing.

I told him, "I wasn't done here." As I had everything still laid out, I was going to come back for the valve cover bolts etc. I didn't have enough hands and I wasn't about to let my tools sit out in the rain.

He then stated, "You know what, we don't want your business here anymore."

I said, "Ok." And I turned my back to him and started to walk away.

He then proceeds to smash all the parts I removed (valve covers, intake y-pipe, cam caps, bolts etc.) like a 9 year old child that didn't get his way. I didn't turn around to see it, but I heard it. I swear to FUCKING god!!! It was UNREAL!! This is a grown adult twice my age. I just turned my back and walked away calmly. So much for those shims.....they looked to be in mint condition also, never got a chance to measure them with my micrometer though. It's a god damn shame.

Like the car was his or something?? And $1000 motor...... My GTE isn't worth $1000, well maybe....but I doubt it.

Now think about this, If the motor was any good, don't you think they would have pulled it before putting the car in the yard? This car was sitting over a year at this junkyard. I pulled the rear window trim off of it January of 2007. And last but not least, wouldn't you rather get SOMETHING for the parts instead of NOTHING? He didn't even TRY to barter with me. Even if he said $40, I would have said OK. I think this guy was having a bad day or something and the valve shims took the brunt of it!!!
 
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jcr2fast4u

7mlover
Jan 5, 2008
90
0
0
southern cali
:wtf: first of all from the sound of it the guy was a complete idiot, who smashes parts you can sell. Second when did they start making rules at junk yard :nuts:? i would of had him name me just one.Third a junk yard GE worth a 1000 :rofl::yelrotflm:rofl::yelrotflm was this man retarded or just crazy!
 

Kangae

Buzzin' Half Dozen
Sep 13, 2007
249
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Utica, New York
There may have been one up here in my local junkyard. But I never know, my friend who cant tell the difference between a first gen eagle talon, a early 90's celica, and a mk3 supra told me it was there. Unfortunatly the guy who owns the yard just crushes most forign cars and recycles them. So the old 82 camaro thats totally stripped is still in the yard, but they just crushed a eagle talon tsi that wasnt missing anything as far as I could tell...
 

daledoe

KILL U
Nov 18, 2005
1,467
0
0
MAINE
Kangae;963676 said:
There may have been one up here in my local junkyard. But I never know, my friend who cant tell the difference between a first gen eagle talon, a early 90's celica, and a mk3 supra told me it was there. Unfortunatly the guy who owns the yard just crushes most forign cars and recycles them. So the old 82 camaro thats totally stripped is still in the yard, but they just crushed a eagle talon tsi that wasnt missing anything as far as I could tell...

That sucks. The price of steal went up so most of the cars up here got crushed.
I had to order a valve cover for my 93 eclipse from Boston. That sucked :nono:
 
Oct 2, 2006
31
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Denver
That's a funny story.

I concur that there are rules at certain yards, but I make it clear what I am attempting to do before entering to clear up any confusion. For example, I wanted a rear sway bar and leaf springs out of a mopar B-Body that this one yard had and I asked the guy at the counter what their policies were to get the car off the ground.

Some yards pick the car up with a fork for you. Some have a lift tool that they let you use and and don't allow jacks in the yard for saftey reasons. Some yards already have the cars up off the ground on concrete highway deviders, etc, while others use a set of welded wheels that they want you to put the car up on, so I always ask before attempting to get a car up off the ground for any reason.

I know that some old car boneyards will castrate you for leaving hoods up for the wind to catch and for the elements to destroy what's under them. I always close hoods if I don't take it and I try not to part out the glass or doors until I see that the interior has been picked through, out of respect, or at least cover the opening with something to keep the rest of the goods out of the elements.

Also, if it's a full self serve yard and posted as such, I just assume that anything and everything in the yard is up for grabbs unless otherwise posted. And if it isn't, they should have the car or engine/ parts quarrantined from the others in some understood manner.

It sounds like this guy was just fighting you because he wanted to rip you off. He didn't even know what he was looking at and had to ask you to identify the parts. Then when he guessed way off on ballpark price, he embarrassed himself and wanted to contest your arguement regarding his unposted and unstated rules.

My guess is that he made a jackass out of himself and was pissed at you calling him on it. I know for a fact that he wasn't concerned about selling a complete engine, because if he was, he would carefully take the parts that you took off and at least mark what they were and that they went to the engine.

Some of these backwoods guys hear the word Supra and see $ $ in their eyes. They don't know how or more importantly, why, but that's the way it is.

Most of the yards around my area that have had MKIII's all have their own policies and I know weather or not they are a full self-serve yard, partial or a closed yard that they part out. Usually the full and partial self serve yard guys are more laid back and cheaper with prices, but it's a crapshoot.

There is a yard here that this guy will do a little of both. When he has a complete engine with harness, I ask before taking anything and am more than happy to show him what sensor/ part/ whatever I'm after.

I was turned down on a perfect GTE engine harness, but the guy still did give me a price. He actually would have sold it to me, I think, but he was hesitant and I told him that I understand, because he has the entire engine attached to it and it's a common swap. That kind of stuff is totally understandable. The engine was pulled and stored though, so I understood what he was doing.

Anyway, if you have seen a few, some yards around here keep them longer than others, but if any cars you have come by have a decent driver's side door handle in any color, you can put me down.
 

suprastanger507mgte

2x88+2x89+1x91+2x92=ME
Apr 5, 2005
3,148
6
38
Hayward , Ca
MadNad;958753 said:
Hey what junkyards specifically? I just might have to make a run :)


Doris Auto wreckers has at least 2 - 3 most of the time.
Pick and Pull has them occasionaly and pick your parts as well.

This is all in hayward and fremont. This is not a rare sight either. I can walk into the yard and expect to see a different one on any given day. I usually grab the nuts/bolts...search for targa tools.. lol .
 

Frank Rizzo

Banned
Jul 25, 2007
478
0
0
41
Fixing your girl's car
MisterTurbineTwister said:
It sounds like this guy was just fighting you because he wanted to rip you off. He didn't even know what he was looking at and had to ask you to identify the parts. Then when he guessed way off on ballpark price, he embarrassed himself and wanted to contest your arguement regarding his unposted and unstated rules.

My guess is that he made a jackass out of himself and was pissed at you calling him on it. I know for a fact that he wasn't concerned about selling a complete engine, because if he was, he would carefully take the parts that you took off and at least mark what they were and that they went to the engine.

I totally agree.

The wiring harness was hacked up/cut so it was fubar'd as far as I was concerned.

I mean, I saw him pick up the intake Y-pipe, then I turned around and heard SMASH!!! I couldn't believe it. I thought the cops were gonna get called. I was acting like an adult, so I wasn't worried about it though.
 

AW11inVa

New Member
Nov 15, 2007
125
0
0
Broadway Va
You should have asked him to show you how he thinks that motor was worth a grand and why a bunch of little discs and two gears make up 5% of the engines value. LOL
 

Rennat

5psi...? haha
Dec 6, 2005
2,844
0
0
Tracy, CA
www.myspace.com
go to any pick and pull and you can normally see 4-10supras...
and search google for 'wrecking yards' and other terms like that...

the stockton one had 8 a few weeks ago... but they sadly sent them bye bye... now they have like 2 or 3 there... and 90% there non turbo... and if they are turbo, those turbos get snatched like free samples....