Hooniverse Asks: Are You-Pick-It Junk Yards Still the Best Place for Old Parts?

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I spent a good bit of the Saturday after Christmas, not with my family, but with a flock of other treasure seekers haunting a couple of You-Pull-It yards in beautiful downtown Sun Valley, California. I had heard that one of the yards that I frequent – the Alden Brothers Domestic and Foreign lot – was going to close with the New Year, and so wanted to peruse its oil-stained and detritus strewn rows one final time before that happened.
Well, it turns out that yard was already closed, however a couple of other yards in the area still remain open so my hike over the hill wasn’t totally in vain. Or maybe it was. One thing I’ve noticed in the past year or so is that the you-yank yards are no longer all that cheap. Not only that, but on many items they require core charges. Oh really!
A week later I went to another yard and came away with what I considered to be some deals, but that was only because the lot was having a 40% off sale for New Years. Have you run into similar inflationary instances at your local yards? Does the increase in prices make you think twice about sourcing your parts there?
Image: ©2016 Hooniverse/Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved

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29 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: Are You-Pick-It Junk Yards Still the Best Place for Old Parts?”

  1. smalleyxb122 Avatar
    smalleyxb122

    I can’t remember the last time I went to a junkyard. Most of the local yards are “the shit we think we can sell is already removed and inventoried”, and they don’t allow aimless wandering (which is the best part of the junkyard experience, IMHO).
    There are very few items for which I would go to the boneyard anymore. Non-wear items only. No, I’m not paying you 50% of OEM MSRP on a used alternator, when I can get a new one online for cheaper, or a “remanufactured” one with a warranty for even less at my local Napautoreilly’s.
    I’d be hard-pressed to find parts for most of my vehicles in a local yard, anyway. The only exception is my pickup. I could probably replace every single piece of my truck with parts from a single yard, thanks to the long run of the GMT400 platform.

    1. Tanshanomi Avatar

      Ditto about the aimless wandering. I have never gone to a car junkyard, but I stopped going to
      motorcycle junkyards about 20 years ago when they they began restricting access to the bikes. The only two within driving distance of me now require customers to tell them at the front desk what they want off what model bike, and then be escorted by an attendant who closely resembles a partially trained orangutan. They claim you’re not allowed to wander around out back “for insurance reasons.” Yeah, right.
      Nowadays, I am much happier ordering used stuff off Ebay, usually for less dough if I’m savvy.

      1. Brent Simmons Avatar
        Brent Simmons

        I got a bunch of good deals on unobtanium old Civic HVAC and head-end parts from the local Pick-N-Pull and U-Pull-It yards back when I had the CRX. Now my MX-5 is, alas, too new and too unusual to even show up on the self-service yards’ inventory. I did source a Mazda6 wiper stalk (the one with with the coveted “variable intermittent knob technology” that Mazda had deemed to high-end for the MX-5) from a full-service yard, but that’s been the extent of it.

    2. dukeisduke Avatar
      dukeisduke

      I can’t remember either. As for Pick-U-Part type yards, I can only think of one in the Dallas area, and I don’t know if it’s even open anymore. I can remember wandering yards, but that was probably 30-35 years ago. I enjoyed seeing the kind of crap that people would leave in cars when they were towed off to their final resting place.
      The biggest find I ever made was when I needed a right front fender for my ’76 Vega (some lady decided she needed to make a left turn from the left traffic lane, sideswiping me in the left turn lane). I went to get a fender (got that), and I ended up buying a power steering box (my manual one was sloppy), the power steering pump, a tilt steering column, and all the brackets needed to add the pump and move the alternator from the left to right side of the engine.
      The new parts I needed were hoses, a new drag link (power steering cars used a different link), and a pinion seal kit, as I decided I might as well replace that while I had the pitman arm off.

      1. salguod Avatar

        Row52.com shows 4 Pick-N-Pull yards in the Dallas area … 😀

  2. Kiefmo Avatar
    Kiefmo

    I’ve never found a W126 in the junk yard. Not once.
    Where the heck did you manage to find two W123s scrapped in the same place?

    1. Maymar Avatar
      Maymar

      I think the last two junkyards I’ve been to (Hamilton, ON and Scarborough, ON) have had multiple W126s, along with W201s and W124s. Apparently fate is trying to tell me I need an old Benz.

  3. P161911 Avatar
    P161911

    The higher part prices are probably tied directly to the super low scrap steel prices (about $3.50/100 lbs. In my area the last time I checked. ) Scrap was as high as $17/100 lbs. and stayed at $10/100 lbs. for a long time. This has severely cut into the profits for these places. I haven’t been to a yard in a few years. The last time that I needed used parts the vehicle was too new for the you pull places. Car-part.com is great though.

  4. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    I love the junkyard experience, but it’s not really practical for me. A friend and I have been to multiple junkyards in the past month or so, and come up mostly empty handed. I’m looking for a side view mirror for my Mazda2 (which admittedly isn’t an incredibly common car, but I at least see a couple others per day), and he was looking for assorted parts for his ’90s Subaru Legacy (also, a set of snow tire rims for his wife’s Mazda5). I just can’t find anything, and half the parts he’s looking for are broken or picked over on the Legacies he finds (getting an unrusted tailgate has been nearly impossible, although he makes it harder by wanting one in the same forest green). He found and bought a set of rims that fit the 5, just to find out one was bent.
    If you can find the vehicle you’re looking for, odds aren’t unreasonable that the part you need is a common issue, so it’s either already broken, or someone else with the same problem already grabbed it. Plus, in -30c winters, I’m perfectly happy to stay indoors as much as possible.

  5. Jeepster Avatar
    Jeepster

    Set the wayback machine to 2009 in Tennessee. There are scrapyards everywhere to the south of the city but when the rate climbed to $14/100 these places started crushing everything. They kept the cars 4 years old – all else gone. A company in Chattanooga had several mobile units, and many flatbeds hauling cubes to the river barges all day and night !
    On the other hand, many of the ” mom & pop ” yards made a pile of money, and it was their stuff.
    Here is the Jeepster in action, removing a fender with no tools. ( maybe not, but I am rather large )

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      I can hear the “hrrrrnnng” all over here… 🙂
      Here in Norway, I don’t think there are many pick’n’pull yards left. A couple of times I’ve heard the phrase “people are not allowed on the lot anymore” and with luck, the next sentence includes the word “exception”. There is not even a junk yard within an hours drive from me, just an Opel collector that runs a sort of junk yard anyway.

      1. Guest Avatar
        Guest

        “an Opel collector that runs a sort of junk yard anyway”

        That sounds like way more fun than any junkyard….

        1. Sjalabais Avatar
          Sjalabais

          Yes, if I were an Opel guy, this would be the logical spot to hang out at. I have driven past there a couple of times, and stopped occasionally. Always lots of people, very good mood around there. A pity I won’t touch a GM product in a hazmat suit.

  6. Bryce Womeldurf Avatar

    I’ve heard that things are going in that direction. Thankfully, I’m usually out there looking for fresher trim pieces that a yard doesn’t really care much about. It saves me a ton of money versus buying new or even used online. My only challenge with the yard is just finding a Miata in the local junkyard. They get scavenged for parts very quickly and don’t show up very often. They’re often picked clean within just a few days.

    1. Alff Avatar
      Alff

      Locally, the Miata community digests any used up vehicles before they hit a yard.

      1. Bryce Womeldurf Avatar

        That might be the case here as well. Why sell to a yard if you can slowly part things out over craigslist instead? I just like being able to pick through, because there’s a lot of pieces that people don’t bother to sell that I can get for almost nothing from a yard.

  7. Scott McIntyre Avatar
    Scott McIntyre

    Well luckily I can drive to four large YPUS type lots within 35 mins of my house. Being a Jeep guy make it more easy/fun. And knowing a bit about exactly what is valuable helps. READ-my eBay sales pay for the parts for my heaps. Most of the time I’ve done very well. JunkYard Picker is the show I’ve pitched to discovery channel after my near fortune made of an old v8 Triumph Stag at a local lot. JK. but I did make more than enough to impress the accountant in the home (wife). I’ve even detoured on business trips and family meet-ups to venture through lots in adjacent states. It’s like anything else. IF you know what you are doing it can work to everyone’s advantage.

  8. Alff Avatar
    Alff

    No. All of our local operations have consolidated under one company who has a relatively short list of target vehicles which intersects poorly with my motley collection of cars. Prices are good but not great. I hit them perhaps once per year with a long list of needs … and never close it out.

  9. Alff Avatar
    Alff

    One beef I have with our local yards – no wheels. I think anything with aluminum is melted down.

  10. PotbellyJoe★★★★★ Avatar
    PotbellyJoe★★★★★

    In NJ a lot of the salvage yards have become consolidated, automated, aggregated and homogenated. So it’s all recent, or newer “vintage” yuppie-mobiles. If you need a part to a Pontiac Vibe, “tough sledding,” but a part for a 1999 Audi A4, “Which of these 27 would you like?”
    The you-pull-it’s are mostly gone, or too far south of me to want to go to. eBay has become my parts sourcer.
    I ripped the shifter boot on my Vibe (leather) and needed a new one. The local yard had one in one of their locations. $35. The dealership wanted $55 new, and that was only at the Toyota store.
    I found the entire shifter assembly taken from a wrecked Matrix, with knob and boot, for $30 shipped on eBay. I sent the shift knob to a buddy who is an amazing wood-worker so that he could measure it out for a potential premium knob for myself, and sold the remaining assembly, to the junkyard for $15.
    Consolidation baby.

  11. I_Borgward Avatar
    I_Borgward

    There are still a few u-pull-it yards where I live, but they’ve gone corporate and have really jacked up their prices. These days, I only go to them when I absolutely have to. $10 for one lousy power window switch, and a dirty one at that? Feh.
    Out of frustration, I’ve taken to buying parts cars to keep my two Volvo 240s on the road. I just picked up my third one this last weekend. I’ll pick it over like a Thanksgiving turkey, then send the body shell to the crusher. It’s a bit of a shame really, as the shell is fairly straight and not very rusty, but trying to find the parts that I need individually has just become to much of a PITA and a huge time suck. I’d love to pass the shell on to another Volvo herder, but the odds of doing so without it all becoming a headache are low indeed.

  12. JayP Avatar
    JayP

    Used to hang out at the local Brit/Japanese yard in my college days. Pulling Rostyle wheels out of the ground for $5 a piece.
    The parts falling off my cars these days are usually ones I need to have as new.
    The few yard parts I need were on the ebay. It’s easy, quick shipping and usually guaranteed by the seller. No muddy shoes.

  13. discontinuuity Avatar
    discontinuuity

    Definitely if you have a car that straddles the lines between rare/common and new/old. I was able to find a rear swaybar and spoiler for my AW11 MR2 for $20 each, whereas they would cost at least $100 if I bought them online.

  14. nanoop Avatar
    nanoop

    I didn’t even try for the project car: whatever is worn metal is available new. Whatever is worn/brittle plastic or rubber is brittle plastic at the scrapyard’s, too.
    The workshop we use did source a used water pump for the F-car (Focus) when we were in a hurry and couldn’t wait for the backorder.

  15. mad_science Avatar

    I’ve found craigslist and ebay are now better value propositions in the vast majority of cases.
    First of all, my rides are old enough that I have to have saved searches on row52.com (you should all be ashamed if you’re not using it) for the rare occasions when a compatible donor arrives.
    I’ve always found their prices to be high, they tend to pick the highest possible version of whatever I’m buying (e.g. “suspension – HEAVY DUTY” = +20%), then tack on another 30% in environmental fees and core charge). This is, of course, atop the literal PITA that is rolling in the gravel and/or broken glass to pull the parts myself.
    Oddly enough, the $2 entry fee is probably worth it just to walk around and see what’s there, though. California junkyards will make everyone else cry: http://goo.gl/s17E4X

  16. salguod Avatar

    In HS, in the 80’s when every yard let you walk around looking for what you needed, I walked nearly every yard in Toledo looking for parts for my Camaro and then for my Monza. While Monza shopping, I actually saw my old Camaro in Spuds.
    I hadn’t been to a yard that’d let you walk around until I had kids that drive. I’ve now dragged the two of them to the only PNP in Columbus to get parts to put their cars back together. I felt a little nostalgic doing so.
    I’ve got saved searches on row52.com for my cars, and the only one that gets hits is the girl’s ’98 Escort. The others are evidently too valuable to end up at the local PNP.
    Funny thing is that the PNP was the only local yard willing to give me anything for my daughter’s wrecked Protege, and they only offered $130. Every other yard said they weren’t interested in it.

  17. karonetwentyc Avatar
    karonetwentyc

    Damn shame Adlen’s gone; they kept a surprising number of my – let’s just kindly describe them as ‘project’ – cars running over the years. The fact that I didn’t even know they were closing when I once used to spend nearly every weekend checking them for anything useful says a lot about the state of junkyards today, and I’ll miss the unusual and interesting cars they’d had up on the perimeter walls. The Citroen SM, Renault LeCar, and Fiat 600 were particular favourites.
    And for that I lay a good chunk of the blame on the LKQ Corporation. A few years back, they went on a buying spree of a lot of previously-independent junkyards, many of which had operated as local or regional chains. This was where the prices on the parts started being jacked up to ridiculous levels: LKQ is in the parts refurbishment business and sells their refurb parts to the national chain auto parts retailers. Discouraging in-house competition from walk-in customers is in their best interest.
    The rising price of scrap iron also factored into it: when you’ve got a dead car that you paid $350 for occupying space in a junkyard for x number of days before it gets crushed, it needs to make back at least that much before being crushed to guarantee a profit on the remains. But when scrap prices are high enough that it makes more sense to turn the inventory over more quickly because the $200 in parts you’re selling off of that car are nowhere near the immediate $1000 you can make for cubing it and sending it to China… You can see where this is going.
    I’ve semi-stopped going to junkyards anymore because I’m tired of spending an afternoon pulling parts only to get to the counter and end up telling them to keep 80% of what I’ve pulled because it’s overpriced. $30 for a sun visor? $100 for a crapshoot alternator or power steering pump? $300 for a used carburettor that’s going to need a rebuild anyway and that I can buy new for around $425? It’s just not worth it unless I’m getting something that just can’t be obtained any other way.
    Still, we’ll always have the commercials…

  18. William Robinson Avatar
    William Robinson

    When I was a we lad my grandfather would collect me from my mother early Saturday morning and he would take me through all the local junk yards and the the junk dealers and then home for supper. As I grew older the yards stopped allowing guests and the junk dealer was shut down for a environmental meltdown and is still a fenced off gravel lot today. But just opened the end of November a pnp was built about an hour away. Myself being a scrapper I’ve been and had my fill of junk and cars but is still pay my $3 and walk around the yard and let my imagination run wild.. a good way to spend most of a day.