I have three junk cars at the moment. The first is the world renowned 1997 Oldsmobile Achieva with a front end uglier than Mike Tyson after his last ‘comeback’ fight.. It came standard with 300 pounds of GM parts bin plastic in it’s heyday, and an oil burning 2.4 Liter engine that rarely ever sees 200k. Like most cars conceived during the Smith and Stempel era, along with the Cavalier and Lumina that now accompany it near a shady tree, the car was well past it’s prime before it ever left the factory floor.
The owner didn’t do it any favors thanks to an incredibly long list of body bashes and indescribably strange contusions on nearly every body panel. Given the shredded headliner and steering wheel bite marks, I’m not quite sure if the car’s last owner was even human. Maybe it was owned by Marv Albert… or one of his recent girlfriends? Anyway the engine, tranny, and most of the parts are still perfectly functional. Which is great because I have several Grand Am’s on the road right now that will eventually need most of the same GM parts. If one of them needs an expensive component between now and the inevitable, the $200 I paid for it will be absolute peanuts. In fact forget cheap. Try free. I can already crush it for $200.
Welcome to the wonderful world of parts cars. An industry that would be easy to ridicule. Except for the fact that 10+ million crushed remnants are now among our top ten exports to China at the moment. Junkers to me represent the ultimate in frugality. Millions of these vehicles are sold to thousands of millionaires. Who then sell billions of these components to virtually every country on Earth.
Money may talk. But apparently you can’t walk through any junkyard without kicking, pulling or crushing a part that’s worth something to someone. Whether it’s some poor European soul who has an unexplained fetish for a Town Car. Or a Mk IV Jetta owner in the States who has to replace the window regulators for the fifth time. A parts car is often the only thing separating the working class folks from financial hardship and 90+ degree heat without air conditioning. Through use and re-use, these junk cars can indeed add more value to the Western way of life than most prime ministers and presidents.
I know most of you would rather not keep a ‘spare’ in the backyard. But what if you happen to own an unreliable and endearing piece of junk? What if you bought something that is truly rare? Or better yet… something valuable? Why you may need to buy an alternator in due time… or a compressor… or seats that no longer show the indelible contours of your rear end. All these parts can be incredibly expensive. $200. $300. If you drive a car with serious snob appeal, you may be looking at near four figures. Wouldn’t a parts car in your neighborhood be the perfect piece of outdoor art given these lofty numbers?
Thankfully there’s an easy alternative to that. The junkyard is one place. But also, the you-pull-it places are rapidly becoming a treasure trove for the ‘keeper’ looking for parts salvation. Want a tranny? If you’re willing to take it out yourself you can get it for less than $100. An engine? About $150 for most cars. Compressors and Alternators? $20. Some used interior pieces can cost less than a happy meal which is great… because the price for a new one from the dealer parts counter will likely cost 20 times as much. Between my own shady tree companions and a few well chosen you-pulls, I’ve easily saved over a thousand bucks in the last few months alone. But in the car dealer world, parts cars are just a more affordable cost of doing business. Is it right for you? Yes, no… maybe so.
Only once in my life did I own a parts car. In the summer of 1978, I owned a 63 Cadillac Fleetwood. A friend’s dad owned a rental house and there were 3 60s cars in the driveway that had not been driven in years. One was a silver-green 63 Sedan Deville that had been grandpa’s. It showed 63K miles, but it was rough from years of neglect. I asked if I could buy a couple of parts from him. His reply: “if you get it out of here, you can have it.” Music to the ears of a poor college kid.
There was no way I would be allowed to drag it home, but my dad knew a little country garage. I struck a deal-they would let me put it in the back if they were allowed to sell parts out of it. Worked for me.
Now, how to get it there. About 20 miles. I did my research – the Cad had a rear oil pump on the Jetaway HydraMatic, which allowed 4 wheel towing at low speeds. Perfect. This turned into one of the great adventures of my teenaged life – towing a 5100 lb. Cadillac with a 3800 lb 74 Olds Cutlass. I should have been scared witless, but was too dumb at the time. A couple of temp tires, and my best friend and I were set.
It probably took a couple of hours. Intense boredom (I don’t think we ever hit 20 mph) punctuated by moments of sheer terror as the big Cadillac swatted the butt of that Cutlass to one side then the other. Someone should make a video game out of this. Anyway, a final ride across a plowed farm field while the garage operator pushed the Cad into place with his Ford Super Duty tow truck, and there we were.
I got my parts, and sold my Fleetwood a few months later, forgetting all about my parts car.
In hindsight, I should gotten her running and sold her. But with an entire trove of parts for my “real” car, I felt like the richest guy in the world with that parts car. I wonder what ever happend to it.
My sister had an Achieva but it was a V6 and she loved it. Purchased by my father an avowed Oldsmobile man.
“Some men are Baptists, other’s Catholics, my father was an Oldsmoblie man.” – Ralphie – A Christmas Story
Parts cars are intriquing ideas but it depends on how much you can get a decent one for and if you have the space in your back yard to throw a tarp over one. If and when I make my purchase of something sort of old and rare I’ll likely stick to the junk yard and be sure to pick something from the American manufacturers so parts will be cheap and plentiful, oh and I’ll make sure to pick something with a powertrain combo that was in production for a decade or more.
jpcavanaugh, your story made me laugh out loud and I can picture myself at that age doing something similarly stupid. Old enough to know better, but still to young to care.
There is an “avowed Oldsmobile man” in the neighborhood next to mine. I think he has something like 10 or 12 Oldsmobiles sitting there, some in running condition, many in plain view of the street. They all seem to be a different shade of brown.
I’m a little surprised the authorities haven’t done something about it, but I guess he doesn’t cause any trouble.
He has enough cars to keep the Olds name going for another hundred years.
I let the pick ‘n pull store my parts cars for me :). I’ve already don’t have good places to put my running cars!
I at one point had enough spare parts to build a new car – just needed the bare frame. As I write this I’m parting out an ’87 924S. Upon driving it back to my house for its demise, I did a compression check (engine good and all cylinder w/in 10%), a/c worked, alternator had 14 volts charge, seats not ripped and I discovered it has a factory LSD transmission that works. If I’d sell the above parts I could easily make 3x what I paid for to buy this car.
Cars and trucks are crushed so quickly around here, that you would be hard pressed to find anything over five years old, even at Pick-a-Part. I suppose it has something to do with Vancouver, BC’s proximity to the shipping lanes to Asia and high scrap metal prices. Even a small car has $2-300 scrap value, delivered to the crusher.
I had a 95 Achieva with the Quad4. It was by far the worst car I’ve ever owned and I only got it cuz I needed cheap wheels and a friend of mine was selling it for $500, it only had 97k on it. Coming from an 88 Prelude SI 4WS you could imagine how much of a downgrade this was. THe interior quality was beyond appaling. It made the Grand Am look Hondaesque by comparison. With GM’s “sport tuned” suspension it delivered a punishing ride banging and clanging over the smallest bumps. The tranny programming was a piece of work. The 4T60-E was programmed to upshift as fast as possible to save on fuel. But at 40mph in 4th gear the quad 4 didn’t have enough torque and the damn thing would start bucking if you didn’t slam on the gas. Reliability wise, shitbox. Control arms rusted out, the alternator died, starter died, oil pressure switch broke spewing oil everywhere, finally when bucking at 45mph tranny lost gears 3 and 4 and I hated the car so much at that point I decided to say fuck it and never fixed it. I drove it for 10 months with just 1st and 2nd gear till finally it totally shit the bed. I had owned it for less than 2 years.
I replaced it with a 94 Regal with the 3800 (w body=good). I’ve had this car for 4.5 years now with hardly any problems and it’s up to 175k miles now and still drives as good as the day I got it.
I always tell people, some GM cars are toyota grade, others are absolute shitboxes. It depends on the platform and drivetrain. If GM made all their cars as reliable as the 3800 powered cars they’d never of gone into chapter 11.
Interesting cost cutting note, the Regal also has the 4T60-E and it’s programmed the same way but it’s a non-issue since the 3800 is a torque monster. I guess GM was too cheap to program the 4T60-E differently for the Quad-4.
In any urban city where space is $$$$ keeping a parts car around is not financially viable.
Even out where I live (town of 30k, 50 miles outside of Chicago) I’m sure my HOA would say something about leaving a parts car in the driveway.
http://www.beemerboneyard.com
They saved my bike.. I’ve installed a final drive, transmission and driveshaft from these guys, along with other assorted bits (slip-on muffler from a different bike) and it would have cost me more than the resale value of the bike if I had gone thru dealer or used new parts..
thanks for the link…. I just bought an R 80 RT last week!!
Neat stuff, unfortunately they don’t do airheads, but these guys http://www.re-psycle.com/ do.
I am assuming that people have been doing this for ages.
What is interesting is with certain brands, networks get built up, information is shared, and even idiots like me know know how to get their hands on a used transmission.
I guess what is surprising to me is the price of used parts seems to be going up. I know a fan for a SAAB was quoted to me at something like $175 from a repubtable saab junker, yet I did do a pick n’ pull for one at $20. For stuff that is hard to remove, I might pay a junker, but that one took 5 minutes to get.
My dad currently has as a parts car a ’93 Saab 9000. He bought it in 2005 for a hair under five grand, put 200k miles on it, and now pulls bits and pieces off of it when he needs parts for his much more sprightly 1997 9000 Anniversary Edition (also bought at a bargain price.) Can’t get much more frugal than that.
Keeping a parts car around would be a good idea if I had some space. That said, I paid a visit to one of the local recyclers and found the yard nearly threadbare of scrap metal. Guess the overseas shipments are being cranked up to 11.
I had a nonrunning parts car in storage for years in a barn in Pen Argyl, PA (also the final resting place of actress Jayne Mansfield). This was a huge car – a ’66 Pontiac Bonneville 4-door hardtop. Years later I had the car disassembled for the parts I would eventually need to restore my beat-up but mechanically sound Bonneville convertible that I’d owned since I was 18 in 1974. That of course turned out to be a fantasy – I had the means neither to undertake a body-off-frame restoration, nor to garage and maintain such a car afterward – and also I lived in Minneapolis by the time I finally decided to sell it in 1991. So I had all those parts moved 1200 miles across country – an undamaged hood, front fenders, complete grille/nose and front bumper, dashboard with real wood, etc. – and sold them, along with the convertible, to a guy from the remote northwest part of the state (Detroit Lakes). For all I know, both the car and parts have been rusting ever since…
At one point, the city gave me a hard time for keeping a parts car in the backyard. I claimed it was my first amendment right to worship as I pleased, and I worshipped the 1960 Chrysler.
Bob
i always use to think only mechanical nut cases had parts cars but ever since i got a parts car i’ve found out thats true. i love my parts car and it’s not for the big stuff, the little stuff is where my love is, working on my ‘real’ car late at night and need a bolt/nut? i have it, windshield wiper arm? got it. a/c vent surround? yup.
I remember my dad kept an old chevy truck around for parts, which stayed long after the actual truck was gone and we owned Accords and GLCs. It provided hours of “pretend driving” amusement for the car enamored kid (i.e. me).
So that tank that Jack demolished while taking the head of DOHC Neon could be useful for someone.
I own a Lada Niva so I recently bought not one but two parts trucks. I managed to strip one at the seller’s place so I only had to bring one home. I got new tires, good windshield, brake caliper and rear seat which where on my immediate need list plus a spare truck and pile of parts for less than the cost of a set of tires. If anyone is interested you can read the whole story and see some stories here: http://oldcarjunkie.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/another-niva-or-sort-of-two/
My question is with the Internet is there an easy way to find which junk yards might have my model of interest (other than spending hours on the phone or days touring such yards!)
Search for specific vehicles and you’ll usually find a forum where people can help you with that. With American cars it’s usally a “platform forum.” IE: Panther platform, GM W-Body, Chrysler LX, GM B-Body, ect. These guys can be invaluable to helping you keep a vehicle on the road. Christ, Allpar even has an Aspen/Volare forum.
I used to have an entire fleet of 1968 full size Chevrolets around as either projects or parts cars. Always came in handy, and turned some coin on selling parts (and eventually what was left as one big lot).
Now it’s about hoarding the parts for the GS that can’t be easily found – plastic grille, trim, scoops, etc. But one day I suspect I’ll have to find a Skylark or Special and hide it someplace…
So yeah, right there with ya.
The absolute need for parts cars pretty much have gone away with the advent of the internet, upull it places, and computerized junk yards. You can both buy and sell off parts quickly. I have seen this with some older model cars in upull it places as body parts are quickly stripped for purchase at upullit prices and then resell for profit to that brand/model vehicle enthusiast market. Often now there are reproduction businesses making better parts for specialty models than can even be found on parts cars and at cheaper prices than dealerships if the part is even still available.
The outlawing of storing unregistered vehicles on properties also put the brakes on parts car storage.
One issue is that many times the same parts failed on the parts cars but they could help supply usable cores for replacement parts to install on the primary car. Parts cars are/were best when replacing crash damaged components or upgrading interiors (sport model bucket seats in place of cheap stripper model bench seats).
http://www.car-part.com
Unsure if still done nowadays…
met a bloke in the early 90s who would buy a junked (for various reasons) “keeper car” such as a Nissan “Z” car and part it out and sell the parts on eBay.
He lived in an apartment with off-site management that was lax in rule enforcement so his covered assigned parking spot was where the junker sat as he pulled pieces/parts as eBay sales steadily reduced the vehicle to its component parts.
After the parts sales reduced the entity to non-salable pieces/parts a short trip via trailer-behind-the-pick-up to the near-by scrapper yielded a small amount for scrap value and off to the orient, eventually, likely China, went the husk/hulk now shredded into bite-sized chunks.
The bloke declared the income for his endeavors assisted making up for the steadily declining wages and ever-increasing rents and general cost-of-living us working-poor were experiencing in California.
Wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he eventually joined the exodus out of California to re-enter the USA.
Where to begin – the whole topic of the modern salvage facility is absolutely fascinating, the finances of the operation, the environmental angle, the etiquette of car stripping, this could be a whole series. As a new owner of a rare and temperamental car (Peugeot 504) I have become a regular at what my daughter calls “the dump” but what i call “the salvage emporium”. Today’s modern facilities with on-line inventories (at least at Pick n Pull if you have one in your area) are a marvel and a joy to visit. It is truely amazing to me that I can regularly find 35+ yo French cars to dismantle, and I’m not alone. I arrived a few weeks ago to remove door panels from a ’76 504 and found someone already removing a fuel injector, what are the chances? These yards to some extent elimiante the need for a parts car although vehicles do turn over fairly rapidly near me (seems to be every 6 months) so instead of a parts car I’m amassing a parts bin. And i agree with Mr lang, these facilites do more to help the working class than any tax cut or car buying incentive could ever do. Also +1 Steve for the car-part link, I may finally find the radiator I need
Good for you for your dedication to your hobby/transportation. You brought back memories of the ZZ Top album cover for “Recycler.” http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ex9Eb1u3NUg/S__xUL5Wk7I/AAAAAAAAATs/apVkBqLUA1Y/s1600/Recycler.jpg Wicked!
1-800-Radiator
Just got two new ones for an Insight and 95 Stealth for $88 and $98. But that’s a commercial price.
In my early 20’s I ran a $400 heap (Ford Escort) to the local commuter rail station and back every day. I would pillaged various junk yards for parts to keep her running, but being the ultimate tight-wad I am, even that wasn’t cheap enough. And then one winters day I noticed that parked in the disused rail yard at the next station down was an identical car. For weeks it sat there until some local bright sparks smashed in the windscreen and the side windows. That was all the incentive I needed. I went down there the following evening with my tools and stripped off absolutely anything I could carry. Seats/interior trim/switches/alternator/starter motor, you name it I took it. I even took the head off and one of the back doors to replace my rusty one. Needless to say this treasure trove of free parts served my own car for a good year or two after that. To this day the remains of the abandoned Ford Escort still sits there completely overgrown with brambles.
What would folks recommend I do with an old 1997 Mercury Sable. It’s the nice one (power seats, leather, the upgraded stereo), but I suspect it has the dodgy tranny. It’s very low mileage (under 90k), and in pretty good shape, save for cosmetic damage to one door where my wife’s ex-bf clipped a pole back before she and I got together. There’s no rust that I can detect (mmm, california) and it runs, though it’s been sitting for the past 6 months or so, and probably needs a new battery.
I’d been thinking about donating it, since we’re moving across the country soon, but would it be better to try to craigslist it for $2k or so?
Sell it and be totally honest about what’s wrong with it OR if you could find a guy with a body shop who buys cars like yours to fix up and sell… then you’d be in business. (I only bring up that option cause that’s how my father aquired a 1987 Oldsmoblie in the early 90s. Old lady clipped a pole, she was done driving, gentelman with body shop steps in, buys it for a song, fixes it and sells it to my Dad. He got to see before and after pics of it too.)
I always thought “Under Achieva” would have been a more appropriate name for this turd.
I am in the process of fixing up a e30 BMW. The pick n pulls have been invaluable for me in getting a lot of small parts on the cheap. I scored a sweet set of bilstein rear shocks last weekend. I am headed back to grab a volvo spoiler to replace my missing lip spoiler.
I actually bought one of these used with 50,000 miles on it around 1995 or so. It was still a better riding and handling car than my 07 Cobalt. Quieter on the highway, too. As I recall, I had no major malfunctions on it other than the ignition coil going bad once and a front brake job. The paint faded pretty quickly. The pic is exactly how my ’92 looked, the maroon color, the plastic front bumper with the chrome strip, etc. I drove it for 4 years and added 80 thousand miles to the odometer and traded it in 1999.
Parts cars are pretty cool. Back in the day, my Reliant was hit by a woman and “totaled”. I bought it back from the insurance company by a $300 deduction from my settlement, wich now totaled $2000. I bought a same color Reliant for $500, transferred the crash parts and proceeded to strip out the car for future repairs. I donated the hulk to charity for a tax deduction and had plenty of parts just in case. The car was really reliable so I didn’t need most of them. When the car blew a head gasket at 254K, I donated that one to charity as well and sold most of the parts from the parts car online. I drove that Reliant for free. Living at home back then, my mother was pretty cool for letting me hide a parts car in such a wealthy suburb. Since I drove that car from 77K to 254K for nothing, I treated myself to a nice upgrade, a ’88 Mark VII LSC. Parts cars rule!!
I think you can get addicted to the smell of junkyard cars: a mix of rancid oil and moldy interiors.
I know someone who, when he needs to do a repair on his car and isn’t familiar with how to do it, tries it first at a pull-a-part. He calls it “practicing”. I’m not comfortable with the idea, but it does seem clever.
Jeffer, there are a number of lots on Mitchell Island that have older cars. I’ve gotten items for our 1990 sedan at the yard just east of the Knight St. Bridge.
When you own 40+ year old cars without a lot of aftermarket repop support, a good parts car can be a lifesaver. I’m lucky enough that a friend of mine has a farm and has turned one of his fields into his own wrecking yard. If I can get it out there, he’s okay with me storing the occasional parts car in his field.
My first VW Rabbit became a parts car for my 2nd Rabbit. My GMC van became a parts truck for my dad’s Suburban (both 6.2L diesels). Then I bought a 1973 Chrysler New Yorker because I wanted to swap the disc brake system into my 66. Then I acquired two 1966 Chrysler sedans, both had spent most of their life down south so the bodies were very good. If I had had both of those at the same time, I would’ve had enough parts to restore one of them except: front and rear glass, and a transmission.
Nice Stuff.
Its worth use when you have the cars like more than 30 to 40 years.
Its always needed to pull them to some pick a part or junkyard.
There are people with so many set up in junkyard.I feel the good one in my area is nevada pick a part with airheads.
http://www.nvpicapart.com/.