Bone yard observation
 

The two times I've been to a pull-a-part I found half the parts I wanted just sitting in or near the cars.

Seems some other part dismantlers needed to remove the parts to get what they wanted.

(Or maybe they realized they were being greedy and left some for the rest of us...)

Is this a common situation for others?

Sometimes you get a HUGE selection
 

I used to have an old '86 Chevy Cavalier wagon, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, that I'd picked up for $325 at the San Francisco abandoned/towed car auction to fix up and use for a city car - a beater.

Once or twice I went to a yard for some parts, and man.....you should have seen all the junked Cavaliers, Firenzas, J2000s, Skyhawks, Cimarrons, and Sunbirds lying around.:D

Those J body GM cars were REALLY plentiful at the junkyards, you could get anything you needed, there were so many to choose from.
Hell, I even got parts that were the same "COLOR" of my car.

Tick, tick, tick,.......They were destined for the junkyards, all of them, from new. Just a question of when they got there. Just about all of them have made it there by now.

It happens to me alot.

Several years ago, I visited a local salvage-yard, searching for a righthand door mirror for my beater '84 Accord. Of course they were missing from all the similar Accords in the yard. As I was leaving, I spotted the correct Honda mirror on the front seat of an '88 Accord. Someone must have left it there when they saw it wouldn't fit an '88 model.

Last year, while hauling some Mercedes seats for a friend, I badly scratched the faux-wood dash-trim in my Nissan Altima. Looking in the same local yard for something else, I spotted an identical trim piece laying on the floor in an Altima. Was suprised to find it unbroken and in perfect condition. Looked like it had been pulled to get at the radio or climate controls. So often, when people remove trim to get at something, they just rip it out and destroy it!

More recently I found an excellent wood-trimmed ashtray, missing the lighter, to replace the gouged & chipped one in my '82 240D, as well as a good factory dash speaker, and some spare switches. All laying on the floor of a 300TD.

I found the missing lighter in a nearby Saab!

Happy Motoring, Mark

So it's you thats been taking my parts!!!!!!!!! :P

When I pull parts, I often set them inside the trunk of a nearby vehicle so I don't have to carry it around the yard. When I'm done browsing, I'll retrieve the parts in my hidden trunk and take them up to the counter. There has been a time or two where some of my parts disappeared.......

If there are parts just sitting loose inside the vehicle and somebody else is still tinkering around on that vehicle when you came to it, please ask if those are their parts.

in a busy yard like the one I frequent the cars get crushed in less than a month, so I grab what I can quickly, sometimes the parts that are 'in the way' of the part that I want are not treated nicely.

I once removed a entire dash board from an 89 dodge colt(mitsubish mirage) hatch

Let me say not only was it a pita but I did not damage one thing while doing so.. When I brought it to the desk and they said 300$. I was like.. wtf the old guy said 100$.. So in my pissed of state I just put it back in the car for the next sucker... (I bought a dash off a forum for the cars for 120 shipped)

Many, Many years ago, I accompanied a high school friend to a salvage yard in Alexandria. His older brother came along to 'help'.
One of the things my friend was looking for was a factory radio, for his '68 Volvo 145 wagon. Usually the yard got $10 for radios. My friend found a mono AM/FM Volvo Blaupunkt radio, but then we got to the yard office, his brother chimed in "Hey, that's FM!" loud enough for everyone to hear. The manager exclaimed "FM? - $45!". My friend was pissed and left without a radio that day.

Happy Motoring, Mark

I always like to look into the trunks of MB's - we have had a higher than normal rate of finding new fuel filters, oil filters and sometimes new parts that never were installed before the car was scrapped.

lol gee ya i got some stories

has a 87 accord always going to the recors for parts and such always take the time not to destroy the stuff i remove to get at somthing... and help other plp that are raiding another 3gee.. (3rd gen accord 86-89) knows more about 3geez then the 240d we got... witch me and my dad rescude from going to the recors.....the idiot owner was guna send it there for a tax right off had all new tires mint interior motor... origonal owner was a mercedes mechanic when he passed away the idiot owner inherited it... long story short the body died of rust but the guts live on in another 240d body :D

my bigest regreat at the reocrs was finding a 73 145 wagon that had been hit on the drivers side rear door had a set of like new fenders in the rear boot for both sides :( has a 72 145 with cancer needs another body for it's guts breaks my heart

did raid a set of rear tail lights that normal go for 40$ a pop but i also grabed the glove box and tossed all my loot into it and got it all for 5$ :D had like 150$ worth of loot lol

www.bucksautoparts.com < the recors i go to its a chane across canada owned by a steel mill in sask has price list on there site for parts

I am new to Nevada but know the pick-a-part, ecology, and other parts yards in southern california.

I have been told there is a PULL A PART" yard in or near Reno and another in Carson City. I have not been able to locate them.

Can anybody tell me how to find one, I have googled and yahoo yellow-paged a variety of names and phrases but have not been successfull.

I pull everything I can possible find that I need around the yard, and at the end, filter my pile down to what I need most and can afford. Usually, a pile of hard to find parts end up getting dumped in a hiding spot, and the rest in the back of some car (usually of the same model). I've had my hiding spots found and robbed several times... Often, it can be weeks or even a few months before I can get enough money to go back for the stuff, and then its gone!