Oh you can ask what he'll charge, he usually throws out a random number depending on how he feels that day, or if his *****y wife is in the office :V It's a well known fact if she's there, stash your part in the woods or the old VW bus that's been there forever and come back another day

After going there for years I have a good idea what his prices are. Two winters ago I needed a new engine block for one of my subarus, I showed up in a snow storm in February by myself... I had the engine block pulled and loaded in my car in like an hour. Dude was impressed so he gave it to me for $40. I've probably made hundreds at that yard when I'm there with a sawzall or a gas axe... From guys being pissed off and saying "give you $20 if you torch this part out for me"

Dan's comments are most appropriate !
Look at the thousands those yards save us... on parts AND on learning curves!
Is stealing $10 or $20 in parts worth the yard shutting down or setting up
really nasty prohibitive rules ??

I always thank them for what they do too. Seems to always get a smile going.

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1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

One of my friends in CT owns a yard where land is expensive. He pulls the vehicle into a shop, takes a video of the engine running then pulls the major parts,and enters the details in his inventory system. He stores the carcass stacked 1 car per bin until he crushes. Old cars frequently aren't worth the time has people don't fix them and\or are cheap.

The guys in TN aren't as strategic. They try to make money on the quick parts and what they get from scrapping.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

Sadly, the U.S. government's "Cash for Clunkers" program took a LOT of nice gently used Mercedes out of circulation. Every vintage Mercedes Benz owner lost on that deal and LOST BIG. Combine that B.S. with the EPA's riding herd on the PnP business and we are seeing an ever decreasing supply of parts available to us vintage Mercedes owners.

The goal? To push all of us out of the vintage car business into the new car business. Real steel bumpers are gone replaced by plastic bumpers; wood trim in the interior replaced by plastic 'fake' wood, the list goes on.

I know of several Mercedes Indie shop owners who were ordered by the City and/or EPA to get rid of their parts cars. One even had their cars hidden by a privacy fence and yet the City still screamed at him to 'get rid of those eye sores'.

Welcome to the 'new deal'.

This is why the smart junkyard owners insist on having their own parts pullers. Cutting, ripping, breaking and smashing wastes a lot of valuable parts.

There are tons of yards like that. And to be honest I have seen some "employed parts removers" completely mangle and destroy parts.

one was a case of removing the blower motor from a 1995 E420, the guy broke

the wiper cover
the wiper trays
cracked the glass wrestling the wiper mechanism out

in the end - he also cracked one fan wheel.

Lost 1 hour of my time. - I told the owner, next time I can teach your dude how to remove it correctly without breaking stuff.

Didnt bother - got a blower motor and swapped the old wheels onto it and soldered the wires to make it work.

These shops are in the business of newer model cars and parting them out for premium pricing. Useless for our cars.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Trouble round here is--Finding a W123 in a normal yard....

All are gone now, Last I saw was about 3 years ago, and I bagged the rear subframe, axle, trailing-arms, headlamps, front bumper and other useful goodies....
--I regret not taking the sunroof assembly--just as I watched the car being lifted by chains and it distorting outta shape, so I could remove the subframe....

There is a specialist very close to me in same city--With dozens of W123 in his yard. This guy is a sorta legend in MB circles in UK, a sorta self professed 'guru' on the W123. Even wrote a book on 'em.
--Sorta feller who cannot abide the thought of using anything other than genuine MB parts--and you speak utter heresy if you say you gonna change the engine for a different type!

His prices for parts however, make me cringe, earning him a nick-name in my house as 'Costa(female-dog).....

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http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...0TDnoplate.jpg

Alastair AKA H.C.II South Wales, U.K. based member

W123, 1985 300TD Wagon, 256K,
-Most recent M.B. purchase, Cost-a-plenty, Gulps BioDiesel extravagantly, and I love it like an old dog.

W114, 1975 280E Custard Yellow,
-Great above decks needs chassis welding--Really will do it this year....

The people that steal things from a yard are not that forward thinking. All they know is that they got over on the owner of the yard.

They are the same ones that:

Flick lit cigarettes out the window.

Stop 1/2 car or more over the stop bar at a traffic light.

Run up to a solid red light / stop sign then stand on the brakes.

Blow all their money on crap then complain that they don't have any at the end of the month.

HAHA I have some friends who think stealing stuff at yards is a good idea, and this pretty much sums it up.

I can sometimes see both sides of the coin, though. An out of state yard I used to frequent would charge $5 for relays, 5-10 for basic switches and stuff. Prices you'd pay at a store, so people steal them. If they were priced more reasonably people may be more apt to pay for such small items.

More of a hyperbole than a description of how I go about the task... I don't know anyone that goes around doing those things dude.

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'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
http://badges.fuelly.com/images/sig-us/302601.png
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/a...0/sideview.png

At my yard, there's a guy who charges you for every little thing. I pissed him off because I bought those 8 hole rims you see on my car in my sig and he was going to buy them at the end of that day. Tough, he should have said something before they put the car on the yard. The other employees will give me things for free if they're small. I got a fuel pressure relief valve for free just recently, and I routinely get clips, hardware, small interior parts, and relays for free. It makes up for the ridiculous pricing on some parts...

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'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
http://badges.fuelly.com/images/sig-us/302601.png
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/a...0/sideview.png

There are two yards with in reasonable driving distance that I habit, one more than the other. The larger yard has cars for around 6 weeks to 2 months before they are crushed. They seem to operate on volume, as their part prices are cheaper than most yards I have visited. The second yard is more out of the way and smaller. They seem picky about people pulling parts, and their prices can be 3 times the price of the larger yard. They don't get the traffic either. I paid about 4 times more for a drivers window from them compared to the large yard, but they had it, and the large yard didn't have a 123 body at the time.

I also had a chance to watch the small yard pulling parts. They rammed the forks of a large front end loader through the windshield of a minivan, and rammed it against a rr boxcar to loosen things up. I was aghast. I wanted the tranny out of the 123, and was able to get them to let me pull it myself, which was a real policy departure for them. They went so far as to put the car on a lift, and the ready to retire owner "helped" me. What a joy to work under a lift!

Two different business models.

Regards,

W.

Condensed, they're thieves. Plain and simple. They steal because they have no respect for the yard's rules.