The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk what happened to junk yards?

Well I went to three junkyards in the central NJ/ bucks County PA area to find a 73-87 chevy sway bar to put on my 70 GMC and couldn't find a truck! There was only 1 GM full size truck in all the lots combined and the front end was totaled! It seems they crush cars and trucks sooner than later. So much for wandering through scrap yards looking for parts. I dont want to have to order a new sway bar when the old ones bolt right in but it looks inevitable.

Mac

Those yards probably contain newer model, high demand stuff. Just like a store, these places need to turn inventory.

You need to come out to A to Z U Pull It near Leesport, PA on Rt 61. There is another real good one near Hazelton on I-81, Can't remember the name but it also has lots of old & new. You can see they have a bunch of cars stacked 50 feet high as a sign along I-81.

There are national co-ops that you can check with that have computerized lists of parts. Check with them. I wouldn't doubt if 70's trucks are crushed, but there should be 80s still around in some yards.

The high scrap prices last year sent a lot of stuff to the crusher. I can't really blame the salvage yards. I am actually a licensed salvage dealer, but not very active. I buy wrecked trucks like our over the road trucks for parts. When the price of scrap got higher than what they had a chance of ever parting them out, one cannot blame them for crushing. And of course, the older the vehicle, the more metal.

In addition to that, there's also the lack of demand for the older parts. Most yards seem to want to go with the quick turnaround, and will only keep late models, then scrap any old vehicles that come in. Unfortunatly, they only see the scrap metal value, not the parts value. Fortunatly in my area, I still have a few yards that see the true value in vintage parts, and do not crush vintage iron.
BTW, even some of the "vintage parts specialist" yards out in CA only keep a car for about 2 weeks before they crush it, whether it's been stripped of usable parts or not. Shame, really.

http://www.wegotused.com/ I live within 20min of the hazleton yard. Im pretty sure you would find what your looking for there.

Thanks for the info. Loks like I'll be heading to hazelton!

mac

Im there quite a bit, sometimes once a week. Every week they are putting out new rows of vehicles, usually right before the weekend. Trucks of all makes are put in their own section and its right as you walk in. Cars are organized by make for the domestic (gm, ford, dodge), foreign makes are all thrown in one area.

Prices are really good too. $2 for admission and except for a few parts, nothing over $100. Looking at my price list, a sway bar goes for about $13.

They use to have a section (actually still do) that had alot of 70's and older vehicles that if you ask you could get parts from, but someone bought all the vehicles and any more that come in. Now no one is allowed in. Sucks too because there are a few AD trucks in there.

leon's in leon, va. 10 acres with an alpha-neumeric map, and an ancient, very smelly, blind/deaf dog. strict hours and rules, but tools are welcome. many parts are already pulled and inventoried. wholesale pricing in the am, mon-fri, 8am-3pm. sat 8am-noon. gates closed 12-1. and the other dogs are let loose after closing. 'quirky' but good guy. straight up, no fuss, no muss
540-547-2366

What is going to happen now with the government offering $4500 to scrap out your old fuel guzzler for a new high efficent vehicle? Are they going to reduce these to little metal hunks??

We can't let this post get political. As long as we only list places where old truck parts can be found the post can stay open.

I bet some of those folks that had all of those 60's muscle cars crushed in the 80's an 90's are kicking their own rears when the see what vintage iron can bring now.

Anyone ever thought of putting together a list by state and saving it on here for future refernce? Just a thought....

I think Hemmings used to have a junkyard guide for collectors I am not sure if it is still published. Out here you still find good ones in rural areas but not near the big cities.

i know there are still a few in north eastern kansas, but pretty picked over. last year when the price of scrap got so high thats what happened to a couple around me

Leon's - "the walking man's friend"

As it says on the front of the main building here 'tis

I pass by Leon's four times a year. He kept me running for six years, 1969-1975. He sold me a 261 in 1972. I think his son runs the yard now - he was just a small boy when I got the 261.

Here in Central Illiniois we still have a few junkyards. The bad thing is that most only deal with late model stuff. If you're looking for anything older than about a 1990, good luck. If you are doing a drivetrain swap I guess it's o.k. On a rare occasion you can find someone with a classic, I spotted a 48 C.O.E. awhile back at one. Of course, the price wasn't all that nice. It's sad to say, but they're almost a thing of the past.

I have ben helping friends clean up a private 1947/55 junkyard and as much as I posted and talked to people, only a hand full came out to the place. This week we are starting to scrap the rest of the yard. We will be scrapping over 50 heads, twenty engines and parts that you will have a hard time finding anywhere.

It's a shame, but with the economy as bad as it is and it could be worse in the future, people just don't have the money to buy. The old junkyards will survive by scraping what they have left.

Most of the old junk yards have long been closed because of suburbia creeping up on them and the EPA Regulations becoming stricter. A lot of the restrictions proved to be too costly for the old timers and they just scrapped out the old hulks. The regulators have required the yards to put in secondary containments for oil, pave their lots with asphalt or crushed granite, fence the entire lot with 8' fences and limit the traffic by big trucks. Deal Auto wrecker in Richmond California is one of the last in the area that has thirties and forties cars and trucks. There are a few old 50's in there too.

I know that when the last piece of iron from the yard goes to the scrapper, I will be kicking myself for not getting more parts, but the reality is, I can't keep stock piling this stuff anymore.

My 85 yr old neighbor was telling me about a junk yard that he and some buddies went to in the late to early 60's here in Nebraska. I went to look on google earth and sure enough, its still there and seems to be in business - looks to be about a 1/4 section. His son has a 40 acre place too just north of him. I can't wait to go poke around.

As for many scrap yards the old ones are run out of business by EPA or DNR because of water run off, In Topeka Ks just south of town was a junk yard near the NHRA tracks and one further down the road on a farm, the first one was shut down because EPA said the water runoff was endangering the cattle next door, he started that yard just after WW2 and had things like a whole row of 49 to 51 Mercs. a whole row of model A's and so on, I sure miss yards like that, the guy down the road is still there but they got on him too and all his good stuff is gone, the only place left to find this stuff is in a desert area where they can't figure out how to shut them down....yet, I used to go to the airport with my brother and he would have a map of the area he wanted to search, he would pay a guy that needed air time and we would do a grid search from the air, it's amazing what you find in your own back yard you never knew was there.

It seems they crush pretty much everything in Massachusetts that's older the 1995. I go online or to Maine if I want salvage parts.

Hey,its a business,and the owners are in it to make money.that means crushing when the price is high.Around here the yards are pretty much limited to 8 yr.old vehicles,the older ones are gone by the way of the crusher.

Here's some pictures of what is available at Desert Valley Auto Parts in AZ. Starting with the 7th picture is the old Wiseman's lot in Casa Grande. Then near the end of page 3 we move to one of their yards north of Phoenix they wouldn't let us tour then on page 4, their Phoenix yard.

Two years to late, but did you ever find that place?

I held a salvage dealer's license for many years. I didn't renew it last year because I didn't want to comply with the new regulations. And I am regulated enough with my gas stations and trucks. I am keeping all my old jalopy parts, but everything else is going which includes parts from about 1985 to 2005. So far I have been hauling mostly axles, axle housings and springs with an 18' bumper hitch trailer because that sort of stuff is too hard to strap down and my flatbeds have aluminum floors. I had one load to go over $1000 that graded mixed iron. I haven't even started on the aluminum yet. There is not much incentive to keep stuff with those prices.

They crush everything here too. I was looking for a radiator for my 54 and they didn't have anything to fit it. The man got on the phone and called the other yards and none of them had one either.