our junk yard has one regal and one malibu (along with a few valuables). recently a junk yard closed selling all 150+ cars for a profit of 250,000 dollars. Selling it scrap makes a lot more sence than selling it peice by peice, because there is no known fact how long something could take to sell. this is a bad time to start building hot-rods...
Junkyard Goodness!
- Thread starter 85 Cutlass Brougham
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The yard I go to buys stuff essentially at a scrap rate, and cycles through it quickly. Cars are lucky to be there for 4 weeks before they are crushed. However, I live in a large metropolitan area so there are plenty of cars getting junked all the time. So, you get a constant new stock of crap to go through and hope to find what you need. They will not pull any parts for you either, you have to bring your own tools and do it yourself. Around here, G bodies were bought in large numbers by retirees, so you occasionally find one that was garage kept since new. They get junked by out of state family members when the owners die, rather than having to deal with selling off an old car they see as having little monetary value. Many of the interior parts donors I have stripped I suspect came from a similar situation. I have several pieces of almost every interior plastic part that I have managed to collect over the years. I keep them because of the increasing scarcity of these items, and with the knowledge that I may need them in the future.
I will also add that my junkyarding days tend to be an adventure as the nearest good one is 35 miles from where I live. So, I can drive over 200 miles in a day to visit all of the better yards between St. Petersburg, Tampa and Clearwater. I wind up seeing the better part of 3 counties to do it ( Pasco, Pinellas, and Hillsborough). It may not be easy, and I may spend $40 on gas that day, but it is the best chance i have at finding parts I need at a price I can afford.
I will also add that my junkyarding days tend to be an adventure as the nearest good one is 35 miles from where I live. So, I can drive over 200 miles in a day to visit all of the better yards between St. Petersburg, Tampa and Clearwater. I wind up seeing the better part of 3 counties to do it ( Pasco, Pinellas, and Hillsborough). It may not be easy, and I may spend $40 on gas that day, but it is the best chance i have at finding parts I need at a price I can afford.
Re: G bodys in Knoxville Junk Yard
Up Here in North East Mass., I have 2 yards I frequent once a week.
Most of the time there are at least 3 g-bodies in them and sometimes as many as 8. Presently, my Fave yard has 2 Elcaminos, a Cutlass 2 dr and 4 dr. a 2 dr. Regal, a Grand prix and an SS Monte Carlo.
They come in about once a week, and some cars have little to no rust on them. Even the rear frame rails are good to excellent on some of them!
Many of the cars have been sitting in peoples back yards for awhile before they are scrapped. So probably people saying they will get around to fixing them and never get to it.
I think I figured it out, up here we have a lot of retirees that bought these cars and many probably garaged them and didn't drive them in the winter (some probably snow birds and drive or fly to Florida) and I know that to be true as i asked a couple elders that still have their g-body's here in town, and that is pretty much the story I got from them so most of the winter they would take the town bus or car pool with a younger elder or relative.
I have also seen in my Fave yard this past year: 73 Satellite sebring, 70 Chevelle SS, 80 something Shelby Charger (someone bought it whole so didn't get crushed), 64 T-bird and 70 t-bird with 428?, 2 64-66 mustang, a 70 mustang, 69 Road runner (stripped, still W/dash tag!), 70 firebird, MG's, Bettle's, Saab sonnets (3 of them in one day, came from a garage, most complete), corvairs, a couple of 65-70 Impalas, 54 Chevy, And countless other plain jane cars from the 70's like Nova's, Omega's, Mavricks, mid 70's A-bodys even a 76 AMC 2dr Matador and a I am sure I am missing some as I am really not interested in the Fords or most of the foreign stuff, so I don't frequent those areas. Interestingly, they set aside an area of the yard for the old stuff that comes in, and if you ask them to keep it for awhile, they will. I have seen cars sit there from 4 weeks to several months.
I tend to be choosey about what I buy as sometimes there is not enough time, money or space for everything i would like to grab. They also have a $50 all you can carry day twice a year and some people store parts in areas of the yard for that day.
I think we have been lucky and I don't suspect this will last much longer, but I still see the G-bodies on the road up here as everyday drivers. I saw an 84 (rusty) 2dr Cutlass creamed in an accident one block from my house 4 months ago even.
I bought my 87 cutlass v-6 2dr. out of that yard and it had 45k original miles that just needed brake lines and some suspension work. Paint was a bit faded, but the car was in excellent condition, and needed nothing else. No body or frame rot at all, Perfect interior, and almost perfect headliner, and the AC still works also. I couldn't believe my luck that day, especially as they didn't put any cars on top of it yet. And the glove box had all kinds of paperwork and a copy of the original owners title who only put 26k miles on it in the first 12 years before they sold it.
Up Here in North East Mass., I have 2 yards I frequent once a week.
Most of the time there are at least 3 g-bodies in them and sometimes as many as 8. Presently, my Fave yard has 2 Elcaminos, a Cutlass 2 dr and 4 dr. a 2 dr. Regal, a Grand prix and an SS Monte Carlo.
They come in about once a week, and some cars have little to no rust on them. Even the rear frame rails are good to excellent on some of them!
Many of the cars have been sitting in peoples back yards for awhile before they are scrapped. So probably people saying they will get around to fixing them and never get to it.
I think I figured it out, up here we have a lot of retirees that bought these cars and many probably garaged them and didn't drive them in the winter (some probably snow birds and drive or fly to Florida) and I know that to be true as i asked a couple elders that still have their g-body's here in town, and that is pretty much the story I got from them so most of the winter they would take the town bus or car pool with a younger elder or relative.
I have also seen in my Fave yard this past year: 73 Satellite sebring, 70 Chevelle SS, 80 something Shelby Charger (someone bought it whole so didn't get crushed), 64 T-bird and 70 t-bird with 428?, 2 64-66 mustang, a 70 mustang, 69 Road runner (stripped, still W/dash tag!), 70 firebird, MG's, Bettle's, Saab sonnets (3 of them in one day, came from a garage, most complete), corvairs, a couple of 65-70 Impalas, 54 Chevy, And countless other plain jane cars from the 70's like Nova's, Omega's, Mavricks, mid 70's A-bodys even a 76 AMC 2dr Matador and a I am sure I am missing some as I am really not interested in the Fords or most of the foreign stuff, so I don't frequent those areas. Interestingly, they set aside an area of the yard for the old stuff that comes in, and if you ask them to keep it for awhile, they will. I have seen cars sit there from 4 weeks to several months.
I tend to be choosey about what I buy as sometimes there is not enough time, money or space for everything i would like to grab. They also have a $50 all you can carry day twice a year and some people store parts in areas of the yard for that day.
I think we have been lucky and I don't suspect this will last much longer, but I still see the G-bodies on the road up here as everyday drivers. I saw an 84 (rusty) 2dr Cutlass creamed in an accident one block from my house 4 months ago even.
I bought my 87 cutlass v-6 2dr. out of that yard and it had 45k original miles that just needed brake lines and some suspension work. Paint was a bit faded, but the car was in excellent condition, and needed nothing else. No body or frame rot at all, Perfect interior, and almost perfect headliner, and the AC still works also. I couldn't believe my luck that day, especially as they didn't put any cars on top of it yet. And the glove box had all kinds of paperwork and a copy of the original owners title who only put 26k miles on it in the first 12 years before they sold it.
Hey Johnny , I live in North Knoxville ( Halls ) the junk yard is up interstate 40 east to Rutledge Pike. I visited the Grand Prix again yesterday and got the crome strip's for the bumbers a hood emblem two window stops for the door glass and spent less than $5.00
Poncho-gp said:
That place is about the best thing to happen to Knoxville in a while.
I need to get up there and get a rearend, a door , and hopefully new grills for the cutty.
I'm also in North Knox(Schaad Rd)., though I'm moving to West Knox next month.
What'd the Gran Prix look like, I'm still on the lookout for my GP that got stolen 5 years ago. Up until a few years ago I would see it drive around town...
i must be in heaven then, because there are probably ten or more of both cutlasses and regals, 5 or 6 el caminos, 3 grand prixs, a few montes, and tons of chevelles, but i bet you couldnt make one good chevelle if you combined them all. camaros and firebirds everywhere, a few fieros. whenever i am bored, i just drive the 3 or 4 miles to the yard.
I love going to the local salvage yards its like some kind of demented vacation for me. Unfortunately the only u pick we have got the owner does circle track racing with our beloved g bodies thankfully if the frame is shot or if the car was totaled you can pick apart the car as much as you'd like but unfortunately windows down and indiana rust are prominent g body killers
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