This was me earlier today:
Let me explain. This morning I trailered my GP to my exhaust shop and dropped it off. As I mentioned in another thread, my guy has a couple sets of new-in-box headers and he offered to see if either set might be a better fit than what I have tried to make fit (but doesn't). Full of promise, once I left his shop I headed further from home to check out a wrecking yard that might have some of the pulleys and brackets I need to mount my v-belt accessories to my engine.
I have been to this wrecking yard many times, but my last visit was
at least 12 years ago. I forgot a lot of things about this place, such as their complete lack of organization. This place doesn't arrange their cars in neat, orderly rows--they don't have time for any prissy stuff like that. Instead, cars are scattered all over the place--usually tightly packed, cheek to jowl, and often three or even four vehicles high--and you have to wander through the entire property to try and find that hidden gem you seek. But even if you find a potential vehicle, you've got to hope that it is in an accessible location or else you're screwed. From a treasure hunter's perspective, it's great. If you're in a hurry, it kinda sucks.
Anyway, I was looking for a big block truck (or car, but I figured a truck would be more likely) that was old enough to not have a serpentine belt setup... and one that had everything intact on the engine. Yeah, yeah, I know--fat chance. But I was at least going to put in an effort and search. So I wandered their entire yard. This often required climbing onto and/or over vehicles, so maybe I could count this as parkour practice.
Way off in the distance--against the fence, stacked on another vehicle, surrounded by other stacks of cars--
I found it:
There was my unicorn--a v-belt 454 with a completely intact engine (less the carb, but who cares). For a second, I thought I heard angelic cries from above as the sun shone down upon it. And while I was able to climb up onto that not-at-all-stable blue Blazer to confirm it was a 454, there was no way I'd be able to remove my needed treasures from that location. I was like the kid in that poster, staring up at my pie in the sky.
Back at the front desk, I explained my predicament to the dude running the place. He was not very sympathetic. "It's not really worth us moving cars around for a couple $5 or $10 items." Having no other choice, I began to beg. He eventually relented, and said he'd radio his guy who was out in the yard right now, using a giant mechanized pivoting forklift to move a different vehicle for a different hapless customer trying to buy a center section out of a differential in some imported SUV. Yes!
Mr. Forklift eventually completed his current task, then graciously followed me across the yard to move a few vehicles for me. Once the truck was on the ground and away from anything unstable, he went on his way back to the front of the yard. I opened the hood and took in the beautiful view:
I almost cried, I was so happy. It was the
exact configuration I wanted to create: long-nose water pump with the alternator at the upper left and power steering pump on the bottom right, and nothing else. "I don't care if I'm late to work," I said out loud to nobody. "I am not leaving this place until I've picked the front of this engine clean."
And even though I did end up being 40 minutes late to work, I didn't care. I got every nut, bolt, washer, spacer, bracket and pulley I needed for my engine... and it all only set me back a measly twenty bucks.
I'm going back to this yard more often.
