Some salvage yards send customers to look for their own parts and some of them can tell you exactly what they have in stock. If you go to a yard that requires you to find your own replacement parts take along a friend, a tape measure, and a cell phone. There are a lot of junk cars in the big lots and you are going to need to make sure you do not get lost or injured while you are looking through them all. Since you will not know the system the business uses to store these vehicles it will be easy for you to get confused and miss the ones that might contain what you need.
One of the classic stories about my dad is his first vehicle. Because his mom certainly could not afford to buy him a car, and the money he made on side jobs and summer employment was not going to get him a car, he got very crafty. He went to the junkyard, bought four junk vehicles, and took the good parts to form one working vehicle. Every time he needed maintenance done, he would go to the patriot gmc and either find the part in good condition or refurbish a semi-decent part. Through all this work, he became very good at truck repair, which made him very proud. He tells stories about cruising around town with his brother in tow like the two of them were the president and vice president in this beat up old Ford.
Contact local salvage yards. Most any clunker whether it is running or not is worth something. If your car is still running, then it is worth more than one that is not. Search online for local salvage yards and make contact. Get a price for your car and learn how much it will cost you to have it towed or driven away.
Some people get confused between a salvage yard and a recycling yard. There is a similarity here, but most people find there are more advantages with going to a salvage yard. It depends on the part that you want for your car because that will often determine where you go. Cars are totally destroyed at a salvage yard and people can then retrieve what is left. This is of course at your own risk. The parts here are also less expensive. Cars at a salvage yard are not categorized or stripped. A recycled yard stocks cars and parts which are more in a reconditioned state.
When people dump their used cars off at an auto parts recycler, they are freeing up precious space in the almost overflowing landfills. It doesn’t make sense to throw something away, when it can still be used. If you pick the part from a used car, you are going to be getting an actual manufacturer’s part; no knock-offs here. You can rest assured that the parts recyclers will know which parts are usable, and which parts are actually junk.
Almost everyone have their own garbage pick up but most of the time they won’t take your old auto parts, maybe because of its heaviness. You still have an option, by placing your old auto parts out of your fence among the rest of your recyclables, so your pick up won’t have any other choice but to take them, if they can obviously. However, if the auto parts remain and not taken by the truck, then something is wrong you have to do something about it. Then take them into your car or whatever means you have, bring it down to the recycling center, but make sure you’ve called the administrator or the manager. Make an appointment, get the schedule on when they are accepting craps like the one you have to find out if that’s the right place to drop off your trash.
Mark Barnard and I were talking about a new account we are coaching and training. We were talking about the new client’s database, lead generation practices, follow-up and organization. Mark described it as a “Lead Generation Junkyard”. The client’s database consisted of a disorganized mess; a collection of leads with no priority assigned, follow-up dates or source noted. Yet, it is a large database of leads. Even Linder’s was quite organized and I’m sure that’s why, at least at one point, they were the biggest in the world.
Today, everything is computerized with each item stored within a database. Every radiator, passenger seat, water pump, and stereo knob can be accounted for with a few clicks of a button. If you need to find a specific item, you won’t be forced to spend hours digging through a dirty lot. Just ask an attendant to check the database. What’s more, a lot of salvage yards are now connected through a network. If one location cannot find a component in their database, they can check the databases of other locations.
2) The other type of yard is a buyer and reseller of salvaged items from demolition companies, remodeling home owners, builders, private parties. These I call “Secondaries”.
