Speaker 1: Welcome to car Stuff, a production of I Heeart Radio's
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hi, and welcome to car Stuff. I'm
Speaker 1: your host Scott Benjamin and I am Kurt Garren and
Speaker 1: we are a man down today. Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: I guess we're not gonna have been in the studio
Speaker 1: with it. He got that escape and he skipped down.
Speaker 1: He did. He was mentioning the escape, wasn't he. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's part of what's going on today.
Speaker 1: It just for so fans know he will be back.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's just taking the day off really, so
Speaker 1: he might be gone today, might be gone for our
Speaker 1: next show, who knows one or two. But um, he
Speaker 1: definitely will be back. He's just outrunning some marins are
Speaker 1: doing doing some important stuff. And he always gets into
Speaker 1: some some crazy adventures when he goes out. So and
Speaker 1: he sometimes I'll tell you about him. And then sometimes
Speaker 1: he's real cryptic, you know, sometimes keeping things close. Sometimes
Speaker 1: he could be a little yeah, close to the vest,
Speaker 1: or a little sketchy sometimes when he when he says
Speaker 1: what he's doing. But but I mean this is something
Speaker 1: actually that the Ben and I in the past have
Speaker 1: had a I know we've had several conversation aations about
Speaker 1: what we're gonna talk about today, and I felt that,
Speaker 1: you know, since it's just you and I, maybe we
Speaker 1: could have a similar conversation or kind of a revamp
Speaker 1: of that with some maybe some new information, maybe just
Speaker 1: some different stories to kind of pass around. But we're
Speaker 1: gonna be talking about junkyards, and I guess in the
Speaker 1: same sense salvage yards. It's all the same thing, really,
Speaker 1: but junkyards and salvage yards today. And Kurt I asked
Speaker 1: you off air if you had much experience with junk
Speaker 1: yards in the past, and you said, not necessarily, is
Speaker 1: that right? Yeah, And I don't personally, but growing up
Speaker 1: in the South, you meet those folks that are I mean,
Speaker 1: I say this with affection, but um, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the junker types and they go they visit the salvage
Speaker 1: yard to find those parts that everyone hopes they find
Speaker 1: when they go to the salvage yards, you know, the
Speaker 1: parts that are desirable. Now, these are the treasure seekers
Speaker 1: that you're you're talking about. Yeah, I understand, you know
Speaker 1: the people that And again, not in any way disparaging
Speaker 1: people to go to junkyards because I am one or
Speaker 1: I used to be one that would love of to
Speaker 1: kind of hang out in junkyards and gather things and
Speaker 1: find things and and try to at least do my
Speaker 1: best to do that. I never really found any gems
Speaker 1: along the way. I never found anything that was really
Speaker 1: worth uh, you know, hanging on the wall or anything.
Speaker 1: If I, if I looked harder when I was younger,
Speaker 1: I would still have some of those things that now
Speaker 1: would be classic items that would be great to have
Speaker 1: on the garage wall. You know, like maybe some old
Speaker 1: offenders or maybe you know, a grill or something. But
Speaker 1: at the time, you know, you're looking at the stuff
Speaker 1: and it's like it's not really old at that point.
Speaker 1: But now he would be classic parts. It would be
Speaker 1: something that you know, you would look back at with
Speaker 1: nostalgia of some sort. But you know, I would find um,
Speaker 1: you know, I would try to stop at places, you know,
Speaker 1: along the way. If I was taking a road trip,
Speaker 1: i'd you know, I was on my own I was
Speaker 1: on my own schedule as well. I'd be able to
Speaker 1: pull off and you know check out the local junkyard
Speaker 1: and you know, these small towns that I go through,
Speaker 1: and you know, even if it's just well, I always
Speaker 1: say this, like even if it's gonna be ten minutes,
Speaker 1: but it's not just ten minutes. You get kind of
Speaker 1: caught up in the stuff, you know, walking around and
Speaker 1: looking at the the cars to get older as you
Speaker 1: go to the back of the lot. Sometimes. Um, and
Speaker 1: while we're reminiscing, I'll just say that I used to
Speaker 1: remember seeing junkyards. I mean not everywhere, but they were
Speaker 1: more common. You drive on the country roads and you
Speaker 1: would see junkyards, you know, here and there. Uh And nowadays,
Speaker 1: at least down south, they're overgrown cud zoo. Now you
Speaker 1: don't really see them. And the junkyards seem to be
Speaker 1: more and they're organized businesses more so than they are
Speaker 1: just um, a bunch of cars out in the field
Speaker 1: somewhere next to someone's house. You make a very good
Speaker 1: point here, So you're you're talking about, you know, the
Speaker 1: old um almost kind of started not by accident, but
Speaker 1: almost by accident. You know, they had a towing probably
Speaker 1: business or something and started to store cars and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, then decided well, I'm gonna start selling some
Speaker 1: parts from those cars that I picked up. And you know,
Speaker 1: they kind of they evolved that way. So they become
Speaker 1: a small time junkyard salvage yard dealer, or they intended that,
Speaker 1: and they you know, have a few acres of property
Speaker 1: and they want to become that. But it does require
Speaker 1: some maintenance. It requires bringing in new vehicles, occasionally getting
Speaker 1: rid of the old vehicles sometimes when they're pretty much
Speaker 1: picked over, you know, to the point where it's just
Speaker 1: a big hunk of metal that no one could really use,
Speaker 1: rusted or or bent or you know, damage beyond repair.
Speaker 1: So there's some maintenance even with a small lot that's required.
Speaker 1: But we're talking about today, I think in general we'll
Speaker 1: go back and forth a little bit, but we're talking
Speaker 1: about the ones that are the big ones where there's
Speaker 1: an inventory list online and there are auctions that are
Speaker 1: held on the site and they host specials. They charge
Speaker 1: admission to go in because they don't want people just
Speaker 1: going in, because there's ways that people can go in
Speaker 1: there and actually make not a living, but they can
Speaker 1: make a decent profit for the day, I guess, um,
Speaker 1: especially if you know when they get the new cars in,
Speaker 1: because they have they rotate the cars a little more
Speaker 1: frequently than they used to years ago. Oh sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you know, I'm a big fan of the old
Speaker 1: time junkyards as well, the kind you know that are
Speaker 1: just kind of heaps of cars that are piled in there,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of willy nilly, and you can walk
Speaker 1: around and pick them, you know, pick out parts or
Speaker 1: you know, look at whatever you want. And a long,
Speaker 1: long time ago, you know, when I was walking through
Speaker 1: some of these, you know, I remember being out in
Speaker 1: the middle of winter and the snow, trying to uncover
Speaker 1: some things, and you know, there's an old sixty seven
Speaker 1: Mustang and uh, you know, nearby you might find the
Speaker 1: Mustang emblem from it, and you know, you could either
Speaker 1: purchase that, or if you were on the other side
Speaker 1: of things, you could maybe pocket that and walk out.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't really, I never stole any parts. Um,
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, I didn't take anything. I've
Speaker 1: been with people at at places that have done something
Speaker 1: like that. I didn't think it was It just didn't
Speaker 1: feel right to me to be able to do something
Speaker 1: like that, UM, to nab a part that normally, you know,
Speaker 1: this guy would have made a dollar off of or whatever.
Speaker 1: I didn't feel right doing it. But a lot of
Speaker 1: people are okay with doing that and then buying something bigger. Also,
Speaker 1: you find a lot of parts walk out of junkyards,
Speaker 1: but maybe some of the like some of the coolest
Speaker 1: things I found. Of course, you know, you find old
Speaker 1: vehicles that you're interested in, but maybe just kind of
Speaker 1: passing fancy, you know, like you can look at it
Speaker 1: and say, there's a fifty seven Chevy Body. I haven't
Speaker 1: seen one of those in a long time. It's kind
Speaker 1: of cool looking to see what's left and maybe check out.
Speaker 1: They've got an old stereo in there, They've got the
Speaker 1: old steering wheel. Maybe parts that both still might go
Speaker 1: back and pick, but you know, are kind of worthwhile
Speaker 1: looking at while you're there. I found an old car
Speaker 1: in a Now I went to school high school in
Speaker 1: southeastern Michigan, and I was traveling up in northern Michigan,
Speaker 1: not the up but right at the northern tip of Michigan,
Speaker 1: not the Upper Peninsula, bit the lower Peninsula. And my
Speaker 1: friends and I were walking around this, uh, this lot
Speaker 1: in the wintertime, and we came across I think it
Speaker 1: was an old microbus, a VW microbus. Had a parking
Speaker 1: sticker from our high school's parking lot from decades prayer,
Speaker 1: so somebody, I don't know if they how whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's gotta be a story to how it ended
Speaker 1: up where it did. Have no idea how it ended
Speaker 1: up where it did. But that same lot was one
Speaker 1: where you know, you'd walk around and you'd find that
Speaker 1: they've taken an old camper top from a pickup truck
Speaker 1: maybe and put it on the ground and torn out
Speaker 1: the windows and put in chicken wire and there were
Speaker 1: chickens living in there, and you know, they have crazy
Speaker 1: things like that laying around. You know that you were
Speaker 1: you're wondering, like what is the story behind all this
Speaker 1: junk that's here. You're like, who's who's who's the odd
Speaker 1: ball care or that's operating this place? And that is
Speaker 1: the thing that if you go and you talk to
Speaker 1: the owners of these you know, before you walk around,
Speaker 1: you'll find that a lot of times you're gonna come
Speaker 1: across some real interesting characters, some people that have great
Speaker 1: stories to tell if you want to listen to them,
Speaker 1: or you know, maybe maybe they're not so nice, maybe
Speaker 1: they're nice. Maybe. You know, everybody has their own demeanor,
Speaker 1: and it's it's interesting to kind of figure out who
Speaker 1: who knows what in the area, like who's who's an
Speaker 1: expert on packards or corvets or maybe British sports cars
Speaker 1: or you know who has uh you know, the uh
Speaker 1: the market cornered on the import parts in this town,
Speaker 1: you know, because that they're some of these bigger ones
Speaker 1: have sections that are that are just strictly for imports,
Speaker 1: and some that are just for Chrysler and some Ford
Speaker 1: and some GM parts, and other lots you know, are
Speaker 1: kind of all mixed up. You know, there's there's all
Speaker 1: variety of things that you can find at these junkyards.
Speaker 1: And I know that's over explaining all of this, you know,
Speaker 1: does this long long lead into this whole thing. But
Speaker 1: some of these these lots, especially the newer ones, have
Speaker 1: an incredible amount of organization to them and and they're
Speaker 1: really meticulous about how they have them laid out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they thrive on keeping their inventories somewhat fresh and organized
Speaker 1: and um moderating it to a certain degree. Although as
Speaker 1: I've found out, there's a lot of shenanigans that go
Speaker 1: on the side of these places as well. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, by uh wait, by the customers or by
Speaker 1: the by the owners, by the customers the customer, but
Speaker 1: I'm talking more about the people that go in there
Speaker 1: and you know, rifle through the cars. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: Um later you know, as as we get towards uh,
Speaker 1: near the end of this, I would I would like
Speaker 1: to share some uh I guess what I'll call junkyard
Speaker 1: etiquette with you. If you don't mind a little valuable
Speaker 1: for people to hear them, well, I think so too,
Speaker 1: in case case you ever find yourself in a junkyard
Speaker 1: and you you just don't know you know, which fork
Speaker 1: goes on which side, where your your soup spoon goes,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, you know, right, But tell you
Speaker 1: there's there's definitely junkyard etiquette. And people will call you
Speaker 1: out on these some mistakes if you if you make them,
Speaker 1: you know, some people get not angry, but um, I
Speaker 1: have a little frustrated with your behavior if you're not
Speaker 1: doing things in the way that a feel is the
Speaker 1: proper way to do things, because there are regulars to
Speaker 1: these There are people that go back and regularly pick parts.
Speaker 1: You can make money by doing that if you know
Speaker 1: what to look for. And that's another kind of interesting angle.
Speaker 1: This whole thing is that you know, if you know
Speaker 1: the valuable parts. Keep your eyes open because you might
Speaker 1: just run across these at any point. You might be
Speaker 1: going for a part that you specifically need and run
Speaker 1: across something that you have kind of filed away in
Speaker 1: your memory bank. Is like, oh, that's something that people
Speaker 1: pay a lot of money for on eBay or on
Speaker 1: Craigslist or wherever. How hard would it be to pull
Speaker 1: that part out and sell it on eBay if you
Speaker 1: have an account. I mean, it's it might be a
Speaker 1: pretty good profit generator for you, even if it's just
Speaker 1: a small time thing, you know, like you know, a
Speaker 1: part here or there, It might pay for the part
Speaker 1: that you're out there picking that day, which is a
Speaker 1: fantastic thing to have happened. I mean, if you're able to,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of make it a wash and get
Speaker 1: what you need as well, it's it's all the better. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like every town has this group of people
Speaker 1: though that go just for that. Yeah. So, I mean
Speaker 1: finding these little gems and junkyards. This actually not as
Speaker 1: easy as you would think. No, no, because there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people that are out there on the
Speaker 1: same hunt, exactly the same hunt, and you can find
Speaker 1: all these places online and that's another I guess why
Speaker 1: is that an advantage or disadvantage, Curt, I don't know,
Speaker 1: because it's a disadvantage to you, I suppose, but it's
Speaker 1: an advantage to anybody this will use it as that,
Speaker 1: you know, to to kind of keep up on the
Speaker 1: new arrivals, because that's another section on these websites. If
Speaker 1: you go to anything any of these part sites that
Speaker 1: I'll mention here, and I'm just gonna mention like three
Speaker 1: or four to give an idea of the names that
Speaker 1: they go by. It's you know, pull apart, or you
Speaker 1: pull it, or you pull and pay, or you pull
Speaker 1: and save. They come in all flavors of this you
Speaker 1: pull and something where you know, you pull parts or
Speaker 1: you pull whatever you pull crap, I don't know, whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it. But um, of course have
Speaker 1: this stuff all categorized on their website and you can
Speaker 1: search for your vehicle and they'll tell you, yeah, we've
Speaker 1: got one vehicle that meets your criteria. It's within this
Speaker 1: age range two thousand ten to two thousand and twelve
Speaker 1: model year Honda, a Chord, or you know, whatever it
Speaker 1: happens to be, and they can't tell you specifically exactly
Speaker 1: what's on the vehicle. You have to go there and
Speaker 1: really check that out for yourself. That's one of the downsides.
Speaker 1: I guess it doesn't have every part listed, but that's
Speaker 1: really impossible to keep up with, as we said, because
Speaker 1: their parts leaving from that vehicle every single day, every
Speaker 1: single hour. Probably find to guess on some of the
Speaker 1: more popular models. So it pays to get in on
Speaker 1: these things early. And I said that they have in
Speaker 1: all these categories, they have tabs listed for brand new vehicles.
Speaker 1: To the lot. They have vehicles that are I guess
Speaker 1: you can call them going going gone. You know, they're
Speaker 1: like the last minute before we actually just scrap this
Speaker 1: metal because there's only a few parts left. A lot
Speaker 1: of them will have use cars for sale, which is
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. So cars that have a clean title
Speaker 1: that you are able to buy and typically they're damage
Speaker 1: but they are running and driving, not a salvage title,
Speaker 1: nothing like that. You have to worry about it because
Speaker 1: as I think we've we've said another shows if you're
Speaker 1: gonna buy a salvage car, you know a flood car,
Speaker 1: car that's been on a fire, or a car has
Speaker 1: been damaged to the point where it can no longer
Speaker 1: be driven safely according to the insurance company that did
Speaker 1: the adjustment for it, that said, you know, this is
Speaker 1: a total loss. If it has a salvage title, you
Speaker 1: have to have a license in order to be able
Speaker 1: to buy that vehicle, and that that varies by state.
Speaker 1: If you search for your laws within your state, you'll
Speaker 1: find that, you know, there are a lot of different
Speaker 1: regulations and licenses that you have to apply for, and
Speaker 1: different types of salvage licenses as well. Most often is
Speaker 1: the case that we're UM, I went through a few
Speaker 1: of these states and uh and checked out what it
Speaker 1: would take to get a salvage license, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: like Texas and here in Georgia and I think Wisconsin
Speaker 1: and places like that, just kind of scattered all over
Speaker 1: the US, and I found that, um, a lot of
Speaker 1: them require you to have a piece of property that
Speaker 1: is not your primary residence with a certain amount of
Speaker 1: acreage with you know, you have to have a certain
Speaker 1: amount of insurance as well, and it's just just really
Speaker 1: complicated the requirements and fees, the qualifications that you have
Speaker 1: to have. And there's of course the federal and state
Speaker 1: laws that come into this as well, including some e
Speaker 1: p A guidelines that you have to follow. Your property
Speaker 1: and your treatment of that vehicle have to follow that,
Speaker 1: so you know, the draining of fluids or the capture
Speaker 1: of gases that might be in that vehicle, you know,
Speaker 1: whether it's refrigerant or you know, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: Uh So, the whole thing is really an interesting process
Speaker 1: when you get right down to it. There's a there's
Speaker 1: a lot involved with buying a salvage vehicle. So the
Speaker 1: implication there is that you would be buying it to
Speaker 1: put on in your own salvage yard. Correct, Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'd be buying a crash vehicle that you most likely
Speaker 1: would have to you know, throw on a a flatbed
Speaker 1: and bring it to your your property and just dump
Speaker 1: it off in a lot wherever it goes because a
Speaker 1: lot of them, as you said, we keep wandering away
Speaker 1: from this, but there's so much organization now which is
Speaker 1: really fascinating to me. And I don't know if you've
Speaker 1: seen this or not. One of the places that I
Speaker 1: used to go again in Michigan, and I think this
Speaker 1: is common in a lot of junkyards of the past,
Speaker 1: where they used to just be piles of cars. Then
Speaker 1: they went to. We're going to kind of lay these
Speaker 1: out like they're in a in a parking lot, and
Speaker 1: of course doesn't matter if they're parked in so because
Speaker 1: no one's moving these cars really, so you can park
Speaker 1: them several deep and you know, make kind of a
Speaker 1: grid work of them, and that's something that a lot
Speaker 1: of places still do. And then there are other places
Speaker 1: like the one that I used to go to now
Speaker 1: that i've I've looked at photos online and they have
Speaker 1: started to store vehicles on racks, so you know, there
Speaker 1: might be three or four vehicles high, and if you
Speaker 1: need one from up above, you have to get somebody
Speaker 1: with a forklift come out and lower that vehicle down
Speaker 1: to you and just see if you have the part
Speaker 1: on there that you need or unless you can you know,
Speaker 1: spot it from down on the ground. It becomes a
Speaker 1: little bit more complicated. But the yard itself can stock
Speaker 1: or can carry more vehicles, and you know, not at
Speaker 1: the expense of having to pile them on top of
Speaker 1: each other, which would damage panels, that would damage all
Speaker 1: the windows in the vehicle, It would bend components that
Speaker 1: otherwise would be useful. So this is a much better
Speaker 1: way to do it. I think, and in the cataloging,
Speaker 1: I mean, essentially, what we're talking about here, Kurt, is
Speaker 1: that things have just been really cleaned up quite a bit.
Speaker 1: It's not the dirty, old, musty location that you might
Speaker 1: think it was in the pastor you know, like grease
Speaker 1: soaked areas. It's still you still get your hands dirty,
Speaker 1: and you still get dirty climbing underneath vehicles and pulling
Speaker 1: stuff out, but they're a lot cleaner than they used
Speaker 1: to be. Yeah, that's part of the recycle process for
Speaker 1: the vehicles. They go through this life cycle out on
Speaker 1: the road, and then for whatever reason, they end up
Speaker 1: in a salvage yard and then um, eventually after they're done,
Speaker 1: they're after they're picked over and they go on to
Speaker 1: wherever cars go next. I guess scrap, Yeah, they become
Speaker 1: soupcan somewhere right. Yeah, Eventually eventually that's long down the
Speaker 1: road toasters and whatnot. They become the engine block for
Speaker 1: the next vehicle. And there's big money to be made
Speaker 1: in this too. I don't have any facts and figures
Speaker 1: about what, you know, the average salvage heard owner makes
Speaker 1: or anything like that. If you were to part out,
Speaker 1: let's say your typical Toyoto camera. You're gonna find that
Speaker 1: the Toyoto camera is worth many, many times the value
Speaker 1: of what it is as a complete vehicle in parts.
Speaker 1: So you know, you start piecing out those parts and
Speaker 1: they're worth quite a bit of money each and it
Speaker 1: and it amounts to as a total way more than
Speaker 1: that cars were sitting on the curb. Here's the other
Speaker 1: side of that. If that's your car, if you own
Speaker 1: that camera and you suddenly realize like, oh crap, it's
Speaker 1: got a lot of stuff wrong with it. You know,
Speaker 1: transmissions gone, the engine's gone, and I mean gone, like
Speaker 1: they don't operate anymore. But there, you take it somewhere
Speaker 1: to sell it for scrap metal, or you sell it,
Speaker 1: you know, to it to a salad yard. They're gonna
Speaker 1: give you just a few dollars for it. I mean
Speaker 1: you're gonna make fifty bucks on it or something like that.
Speaker 1: It's a very low pay out for you. They make
Speaker 1: a lot of money on the parts, and then they
Speaker 1: take the hunk of metal to the recycling place which
Speaker 1: then will melt it down and make even more money
Speaker 1: off of that. But in the end they're only gonna
Speaker 1: make a few cents on the pound for those vehicles
Speaker 1: when they get rid of them. It's just a metal
Speaker 1: weight thing. And have recently had some experience, you know,
Speaker 1: with metal recycling yards, and we'll talk about that later maybe,
Speaker 1: but it's an interesting business. It really is um to
Speaker 1: see exactly what's going on there and and how once
Speaker 1: you take something that you know takes up so much
Speaker 1: space in your own your own home. You know, you've
Speaker 1: got all this metal laying around, you know, hot water
Speaker 1: heater and engine parts and you know, whatever the metal is,
Speaker 1: and you're maybe a little bed frames something like that.
Speaker 1: You take it to the scrap yard to get rid
Speaker 1: of and it looks like it's just a you know,
Speaker 1: a grain of sand on the beach. It's really nothing
Speaker 1: because these lots are so big. But it's all very
Speaker 1: fascinated to me. I I love the order and the
Speaker 1: process of the whole thing. And and even though it
Speaker 1: does look a little bit haphazard at times, and some
Speaker 1: are run better than others, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: they're very well organized and very efficient about what they do.
Speaker 1: One thing that recently I've been thinking about, I need
Speaker 1: a couple of uh I got I got road rash
Speaker 1: on a couple of my wheels on the passengers side
Speaker 1: or curb rash not road rash. That would be terrible,
Speaker 1: especially in a car. I mean maybe if I own
Speaker 1: a motorcycle that'd be more understandable, But no curb rash
Speaker 1: on the on the rims. And I'm looking like, is
Speaker 1: it worth it for me to put a lot of
Speaker 1: time and effort into these things and clean them up
Speaker 1: and sand them and paint them and try to make
Speaker 1: the match and all that, Or do I want to
Speaker 1: find a pull apart place and just find two rims
Speaker 1: that are you know, very gently used because a lot
Speaker 1: of people turn in cars that have been wrecked on
Speaker 1: the other side, or you know what. Ever, and you
Speaker 1: can get two rims pretty easy to match the ones
Speaker 1: I've already got their factory rims for a relatively low price.
Speaker 1: And if actually I've already found a couple that were
Speaker 1: are very reasonably priced, I mean without tires. Of course,
Speaker 1: they don't leave those on. But a lot of times
Speaker 1: you'll find places if you want something like that, if
Speaker 1: you want something that a lot of people go there for,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's maybe you know, spare tire for
Speaker 1: your vehicle, they might pull all of those out and
Speaker 1: put them on a rack inside. Or if you want
Speaker 1: rims like I need, they're gonna put those on racks inside.
Speaker 1: And they'll have sometimes hundreds of these rims to choose from,
Speaker 1: so you know, some in varying degrees of conditions. So
Speaker 1: you know, they might have a couple of knicks, or
Speaker 1: some of them might look brand new. Gonna charge a
Speaker 1: little more for him, but you know, still beats buying
Speaker 1: one from the dealer or brand new from the factory.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of bargains and and really goodbyes
Speaker 1: to be found there at as some of these these
Speaker 1: pull apart places, I felt like I had to mention this,
Speaker 1: and uh, you brought this up earlier we were talking
Speaker 1: about the salvage ard and breaking bed. Well that's what
Speaker 1: got me thinking about this topic, when Ben and I
Speaker 1: were talking about the cars and breaking Bad and then Uh.
Speaker 1: In that show anyway, the junkyard was a place where
Speaker 1: the characters would conceal a lot of their activities. The
Speaker 1: junkyard helped them do it. When they do they crush
Speaker 1: the RV there, right. They also got the magnet they
Speaker 1: used to destroy the computer's hard drive that was stored
Speaker 1: in the police evidence room from the junkyard the electromagnet
Speaker 1: with the car batteries. I remember that. Yeah, genius, genius
Speaker 1: move Beta owner was the named Joe I think was
Speaker 1: his name? Um okay so, and also he made an
Speaker 1: appearance in the sequel or the Bonus, which was El
Speaker 1: Camino right with with Jesse, and he was going to
Speaker 1: be he was going to pick up the El Camino
Speaker 1: and then the load. Oh well, I guess I should
Speaker 1: say spoiler alert to a lot of people. Say that now,
Speaker 1: but if you haven't seen El Camino turned off right now,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's been enough time. If you haven't
Speaker 1: seen it yet, you are not super interested, probably not
Speaker 1: going to see it. Okay. So he's gonna come pick
Speaker 1: up the El Camino that Jesse escapes in. And then
Speaker 1: as he's looking over the vehicle to take it away
Speaker 1: and do the same thing as he did with the RV,
Speaker 1: he's quickly notified via this device that he has, you
Speaker 1: know that that tells him that the LoJack systems have
Speaker 1: been activated on it. So he he high tels it
Speaker 1: out of there, and so that's that's all we see
Speaker 1: of him at El Camino. But he was back again.
Speaker 1: He was ready to do the deed that he did
Speaker 1: for them earlier as well. He's gonna help him out, right,
Speaker 1: So that was kind of interesting. But stuff like that
Speaker 1: happens in real life, maybe to a different degree. It
Speaker 1: doesn't take too long to do a search where you
Speaker 1: can find. Uh, people have tried to cover up murders
Speaker 1: in crushed vehicles. They would put a body in the vehicle,
Speaker 1: crushed the vehicle, send the vehicle off, it's gone, and
Speaker 1: they think that they're, you know, completely free and clear
Speaker 1: of ever having any evidence on their hands, right, not
Speaker 1: the case that they'll always catch it that show or
Speaker 1: the crime took place and was concealed in a junkyard. Sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there's there's one example. I've got a couple others
Speaker 1: that are recent, and I know that these have happened
Speaker 1: in the past. And I'm you know, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that it hasn't happened where they've gotten a weight with it.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's happened that way as well, that you know,
Speaker 1: um evaded evaded capture. But some of them go back
Speaker 1: as as recent as two thousand eight. There was actually
Speaker 1: and this is a different one, This isn't maybe something
Speaker 1: I don't know. Not the same category maybe, But there
Speaker 1: was an accident where customer was actually crushed in the juckyard,
Speaker 1: which I would assume happens more often than you would think. Um,
Speaker 1: not every day by anything. Bet it used to happen
Speaker 1: quite often. I bet it did. When there were piles
Speaker 1: of vehicles and people are trying to climb up to
Speaker 1: see what's in that vehicle, you know, not waiting I
Speaker 1: wanted to wait around for the crane or you know
Speaker 1: whatever to bring it down to the ground level. I
Speaker 1: would bet that happened a lot. In fact, this one
Speaker 1: happened in Belleville, Illinois in two thousand eight or handa
Speaker 1: cord fell on top of forty seven year old man
Speaker 1: that was in the lot. Just kind of checking for parts.
Speaker 1: Tragic story, I mean, of course. But another type of
Speaker 1: thing we were talking about before is where there's actually
Speaker 1: a murder that someone's trying to cover up. And this happened.
Speaker 1: A double murder actually happened in two thousand sixteen, and
Speaker 1: this was in Russellville, Arkansas. If you have any interest
Speaker 1: in reading about this case, there's actually a follow up
Speaker 1: on it. They caught the individual that was running the yard.
Speaker 1: It was his deed, his his crime, and he was
Speaker 1: trying to cover it up. But they did find the
Speaker 1: They found two bodies in the car. It's two young
Speaker 1: kids that he had shot and I don't know what
Speaker 1: part of the deal went bad here, but he ended
Speaker 1: up shooting and killing them. And his family, the victims
Speaker 1: family has actually found the vehicles that they were crushed in.
Speaker 1: Found and this is so awful, he says. So he's
Speaker 1: letting them kind of walk around the yard and look
Speaker 1: for him because this is the last place they were seeing.
Speaker 1: So the families walking around looking for evidence of what happened.
Speaker 1: They find, you know, some things they find, I don't know,
Speaker 1: a cell phone and shoe whatever it was, find something.
Speaker 1: But they find a vehicle where there's blood leaking out
Speaker 1: of the trunk. And you would think that would be
Speaker 1: a day ghibli, right, And the guy actually totally calm
Speaker 1: with that the whole thing, and says, now you know
Speaker 1: what that's uh, that's here. Here's the awful thing. He says,
Speaker 1: he's a dog got in the car, accidentally crushed. It
Speaker 1: happens all the time. Uh, that's that's just the way
Speaker 1: it is. But he says, it happens all the time,
Speaker 1: and I was thinking, how many like stray dogs in
Speaker 1: the crushing in cars? That's awful. I don't know, Well,
Speaker 1: you obviously wasn't telling the truth, no ilishing a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's just trying to you know, side with Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 1: But anyways, it's a it's a weird story. If you
Speaker 1: go back to Russellville, Arkansas, you know, online, search Google, whatever,
Speaker 1: you're gonna find this story from two thousand and sixteen,
Speaker 1: with some updates later of you know what they actually
Speaker 1: captured this guy and what he claimed and you know
Speaker 1: what was happening there. Cash another couple of things I
Speaker 1: want to mention, just briefly before we get to the editor,
Speaker 1: are the kind of scaring me away from going to
Speaker 1: a john you know whatever. I could have done a
Speaker 1: much better job telling that story if I if I
Speaker 1: had really worked on it. But it's probably best. Yeah
Speaker 1: you didn't, Probably best we just breathed over Yeah, exactly right,
Speaker 1: it's probably best. No no nightmares here in this not
Speaker 1: in this series. How about something a little fun then?
Speaker 1: How about that? I'm down this is fun and it
Speaker 1: actually is kind of fun to watch this. This is
Speaker 1: the one that you'll chocolate. And it's a short watch anyways,
Speaker 1: but it's something you can find on YouTube. And I
Speaker 1: believe I did mention this when Ben and I talked,
Speaker 1: but you haven't seen this yet, so you might want
Speaker 1: to check this out, and other listeners or new listeners
Speaker 1: might want to do it. What's fun to watch is
Speaker 1: when they have these events at these junkyards, and they
Speaker 1: do sort of infrequently, but they will have you know,
Speaker 1: you pay by normally you pay by the component or
Speaker 1: by weight or however they deem that part valuable. Right.
Speaker 1: In some cases, they will charge you a flat rate
Speaker 1: for anything you can carry. Now, okay, we've all heard
Speaker 1: of this, right, Like you put it stuff in a
Speaker 1: bucket at a part store and everything in the bucket
Speaker 1: is ten dollars. You know, whatever you can reasonably fit
Speaker 1: in the bucket is ten dollars. This is, of course,
Speaker 1: all you can carry at a junkyard. Takes on a
Speaker 1: whole different meaning, right, So a lot of cases, oh,
Speaker 1: they will, they'll promote these and they'll have, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a big set up where you have to
Speaker 1: carry your parts. Usually it's like fifteen twenty maybe maybe
Speaker 1: as far as ft through an area like it's coned off,
Speaker 1: you know, like there's a start and finish line. Parts
Speaker 1: can't touch the ground. You have to be really carrying
Speaker 1: the parts. Yeah, you rule their rules to this, and
Speaker 1: you can use You can use seat belts as straps.
Speaker 1: You can make your own straps. You can use pipe
Speaker 1: if you can find it, you know the section of
Speaker 1: pipe that you want to use, or rope if you
Speaker 1: want to use that to make kind of slings that
Speaker 1: you can carry things. This is the craziest thing, Kurt.
Speaker 1: If you watch you know these they're like five minute
Speaker 1: videos usually, and the ones that I'm thinking of are
Speaker 1: these guys would they would dig seat belts out of
Speaker 1: other cars, right, so they dig out you know the
Speaker 1: both you know the connection points, So that's an easy
Speaker 1: strap to make, right. They would make a backpack out
Speaker 1: of the front seat of let's say a van or
Speaker 1: something like that maybe, so it's a bucket seat. They
Speaker 1: put that on their back like a backpack, and then
Speaker 1: have somebody load up the seat cushion as they lean forward,
Speaker 1: so they can stack as much stuff on that as
Speaker 1: they can as they go across. I saw a guy
Speaker 1: carry a Volkswagon engine on his back a van seat
Speaker 1: and a Volkswagon engine with a seat belt, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: like seatbelt harness over his shoulders. Um. Sometimes they'll take
Speaker 1: an axle, put it across their shoulders and use that
Speaker 1: kind of like um, a yoke and carry carry a
Speaker 1: full set of four tires with rims for trucks, like
Speaker 1: big trucks. I mean, it looks like they're in a
Speaker 1: like a strongman competition when they're walking. You like those
Speaker 1: ridiculous competitions where they carry just enormous objects that you
Speaker 1: would think they can't move. It works, And then you'll
Speaker 1: get other people that are just carrying an impossible pile
Speaker 1: of stuff. It looks like, um, I guess maybe a
Speaker 1: big doctor SEUs pile of things. You know, like it
Speaker 1: looks like it's it's kind of like curvy at the time.
Speaker 1: It's not balanced at all really, and they're trying to
Speaker 1: balance it and you know, going back and forth as
Speaker 1: they carry it and use their chin to balance things.
Speaker 1: It's it's hilarious to watch. Sometimes you think, oh man,
Speaker 1: these you know they're gonna get a hernia doing this,
Speaker 1: you know, because some of these loads are so heavy.
Speaker 1: Other times people just they are happy to carry a
Speaker 1: bumper across and get it for seventy five bucks and
Speaker 1: they're fine. But for the most part, the funny ones,
Speaker 1: the ones that you want to catch, are the ones
Speaker 1: that are doing these impossible things, you know, the ones
Speaker 1: that are you know again trying to to uh carry
Speaker 1: and they carry an engine on their back. And these
Speaker 1: these backpack things are are just so funny to look at.
Speaker 1: You have to be on two feet or can you
Speaker 1: be crawling or just kind of like, you know, shimming
Speaker 1: across the ground, because I feel like you could stack
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff up on somebody, you like, have
Speaker 1: them just kind of naked across the finish line. That's
Speaker 1: a new strategy. I didn't see anybody that was was crawling.
Speaker 1: I've only seen them carrying against Maybe maybe now I
Speaker 1: will tell you this, you'll see people that. And I
Speaker 1: watched this carefully. They will. They'll get a hood from
Speaker 1: a vehicle so that is like as big as this
Speaker 1: table that we're in front of here, right, and they'll
Speaker 1: put it upside down and then they'll pile everything on
Speaker 1: top of that and then they'll carry that. But as
Speaker 1: they're carrying it, someone will have a cart underneath that
Speaker 1: it's not touching you know that they're just like hovering above,
Speaker 1: but just in case it falls, they don't want to,
Speaker 1: you know, destroy everything, so you know, it'll fall a
Speaker 1: couple of inches onto the cart. So it may it
Speaker 1: look like they're cheating the system a little bit, but
Speaker 1: really they're they're lifting that item and carrying it across
Speaker 1: the line. So, um, it's kind of one of those
Speaker 1: fascinating things to watch. I mean, it really will only
Speaker 1: take you a couple of minutes, but it's worthwhile. I'll
Speaker 1: check it out. You talking about junkyard etiquette. Now, let's
Speaker 1: do it, all right, let's do it. So I found
Speaker 1: a couple of the people that were talking about this
Speaker 1: type of thing on YouTube, and those are the ones
Speaker 1: I found interesting because you know, they can take you
Speaker 1: out on the lot and show you exactly what they mean.
Speaker 1: They've got examples of everything. And these are people that
Speaker 1: are that frequent a lot. And in one case, I
Speaker 1: think one of these guys actually works at the lot,
Speaker 1: so he's got some of the best pro tips that
Speaker 1: I've heard. There's one guy that, um, i'll mention here
Speaker 1: he only had five quick tips and I'll be pretty
Speaker 1: quick with this one. The next one is a little
Speaker 1: bit longer, but we'll still buzz through it pretty quick.
Speaker 1: But this first one is is five things to avoid
Speaker 1: doing at a salvage yard. That's the title of the video.
Speaker 1: And it's by guy who goes by Robert D. I Y.
Speaker 1: And he's at the you Pull and Pay a Lot
Speaker 1: And I don't know where the you Pull and Pay
Speaker 1: a Lot is, but it's somewhere warm. It looks like
Speaker 1: it might have been California. But he tells you what
Speaker 1: you should and shouldn't do, actually what you shouldn't do,
Speaker 1: mostly at a lot. And he has he's kind of
Speaker 1: broken down into courtesy and safety. So he's got five
Speaker 1: quick things here. And the first one is a courtesy thing,
Speaker 1: and it's bring your own tools. That's pretty obvious, right,
Speaker 1: You don't wanna have somebody borrowing your tools while you're there.
Speaker 1: And he said that how many times? And he's he's
Speaker 1: funny when you listen to this guy doing this, he's
Speaker 1: he's kind of griping about a little bit. So he's saying,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm working on whatever I've got. You know,
Speaker 1: my uh, you know, rear end up in the air
Speaker 1: and I got my head down into an engine bay
Speaker 1: and someone taps me on the shoulder and wants to
Speaker 1: borrow my socket, said, and he said, fine, but you
Speaker 1: know then I've got to worry about not only remembering
Speaker 1: that when I'm leaving, but I also have to maybe
Speaker 1: track you down if you, you know, walk two or
Speaker 1: three miles away. I don't know where you are, and
Speaker 1: you might have taken off with it. I don't know. So, um,
Speaker 1: bring your own tools. That's just a general courtesy to
Speaker 1: other people on a lot. You don't want to make
Speaker 1: nuisance of yourself. Uh. The next thing is, he says,
Speaker 1: don't make a big mess. Keeping the walking past clean
Speaker 1: after you're done is important. That's uh, that's safety and
Speaker 1: courtesy as well as we'll find out. But um, I
Speaker 1: think everybody knows generally that if you've got a clean
Speaker 1: work area, that's generally a safer work area too. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're not thank you. I feel like I'm like a
Speaker 1: shop teacher up here, you know, like with a with
Speaker 1: a whiteboard, like listen, kids, A clean work area as
Speaker 1: a as a safe work are. The thing is is
Speaker 1: people know this. They know these things. Well, you just
Speaker 1: don't care treat it as if you you know, we're
Speaker 1: in your own garage. I guess you know, you don't
Speaker 1: want to stumble over all this crap in order to
Speaker 1: get to the vehicle again the next time, and you
Speaker 1: would clean up your work area. A lot of people,
Speaker 1: you know, just find that very frustrating that some people
Speaker 1: don't super frustrating the place, you know, leaving your grocery
Speaker 1: cart in the middle of the road there the grocery
Speaker 1: store exactly. Okay. Number three, don't destroy other parts to
Speaker 1: get at your part. And this is a courtesy thing obviously,
Speaker 1: just be considered for the next person, because whatever you
Speaker 1: decide that you can just kind of tear through to
Speaker 1: get to your part. You know, if you break things
Speaker 1: or bend things or take them off sloppily, you know,
Speaker 1: you pry things off instead of actually removing them, that
Speaker 1: might be the part that someone is coming to get.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, there's a common courtesy. If you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to dig to get to something, preserve everything
Speaker 1: that's in your way as well, and you know, leave
Speaker 1: it off to the side for somebody else. You know,
Speaker 1: once they once they get there, they will be much
Speaker 1: happier with you if they find that you know, you
Speaker 1: haven't you haven't destroyed the valve cover or whatever to
Speaker 1: get to your you know, your springs or your lifters
Speaker 1: or you know whatever. And also in a bigger picture
Speaker 1: of this is if you look at the whole salvage
Speaker 1: experience as being a way to make use of stuff
Speaker 1: that's been discarded, being nice to the parts that you
Speaker 1: don't need helps that process. Sure, So this is just
Speaker 1: better for the whole system if you don't damage parts
Speaker 1: that you don't need, and then you'll intend to use.
Speaker 1: It allows the system that you're there to take advantage
Speaker 1: of to continue, is what it does. Really. I mean,
Speaker 1: it allows you to keep going because if they're not
Speaker 1: if they're not going to make any profit on this stuff,
Speaker 1: they're not going to do it anymore. And how frustrating
Speaker 1: is that if you you know that, you know they've
Speaker 1: got the vehicle that you want there, which is already
Speaker 1: kind of a long shot. So you get there and
Speaker 1: you find there, there's one right there, we do have
Speaker 1: one a lot. They go to find it and the
Speaker 1: part that you need is there, only it's damaged. And
Speaker 1: now you're back at square one. You know where you
Speaker 1: have to go and find that vehicle in that part
Speaker 1: again somewhere else or wait for another one to show up,
Speaker 1: so it just becomes a big frustration. The next one.
Speaker 1: I guess this comes after you've you know, removed the
Speaker 1: other parts. Don't scatter parts of other cars nearby. So
Speaker 1: if you have to take off, you know, a tail
Speaker 1: lens to get to a wiring harness or a clip
Speaker 1: or whatever you need in the back end, take that
Speaker 1: tail lamp and put it inside the trunk of the
Speaker 1: vehicle or set it back in place on the bumper
Speaker 1: so that people can see it. Don't throw it in
Speaker 1: the truck bed of the car next to you, because
Speaker 1: they'll never find it, and if they do, they might
Speaker 1: not know what it's for. So they might see this
Speaker 1: tail ends in that truck and think, well, there's a
Speaker 1: chance that it's the one that goes to this. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure really, you know, I mean, it's it could
Speaker 1: be very confusing to somebody if you start scattering parts
Speaker 1: or throwing them into the interior of another vehicle or
Speaker 1: the engine bay of another vehicle. So but that's probably
Speaker 1: a good thing to do. You if you are looking
Speaker 1: for a part for a certain car and you don't
Speaker 1: see it, just check the vehicle next to it. That's
Speaker 1: just thinking that's a good tip. I think I think
Speaker 1: that comes up on my next page here, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you've probably been reading ahead and the last thing, and
Speaker 1: I'll just mention this one quickly. I think this one
Speaker 1: goes without saying, really, but don't break glass or windows.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no need to do that. And I've
Speaker 1: seen plenty of photos and videos of you know, just
Speaker 1: a bumper that's just tossed through a rear window for
Speaker 1: no good reason. I mean, just something that you know,
Speaker 1: somebody felt like doing or wanted to do out of frustration.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know why somebody would do that.
Speaker 1: But um, again, this stacking of vehicles on racks is
Speaker 1: saving a lot of glass now that was damaged earlier.
Speaker 1: So that's something that's uh, that is a positive, all right.
Speaker 1: So I think that was a pretty good list of
Speaker 1: five there from Robert d. I Y on YouTube. So
Speaker 1: the next one is about, of course, junkyard etiquette again
Speaker 1: and this is from a YouTube user called Bleeping Jeep,
Speaker 1: And of course this guy is focused on jeep parts.
Speaker 1: So every thing here in this list, um, I've taken
Speaker 1: out the jeep references I think to most of it,
Speaker 1: but most of them were concerning how to get parts
Speaker 1: out of a jeep really, but he had some great tips.
Speaker 1: And this this guy had on a pull Apart. Pull
Speaker 1: Apart shirt from here in Atlanta, So I don't have
Speaker 1: any know his local to us, you know, where we
Speaker 1: record the show, but I don't know in particular if
Speaker 1: he works there. It just happens to be a huge
Speaker 1: fan of pull Apart, or maybe they were allowing him
Speaker 1: to film there so that's why he was wearing the shirt,
Speaker 1: you know, a little promotion or something. But anyways, all
Speaker 1: that aside, he had some great tips I thought for
Speaker 1: for what you should and shouldn't do on a lot.
Speaker 1: And the first one, actually what you should do really
Speaker 1: is hell, this is a good tip. Remove your part
Speaker 1: ahead of time, so you know the tools that you'll
Speaker 1: need when you get there, and you'll also know if
Speaker 1: you need additional parts, So take off that. I think
Speaker 1: he used a um washer fluid bottle in the car
Speaker 1: at home that he had and he said, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: taking this off at home, so I know I need
Speaker 1: an eight millimeter socket, and I need these crimpers and
Speaker 1: I need you know, whatever it was. He had a
Speaker 1: bunch of tools that he needed, and he also knew
Speaker 1: that there's a risk in damaging this connector when I
Speaker 1: pull it off. Here it's a Christmas tree connector that
Speaker 1: gets damaged when I remove it, So I'll probably need
Speaker 1: to look for one of those as well. And it
Speaker 1: allows you to get every single thing you need rather
Speaker 1: than get home and realize you need just that one
Speaker 1: other part that you did see there and have to
Speaker 1: go back and get it again. Then you end up
Speaker 1: breaking a clip or something you can't kind of know
Speaker 1: to look out for that as well, or exactly pick
Speaker 1: that up when you're there. Yeah, exactly any hardware or
Speaker 1: anything like that that you might also want to look for. Definitely,
Speaker 1: that's the time to do it is before you even
Speaker 1: go to the lot. The next thing is that, um,
Speaker 1: when you get to the lot and you've brought your
Speaker 1: own tools, of course, wait to take all of your
Speaker 1: tools onto the yard until you check it out, until
Speaker 1: you go out there and make sure that you know
Speaker 1: the part that you want is on that vehicle, because
Speaker 1: a lot of people will bring out a full toolbox
Speaker 1: and they'll bring out a lot of you know, maybe
Speaker 1: a jack and you know, everything that's really heavy out
Speaker 1: there into the lot. And if you can save yourself
Speaker 1: the the effort of walking all the way out there
Speaker 1: with that, you know, maybe sloshing through the mud or
Speaker 1: grease or whatever, and uh and getting into the vehicle
Speaker 1: and finding that you know, somebody would either damage the
Speaker 1: part or it's missing or whatever. Uh, just saves your
Speaker 1: back in some cases, you know. So when you're taking
Speaker 1: out a piece from a car apart from a car,
Speaker 1: just always bring the hardware, the nuts, bolts, washers or
Speaker 1: whatever with you. Um, it just makes sense, I mean,
Speaker 1: just in case, because if you haven't done the step
Speaker 1: that I told you about first where you take the
Speaker 1: part off you, if you've neglected that, maybe you'll need
Speaker 1: it anyway, just make sure that you have the extra
Speaker 1: hardware with you. The next one, Oh, this is a
Speaker 1: clever one. If you want to kind of reduce the
Speaker 1: tools in your toolbox, you can always look around for
Speaker 1: a piece of pipe to use as a breaker bar.
Speaker 1: So let's say you have to go yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: you got a socket and you need some more of
Speaker 1: leverage to get the spare tire off the back of
Speaker 1: a jeep. What do you know, so you know that
Speaker 1: that rear mounted wheel he was trying to use a
Speaker 1: socket and um didn't have enough leverage, but he wouldn't
Speaker 1: got a piece of tailpipe from another vehicle that was
Speaker 1: laying right next door, you know or next door lucky, Yeah,
Speaker 1: right nearby. I grabbed the tailpipe and uh and use
Speaker 1: that as kind of a great big break your bar
Speaker 1: and it work perfect, So didn't have to carry it
Speaker 1: in his toolbox and it was just there unavailable. Plus
Speaker 1: you know, you find you need stuff like that, you
Speaker 1: have to kind of you know, improvise on the fly,
Speaker 1: and that's always smart to do as well. Um, this
Speaker 1: is a good one too if you forget to bring
Speaker 1: your PV blaster or you're penetrating and I, which a
Speaker 1: lot of people take with them in their tool kit.
Speaker 1: That's a smart thing to bring, is you know, because
Speaker 1: you know these cars are out in the elements and
Speaker 1: who knows how old they are. Probably the parts a
Speaker 1: lot of parts have never been removed, so bring some
Speaker 1: kind of you know, penetrating oil to get those parts
Speaker 1: out easier. You can always use brake fluid from any
Speaker 1: available car that's on the lot as that, so you
Speaker 1: might dip your wrench into it or a stick or
Speaker 1: whatever you've got nearby. And kind of drip a few
Speaker 1: drops onto that nut or bolt or whatever is you
Speaker 1: know you're trying to break free. Break fluid works really
Speaker 1: well as penetrating well in a pinch. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: better to use the stuff that's formulated for it. But again,
Speaker 1: you can find you know, break fluid, and just about
Speaker 1: any reservoir on the lot, you'll find at least a
Speaker 1: few drops you can get out of there if they're
Speaker 1: not you know, completely full. I thought that was a
Speaker 1: good tip. Um carpets and floorboards can be used as
Speaker 1: like section mats if you're gonna get underneath the vehicles,
Speaker 1: because most of these places are on gravel, or there's
Speaker 1: a puddle underneath, or there's um you know, maybe you
Speaker 1: just rained, maybe as a dirt lot, and it's all muddy,
Speaker 1: and I know you're already sloppy. You're at the junkyard anyway,
Speaker 1: But you know, why make it worse? Why why make
Speaker 1: yourself miserable? You know, if you don't want to lay
Speaker 1: down in the mud and get underneath the car, take
Speaker 1: a you know, a mat from the back end of
Speaker 1: an suv or you know, maybe a bedliner from a
Speaker 1: truck or whatever. Use that as a mat to lay on.
Speaker 1: Just be smart about it and you can sometimes, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe save your back. You know, you won't get all
Speaker 1: those cuts and nicks and bruises on you um or
Speaker 1: glass in some case. Right. Oh, here's the other one. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what you were talking about. Check surrounding vehicles
Speaker 1: for your missing parts. If you get there and the
Speaker 1: part that you're looking for is missing, but it looks
Speaker 1: like somebody had removed it to get to their part,
Speaker 1: look inside the vehicles that are nearby and the immediate
Speaker 1: nearby vicinity. Because even if they left it out in
Speaker 1: the aisle way, maybe when someone came around to clean
Speaker 1: up the lot, because they do send people around from
Speaker 1: the facility to clean up the aisle ways for safety.
Speaker 1: They don't know which vehicle it goes in. It could
Speaker 1: be either going to you know, this one over here
Speaker 1: on my left or on the right. They might make
Speaker 1: the mistake of throwing it in the wrong vehicle. So
Speaker 1: check that other vehicle. As you said, Kurt, Okay, here's
Speaker 1: another one. Okay, this is a good one and so simple.
Speaker 1: Always return your tools to the toolbox. So many people
Speaker 1: go there and they end up losing a good number
Speaker 1: of tools, and we all do this in our own garage.
Speaker 1: I know, and I'm careful about this. I have been
Speaker 1: for a long time. When I'm working on something down
Speaker 1: in the engine bay, I will I will often set
Speaker 1: tools you know here and there on the like on
Speaker 1: the rails of the frame, up by the fenders, or
Speaker 1: you know, wherever it's nearby that you know I can.
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to remember them right and set
Speaker 1: them on top of the air box or you know whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many times I shut the hood
Speaker 1: and then realize how I left my screw driver in there.
Speaker 1: I've left my or it's in a you know, the
Speaker 1: hood is allowed to shut, it's not going to damage it,
Speaker 1: but you know it's in a critical spot, or you know,
Speaker 1: it fall off. A lot of people will do that
Speaker 1: at the junkyard and then leave and then of course
Speaker 1: you gotta pay your admission to get back into in
Speaker 1: that tool, and oftentimes you just forget it, just leave it,
Speaker 1: or the next person that comes by will pick it
Speaker 1: up anyway. So a lot of lost tools at the
Speaker 1: at the junk are But if you just think about
Speaker 1: that rule, like once you're done with that screw driver,
Speaker 1: put it in your wheelbarrow, your toolbox, whatever. Do it
Speaker 1: every single time. Don't just leave them laying around like
Speaker 1: you do at home, because you know the consequences are
Speaker 1: a little more, a little more dire. You know, you're
Speaker 1: you're automatically you're gonna lose that tool. Okay, we've already
Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit. But keep your eyes
Speaker 1: open for special gems as they like to call them.
Speaker 1: You know, treasures that components that you might be able
Speaker 1: to list on eBay or some other site you know
Speaker 1: that are valuable to some people. Even if you're not
Speaker 1: there for that part, you might be able to pick
Speaker 1: up something that's valuable and worthwhile for you or for
Speaker 1: somebody else rather that might turn a little profit for
Speaker 1: you for that day. So not bad, not a bad idea. Um, Okay,
Speaker 1: another good one too, Boy, these are all really good.
Speaker 1: There are no full size batteries allowed on a lot.
Speaker 1: Usually you're not allowed to carry in a car battery
Speaker 1: with you, and that's for obvious reasons. You might hook
Speaker 1: up components that you know would deploy airbag or you
Speaker 1: know whatever. That's probably a safety and I think it's
Speaker 1: a big safety issue, right There's probably other reasons as well.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he could start fires and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: So what you can do though, and I didn't know
Speaker 1: you can do this. You can use a cordless drill
Speaker 1: battery with alligator clips to test component small components. You're
Speaker 1: able to test the operation of windows. Let's say that
Speaker 1: you're gonna buy a regulator for a door that you
Speaker 1: you know you have damage. You hook that up to
Speaker 1: the switch and you find out that, yeah, the window
Speaker 1: does raise and lower as it's you know should or
Speaker 1: you know, you could even check. I think he checked
Speaker 1: a fuel injector by clipping these together and it made
Speaker 1: a clicking noise, and it's that indicated that it was working.
Speaker 1: Very clever ways to do this if you look up
Speaker 1: how to do it ahead of time, don't just go
Speaker 1: in there and expect to be able to figure it out.
Speaker 1: One really cool thing that I saw him do on
Speaker 1: another jeep. Imagine that it was a Grand Cherokee who's
Speaker 1: he was talking about pulling an engine out of Grand
Speaker 1: Cherokee and didn't know the condition. Of course it's got
Speaker 1: a digital read out for the mileage, and was curious
Speaker 1: about the possible condition of the engine. Uh mileage in particular.
Speaker 1: So he tears it, takes out the dashboard, and hooks
Speaker 1: up right to the back of it. He probes the
Speaker 1: wires and figures out which one is, you know, positive
Speaker 1: and negative, hooks it up and it gives it just
Speaker 1: enough power to be able to show you the mileage.
Speaker 1: You know, the odometer comes up. So this one I
Speaker 1: think had a hundred and thirty thou miles. And he said, well,
Speaker 1: that's relatively low miles for being here, and it looks
Speaker 1: like it's in decent shape. I'll take a risk, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll take the gamble in that one. Feel like getting
Speaker 1: an engine from poll aparts this bad news. Yeah, but see,
Speaker 1: some people are so crafty, so talented that they don't
Speaker 1: even worry about that. They just throw through the back
Speaker 1: of the pickup truck and I'm sure it's gonna work fine.
Speaker 1: I wish I was more that way. I'm not that level.
Speaker 1: The last one here that I'll leave you with is
Speaker 1: find an old wiring harness and use it for spare wire.
Speaker 1: Now not just use it as a wire. And you
Speaker 1: can find any wearing harness you want. But here's the point,
Speaker 1: and I never thought of it this way, you know,
Speaker 1: they're all wrapped up usually typically anither electrical tape or
Speaker 1: they've got you know, some type of sleeve on them.
Speaker 1: But this is really clever because you know, you go
Speaker 1: to the auto parts store and you want to buy wire,
Speaker 1: you know, for whatever project and accessory you're gonna put on. Uh.
Speaker 1: Typically they sell wire in a few different colors. You know,
Speaker 1: they've got maybe three or four different colors and that's
Speaker 1: about it, you know, and then their basic color solid
Speaker 1: colors typically. So you look at a wiring harness though
Speaker 1: it's got every color in the rainbow practically, and lots
Speaker 1: of it. So you might find fifteen feet or thirty
Speaker 1: feet of wire that you know has a color that
Speaker 1: you need, and and overall this whole thing might have,
Speaker 1: you know, three hundred feet of wire complete in it.
Speaker 1: So you try to figure out, you know, then what
Speaker 1: that wire is worth per foot. And it's definitely worthwhile
Speaker 1: to buy this wiring harness for twenty bucks or whatever
Speaker 1: they're gonna charge you for as long as you just
Speaker 1: as long as you have an intended use for it.
Speaker 1: But you've got every color you might need, and you
Speaker 1: can closely match the one that you have without any confusion.
Speaker 1: So you know, even if you do have to splice
Speaker 1: in a different color or different you know what, a
Speaker 1: different lead, you'll be able to keep them all separate.
Speaker 1: You know that you don't have a situation where you've got,
Speaker 1: you know, three red wires going to something and have
Speaker 1: to figure out which is which. You know, once you
Speaker 1: get to the other end without a little tab of
Speaker 1: tape that has a number written on it, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier that way. So's some really clever ideas.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a lot of junkyard etiquette, a lot
Speaker 1: of junkyard videos. Man, I've been talking like a mile
Speaker 1: a minute over here. Any junk card is really exciting, Well,
Speaker 1: they kind of do. They used to excite me a
Speaker 1: lot more. And I'll admit I haven't been to one
Speaker 1: in a long long time, and I kind of got,
Speaker 1: you know, the taste for I want to go again
Speaker 1: because there's a couple of things I need from my car.
Speaker 1: I kind of am excited about, you know, seeing the
Speaker 1: way they've evolved, the way they've developed. I went with
Speaker 1: my last car, I went towards the end of its
Speaker 1: life to try to find some parts. Unsuccessful, I didn't
Speaker 1: find it but I think, you know, I'd like to
Speaker 1: give it another shot. You see, if I can find
Speaker 1: some of those odds and ends, you know, maybe a
Speaker 1: part that's cracked or worn on my car that you know,
Speaker 1: I'd like to replace, and just see what I can find.
Speaker 1: It's always fascinating because it's like it is, it's a
Speaker 1: bit like a treasure hunt, and you're so excited when
Speaker 1: you find the little part that you need and it's
Speaker 1: only a couple of bucks versus having to go to
Speaker 1: the dealer order the brand new part wait a few days.
Speaker 1: Not only you know the price the whole thing, but
Speaker 1: there's also you know, the satisfaction, A little bit of
Speaker 1: a rush people get from this, Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think one cold John yard you ought to check out.
Speaker 1: It's not a card johnk yard though. That's in Bangladesh.
Speaker 1: And I gotta dance around this word and make sure
Speaker 1: I pronounced the city correct with us and Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna try that. Yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: got it right. And uh, it's a ship graveyard. It
Speaker 1: started out in nineteen sixty after a storm disabled a
Speaker 1: Greek ship there, and five years later Chittagong Steelhouse bought
Speaker 1: the ship, scrapped it, and then the industry began and
Speaker 1: it turned into this massive just dump of ships and
Speaker 1: ship parts. And what kind of ships are we talking about?
Speaker 1: Were talking about gigantic frishan bearing Freighter's no kidding. There
Speaker 1: are no regulator There were no regulations here, and I
Speaker 1: think there's still fairly lax on the regulations. So as
Speaker 1: you can imagine, it's pretty sludgy and just disgusting. And
Speaker 1: there's um kids and young adults out there working as scrappers.
Speaker 1: They're just cutting metal off, cutting with torches and they're
Speaker 1: probably like standing in puddles of oil or whatever. Holy cow,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Okay, I'm gonna try it. Okay, Chittagong, Chittagong.
Speaker 1: And boy, you gotta really be really careful when you
Speaker 1: say ship right after that. Right, Yeah, it could be
Speaker 1: quite a quite a mistake. Uh, we'd have to pay
Speaker 1: for if we had to had to. But um oh
Speaker 1: that is so cool. I'm going to do that immediately
Speaker 1: after this because I probably the oil leaking out into
Speaker 1: the ocean. That's terrible. That's just terrible, but but interesting
Speaker 1: to look at, I'll tell you that. And you know,
Speaker 1: if it was nearby, that'd be a nice uh day
Speaker 1: excursion to go over and check something like that out,
Speaker 1: because where else in the world are you gonna find
Speaker 1: that the site? And of course I wouldn't think that
Speaker 1: this type of thing will be around forever. Due to
Speaker 1: the environmental impact, I'm sure the ship graveyard will eventually
Speaker 1: be no more. Well, there's there's airplane graveyards of course
Speaker 1: out west and the southwest here in the United States,
Speaker 1: and those are much more organized. Yeah, definitely they are.
Speaker 1: And uh and but they're really cool to look at
Speaker 1: as well. I mean, they're fascinating to see. Um, I wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, I've never heard this. Does NASA have any
Speaker 1: kind of graveyard like this where they uh store some
Speaker 1: of their old you know, space junk that they've recovered
Speaker 1: or I believe that they are playing graveyards. There are
Speaker 1: some space shuttles there really, but I'm sure they have
Speaker 1: a bunch of other stuff, you know, like rocket Well
Speaker 1: you know what, sometimes you'll be in a smaller town
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to think of where this was in particular.
Speaker 1: I went past one recently that you know, they have
Speaker 1: a space museum. Maybe there's an a story behind it.
Speaker 1: There might be an astronaut that comes from the town
Speaker 1: or something, and they'll have you know, like I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make this up. I don't know if this is one
Speaker 1: or not, but a saturn five rockets standing on end,
Speaker 1: you know, with the advertisement for the museum, you know,
Speaker 1: just three miles down the road this way, you know,
Speaker 1: on the main highway. They have stuff like that all
Speaker 1: over the place. So I know that you know, these
Speaker 1: things are available. I just wonder how they get to them,
Speaker 1: you know, like where how do you access that? How
Speaker 1: do you, you know, get the permission to bring something
Speaker 1: like that to your small town and use it? And
Speaker 1: and is that something that you could do, you know,
Speaker 1: as a as a private citizen, as an individual, could
Speaker 1: you go and take something like that money? I guess.
Speaker 1: I mean you gotta have enough property for something like
Speaker 1: that too. I don't think the neighbors would be too happy.
Speaker 1: You know, you got a great big Soviet Ara missile
Speaker 1: on your property. You know, I might look a little
Speaker 1: bit intimidating, you know, you might be trying to make
Speaker 1: a statement. Yeah this is kind of on subject, but
Speaker 1: not really. And I don't know if you remember this
Speaker 1: or if you were living down here at the time.
Speaker 1: But there was an airplane I think it was in Byron,
Speaker 1: Georgia off the interstate, and it was a restaurant keep
Speaker 1: kind of neat big jet. It was a d C
Speaker 1: seven or something. Well, it was an older airplane, a prop,
Speaker 1: but it was okay, Well it's still been a big
Speaker 1: commercial airline. Yeah, it was commercial back in the day.
Speaker 1: That's cool. That's pretty cool, you know. I I know
Speaker 1: I've seen service stations that have used that in the past.
Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly where. I want to say, it
Speaker 1: was like a gosh, I'm gonna mess this up, but
Speaker 1: I think it was like an old Sinclair station or something.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, a brand that we don't necessarily
Speaker 1: have around here anymore, or even I don't know Sinclair
Speaker 1: even exists anymore. I'm not sure. The bean Dinosaur, yeah exactly,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen I've seen advertising, and you know, people
Speaker 1: talk about it still, you know, because they're you know,
Speaker 1: the people that collect that type of thing, um, you know,
Speaker 1: the petrol people. But um, yeah, I mean, I know
Speaker 1: I've seen airplanes used as things like that. But again,
Speaker 1: it's fascinating to think of, you know, like this, the
Speaker 1: second life for a lot of these things, or even
Speaker 1: third life really, I mean, once you get down to it,
Speaker 1: because cars that take parts from the you pull it site,
Speaker 1: you pull it parts lot end up that back there again,
Speaker 1: you know, a decade later, which is kind of an
Speaker 1: interesting someone to pick again. Yeah, once once again, pick
Speaker 1: it up right, all right? So you know what, I
Speaker 1: think we've pretty much extinguished this topic at least as
Speaker 1: far as as this conversation goes. You know, we've got
Speaker 1: other car stuff episodes that have talked about junkyards and
Speaker 1: salvage yards and salvage cars and how to avoid buying
Speaker 1: a car that's been through a hurricane and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, the everything that goes along with it. So
Speaker 1: you can check out our archives for that, and if
Speaker 1: you know, if you want to do that, the best
Speaker 1: place to go probably is i heeart dot com. You
Speaker 1: can search car stuff and that's the way you find
Speaker 1: our archive of oh gosh, it's probably nine plus shows
Speaker 1: at this point. We've got many many shows out there,
Speaker 1: and again just do a keyword search and you'll be
Speaker 1: able to find whatever you need there. And we are
Speaker 1: always on social media as well, so you know, we're
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram where we are car stuff hs
Speaker 1: W on all three of those, and of course you
Speaker 1: know again when you're at iHeart dot com or even
Speaker 1: if you're on you know, Apple podcasts or wherever, you
Speaker 1: can always leave feedback let us know how we're doing.
Speaker 1: I always love to hear feedback. Oh yeah, show ideas
Speaker 1: is something that we are, you know, always trying to
Speaker 1: get from our listeners because you know, we want to
Speaker 1: make this show for you. We want to make it
Speaker 1: something that you like listening to as well, and we
Speaker 1: can come up with lots of ideas, but some of
Speaker 1: our best ideas come from our audience, so we really
Speaker 1: appreciate it when you do that. So uh, you know,
Speaker 1: do that and of course tell your friends. You know,
Speaker 1: we're trying to gain listeners as well all the time,
Speaker 1: so you know, you like what you hear. Hey, maybe
Speaker 1: you don't even like what you hear. Maybe you just
Speaker 1: want to, you know, get your friend listeners so you
Speaker 1: can argue about it or laugh or yeah, that's right,
Speaker 1: We do whatever you want. But uh, but um, I
Speaker 1: guess that's about it for me, Kurt, how about you?
Speaker 1: That's it for me? Anything else? All right? I guess
Speaker 1: we will see you next time, and who knows, maybe
Speaker 1: Benalty back. Maybe thanks for listening everyone. Car Stuff is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart
Speaker 1: radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.