Went to a scrapyard yesterday to get a jack for mate.
1st time I have been to one for 20 odd years and was totally amazed.
They told me on the phone I would have to look through the cars to find one, so went expecting to clamber over piles of scrappers.....only to find rows and rows of cars neatly stacked on cradles, all with the wheels removed and neatly put in boot.
Dealt with by a polite set of blokes and no alsations in sight.
Probably old news to lots of you, but I was very impressed.
I won't give the name, but if you are looking a a scrapyard, the one in Hollybush Lane Aldershot is worth a look and had a very wide variety of cars.
Finally, seems to me the car most likely to be scrapped due to accident damage (and frequently in some style) is a lightly modded Peugeot 106.
|
Not Scrappies any more but End Of Life Vehicle recycling plants or some similar PC rubbish! They've also done the elocution lesons and that includes the Alsatians as well, which should be called German Sheperds apparently.
Used to be 25+ years ago some good breakers in Farnborough and Aldershot. North Camp area had 2 good ones. In those days I was an impoverished apprentice at RAE Farnborough and needed scrappies to keep my car alive.
As for the 106 not surprised, cheap insurance and quite cool for the youngsters hence scrap yard fodder.
Jim
|
The overheads are much higher these days. There are tight environmental regulations, the cars have to be decontaminated, for example fluids drained etc.
I remember once, about 15 years ago, clambering up a pile of cars and sitting in a Renault 18 to extract a heater control for my Dad's 18. It was a windy day and the car was swaying...
|
I had a few interesting trips to scrappies when I was in the 6th form, trying to keep the Mk 2 Cavalier on the road and vaguely presentable.
Most memorable was standing on the front wing of a Sierra, undoing the bonnet hinge bolts of the Cavalier that was stacked on top of it. It was only once I'd got as far as the final bolt (two on each side) that I wondered how I might lift it off and carry it down.
As I recall, I threw the wrench to the ground as the final bolt became loose enough to use my fingers, before pulling the bolt out and shuffling the bonnet back over my head so I was holding it with both hands above my head while still balanced on wing of the car beneath. Then jumping to the ground with the bonnet still held above my head.
How did I not injure myself?
|
"How did I not injure myself?"
Bonnet acted as a parachute and you gently floated to the ground.
What do I win?.
|
Incredible, isn't it, how things we all did as a matter of course years ago are now regarded by everybody as as criminally dangerous?
Anyone now who jacked up the bottom car in a pile 5 high in order to get a wheel off, and then shoved some old wheels under it to stop the pile falling over, would be mad, or in prison, or both, or dead.
I remember scrapyards draining old oil onto the ground, burning old tyres and upholstery, letting customers loose with jacks and hacksaws and wrenches in the middle of all this mayhem.
But scrapyards are still excellent value for money, although not as cheap of course.
|
Aside from draining oil onto the ground and burning things, I can't really see the problem.
Ok, it was never a safe environment but you knew what you were getting yourself into. Pile of old cars - retrieve what you can at your own risk and you'll pay next to nothing for it.
Great fun.
|
Ok, it was never a safe environment but you knew what you were getting yourself into. Pile of old cars - retrieve what you can at your own risk and you'll pay next to nothing for it. Great fun.
>>
Apart
>>from draining oil onto the ground and burning things
>>
my local scrapyard has not changed.
I agree - Great fun.
Learn how to practice dismantling on someone elses vehicle.
Great feeling of achievement when liberating that part.
Still a strange feeling when cutting through hoses or smashing things en route or unbolting bits and discarding things in order to get to the part you want.
The small yard I went to for years until a few months ago has no dogs but really helpful guys who know their stuff and their current stock.
I have recently upgraded offspring from an old Uno to a Yaris and self from old Sierra to a Mondeo so all I can think of to get is some spare relays and that is not a proper challenge.
Happy hunting.
|
My local scrappy is next 2 our council tip & i dont think its changed in years, i mean there is concrete to be seen just mud & puddles, an old crane which is possibly the same they've used in the last 15 years!! the old geezer who runs it is still there, once there was a foreign bloke who worked there for sometime who hardly speaks any english, if you ask him somethin he just calls for barry (the boss)!!!!
--
Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
|
|
|
|
middle of all this mayhem.
And not forgetting a mal nourished Sheep Gathering Technician Canine of Germanic origin.
|
Wot ??
Have you been entertaining clients and judges this lunchtime ?
|
|
Or possibly a Teutonic Murine-Retention Operative?
|
The trouble is that you can't sign your rights away nowadays - the scrappie is always going to be responsible - hence you get a hardhat and safety jacket when visiting out local scrappie.
|
|
|
|
Teutonic Murine-Retention Operative. Sounds better....!!
|
|
Ahhh, I've caught on. Sorry, bit slow today.
|
AH! scrapyards....... A lads Aladins cave, adveture payground, the 60's version of disney land for boys.
Many a happy memory of traveling there with daddy, pass the slavering Alsations (they were NOT called German Shepards then)
with daddies words in my ear (keep your eyes peeled for a Consol door locking button, window winder and drop em in your pocket)
|
Long lasting memory of Scrappie in W.Midlands who specialized in stacking different models 3 - 5 high with little space between the stacks. Access was given to clients via a wooden ladder (oilsoaked) with 50% of the rungs missing. Having said that they were very cheap - could have a complete engine with ancillaries still attached for £15.
Happy Motoring Phil I
|
First Scrap Yard I ever dealt with was a big one in Wimbleden, S London. Bought a Radiator for my Mk 2 Escort for £15 when the recon proce was around £50 plus. I remember being pleased with it as it turned out to be a recent recon!
I think I got about a month's guarantee with it and that was it!
Even in those days that one actually removed the unit for you if you asked them, hence the prices?
A while later in Leicester I dealt with around 5 yards that were centered around one industrial estate to the North of the city, just off the ringroad. Again, usual thing, cars stacked three high, mostly reasonable prices except one that seemed to try ripping you off if you looked naieve. To me that was an annoyance more than anything. I'll never forget being quoted £15+vat each for some discs for a Mini 1275GT, when you could get them mail order for less!
I think by around 1985 they were catching on big time and we were paying more for our spares. For Example, engine and box (1300cc) out of an Allegro for £125, although it had only done 29000 miles.
H
|
It's what's right at the back of some scrapyards that's most interesting, but probably way beyond restoration!
cheers, Sofa Spud
|
"in Leicester I dealt with around 5 yards that were centered around one industrial estate to the North of the city, just off the ringroad."
2 years ago they were all still there - now there is only one and you go to an office, ask for what you want, they look it up on a computer and tell you if it is "in stock" - no rooting around with your sockets and spanners in a skyscraper of cars ankle deep in oily mud these days, all the fun has gone!! Still a good old fashioned one in Loughborough though!
|
I remember the one in Loughborough, near Morris Cranes IIRC??
H
|
|
|
|
|
