Itinerant Air-Cooled

Last weekend I visited the local pull a part, Atlanta has three large ones full of cars. I went by myself, I can only do such an experience by myself as I enjoy it very much. Such as people who love to shop, whether it be for shoes, clothes or gadgets, I am a kid in a candy store at the junkyard. Gone are the days of going and finding air cooled VW's, after the cash for clunkers campaign the number of them dropped to the point of now, none whatsoever. So, I cruise for parts for my New Beetle, if I could spend all day there ripping off parts, I would probably do it.

My son had an accident with his Honda Element last year. We went to the yard and pulled off all the front end on an Element he needed, $175.00 for it all. He put it all on himself. It is now multi-colored, but a lot better looking than it used to be.

I get in free being in the military, that certainly adds to the joy. I am on the pull a part list for when an air-cooled hits the lot, it has not gone off in years. My last hope is I find a 68-71 Bus to get a few slices of body off it, before I never see one in there again.

When I lived in Lincoln Nebraska, there were two salvage yards you could count on (I mean, to some extent) for air-cooled VW parts. One of them was associated with a well-respected independent import garage and had more traffic, so you had to visit often to get parts. The other was just a catch-all. But, it had several splitties, some bays, a few Type 3s, of course scads of Beetles, and even a couple 411s. This woulda been about 1998 or 99.
One bored Saturday a buddy and I felt like poking around through it and pulled up to the front. It was completely empty. "What happened?" I asked the guy coming out the front door. "Crushed it all. The Volkswagens went first" he chuckled...we'd pulled up in a 71 Beetle. Apparently the market for scrap iron had exploded due to China somehow, and that was that.

whc03grady wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:42 pm

Apparently the market for scrap iron had exploded due to China somehow, and that was that.

Funny… When I went for used Type 1 cylinder heads a few years ago, I was shocked by the sticker price of single-port heads… Apparently, used heads were worth so little to the community that scrappers bought them up for their raw scrap value and driven core prices up…

I don't think China is the only player in this game, but they may be the largest… Used parts seem to make up more than 90% of my daily driver VW… Aren't all cars running on used parts, and it's only a matter of "how" used the parts are?

Robbie

asiab3 wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2020 1:59 am

Aren't all cars running on used parts, and it's only a matter of "how" used the parts are?

Well, yeah. Once the car is driven off the dealer's lot, it's not a "new" car anymore.

I love to be the first one to open a door of an abandoned car, it’s like a capsule of their life. I got my start with ACVWS but over time I realized it was the people I enjoyed helping. Didn’t matter anymore what kind of car it was.
Rules of thumb are people that keep the cosmetics nice neglect the drivetrains and visa versa.
Rarely both, or wouldn’t be there.