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Re: Some Junkyard Finds
Meanmachine #776089 May 13th 2021 8:32 pm
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Originally Posted by Meanmachine
Some nice finds there, I love prowling junk yards searching for hidden treasures of van parts.

Me too, that's one of my few happy places to escape the world for a while.


[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]
Re: Some Junkyard Finds
Dburger #776103 May 14th 2021 11:07 am
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[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]Junkyard by Lee Hatfield, on Flickr

1 member likes this: purplesporty17
Re: Some Junkyard Finds
kursed #776104 May 14th 2021 11:08 am
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Originally Posted by kursed
Originally Posted by Meanmachine
Some nice finds there, I love prowling junk yards searching for hidden treasures of van parts.

Me too, that's one of my few happy places to escape the world for a while.

Mine too. Those are some great scores

Re: Some Junkyard Finds
Dburger #776121 May 14th 2021 7:28 pm
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I use to do a junk yard tour every Spring and Fall, but when scrap prices were up several years ago, the yards in my area crushed almost anything over 15 to 20 years old. There are still some old-timers that have salvage yards in remote areas and know me from years off getting parts off them, and I can walk in the office and they will tell me right away if they got any old vans in recently. One of my best yard's had a row of about 15 to 20 mid-Dodges and they crushed every one of them. The owner told me I was the only guy left who would be looking for parts for that years of vans. Kurse, you mention the peacefulness and serenity of getting lost in the salvage yards, I felt the same way, many of these vehicles had been there for years with trees and brush hiding some real gems and I was like a little kid on Christmas morning when I would find some cool or vintage van item.

Re: Some Junkyard Finds
Dburger #776123 May 14th 2021 9:12 pm
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Indeed! I was there trapesing around, listening to the wind blow through the trees, birds singing, a deer walking through the brush. Just looking for an Astro van mirror, and stopping occasionally to stare at a long forgotten 60s something sedan.

Then I spotted the Chevy body lines on the fenders of the campers "COULD IT BE!?!?!" I thought, just like a kid rushing to the Christmas tree, my heart sped up in anticipation "New van parts!" they hadn't gotten any new Chevy vans in almost a year, especially older Chevy vans. When I saw it was a 71-77 and the chrome grill was intact, I was every bit as excited as the Christmas morning I opened my Super Nintendo. lol The more I dug into that camper, the more cool presents Santa brought me. The grill, the bumper, the dash, the tilt column, on and on.

I've been digging around this junkyard since the early 90's and it has changed a ton since then, but a lot has remained the same as well. In the early to mid 90's they had a whole row of custom vans, maybe 50 or more, I couldn't tell you how many exactly. The row lined the road that leads past the scales and into the main yard. I would walk through and look into all of those old vans, admiring the shag carpet, custom interiors, port windows, and custom paint jobs Part of what made me want to learn how to do custom paint jobs in the first place.

I moved to Daytona Beach, FL from VA in 1993, but I would still visit the junkyard and browse all the goodies with my best friend when I came home to VA to visit family. Then I left FL in 1998 and moved back to VA, life was crazy at that time for me, and I didn't get back to this junkyard until around 2001-02, every single one of the custom vans had been crushed, along with a TON of other 1972 and older vehicles. Muscle cars, hot rods, all sorts of the coolest vehicles in the world, all gone forever. We've had two other yards in our area crush all their inventory when closing down over the years. Hundreds and hundreds of pre 72 cool steel, all gone forever. It's absolutely heartbreaking every time it happens.

But I still like to go and browse, see what kind of amazing deals I can find. It will always be one of my places where I can just go to be alone with my thoughts.


[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]
Re: Some Junkyard Finds
Dburger #776141 May 15th 2021 1:08 pm
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Man you are so lucky kursed. That find was phenominal. chevy

Re: Some Junkyard Finds
SDMickey #776146 May 15th 2021 1:27 pm
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Originally Posted by SDMickey
Man you are so lucky kursed. That find was phenominal. chevy

Yes it was, thanks.


[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]
Re: Some Junkyard Finds
Dburger #776150 May 15th 2021 1:55 pm
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Had to drive back to the junkyard this morning to get the bucket of small parts and hardware I forgot and left in the camper. DOH! Luckily my friend that works there spotted it and brought it to the office for me. So here are a few neat little things I found with it.

Strange push/pull switch that was mounted in the lower left of the dash.

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

Brown defroster vents. The 67-72 C & K series trucks used the same exact vents, and I've only found a couple decent blue ones and one red one over the many years I've been pulling parts for those, so I was SUPER stoked to find these unbroken. You can still order these aftermarket on the truck parts sites, but only in black and chrome that I've found.

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

Several packages of unopened bulbs to go into the bulb storage bin.

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

A junior state trooper sticker with the backing still on and seems almost new. lol

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

This brass doohickey from what looked like a fireplace tool, but it had a black on threaded on the other end. This will become a shift knob.

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

Owner's manual

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

And the Midas camper manual with a big giant map inside and all sorts of neat documentation.

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]
Re: Some Junkyard Finds
Dburger #776151 May 15th 2021 4:39 pm
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Try selling that old Midas manual on ebay, some of this old camper stuff is collectible.

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