Jump to content

Wrecking Yard Report


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 3.2k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

The B210 is my favorite car from the 1970s, and I wouldn't trade mine for anything else (with the possible exception of a 200SX), but that doesn't mean I don't have respect for the competition. So, it was an intense experience when I walked into Redding Pick-N-Pull today and saw this sitting right where my B210 had been sitting six months ago:

 

36841821072_900e89498c.jpgfrnt qrtr by emanistan, on Flickr

 

36841819022_3b7097c929.jpgrear qrtr by emanistan, on Flickr

 

36841820012_9a1558e730.jpgfrnt by emanistan, on Flickr

 

You can't deny the Corolla was a great car.  This one, according to the data plate, came off the line in August of 1976, which I guess would make it a late 76 model.  Think what a beauty she'd be after a restoration...if I had the money, the space, and the skill to take her on, I would do it in a heartbeat, but I don't, so I'm hoping, if she ends up being put up for sale as a builder (she isn't listed on the website yet, but she's parked in the builder section with a sign saying not to take parts off, so I'm assuming she's about to be listed) to inspire someone else to come to her rescue.  She'd be a more ambitious project than my Sunny: she has rust, though it appears to mostly be surface rust-no holes-;and the engine compartment looks awful: 

 

36204638203_df80a86976.jpgengn by emanistan, on Flickr

 

-but I'm probably the only person on Ratsun forums who lacks the skills to have this running in an hour, and think what you'd end up with when you finished:  not just a beautiful looking car, but practical too.  Think of the camping trips you could take!  Wood applique on a wagon usually means a high trim level, though this one lacks a clock and a roof rack, so I don't know.

 

One thing about P&P that annoys me is the way they tear plates off a car when it comes into the yard:

 

36204636443_382d7a0929.jpgplt by emanistan, on Flickr

 

I've found many neat old plate frames here, but they're always broken.  At least we can see where this car began its American life.  West Covina is a bedroom community of Los Angeles, so we know this car made its way from one end of California to the other over the last 41 years.

 

Someone rescue this car!...if they put it up for sale.  If not, I guess I'll snag the grill for a garage decoration and the beauty rings for my B210.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Friday was payday, which means Saturday was another day of adventures in distant junkyards, although I hesitated this week, which means I didn't leave till after nine, and this had unfortunate consequences later in the day.

 

This:

 36672438155_c9c353643c_n.jpg630f6b30-13cc-4465-8a1b-85c0ae923974 by emanistan, on Flickr

had arrived at the San Jose South Pick-N-Pull branch a few weeks ago, and then there was this: 36793716666_bf73e046ec_n.jpg379c3388-6760-47e4-8424-62b10b575e12 by emanistan, on Flickr

which had arrived at the Newark branch not long after, and of course Newark was also the final home of my old friend: 36633700936_3f9eeb6bcc_n.jpg20170812_132217 by emanistan, on Flickr

with which I still felt I had unfinished business.

 

Ostensibly the trip was actually to drop off a birthday present for a cousin in Woodland.  I was relieved to find no one home-I just left the package on their doorstep and went on, though in hindsight, it might have been better if I'd spent the day there, spent the night, and then had all of Sunday for wrecking yard adventures, but that's not what happened, so after dropping off the package, it was on to San Jose.

 

Even back in the 70s, when B210s plied the streets in huge numbers, driving into and out of San Jose was something that few people looked upon with enthusiasm, and things have not gotten better since.  San Jose and my beloved hometown of Santa Cruz have always had a sort of symbiotic relationship.  Not only are they next to one another on either side of the hills with people commuting between them throughout their history, but they're both old cities dating back to the Spanish era, and they both are amazingly rich agriculturally, meaning they both were very prosperous in the 19th and early 20th century, leading to similar architecture.  There the similarity ends though.  Unlike Santa Cruz, San Jose is hot, landlocked, flat, and marred by careless postwar development:  Central California's Fresno.  Like kids in SoCal, Santa Cruz kids refer to dull, stupid, and vulgar people as 'valleys', but in Santa Cruz, they're talking about the Santa Clara Valley, where San Jose is. 

 

The traffic and the convoluted warrens of freeway ramps and city streets lived up to their reputation, and I was not in a good mood when I pulled into San Jose South P&P, maybe that's why this yard didn't endear itself to me. It's funny how you come to think of 'good' P&P yards and 'bad' ones, but I arrived at this one in a bad mood, and it firmly planted itself in the second category.  The staff seemed overstressed and lazy, most of the clientel were suspicious and stand-offish, and there were no shopping carts to be had.  It's also funny how some cars 'speak to you' and some don't.  I didn't fall in love with this B210 like I did with the ones in Newark, although there were still many usable parts on it, so I encourage people to come take a look. Someone already had snagged the engine.  Was it one of you?

 

36749344750_6909143ace.jpg20170909_160007 by emanistan, on Flickr

36749344450_dc4bbfb3cc.jpg20170909_160017 by emanistan, on Flickr

36749344220_4e1ff5632f.jpg20170909_160227 by emanistan, on Flickr

 

I had the notion that I might get some good bumper corner moldings from this car (I have an intact set from the Newark car, but it's not perfect) but close inspection showed only 2 were intact, and both were dried out and crackly.  The other thing I was hoping for was the spare tire rim:  I've been collecting these in order to have a second set of wheels for my car and do two different wheel treatments.  In this I was a little more successful.  In this yard with its lazier staff, many of the cars still have their entire wheel sets still attached, so I got not only the spare, but one of the other wheels, and now I have a full extra set.  The downside is that these wheels are cruddier and rustier than the Newark ones, but they'll clean up okay. 

 

I explored the rest of the yard looking both for a shopping cart and anything interesting.  I found neither.  Behind the porta-potties I found some redneck teenagers making out, but no shopping carts.  Finally I followed a guy who'd just bought a transmission, helped him put it in his car, and grabbed his shopping cart when he was finished.  With that I took my wheels and my toolbox to the front, paid, and left.  Getting out of San Jose was worse than getting in.

 

Next up was my beloved Newark:  my favorite P&P branch (alongside Fairfield), but by the time I got there it was only an hour and a half before closing time, which, as most of you probably know, translates to about five minutes in junkyard time.

 

The white (formerly brown) 76 B210 and I go way back.  This was my third, and probably my last visit to it, because it's date with the crusher is fast approaching.  Interestingly, the B210 is two spots kitty-cornered from this 83 280Z:

 

36749343550_2ceab5af40.jpg20170909_172900 by emanistan, on Flickr

 

I thought about sharing this with the forum before, but decided it was too thoroughly picked over to induce anyone to plan a trip around it.  This car inspired a feeding frenzy probably from the day it hit the yard.  On my first visit it had already been thoroughly picked over, but still it was brining in enough old Datsun fanatics that I made some good friends while I worked on the old Sunny next door.  When I was thinking of posting about this Z weeks ago, I thought "well, someone might want the bumpers" but decided they were too cracked and caked with paint to be worth anyone's trouble. Someone disagreed though, as you can see from the picture I took yesterday.  Even though I'm not a Z person, I snagged the digital clock from this car on my last visit.

 

Z's aside, this is what has drawn me back here 3 times:

 

36749342930_a7787d7182.jpg20170909_173021 by emanistan, on Flickr

 

I was disappointed to find that no one on this forum had decided to grab the tail-lights or the windshield from this car since I posted about it a few weeks ago--in fact it doesn't look like anyone but me has taken anything aside from the emblems since the car arrived--and I couldn't bare to think of them going to the crusher in the next week or so when this little old veteran's number is up, so I rescued them myself.  The windshield is safely hidden in a treasure-chest car till the next half-price day when I can make it down with some shipping padding, and I decided to buy the tail-lights using my $20.00 gift certificate, so I ended up getting the set for the price of one.

 

Dismantling the lights and sqiurrilling away the windshield didn't leave me much time for the final attraction, in fact I had so little time to spend with it that I only got one picture:

 

36975644752_697f05ff15.jpg20170909_172306 by emanistan, on Flickr

 

I didn't know much about the Datsun 310, and someone here had called it 'the bastard unloved stepchild of the Datsun world' when I first posted about it, but I must admit-even as someone who's not usually a great fan of early 80s cars-I was a bit smitten.  The 1980 Datsun 310GX is a cool little car, and from what I can see from later research, it's actually somewhat rare, at least here in the states.  Interestingly, I came across the auction page for this very car from before P&P bought it, complete with picture:

 

37147152595_f7e0f5ed28.jpg5e110aaa-6de1-4e8d-9ac1-b528a0a8a3fa by emanistan, on Flickr

 

What a tragedy!  It has all the hallmarks of someone's abandoned back-yard project.  The emblem pickers have already gotten to this little beauty, and someone got the steering wheel, but aside from that, it's very complete and full of good parts.  I started trying to extract the clock from the dashboard, but the loudspeaker announcement "The yard is now closed. Customers please take your purchases to the front and leave" boomed over the yard before I could finish.  I think it's worth another trip.  The engine from this might make a good swap for my B210 if I had the skill, money, and wherewithall to remove, buy, store, refurbish, and re-install it, but I don't think I do....still, I'm thinking about it.

 

With visions of old Datsuns dancing in my head I headed back north, stopping for a well-earned delicious meal at Granzellas along the way.

  • Like 5
Link to comment

There's an 82 280zx (auto) that landed in the Chula Vista (San Diego) PaP on Sept 10th. The center caps I wanted were gone, but most of it was still there including the motor, ft struts, dif, and 3 of the ST wheels.

 

I'm tall enough I could peek over the fence into their holding area. There's a very straight white 720 Standard cab short bed with what looks to be a full set of ST wheels and caps, but I couldn't see the 4th ft wheel. It had black mirrors so I'm not certain if it was a real ST model or not. Did all the ST trucks have chrome mirrors? Too far to tell.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

There's an 82 280zx (auto) that landed in the Chula Vista (San Diego) PaP on Sept 10th. The center caps I wanted were gone, but most of it was still there including the motor, ft struts, dif, and 3 of the ST wheels.

 

I'm tall enough I could peek over the fence into their holding area. There's a very straight white 720 Standard cab short bed with what looks to be a full set of ST wheels and caps, but I couldn't see the 4th ft wheel. It had black mirrors so I'm not certain if it was a real ST model or not. Did all the ST trucks have chrome mirrors? Too far to tell.

From what I've seen, the ST's only had black mirrors.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

It must have been a new addition to the holding yard as ir was nice & clean. All the other cars in the rows had dust caked on them so thick you couldn't tell what color they were. This was from the giant skip-loaders zooming back and forth kicking up dust from the dirt road next to them.

 

From 720_Jeff's experience it sounds like it will have all the nice ST Stuff. Keep an eye out for it to hit the yard sowner or later.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

'81 2-door 210 in Stanton, CA. Pretty haggard. I took the door glass.

 

RP031PB.jpg

wduOW5W.jpg

ZdMfST4.jpg

BE9qJOm.jpg

YL8kBi8.jpg

u71DZb6.jpg

CAK55uN.jpg

q2B49ng.jpg

hxZjUwv.jpg

6YrbeT8.jpg

 

In Anaheim, CA. I forgot to get a pic of the ID plate but it says '80 on it. I couldn't be positive because the grille was gone. It was an automatic and had a/c. In good shape but pretty picked over.

shdQRYv.jpg

d47sikT.jpg

kJloBLE.jpg

HuoqG6H.jpg

oOVi5eZ.jpg

cTeLwsV.jpg

 

Both of these yards are literally down the street from each other.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

There is a 1971 Datsun 521 in the Vancouver Wa Pick and Pull right now, there is still some stuff left on it, the starter, wiper motor, alternator are still there as well as the heater box, both doors(driver side in box) are there with good glass, front bumper has one dent in it, all the stainless is gone on the front, hood is gone, it had the wrong valve cover on it but I suspect it was an L16 as it had a dual points distributor, the seat covering was bad but the complete seat was still there.

The dash face was in good condition(without dents and perfect radio hole), but the top was cracked, also the windshield is busted. :(

The box was there, but not in great condition, taillight and park light buckets were there(rusty), but the lenses were either busted or gone.

All the electrical bits are there(relays and such) including the instrument cluster.

It appears to have not been on the road in a very long time, it had the not so great smog type exhaust manifold with everything removed, it is a very rusty truck, the floor boards were basically gone, but no one has tried placing their foot on them recently so they are still, but you could easily put your finger thru them.

I took a few bits like early wiper arms, the speedo cable, the in fairly good condition floor mat, and the throttle cable.

I forget what the front fenders looked like, but the tops were good, but the truck is very rusty.

There were no other Datsuns in the yard, a couple of Hardbodies of which one had a 3.50 geared H190 in it, the other was not a H190.

  • Like 3
Link to comment

83 280ZX T-top just arrived at Redding Pick & Pull

 

37436136890_51e58ecb95_z.jpg20171013_174453 by emanistan, on Flickr

37645127226_890cb4323f_z.jpg20171013_174513 by emanistan, on Flickr

37436135400_edb05b8951_z.jpg20171013_174658 by emanistan, on Flickr

 

As of 10/13/17 it was still largely complete, though the dash & instrument cluster have been fairly ripped up.  Naturally, some dumb asshole pried the emblem off the hood, and in this case they left it propped on my windowsill next to my bed.  I got the cruise control switch and the digital clock, but there's still lots of good stuff on it...as of yesterday.

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.