Self-serve junkyard SCORE!
 

Sometimes I just love L.A. Most of the time I love it, like this past month of ~75deg. weather while the rest of the country is a sauna and NYC smells like ass. But I digress. Days like today, I love it even more.

Some of my friends here know how much I love self-serve junkyards. Rick Lee got dragged to one with me not too long ago. Anywhoo... I bought a cheap MB 300D turbo last week that needs some attention. Good car, just needed brakes and some other normal deferred repair/maintenance.

I was doing the front brakes yesterday when I found that it had a bad/leaky RF caliper. Uhmmm... rebuilt one is ~$75 or I could get a seal kit for about $20 and rebuild it myself...

Or, I could go to the ssjy and try to find a perfect one for less than $20.00. I really did not feel like rebuilding it and the object of cars like this for me is to see how cheaply I can make them awesome.

I went to a different yard then my usual one, down in Compton instead of Sun Valley. The Compton one is definitely less crowded and they usually have a good selection of 70s/80s Mercedes cars. Sure enough, they had at least four good 123 chassis cars with LOTS of good parts left on them.

I scored a perfect RF ATE caliper, a set of almost brand new Bilstein front shocks, the piece of front fender moulding that I needed and two nearly perfect pieces of interior wood. Take a wild-ass guess how much for everything: :D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1278746878.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1278746903.jpg

My car:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1278746975.jpg

drumroll...
 

$39.02 USD for everything, including tax and environmental fee. (Whatever the heck that is).

Caliper: $11.95
Moulding: $5.00
Shocks: $5.95 (x2)
Interior wood: $3.00 (x2)


Is this a great country or what?? :)

I thought you were talking about 911 in self serve yard, and was going to ask you which yard.

Yes it is, but your bumper laws suck, or used to suck.

At $39.02 USD you can't go wrong. If you look after that old girl she'll run forever.

I like your thinking... I got off the new car merry go round years ago.

Even with the turbo, the mercedes diesel is the slowest slug on the road that I have ever seen. It may last a long time but you will grow old and gray while driving it.

great score! For the 20 minutes it'd take, I'd pop the piston out of the caliper and clean it up. Pretty good chance it's fudgy in there.

Joe, the 240d's are slow, but I don't find the turbo'd 300d's too bad, even in an s class. Dad's 83 300sd wasn't quick but it had no problem merging onto the highway uphill, and would maintain a steady 80-85 all day long. Certainly didn't have sporting performance, but it was a bit better than adequate. A real fun diesel engine is the 244 ftlb, 3 liter, DOHC, 24valve turbo engine in my e300d. The diesel ones are faster than the gas e320's.

What? :confused:

Not if they're running right. The 617 engine makes nice power and is well-matched to the shift points of the Mercedes auto trans. These cars actually jump a little off the line and pull well like a turbine. Plenty of torque.

If they are not running right, they can be speed bumps. I've seen one with the (complicated) throttle linkage hooked-up wrong and it would barely go. It idled fine and was smooth so it completely baffled the owner. 1981-'83 models are quite a bit quicker than '84-'85s, at least in CA. due to emissions equipment.

They are phenomenal road-trip cars. :cool:

Right. Tell me again how much you pay for cars, fuel and parts where you live? :cool:

You should have seen my 80 Rabbit diesel truck, I traded it off years ago and am still waiting to it to reach speed, buy getting 45MPG eas hard to complain about & I traded it off for the 944 that became my track car. Great score Dennis, I too love pull -a-part yards and a buddy owns one and is always building something cool.. I use to have a 300 SDL Turbo, while it did take some time to get up to cruising speed, once there, it would go all day long... Even with 475K on the clock:eek:

Good score!!

And I'm already (relatively) old and gray, Joe, so I don't have to worry about that.

I'll be in town next weekend if you want to go scavenging again. I think Seahawk will be there too.

I go all the time.

Almost forgot these, a couple of new *working on cars shirts* from the hombre by the gate who sells used uniform shirts/pants/coveralls. He had nearly every make of dealership shirt this time, freshly laundered, 2 for $5.00. No tax. I got one long sleeve and one short. Now are you jealous? :)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1278779960.jpg

It's rare to see any 911 but 944/928/914s are common. I've only seen one pre-'89 911 and it honestly did not have one usable part on it. Not one. I once thought I saw a 996 coupe but as I got close, it was one of those body kits on a Toyota. :D

I can't begin to fully explain my glee at finding a bargain in this world. I'm one cheap SOB. When I'm struggling to carry my booty of shocks/caliper/small parts + my tools up to the cashier, I feel like a neanderthal dragging a dead moose back to the cave. A great white hunter...:cool:

the shirts are the best score, havent been to a ssjy in years but here they can't charge for used brake parts, they probably arn't supposed to sell them but if your there often then you could get some free bee's

Denis- what lot in Compton? I work in hawthrone, I would venture over there to grab a few of those shirts for sure... I'm jealous

August 17th...I'll miss you guys this time. Missing Todd play is a roast...I'll be in PHX on the 16th of August. I'd really like your wife to meet Arden again, a little shelter from the ASU storm, should she need it.

Doubtful...Arden is a force, but one never knows.

Have fun, all.

Denis, the shirt XXL if you can. You are good.

oooohhhh i likey the shirt
can you score me a short sleeve large????

I can verify that.

Hell... I'd give a 10 plus shipping for two of those shirts....

Do they have snakes in the junk yards in CA? I hate the pick your own places here in Ohio. Black snakes, garter snakes, milk snakes - the love to live in junk cars. I bought an old Fordson tractor and there was a black snake in the gas tank. I discovered this when I was hauling it home and he would extend his snaky carcass out of the tank by about 2 feet and weave around it the slipstream. He finally fell out, thank God, and prolly got squashed on I-70. I never go during warm months anymore. I hate snakes.

I would LOVE one of those shirts in an XXL also....

I have a friend that owns a non pick it yourself for domestics. You have to have a friend like that if you own a Jeep! Seeing some of the crashes makes you think.

I like the button flap pockets. Used to have a VW one, long sleeve, but it was a patch, not embroidered.

I love doing that crap, best ever score was an egr filter for the bug, $5 rather than 150. Some one had stolen mine when I had to park it outside overnight in SF

Depends. In and near the deserts and foothills it would be entirely possible to encounter a rattler. In the cities, no. YMMV.

Sorry, but those bumpers look schit. The same as the U.S style 944 rear bumper. They look crap. They change the way the car looks. They weren't designed to look that. They ruin a perfectly good looking car.
And old Benz's here are the same as over there. A dime a dozen.

I see the 944/911 80's impact bumpers as character.

They define an era. I love em.

Each to their own.

I have to join you one day.

That is scary. Lucky you he didn't get to you while you were removing the tank.

suggest you buy ALL the Porsche shirts..

looking for a large ..

Rika

We have a lot in common. I too love the junk yards and most of my friends think I'm nuts. But, to me it's as much fun as going to a hardware store.

A while back I scored this Nardi wheel (for $9.95) - someday to be fitted into my 914:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1279089479.jpg

9.95... wow.




wow.

I love it! That is the classic Beirut Taxi. Even the colour is right. Those things will go a million miles.

Needs a few bullet holes IMO. And Lebanese license plates for the front. (I might be able to score you a set of those if you're interested.)

Great car in which to load up your friends with hummus, hashish and little glasses of sweet tea while touring LA.

Definitely a classic.

I have a cousin who, with a friend, drove from Gillette, WY to St. Maries, ID in a MB diesel. Without stopping. You heard right, without stopping. 800 miles. The gas tank is something like 25 gallons, and the vehicle got something like 40 mpg. They drank beer the whole way. Packed sandwiches. Had empty jugs so they could avoid rest stops.

I've always loved junkyards. Particularly the ones where you get to pull the parts yourself. What a country!

Tidy,

Great score on the steering wheel. Those puppies are expensive!

Speeder,

If you are going back would love to have a couple of the shirts. XL if they have them or XXL if they run small. Do they have any that have Jaguar on them as well?

Let me know how much, happy to pay extra as a finders fee!

Joe

He should probably just buy all the european shirts....

LOL...don't I know it! I was shaking the whole 3 minutes it took to remove it. :)