Scrapyard Memories

Talk about your cars etc here. Keep it sort of sensible and on topic please.
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NorfolkNWeigh
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by NorfolkNWeigh »

Warren t claim wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 3:27 am What's the largest or most expensive thing you've managed to steal from a scrapyard?
A BorgWarner35 auto box out of a Mk4 Zodiac.

In Milton Keynes in the 80’s we had 5 scrapyards; Goodman’s and Fred Cox’ that are both still there. And two both named Rainbows, belonging to two factions of the same family Kevin who was a great bloke and John who was a cunt.
You only ever went to John Rainbow at Loughton when you were desperate. One Saturday afternoon after the pub, me and a mate were looking for a box for my Executive and ended up at J Rainbows as he was the only one with a recently driven in MK4, after agreeing £25 we set to removing it, dragged it to the gate and he starts moaning about the trail of fluid we’d left ( usual black mud and dog shit yard) so adds £10 to the price. I tell him to fuck off and we almost come to blows, we’re both calmed down by Trevor the old guy that worked for him. I leave with no gearbox.
We retire to the pub 200 yards away.
An hour later Trevor comes in and approaches us, “ If you want that auto box it’s yours for Tenner” John had told him to wash it down and put it in the shed as a recon. He couldn’t be arsed so dumped it under a hedge , just out of reach of the dogs chains.
If I hadn’t got a bit of Dutch courage inside me I would not have been entirely confident that the pair of Dobermans snarling at me from about 10 feet couldn’t actually reach me whilst I was strugggling with a filthy oily and muddy gearbox- Dave wouldn’t go in because of the dogs. At least he helped me get it over the 5 bar gate and into the boot of his Mk3 Cortina.
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by Hooli »

Warren t claim wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 3:27 am What's the largest or most expensive thing you've managed to steal from a scrapyard?
I'm going to lose this game as it's either a vacuum advance unit for the then gf's Panda or something daft like a switch out the dash for something.
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by mercrocker »

I did help my Maltese mate push a twin Stromberg and inlet manifold assembly through a pre-cut hole in the fence at our local scrappy. He lived half a mile away so "cased the joint" one Saturday morning - cut through the chain link at the far side of the yard where it bordered a back lane, covered that with an old piece of Jag carpet and left through the main gate empty handed.

Back in the afternoon, unbolted everything, pushed it through the hole into the bushes, bought something stupid, paid for that and fucked off.

He picked the carbs up out of the hedge as soon as the yard closed at 3pm....
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by Hooli »

If it counts as stealing, I used to help a mate weigh in his old bangers & normal procedure was asking his builder mate for any spare out of date cement etc that'd get poured into every hole & under the carpets first.
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by mercrocker »

Donating materials isn't theft - my weighed-in Imp had 2 paving slabs under the bathroom carpet in the front boot. Still only got three fucing quid for it though.
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by The Reverend Bluejeans »

A BMW M40 camshaft.

And eight rockers.

I'd been royally ripped by a yard near me so needing a cam for some shitheap, I removed a perfect and obviously not very old one from a 318i. I tie wrapped it to my shin, filled my socks with rockers, paid over the odds for some bits of trim and strode out - in pain, but glowing inside.
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by angrydicky »

I find Flickr virtually unusable these days especially on a phone. But I was just browsing Bunglebus’ photos of Kirbys and it was a great nostalgia trip as I remember all those cars.
The cut up blue Minor traveller was my dads. He won it sight unseen on eBay for about £300 and sent a bloke to fetch it from Rochester or somewhere like that, definitely north Kent somewhere. Anyway, the bloke rang, the car was at the bottom of a steep incline on the driveway and the brakes were locked solid. The seller was nowhere to be seen. Dad drove down and helped him, with the application of a copper mallet to the drums the brakes freed off enough to winch it up onto the truck. Seller had left the V5 and keys in the glovebox.
Anyway it was completely fucked, due to standing in a puddle of water at the bottom of said driveway incline for a good few years. The chassis legs had gone all the way along as had the sills, wings, crossmember etc. All the wood was rotten. The engine, I think we got running but only on 3 cylinders due to there being a snapped plug in the head.
We ended up selling the good Limeflower interior and a few other bits and Kirbys took away the rest, think dad just about got his money back.
It was a late one and had a steering lock iirc. The reg was XKT 894J and it’s still showing on DVLA so Kirbys obviously never bothered doing a COD with it.
With the prices nowadays it probably would have been worth doing but it would have needed absolutely everything. It was complete bar the interior, bumpers and a few bits in the engine bay when it went in there so some local Minor owners got their fill of bits while it was in there, someone even cut out the top of the bulkhead!
The Riley Kestrel ended up in the yard for breaking after failing to sell. It was also rotten as a pear and had no floor left at all. It had previously spent many years on a driveway on Lower Road, Hullbridge because I spotted it behind a hedge there not long before it appeared in Kirbys.
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by slowanimals »

Only taken me a year but I've finally unearthed some of my pictures.. These were taken ten years ago at a yard out in the Fens near Mildenhall. Very into their bangers,which is where most of not all of these would have ended up. Lots of things we weren't allowed to photograph,the one I recall most clearly was an early fifties Packard in a big dry shed. Must have been there decades and certainly looked like a fairly straightforward project but the chap was adamant,no, that's going racing. I bet it's still there..
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by slowanimals »

And a few more,this time maybe four or five years back from what was my local yard before we left Essex. Again a banger yard,but these chaps couldn't have been any more helpful, especially for those few customers (i.e. me) who were still running rwd Volvos.
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Jerzy Woking
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Re: Scrapyard Memories

Post by Jerzy Woking »

That looks a great yard. Can't ever recall visiting that one, maybe it was the wrong side of Essex for me(I was in the northern part).
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