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View Full Version : A JY noob's First Junkyard Run



89HatchbackLxi
04-01-2012, 12:21 PM
Went to a junkyard for the first time ever yesterday afternoon. My dad came with me so we could remove parts easier than if I had went alone, he had never been to a junkyard before either. I have to say, junkyards are pretty friggin awesome! The yard I went to had 9-10 accords from 86-89, and one was even a hatchback! Please excuse my stupidity if I state the obvious multiple times, since things relating to junkyards is not common knowledge to me (or at least not yet).

Out of the accords I looked at, most were in pretty good condition yet, all but one had the interior sidings and such in the back most of which were in great shape yet, and also what appeared to be the gas tank along with various other parts including what looked to be the main relay (covered microchip looking thing with red plastic on the majority of it, that's the main relay right?) and a few other common parts. Saw a bunch of stock honda hubcaps, as well as a style honda rims which I didn't know existed on the 3G? 2 or 3 of the accords had those on though, so I'm guessing this must have been an stock option for our cars. Also, some had plastic honda centercaps in the cars? What rims were those from? I don't recall ever seeing those before either...

So, moving on, I got mostly everything I was looking for. An undamaged front left fender in great condition, a few door courtesy light lenses ( only needed one, but figured I'd grab a few just incase), 2 CC buttons, (btw all the cars had the combination switch arms still on them, it seems a few ppl on the forums are often looking for those?), a tan center console that has the pocket area in it since my hatch only has the shifter cover area. I would LOVE to have found a cupholder set, but I didnt expect to since this was just my first junkyard run. So of course I didn't find one. I did find the black cupholder piece part itself, just not the part that connects it to the center console area, so I can't really use this part til I get that other main part anyway. I also got 2 hatch front bumper horn cover pieces, a few spare clips for the side moldings, and possibly a few other things I don't remember now. Anyway, I was amazed that I got everything for only $45! I was expecting to pay more than that for just the fender alone!

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05261.jpg

Ok, now for the extremely noob-ish part... Is it rare to find 10+ 3Gs sitting in a single junkyard? I had no idea there would be so many there, and most showed they were brought into the yard as recent as in January or February! I expected the cars there to be somewhat totaled looking, and was surprised to see only some one or 2 of the cars with a few large dents on them, the worst one having a shattered back window and a ripped up fender on one side. The rest were in great shape for the most part (exterior wise, interiors obviously dont last long in junkyards). I saw one SE-i, however the interior had already been gutted, and the car appeared to have been there for awhile already... no emblem, radio gone, cupholders gone, seats gone, armrest gone, centercaps gone, etc...

Which made me wonder, how often junkyards typically cycle the inventory of cars that they carry? And do they do it based on time or the rarity of the car, or what? I can't believe so many 3Gs were in there at once!

Honda Man
04-01-2012, 06:35 PM
good finds my friend! that sounds like a good JY run. ha not to rub it in but the junk yard in San Jose, my city, has like 20 3rd gen accords and at least 1 hatch at all times. One time i saw 2 2ng gen sedans and a 1st gen hatch. I always find accords with LXi cupholders so if i find a set ill try and pick it up for ya man

89HatchbackLxi
04-01-2012, 06:46 PM
good finds my friend! that sounds like a good JY run. ha not to rub it in but the junk yard in San Jose, my city, has like 20 3rd gen accords and at least 1 hatch at all times. One time i saw 2 2ng gen sedans and a 1st gen hatch. I always find accords with LXi cupholders so if i find a set ill try and pick it up for ya man

Dang 20?? That's pretty awesome! And I thought finding 10 seemed lucky, ha. I found that there's one up in Bakersfield which looks a little larger than the one I went to yesterday. So I'm thinking of hitting that one up sometime. I just went to this one first since it was about 30 mins closer than the one in Bakersfield.

Any idea on how often most junkyards typically change out the cars? Seems like a lot of work to move non-running cars around, so I'm assuming they must not do it too often. Thanks for keeping an eye out on the cupholders! Seems somebody already got to the rarer parts at the yard I went to...

Honda Man
04-01-2012, 06:56 PM
id say try it for sure. the bigger the better. You will eventually find the goodies yo want and ALWAYS look for stock fog light switchs. There vary valuable. For my jy they use a heavy duty forklift to move cars around and i think its like every month they get new inventory

89HatchbackLxi
04-01-2012, 07:00 PM
id say try it for sure. the bigger the better. You will eventually find the goodies yo want and ALWAYS look for stock fog light switchs. There vary valuable. For my jy they use a heavy duty forklift to move cars around and i think its like every month they get new inventory

Ok. Thanks for the info, man.

obdriver6
04-02-2012, 09:42 PM
Yeah, going to the jy is pretty fun. I have about 4 jy I can pull parts myself and they have a total of 15-20 3geez. 2 of the jy I got to regularly, they get new hondas every 2-3 weeks.

Dr_Snooz
04-03-2012, 11:04 PM
Sounds like an epic JY run. You have the fever now, so you'll be spending all your spare time there until your car is puuuuurfect!

Vanilla Sky
04-04-2012, 02:39 AM
Now that you've gone once, every little issue in your car will be seen as an excuse to hit the junkyard to fix it. I've fixed so many $100+ problems with $10 in junkyard parts and a couple hours of reconditioning the part.

89HatchbackLxi
04-05-2012, 09:32 AM
Well... I know I'm not going to be touching anything under the hood again for quite awhile. I swapped out my engine valve cover for one I found that was in much nicer condition that the one that was on my car. Since swapping the cover I've had a major oil leaking problem, and it's getting all over everything in the engine bay. Took my car into a shop once, only to have it start leaking again a few hours later. I took it back in earlier today, and am getting ready to go pick it up. Got my fingers crossed, and am hoping the car will be back to normal again. Had I known switching out that part would have caused this much of an issue, I would have never touched the thing to begin with...

**Edit:
Just got my car back from the shop... It doesn't appear to be leaking anymore. Hopefully it'll stay that way!

import racer
04-05-2012, 11:57 AM
Probably just needs a new valve cover gasket,not hard to do man.

DBMaster
04-05-2012, 12:58 PM
I go once in a while to a "pick-n-pull" place near I30 and Loop 12. They probably had somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 3g's last time I went. They charge $2.00 for "admission." I have picked up a few things, but nothing like I used to do in the 80's. I had a 72 Pontiac back then and I used to go to the yards a lot. It's just not the same. Most of the parts I replace on my Accord are ones that would be pretty worn out on another car of the same vintage. I did get a good deal on a front bumper reinforcement and a fuel/temp gauge I needed to replace. It's still a lot of fun just to check out the other cars, how much mileage they have on them, and why they might have ended up there.

One thing I remember very clearly that still holds true. Wrecking yards stay muddy twice as long as any nearby piece of land. It's like magic.

dark_accord
04-18-2012, 10:24 PM
what junkyard u go to? the pick your part in bakersfelid has had over 50 3geez at once before so 10s not much lol but im allways looking to go to more junkyards i would never leave if i didnt have to haha

89HatchbackLxi
04-29-2012, 01:29 PM
what junkyard u go to? the pick your part in bakersfelid has had over 50 3geez at once before so 10s not much lol but im allways looking to go to more junkyards i would never leave if i didnt have to haha

I think the one I went to is called Ecology Auto Parts or something light that. I wanted to go up to the one in Bakersfield when I get the chance. Which junkyard in Bakersfield is the one you went to that had all all the accords? The "U-Pick-U-Save" or is it a different one?