your worst junkyard experience

[atho]

When I got my D60 from the local junkyard, I was on a scouting mission with a buddy to see what was there. Nothin really jumped out at me, but then I noticed a junker F250 with the remnants of some sort of pickup in it, turns out it had been a '78 dodge W250 snowfighter with a D60. I was moving a pile of rusty sheetmetal to get a better view when I accidentally upset a bees nest, and got stung 6 times. However, I did end up getting the D60 for $150, so I was ok with it.

Another time I stopped to look at an old 4x4 F250 sitting on the side of the road, and as I looked underneath to see what kind of t-case it had, I was literally divebombed by hornets. Stung 17 times, and could never get ahold of the owner of that truck. *sigh*

 

[K5dreamer]

Back in 1980 I found this 1969 Dodge Super-Bee with a 440 engine and a 4-speed trans in it (not sure if the 440 was original). The yard told me I could strip it clean for everything I wanted off of it for $700.

I spent the whole day taking the engine, trans, diff, fenders, hood, doors, and intirior out of it. While I was getting ready to load all the stuff into my truck, a guy came running out and handed me back my $700, and said they would not sell the stuff to me because the owner of the yard wanted to keep it for himself.

the yard got a full free day of labor out of me to strip this car clean.

not sure..... but that may have been illegal on their part. once money changes hand, and a service is performed, i think they are in the wrong to have renegged on the deal. You had legal grounds for some form of compensation.

 

[75GmcJimmy4x4]

not sure..... but that may have been illegal on their part. once money changes hand, and a service is performed, i think they are in the wrong to have renegged on the deal. You had legal grounds for some form of compensation.

yup he did ... i would have said no and that the transaction was complete and asked him to call the cops....

 

[wazzabie]

they had some interior parts. I knew how easy it was to break the part. I said I would like to take it off. They said no. Guy came back with a broken part that he just took off.

 

[Blue85]

I watched a guy remove a gas tank for me and loosen the fittings with his torch. Following each application of heat, he smothered the flames coming from the gas tank (had about 5 gallons of gas in it) with a rag. The whole time he working underneath the vehicle which was swaying in the breeze hanging from the loader. The yard owner was upset I had witnessed this and that I had asked the guy to take everything apart without cutting it but he still had to give me the price we agreed to at the beginning.

 

[1-ton]

not sure..... but that may have been illegal on their part. once money changes hand, and a service is performed, i think they are in the wrong to have renegged on the deal. You had legal grounds for some form of compensation.

I actually tore the parts out first, handed them the money, and was waiting for a reciept, when the guy came out saying he made a mistake, and could not sell me the parts.

I did get a 455/TH-400/12-Bolt/ out of a 1970 Buick Riveara GS, from the same junk yard a week later. I geuss they felt bad about what happened, and let me have the stuff for only $350. I later put the drive train from the Riveara into a 1970 Buick Skylark GS I owned, which originaly only came with a 350/TH-350/10-Bolt.

 

[79BRUISER]

I hauled what was left of my burb off today. Only 65$ a ton. Not my best day by a long shot!!!

 

[original balzer]

While working at a junk yard I had to get the trans and transfer case out of a old cherokee chief (the fullsize ones) Th400 and quad trac

It was common practice to stack tires under the trucks we was working on. Well im under there and almost have it out and lift the trans out to my chest so I could roll it over to the side when I hear PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS a tire deflated and dropped the jeep only about 5 inches. Unfourtunatly there was only 3 inches of room between the tranny and the floor. I layed there half crushed until the guy that wanted the parts came to check my progress. I was pinned there for about 45 minutes but it felt like all damn day. It hurt to breath for about a week.

 

[79rustyk10]

How about waiting in the office for 45 minutes, to get permision to walk back 200 yards to the first old school bus, grab the caliper bracket I needed, then back to the office to pay. Dang inbred norwegians they got out there.

 

[blazinzuk]

This one took alot of thinking, but heres one. Went to a yard to pull a door of a c-60, it was in great shape and matched the exterior and interior of the rig it was going on. Told me on the phone 40 bucks for the door, got it pulled put in in the pickup went to pay price went to 140 cause it was off a meduim duty truck! I say they are the same door, guy spouts off about how they used thicker metal, windows, etc all BS and I know it. So I go out to the truck pull the door out of the bed and put it on their counter and say I don't want it anymore, guy comes out yelling and screaming at me telling me I dented it and had to buy it and he had already called the cops etc etc etc. So I sat and waited for the cops to show they never did.

Fortunately I saw the owner of the yard next week at church and told him what went on, he fired the kid. So it was bittersweet, still didn't have the door but the kid got canned

 

[Ned Kelly]

Many may not believe this but back in 1989 I found a dead fellow in a junkyard. I was walking through, noticed some legs sticking out from a car that was awfully low (too low to be working on) so I thought it was a prank with - maybe some paper stuffed pants to bulk them up and old workboots. Then I looked, and said wow, they even put tools around this prank. Went closer to inspect - it was a guy in his mid 30's crushed. He was under a Pinto, no rims on it, and just one scissor jack (car slipped off) was his only lifting/safety device!!!
Head was under the tranny, chest compressed by floor area. Ouch, painfull and foolish way to go. Family said he went to the yard to pull a transmissin out of the Pinto!!

Anyways, after that self serve auto yards closed down. It was going to be permanent but too much outcry and so new safety rules took effect. Took about 6 mths to rectify before yards were open to the public again. The family tried sueing the junk yard - typical. I think the junkyard should have sued the family for letting someone like that out of the house unsupervised!

Regardless, sad someone would be so negligent on VERY BASIC safety.
I still can't believe one scissor jack and not even rims were even mounted on the car?!

 

[original balzer]

Many may not believe this but back in 1989 I found a dead fellow in a junkyard. I was walking through, noticed some legs sticking out from a car that was awfully low (too low to be working on) so I thought it was a prank with - maybe some paper stuffed pants to bulk them up and old workboots. Then I looked, and said wow, they even put tools around this prank. Went closer to inspect - it was a guy in his mid 30's crushed. He was under a Pinto, no rims on it, and just one scissor jack (car slipped off) was his only lifting/safety device!!!
Head was under the tranny, chest compressed by floor area. Ouch, painfull and foolish way to go. Family said he went to the yard to pull a transmissin out of the Pinto!!

Anyways, after that self serve auto yards closed down. It was going to be permanent but too much outcry and so new safety rules took effect. Took about 6 mths to rectify before yards were open to the public again. The family tried sueing the junk yard - typical. I think the junkyard should have sued the family for letting someone like that out of the house unsupervised!

Regardless, sad someone would be so negligent on VERY BASIC safety.
I still can't believe one scissor jack and not even rims were even mounted on the car?!

Thats exacty why we used to throw tires mounted on rims and full of air under what we was working on. My story above 1 tire lost its airwitch allowed about 5". What was funny is our yard allowed people to pull their own parts but one of us had to watch them. f the customer didnt want to pull his own part just 1 of us went to do it. Saftey was the only reason we watched over the customers.

 

[wazzabie]

Do they still have self service yards? I just know go to craigslist and find k5's people are parting out.

 

[Randy92782]

I almost got stung by some wasps once. I don't pull parts. I'm just a sucker and buy new Plus the junk yards around here are run by morons

 

[kicker30]

damn hood was opened and smacked me on the right cheek with the hoods edge.

Same happened to me, was pulling a 2wd steering box off a suburban and the hood only had one hinge and it would hold up by itself but not well so my girlfriend was holding it up but let go for a minute right when I hit the end of the dre and down it came on my head, then when I reached in to pull it out I cut the s*** outta my thumb on the bottom edge of it. A lot of pain for a $20 box.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Worst experience for me was when my buddy ran a wrecking yard and while i was there he said "hey go look inside that minivan, on the headliner" to my horror was alot of brain matter from when the guy blew his brains out inside the van (while the police were trying to get him to come out) and whoever's job it is to "clean up" the mess did a horrible job.