Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
...on a sunny afternoon.
A junkyard trip last Friday netted me a few things I'd really wanted for Agnes, and a couple I hadn't really considered but was just tickled to find.
A '75 Dart Sport donated a functionally-perfect inside hood release and cable, so now if the doors are locked there ain't no opening the hood. A '74 Duster provided another, this one also complete but rusted stuck... and also of a totally different design. The black plastic glove box that I wanted I found in excellent shapein a '75 Dart; there was another in a different car that was white plastic. It crumbled to the touch so I left it behind. The black-plastic one had a glove-box lamp lens in it, but no lamp... but I found that in a yet another A-body (a '72 Dart). An ashtray lamp was found in a black '72 Duster; fitting since its floor-shift steering column's jacket parts are now doin' time in Stretch's Charger. He later gave me the manual-steering shaft from it when I eliminated Agnes' power steering, so we're both already running parts from it. That little Duster's like an old friend.
Piddly, stupid stuff I admit, but these little conveniences (and the added security of the inside hood release) are great additions. I also picked up a power trunk latch from a Fifth Avenue that will go in the Challenger. My expenditure for all these goodies? $20 total. I love that yard. Diplomat Wagon's been there; he loves it too.
Then I discovered that another car--one to which I'd never paid much attention because of its door count--was in the pile for the crusher. It was low enough to have a look inside and the hood and trunk were open, but it was a bit precarious to try and pull any parts. Damned shame, as it turns out. It's a '75 Valiant Brougham: All Light Group options including the trunk and map lamps (both of which I want, and it's the only one in the yard), with another black plastic glove box, another dashboard hood release, and freakin' cruise control. It is literally the only factory cruise-equipped A-body I've ever seen. I would've grabbed everything from that car had I bothered to look just once in the last 20 years it's been there.
Next time out (which will be yet this year), I'll be yanking an uncracked A-body dash pad that was in the same Duster with the stuck hood release. Kev says an uncracked dash will detract from Agnes' "beater" persona, but it drives me crazy.
I know I'm going back soon, because we found another Class C motorhome with a 440. It's been there for years but again I never looked at it. Because it had rectangular headlamps, which were '79-up on vans, I figured it was a 360, and not a particularly good one. Build date was 5/79 on the chassis, and 8/80 on the motorhome conversion! My friend bought the 58,000-mile 440, air cleaner to oil pan. Kevin had no way to transport it back to Georgia, so once it's pulled another friend (Wang) and I need to retrieve it. Kevin spent more than I did, grabbing not only the 440 but two uncracked late-'90s Ram dashes, a perfect drop-down cupholder for same, a factory CD player, and some miscellany. He dropped a whopping $400 for all of it. Did I mention I love that yard?
I was a little bummed that another old friend, a Sub-Lime 383LP '70 Charger w/factory six-way driver's seat, had found its way to the crusher pile... but that was possibly the most-completely-stripped car I'd ever seen in a boneyard. I don't think there was anything left to unbolt anymore, or even cut off (the console brackets were even gone). Its bucket seats--long stripped of the six-way adjuster--are nestled in the back of a Dodge pickup near where it once sat, but other than that it's now just a smidge of Sub-Lime in a pile of crushed metal.
Upon my return, I will also be discussing the purchase of a unicorn napping quietly among the junk: A rust-free early '90s Dakota. The frame is still in black paint, and the cab is totally solid. My frame is (reparably) broken, and my cab now has the wet-foot option. I'm going to negotiate taking the truck, stripping what I want and need and replacing it with the parts off mine, and returning it to the yard. Another bonus? That truck has full-boogie power options, including the mirrors. We'll see what comes of that conversation soon enough. I need that project like I need another hole in my head, but my heart just loves my little truck.
A junkyard trip last Friday netted me a few things I'd really wanted for Agnes, and a couple I hadn't really considered but was just tickled to find.
A '75 Dart Sport donated a functionally-perfect inside hood release and cable, so now if the doors are locked there ain't no opening the hood. A '74 Duster provided another, this one also complete but rusted stuck... and also of a totally different design. The black plastic glove box that I wanted I found in excellent shapein a '75 Dart; there was another in a different car that was white plastic. It crumbled to the touch so I left it behind. The black-plastic one had a glove-box lamp lens in it, but no lamp... but I found that in a yet another A-body (a '72 Dart). An ashtray lamp was found in a black '72 Duster; fitting since its floor-shift steering column's jacket parts are now doin' time in Stretch's Charger. He later gave me the manual-steering shaft from it when I eliminated Agnes' power steering, so we're both already running parts from it. That little Duster's like an old friend.
Piddly, stupid stuff I admit, but these little conveniences (and the added security of the inside hood release) are great additions. I also picked up a power trunk latch from a Fifth Avenue that will go in the Challenger. My expenditure for all these goodies? $20 total. I love that yard. Diplomat Wagon's been there; he loves it too.
Then I discovered that another car--one to which I'd never paid much attention because of its door count--was in the pile for the crusher. It was low enough to have a look inside and the hood and trunk were open, but it was a bit precarious to try and pull any parts. Damned shame, as it turns out. It's a '75 Valiant Brougham: All Light Group options including the trunk and map lamps (both of which I want, and it's the only one in the yard), with another black plastic glove box, another dashboard hood release, and freakin' cruise control. It is literally the only factory cruise-equipped A-body I've ever seen. I would've grabbed everything from that car had I bothered to look just once in the last 20 years it's been there.
Next time out (which will be yet this year), I'll be yanking an uncracked A-body dash pad that was in the same Duster with the stuck hood release. Kev says an uncracked dash will detract from Agnes' "beater" persona, but it drives me crazy.
I know I'm going back soon, because we found another Class C motorhome with a 440. It's been there for years but again I never looked at it. Because it had rectangular headlamps, which were '79-up on vans, I figured it was a 360, and not a particularly good one. Build date was 5/79 on the chassis, and 8/80 on the motorhome conversion! My friend bought the 58,000-mile 440, air cleaner to oil pan. Kevin had no way to transport it back to Georgia, so once it's pulled another friend (Wang) and I need to retrieve it. Kevin spent more than I did, grabbing not only the 440 but two uncracked late-'90s Ram dashes, a perfect drop-down cupholder for same, a factory CD player, and some miscellany. He dropped a whopping $400 for all of it. Did I mention I love that yard?
I was a little bummed that another old friend, a Sub-Lime 383LP '70 Charger w/factory six-way driver's seat, had found its way to the crusher pile... but that was possibly the most-completely-stripped car I'd ever seen in a boneyard. I don't think there was anything left to unbolt anymore, or even cut off (the console brackets were even gone). Its bucket seats--long stripped of the six-way adjuster--are nestled in the back of a Dodge pickup near where it once sat, but other than that it's now just a smidge of Sub-Lime in a pile of crushed metal.
Upon my return, I will also be discussing the purchase of a unicorn napping quietly among the junk: A rust-free early '90s Dakota. The frame is still in black paint, and the cab is totally solid. My frame is (reparably) broken, and my cab now has the wet-foot option. I'm going to negotiate taking the truck, stripping what I want and need and replacing it with the parts off mine, and returning it to the yard. Another bonus? That truck has full-boogie power options, including the mirrors. We'll see what comes of that conversation soon enough. I need that project like I need another hole in my head, but my heart just loves my little truck.