While most people believe there are four seasons, car nuts know there are only two: 1) Cruisin’. 2) Wrenchin’. It’s easy to tell the difference in our two seasons. You’re either driving around in good weather enjoying your classic car or your classic is in some state of disassembly, repair and upgrade and you are hunting down parts.
To be an old car restorer, you need good hunter/gatherer skills to find scarce parts. Searching for these needed collectable car parts can and probably will take you through a labyrinth of junk yards, swap meets, Craig’s Lists, e-Bay auctions and Hemming Motor News ads.
A big swap meet is held each fall in Northern Colorado at the Ranch in Loveland. You can read about last September's meet at: http://www.examiner.com/classic-cars-in-fort-collins/aaca-auto-swap-meet-finding-your-american-dream-car-one-piece-at-a-time. I believe many swap meets are held in winter months because sponsors and vendors know you are getting desperate by mid-winter to find parts to get your car running by spring. That’s not a bad thing, they are filling a very big need and giving you a one-stop shopping location! I always take a detailed wish list with me to swap meets. I usually find only one or two things on my list, but it keeps me focused when I see all the shiny chrome things at the meet. I’m as easily distracted as an old crow that spots a piece of tin foil and thinks it’s needed back at the nest!
Junk yards are the other great source of old car parts. In Colorado, winter is the worse time imaginable to walk through a junk yard. If there isn’t snow on the ground, there was not long ago and that means there is now mud. Wear layered old clothes and always bring your boots.
I got up early this past Saturday and traveled south on I-25 to the Polar Bear Swap meet at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Brighton. Inside two connected exhibition halls were vendor’s tables and outside the parking lot was full of trailers that had hauled in complete and partial vehicles and parts being offered for sale.
Leaving the swap meet around noon, I headed back north toward Fort Collins but stopped at Erie. Just east of I-25 between state highways 52 and 7 are three junk yard close enough to hit all at one time. Erie Salvage Yard can be seen from I-25. Speedway Salvage yard sits directly behind the Erie yard, sharing a property line. Further east and north at the edge of Dacono is Elliott’s Salvage Yard.
There’s no sense comparing these junk yards because the best one it the one that has the part you need. They all have vintage cars and parts. I’ll talk about Speedway because I find it the most unconventional and interesting. Rollie, the yard’s owner, unapologetically states Speedway is open for business on Saturdays 12:00 to 4:00 “when the weather’s good and I don’t have anything else I need to do.” I’m not making this up- don’t be surprised if it’s not open when you get there. Speedway doesn’t have a phone, so you can’t call on Saturday afternoon to see if Rollie has it open. The car club I belong to set up an informal phone tree so that if anyone of us is there at noon on a Saturday and find it open, we call others in the club so they can drop everything and get there quick. Bring your own tool as it's a pull-it-yourself yard. Why bother? Speedway has been in business for the last 40+ year and has cars dating back to the 30s that aren’t picked clean (maybe due to limited operating hours?). It’s worth a little inconvenience to potentially score that hard to find part you desperately need. Anyway, once you find Speedway open, you’ll feel like the kid that got the golden ticket into Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!
To read about classic car junk yards across the country and to search for parts for your particular vehicle, visit these two web sites:
http://www.junkyarddog.com/oldcars.htm
http://www.classiccarsrotting.com/
Attached is a slide show of the Polar Bear Swap meet and some shots from the Erie and Dacono area junk yards. Also attached is a video of interesting and rare vehicles sitting in junk yards from across the country.
This week’s Trivia Question: The song lyrics “meaner than a junk yard dog” is talking about what song-title character? Who wrote the song?
Answer to last week’s Trivia Question: Colorado first required state license plates on cars in 1913. Prior to this, some individual cities in Colorado would require vehicle tags.
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