Now that we have all gotten used to writing “2018” like a pro, let’s take a gander back to 2017 and relive your junkyard highlights of the past year. Being in the heart of Tokyo, I don’t get many chances to hit junkyards but sometimes you can find cool stuff on the side of the road. One of my best junkyard scores was making friends with a yard owner and staff. They were a fountain of knowledge and, if you played your cards right, they would give you a heads up when a 1985 Supra rolls in the yard with mint 14×7 rims. But enough about that! I want to know what the scene is like in 2017. Is it getting harder to find stuff, more cut throat?
What”s your best junkyard score of 2017?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What JNC trinkets do you collect?“
Last week, we asked you to tell us what you can’t resist at car meets, the local toy store, or supermarket aisle. To be honest, we loved all the responses (it means we are justified in our obsession). Both エーイダン and nthuZis1 sound like me, unable to resist those little cars, and usually at a price point that says you’re crazy not to buy. エーイダン also works in a hobby store, where temptation waits every day. Ceasriojpn, has a fantastic apparel collection (and has added that LC jacket to my own hunt. Thanks?).
This week, we give the hat tip to Chris who is dedicated to giving the Eunos Roadster the proper respect and due. Come to Japan, we have a bevy of neat stuff. And that badge is awesome.
I´m into Eunos Roadster stuff. I collect everything from books (hyper rev, road&ster), shop option brochures. These things lead to the search for old car parts like optional bags, lights, rims and so on. Another big part is collecting model cars. Overall collecting stuff is a never ending story…
You would probably fall over if you knew the number of hours spent searching for parts on the internet. But hey…enjoy life and the things which make you happy – and collecting trinkets is part of life like enjoy driving the JNC.
Omedetou! Your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop.
Mine are all ’86 Stanza-related and they aren’t exotic or exciting compared to what the other answers will be. But, when your rear window defroster switch is just flopping up and down it’s time for a new one. And how about those missing rear side window clip covers? A friend in Rhode Island called from a junkyard saying that he spotted a Stanza and wondered if I needed anything. Actually, having that friend may have been the best score of 2017.
It would have to be the morning I got an alert email from LKQ of a hit on my standing search for S12 200SX’s. A 1987 car had just arrived. I looked at the pictures. I know this car, and I know the owner. it’s the only other S12 200SX SE V6 I know of in the area other than mine. WTF, he junked it?
I was immediately on the phone with another S12 buddy, he had gotten the email and was leaving shortly for the yard. I asked him to grab the fuel pump and let me know what else looked good.
After talking with the owner, turns out he had it stored at somebody else’s house after it spun a bearing, it got towed, and he couldn’t afford to get it out of impound, so off to the yard it went. He also told me he had more parts for it in his garage. In addition to the fuel pump, I ended up with the hood. tail lights, dash parts, and a bunch of other random stuff that I didn’t necessarily need right now but I’m sure as hell not turning down spares.
Last year i hit a home run in a junkyard, when i went to look for a part for my Corolla TE71, and ended up with two more JNC’s in the garage…
My wife wasnt too happy though 🙂
The cars i found are very rare here in Portugal, and they were on their way to be scrapped.
They are two south african Datsun: one Bluebird 610 180u sss and one kpb210 140y gx…
Hello Antonio,
please have a look at my KE 70 out of the year 1983….:https://www.classic-trader.com/de/automobile/inserat/toyota/corolla/corolla/1983/105539
Kind Regards
It looks in very good condition, congrats
When I got my 87 Z31, the stereo was in sad shape, so my family gifted me with a whole new stereo system for my 40th. The place that installed it, however, did a seriously crap job and scratched the hell out of the center console. I was pissed!
Early in 2017, I lucked out and an 89 Z31 landed at the pick n pull near my office and it had the same tan interior I have! I rushed down and the center console was in good shape. Nabbed that, a few other tan interior pieces that were in better shape than my own, plus a set of rear mudflaps!
I suppose my 5th gen Accord is officially nostalgic as they launched in 1993. I once got a really weird set of OEM headlights that shouldn’t exist.
The JDM CD Accord headlights had clear lenses with black (or chrome) guts. The European CD Accord had fluted lenses with chrome guts. (USDM lamps were totally different but looked similar to the JDM ones).
The set I found has the fluted European lenses with JDM black internals. They have the OEM Stanley markings and look to be have never been taken apart and painted.
My guess is they’re some weird prototype part that somehow made it to the outside world (All 5g Accord coupes and wagons were built in Ohio, regardless of where they were sold).
TBH I prefer the look of the US/JDM headlights (The EDM fluted lenses look dated) but I hold on to the junkyard set for the weirdness factor.
Well my 1999 Toyota Tacoma RWD regular cab may be about 6 years from official JNC status but I did manage to score a pair of 2000 Xtracab SR5 bucket seats & console from a LKQ yard to make it a much more comfortable driver.
Had some Mazda spare parts on my desk. a work colleague walks into my office looking for someone else and sees them. We strike up a conversation about cars, he walks out of my office about an hour later after gifting me with a 70’s Mazda that’s been sitting in his garage since the 80s.
Best present ever!
Details… !
well, my best score was in a junkyard here in my home town, actually a salvage yard. Responded to an add about selling cars for less than 1000 bucks. Saw the add in Barnfinds.com. Called the guy and he was very nice on the phone. After a few minutes we had set up an appointment for the next day. He was surprised by the amount of attention, as he had only post it on craigslist.
I show up the next day, looking for an old toyota corona, well needless to say, it was not what i wanted to get involved with. I hate parting cars. So the guy was very nice and invited me and another guy to look around, and even took us in a company car. Out of my eye, something caught my attention.
Black looking jeep type vehicle, and i immediately recognized it.
1971 Toyota land Cruiser, overall in good shape, was not sure at first, but the guy convinced me to get it, he even had a clear title. Needless to say, i had never bought a car with a credit card, lol, they used a forklift to load it up in my trailer.
I always wanted a land cruiser, and because of this random act of nature, i had one for a price you cannot refuse.
Asking someone wrecker-obsessed who previously lived in an area just oh-so-ripe for it?
Whoa. Even with only the first 6months of 2017 playing a part at all, that’s a *deep* question…
Hell, before I even start there’s follow-up questions! ‘Scores’ aside – are mere sightings eligible? The main ingredient for a imagination-heavy quasi-showroom experience? Those still-complete cars that have just entered the yard, ready and waiting for a don’t-hold-back curiosity excursion; an N12 Exa Turbo, loaded TP Magna Elite, or HB 929 hardtop; freshly retired after three decades of Melbourne’s streets.. and I get to pore over it before the typical careless wrecker scum make an absolute mess of it? You should SEE my heart skip a beat when I spot a familiar bumper down a line of cars. I don’t even want a damn thing off it.
Confidently running with this as the case; 2017 highlights included a July ’90 EXY10 Toyota Sera, gunmetal grey with the model’s signature gullwing doors and Toyota’s ridiculous optional Super Live Sound System. The complete’86 AL25 Tercel SR5 in white on black-and-grey striped cloth. The totally original 4A-GE/5spd AE82 Twincam with only 200,000km, in the wreckers far too soon; seemingly there to break my heart. No, sightings-wise I couldn’t complain.
As for items I didn’t leave behind though? Despite having no damn space for these things, I never *can* resist a good original 1980s Toyota radio, and I *am* still pining for a good N13 Pulsar Reebok sports seat; 2017 did have one item in particular…
It’s Saturday the 15th of July.. smack-bang in the middle of Winter, overcast, and I’m at a “Pick-a-Part”-branded wrecker in Melbourne’s South East. The car? A June 1984 “50th Anniversary” Z31 Fairlady Z. People have already been picking at it. It’s dirty. The T-tops are out, and those blue velour ’50th anniversary’ embroidered seats are damp. Some kid’s come to have a go at the woodgrain-fascia’d semi-integrated AM/FM/Cassette unit, and I’m patiently waiting for him to leave. I want that digital dash.
It was getting dark by the time I got home later that afternoon; it was under my workbench’s fluoro that I finished cleaning it up. Seriously, popping that clear plastic cover off the front and seeing that inner-lens.. protected from dust and grubby fingers for the 33years before. Oof. Like staring into the Milky Way on a dark night..
Does it have an *actual* value – above the $30 or whatever I had to pay for it – that would make it a ‘score’? I don’t know. It was certainly one of the prettiest bits of garbage I’ve plucked from the wreckers over the years; in my eyes, near enough a damn instrument-cluster-shaped chunk of solid gold.