"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
10/28/2017 at 14:21 • Filed to: junkyard, salvage yard
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"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
10/28/2017 at 14:21 • Filed to: junkyard, salvage yard | 9
| 6 |
NOVEL AND PICTURE TIME! :D Excuse the crummy pics though, I only had my phone and the sun was low, so lots of glare...
Now, I’ve been to junkyards before, but the last time was when I was in High School way back around 2003-2004...long ago, when I was a naive car-lover and a friend and I were looking for a factory rear spoiler from another car to put on his 1997 or so Suzuki Esteem sedan - like I said, naive. :P
....BUT yesterday was the first time I got to get my hands ‘dirty’, so to speak, at a pick-n-pull yard! :D
Some backstory as to why I went, other than the fact that it would be fun - I’ve needed three interior trim pieces for my 2009 Accent’s hatch for a few months now (the three top surrounds for the rear windshield), and I wanted to pick up a replacement factory stereo for my brother’s 2009 Hyundai Accent. My Accent is a 5-spd 3-door hatch base model and his is a base model sedan with an auto.
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Well, yesterday I had to head to Halifax for a teaching conference which was, conveniently, 5 minutes down the road from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (both of which would be an hour and a half away from my home). PERFECT, I thought! What better way to calm down after a busy day by spending the late afternoon wandering around piles of cars! :D
Now, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - at least the part where they let the public access. The Google Maps image is out of date as they have completely rearranged everything and gotten rid of a lot of inventory since then. The big lot on the back-right is off limits as it seems they store rebuilders there and it is locked with a fence and gate. The lot out in front of the buildings is empty and used as a parking lot for customers now. The big middle lot is only half accessible as a literal WALL OF CARS divides it off. Not sure what is behind it, but more storage or rebuilders, or maybe a crusher?
My trip to the yard was a half-bust as I didn’t get any of the trim pieces I was looking to get for my car, but I did find a stereo to try in my brother’s car - more on that later! After grabbing my trusty trim removal tools and 2 screwdrivers from my car and signing a waiver, I was in!
Everything is vaguely sorted by brand so it’s not hard to find anything...there are the few odd cars out of place from their brand rows, but it’s not too bad. The most interesting car I saw would have to be a Triumph roadster flattened in a pile of cars heading to the crusher to become washing machines... :(
My first view of the main back yard on my way to find the Accents...the orange number tags on roofs denote where the rows are!
I felt bad for this poor Mitsubishi Lancer. It was a rarer RalliArt edition and I’ve always liked that gen of Lancer in yellow! This greeted me before I got to the main rows by brand. Behind it was a graveyard of Ford Windstars and Dodge Caravans...
The first row I came to, complete with Minibus!
Taken from Nissan Row....remember when i said ‘wall of cars’? I meant it! Check out the background! They were stacked 3 high, which felt very odd to stand next to!
This forlorn, wheel-less Maxima had a body that didn’t really look in that bad a shape, but I imagine the kilometers had caught up with it...the scorched Forester in the background was a sad sight as well...
Next to the Forester was this sad Legacy. I’m of the opinion that a lot of Subaru’s more recent cars have been hit with an ugly stick, a few excepting, and that some of their older machines were much prettier. This generation of Legacy is one of ,my favorites...
Oddly, the main Hyundai / Kia row had this parked line of nothing butsixth and seventh gen Honda Civics in it. No MC Hyundai Accents here I could pilfer parts from though, but I did check a copper-orange Kia Rio as their stereos were the same (the Rio and Accent share a platform, so the Rio stereo would’ve swapped right in!).
The only Suzuki I saw in the entire lot...this poor Aerio had been unceremoniously dumped on top of a pile of gravel...
This pop-up generation Honda Prelude was a sad sight to see as well...guessing it had been driven into the ground by several High School kids over the years. The body was in OK shape, but the rattle-canned front-left wheel was a big giveaway...
Still, plenty of usable parts to it!
And the trunk even had what looked to be the original set of factory alloys! Not sure where the center caps were though...
As I wandered further into the yard in search of my prizes, I came across this Dodge SX 2.0 (or Neon to you Americans out there) being used as a cupholder for somebody’s ancient cup of Tim Hortons brew. The staff at the desk had told me they only had two Accents of my generation on the lot at the moment, and they were ‘WAY in the back.”
A close-up of the car-wall...this Nissan Maxima caught my eye as a friend had one exactly like, but in that light blue color a few years back.
This 300M also caught my eye - I’ve always had a thing for the 300M, even if I would never really want to own one. This one had several random go-fast stickers on it, including a Fast & The Furious decal on the rear bumper cover. What really got me was the rims....they were MINT, no nicks, scratches, or dirt. It was if they were taken off, washed and cleaned, and put back up on the car!
I took this picture for Borsuq as he quite like Crown Vics. The one on the left is was ex-RCMP Police Interceptor...
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This cool older GMC Fire-Rescue van had seen better days and was sitting back at the far end of the lot in the corner by the car-wall. KEEP OFF!
AHA! Finally found the first of the two Hyundai Accents! Wait, what’s this? Something very odd about the dash! Most cars in Canada have speedometers graduated mainly in KPH with a small row of MPH on the bottom for traveling into the US. This Acccent had a speedo ONLY in kilometers! I’m actually surprised as I would’ve thought this was illegal.! As ALL cars seem to have main KPH with sub MPH speedos (at least every car I’ve ever been in here in Canada...), I had always thought that was the legal requirement! Maybe not...?
Stereo dash trim removed! The single-DIN stereo is incredibly easy to get out of MC generation Accents...6 clips (3 top, 3 bottom) on this trim surround, 4 screws for the stereo mount, and 2-4 screws to unscrew the mount to bend it a bit to get the stereo out! I had to do all of my work from the (incredibly dirty)passenger seat....the drivers’ door was jammed shut, and the back seat was filled with exterior parts and the radiator. The car had had a pretty big front hit on the front-left, setting both air bags off.
The stereo in it’s natural habitat....dash surround trim removed. Fun fact! My brother’s car and my car are from 2009, so they have lime green dash backlighting. Starting in 2010, the MC Accent had blue dash backlighting. This Accent I got the stereo from in the lot wasn’t marked as to year, but the gauge cluster style suggests a 2010 car, so there is a good chance bro’s stereo is going to be clashing blue with all the other green pretty soon! The inside of this car, particularly the front dash and seats, was really dirty...a coffee cup and root beer soda can on the floor, and sticky splatter everywhere suggested the cup and can were full when the accident happened....messy....
Prize achieved! :D
My workspace for 15 -20 minutes...the stereo is not hard to get out, but trying to find a good place to get the trim removal tools in past the stereo surround trim to get enough purchase to pop the clips took an embarrassingly long time! Stereo mounting bracket on the seat on the bottom right. The blue kit case on the seat is what I keep my trim removal tools in!
A ragtag pile of derelicts filled the very back line of cars in the lot along the tree line...Mazda3, a Chevy Optra, a Chevy Malibu, a PT Cruiser, a Chevy Impala...didn’t check what the black hatch and red sedan were!
Well....found the second Accent hatchback I was hoping to get my hatch interior trim pieces from! Err....apparently it still runs and drives, but had a pretty bad hit to the back. The hatch is pretty twisted up, so I doubt the trim I needed survived in one piece. I couldn’t even check if I had wanted to as the hatch, itself, was jammed shut. Plus broken glass...I didn’t feel like inadvertently severing my arteries yesterday.
By this time, I only had 15 minutes until the yard closed for the day, so I started to head back out. This rim on a Pontiac Grand Am made me think of Craigslist...”FOR SALE - one Pontiac Grand Am chrome alloy, lightly used, minor curb rash.” :/
The answer to what happens to a Saturn wagon when it is in an accident...no dents, just shattered plastic everywhere!
Overall, I had a blast wandering around by myself! It was oddly calming being there that time of day. Almost nobody around, sun going down, weirdly quiet. Will definitely go again when I back in town! Maybe I will head to the other pick-n-pull yard next time and see if I have better luck there! :D
E90M3
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
10/28/2017 at 14:47 |
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There really is something calming about walking around a junkyard; especially when it’s a massive one and there is no one else around.
I went to this massive one with a friend back in October 2015 when my world was falling apart and it was so nice to escape everything for a minute and just look a the cars.
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> E90M3
10/28/2017 at 14:55 |
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Huge! Take me next time you go! :P
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E90M3
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
10/28/2017 at 14:56 |
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If you’re ever in ATL.
fintail
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
10/28/2017 at 16:18 |
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Cars this new-looking in junkyards makes me feel old. I need to remember that 2003 was 14 years ago.
A junkyard visit is always fun, a little sad depending on the cars, but more interesting.
shop-teacher
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
10/28/2017 at 16:54 |
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It’s been too long since I went junkyarding.
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> fintail
10/28/2017 at 19:13 |
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For sure! Go visit one gain sometime! :D