0:00

Welcome to car Stuff, a production

0:02

of I Heeart Radio's How Stuff Works. Hi,

0:08

and welcome to car Stuff. I'm your host Scott Benjamin

0:10

and I am Kurt Garren and we are

0:13

a man down today. Oh yeah, that's

0:15

right. I guess we're not gonna have been in the studio with it. He

0:17

got that escape and he skipped down. He

0:20

did. He was mentioning the escape, wasn't he. Yeah.

0:22

I wonder if that's part of what's going on today.

0:25

It just for so fans know he will be back.

0:27

I mean, he's just taking the day off really, so he

0:29

might be gone today, might be gone for our next show,

0:31

who knows one or two. But um,

0:34

he definitely will be back. He's just outrunning some marins

0:36

are doing doing some important stuff. And he

0:38

always gets into some some crazy adventures

0:41

when he goes out. So and he sometimes I'll

0:43

tell you about him. And then sometimes he's real cryptic,

0:45

you know, sometimes keeping things

0:48

close. Sometimes he could be a little yeah, close to the

0:50

vest, or a little sketchy sometimes

0:52

when he when he says what he's doing. But but

0:54

I mean this is something actually that the Ben

0:56

and I in the past have had a I

0:58

know we've had several conversation aations about what

1:01

we're gonna talk about today, and I felt that, you

1:03

know, since it's just you and I, maybe we could

1:05

have a similar conversation or kind of a

1:07

revamp of that with some maybe some new

1:09

information, maybe just some different stories

1:12

to kind of pass around. But we're gonna be talking about

1:14

junkyards, and I guess in the same

1:16

sense salvage yards. It's all the same thing, really,

1:18

but junkyards and salvage yards today. And

1:21

Kurt I asked you off air if

1:24

you had much experience with junk yards

1:26

in the past, and you said, not necessarily,

1:28

is that right? Yeah, And I don't personally,

1:31

but growing up in the South, you meet

1:34

those folks that are I mean, I say

1:36

this with affection, but um, I'm talking

1:38

about the junker types and they go they

1:40

visit the salvage yard to find those parts

1:42

that everyone hopes they find when they go

1:45

to the salvage yards, you know, the parts that are desirable.

1:47

Now, these are the treasure seekers that you're

1:49

you're talking about. Yeah, I understand,

1:52

you know the people that And again, not

1:54

in any way disparaging people to go to junkyards

1:56

because I am one or I used to be one

1:59

that would love of to kind of hang out in junkyards

2:01

and gather things and find

2:03

things and and try to at least do my best

2:06

to do that. I never really found any

2:08

gems along the way. I never found anything that was

2:10

really worth uh, you know, hanging on the

2:12

wall or anything. If I, if I looked harder

2:15

when I was younger, I would still have some

2:17

of those things that now would be classic items

2:19

that would be great to have on the garage wall. You know, like

2:21

maybe some old offenders or maybe

2:23

you know, a grill or something. But at the time,

2:26

you know, you're looking at the stuff and it's like it's not really

2:28

old at that point. But now he

2:30

would be classic parts. It would be something

2:32

that you know, you would look back at with nostalgia of some

2:34

sort. But you know, I would find um, you

2:37

know, I would try to stop at places, you know, along

2:39

the way. If I was taking a road trip, i'd you know, I

2:41

was on my own I was on my own schedule as well. I'd

2:44

be able to pull off and you know check out the local

2:46

junkyard and you know, these small towns that I go through,

2:48

and you know, even if it's just well, I always

2:50

say this, like even if it's gonna be ten minutes, but it's not

2:52

just ten minutes. You get kind of caught up in the stuff, you

2:54

know, walking around and looking at the

2:56

the cars to get older as you go to the back of the lot.

2:59

Sometimes. Um, and while we're

3:01

reminiscing, I'll just say that

3:03

I used to remember seeing junkyards. I

3:06

mean not everywhere, but they were more common.

3:08

You drive on the country roads and you would see junkyards,

3:11

you know, here and there. Uh

3:13

And nowadays, at least down south, they're

3:15

overgrown cud zoo. Now you don't really see them.

3:18

And the junkyards seem to be more and they're

3:20

organized businesses more so than

3:22

they are just um, a bunch of cars out

3:24

in the field somewhere next to someone's house. You

3:26

make a very good point here, So you're you're talking

3:28

about, you know, the old um almost

3:31

kind of started not by accident, but

3:33

almost by accident. You know, they had a towing probably

3:35

business or something and started to store cars

3:38

and uh, you know, then decided well, I'm gonna

3:40

start selling some parts from those cars that I picked up.

3:42

And you know, they kind of they evolved

3:44

that way. So they become a small time junkyard

3:47

salvage yard dealer, or they intended that,

3:49

and they you know, have a few acres of property

3:52

and they want to become that. But it does require

3:54

some maintenance. It requires bringing in new vehicles,

3:56

occasionally getting rid of the old vehicles

3:58

sometimes when they're pretty much picked over, you know,

4:00

to the point where it's just a big hunk of metal that

4:02

no one could really use, rusted or or

4:04

bent or you know, damage beyond repair. So

4:07

there's some maintenance even with a small lot

4:09

that's required. But we're talking about today,

4:11

I think in general we'll go

4:13

back and forth a little bit, but we're talking about

4:16

the ones that are the big ones where there's

4:19

an inventory list online and there are

4:21

auctions that are held on the site and they

4:23

host specials. They charge admission to go in

4:25

because they don't want people just going in, because

4:28

there's ways that people can go in there and actually make

4:30

not a living, but they can make a decent profit

4:33

for the day, I guess, um,

4:35

especially if you know when they get the new cars in, because

4:37

they have they rotate the cars a little more

4:39

frequently than they used to years

4:42

ago. Oh sure, Yeah, so you know, I'm

4:44

a big fan of the old time junkyards

4:46

as well, the kind you know that are just kind of heaps

4:48

of cars that are piled in there, you know, kind of

4:51

willy nilly, and you can walk around

4:53

and pick them, you know, pick out parts or you know, look

4:55

at whatever you want. And a long, long time

4:57

ago, you know, when I was walking through some of these, you know, I

4:59

remember being out in the middle of winter and the

5:01

snow, trying to uncover some things,

5:03

and you know, there's an old sixty seven Mustang

5:06

and uh, you know, nearby you might find

5:08

the Mustang emblem from it, and you know, you

5:11

could either purchase that, or if you were on

5:13

the other side of things, you could maybe pocket

5:15

that and walk out. You know, I didn't really, I never

5:17

stole any parts. Um, I'll be honest with you, I didn't

5:19

take anything. I've been with people

5:23

at at places that have done something like that.

5:25

I didn't think it was It just didn't feel right to

5:27

me to be able to do something like that, UM,

5:29

to nab a part that normally, you

5:31

know, this guy would have made a dollar off of or whatever.

5:34

I didn't feel right doing it. But a lot of people are okay

5:36

with doing that and then buying something bigger. Also,

5:38

you find a lot of parts walk out of junkyards,

5:41

but maybe some of the like some of the coolest

5:43

things I found. Of course, you know, you find old vehicles

5:45

that you're interested in, but maybe

5:47

just kind of passing fancy, you know, like you can look

5:49

at it and say, there's a fifty seven Chevy Body.

5:52

I haven't seen one of those in a long time. It's kind of

5:54

cool looking to see what's left and maybe check out. They've

5:56

got an old stereo in there, They've got the old steering

5:58

wheel. Maybe parts that both still

6:00

might go back and pick, but you know, are kind of worthwhile

6:03

looking at while you're there. I found an old car in

6:05

a Now I went to school high

6:07

school in southeastern Michigan, and

6:10

I was traveling up in northern Michigan,

6:13

not the up but right at the northern tip

6:15

of Michigan, not the Upper Peninsula, bit the lower Peninsula.

6:18

And my friends and I were walking around this, uh, this

6:20

lot in the wintertime, and we came across I think

6:22

it was an old microbus, a VW microbus.

6:25

Had a parking sticker from our high

6:27

school's parking lot from decades

6:30

prayer, so somebody, I don't know if they

6:32

how whatever, you know, there's there's gotta be a story to how

6:34

it ended up where it did. Have no idea

6:37

how it ended up where it did. But that same lot

6:39

was one where you know, you'd walk around and you'd find

6:41

that they've taken an old camper

6:43

top from a pickup truck maybe and put

6:46

it on the ground and torn out the windows and put

6:48

in chicken wire and there were chickens living

6:50

in there, and you know, they have crazy

6:52

things like that laying around. You know that you were you're wondering,

6:54

like what is the story behind all this junk

6:56

that's here. You're like, who's who's who's

6:58

the odd ball care or that's operating this

7:01

place? And that is the thing that if you go and

7:03

you talk to the owners of these you know, before you walk around,

7:05

you'll find that a lot of times you're gonna come across

7:07

some real interesting characters, some people that

7:10

have great stories to tell if you want to listen

7:12

to them, or you know, maybe maybe they're not so

7:14

nice, maybe they're nice. Maybe. You know, everybody

7:16

has their own demeanor, and it's it's

7:18

interesting to kind of figure out

7:21

who who knows what in the area, like who's

7:23

who's an expert on packards

7:25

or corvets or maybe British

7:27

sports cars or you know who has uh you

7:29

know, the uh the market cornered on the

7:32

import parts in this town, you know, because that

7:34

they're some of these bigger ones have sections

7:36

that are that are just strictly for imports,

7:39

and some that are just for Chrysler and some Ford

7:41

and some GM parts, and other

7:44

lots you know, are kind of all mixed up. You know, there's

7:46

there's all variety of things that you can find

7:48

at these junkyards. And I know that's over explaining

7:50

all of this, you know, does this long long lead

7:52

into this whole thing. But some of these these lots,

7:55

especially the newer ones, have an incredible

7:57

amount of organization to them and and they're

7:59

really meticulous about how they have them laid

8:01

out. Yeah, they thrive on keeping

8:04

their inventories somewhat fresh and organized

8:06

and um moderating it to a certain

8:08

degree. Although as I've found

8:11

out, there's a lot of shenanigans that go on the

8:13

side of these places as well. Yeah, yeah,

8:15

you know, by uh wait,

8:17

by the customers or by the by the owners, by the

8:19

customers the customer, but I'm

8:22

talking more about the people that go in there and you

8:24

know, rifle through the cars. Yeah, you know. Um

8:26

later you know, as as we get towards uh,

8:29

near the end of this, I would I would like to share some uh

8:32

I guess what I'll call junkyard etiquette with you. If

8:34

you don't mind a little

8:36

valuable for people to hear them, well, I think

8:38

so too, in case case you ever find yourself in

8:40

a junkyard and you you just don't know you

8:42

know, which fork goes on which side, where your

8:44

your soup spoon goes, that kind of thing, you know, right,

8:46

But tell you there's there's definitely junkyard

8:48

etiquette. And people will call you out on these

8:51

some mistakes if you if you make them, you know, some people get

8:53

not angry, but um, I have

8:56

a little frustrated with your behavior if you're

8:58

not doing things in the way that a feel

9:00

is the proper way to do things, because there are regulars

9:02

to these There are people that go back and regularly pick

9:04

parts. You can make money by doing that if

9:06

you know what to look for. And that's another

9:09

kind of interesting angle. This whole thing is that you

9:11

know, if you know the valuable parts. Keep

9:13

your eyes open because you might just run

9:15

across these at any point. You might be going for

9:17

a part that you specifically need and

9:20

run across something that you have kind of filed

9:22

away in your memory bank. Is like, oh, that's something

9:24

that people pay a lot of money for on eBay or

9:27

on Craigslist or wherever. How

9:29

hard would it be to pull that part out and sell it on eBay

9:31

if you have an account. I mean, it's it might be a

9:33

pretty good profit generator for you, even if it's

9:36

just a small time thing, you know, like you know, a

9:38

part here or there, It might pay for the part

9:40

that you're out there picking that day, which

9:42

is a fantastic thing to have happened. I mean, if

9:44

you're able to, you know, kind of make it a wash

9:46

and get what you need as well, it's it's all the better.

9:49

Yeah. I feel like every town has

9:51

this group of people though that go just

9:54

for that. Yeah. So, I mean finding

9:57

these little gems and junkyards.

9:59

This actually not as easy as you

10:01

would think. No, no, because there are a

10:03

lot of people that are out there on the same hunt, exactly

10:06

the same hunt, and you can find all these

10:08

places online and that's another I guess

10:11

why is that an advantage or disadvantage, Curt, I don't

10:13

know, because it's a disadvantage to

10:15

you, I suppose, but it's an advantage to anybody

10:18

this will use it as that,

10:20

you know, to to kind of keep up on the new arrivals,

10:22

because that's another section on these websites.

10:24

If you go to anything any of these part

10:27

sites that I'll mention here, and I'm just gonna mention like

10:29

three or four to give an idea of

10:31

the names that they go by. It's you know, pull apart,

10:34

or you pull it, or you pull and

10:36

pay, or you pull and save. They come in all

10:38

flavors of this you pull and something

10:41

where you know, you pull parts or you pull

10:43

whatever you pull crap, I don't know,

10:45

whatever you want to call it. But um, of

10:47

course have this stuff all categorized on

10:49

their website and you can search for your vehicle

10:51

and they'll tell you, yeah, we've got one vehicle

10:53

that meets your criteria. It's within this age

10:56

range two thousand ten to two thousand and twelve

10:58

model year Honda, a Chord, or

11:00

you know, whatever it happens to be, and

11:03

they can't tell you specifically exactly what's

11:05

on the vehicle. You have to go there and really check that

11:07

out for yourself. That's one of the downsides.

11:09

I guess it doesn't have every part listed,

11:11

but that's really impossible to keep up

11:13

with, as we said, because their parts leaving

11:16

from that vehicle every single day, every

11:18

single hour. Probably find to guess on some

11:20

of the more popular models. So it pays

11:22

to get in on these things early. And I said

11:24

that they have in all these categories, they have tabs

11:26

listed for brand new vehicles. To the lot.

11:29

They have vehicles that are I guess

11:31

you can call them going going gone. You know, they're

11:33

like the last minute before we actually

11:35

just scrap this metal because there's only a few parts left.

11:37

A lot of them will have use cars for sale,

11:40

which is kind of interesting. So cars that have

11:42

a clean title that you are able to buy

11:44

and typically they're damage but they are running

11:46

and driving, not a salvage title, nothing

11:48

like that. You have to worry about it because as I think we've

11:50

we've said another shows if you're gonna buy a salvage

11:53

car, you know a flood car, car that's been on

11:55

a fire, or a car has been damaged

11:57

to the point where it can no longer be driven

12:00

safely according to the insurance

12:02

company that did the adjustment for it, that said, you know, this

12:04

is a total loss. If it has a salvage

12:06

title, you have to have a license in order

12:08

to be able to buy that vehicle, and

12:10

that that varies by state. If you search

12:13

for your laws within your state, you'll find that, you

12:15

know, there are a lot of different regulations and licenses

12:17

that you have to apply for, and different types

12:19

of salvage licenses as well. Most

12:22

often is the case that we're UM, I

12:24

went through a few of these states and uh

12:26

and checked out what it would take to get a salvage

12:28

license, uh, you know, like Texas and here

12:30

in Georgia and I think Wisconsin and places

12:32

like that, just kind of scattered all over the US,

12:35

and I found that, um, a lot of

12:37

them require you to have a piece of

12:39

property that is not your primary residence

12:42

with a certain amount of acreage with you

12:44

know, you have to have a certain amount of insurance as well,

12:47

and it's just just really complicated

12:49

the requirements and

12:51

fees, the qualifications that you have to have. And

12:53

there's of course the federal and state laws that

12:56

come into this as well, including some e

12:58

p A guidelines that you have to follow. Your

13:00

property and your treatment of that vehicle

13:02

have to follow that, so you know, the draining of fluids

13:04

or the capture of gases that might

13:07

be in that vehicle, you know, whether it's refrigerant or

13:09

you know, whatever the case may be. Uh So,

13:11

the whole thing is really an interesting process when you get

13:13

right down to it. There's a there's a lot involved

13:16

with buying a salvage vehicle. So the implication

13:18

there is that you would be buying it to put on

13:21

in your own salvage yard. Correct, Yeah,

13:23

Yeah, you'd be buying a crash vehicle that you most

13:25

likely would have to you know, throw on a

13:28

a flatbed and bring it to your your

13:30

property and just dump it off in a lot wherever it goes

13:32

because a lot of them, as you said, we

13:34

keep wandering away from this, but there's so much

13:36

organization now which is really fascinating

13:39

to me. And I don't know if you've seen this or not. One of the places

13:41

that I used to go again in Michigan, and

13:43

I think this is common in a lot of junkyards

13:46

of the past, where they used to just be piles

13:48

of cars. Then they went to. We're

13:51

going to kind of lay these out like they're in a in a

13:53

parking lot, and of course doesn't matter if they're parked

13:55

in so because no one's moving these cars

13:57

really, so you can park them several deep and

13:59

you know, make kind of a grid work of them, and that's something

14:01

that a lot of places still do. And then there

14:03

are other places like the one that I used to go to now

14:06

that i've I've looked at photos online and

14:08

they have started to store vehicles

14:11

on racks, so you know, there might be

14:13

three or four vehicles high,

14:16

and if you need one from up above, you have to get somebody

14:18

with a forklift come out and lower

14:20

that vehicle down to you and just see

14:22

if you have the part on there that you need or unless you can you know,

14:24

spot it from down on the ground. It becomes a little

14:26

bit more complicated. But the yard itself

14:29

can stock or can carry more vehicles,

14:32

and you know, not at the expense of having

14:34

to pile them on top of each other, which would damage

14:37

panels, that would damage all the windows in

14:39

the vehicle, It would bend components that otherwise

14:41

would be useful. So this is a much better

14:43

way to do it. I think, and in the cataloging,

14:46

I mean, essentially, what we're talking

14:48

about here, Kurt, is that things

14:50

have just been really cleaned up quite a bit. It's

14:53

not the dirty, old, musty

14:55

location that you might think it was in the pastor

14:57

you know, like grease soaked areas.

15:00

It's still you still get your hands dirty,

15:02

and you still get dirty climbing underneath vehicles and pulling

15:04

stuff out, but they're a lot

15:06

cleaner than they used to be. Yeah, that's part

15:08

of the recycle process for the vehicles.

15:11

They go through this life cycle

15:14

out on the road, and then for

15:16

whatever reason, they end up in a salvage yard

15:19

and then um, eventually after they're

15:21

done, they're after they're picked over and they go on

15:23

to wherever cars go next. I guess scrap,

15:25

Yeah, they become soupcan somewhere right.

15:28

Yeah, Eventually eventually that's long down the

15:30

road toasters and whatnot. They become the

15:32

engine block for the next vehicle. And there's

15:34

big money to be made in this too. I don't have any facts

15:36

and figures about what, you know, the average salvage

15:39

heard owner makes or anything like that. If you

15:41

were to part out, let's say your typical

15:44

Toyoto camera. You're gonna find that the Toyoto

15:46

camera is worth many, many times

15:48

the value of what it is as

15:50

a complete vehicle in parts. So

15:53

you know, you start piecing out those parts and they're worth

15:55

quite a bit of money each and it and it amounts

15:57

to as a total way more than that cars

15:59

were sitting on the curb. Here's the other side

16:02

of that. If that's your car, if you own that

16:04

camera and you suddenly realize

16:06

like, oh crap, it's got a lot of stuff wrong

16:08

with it. You know, transmissions gone, the engine's gone,

16:11

and I mean gone, like they don't operate anymore. But there,

16:14

you take it somewhere to sell it for scrap

16:16

metal, or you sell it, you know, to it to a salad

16:18

yard. They're gonna give you just a few dollars

16:20

for it. I mean you're gonna make fifty bucks on it or something

16:23

like that. It's a very low pay out for you. They

16:25

make a lot of money on the parts, and then they take the hunk

16:27

of metal to the recycling place which then

16:29

will melt it down and make even more money off of

16:31

that. But in the end they're only gonna

16:33

make a few cents on the pound for those vehicles

16:36

when they get rid of them. It's just a metal

16:38

weight thing. And have recently

16:40

had some experience, you know, with metal recycling

16:42

yards, and we'll talk about that later maybe, but

16:45

it's an interesting business. It really is um to

16:47

see exactly what's going on there

16:49

and and how once

16:51

you take something that you know takes up so much space

16:53

in your own your own home. You know, you've got all this metal

16:56

laying around, you know, hot water heater and engine

16:58

parts and you know, whatever the metal is, and you're maybe

17:00

a little bed frames something like that. You take

17:03

it to the scrap yard to get rid of and

17:05

it looks like it's just a you know, a grain of sand

17:07

on the beach. It's really nothing because these lots

17:09

are so big. But it's all very fascinated

17:11

to me. I I love the order and the process

17:13

of the whole thing. And and even though it does look

17:15

a little bit haphazard at times, and

17:18

some are run better than others, but for the most

17:20

part, they're very well organized and very efficient

17:22

about what they do. One thing that recently

17:24

I've been thinking about, I need a couple of uh I got

17:26

I got road rash on a couple of my wheels on

17:29

the passengers side or curb

17:31

rash not road rash. That would be terrible, especially

17:34

in a car. I mean maybe if I own a motorcycle that'd be

17:36

more understandable, But no curb rash on

17:38

the on the rims. And I'm looking like,

17:41

is it worth it for me to put a lot of time

17:43

and effort into these things and clean them up

17:45

and sand them and paint them and try to make the match

17:47

and all that, Or do I want to find

17:50

a pull apart place and just find

17:52

two rims that are you know, very

17:55

gently used because a lot of people turn in

17:57

cars that have been wrecked on the other side, or

17:59

you know what. Ever, and you can get two rims pretty

18:01

easy to match the ones I've already got their factory rims

18:04

for a relatively low price. And if actually I've already found

18:06

a couple that were are very reasonably

18:08

priced, I mean without tires. Of course, they don't

18:10

leave those on. But a lot of times you'll find

18:12

places if you want something like that, if you want something

18:15

that a lot of people go there for, you know, whether it's

18:17

maybe you know, spare tire for

18:19

your vehicle, they might pull all of those out and put them

18:21

on a rack inside. Or if you want rims

18:23

like I need, they're gonna put those on racks

18:25

inside. And they'll have sometimes hundreds

18:27

of these rims to choose from, so you know, some in

18:30

varying degrees of conditions. So you know, they might have

18:32

a couple of knicks, or some of them might look brand new. Gonna

18:34

charge a little more for him, but you know, still beats

18:37

buying one from the dealer or brand new

18:39

from the factory. So there's a lot of bargains

18:41

and and really goodbyes to be found

18:44

there at as some of these these pull apart places,

18:56

I felt like I had to mention this, and

18:59

uh, you brought this up earlier we

19:01

were talking about the salvage ard and breaking bed. Well

19:03

that's what got me thinking about this topic, when

19:05

Ben and I were talking about the cars and breaking

19:07

Bad and then Uh. In that show anyway,

19:10

the junkyard was a place where the characters

19:12

would conceal a lot of their activities.

19:14

The junkyard helped them do it. When they do they crush

19:16

the RV there, right. They also got

19:18

the magnet they used to destroy the computer's

19:21

hard drive that was stored in the police evidence

19:23

room from the junkyard the electromagnet

19:26

with the car batteries. I remember that. Yeah,

19:28

genius, genius move Beta owner

19:30

was the named Joe I think was his name? Um

19:33

okay so, and also he made an appearance

19:35

in the sequel

19:38

or the Bonus, which was El Camino

19:40

right with with Jesse, and he

19:42

was going to be he was going to pick up the El Camino and

19:45

then the load. Oh well, I guess I should

19:47

say spoiler alert to a lot of people. Say that now,

19:49

but if you haven't seen El Camino turned off

19:52

right now, I feel like it's been enough

19:54

time. If you haven't seen it yet, you are

19:56

not super interested, probably not going to see

19:58

it. Okay. So he's gonna come pick

20:00

up the El Camino that Jesse escapes

20:03

in. And then as he's looking over the vehicle

20:05

to take it away and do the same thing as

20:07

he did with the RV, he's

20:10

quickly notified via this device that he has,

20:12

you know that that tells him that the LoJack

20:15

systems have been activated on it. So he he high

20:17

tels it out of there, and so that's that's all we see of him

20:19

at El Camino. But he was

20:21

back again. He was ready to do the deed that

20:23

he did for them earlier as well. He's gonna

20:25

help him out, right, So that was kind of interesting. But

20:28

stuff like that happens in real life, maybe

20:30

to a different degree. It doesn't take too

20:32

long to do a search where you can find. Uh,

20:35

people have tried to cover up murders

20:38

in crushed vehicles. They

20:40

would put a body in the vehicle, crushed the vehicle,

20:42

send the vehicle off, it's gone, and they think that

20:44

they're, you know, completely free and clear

20:47

of ever having any evidence on their hands,

20:49

right, not the case that they'll always

20:51

catch it that show

20:54

or the crime took place and was

20:56

concealed in a junkyard. Sure. Yeah,

20:58

so there's there's one example. I've got a couple others that

21:00

are recent, and I know that these

21:02

have happened in the past. And I'm you know, I'm not saying

21:05

that it hasn't happened where they've gotten a weight with it. I'm

21:07

sure it's happened that way as well, that you

21:09

know, um evaded evaded capture.

21:11

But some of them go back as as recent

21:13

as two thousand eight. There was actually and this

21:16

is a different one, This isn't maybe something I

21:19

don't know. Not the same category maybe,

21:21

But there was an accident where customer

21:23

was actually crushed in the juckyard, which I would

21:25

assume happens more often than

21:27

you would think. Um, not every

21:29

day by anything. Bet it used to happen quite

21:31

often. I bet it did. When there were piles of vehicles

21:34

and people are trying to climb up to see what's in that

21:36

vehicle, you know, not waiting I wanted to wait around

21:38

for the crane or you know whatever to bring it down

21:40

to the ground level. I would bet that happened

21:42

a lot. In fact, this one happened in Belleville, Illinois

21:45

in two thousand eight or handa cord fell

21:47

on top of forty seven year old man that was in the

21:49

lot. Just kind of checking for parts. Tragic

21:52

story, I mean, of course. But another

21:55

type of thing we were talking about before

21:57

is where there's actually a murder that someone's trying to cover

21:59

up. And this happened. A double murder actually

22:01

happened in two thousand sixteen, and

22:03

this was in Russellville, Arkansas. If

22:06

you have any interest in reading about this case,

22:08

there's actually a follow up on it. They caught the individual

22:10

that was running the yard. It was his deed, his

22:12

his crime, and he was trying to cover it up. But they

22:14

did find the They found two bodies in the

22:16

car. It's two young kids that he had

22:18

shot and I don't know what part

22:21

of the deal went bad here, but he

22:23

ended up shooting and killing them. And his

22:25

family, the victims family has actually found

22:28

the vehicles that they were crushed in. Found and

22:30

this is so awful, he

22:32

says. So he's letting them kind of walk around

22:34

the yard and look for him because this is the last place they were seeing.

22:37

So the families walking around looking for evidence

22:39

of what happened. They find, you know, some things

22:41

they find, I don't know, a cell phone and shoe whatever

22:43

it was, find something. But they find

22:45

a vehicle where there's blood leaking out of the

22:48

trunk. And you would

22:50

think that would be a day ghibli, right, And the guy actually

22:52

totally calm with that the whole thing, and says, now

22:54

you know what that's uh, that's here. Here's

22:56

the awful thing. He says, he's a dog

22:58

got in the car, accidentally crushed. It happens

23:00

all the time. Uh, that's

23:03

that's just the way it is. But he says, it happens all the time, and

23:05

I was thinking, how many like stray dogs

23:07

in the crushing in cars? That's awful. I

23:10

don't know, Well, you obviously wasn't telling the truth, no

23:12

ilishing a little bit. Yeah, he's just trying

23:14

to you know, side with Yeah, exactly

23:17

right. But anyways, it's a it's a weird

23:19

story. If you go back to Russellville, Arkansas,

23:22

you know, online, search Google, whatever, you're

23:24

gonna find this story from two thousand and sixteen,

23:26

with some updates later of you

23:28

know what they actually captured this guy and what he claimed

23:31

and you know what was happening there. Cash

23:33

another couple of things I want to mention, just briefly

23:35

before we get to the editor, are the kind

23:37

of scaring me away from going to a john

23:39

you know whatever. I could have done a much better job

23:42

telling that story if I if I had really worked

23:44

on it. But it's probably best. Yeah

23:46

you didn't, Probably best we just breathed over Yeah,

23:48

exactly right, it's probably best. No no nightmares

23:50

here in this not in this series. How

23:53

about something a little fun then? How about that? I'm

23:55

down this is fun and it actually is kind of

23:57

fun to watch this. This is the one that you'll chocolate.

24:00

And it's a short watch anyways, but it's something you can

24:02

find on YouTube. And I believe I did mention

24:04

this when Ben and I talked, but you haven't seen

24:06

this yet, so you might want to check this out, and other

24:09

listeners or new listeners might want to

24:11

do it. What's fun to watch is

24:13

when they have these events at these

24:15

junkyards, and they do sort

24:17

of infrequently, but they will have you

24:19

know, you pay by normally you pay by the component

24:22

or by weight or however they deem

24:24

that part valuable. Right. In some

24:26

cases, they will charge you a flat rate

24:28

for anything you can carry.

24:31

Now, okay, we've all heard of this, right, Like you put it stuff

24:33

in a bucket at a part store and everything in the bucket

24:36

is ten dollars. You know, whatever you can reasonably

24:38

fit in the bucket is ten dollars. This

24:40

is, of course, all you can carry at a junkyard.

24:42

Takes on a whole different meaning, right, So a

24:45

lot of cases, oh, they will, they'll promote

24:47

these and they'll have, you know, kind

24:49

of a big set up where you have to carry

24:51

your parts. Usually it's like fifteen

24:54

twenty maybe maybe as far as ft

24:56

through an area like it's coned off, you know, like

24:58

there's a start and finish line. Parts

25:00

can't touch the ground. You have to be really

25:02

carrying the parts. Yeah, you rule their

25:04

rules to this, and you can use You

25:06

can use seat belts as straps. You can make your own

25:09

straps. You can

25:11

use pipe if you can find it, you know the section of

25:13

pipe that you want to use, or rope if you want to use

25:15

that to make kind of slings that you can carry

25:17

things. This is the craziest thing, Kurt. If

25:20

you watch you know these they're like five minute

25:22

videos usually, and the ones

25:24

that I'm thinking of are these

25:26

guys would they would dig seat

25:28

belts out of other cars, right, so they dig out you know the both

25:31

you know the connection points, So that's an easy strap

25:33

to make, right. They would make a backpack

25:36

out of the front seat of let's say a van

25:38

or something like that maybe, so it's a bucket

25:40

seat. They put that on their back like a backpack,

25:43

and then have somebody load up the seat

25:45

cushion as they lean forward, so they

25:47

can stack as much stuff on that as they can as they go

25:49

across. I saw a guy carry

25:51

a Volkswagon engine on his back a

25:54

van seat and a Volkswagon engine

25:56

with a seat belt, uh, you know, like seatbelt

25:58

harness over his shoulders. Um. Sometimes

26:01

they'll take an axle, put it across their shoulders

26:03

and use that kind of like um, a yoke and

26:06

carry carry a full set of

26:08

four tires with rims for trucks,

26:10

like big trucks. I mean, it looks like they're

26:12

in a like a strongman competition when they're

26:15

walking. You like those ridiculous competitions where

26:17

they carry just enormous objects that you

26:19

would think they can't move. It

26:20

works, And

26:23

then you'll get other people that are just carrying an

26:25

impossible pile of stuff. It looks like,

26:27

um, I guess maybe a big doctor SEUs pile

26:29

of things. You know, like it looks like it's it's kind of like

26:32

curvy at the time. It's not balanced at all really,

26:34

and they're trying to balance it and you know, going back and

26:36

forth as they carry it and use their chin to balance

26:38

things. It's it's hilarious to watch. Sometimes

26:40

you think, oh man, these you know they're gonna

26:42

get a hernia doing this, you know, because some of these loads

26:45

are so heavy. Other times people just they

26:47

are happy to carry a bumper across and get it for

26:49

seventy five bucks and they're fine. But

26:51

for the most part, the funny ones, the ones that you want

26:53

to catch, are the ones that are doing these impossible

26:56

things, you know, the ones that are you know again trying

26:58

to to uh carry and they carry

27:00

an engine on their back. And these these backpack things

27:02

are are just so funny to look at. You have to

27:04

be on two feet or can you be crawling

27:07

or just kind of like, you know, shimming

27:09

across the ground, because I feel like you could stack

27:11

a bunch of stuff up on somebody, you

27:14

like, have them just kind of naked

27:16

across the finish line. That's a new strategy. I

27:18

didn't see anybody that was was crawling.

27:21

I've only seen them carrying against

27:23

Maybe maybe now I will tell you this,

27:26

you'll see people that. And I watched this carefully.

27:28

They will. They'll get a hood from a vehicle

27:30

so that is like as big as this table that we're

27:33

in front of here, right, and they'll put it upside

27:35

down and then they'll pile everything on top of that

27:37

and then they'll carry that. But as

27:39

they're carrying it, someone will have a cart

27:42

underneath that it's not touching you

27:44

know that they're just like hovering above, but just

27:46

in case it falls, they don't want to, you know, destroy

27:48

everything, so you know, it'll fall a couple of inches

27:51

onto the cart. So it may it look like they're

27:53

cheating the system a little bit, but really they're they're lifting

27:55

that item and carrying it across the line. So, um,

27:57

it's kind of one of those fascinating things

28:00

to watch. I mean, it really will only take you a couple

28:02

of minutes, but it's worthwhile. I'll check it out.

28:14

You talking about junkyard etiquette. Now, let's

28:16

do it, all right, let's do it. So I found

28:18

a couple of the people that were talking

28:21

about this type of thing on YouTube, and those are the ones I

28:23

found interesting because you know, they can take you out on the lot

28:25

and show you exactly what they mean. They've got examples

28:27

of everything. And these are people that are that frequent a

28:29

lot. And in one case, I think one of these

28:31

guys actually works at the lot, so he's

28:34

got some of the best pro tips that I've heard. There's

28:36

one guy that, um, i'll mention here he only had five

28:38

quick tips and I'll be pretty quick with this one. The

28:40

next one is a little bit longer, but we'll still buzz

28:42

through it pretty quick. But this first one is

28:45

is five things to avoid doing at a salvage

28:47

yard. That's the title of the video. And

28:49

it's by guy who goes by Robert D. I

28:52

Y. And he's at the you Pull and Pay

28:54

a Lot And I don't know where the you Pull and Pay a Lot

28:56

is, but it's somewhere warm. It looks like it might have been California.

28:58

But he tells you what you should and shouldn't do,

29:01

actually what you shouldn't do, mostly at

29:03

a lot. And he has he's kind of broken down into

29:06

courtesy and safety. So

29:08

he's got five quick things here. And the first

29:10

one is a courtesy thing, and it's bring

29:12

your own tools. That's pretty obvious, right, You

29:15

don't wanna have somebody borrowing your

29:17

tools while you're there. And he said that how many times?

29:19

And he's he's funny when you listen to this guy

29:21

doing this, he's he's kind of griping about a little bit.

29:23

So he's saying, you know, I'm working on whatever I've

29:25

got. You know, my uh,

29:28

you know, rear end up in the air and I got my head down into

29:30

an engine bay and someone taps me on the shoulder

29:32

and wants to borrow my socket, said, and he said,

29:35

fine, but you know then I've got to worry about

29:38

not only remembering that when I'm leaving,

29:40

but I also have to maybe track you down if you, you know,

29:42

walk two or three miles away. I don't know where you are,

29:44

and you might have taken off with it. I don't know.

29:46

So, um, bring your own tools. That's just a

29:49

general courtesy to other people

29:51

on a lot. You don't want to make nuisance of yourself.

29:54

Uh. The next thing is, he says, don't make a big mess.

29:56

Keeping the walking past clean after you're done is important.

29:58

That's uh, that's safety and courtesy as

30:00

well as we'll find out. But um,

30:02

I think everybody knows generally that

30:05

if you've got a clean work area, that's generally a safer

30:07

work area too. I mean, you're not thank

30:12

you. I

30:14

feel like I'm like a shop teacher up here, you know, like

30:16

with a with a whiteboard, like listen, kids, A

30:19

clean work area as a as a safe work are.

30:22

The thing is is people know this. They

30:24

know these things. Well, you just don't care treat

30:26

it as if you you know, we're in your own garage. I

30:28

guess you know, you don't want to stumble over all this crap

30:31

in order to get to the vehicle again the next time, and

30:33

you would clean up your work area. A lot of people, you

30:35

know, just find that very frustrating that

30:37

some people don't super frustrating the

30:40

place, you know, leaving your grocery cart in the middle

30:42

of the road there the grocery store exactly.

30:44

Okay. Number three, don't destroy other

30:46

parts to get at your part. And this is a courtesy thing

30:48

obviously, just be considered for the next person, because

30:50

whatever you decide that you can just kind of

30:53

tear through to get to your part. You know, if

30:55

you break things or bend things or take them

30:57

off sloppily, you know, you pry things off instead

30:59

of actually removing them, that might be the

31:01

part that someone is coming to get. So um,

31:04

you know, there's a common courtesy. If you're gonna

31:06

have to dig to get to something, preserve everything

31:08

that's in your way as well, and you know, leave

31:10

it off to the side for somebody else. You know, once they

31:13

once they get there, they will be much happier with you

31:15

if they find that you know, you haven't you haven't

31:17

destroyed the valve cover or whatever

31:19

to get to your you know, your springs or your lifters

31:22

or you know whatever. And also in a bigger

31:24

picture of this is if you look at the whole

31:26

salvage experience as being a

31:28

way to make use of stuff

31:30

that's been discarded, being nice

31:33

to the parts that you don't need helps

31:35

that process. Sure, So this is just better

31:37

for the whole system if you don't

31:40

damage parts that you don't need, and then you'll

31:42

intend to use. It allows the system that

31:44

you're there to take advantage of to continue,

31:46

is what it does. Really. I mean, it allows you to keep going because

31:49

if they're not if they're not going to make any profit on this stuff,

31:51

they're not going to do it anymore. And how frustrating

31:53

is that if you you know that, you know they've got the vehicle

31:55

that you want there, which is already kind of a long

31:57

shot. So you get there and you find there, there's one

31:59

right there, we do have one a lot. They go to find it

32:02

and the part that you need is there,

32:04

only it's damaged. And now you're

32:06

back at square one. You know where you have to go and find that

32:09

vehicle in that part again somewhere else or wait for

32:11

another one to show up, so it just becomes a big

32:13

frustration. The next one. I guess

32:15

this comes after you've you

32:17

know, removed the other parts.

32:20

Don't scatter parts of other cars nearby. So if you

32:22

have to take off, you know, a tail lens

32:24

to get to a wiring harness

32:26

or a clip or whatever you need in the back

32:29

end, take that tail lamp and put

32:31

it inside the trunk of the vehicle or set

32:33

it back in place on the bumper so that people can see it.

32:35

Don't throw it in the truck bed of the car next

32:37

to you, because they'll never find it, and if

32:40

they do, they might not know what it's

32:42

for. So they might see this tail ends

32:44

in that truck and think, well, there's

32:47

a chance that it's the one that goes to this.

32:49

I'm not sure really, you know, I mean, it's it could be

32:52

very confusing to somebody if you start scattering

32:54

parts or throwing them into the interior of another vehicle

32:57

or the engine bay of another vehicle. So but that's

32:59

probably a good thing to do. You if you are looking for

33:01

a part for a certain car and you don't see

33:03

it, just check the vehicle next

33:05

to it. That's just thinking that's a good

33:07

tip. I think

33:10

I think that comes up on my next page here, but

33:12

yeah, you've probably been reading ahead and

33:16

the last thing, and I'll just mention this one quickly.

33:18

I think this one goes without saying, really, but don't

33:20

break glass or windows. I mean, there's

33:22

no need to do that. And I've seen plenty of photos

33:24

and videos of you know, just a bumper that's

33:27

just tossed through a rear window

33:29

for no good reason. I mean, just something that you

33:31

know, somebody felt like doing or wanted to do

33:33

out of frustration. I don't know, I don't know why somebody

33:35

would do that. But um, again, this stacking

33:38

of vehicles on racks is saving a lot

33:40

of glass now that was damaged earlier.

33:42

So that's something that's uh, that is

33:45

a positive, all right. So I think that was a pretty good list

33:47

of five there from Robert d. I

33:49

Y on YouTube. So the next

33:51

one is about, of course, junkyard etiquette

33:54

again and this is from a YouTube user called

33:56

Bleeping Jeep, And of course this guy is focused

33:58

on jeep parts. So every thing here in this

34:00

list, um, I've taken out the jeep references

34:03

I think to most of it, but most of them were

34:05

concerning how to get parts out of a jeep really,

34:08

but he had some great tips. And this this guy

34:10

had on a pull Apart. Pull Apart shirt

34:13

from here in Atlanta, So I don't have any know

34:15

his local to us, you know, where we record

34:17

the show, but I don't know in particular

34:20

if he works there. It just happens to be a huge fan

34:22

of pull Apart, or maybe they were allowing

34:24

him to film there so that's why he was wearing

34:26

the shirt, you know, a little promotion or something. But anyways,

34:29

all that aside, he had some great tips

34:31

I thought for for what you should and shouldn't do

34:33

on a lot. And the first one, actually what you should

34:36

do really is hell, this

34:38

is a good tip. Remove your part ahead of time,

34:40

so you know the tools that you'll need when you get

34:42

there, and you'll also know if you need additional

34:45

parts, So take off that. I think

34:47

he used a um washer

34:49

fluid bottle in the car at home that he had and

34:51

he said, okay, I'm taking this off at home, so I know I

34:54

need an eight millimeter socket, and I need these

34:56

crimpers and I need you know, whatever it was. He had a

34:58

bunch of tools that he needed, and

35:00

he also knew that there's a risk in damaging

35:02

this connector when I pull it off. Here it's a Christmas

35:04

tree connector that gets damaged when I remove it,

35:07

So I'll probably need to look for one of those as well. And

35:09

it allows you to get every single

35:11

thing you need rather than get home and realize you need

35:13

just that one other part that you did see there and

35:16

have to go back and get it again. Then you

35:18

end up breaking a clip or something you can't kind

35:20

of know to look out for that as well, or exactly

35:22

pick that up when you're there. Yeah, exactly any

35:24

hardware or anything like that that you might also want

35:26

to look for. Definitely, that's

35:29

the time to do it is before you even go to the lot.

35:31

The next thing is that, um, when

35:33

you get to the lot and you've brought your own tools, of course,

35:36

wait to take all of your tools onto the yard until

35:38

you check it out, until you go out there and make sure

35:40

that you know the part that you want is on that vehicle,

35:43

because a lot of people will bring out a full toolbox

35:45

and they'll bring out a lot of you know, maybe a

35:47

jack and you know, everything that's really heavy

35:49

out there into the lot. And if you can save

35:51

yourself the the effort of walking

35:54

all the way out there with that, you know, maybe sloshing through

35:56

the mud or grease or whatever, and

35:58

uh and getting into the vehicle and finding that you know, somebody

36:00

would either damage the part or it's missing or whatever.

36:03

Uh, just saves your back in some cases,

36:05

you know. So when you're taking out a piece

36:08

from a car apart from a car, just

36:11

always bring the hardware, the nuts, bolts, washers

36:13

or whatever with you. Um, it just makes

36:15

sense, I mean, just in case, because if you haven't

36:18

done the step that I told you about first where you

36:20

take the part off you, if you've neglected that, maybe

36:22

you'll need it anyway, just make sure that you have the

36:24

extra hardware with you. The next

36:27

one, Oh, this is a clever one. If

36:29

you want to kind of reduce the tools in your toolbox, you

36:31

can always look around for a piece of pipe to

36:34

use as a breaker bar. So let's say you have to go

36:37

yeah, yeah, so you got a socket and you need some more

36:39

of leverage to get the spare tire off the back

36:41

of a jeep. What do you know, so

36:44

you know that that rear mounted wheel he was trying to

36:46

use a socket and um didn't

36:48

have enough leverage, but he wouldn't got a piece of tailpipe

36:50

from another vehicle that was laying right next

36:52

door, you know or next door lucky, Yeah,

36:55

right nearby. I grabbed the tailpipe

36:57

and uh and use that as kind of a

36:59

great big break your bar and it work perfect, So didn't

37:01

have to carry it in his toolbox and it was just there unavailable.

37:04

Plus you know, you find you need stuff like that, you

37:06

have to kind of you know, improvise on the fly, and

37:08

that's always smart to do as well. Um,

37:10

this is a good one too if you

37:12

forget to bring your PV blaster or

37:14

you're penetrating and I, which a lot of people take

37:16

with them in their tool kit. That's a smart thing to bring,

37:18

is you know, because you know these cars are out in the

37:21

elements and who knows how old they are. Probably

37:23

the parts a lot of parts have never been removed, so

37:25

bring some kind of you know, penetrating oil

37:27

to get those parts out easier. You can always

37:30

use brake fluid from any available

37:32

car that's on the lot as that, so you might dip your

37:34

wrench into it or a stick or whatever you've

37:36

got nearby. And kind of drip a few drops

37:38

onto that nut or bolt or whatever is you know

37:40

you're trying to break free. Break fluid works

37:43

really well as penetrating well in a pinch. I mean,

37:45

it's better to use the stuff that's formulated for it.

37:47

But again, you can find you know, break fluid,

37:49

and just about any reservoir on the

37:51

lot, you'll find at least a few drops you can get out of there

37:53

if they're not you know, completely full. I

37:55

thought that was a good tip. Um carpets and

37:57

floorboards can be used as like section

38:00

mats if you're gonna get underneath the vehicles,

38:02

because most of these places are on gravel,

38:05

or there's a puddle underneath, or there's

38:07

um you know, maybe you just rained, maybe

38:09

as a dirt lot, and it's all muddy,

38:11

and I know you're already sloppy. You're at the junkyard

38:13

anyway, But you know, why make it worse?

38:15

Why why make yourself miserable? You know, if you don't want

38:17

to lay down in the mud and get underneath the car, take

38:20

a you know, a mat from the back end

38:22

of an suv or you know, maybe

38:24

a bedliner from a truck or whatever. Use

38:27

that as a mat to lay on. Just be smart about

38:29

it and you can sometimes, you know, maybe

38:31

save your back. You know, you won't get all those cuts

38:33

and nicks and bruises on you um

38:35

or glass in some case. Right. Oh,

38:38

here's the other one. Okay, this is what you were talking about. Check

38:41

surrounding vehicles for your missing parts. If

38:43

you get there and the part that you're looking for is

38:45

missing, but it looks like somebody had removed it to

38:47

get to their part, look inside

38:50

the vehicles that are nearby and the immediate nearby

38:52

vicinity. Because even if they left

38:55

it out in the aisle way, maybe

38:57

when someone came around to clean up the lot, because they do send

38:59

people around from the facility to clean up

39:01

the aisle ways for safety. They

39:04

don't know which vehicle it goes in. It could be either going

39:06

to you know, this one over here on my left or on the right. They might

39:08

make the mistake of throwing it in the wrong vehicle. So check

39:10

that other vehicle. As you said, Kurt, Okay,

39:13

here's another one. Okay, this is a good one and so

39:15

simple. Always return your tools

39:18

to the toolbox. So many people go there and they end up

39:20

losing a good number of

39:22

tools, and we all do this in our own garage.

39:24

I know, and I'm careful about

39:26

this. I have been for a long time. When I'm

39:28

working on something down in the engine bay,

39:31

I will I will often set tools you

39:33

know here and there on the like on the rails

39:35

of the frame, up by the fenders, or you

39:37

know, wherever it's nearby that you know I can.

39:40

I think I'm going to remember them right and set them on top

39:42

of the air box or you know whatever. I

39:44

don't know how many times I shut the hood and then realize

39:46

how I left my screw driver in there. I've left my

39:48

or it's in a you know, the hood

39:50

is allowed to shut, it's not going to damage it, but you know it's

39:52

in a critical spot, or you know, it fall off.

39:55

A lot of people will do that at the junkyard and then

39:57

leave and then of course you gotta pay your admission to get

39:59

back into in that tool, and oftentimes you

40:01

just forget it, just leave it, or the next person that

40:03

comes by will pick it up anyway. So

40:06

a lot of lost tools at the at the junk

40:08

are But if you just think

40:10

about that rule, like once you're done with that screw driver,

40:12

put it in your wheelbarrow, your toolbox, whatever.

40:15

Do it every single time. Don't just leave them laying

40:17

around like you do at home, because you know the consequences

40:20

are a little more, a little more dire. You know, you're

40:22

you're automatically you're gonna lose that tool. Okay,

40:25

we've already talked about this a little bit. But keep your eyes

40:27

open for special gems as they like

40:29

to call them. You know, treasures that components

40:31

that you might be able to list on eBay or some

40:33

other site you know that are valuable to some people. Even

40:35

if you're not there for that part, you might be able to

40:37

pick up something that's valuable and worthwhile

40:39

for you or for somebody else rather that

40:42

might turn a little profit for you for that day. So

40:44

not bad, not a bad idea. Um,

40:47

Okay, another good one too, Boy, these are all really

40:49

good. There are no full

40:51

size batteries allowed on a lot. Usually you're

40:53

not allowed to carry in a car battery with

40:55

you, and that's for obvious reasons. You might hook

40:57

up components that you know would deploy airbag

41:00

or you know whatever. That's probably a safety and I think it's

41:02

a big safety issue, right There's probably other reasons

41:04

as well. I'm sure he could start fires and that kind

41:06

of thing. So what you can do though,

41:09

and I didn't know you can do this. You can use a cordless

41:11

drill battery with alligator clips

41:13

to test component small components. You're

41:15

able to test the operation of windows. Let's say

41:17

that you're gonna buy a regulator for

41:19

a door that you you know you have

41:21

damage. You hook that up to the switch and

41:23

you find out that, yeah, the window does raise and lower

41:26

as it's you know should or you know, you could

41:28

even check. I think he checked a fuel injector

41:30

by clipping these together and it made a clicking noise, and

41:32

it's that indicated that it was working. Very

41:34

clever ways to do this if you look up

41:36

how to do it ahead of time, don't just go in there

41:38

and expect to be able to figure it out. One really

41:41

cool thing that I saw him do on another

41:43

jeep. Imagine that it was a Grand

41:45

Cherokee who's he was talking about pulling an engine

41:48

out of Grand Cherokee and didn't know the

41:50

condition. Of course it's got a digital read out for the mileage,

41:53

and was curious about the possible

41:55

condition of the engine. Uh mileage

41:58

in particular. So he tears it,

42:00

takes out the dashboard, and hooks

42:02

up right to the back of it. He probes the wires and figures out

42:04

which one is, you know, positive and negative, hooks

42:06

it up and it gives it just enough power to be able to show

42:08

you the mileage. You know, the odometer

42:11

comes up. So this one I think had a hundred and thirty

42:13

thou miles. And he said, well,

42:15

that's relatively low miles for being here,

42:17

and it looks like it's in decent shape. I'll take

42:19

a risk, you know, I'll take the gamble in that one. Feel

42:22

like getting an engine from poll aparts this bad

42:24

news. Yeah, but see, some

42:26

people are so crafty, so talented

42:28

that they don't even worry about that. They just throw through the

42:30

back of the pickup truck and I'm sure it's gonna work

42:32

fine. I wish I was more that way. I'm not that

42:34

level. The last one here that I'll leave

42:36

you with is find an old wiring harness

42:39

and use it for spare wire. Now

42:42

not just use it as a wire. And you can find any wearing

42:44

harness you want. But here's the point, and

42:46

I never thought of it this way, you know, they're all wrapped

42:48

up usually typically anither electrical tape

42:51

or they've got you know, some type of sleeve on them. But this

42:53

is really clever because you know, you go to the auto

42:56

parts store and you want to buy wire, you know, for whatever

42:58

project and accessory you're gonna put on. Uh.

43:00

Typically they sell wire in a few different colors.

43:02

You know, they've got maybe three or four different colors

43:05

and that's about it, you know, and then their basic color

43:07

solid colors typically. So you look at

43:09

a wiring harness though it's got every

43:11

color in the rainbow practically, and lots

43:13

of it. So you might find fifteen feet

43:16

or thirty feet of wire that you know has

43:18

a color that you need, and and overall this whole

43:20

thing might have, you know, three hundred feet of wire

43:22

complete in it. So you try to figure out, you

43:24

know, then what that wire is worth per foot. And it's

43:27

definitely worthwhile to buy this

43:29

wiring harness for twenty bucks or whatever

43:31

they're gonna charge you for as long as you just as long

43:33

as you have an intended use for it. But you've got every

43:35

color you might need, and you can closely match the

43:37

one that you have without any confusion. So

43:40

you know, even if you do have to splice in a different color

43:42

or different you know what, a different lead, you'll

43:44

be able to keep them all separate. You know that you don't have

43:47

a situation where you've got, you know, three red wires

43:49

going to something and have to figure out which is which.

43:51

You know, once you get to the other end without a little

43:53

tab of tape that has a number written on it, you

43:55

know, it's a lot easier that way. So's

43:58

some really clever ideas. There's a there's a lot

44:00

of junkyard etiquette, a lot of junkyard

44:02

videos. Man, I've been talking like a mile

44:04

a minute over here. Any junk card

44:06

is really exciting, Well, they kind of do. They

44:09

used to excite me a lot more. And I'll admit I haven't

44:11

been to one in a long long time, and I

44:13

kind of got, you know, the taste

44:15

for I want to go again because there's a couple

44:17

of things I need from my car. I

44:20

kind of am excited about, you know, seeing

44:22

the way they've evolved, the way they've developed. I went

44:24

with my last car, I went towards the end of its

44:26

life to try to find some parts. Unsuccessful,

44:29

I didn't find it but I think, you know, I'd

44:31

like to give it another shot. You see, if I can find some of those

44:33

odds and ends, you know, maybe a part

44:35

that's cracked or worn on my car that

44:37

you know, I'd like to replace, and just see what I can find.

44:40

It's always fascinating because it's like it is, it's a

44:42

bit like a treasure hunt, and you're so excited

44:44

when you find the little part that you need and it's only a couple of

44:46

bucks versus having to go to the dealer order

44:48

the brand new part wait a few days. Not

44:51

only you know the price the whole

44:53

thing, but there's also you know, the satisfaction,

44:55

A little bit of a rush people get from

44:58

this, Yeah, a little bit. I think one cold

45:00

John yard you ought to check out. It's not a card

45:02

johnk yard though. That's in Bangladesh.

45:04

And I gotta dance around this word and make

45:06

sure I pronounced the city correct with us

45:08

and Chittagong, Bangladesh.

45:11

I'm not even gonna try that. Yeah, I

45:13

think I got it right. And uh, it's a

45:15

ship graveyard. It started out

45:17

in nineteen sixty after a storm disabled

45:20

a Greek ship there, and five years

45:22

later Chittagong Steelhouse bought

45:24

the ship, scrapped it, and then the industry

45:26

began and it turned into this massive

45:30

just dump of ships

45:32

and ship parts. And what kind of ships

45:34

are we talking about? Were talking about gigantic frishan

45:37

bearing Freighter's no kidding. There

45:41

are no regulator There were no regulations

45:43

here, and I think there's still fairly lax on

45:45

the regulations. So as you can imagine,

45:47

it's pretty sludgy and just disgusting.

45:50

And there's um kids

45:52

and young adults out there working as scrappers.

45:55

They're just cutting metal off, cutting with torches

45:59

and they're probably like standing in puddles

46:01

of oil or whatever. Holy

46:03

cow, that's crazy. Okay,

46:06

I'm gonna try it. Okay, Chittagong, Chittagong.

46:10

And boy, you gotta really be really careful when you say ship

46:12

right after that. Right, Yeah, it could be quite

46:14

a quite a mistake. Uh, we'd

46:17

have to pay for if we had to had to. But um

46:19

oh that is so cool. I'm going to do that immediately

46:21

after this because I probably the oil leaking

46:24

out into the ocean. That's terrible.

46:26

That's just terrible, but but interesting

46:28

to look at, I'll tell you that. And you know, if it was nearby,

46:31

that'd be a nice uh day excursion

46:34

to go over and check something like that out, because where else

46:36

in the world are you gonna find that the

46:38

site? And of course I wouldn't think that this type of

46:40

thing will be around forever. Due to the environmental

46:42

impact, I'm sure the ship graveyard will

46:44

eventually be no more. Well, there's there's

46:46

airplane graveyards of course out west

46:49

and the southwest here in the United States, and

46:51

those are much more organized. Yeah,

46:53

definitely they are. And uh and but they're

46:55

really cool to look at as well.

46:57

I mean, they're fascinating to see. Um, I wonder,

47:00

you know, I've never heard this. Does NASA have any

47:02

kind of graveyard like this where they uh

47:05

store some of their old you know, space

47:07

junk that they've recovered or I believe that they

47:09

are playing graveyards. There are some

47:12

space shuttles there really, but

47:14

I'm sure they have a bunch of other stuff, you know, like

47:17

rocket Well you know what, sometimes you'll be

47:19

in a smaller town and I'm trying to think of where

47:21

this was in particular. I went past one recently

47:23

that you know, they have a space museum. Maybe

47:25

there's an a story behind it. There might

47:27

be an astronaut that comes from the town or something,

47:29

and they'll have you know, like I'm

47:32

gonna make this up. I don't know if this is one or not, but a

47:34

saturn five rockets standing on end, you

47:36

know, with the advertisement for the museum, you know, just

47:39

three miles down the road this way, you know, on

47:41

the main highway. They have stuff like that all over

47:43

the place. So I know that you know, these things are available.

47:45

I just wonder how they get to them,

47:47

you know, like where how do you access that? How do you,

47:49

you know, get the permission to bring something like that

47:51

to your small town and use it? And

47:54

and is that something that you could do, you know, as

47:56

a as a private citizen, as an individual,

47:58

could you go and take something like that money?

48:00

I guess. I mean you gotta have enough property for something like that

48:02

too. I don't think the neighbors would be too happy. You know,

48:04

you got a great big Soviet

48:07

Ara missile on your property. You

48:09

know, I might look a little bit intimidating,

48:12

you know, you might be trying to make a statement. Yeah this

48:14

is kind of on subject, but not really.

48:16

And I don't know if you remember this or

48:18

if you were living down here at the time. But

48:21

there was an airplane I think it was in

48:23

Byron, Georgia off the interstate,

48:26

and it was a restaurant keep kind of neat big

48:28

jet. It was a d C seven or something.

48:31

Well, it was an older airplane, a prop, but

48:34

it was okay, Well it's still been a big

48:36

commercial airline. Yeah, it was commercial back

48:38

in the day. That's cool. That's

48:41

pretty cool, you know. I I know

48:43

I've seen service stations that

48:45

have used that in the past. I don't remember exactly

48:47

where. I want to say, it was like a gosh, I'm

48:49

gonna mess this up, but I think it was like an old Sinclair

48:51

station or something. It was, you know, a brand

48:53

that we don't necessarily have around here anymore,

48:56

or even I don't know Sinclair even exists anymore.

48:58

I'm not sure. The bean Dinosaur,

49:00

yeah exactly, I haven't seen I've seen advertising,

49:03

and you know, people talk about it still, you know, because

49:05

they're you know, the people that collect that type of thing,

49:07

um, you know, the petrol people. But um,

49:11

yeah, I mean, I know I've seen airplanes

49:13

used as things like that. But again, it's fascinating

49:15

to think of, you know, like this, the second life for

49:18

a lot of these things, or even third life really, I

49:20

mean, once you get down to it, because cars that

49:22

take parts from the you pull it site, you

49:24

pull it parts lot end up that back

49:26

there again, you know, a decade later, which is

49:28

kind of an interesting someone to pick again. Yeah,

49:30

once once again, pick it up right, all

49:32

right? So you know what, I think we've pretty much

49:35

extinguished this topic at least as far as as

49:37

this conversation goes. You know, we've got other car stuff

49:39

episodes that have talked about junkyards

49:42

and salvage yards and salvage cars

49:44

and how to avoid buying a car that's been through

49:46

a hurricane and all that stuff, you know, the everything

49:49

that goes along with it. So you can check out our archives

49:51

for that, and if you know, if you want to do that, the best

49:53

place to go probably is i heeart dot com. You can search

49:55

car stuff and that's the way you find our archive of

49:58

oh gosh, it's probably nine plus shows

50:00

at this point. We've got many many shows out there,

50:02

and again just do a keyword search and you'll be able

50:04

to find whatever you need there. And we

50:06

are always on social media as well, so

50:08

you know, we're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

50:11

where we are car stuff hs W on

50:13

all three of those, and of course you

50:15

know again when you're at iHeart dot com or

50:18

even if you're on you

50:20

know, Apple podcasts or wherever, you

50:22

can always leave feedback let us know how

50:24

we're doing. I always love to hear feedback.

50:28

Oh yeah, show ideas is something that we are,

50:30

you know, always trying to get from our listeners because

50:33

you know, we want to make this show for you. We want to make it

50:35

something that you like listening to as well, and we

50:37

can come up with lots of ideas, but some

50:40

of our best ideas come from our

50:42

audience, so we really appreciate it when you do that.

50:44

So uh, you know, do that and of course tell your friends.

50:46

You know, we're trying to gain listeners as well

50:48

all the time, so you know, you like what you hear. Hey,

50:50

maybe you don't even like what you hear. Maybe you just want to, you know,

50:52

get your friend listeners so you can argue about

50:54

it or laugh or yeah, that's right,

50:57

We do whatever you want. But uh, but um, I

50:59

guess that's about it for me, Kurt, how about you? That's

51:01

it for me? Anything else? All right? I guess we will

51:03

see you next time, and who knows, maybe Benalty

51:05

back. Maybe thanks for listening everyone.

51:11

Car Stuff is a production of I heart Radio's

51:13

How Stuff Works. For more podcasts

51:16

from my heart Radio, visit the i

51:18

heart radio app, Apple Podcasts,

51:21

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.