Scrapyards

[Guest SEgan]

I wanted some bit and bobs from the scrap yard yesterday, so I got up early and drove down to my local, where I know the guys running the place and they are usually sensibly priced.

 

To my dismay it is now closed!! This is the third in my area that has shut down (the other two were much larger and kept a good selection)

 

There is now but one left, so I went off to find it as I had never been to it before. After driving across town I drove into the yard, and wondered why it was so quiet!! I went to the hut first out of courtesy before wandering around and asked the blokes if it was OK to have a wander looking for some parts I needed for a school project and my wife’s car. “No,” was the reply, “what do you need?” A four wire Lambda off something Japanese and a bag of 12V window motors isn’t the sort of answer they were expecting, they wanted to deal with specific cars and specific parts. I asked whether they were pulling my leg about wandering around for parts but they were serious apparently it isn’t allowed anymore.

 

I had to leave empty handed and take the green approach of buying new while good parts get crushed.

 

Are there any traditional scrap yards left? Or is it all e-bay now? Glad I built my car a few years ago!!

[MarkBzero]

It is a shame that we are losing scrap yards (fond childhood memory) but the main cause is out of our hands. Environmental legislation namely End of Life vehicle (ELV)regulations and EU regs forcing car manufacturer to develop cars that 80% are recyclable.

 

Ebay or new are going to be our only optons.

[Guest scrabster]

yes scrapyards are now becoming a thing of the past,with the eu laws being forced upon us and having mr environment to contend with.last year,the last of the car scrapyards closing near me is now part of morrisons car park.there were that many in one spot it was called the jungle.i work in a commercial vehicle dimantlers(boss hates it called a scrap yard) and the measures we had to take to stay open has cost him a fortune.concrete cutting areas,hardcore for the rest of the stock,oil seperators as big as submarines underground,catch tanks for every fluid emaginable,luckily enough for me the boss could afford to do all the changes or his buisness could of gone under and yet another scrappie gone for good.ah well back to bleedin work tomorrow.

regards,jess.

 

[Guest whiz]

Fortunatly I have a U-Pull It 10mins from the house its like going to Santa's grotto tell them what your looking for then they point you in the right direction to go get it yourself. you can even buy a whole car spend all day stripping it in the yard then they get the shell back. there is one in York as well. We also still have a load of the traditional scrappies as well in fact there is an industrial estate with 4 in it half an hour from my house.

[megadodo]

Don't tell anyone from health & safety or the environment agency for god's sake!

[Guest mower man]

As Megadodo says dont shout to loud ,the coming of dismantling centres and ultra strict H+S rules mean the end of yards sa we have known them ,if you have got a good one rag as much out of it as you can because I'll guarantee it wont be there for long!.Thenew system is good but bloody expensive,the nearest one to me has a min charge of 20 quid! unfortunatly its the way of things athis time mower man

[David S]

It will be a real shame if they do get closed down due to H&S. I got a steering column, stalks and cowling for my Zero and paid £20 for the lot from a local scrappy. I must admit to quite enjoying rummaging around to get the parts.

[megadodo]

I am happy as a pig in s*** in a scrap yard! It gives you ideas, different ways of doing things, you can see what the bits look like, how you might make that bit work etc. They are simply inspiringly useful......or they were. Once again there has been a knee jerk reaction to a problem that if it does exist (pollution) could be handled in other ways. Yes you need to dispose of fluids properly, decent venting systems and storage facilities and anti spill procedures but that isn't too difficult to do or too expensive, surely? I think its the "wandering around" bit that has got the H&S boys apopleptic (is that the right spelling?)with accident stat & litigation fears. Just sign a disclaimer on your way in, have an area where the cars can be placed for stripping and drain fluids off as they come into the yard. This bit where manufacturers are responsible for re-cycling is only applicable if you give the car to them. They are not obliged to trawl scrap yards looking for cars they built! The best yard I visted was in the USA. They had piles of cars that had all their fluids removed (I think they had their fuel tanks taken off as well). They were barcoded so you could locate make/model/year. There was a forklift and stripping every few aisles and someone would pull the car out of stack so you could get to the parts. The more popular spare sources were already stripped off the cars and labelled. The prices were cheap as well. I guess in the USA though there is more land available at scrap yard prices as this place was massive!