Depressing Observation

[Dan Hiebert]

Hi all!  Just returned to Maine from New Mexico.  A bit of a road trip taking (formerly) our Jeep Patriot to our daughter in Ruidoso and returning with her '63 Falcon (Futura 2-dr hardtop).  It's the same car I posted about "completing" back in 2014.  Gonna do a better restoration on it, there's a few things I wanted to do, but either didn't know how at the time, or didn't have time to do.  As if I needed another project.  Anyway, it was a really good trip, visited my Dad in Caballo, mountain hikes, time with family, etc.  And, no, I didn't dare look to see if that Plymouth pick-up was still for sale in Ruidoso.  Depressing part was that I finally had time to visit the salvage yards I used to haunt when we lived in the area 20 years ago, a couple of which yielded significant parts for the D24 and her stablemates.  Every single one of them (7) have gotten rid of their older inventory to make room for newer vehicles.  Most changed ownership as well.  One (my favorite due to the amount and variety of old inventory) at least sent most of their good stuff to Desert Valley Auto Parts in Arizona.  Two just aren't there any more.  Even the VW Beetle place was cleared out.  I'd get a glazed look once I mentioned the years I was interested in to the counter guys.  Apparently, there's such a huge used car parts market in Mexico that all of the yards in southern NM and west TX cater to that they can barely keep up with, which is surprising once you see the size of the yards outside of El Paso.  I imagine you'uns have seen the caravans of auction cars going southbound to slaughter on the Interstates.  They're heading for those yards along the border.  Customs duties for whole cars going into Mexico tend to prohibit establishing salvage yards there, but parts are easy to import.  Just makes finding what we need that much more difficult, as well as eliminating casual junkyard strolls.        

[Plymouthy Adams]

the trend today especially in the 10 years age or less go to dismantling yards catering to the collision repair business and thus you cannot walk a yard there and select from X model.  The free access yards are drying up...pick an pulls get the remains of cars from the dismantling yard when the model busts out of popularity and often the 10 year mark and are pretty much picked over.  I still have access to 4 yards in my area and try to pop in for a look see when I amin the area and got a minute.  The bigger problems are the metal drives....steel is bit less today but still double over year or so ago.  It was almost 3 times at peak, this drive for metal gets tons of cars normally sitting around for parts desirable for the quick buck sale.  But yeah, if a few years...there may be next to nothing available and even more yards closed.  We lost a tresure of old cars on a hillside not far away because the guy took a stand against the EPA who mandated him clean up the yard a bit after a wild fire set a mountain of tires on fire.  He said it was his property and he will do as he pleases.  His property was siezed, EPA did the clean up and sold and crushed cars to pay to bill...he was left owning them as I was told.  EPA did their best to NOT step in as I heard they gave him three chances to comply, but he was most pigheaded is the word on the street.

[keithb7]

I'd be shocked to find any flathead era Mopars in a scrap yard around here. Long gone I am sure. The reasons seems clear to me.  This weekend I entered my car in the local big annual car show. 550 or so cars. There were 2 flathead era Mopars. Mine and the 1928 Dodge that the Vintage Car Club here owns.

 

I maintain my own spare parts pile out back. Also pats are binned and stacked in the attic. More parts on the shelf in my garage. The auto wreckers can't make any money on old cars like this. I have the market cornered. Lol. ?