Junkyard alert

whitesquare · Post by **whitesquare** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 5:30 pm

A note for whats its worth, I just saw a pretty complete, solid & straight 412 in Pick you part, wilmington, Ca.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:13 pm

What bodystyle? The "fastback" rear decklid and possibly the rear fenders if they are rust free would be the parts to get.

whitesquare · Post by **whitesquare** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 8:02 pm

its a wagon

Class 11 streeter · Post by **Class 11 streeter** » Sat Jun 19, 2004 9:11 pm

Thanks for the tip, I made use of it and grabbed the heads, exhaust, and axles today. It is a 2 door wagon with a 1.7/auto.

I left behind the plastic cooling air intake, the short block, and all the tin. The air intake boot is trashed. I also left the tin as intact as I could, the only one I mangeled was the small piece that forms around the oil cooler as I had to get it out of the way to pull the head. The interior is, ah, "custom", so I don't think any resto buffs are wanting any of that. Nice work, but I don't think VW used a nice purple pattern with black accents.

EDIT: Forgot to say, someone already grabbed the rear brakes, they are gone.

The only thing that concerns me is the motor has been gone through, and considering the amount of orange sealant slopped around not a very careful job either. The heads have "SIR" stamped on them, and they were a So Cal VW shop now defunct that had a less than sterling reputation.

All in all, this was the first time I crawled all around a 412 and I was impressed with the overall design of everything. Raygreenwood is right, it's got a lot of thought in the design. I wish I could adapt that transaxle mounting setup to a Type 3, it really is nice not to have frame horns and a saddle to work around.

For those that think I was stripping a save-able car, the truth is, I probably am. Southern California junkyards, however, do a volume business in junk cars, and once a car is in the yard, save a trip to the crusher, nothing short of a court order will get that car out of the yard and into private hands. It's a liability thing I guess.

One more day left (sunday) of the 50% off Fathers Day sale. Hurry people......

raygreenwood · Post by **raygreenwood** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 7:08 am

I know what you mean. Once a yard buys the car at auction....the chassis may never be removed complete. They are 100% hard core about this, because they are heavily regulated. Its the same here in Texas. Let me tell you a story....get ready to cry.

Two years ago, I'm walking through the yard when I come across a dusty 1971 type 3 wagon. It has no dents. It has no rust. The seats are immaculate...AND original. The dash had one small crack. The carpet was fabulous. The engine was in it...with the injection...100% complete. Even had few scratches. The engine had all the decals from the factory. The glass was good...as were the seals. It has classic car tags. In the trunk..........was what looked like a photograph from the facory manual. There was the spare contiental belt, jack, tool kit....and pristine liner and paint. The manuals were there. The tires were early 70's. Thre was a factory trip Odometer...and under dash type 3 Am/fm.

.
It looked like it just got sold by some estate sale.

I immediately contacted the owner/manager. I offered him $3000 for it immediately with or without title. He stated the rules and said it could never leave in one piece. I even found two people to throw money in...to get it up to $5000. The guy thougfht we were crazy to want this foreign POS. I evev appeared late in the day and offered it to be "unoffciial".

When I came in teh next day....they had fork lifted it through the side and moved it over near the fence

!@#$%^&*))*&^%$$^&*. I hate those places. This is 100% true no kidding. Ray

ubercrap · Post by **ubercrap** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 8:40 pm

Damn, no kidding. Well, that's why I don't live in those places and I'm glad. Around here, of course you could buy a whole car out of the junkyard! Heck, they were even suggesting to me just yesterday that I should have bought the whole Jetta I kept coming back for parts on. They were more interested in Chevy's and such, didn't want me to keep bothering them.

raygreenwood · Post by **raygreenwood** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 9:38 pm

Its not all junkyards. I believe its mainly those who buy their cars at auctions that are closed to the public. Many of these cars in the pic and pull lots were not wrecked at all. They were derelict, sherriffs auction, insurance or low value repossessions. They could be simply sold as complete cars...but then these guys are not licensed dealers. The regs are meant to stop insurance cars from disapearing "too easily" I think. Sad...they have access to all the good cars...but cannot sell them to drive again. Ray

ubercrap · Post by **ubercrap** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 7:49 am

Ah, I see, well I can start to see their reasoning for it, but still it's kind of ridiculous and wasteful.

VWGirl · Post by **VWGirl** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 7:04 pm

I think officially you are not allowed to buy any car from a junkyard. Once it is in the system it SHOULD have a salvage title and shouldnt be on the streets again. However, I have purchased two cars from junkyards cause the owner said it would be cheaper that way... have had other junkyards say the same thing... but these were the smaller yards that probably didn't do everything by the book...

raygreenwood · Post by **raygreenwood** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:26 pm

The laws change a bit. In some places, a car with a salvage title can be re-tagged as long as the chassis #'s are complete, the bill of sale is there, taxes have been paid and it passes all of the safety standards. That was a while back. I'll have to ask a few people I know, but I'm pretty sure it matters how the car was aquired and wether the owner of the yard is selling it as a business matter or a personal matter. Ray

ubercrap · Post by **ubercrap** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 1:56 pm

Yes, some salvage title vehicles can be re-registered. I think there are other types of classification like "junk" and "unrebuildable" that cannot be legally registered again? What type of title a car is assigned once a junkyard owns it, I don't know, but that seems to be the important part. What's the problem with selling a whole car out of the junkyard if it can't be registered again? It sounds like more of a self-imposed restriction/rule to me, but I have no idea. Also, what percentage are you buying the "too much of the car?" What part is "the car" exactly, the frame? What about a unibody car? I've never seen or heard of any restrictions regarding those things, at say, a u-pull type yard or any others. In fact, I've seen posts on vwvortex.com, etc... where somebody bought a whole car out of a yard, and like I said before, a junkyard even offered to sell me a whole car, so it doesn't seem that there are very universal laws governing this, or as was suggested, the smaller places aren't following correct procedure (which is fine with me).

DeathBus · Post by **DeathBus** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 5:11 pm

You can register a Big Wheel from the thrift store in Alabama, as long as it has a bill of sale and a vin that states it was built before 74. Kinda easy when you buy that 79 van that has a lost title. Pop a couple of rivets and viola, a 1973 van!

raygreenwood · Post by **raygreenwood** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 7:05 pm

Big wheels didn't hit the market before 76 I think..so you are SOL Deathbus

. But...I have a serial plate (or is that Cereal?) from off of my 72 huffy trike that I can ship you, to tack onto the tunnel of that polymer-badboy-hog. Then we can fool "the man"!

When I was 6-8...I always figured the women (girls back then) would go for me if I had a sleek, brightly colored throbbing piece of plastic to ride around on. Decades later....and its still the same....cept they all require C-cells now.....

Ray

DeathBus · Post by **DeathBus** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 7:09 pm

LMAO @ Ray!

ubercrap · Post by **ubercrap** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 7:46 pm

In Michigan, there were no vehicle inspections of any kind and the Secretery of State offices in downtown Detroit (DMV) just looked over your paperwork for about 1/100th of a second, then handed you what you needed. When I went to on in the suburbs one time, turned out I had been driving illegally for years without even knowing it! Kinda nice not to have to deal with a lot of hassle, but I saw some postively INSANE junk being schlepped down the road at alarming speeds. Oh yeah, and I just remembered that my friend bought a car from a junkyard in Detroit one time and drove it home, so there didn't seem to be any laws governing anything there. But, I heard there is a junkyard somewhere there that is largely stolen stuff-but here's the crazy part-it's a fully modern place with computerized inventory!

Probably just another urban myth, but seriously, those yards downtown scared the crap out of me...wouldn't be surprised if there were a grain of truth there somewhere...