A few of us got to talking at the cruise-in Friday night and decided to take a trip to Pull-A-Part on Saturday.
A little after 10 o'clock Saturday, 4 of us converged on one of the best junk yards I've every visited and spent the next 4+ hours wandering around, looking at all the cool junk cars and picking up a few good pieces at bargin prices.
I spent more than anyone in the group . . . I owed $109 (including tax and environmental charges) when I finally got to the casheir. For my $109 I got: an inner bumper re-inforcement piece for our 96 Passat (complete with plastic cover, brackets and foam pads), a coin tray for my mother-in-law's 93 Mitsubishi Expo, a complete set of S-10 retractable seat belts (to put in Homer the Super Bus), a pair of 185SR14 Michelin Radial tires with re-enforced sidewalls and pretty good tread mounted on bus wheels, 10 lug nuts, some lower door pannel clips that are missing from the driver's side of our 96 Passat, a power window regulator for the passenger side of the Passat (don't need it right now, but it was already out of the door . . . 'cause I pulled it out the last time I was there but didn't get it 'cause it was different from the drivers side that I needed at the time . . . I decided it was worth getting now and hanging on to in case I ever did need it . . .), and a near perfect windshield for a bay window bus.
My partners in crime scored a few bargins as well. One of them got a brake booster for a Volvo for $15 . . . and that included a 30 day warranty. Another one got a good fuse block for a 71 Super for about $10. Overall, the South Atlanta Pull-A-Part is probably one of the most VW friendly junk yards around. They had at least 10 Beetles and 5 Buses . . . and a whole bunch of water-cooled VWs. They even had 2 Dashers (although one was in inventory as a Scirocco)!
While we were gathering our parts and making our way to the checkout, we saw some other folks with a tranny out of a 78 bus. I think they go for a little under $60 bucks. The bus it came from had been a super nice Westy . . . until an engine fire got it. The tranny didn't look to be damaged from the fire and my bet would be that there was nothing wrong with it.
Now that I've recovered from all the fun, I thought I'd share a little advice for anyone wanting to make a trip down there.
Check their inventory (you can do that from their web site) and make a list of the cars you want to look at ahead of time. I did that, but just printed out the list from their web site. What I will do different next time is print out a map of the yard and note on it what cars in what rows I want to look at. That would save a little time rather than bouncing around from row to row. I also think next time I'll make a walk through with only what tools I can carry in my pockets and scope everything out. That way I won't have to drag my tools to the end of a row and then find out the part I was looking for on that car was gone or trashed.
We took my grandson's big plastic Radio Flyer wagon. It sure beat pushing tools and parts around in one of their free loaner wheelbarrows, but one of those heavy duty flat bottomed, stake side wagons like you can get a Harbor Freight would work better.
If it's in the 90's and humid, take more than 2 bottles of water! Take a big cooler with lots of ice and water to leave in your vehicle and carry a small cooler with a few bottles around with you in your wagon. When you run out of water in the wagon, take a break and go back out to your car and get more.
I've been to the pull-a-part in north Atlanta once and the one in south Atlanta twice. I've been by myself, with one other person, and then yesterday there were 4 of us. Go by yourself ONLY if you have no other choice. The more folks you have with you, the better. Which brings me to my next point . . .
Anyone want to plan a trip down there one Saturday next month?
