Junkyard Spots

[Jetaway]

Greetings,

Not exactly sure where this should go, but here goes.

While out hunting for a turn signal switch for my 1972 240Z (see my post under Parts Swaps) at the Stockton, California Pick 'n Pull I came across the following vehicles / parts which may be of interest.

1971? 240Z (for sure). Pretty thrashed out, had the E48? intake manifold I posted about under Carbs. Sheet metal not bad on left, but cut up, literally cut up on right side. Very odd. Hood in good shape, seats possible, though they can't appreciate being under a bunch of parts from misc. cars.

1981 280ZX 2+2: Close to complete.

1976 280Z 2+2: Appears to be an abandoned project car. I'm not an expert at this, but the body sure appeared ready for priming to me. Taken down to bare metal, some red filler type stuff here and there, also sanded down. All body parts present. Had all windows except driver door and that may well have been inside the car. Dash beat up, but headliner, rear panels in excellent condition. Think the engine was missing. Yes, I know what an engine looks like, but I didn't write it down and remember thinking what a great car for a transplant.

1981 280ZX: Pretty complete actually, hood was in great shape. What attracted my attention was it had a turbo with the exhaust manifold and downpipes attached. It also had part of the intake, not the intake manifold itself, but part of the plumbing which bolted directly onto the turbo. The turbo and the rest had been detached from the engine (which was present, but no heads). As a guess, and I don't know why, it looks like someone needed every thing between the block and the turbo and left the rest.

Bees -- Damn, there was a big swarm of them suckers hanging near the Nissan area. Could well have contributed to my possible E46 / E48 confusion.

Chris

[chaztg]

I've been prowling the self-serve junkyards down here in San Diego for years and although the "golden days" of Z cars upon Z cars in every row are long-gone, the yards have still yielded some good finds. I recently started fixing up a 75 I got on eBay and have been rewarded with a lot more 280s than I expected during recent forays. There were times when batches of the same model were really common to come through the yards. A few years back, there were 280ZXs EVERYWHERE! Shortly thereafter, tons of 300ZXs would be junked, and I still see quite a few of them. I never needed much from those cars though, being kind of a purist. 240s were always somewhat rare, but in retrospect, thinking of all the ones I've seen junked apparently for no good reason (low vin series 1 cars and rust-free clean complete & original cars of all model years) and also the really rare ones...these would include a RHD Fairlady 240Z, a 240 with a 700-something vin, a 240z custom convertible, V8 converted cars, cars with triple carburetors, turbo-swapped early Zs in all phases of condition, even a Japan home market RHD Nissan Gazelle with an FJ20 turbo (late eighties 200SX body style). Some really unique and trick vintage parts come through those pick n' pull yards, and I think they get the leftover scraps at the big auto auctions or just get lucky when they buy people's junk cars at random...so I assume that even better finds could have made their way elsewhere. I was such a junkyard "hound" at one point that when we ran across the 72 Fairlady Z, we were contemplating cutting it into pieces, buying the parts and then reassembling it, because once the cars get put out in the yard, they're gone for good; forever classified as junk and to my knowledge they can't be bought back. The advent of the internet and eBay really put a damper on the success of finding good stuff at the JY, because now I think there are full-time junkyard rats who search for rare parts from all cars and pretty much pick over everything before guys like me with only a couple hours to spare can get there for a brief weekend visit. For example, a pair of early SUs are like gold--they get picked so fast now and they used to be so common...those were the days!