Junkyard Dog

Today was my first trip to a salvage yard.  I paid the $2 entrance fee, got a handstamp, had my toolbox inspected and passed through the turnstyle.

I was directed to the back wall of the junkyard to the american cars.  I found only six Cadillacs:  a 79 Eldorado, an 89 DeVille,  a 90 Fleetwood, a 94 Seville, a 97 Eldorado and an Allante.  This picture is typical of what they look like on the inside.  In some case, from the front end you can't tell what they used to be.  Headlights, bumpers, hoods, engines, wheels, transmissions....all gone.  I even saw an electric glass sunroof removed from one car, track, wiring harness, switches and all.  Crazy.

I was looking for a photosensor so I can someday install the Twilight Sentinel option that my car was not ordered with.  I found three of them and bought them all just in case ($4 each).  Good thing I did too, one tested bad at home.  I also found a headlight switch that had the Twilight Sentinel controls ($15).  Then I got greedy and yanked a climate control head unit ($20), a wiper switch ($10) and two driver's door power mirror controls ($4 each).  I figued these parts were easy to disconnect and surely they would be easy to sell on ebay.

Lessons learned:

1)  Don't pull parts off just because you THINK they may be valuable.  You're paying for something you might not be able to sell at all, let alone at a profit.  For example, the power mirror controls I paid $4 each for.  When I got home and checked ebay, I couldn't even find one for sale.  So I have no idea how to price them.  I would rather have found 2 or 3 for sale online so I could list mine at a reduced price for a quick sale.  So I probably just lost $8.  But some poor bastard is not going to find that one part he is looking for.  And some day, that poor bastard will be me.  It's called Carma.

2) Take gloves!  Either gloves to work in, or gloves to drive home in.  These cars have been sitting outside in the weather for Lord knows how long.  Plus there seems to be a layer of dirt/oil/grease/antifreeze/gasoline/diesel covering the entire place.  It's one big Superfund site.

3) Take the voltmeter.  Real easy to check for conductivity in most sensors and switches.

At the end of the day, I'm very happy I found the Twilight Sentinel parts.  I listed the climate control unit on ebay for $50 and the wiper switch for $45.  I threw out the bad photosensor.  I'll keep the second as a spare.  The other could fail at any time.  Not sure what to do with the mirror controls yet.

Can't wait for my next visit to the yard!