Turn to Your Scrapyard When Restoring Your Classic

Car enthusiasts and rebuilders have known about the great resource scrapyards offer as long as the car has been engrained in the American fabric. They are a top resource to enthusiasts looking for a reliable and affordable option when seeking components to their car.

Whether you need a carburetor for a 1944 Ford Coupe or a cylinder head for a 1973 Dodge Charger, you can most likely find it at one of your local scrapyards. Parts that aren’t replaceable with routine maintenance, such as brake parts, tires filters, gaskets or sparkplugs, among other components are items you want to avoid replacing from a scrapyard. Pretty much everything else, depending on its condition of course, is fair game.

Auto body parts, such as fenders and doors, fill America’s scrapyards from chain-link fence to chain-link fence. Even if you are looking for a more complex mechanical piece, such as a hard to find original manifold or camshaft, you may come across a few surprises in good condition.

A lot of classic car builders do their research and buying on the internet. If you are among them, proceed with caution. Among the many benefits of scouting a scrapyard for your classic car parts is you enjoy the benefit of seeing the piece you are buying in person. You get to touch it, flip it over, look at the other side, examine it for weak areas or rust spots. This is something you miss out on with some of the many potentially deceitful online images.

As you know at this stage in the game, when it comes to auto restoration, it’s the little things that count. And junkyards are a great source for signature original hardware. If that knob on the glove box is aftermarket, it speaks volumes of the attention to detail you put in to restoring your classic car. The layman may not notice the difference, but to you and your fellow enthusiasts a Corvette logo from 1982 on a 1975 Stingray would be sacrilege.

When restoring your classic car, scrapyards are an absolute gold mine. For pretty much any non-moving, cosmetic part to your restoration, a scrapyard in your area is sure to have it. And because you inspect and see it in person, you know you aren’t getting ripped off.