Pick-n-Pull

My daughter drives a 1990 Subaru Legacy, which means her car is several years older than she is.  I have been told that the engine will probably survive to 250,000+ miles.  It has had a few problems over the years, such as a hesitating/stalling problem that was finally traced back to a bad fan, and a fuel injector that needed to be replaced, but on the whole it runs pretty well.  But a lot of little things tend to fail over time.  And when the driver's side sun visor joined the passenger side visor in falling off, I finally decided to do something about it.

I went to Pick-n-Pull.  Pick-n-Pull is a chain of auto wrecking yards where you pay $2 to get in, and if you tell them a specific year and model of car that you're looking for, they'll tell you which row to look in.  I found several Subaru Legacies in various states of decomposition.  The place was fascinating to me.  Over a thousand cars, many obviously the victims of accidents, neatly arranged in a grid where they were being disassembled and carried away in pieces by the customers to prolong the life of other cars.

In addition to paying $2 to get in (fee waived for a first time visitor!), you also sign a release so that if you maim yourself, it's your problem.  And there are plenty of sharp, jagged, oily, greasy automotive components on which to hurt yourself if you're not careful.  But mostly it's just a really efficient recycling of deceased cars before the picked over hulls are presumably shredded for scrap metal.  You have to bring your own tools to disassemble things, but they provide wheel barrows for hauling off the larger pieces.  And there were people wheeling away transmissions, axles, wheels, seats, doors, and pretty much whatever else they needed.  They even have portable overhead hoists available to help you get the engines out if you need them. ("Please do not use the overhead hoist to pick up cars...")

Before you head out to your local Pick-N-Pull, you can see if they have the models you're looking for on their website, which seems to reflect the same data they use to point you to your targets at their front counter.  I find this very convenient, but I've had mixed luck with it.  Two of the 1990 Subaru Legacies showed up on their website (and the in shop database) as sedans, but when I got there they were all actually station wagons, which meant they didn't have the same kind of release handles or tail light fixture that I needed.  Still, I found the visors I needed, along with a few other parts that have given up the ghost on Amanda's car.

Once you're done, you pay for your parts on the way out according to their standard price list.  I have found the people that work there to be consistently courteous and helpful. And Pick-n-Pull even offer a 30 day exchange for store credit on any part that doesn't fit or otherwise meet your needs. ("Sorry, no cash refunds.")

I asked the guy ringing up my purchase what he considered the strangest thing he's ever found in a car.
"Blood," he said.
"Like, a lot of blood?" I asked.
"Yeah.  Like someone was murdered in it," he said.  "We called the wrecker to come take that one back.  We weren't gonna touch it."
And the most memorable thing that wasn't a murder scene?
He laughed and said, "We found a pound of marijuana once..."