A few weeks ago I was visiting TeePee Auto Wrecking in Outlook Washington (509) 837-7491 and had walked back up to the office with my catch of the day. Sometimes I need something; like the two doors I found that had power windows and door locks, and I expect Terry, the owner/operator, to know about what to charge. Sometimes I present my case to him and try to get him to lower the price, and sometimes it works. It's never backfired though. I mean, If I ask, "How much for this doohickie, Terry?" and he responds his usual, "gimme 20 bucks" and I start to whine about how I saw one at the swap meet for half that, he never says, "OK then, gimme 30 bucks". Sometimes he lets me beat him, sometimes he wins. Usually he wins. But, how can he know the price of every single component of every make & model of vehicle in the yard? There has to be some arbitrary price guessing going on here. That's why I feel that it's only fair that I should win some of the time.
If you think about it, the junkyard is one of the last American institutions where you can find what you want and make a case for a better price than is asked. Maybe a used car lot is like that. Certainly not WalMart or Costco. I figure Terry at TeePee gets a lot of cars for under $500 and some for free. I gave him my '83 Dodge Rampage for free after it sat in my field for my cat's entire lifespan. So, once he sells the engine or transmission out of it, the rest of the parts are profit. Then, when it's picked clean, he crushes it and sells the scrap for another $200 - $300. I'd say he's got enough wiggle room to let me beat him once in a while. In fact, what he should do is pick one regular customer and tell him that all his purchases for the month are free. Result: The customer takes some vacation time from his day job and cranks out all his auto repair chores in one month. The customer's wife is happy and his lifestyle is improved, more junk is recycled that would otherwise be shipped as scrap metal to foreigners, casual customers become more regular at TeePee in hopes of being chosen as the monthly freebee winner and because of the rise in customer traffic more of Terry's weeds are stomped down in the yard. Everybody makes out. Terry, I hope you're reading this.
So there I am at the junkyard office paying Terry for my doohickie, and I noticed a decent-looking air cleaner box and a rubber, 90 degree curved intake tube that looks like it's just the right size for the mouth of my Corvette throttle body in the lab at home. I think Terry wanted $25 or $30 for it so I took it home and it fit perfectly. Not only did it fit my throttle body, it also had just the right amount of bend in it to clear my engine fan that was directly in front of the throttle body. In addition, the longitudinal design grooves in the top of the box were an unbeatable match for the grooves in the top of the TPI plenum. Could it be that I'm living right?
I did the research and it's from a late 80s - early 90s BMW 735i. I just checked ebay and an ugly one is going for $119 plus shipping. Just the 90 degree curved rubber ducting is going for $30 or so! Terry, I hope you're not reading this.
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| I took this picture at the junkyard to remind me that there is a good set of Ram's Horn exhaust manifolds on this Chevy truck engine. I'll go back sometime after payday and see how much Terry wants for them. |
If you think about it, the junkyard is one of the last American institutions where you can find what you want and make a case for a better price than is asked. Maybe a used car lot is like that. Certainly not WalMart or Costco. I figure Terry at TeePee gets a lot of cars for under $500 and some for free. I gave him my '83 Dodge Rampage for free after it sat in my field for my cat's entire lifespan. So, once he sells the engine or transmission out of it, the rest of the parts are profit. Then, when it's picked clean, he crushes it and sells the scrap for another $200 - $300. I'd say he's got enough wiggle room to let me beat him once in a while. In fact, what he should do is pick one regular customer and tell him that all his purchases for the month are free. Result: The customer takes some vacation time from his day job and cranks out all his auto repair chores in one month. The customer's wife is happy and his lifestyle is improved, more junk is recycled that would otherwise be shipped as scrap metal to foreigners, casual customers become more regular at TeePee in hopes of being chosen as the monthly freebee winner and because of the rise in customer traffic more of Terry's weeds are stomped down in the yard. Everybody makes out. Terry, I hope you're reading this.
So there I am at the junkyard office paying Terry for my doohickie, and I noticed a decent-looking air cleaner box and a rubber, 90 degree curved intake tube that looks like it's just the right size for the mouth of my Corvette throttle body in the lab at home. I think Terry wanted $25 or $30 for it so I took it home and it fit perfectly. Not only did it fit my throttle body, it also had just the right amount of bend in it to clear my engine fan that was directly in front of the throttle body. In addition, the longitudinal design grooves in the top of the box were an unbeatable match for the grooves in the top of the TPI plenum. Could it be that I'm living right?
I did the research and it's from a late 80s - early 90s BMW 735i. I just checked ebay and an ugly one is going for $119 plus shipping. Just the 90 degree curved rubber ducting is going for $30 or so! Terry, I hope you're not reading this.
Since this photograph I've swapped out the fan shroud and painted the power brake booster. Although not visible, I fabricated a metal bracket to support the hydraulic clutch master cylinder and another one for the fluid reservoir located immediately to the left of the brake booster in the photograph.
In the picture you can see the BMW 90 degree tubing coming from the throttle body and heading to the passenger side. It's connected to the Mass Air Flow sensor and then to a length of tubing from a late 80's Buick and then to the BMW air cleaner box. The Buick rubber tubing wouldn't fit around the mouth of the Beemer box so I stuck it inside the box. There is a lip on the tubing so it holds it securely in place in the opening of the box. Man! This is so slick. I'm going to hate to put the hood back on.
Have I mentioned that I'm going to sell this car? If you'd like to have it contact me now and I'll let you influence me to some degree as I finish it up.
I have a question for my readers: What color should I paint it? I have enough base coat/clear coat white to do the whole car and some black to apply a pair of rally stripes on the hood. I've been looking at El Caminos on the web today and there are some very beautiful color choices. Do you think repaint white is the right color for this extraordinary automotive execution? Please let me know what your choice is, or even send me a link to an image that clearly shows the color. You can use the comment option at the bottom of this post, or email me: Doug@BarnesBrothers.net. Thanks for your input!
Doug
1 comment:
I like the idea of a white car with a black racing stripe. Crisp, clean, and good contrast.
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