Used Auto Parts (Junkyards)?

[hhfarang]

Back in the days when cars had carburetors and no computers under the hood, a lot of us did our own auto repairs. Even now there are parts (with no moving parts) like wheels, mirrors, plastic housings that rats eat, etc., that would be reusable from a totaled car and Buddha knows there are lots of those here with all the accidents on Thai highways.

My question is are there any used auto parts stores where the cost of a part is less than half of a new one or junkyards (like back where I come from) here where you go find your part and remove it yourself (which saves even more money)?

If not, where do all those wrecked cars go? Surely every one that can't be made drivable again has some usable parts.

[dtaai-maai]

Those were the days when you could replace your fan belt with a pair of tights (I always kept a pair handy... ) or your wipers with some string...

I'm thinking of places like that yard (and police post?) by the roundabout at the Pala-U junction on the bypass where I always see wrecked vehicles of all kinds that have been towed from the scene.

[Nereus]

I have not seen any in Hua Hin, but there are hundreds of shops in Bangkok that have parts from wrecked cars. There are a couple of places along Petchkasem road further north that specialise in truck parts, and others in earth moving equipment. I have not seen just where they actually dismantle the vehicles, or yards where people go to fossick for parts themselves. Most that you see in or near Police stations are cars from fatal accidents, especially where there is some dispute, or legal problem.

There is also a big business built around importing used parts, mostly from Japan, and more so of the upmarket or expensive cars. Some of them would make your cry! For example: I recently looked at an 8 year old Range Rover, 60K kms on the clock, cut into several sections! It was otherwise unmarked, but past it`s use by date in Japan!

[hhfarang]

Shame, I used to enjoy rummaging through the junkyard to find and collect parts I needed at a small percentage of new. I replaced a bumper on my first (mid 80's) SUV all by myself (when vehicles actually had bumpers) for next to nothing rather than reporting to my insurance company (which would have raised my premiums enough to cover ten bumpers per year for several years) that I had backed into a pole at a ski lodge after drinking quite a bit apres skiing.

[traveller2]

Shame, I used to enjoy rummaging through the junkyard to find and collect parts I needed at a small percentage of new. I replaced a bumper on my first (mid 80's) SUV all by myself (when vehicles actually had bumpers) for next to nothing rather than reporting to my insurance company (which would have raised my premiums enough to cover ten bumpers per year for several years) that I had backed into a pole at a ski lodge after drinking quite a bit apres skiing.

When I was a little younger I rebuilt a classic car, foraging for elusive parts in car scrap yards. I used to love it. Ive changed axles, engines and interiors, having found the parts and removed them from scrap cars, in the past.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your outlook), h&s regulations have put a stop to all that in the UK.

t2

[PeteC]

As Nereus says, I would be very surprised to find any kind of western style junk yard. The way the Thais pick trash and sell/recycle just about everything, any wrecked car you see is probably on an insurance or police hold and once cleared, parts stripped and sold to shops and the rest squashed and sold as recycled scrap metal. Pete

[margaretcarnes]

Shame, I used to enjoy rummaging through the junkyard to find and collect parts I needed at a small percentage of new. I replaced a bumper on my first (mid 80's) SUV all by myself (when vehicles actually had bumpers) for next to nothing rather than reporting to my insurance company (which would have raised my premiums enough to cover ten bumpers per year for several years) that I had backed into a pole at a ski lodge after drinking quite a bit apres skiing.

When I was a little younger I rebuilt a classic car, foraging for elusive parts in car scrap yards. I used to love it. Ive changed axles, engines and interiors, having found the parts and removed them from scrap cars, in the past.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your outlook), h&s regulations have put a stop to all that in the UK.

t2

Ah yes happy days clambering over piles of scrap cars and foraging! Everything was left on then wasn't it? Wing mirrors, pedal rubbers, wipers, badges - bliss. Now the great god H&S has ruined a good day out (and prevented a few laddered tights too.)

[usual suspect]

There is a place thats looking like a 'Scrapper's Yard'..up the Pala-U Rd..just before the snooker-club building on your right..lotsa cars littered around..never been there myself tho'...????

[traveller2]

Ah yes happy days clambering over piles of scrap cars and foraging! Everything was left on then wasn't it? Wing mirrors, pedal rubbers, wipers, badges - bliss. Now the great god H&S has ruined a good day out (and prevented a few laddered tights too.)[/quote]

They were like an aladins cave to a teenager. I used to go round a few at weekends and search for the car make and model I needed parts from, then climb or crawl to get to the part and remove. Sometimes if you needed parts from underneath, the guys working there would turn the car over to give you better access and make it safer.
Ahh, memorys. Showing my age now too!

t2

[ste860]

the insurance companies here put the scrap cars through the auctions in bkk , complete with blood if its been in a accident