The great disappearing K-car
Wow, what a shock today!!
Off i went in search of a drivers side fender for my '86 600.
I am used to going top the local wreckers and having a choice of cars to pull parts from. As little as a month ago the local yard had at least five 'true' k-cars, Aries and Reliants.
Today there were a grand total of TWO, one '86 that someone had already snatched the drivers side fender and an '84.
To make a short story long, i ended up getting the fender from the '84. My thinking was that it's a least closer to the proper shape than the original one on my car was. Turns out it is really easy to modify the fender to fit
I've cut and bent the '84 fender's front tip so it now clears the front facia on the '86. I've cut the spot welds to pull the front inner rienforcement off the '86 fender. Once that is welded onto the '84 fender I should be all set.
Dan
Off i went in search of a drivers side fender for my '86 600.
I am used to going top the local wreckers and having a choice of cars to pull parts from. As little as a month ago the local yard had at least five 'true' k-cars, Aries and Reliants.
Today there were a grand total of TWO, one '86 that someone had already snatched the drivers side fender and an '84.
To make a short story long, i ended up getting the fender from the '84. My thinking was that it's a least closer to the proper shape than the original one on my car was. Turns out it is really easy to modify the fender to fit
I've cut and bent the '84 fender's front tip so it now clears the front facia on the '86. I've cut the spot welds to pull the front inner rienforcement off the '86 fender. Once that is welded onto the '84 fender I should be all set.Dan
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I am just north of the border, on the wet coast of Canada - and even a year or two ago there were K-cars everywhere!!!
It's as if someone went out and rounded them all up
It's as if someone went out and rounded them all up
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Dan,
I'm in Vancouver, and noticed the same thing last year. Pickapart out in Chilliwack had 6 or 7 when I was out there last May. Bu August, they were down to two! Really annoyed I didn't grab a few extra parts when I had the chance...
I'm in Vancouver, and noticed the same thing last year. Pickapart out in Chilliwack had 6 or 7 when I was out there last May. Bu August, they were down to two! Really annoyed I didn't grab a few extra parts when I had the chance...
If you have good enough resolution for the yards, you can see how many of each model are in the yards by using Google Earth or Satellite View. Last time I was at the yard on Mitchell Island (Vancouver), they had only two Spirit/Acclaims, whereas before that they'd have 5 or more.
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Starfire....I got the '84 fender at pick a part, still shaking my head at the sudden disappearance of the cars from the wrecking yards!!
SGSpirit, I think Ralph's has sold out to the us PICKAPART, so they are only keeping high volume cars now :-(
All this makes me jealous of my friends working on Corvairs - they have a really good reproduction market!!
SGSpirit, I think Ralph's has sold out to the us PICKAPART, so they are only keeping high volume cars now :-(
All this makes me jealous of my friends working on Corvairs - they have a really good reproduction market!!
Even here in the south where rot isn't an issue, most of the K cars and variants are gone though a few LeBaron convertibles and some AC/AY sedans can be seen. Not much in the junkyard eitther but the AJ, AC and AY cars. Sometimes a stray Acclaim or Spirit comes to the yards.
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525 Posts
I can´t speak up here....i just have to say, here in Austria almost every EEK is rare.
Of course, you sometimes spot a late model Le Baron, but i´ve never seen another 1st Gen. Minivan on the road here, only on junkyards....same thing with Saratoga etc., only one 2.5 Turbo / manual and a n.a. 2.5 spotted here.....
Of course, you sometimes spot a late model Le Baron, but i´ve never seen another 1st Gen. Minivan on the road here, only on junkyards....same thing with Saratoga etc., only one 2.5 Turbo / manual and a n.a. 2.5 spotted here.....
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All are becoming rare, a lot of yards only keep the pickup trucks and fullsize vans till they are picked clean because those are vehicles people use and abuse a lot, but cars unless they are 9 years or less they crush em fast whether they are stripped or not. I seen a few driving on the road recently but they fit the beater category bad, probably wont stay on the road too much longer, people junk those cars as soon as drivability problems occur.
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