Pinto Car Club of America

I went to our annual Sunbeam Tiger club meeting today in Anaheim. I stopped off at the area Pick A Parts on Beach Blvd. and the other on Kattela.

The Beach Blvd. yard had a V-6 Bobcat, two V-8 Mustang II's and six Merkurs. Nothing at the Kattela yard.

At first I was thrilled.  I needed the Merkur console armrest for the one I adapted into my Pinto.  After nearly two years of looking at the Sun Valley yard I hadn't found a single one - now there were six!  There was also a decent Mustang II console and the Bobcat had the three gauge cluster for the center of the dash (a tach too!.  I even found an MG Midget heater motor. I took the one from my Tiger to create exhaust clearance when I installed the turbo motor in my Pinto.

Then I went to the counter.  :(   Typically I only hit pick a Part for a 50% off sale, but since I was in the area... .   Geeez..., they wanted $30 for the gauge cluster even though they only charge $5 for a single gauge.  What is that all about???  The heater motor they wanted $45.  A few years ago I got that same item at the Sun Valley U-Pull Parts for about $10.

Anyway, I was so P.O.-ed I left the gauge cluster, Mustang II console and MG heater motor. I did get one of the Murkur console pad for $7.50.

I'll admit to being a frugal (OK, cheap) kind of guy, but is anyone else getting tired of Pick A Parts inflated prices (in a recession), their "environmental surcharge," core charge on irrelevant items and the fact that on sale day you can't return the core.  Frankly I'm not driving 90 miles round trip to return a core at their insisted "next day" rule.

Anyway, sorry to sound off.  I was thrilled with my finds..., and then I got to the counter.

Tom

The Ecology yards in  San Diego County are inflated too. I lucked out at the Bloomington Ecology... there was a Beee-ooootiful (well, once) '75 Mustang II that had a metallic green console that I had to have... I think I paid $9 or something. Interior parts were 50% off, so I lucked out. It seems I've always gotten great deals at that wrecking yard. That, or I'm just not timing my visits to the San Diego County ones... :P

And we're NOT cheap... we're frugal and wise with our money. It's the necessary thing to do in these troubled times. ;D

2 Reasons, New owner and scrap metal is way down in prices. Gotta make it up somehow.