I'm new to the list, with a new to me M151A2, and yesterday I made my very
first scavenging trip to a junkyard, so I thought I'd share my experience
and excitement, and maybe even put some other Mutt owners onto some bits. I
recalled the father of an old girlfriend telling me back in about 1987 or 88
that a local yard had bought a bunch of jeeps and cut them in half and were
selling the halves. So when I got my Mutt, I called the yard, and they said
that no, they didn't really have anything left, just some sheet metal and a
few bits. I decided to go down anyway, as it's only a 60 mile drive and I
needed an excuse to skip work for an afternoon, so my neighbor and I arrived
at the junkyard just after 2 yesterday. I found an employee, asked about
the parts and he said that there is not really anything of value there, but
I could have a look and pointed me in the right direction. On the way down,
Pete (my neighbor) pointed out that the trip would either be feast or
famine, but worth investigation anyway. Well it turned out to be a feast
(in my eyes anyway)!
We walked out behind one of the buildings and there in the corner of the
lot, amonst various trees, crane parts and railway trucks were about ten to
fifteen mutt "halfs". Most were crumpled beyond recognition, and most with
the obvious parts missing (headlights, signal lights, windshields etc) but a
quick survey revealed that I would indeed find some bits. This put me on
cloud nine, as I've been into antique bikes for a while, and I have a '46
Indian Chief and a '57 Triumph TRW, and you just don't have the option of
going to a junkyard and scavenging parts for these bikes, so this is a whole
new experience. Right off the bat I found three seat frames, which I needed
as mine had been removed (I took the third for good luck!). There were also
a few rims with tires on, so I got one, but most of the others had broken
studs and I came sadly unequipped for cutting bolts (DUH!). I found a few
blackout lights, most of which were pretty mangled, but I did get one
complete one that should be able to be saved. I also got some hoses, hose
clamps, nuts and bolts, gas guage etc. I also noticed an engine that other
than some weathering, looked pristine - almost no oil around the gaskets
etc, so I suspect it was a recent replacement just before the surplus sale.
But the big find for me was that there were four or five rebuildable ROPS
sets. Some rear halfs still had the back parts and there were some fronts
that were piled against a tree. They will need tubing welded in to join the
front to the back, but that would still save ton of money as opposed to
having a system shipped from the US (I'm in eastern Canada). So Pete and I
begin working on the bolts holding the ROPS to the rear half, and quickly
found that most would simply break off with a good jerk of the wrench. We
got the first post undone except for one bolt, and realized we needed a
9/16s box wrench to do the job right. So I head down to the shop and borrow
a wrench and am notified that I have 20 minutes to finish, pay them and get
the hell out. The guy asked me what I found, so I told him and he said I
was looking at around $60 CDN (about $40 US). So I get back to the ROPS and
Pete who had since found some more bits for me mentioned that we had spent
almost half an hour on that one post and would never finish getting the
whole thing. Well I'm the stubborn sort, so I tackled the rear right post
and just as I pulled the last bolt out, Pete mentioned it was 10 to five and
we had best haul ass. This really sank my mood, as we still had two posts
to free, but I figured I'll just have to come again during my summer
vacation to retrieve the ROPS. Well we drive out to the office and
everything is closed up, the gate is across and there is not a soul around.
There was a house on site, so I knocked on the door and an older gentleman
comes to the door and gives a really nasty look that made the now on duty
guard dog look like a teddy bear. I told him what I was up to and he got
very friendly all of a sudden and told me to have at it, so I wouldn't have
to make another trip down. So Pete and I re-attack the ROPS and we get down
to literally the LAST bolt, and Murphy's law takes effect. This is the one
bolt that rounds before it breaks. It's the one bolt that is tucked in
behind the mounting plate and cannot be gripped with vise grips. It's the
one bolt that is seized solid, and I have no bolt cutter, hack saw or
chisel. I now had a personal hate on for this bolt, because we could not
and would not get it out. We tried to remove the ROPS from the mounts, but
they were rusted solid. We tried rolling the rear end out to the truck,
because dammit - that roll bar was coming home, with a rear section or not,
but there was too much heavier stuff in the way. So I proceeded to twist
and jerk and tug and twist that bugger for about half an hour, tearing away
a little bit of sheet metal at a time, until finally, with one glorious
whack of my 15" adjustable wrench re-assigned as a hammer, we broke the ROPS
free and hauled it off to the truck. We stopped into the house, paid the
man his $60 and away we went with my treasure and an about a third of a
mangled fender flapping in the breeze, attached to my roll bar by one bolt.
My next trip down I will definately take cutting tools!
If you're still here, thanks for reading along, and have a beer on me as I
celebrate my new (cheap) treasures!
Oh yeah - for the guy with the painting woes - most of the jeeps there were
light green with flat black camo patterns - all of which were painted
(poorly) with a brush, so I wouldn't worry too much about some pitting
getting in the way of authenticity!
Also - many of the bumperettes had canadian flag stickers on them, but some
had a white flag, divided in quarters by a thin red cross, with the union
jack in the upper right quarter - can anyone tell what this marking
represents?
Finally - the halfs all have suspension - the fronts mostly have engines and
trannys. There were a couple with grills and there are a few wheels around.
There are three decent ROPS back halves left and a few fronts. I was told
that the front halves USED to be $250, but were negotiable and the backs
USED to be 200, but they had been so picked over that they would take any
decent offer to load them on a truck, just in case anyone is interested!
Those are canadian prices, so I would say a pretty cheap deal for any
eastern US folks that are looking. Apparently they are slated for crushing
next spring.
Regards,
Tidman
'74 M151A2 (Canadian)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 05 2001 - 00:40:34 PDT