best walk-around breaker?

[moorgate]

back when I was a lad, I'd regularly go with various neighbours and mates to the big breaker's yard at Pease Pottage. we would climb and wriggle around the piles of cars, hunting the bits we wanted, then go back to the "office" and haggle, ever so politely. I am quite sure that the climbing over stuff is now frowned upon, as would be the incredible mix of clay, leaves, oils, fuel and generalised gunge that had obviously penetrated many feet into the soil.

But now I am in a position where I need a load of weird bits: Things like the driver's door weather seal, the little twist-locks for the centre console trim, a radiator drain tap and today's big find: Just one of the bushes that support the engine cover! Turns out the OSF bush was missing entirely, which caused the front of the cover to rest on the engine lifting hoop right by the PAS pump. The amount of noise this made at idle was really amazing: It hardly makes any sense at all that there would be so much energy available there, just between cover & block, to make so much noise.

So where should I go for at least a sniff of that old-school experience, coming away with an armful of peculiar little bits?

[wise old monkey]

You can still do this at lakes near st neots. Ask them about parts and the guys will point you to the yard.

[4candles]

I've heard of one up here in the Highlands called scrappy doo's but i aint got a scooby as to its wherabouts....

[bournricha]

Don't know about crawling around heaps of cars .Used to do it myself years ago,but after all most of those cars will not be what you want anyway .
For any used parts try Parts Gateway online (no association etc ,etc ) .Type in the part you want ,no matter how abstruse and a variety of breakers will get back with quotes .I have obtained many good as new parts this way and struck up a few aquaintances along the way with specialist Volvo breakers who really know their stuff .
I rarely think of buying new parts except for maybe brake pads and such like now ,the quality and the price of the used stuff I find is so good

[4candles]

I once had my own personal oxy-acetylene sparker for removing engines the quick way... the bottles were free to use by anyone and tea was always on the go at that place, the owners had more fingers than teeth, i don't recall any off them having a full compliment of digits either,,, ahhh halcyon days indeed..

That was back in the day when 'lambda sensors' were a Spanish touring troupe and anti-lock brakes were the norm on mal-adjusted drum brakes!!!

[volvo145]

Originally Posted by 4candles

I've heard of one up here in the Highlands called scrappy doo's but i aint got a scooby as to its wherabouts....

Its north of inverness.

[moorgate]

Originally Posted by bournricha

Don't know about crawling around heaps of cars .Used to do it myself years ago,but after all most of those cars will not be what you want anyway .
For any used parts try Parts Gateway online (no association etc ,etc ) .Type in the part you want ,no matter how abstruse and a variety of breakers will get back with quotes .I have obtained many good as new parts this way and struck up a few aquaintances along the way with specialist Volvo breakers who really know their stuff .
I rarely think of buying new parts except for maybe brake pads and such like now ,the quality and the price of the used stuff I find is so good

If I could think of the right phrase for "bushes off plastic engine cover" that would *definitely* get me what I want from someone reading it in Latvia, I'd go for that. However, I have found some limitaitons to this approach already, which is why I fancy going for the "in person" option. But not north of Inverness.