| When I started to drive in my late teens it was | | | | scrap yards around, but instead of being able to |
| customary to buy a banger then spend the next | | | | sell your car to the scrap man, when it was off |
| year or so doing it up. First we go down to the | | | | the road, we now have to pay him to take it |
| car auctions, to get what we thought would be | | | | away for us. New European laws control the |
| the deal of the year, then after driving it home | | | | disposal of cars and the materials they are built |
| we would find out exactly what we hade bought | | | | of, making it harder for your typical scrap yard to |
| and why it was in the car auction in the first | | | | make money. In fact it is sometime more trouble |
| place. | | | | than it's worth. Gone are the days when they |
| Of course nothing would dampen my spirits, it | | | | would take in any car, now they look at the car |
| was my first car and my first taste of real | | | | parts value, to see if they should have the car in |
| freedom. So off I would go with close friends to | | | | the yard or not. |
| the local scrap yards, where we would walk the | | | | However the Internet has come to the rescue as |
| old cars scouring for the relevant Car Parts to | | | | it has with many industries. You can now search |
| make my banger into my dream machine. | | | | for car parts on the web across several if not |
| Looking back on this experience, it was amusing | | | | hundreds of scrap yards at the same time. By |
| as nothing was priced, you took your tool kit, | | | | typing in your car part requirements into a form, |
| removed the parts yourself sometimes in | | | | which is then distributed throughout the scrap |
| extremely dangerous situations with old cars | | | | yards at the same time, you can save yourself |
| towering above you. | | | | time and money. Of course if you get more than |
| As you took your parts to the man at the gate, | | | | one reply you can chose the cheapest price or |
| he gave you a price off the top of his head as | | | | nearest to get to. |
| we were young and clearly not in the money, a | | | | I don't need to search for parts now; it is the |
| price would be given that was clearly cheaper | | | | turn of my son who of course has got the |
| than those that turned up in newer cars. | | | | Internet off to a tee. It may a romantic notion, |
| Within our toolboxes would be the bolts and little | | | | but it is a shame he can't go through the same |
| odds and sods we picked up when we were lying | | | | phase of searching and then stripping down an old |
| on the ground. I had asked once how much these | | | | car to make his good. Ironically I think he would |
| were, but they were never bothered so I always | | | | enjoy it as much as I did at his age, even I it was |
| got these for free. | | | | more dangerous than I would like to admit. |
| However things have changed now. There are still | | | | |