A rainy day

The other weekend Alan and I were hanging out and the weather outside wasn't so fair. We both had the same thought earlier that day... let's go to the junkyard! I hadn't been there in some time and I always enjoyed walking around looking at what's there and the various stages of destruction the cars were subject to. Carbs seemed a pretty popular items. Many a manifold was stripped of its precious hat. It's hard to find one that hasn't been molested on an old vehicle these days. I'm sure when people see a cherry one sitting there, they can't help but upgrade their existing unit with it's bent linkage and stripped fuel inlet fittings. The jets also seem to get chewed up, especially when someone uses the wrong size screwdriver to try to remove them.

The skies were threatening that afternoon with a light rain in the morning and more promised later that afternoon so we move quickly. The carb on the Ranchero had been gone through many a times and at some point had been painted red. It had flooded after we got it home so it need some work as well. The weight for the accelerator pump was missing so that may have been a contributor. We went looking through the big Ford trucks and vans for a suitable replacement if available. There quiet a few empty manifolds and TBI units hanging around but not many 2100 units. We ran across one that had been torn apart and laid there in ruins. The venturis were still in place so I pulled the screw out to show Alan what the weight looked like. "Why don't you put it in your pocket" asked Alan. Now, Alan is about my Dads age but he's by no means a senior citizen yet. Well, maybe to Denny's he is. He's certainly not old enough yet to walk away with things without paying for them. How would they ring that up anyways? There's no list for carb parts, just the whole unit. We continued on looking for a complete unit. There was an old truck that had a complete unit sitting on it with an electric choke. Not sure if that was the best we could do, we continued on looking. Down past the vans and midsize cars we searched for suitable vehicles. The clouds in the sky ahead were looking very ominous indeed. "I'd say we got about 10 minutes before that hits us" said Alan. It was more like 8.

After looking for other cars with no luck, we headed back to the only complete carb we could find. How much did they want for it anyways? I wasn't sure but then it started raining pretty good by the time we found the truck again. "Should we get it" he asked. "I say we check the price, look at the rain and decide if it's worth it. " I replied. So we hot-footed it to the cover of the price list and looked it up. $35 bucks vs. a downpour of rain... Let's get out of here! So we left empty handed. I won't mention what was in a pocket.

We decided to head down to another wrecking yard to see what they had. A short drive brought us to another place with a wide selection of parts. We headed inside clear of the rain to talk to our friendly yard-master. "We're looking for a Motorcraft 2100." we proclaimed. "Well, I'm not sure but there's a pickup bed in the back full of carbs you can look through" he replied. His response told me it would be like choosing between the last two fat kids in a pickup football game. You didn't want to pick either of them but if you wanted one, it was yours for the taking.

After carefully avoiding the mud puddles in the back, we came across exactly what he described. There on the ground was the bed of a pickup and it was full of carburetors. We started digging through and I immediately picked up one of the beauties we were looking for. It was in one piece and still had the ID tag on it. There were many Holleys there but most of all were Quadrajets by the butt-load. Put them up there with the 57 Chevy guys and opinions. We dug out a couple of Holleys and other 2100 and headed inside to find out what they wanted for them. One of the other guys working there went in the back to look for some more. He came out with a couple more Holleys and 2100 units. Some looked pretty tore up and abused. We declined those and he went back to dig around some more. He then comes back with a pretty cherry looking Holley unit. All the linkage moved smooth and it had the original finish on it. It would be hard to image the thing was ever on an engine to begin with as it was a generic unit replacement unit and not a factory issue piece. The other Holley was a rougher unit but it had the secondary metering block on it so there were some good parts if we wanted to grab the fuel transfer tube and secondary metering block out of it.

There we were with four units lined up on the counter and we were waiting for the boss man to come back and give us a price. After about five minutes he showed up and we asked for a price. There was some confusion as to what Alan heard what the guy said which lead Alan to offer not the $40 each the guy said but $40 for the two of them. I think that offended the guy because he laughed and said no as he went to tend to something else. "Alan, he said $40 each" I said. "Oh, I thought he he said $45 for the two of them" he said in amazement. He quickly apologized and expressed his deep regret to the man if he had offended him. "How about I give you $100 for all four of these" Alan offered. How could that be less offensive then $20 each I thought? Well, I guess bumping the offer up $5 each was good enough because he agreed and we walked out of there with one practically new Holley 600 with vacuum secondaries and another one complete with a secondary metering block. The other two were the 2100's we found. One looked pretty good and the other was more for parts then anything else. We quickly loaded up in the truck and took off before they guy could change his mind.

A quick stop to our local parts house was the last stop before we headed home. We wanted to get a rebuild kit for the unit and some cleaner. Well, their computer system was down and they couldn't look up the cross reference for the carb. We would have to wait for the kit but we still picked up a gallon of carb cleaner and spray. When we got up to the counter and the computer beeped as the gallon of cleaner was scanned. They needed a manager approval to sell it to us. I guess too many kids were huffing the stuff? The manager came over and pushed a couple of keys. "That will be $7.95" the clerk stated. Now I swear I saw everything on the computer screen including the cleaner but that price wasn't right. "Are you sure you rang everything up?" asked Alan. I quickly replied that it was all there and we paid our money. As we walked out to the truck, I reminded Alan that when prices are in our favor, we shouldn't speak up. We got in the truck and he proclaimed "I'm not the one going to hell so it's alright with me!" Well that was something I wasn't expecting but I quickly replied "God wants us to have that gallon of carburetor cleaner Alan. It's His will that it didn't ring up correctly."

All in all, it was a bank robbers day on parts and we headed back to his house with our ill-gotten gains. Well, not really ill but it felt like a steal! Things just happen to work out. And yes, I do feel a little bad for taking advantage of other people's mistakes but I make up for it in other ways.