USA Junkyard visits 2024
I’m back in the USA for an annual conference I attend. I normally have a free day before it starts, to get acclimatized to the time zone and to allow a buffer for flight delays. The conference is in Las Vegas, which has become really expensive. I’m not all that interested in spending money on overpriced entertainment, or gambling when I could spend money on needy old cars. Thus, I headed back out to the self service junkyard.
This year I didn’t think I would end up going. A few days before my trip, I checked the inventory at both Junkyards I use in Vegas. The oldest car was a 1992 190E. My luck changed though, and a 1991 300E and a 1986 560SEL were both added to the list. That meant not only were there two good models for me, but both would be not too picked over.
I did my usual thing and bought some tools and took an uber out to the location. On the way to the Mercedes, I passed a Alfa Romeo Spider and a Jaguar XJS V12. Not normally cars one sees in the self service junkyard.
In the Mercedes-Benz section the most common car was the W220 this time. However, the W126 and W124 were next to each other. The W126 was in much better shape than the W124. While the paint was faded, the interior was actually quite nice still. Somewhat sun damaged, but still quite nice. The 300E looked like it had been neglected for 20 years.
The 560SEL was a very early one. I looked up the data card (WDB1260391A19661) and it was produced 9/85. Series 2 started in August with #186069. This 560SEL had engine number #000196, showing how early it was. I had read the change to Series 2 did not all happen at once, and this car confirmed that. While it was basically a series 2 car, it had a series 1 rear parcel shelf. It also had the fanfare horn button on the console as do 1986 models. The car was in a striking combination of Anthracite (172U) with Anthracite leather (271). This combination would have never been ordered by an Australian dealer unless the customer insisted.
My criteria for getting parts is that they need to be easy for me to carry and put in my luggage. Therefore, an original alloy wheel in the spare wheel area of the 560SEL was not on the cards.
The most obvious and easily flipped parts were already gone, sine the car had been there a week. Still, there was quite a lot I could get. Probably nothing especially exciting, but for the cost all good spares to have on hand. Some of it was similar to what I was able to get last year.
Since I just used up my spare drivers side window motor on my 560SEL, I grabbed the passengers side unit from the parts car here. I also got lots of useful switches and relays that are great to have on hand. While I now have other SLS spares, it can never hurt to have more at these prices. So I set about removing the SLS. Since I had to remove the rear seat, I grabbed the seat motor too.
The SLS proved more difficult than anticipated, I was able to return early the next morning with a 17mm ring spanner and finalize the removal before I had to start work. I’m getting quite fast at stripping SLS struts from wrecks. I also took the chrome strip for the boot of the 560 as mine is a bit discoloured, This one is not perfect but it looks a little better.
On the W124, I took the comfort control module from under the seat and a few small misc items, such as a couple screws that are missing on my car for the mono wiper. I didn’t bother getting any switches as they were so badly sun damaged. The Hirschmann antenna came from the W124 too.
if I go again next year, I hope they have more W124s. Its too much to hope that there will be older cars, but while I now have a good supply of W126 parts, I would like to build up my stock of W124 parts. The picture above shows some of the parts. The SLS parts are very greasy, so in the plastic bags.
