Not sure I sent this, but it was in my "drafts" folder so here goes......................................... Doc, of the BaadassGremlin Yahoo group http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/BaadAssGremlins/ mentioned: "Eddie has preached for years about sheet metal parts drying up so when Davis parted out the Hornet coupe he had I bought extra sheet metal I really did not need." Ironically, this below appeared in my emailbox on Independence Day 2005.....from Canada. Date: Monday, July 4, 2005 Time: 9:42 AM EST Submitted by: Wilson Sousa Email address: wilson.sousa@xxxxxxxxxx Subject: Planet Houston AMX Guest city: Port Hope state: ON country: CANADA theWay: Word of mouth comments: Like your website. Spent many hours reading. Wish more people had your attitude re: prices of cars, and sentiments for cars being crushed, etc. Up here in Canada (near Toronto), cars crumble into a pile of rust. We're forced to rebuild cars much worse than those being crushed in the southern U.S. Thanks for the work you've put into providing info for the 'average joe' AMC fan." Even more ironically it is from port "Hope". For whatever reason, I just found that strange. For the better part of two decades I have preached, jumped up and down, whined, barked, and looked like a resident on the Jerry Springer show in a attempt to get people to change their mindsets, when it comes to AMC. That soapbox collapsed from usage a lot time ago. When you look at your American Motors vehicle, please remember that 90% f what you are looking at will never be made again. Sheetmetal is the biggest item, followed closely by chrome, stainless, glass, grills, tail lights, soft/hard interior moldings to name a few. Sure, you can get stuff fixed like steering wheels, dents pulled, dashes redone, carpet and so forth. But to simply think that there is some sort of bottomless pit of AMC parts out there.....available when YOU need them is unrealistic. Steel has been selling at record prices the last 3 years. And as more and more people move into more and more areas with more and more housing, laws are changed, and many places that might have been on edge of city/county, suddenly find themselves at odds with 'new' enviromental laws to literally force them out of business. Happy Independence Day on that one. I have often wrote about places I personally know of that this has happened to, like City Wrecking in Waco, 15,000 old cars crushed, many of them a hell of a lot more collectible than anything AMC produced, like convertible Camaro Pace cars, Olds W-30 ragtops, even two Shelbys. And of course 2-3 Machines, 2-3 SC/Ramblers, over a dozen 68-70 AMXs, and over 2 dozen 68-74 Javelins. All now in the side of several of the Olympic Stadium in Greece or the monster Three Gorges Dam in China, or in the hyper growing city of Shanghai. Specializing in "used" parts for more than two decades, I believe what has surprised me the most is that it took this long for everything to vaporize. I predicted this would happen in the late 1990s, so was not that far off. However, could have never forseen $60 a barrel of gas, nor would have predicted the emptying of old car salvage yards simply because the price of steel...and demand, from foreign countries. This has what surprised me the most. The apathy (for lack of a better term) with AMC owners gose back decades however. Most are content to have their one or two cars, and have the parts associated with those two. However, for years I have sqwauked about 'the apathy' out there with AMC owners. This is not a condemnation on all, nor do I advocate people turning their civic organazations against them by turning their residence into a AMC pick a part yard. But I have however told people repeatedly however, to pick up what they can, while they can, if they will continue to fool with AMC and Rambler products in the near future. This stuff has disappeared at a tremendous rate since roughly 1997. In a recently conversation with old buddy AJ at South Texas AMC, we talked "about the good old days" which was less than ten years ago! Ten years ago??? Yes, 10 years ago, when we could commonly walk into self service wrecking yards like Pick A Part or Pick and Pull www.houstonpickapart.com for instance, and there was 3-10 AMC any models there, especially mid 70s-80s. No 'older' stuff like 60s AMCs however, that stuff dried up in the 80s. So gone are a majority of last gen AMC models like Pacer, Spirit, Concord and Eagle, which are, at least right now, the easiest to find parts for. Won't be like that in 5 years. There is a big file on my website that dates back to when Al Gore founded the internet :~P called "Altered AMCs" under the growing "parts" file. Worth reading, but also shows a time frame of concern, and depletion of parts, when it was written in the mid 90s! Gone are places that used to look like Peirson's Auto Wrecking here: http://www.pvilleparts.com/Web%20Pages/Misc%20cars/amc.htm Which is still in business, and "keeps" AMCs, however, they are but a minority of places that still do. Most places when approached by a carrot offering $200 a ton for a old car, jump on it, as opposed to keeping that old car, of which is a slow seller of parts anyhows. Why keep something there is little or no demand on the space when you could easily put a high demand item in same spot like SUV, import, truck and sell a lot more, and make more profit than that, say, 74 Hornet or 69 Javelin, that someone wants to buy a part or two a year off of? Why not "turn" it and put something there you will recoup 3X-20X the amount of money on in that 10X10 space in your yard? After all, you are in business to make money, not for love of a certain make or marque of vehicle. Years ago many of you remember me writing about abandoned AMC dealerships. Only a handful of those now exist, forced out by municipalities whose leaders changed the laws. And the recent Supreme Court decision concerning "emiment domain" will only hasten some greedy powers to take away people's private property for the 'better good' of developers and their ilk. I hope states change their laws to buff down that ridiculous Supreme Court ruling. But places like Collier Motors in NC are like finding a Drive Inn movie nowadays, few exist. http://www.gremlinx.com/AMC-Pikeville.htm While some of you (and me) look at it a a possible gold mine of parts and cars, the bigger problem is how many of those cars are worth any money, and that is if the owner(s) are willing to sell? What if, like so many other places across this great land, as we celebrate it's 229th birthday today, what if Pikevill, NC, suddenly 'rezones' this. Yes, all those cars will exist only in photos, hauled off to crusher, to make way for a new McMansion or Arby's. Does it matter? Why didn't it matter 18 years ago when Chrysler was bulldozing whole inventories of AMC stock it mattered, and that was NOS stock. But few people were able to do anything about it, although some people did buy up whole inventories, which was a risk, then, and now. But the difference now is that people could do something about what we have seen in the past 8 years, and that is buy parts cars, alert fellow AMC fans, and chapters to the vehicle/parts for sale, and hopefully some of this stuff will be saved. But I fear it is mostly too late. The cannibalism is rampant as people, many of them first time AMC owners, scourage for used AMC parts, whether grills, glass, or rust free sheetmetal, which is at a premium. Some might end up paying for a rustfree fender what their whole car cost originally. Sure, I can tap on many recent articles in a number of wonderful publications nationally like Hemmings Muscle Machines, or a variety of new products like aluminum heads, intakes and blocks. But to do so would be missing the point. The point is not everyone wants, nor needs those 'new' items. I would like to have a new crate aluminum engine, but not in the cards. And it STILL won't solve the larger issue of finding used parts, and dwindling supply at a alarming rate the past 7 or so years. No one is going to reproduce steel fenders for any of our cars. You can count reproduction grills on one hand, 99% of them are what is out there is out there. Same with glass. And other things I have mentioned. And it won't be far behind where items we took for granted as 'always being there' like rebuilt engine components, brakes, suspension items won't be far behind as companies, due to low, or zero demand, simply quit making them. Wagner, Moog, TRW, Fel Pro, the list is endless. Is this a death knell for American Motors? No, but a Mike Tyson slap wake up call to all those who for whatever reason, have always thought there is some sort of magic wishing well of AMC and Rambler parts "that would always be there.....whenever THEY were ready" for them. The world changed Dorothy and you and Toto ain't in Kansas anymore at Auntie Em's Rambler Dealership. So if you should come across a old Rambler or AMC anything in a salvage yard, and wish to spread the word with others who might benefit from this, let me know and I'll put the info on my website, which gets 400-500 hits daily. Hopefully the yard will be able to move some AMC inventory, or I can direct them to you, who can then make some money for your efforts. And while it is great that American Motors is, and has, been experiencing a wonderful resurgence in popularity and exposure in recent memory, it comes at a cost. Don't associate exposure with market value. If anyone would like to adopt a AMC or Rambler, there are hundreds of them for sale on my Shut Up & Drive Lists on my website. Some would make great parts cars, others great first time AMC vehicles, others are restored and ready to show. Or if you have a car or parts for sale, or wanted, put your free ad on my AMC Swap Meet "message boards" section of the website. Free. And on that note, there are a few places here I would like to point you to salvage yard wise that still have older Ramblers and AMC vehicles....for the time being..... Mike 505-443-3400 (NM salvage yard) Dave's 704-873-8621 or 704-872-0833 (NC salvage yard) Also, CTC Autoranch in Sanger TX http://www.ctcautoranch.com/home/index.shtml John's Auto Salvage in Seguin, TX 830-379-2092 And finally......I get asked all the time "what should I pull if something found" in a salvage yard. I normally tell people this is stuff they can easily sell on ebay, and make a dollar ot two for their time and effort pulling, stocking, and listing the items. So this is my personal short list of things, should you be luckily enough to come across them, to pull and resell. 1. radios, especially AM/FM, and any 8 track or cassette type, all with AMC logo or emblem. 2. passenger side mirrors, a high demand item 3. accessories, stuff like tissue dispensers, vanity mirrors with Rambler or American Motors on it, compasses, tissue holders, ect 4. unusual options such as tilt columns (68-69 AMX/Javelin ones command about $450); AC systems in earlier pre-72 models, rally and sport steering wheels, rim blow wheels, any tachometers, heated rear windows with junction blocks and controls, 15 inch AMC rims, cruise commands pre-72 5. grills, and most headlight surrounds 6. tailights and housings 7. stainless such as window roofrail trim, hood chromes, fender and 1/4 trim, any vinyl roof trim, especially on pre-72 and on Grem/Pacer series, and about any wheelwell trim 8. dash pieces such as upper crash pads, soft interior pieces like sail panels, armrests, door panels, and anything the sun can damage, this includes hard plastics like upper and especially lower rear window plastics. 9. spoilers, flairs, targa bands, rear window louvers on mid-70s to mid-80s models 10. windshield, especially on pre-70 models, 74-78 Matador coupes, and 67-78 Reb/Mat/Amb Series, older pre-67 Ramblers 11. any electrical window motors by American Bosch, all years 60s-80s 12. any convertible unique pieces like top frames, interior 1/4 fiberglass parts, shorty rear seats, hydralics, motors, and switches pre-69 13. any electric wiper setups, pre-72, any 71-74 AMX/Jav dash switches, any 74-up wiper switches and delay wiper switches, Grem/Horn/Pac/Mat/AMX, speedo clusters 'with' tachometers 78-up, any 70-71 low-fuel gauge setups, and many speedometer units pre-74, as the circuit boards behind them are many times worth more than the speedo itself or whole unit.; also any rear wiper electric setup 79-88. 14. clutch/brake pedal assemblies; V8 crossmembers any 67-up model, ignition switches any 65-69 model, 15. emblems, as 90% of them will never be reproduced again Remember, what "was" common for us in the 80s is obsolete now. What might be "common" for you in the mid 00's will be obsolete in 10 years or less. Happy hunting, Eddie Stakes' Planet Houston AMX 713.464.8825 eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.planethoustonamx.com email volume is currently light; 4-7 day reply time; call if important Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BaadAssGremlins/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: BaadAssGremlins-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/