Responsible part pulling.

[eaglebeek]

I pulled a nice head liner out for one of my cars and placed it outside until I gathered my tools an got out of the car.  By the time I did that, someone came by to see what I was doing and stepped on the pristine head liner with greasy boots and broke it in 1/2.  Needless to say my Navy side of my vulgarity came out.

It didn't take a background in the Navy for me to do likewise when I removed some parts from an Eagle in the pull'n'pay, then went in to pay for them and came back out to the sight of the car along with the parts in the jaws of the crusher

[shanebo]

Theres no worse sight than a car still full of good parts being crushed. I was at a scrap yard a few years back and there was an Eagle wagon along with several other cars in a pile...They wouldnt even let me take the plastic headlight buckets off it.

[Eddie Stakes]

On etiquette, at the Houston Pick A Part yards it is self serve wrecking yards. So you on your own out there. In the 10,000+ AMCs I have seen crushed since 1983...there has not been a AMC ANYTHING in them for 4-5 years. In that time period, there used to be 3-4 rows of AMC cars at the pick a parts, then 2 rows, then 1 row, then mixed in with Chryslers then gone. If you google ALTERED AMCS one of the oldest files comes up off my site about the destruction.

It was depresing to say the least that I would go out to them, all 3 in one day, document the cars, pull 'rare' or 'unique' items off them, then call area AMCers, put in newsletter, even using my own customer base to tell people that these cars had maybe 6 weeks left before crusher. So I would go back out and nothing had been pulled, it was like many people I guess thought there would be this wishing well of endless parts supply forever.

On top of that, you had people that might rip whole 71-74 AMX dash out of car, destroying it, just to get the 50 cent bulb holders in the gauges, something they probably tossed in pocket anyways, but could have easily found in local auto parts stores Help! section cheap.

To make matters worse, the sound of breaking tempered glass always bothered me. This was the workers of the place, minimum wagers who were told to walk around yard and pick up any loose parts, and they would unceremoniously thrown them thru back glass of the nearest car. Granted if it was a brand x or Renualt then no harm no foul, but it didn't matter, if a wheel, driveshaft, whatever laying near that car they automatically assumed it came from that car and wheee thru back glass it goes. While it is all water undre bridge now from time long ago when many AMCs were in junkyards, still bums me out to think about it, especially the low miler cars like 18,000 mile Hornet, or SCCA SX/4 race car, police Ambassadors & Matdors, AMXs, Javelins, didn't matter was all scrap weight to them. Can't save them all you know but too bad so many were wasted to begin with.

[captspillane]

I've seen hundreds of Eagles here in PA junkyards. When I was in high school the junkyard had two dozen new ones every month. I purchased my red Eagle SX4 for $250 from a junkyard for my 15th birthday. Nearly all of the Eagles I saw in the junkyard were in better mechanical condition than mine. It was depressing.

What gives me peace with it is the simple fact that there remains more Eagles in this world than people willing to fix them. I don't care that mythbusters killed two or that dozens still get scrapped every month. If you're willing to spend more than $1,000 on an AMC Eagle than you are among a very small group of people. Half the Eagles left in this world could be scrapped and there would still be enough to go around for us. I only cringe to think about how many Spirit GT armrests or Turbocast rims or other rare parts have been crushed because I'm still on the hunt to get some.

Let's be honest here. The chances of a stock AMC car running for a year without a shorted wire, stalling problem, wierd annoying whistle developing, or some other aggravating problem arising is very low. They were very well designed very tough cheap crummy cars. To own one you need patience, lots of time, lots of money, and a spare car to drive. We are are very blessed in this life if we have the luxury to afford an antique AMC car.