Junkyard Parts: Introducing Andrew Holloway
Last week we told you about a new concept we’re about to introduce. To make a long story short, we’re going to show galleries of junkyards all over America, and unlike on other sites – the guy who took those pictures is willing to go back, snag parts, and ship them to you. Anything you might need, you simply email Andrew and he’ll make it happen – no matter where you live! Today, we’d like to introduce you to our Junkyard Hunter: Andrew Holloway.
What’s your name? Where do you live?
Name is Andrew Holloway, I live in Carlsbad, California, which is a beach community filled with rich old retiree’s; not exactly car project-friendly territory. Get a lot of complaints for my late night car work.
How did you come to do this (go to junkyards and get parts for people)?
How did I come to do junkyard parts sales? That’s a great question. As a member of Club S12 and an owner of an S12 (I eventually got around to owning about five of them, they’re all gone now except for one), I realized the need for someone to harvest parts and sell them to the various members.
Every want to buy thread was getting ignored purely because the only parts the community ever saw were from part outs when someone within our small member base was about to leave for good. SoCal was a hot spot for s12 sales in the 80′s, where as they didn’t sell very well around the country, and SoCal provides a perfect climate since they’re incredibly prone to rust; especially on the East coast. I saw a need, I knew there weren’t many people willing to fill it, I have a perfect environment for it – it just fit.
I continually try to expand it to other cars, but on many of the other forums there are many people who do this so its very competitive to grow. The S12 community is great and all, but the people who own unpopular 80′s cars with no aftermarket support are generally broke. It’s just nice to feel like I help keep rare unusual cars on the road, even if only for a little bit longer.
I can imagine junkyards not being that happy; you walking around with a camera snapping pictures of all parts and cars. Are they really giving you a hard time, or…?
Junkyards have been giving me a hard time when they notice the camera. If I wear a huge sweater and take the lens off first, then assemble once inside and keep a low profile it goes well and I don’t get hassled, but when they do see me, or notice the slight bulge under the sweater its an instant “Hey, whats under there, mind lifting that up for me?” Of course I obliged, they ask if I took any pictures of their yard, I just say no, and that I didn’t want to leave it in the car and get stolen… Its a shady job but someone has to give these cars their last chance at being seen and garnering some respect from enthusiasts. I am not hurting the junkyards so they can go kick sand, they’re just grumpy I guess.
Which cars/types do you see the most (often) in the junkyards? What cars do you get the most part requests for?
What cars do I see the most? Honda Civics, Accords, Saturns of all types, Hyundai Accents, basically any cheap subcompact; there are going to be GOBS and GOBS of them lying around. It also really depends on location. There’s a junkyard about 250 miles from me that always has really clean older cars, seems like their one owner has finally given up or got too old to care anymore. But for the most part I see early- to mid-nineties economy cars of all shapes and sizes, colors and manufacturers.
I still get most of my requests for S12 parts, S13 parts, some BMW 3-series stuff, anything I find that is rare like turbo Supra transmissions (those fetch me a pretty penny, but you gotta be FAST to find them), anything that Nissan used in the 80′s for differentials, or transmissions, or motors. Have also embarked recently on another project involving my trade where I buy motors on half off day and rebuild them at home for resale. Going to make my first one of these sales tomorrow with a pretty nicely customized Nissan VG30E (ported/polished heads, coolant bypasses to cool intake air temps by over 26 degrees, custom painting, runs like a top on 91 advanced 42 degrees over, fully rebuilt with only 700 miles on her! She was so nice on the track). Hopefully that will go well and I can start delivering my own home-built motors around the country. I have three routes planned out that will hit not only the west coast customers, but people in the heartland and even the east coast. Whenever I find something I know could be valuable I go to all the forums and try to contact everyone with a Want To Buy that might still need answering.
Can you tell some more about yourself?
I am a 22 year old father of one. He just turned 2 and he’s the light of my life. I am interested in cars, cars and more cars. I have spent ridiculous amounts of my youth memorizing the fields of data that have to do with automotive technology – manufacturers, marketing, anything that the industry has produced, planed, or researched, I have taken some time to delve into it.
This is all in hopes that one day I will be able to start my own company that specializes in making aftermarket parts for enthusiasts, as well as providing the knowledge and know-how to make anyone’s project idea become a reality. A place where you bring your car, tell us your budget, decide which performance plan(s) you are going to purchase for your car, and we do the rest and warranty the work for piece of mind.
I think of about 3 new business ideas every couple weeks. My life will be spent figuring out which ones are viable so I can leave each one of my (present & future) children will have an enterprise to take over when I depart. My mother did a wonderful job elevating us out of poverty, I’d like to be the next step that takes this family to the big leagues, so I can show the world that a corporation can come into the scene and be ethical, environmentally conscious, efficient, and family-run, and still be viable in today’s economic climate.
As far as other hobbies, I love nature and the outdoors. I really do spend all my time with cars though. I don’t really have a lot more going for me outside of the automotive field so all my friends are car guys. I’d imagine other people are pretty bored when I start talking about hybrid motor swap plans and project fantasies I’ve put together. Reminds me, I actually have a book where I find a car on Craigslist during a random search and see how much it would cost to put every aftermarket part I can find on it for a specific purpose. I have some real winners in there, I think finding parts for cars is really fun, probably another reason I scour junkyards for parts.
My dream car is a C6 z06, Black on Black, slammed on some wide rubber and lightly boosted. I have always liked how they drive. I have planned projects for a lot of other cars though. I can’t really go any further though, a lot of my plans involve “world’s first” hybrid motor swaps just because I’m a sucker for originality.
I’ve driven tons of different cars, the best is my friends 6 liter GTO on coil-overs. Its a beast and just slides around corners with ease. Love that car. As far as what I currently drive, I have a 2007 Kia Spectra EX, gets great gas mileage and its a great family car. My lady drives a 2002 Hyundai Accent which I have been modifying out of boredom and have come to really love. One day we’ll get some coils on that little fella and let it hit the track. For now its just another great 40mpg daily on some nice wheels with some handling mods and a full exhaust.
My best achievement with my projects was building the worlds first 1984 Nissan 200SX (with solid rear axle) with a VG30E V6 swap. It was a great project that took a lot of time and a lot of heads, but we got it sorted and the owner loved it. My rebuilt VG30E was also a great achievement racing it around Horse Thief Mile was pure adrenaline and it made my 1987 200SX keep up or beat cars that were over 45 times the price. (Got my car for $700, raced against 40-100 thousand dollar cars).
I am currently deciding how I am going to modify the Accent and Spectra further, whether or not to VG30E-swap this other 1984 S12 I have in the garage or just sell it as is, and I plan on getting a new track car one of these days to replace my old Squirrely Drifter (her name). Thinking about a BMW Z3 with an M60 swap. Feel like that would get me to the big leagues, but its going to take time, and lots of half off days at the junkyard.
Again, a big thanks to Andrew for making this possible. We will publish the first junkyard gallery/article by the end of this week, and explain how you can inquire for parts as well. For now, if you see parts on the cars pictured here that you need or want, contact us and tell us what you need!
Gearheads United!
- What do you think of this new idea?
- What makes and models do you think Andrew should look for?
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