'59 Plymouth Forum

mopar mel is parting out 425 cars from his yard. he has an add on ebay. anybody interested check it out.

I've been corresponding with Mel, and it seems he has some pieces I need. Take Curt's advice -- if you need something, give Mel a holler. The time is now...

Dan

Mel really has a lot of things. The only thing is that Mel is madly expensive

Is there a link to his ads?

Here it is Bob:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... gory=10076

There is nothing new here. "Mopar Mel" has always been willing to sell parts off his 425 car collection.
I do find it irritating that he has the Ebay listing but isnt selling anything specific in the ad..it is probably against Ebay policy.

I agree Roger,whats on his ebay listing that starts at a dollar?

Bob

well, he is using Ebay as an advertising tool, not auctioning anything specific. I'm sure if someone complained, Ebay would pull the ad. This is not the first time MM has "taken liberties" with Ebay, but don't get me started!

I also agree! I asked MM for a sway bar about 2 years ago. As far as I remember he asked 700 $ for it plus freight etc. I never contacted him again because I knew it was worthless. Anyhow, we all seem to have the same problem. We need some single parts, he has it, but we don’t get parts out of his yard for a reasonable price.
Well, I don’t want to complain but have a suggestion. There are two possibilities or for at least “chances” how we could convince him.

1. We put up a list with parts we need and only one of us gets in contact with MM and asks for a serious offer. If he gives us again a lunatic offer, then it is easier to negotiate.
2. We put up a list with the parts we need and the prices we are willing to pay (just like on e-bay). Then one of us contacts MM and hands him the offer. We'll see if he agrees (or not).

Do you think it is worth to give it a shot? After all the parts are sitting in a junk yard and won’t become better every year. I guess MM is also aware about this. We can only win - parts or experience!

Stefan

sportfury1959 wrote:...We put up a list with the parts we need and the prices we are willing to pay (just like on e-bay). Then one of us contacts MM and hands him the offer. We'll see if he agrees (or not).
Stefan

Hmmm... You may be on to something, Stefan. What do folks think? If we "bought in bulk", perhaps MM would give us a break... Of course, he'd have to itemize each part, and the requestor would have to approve before we could do the bulk deal -- that could get complicated. But the idea has merit...

Is there a way we could use the forum to facilitate?

Dan

Call me a pessimist, but each year his parts get rustier, and each year the price goes up. There is a 61 Chrysler 300G on Ebay with a BuyItNow price of $112,000. The restorer of this car will pay $700 for a swaybar, don't you think?
Maybe you've seen the chainmail that goes around the Internet
telling the masses dont buy gas on Day XX and this will force the oil companies to lower their prices. C'mon. It is the law of supply and demand. MM has the supply, we have the demand and the rich have the funds to pay. One of our own members needed a gastank so desperately she gave MM $700+, despite the fact that another member offered her a more complete one for $150. MM has a niche.

Well Roger and Dan, as I already said, we can only win. If I need a part then I’ll pay for it, that is no question and there is no doubt about it. But, to me it’s always annoying if somebody can’t make up his mind or puts me in a situation where I feel cheated or defrauded. In either situation I prefer to make the decision by myself and remove the idea that somebody (in this case MM) has a part for me out of my head once and forever. It’s a question of principles not of the price.

Back to the sway bar: 700 Dollars Roger, for heavens sake where do we life. This has nothing to do with supply and demand! I know, it’s all about money, profit and many times naked greed? I own my SF for almost 20 years now and I remember the time when I almost couldn’t effort a full gas thank and had holes in the floor. Spare Parts were in unreachable distance, I had black nails, lots of friends and ost of all - passion. Today it seems to me, it’s easier to find parts rather than passion.

I bought an original Sway bar about 1 ½ years ago. The sway bar was pitted but in a good shape. I went to a specialist and asked him to make a copy. He asked 100 Euros (about 125 – 130 $ at this time) and I had a brand new one. See the result here:
https://59plymouth.net/showcase/ste ... page5.html

I offer all members of the 59sportfury.net: If you want a sway bar and don’t know where to get it for a reasonable price – I will help you - without profit for me.
That is also a question of principles!

Take care!

Stefan

Stefan hit the nail on the head. IMHO the whole problem (in our hobby and world problems as well) lies with greed. As Stefan puts it "naked greed".

I have used Mel in the past but I will not again. My last time through him I spent $1000 for a gas tank assembly that looked like it had been cleaned for maybe 15 minutes, and I had to pay extra to get this assembly complete.
"It didn't come from the factory complete" was Mel's comment.
My local shop had to do a lot of further clean-up work.
I have used other sources for rebuilds/different parts that have also been
expensive[or sometimes even reasonable], but the rebuild or part looks like what happens when YOU do it (or are able to do it) for YOUR OWN vehicle-clean, or NOS, or once in a while, better.
I understand time, materials, experience, labor.
What I DO NOT undestand is BULLSH-T. The hobby suffers all the way
around because of it.
Beth.

You guys are either being mis-led by this type of ad, thinking these are true auctions, or you guys think MM is scrapping out his yard. Neither is true. MM lives in northern Minnesota, outside a small farming community. He has a gold mine of parts, so it would seem. The local and state environmental cops apparently leave him alone, as selling parts off an accumulation of cars is considered "operating a scrapyard" in Oregon, for which a person needs a junkyard license, and to get that license, one must have the cars on concrete slabs to prevent environmental pollution, gas tanks must be empty, etc. There must be a "grandfather clause" which protects yards which existed prior to latest EPA rules. I've seen several aerial photos of salvage yards such as Desert Valley Auto Parts in AZ, where the cars are not on concrete.
He also paints his rebuilt cars, for which many states require all manner of pollution controls, paint booth. Out in the countryside, you can still do whatever you want. I am pretty sure he won't be having any sales or be going out of business any time soon.