Dateline: Pick-Yer-Part, October 16, 1999. 48 degrees and sunny. I went scouting and found a very complete '71 164; mine's serial number is 50496, the one in the yard is 40596. It had to mean something, and I think what it meant was, "You are fated to git back here tomorrow and eat me for parts!" Who am I to argue with fate? Besides, it's been a long time since I went walkin' in a winter wreckin' yard (tra la, sleighbells, ho-ho-ho, and all the rest of that crap, don'tcha know). So, the destination was Pull 'n' Save, where today was "Everything you can carry for $29" day -- Ohboyohboyohboy!

Dateline: Pick-Yer-Part, October 17, 1999. 33 degrees and snowing steadily -- perfect hunting weather! I emptied some of the bigger junk out of my car, slung the green backpack in, brushed off the snow. Just as an aside, I'm the biggest fan you'll find of the manual choke (but I'm a bigger fan still of fuel injection!). I pulled out of the driveway, turned on the backglass defogger, and headed up I-225. Once on the highway, I hit the overdrive switch. Because of crispy seals in the overdrive (which sat for years, together with the rest of the car) it engaged immediately and promptly disengaged about 30 seconds later. And the O/D light went off. Duwhat? I glanced down, and since I haven't yet put the dash back together after fixing the aircon duct, saw that the fuse for the O/D had blown. Grrrr. I really don't want to chase down any short circuits in this weather. Just before arriving at the yard, I noticed the backglass defog switch light was also dark. That's odd this system doesn't have an automatic or timed cutoff. Then, as they say, "the light went on," and I realized that the defog and the O/D must be on the same circuit. The blown fuse was an 8-amp I'd put in; I made a note to check the yard 164 and see what it had.

I arrived at the yard around 11:30 and figured I'd have to hurry fast, 'cause I knew I wouldn't have too much time before my hands quit working from the cold. I wish I'd thought about my feet -- I left my boots at home and did the work in street shoes. I found that 164 and went on a feeding frenzy. All four excellent door trim panels, both correct sideview mirrors, license plate lamp-fixture-bezel-gasket assembly, both taillamp assemblies, one front retractable shoulder belt assembly, complete instrument cluster, LH and RH front seat reclining/locking mechanisms, nearly perfect front and rear bumpers with nearly perfect rubber inserts, windshield washer pump, pocket full o' fuses, front end trim, LH and RH side trim, trunk trim, and several great big double pawfuls of miscellaneous little stuff. This car, which was not equipped with overdrive, had a 16-amp fuse in the defog-O/D slot. Aha.

There was no way I could comply with the "you have to be able to carry everything in one trip if you want the special pricing" rule, so I just loaded it all into a yard-supplied wheelbarrow and headed in. The guy took pity on me and handed me a yellow coupon and the total with tax was $32.89. Supplied wheelbarrows, wide paved pathways, cars up in the air on gravel, hand soap and hot water, food and drink available, and football scores periodically called out over the PA loudspeaker talk about a full-service yard! And pricing like that, into the bargain. I've filled my trunk with parts before and gotten out of there for absurdly little money.

I popped a 25-amp fuse in the overdrive/backglass defogger slot and those systems began working again. Parts loaded and paws frozen, I motored back down I-225 towards home.

Dateline: My cave, 3 p.m. I'm frozen and wet and I have to go down and unload the trunk 'cause it wouldn't close with those bumpers in there and there's stuff that needs to dry. Do not use paper shopping bags to transport yard parts on wet days unless you like scrambling around in an icy parking lot retrieving seat recliner bits!

I Am Yet Another Wrecking Yard Crazy.