Salvage Yard Excursion

In Rock Hill SC, SRG U-Pull-It Salvage. 

Apparently, when you don't have to go to work or school every day you can pretty much do whatever you want! Today I changed wheels on my car at home before this weekend's Autocross, did a very small amount of yard work, went out for lunch, and then in the afternoon visited my local auto salvage yard. Work, work, work. 

There wasn't anything in particular that I was looking for today, and they didn't have any cars on the lot that I own, or plan to own soon, so I just walked around with my tool bag and looked for anything interesting. Hey, some folks pay big bucks to go exercise at the gym, but you can get a pretty good work out in the salvage yard for only two bucks too!

JACKPOT! A Nissan 350Z. Let's look for useful parts!

The find of the day was a Nissan 350Z that looked to be in reasonable shape, so I notified the 350Z owner-operator-racer down at NMS-South and asked if he was interested in any spare parts. We discussed a front bumper cover, some extra headlights, side mirrors, and a few other small items, so I checked out the car for those parts.  This is where I noticed that whoever owned this car had done a cheap paint job, as judged by the way over sprayed red radiator and oil cooler up front! Not only that, but the Z logos on the sides were also now all red. Oh well, if that's your thing, no problem. 

When you're not sure what year a car might be, look at the Vehicle Emissions Control Information (VECI) label on the hood. Down in the last paragraph it references the 2004 model year emissions regulations, so it's a 2004 model car! A caveman could do it. Well, if the caveman could read. And had a car. 

After considering those parts, we decided to pass on extra Z parts for today, so I continued my walk around the yard. Another car that used the same 3.5 motor as in the 350Z was the Infiniti G35, and I managed to see two of them! As a bonus, they were both G35X models, which means that they were all wheel drive!

One cheap car part you'll likely find in the salvage yard, fuses and relays!

I also spotted this INFINITI G35X. Good to know: it uses the same 3.5 engine as in the NMS Nissan 350Z! On a phone consultation with NMS-South, I learned that the X in the model name indicates it was all wheel drive, an option on these INFINITI cars. 

AND THEN, I spotted a second INFINITI G35X! At the start of the day I'd never heard of them, and here's two in the same salvage yard!

Under the hood of one of the G35 cars was this, saying "Advanced Front Midship." That kind of makes it sound like a UFO or a Navy ship! After looking it up I learned that it just means they moved the engine backwards a bit to better distribute the weight towards the middle of the car. Sorry, no Dilithium Crystals or Cloaking Devices.