Wow. Since I was 5 I've loved taking things apart and I am finally getting better at putting them back together again. This was my first serious visit to a salvage yard and I brought a bag of tools, two jack stands and a hydraulic jack to scavenge some body bushings for my '70 GTO.
The yard has close to 2000 cars to pull parts from, as well as about 1000 more ready to move into the yard when the well-picked-apart junked cars are ready to move to the car crusher. Old rusty Home Depot carts are available to haul your tools around, and there are paved 'streets' in between the gravel yards of cars. To the East are all of the imports, to the West are all the American cars and all SUVs, trucks and vans. I found a mid-seventies Cadillac to work on (pics coming soon) and it took me about 90 minutes to separate its body from its frame, jack up the body, and pull 5 body bushings (more than enough - I really only needed one!). What an amazing place to practice your wrenching and to learn a lot. I even pulled the trunk carpet out of the salvage car to lay down on the gravel to make myself comfortable while working.
Retail cost of a new bushing kit for my '70 GTO? $129.95 from the cheapest online store. Body bushings are never available at local auto parts stores, so the salvage yard was my best option.
Total cost of bushings and bushing bolts/washers that I found at Nevada Pic-A-Part? $6.
Loving junkyards right about now. Never wanted to go to them in Atlanta because kudzu grows in them and mosquitoes love hanging out wherever kudzu grows. If you need late model Japanese or American bits or parts, reconsider going to the store and consider bringing your tools to Nevada Pic-A-Part. Awesome!