A Trip to the Junkyard

in vehiclephotography •  7 years ago 

IMG_20180408_121816.jpg

Today my dad and I went to the junkyard because my car needs a new fuel pump. It's a 1994 Toyota Camry with a 2.2L engine, one year older than myself.

IMG_20180408_141117.jpg

In theory, not that old (I still have time right??) but pretty old for a car. This car is on its last limbs so it's really not worth spending a lot of money on it, which is why we get used parts from the junkyard.
You can find a great many treasures at the junkyard if you look on the floors of the cars, under the seats, and in the trunk. Today, I'm looking for lead and zinc to reuse and melt. As I said in my previous foundry posts, you can find these metals in the form of weights that are used to balance the rims. You need to look for older cars because they will even have lead weights, which aren't used anymore because of its toxicity. Zinc is more common but the most common is iron, which is useless to me. Iron melts at 2800° F or 1538° C, which is too high a temperature for my charcoal powered foundry.
Here are a few of the slightly older cars I saw.

IMG_20180408_121839.jpg

IMG_20180408_121851.jpg

They're not that old but they're some of the oldest here, and I like them.

IMG_20180408_122529.jpg

Most rims are already removed but there's plenty of stray ones laying around.

IMG_20180408_131500.jpg

How's your knowledge of basic chemistry?
I ask because on the weights are usually a few letters indicating what metal it is.

IMG_20180408_122754.jpg

This one says Fe. On the periodic table of elements, Fe is the symbol for the element Iron. I remember this because another word for metal in Spanish is fierro . Just iron, so let's move on.
"P" is likely an abbreviated sign for lead, whose chemical symbol is Pb. The symbols usually come from the Latin names of the metals, which is why the symbol is usually similar to the Spanish translation: plomo .

IMG_20180408_145411.jpg

And finally, precious zinc (Zn).

IMG_20180408_145333.jpg

I don't know what FN stands for. It's not an element but I see it a lot. Some of my weights are lead-zinc alloys. Here's today's haul.

IMG_20180408_152326.jpg

Some have letters like T (titanium?) or AL (actual symbol for aluminum is Al but it doesn't feel like aluminum and it doesn't make sense to make a weight out of an extremely light metal).
My search ended when we found some suitable fuel pumps.

IMG_20180408_130448.jpg

They are not found under the hood,

IMG_20180408_121900.jpg

but rather under the back seat, right above the fuel tank.

IMG_20180408_141703.jpg

That's my dad working on it. It's good as new now. The credit goes to my dad. I just helped.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my trip to the junkyard. A fun place to visit. I even saw about 12 women there today too. It must have been Ladies Night or something...

Well, goodbye and until next time!

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

World of Photography
>Visit the website<

You have earned 5.05 XP for sharing your photo!

Daily Stats
Daily photos: 1/2
Daily comments: 0/5
Multiplier: 1.01
Server time: 23:11:52
Account Level: 0
Total XP: 20.25/100.00
Total Photos: 4
Total comments: 0
Total contest wins: 0
When you reach level 1 you will start receiving up to two daily upvotes

Follow: @photocontests
Join the Discord channel: click!
Play and win SBD: @fairlotto
Daily Steem Statistics: @dailysteemreport
Learn how to program Steem-Python applications: @steempytutorials
Developed and sponsored by: @juliank

Congratulations @proto26! You have received a personal award!

Happy Easter 2018
Click on the badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.

Upvote this notificationto to help all Steemit users. Learn why here!