I don't often get the chance to wander through automotive junkyards, as there aren't many public-welcome, pick-a-part places in my part of the country. To this lifelong automotive enthusiast, that experience of witnessing cars at the end of their lives is fun, if a bit macabre. I can't help but consider the smiles each of the vehicles in those yards must have brought to their first owners the day they rolled off the showroom floor, what types of adventures they took people on, what joys and sorrows their cabins witnessed, and what tragic crash or major component failure took them off the road.

These cars are like organ donors, their parts viable only for a period. When they arrive at the yard, they are processed and categorized, their major details noted before they're moved out back, propped up on wheel stands, and laid bare to be picked clean. We can only hope their remaining good parts will be purchased and saved, helping to keep other vehicles on the road before the carrion is crushed and recycled.

So when Hemmings graphic designer Josh Skibbee mentioned a new modification/upgrade project he was considering as part of his ongoing saga of resurrecting his late grandfather's 1987 Buick Regal Turbo-T (I won't spoil Josh's surprise, but it involved sourcing a particular electronic module from a late-1990s Chevrolet Monte Carlo: stay tuned!), we started talking about junkyards.

Doing some online research, Josh found Vince's U-Pull-It, a good-sized lot located in Marcy, New York, roughly two hours west of Hemmings HQ. He inquired and was pleased to hear that, in their 2,000-some-vehicle inventory, they had two cars that might contain the part he needed. I hastily volunteered to ride along. After paying a $1 entry fee, we spent a few hours walking the logically arranged rows of this tidy, paved (or gravel-bedded) yard and were both genuinely surprised by the variety of vehicles we encountered, especially the older cars and trucks that seemed like outliers in the crowd of mostly late-1990s to 2010s vehicles that make up the bulk of what's on our roads today.

Click through the gallery to observe what caught my eye, and share your favorite junkyard stories (and tips!) in the comments.