Rest In Pieces Auto Salvage Yard Deals With Crush-Hour Traffic

The carcasses cover nearly 35 acres of the Spokane Valley.

In their gleaming prime, a few probably had pet names. Muscular ones turned heads, drawing teenage whistles of envy. Others were status symbols, gracing driveways in expensive subdivisions.

Now, all that is left of the cars, trucks and vans - once the heralded products of Detroit, Germany and Japan - are picked-over metal skins.

For the thousands of drivers cruising past daily on nearby Interstate 90, the mishmash canvas of car bodies is all they see of Spalding Auto Parts.

They don’t see the assembly line-like dismantling of 30 to 35 cars a week or the tiers of engines for resale, graded in quality from A to C.

They also don’t see big tractor-trailers being wrenched apart, their low-mileage diesel engines able to command as much as $13,000 a pop.

Those who work there look at it as a recycling bonanza. Next month, they hope it will become home to thousands of Spokane’s abandoned or junked vehicles.

Spalding concentrates on cars and trucks less than a decade old.

More mature buggies haven’t been a priority. There’s not much money to make from an old heap because of the high price of taking it apart.

That’s going to change, said Russ Spalding, when the company opens a 10-acre “pull-and-save” yard in April.

The idea is to let people pull the parts they need off older cars themselves, says Spalding, grandson of Dolph Spalding, who founded the company 1934.

It is not worth Spalding’s time, for example, to dismantle a late 1970s Buick. Yet, parts from the old hulk could keep someone’s Motown relic running another year or two.

Spalding sees the “pull-and-save” lot as a magnet for all those abandoned cars rotting in Spokane yards. A beautification program, so to speak.

Spalding will even tow the junkers away for a small fee, if they can’t be pulled or pushed there.

The incentive is money.

“We’re buying them for scrap value,” says Geoff Green, the company’s environmental, safety and computer systems guru. “We’ll probably generate 2,000 cars a year.”

Green’s projection of thousands of cars passing through the lot does is not out of line.

Try calling the Spokane Police Department abandoned vehicle line.

Some days last week a recording announced the message machine was full and unable to take more calls.

For visual proof, check out the photographs of abandoned cars in the code enforcement area on the first floor of City Hall. It’s a rogues’ gallery of derelict Motor City junk.

Larry Lanning, a city code enforcement supervisor, estimates his office towed 60 vehicles off rights of way and helped another 200 people get the title paperwork needed to junk their cars.

“I don’t know how many are out there,” he says. “As soon as we remove them, others seem to appear. There’s a story behind every one of them.”

Newer cars at Spalding get much more specialized treatment.

By the time the “salvagers” are done, about 50 percent of the materials and parts in a car or truck are recycled.

“We pull the motor, transmission, rear end and drain all the fluids,” says Green. “We’ll dismantle 2,000 to 3,000 cars a year.”

Even the gas left in the tank of a crushed Plymouth or Toyota is put to use: It powers Spalding trucks. Oil drained from engines heats the company’s shops.

Once scavenged, the hulks are hauled into the yard where they continue to give up parts for six months to three years.

“Everyday-driver cars cycle right through,” Green says.

Rarer or more exotic cars take longer. “Corvettes, Fiats. You do hang onto. A lot of people drive down the freeway and see the cars, thinking they’ve been sitting there for years. They don’t understand the turnover.

“The average life of a car (in the yard) is six months to a year. Then, we’ll crush it.”

After crushing in a large portable press, the cars are shipped to Seattle where they are shredded.

While Spalding was born into the business, Green came to it 17 years ago from the telephone company. “I just loved cars,” he says.

Green talks about salvage with the fervor of a television evangelist and the enthusiasm of a patentmedicine salesman. Walking through the yard, he points out anything that’s salvageable: The bent aluminum truck tire rim, the crankcase oil, the car seats.

“One guy looks at this and sees an ugly mess,” he says. “I look at this and see dollars.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SPALDING FACTS: Founded in 1934 Moved to current location in mid-1940s. Property split by I-90 in 1954 84,000 estimated customers a year 20,000 to 30,000 walk-in customers 97 employees