Mater xB

A wise use of El Pulpo's employee discount.

On April Fool’s Day of 2024, LKQ Pick Your Part opened their new self-service junkyard just north of downtown Denver, on 52nd off Pecos. Naturally, I was there, and I was pleased to spot this Scion xB in the employee parking area.

This yard replaced the old PYP location on Federal by I-76, which often had great stuff in the inventory but could be a muddy, treacherous slog for the junkyard shopper.

It’s always sad when one of your main boneyard haunts shuts down.

It was one of my favorite places for shooting junkyard cars with old film cameras. Here’s an Anscoflex II photo of a 1955 Studebaker Commander, shot there in 2020.

The new location is on a big rectangular site with asphalt paving instead of mud, with a nice view of downtown.

I think El Pulpo hoarded a bunch of interesting cars for months prior to Opening Day at the Pick Your Part Denver Central location, so they could salt the place with goodies for the local junkyard aficionados. Here’s an ultra-rare 1995 Jaguar XJR that was there, for example; I also shot a 1968 Chevy Corvair, one of the last Crown Victoria Police Interceptors ever built, a V10-engined Audi S8, and an amazing Hello Kitty-ized Honda Accord that day.

El Pulpo is the name Pick Your Part uses for both the octopus mascot in its logo (actually, it’s a hexapus) and this human character in its Southern California-market TV commercials, by the way.

Anyway, I wanted to interview the PYP employee who built this project, but he worked in the non-public-facing car-prep facility and found another job soon after I shot these photos.