Who remembers Bay Motor Wrecking

[conkitchen]

This will mostly be a local thread to the Bay Area I know; sorry to always be pimping CA and the Bay, as if it needs any more attention.

Who knows what happened to: Ole crazy political left wing Berkeley liberal conservative Californian motorhead Ed?

What was his reason for pulling out of business?

Did the EPA finally shut him down or did the landlord not renew the lease and instead sold out to the railroad?

[jimalameda]

Crazy Ed. It was great bargaining with him on prices of parts. Trying to buy consoles was the biggest pain in the ass, he thought they were gold. I don't how he found parts in the mountain of mixed up parts.

Jim Davis

'71 2002

Alameda, CA

[conkitchen]

Crazy Ed.... I don't how he found parts in the mountain of mixed up parts.

Once I inquired about a back seat he had hanging up in the rafters, next I see him climbing the shelf unit. I was thinking: oh crap; I was not really interested, but if he falls and knocks himself out right here in front of me, I'll grab the nice black recaros, that LSD and maybe the dog leg and then call for help.

[Armond]

Who knows what happened to: Ole crazy political left wing Berkeley liberal conservative Californian motorhead Ed?

he retired and is living comfortably in his townhouse in Berkeley.

What was his reason for pulling out of business?

lost his lease. property got sold.

Ed gave me great deals and I bought many things from him while I was putting my car together 4-5 years ago. definitely a different bird but the guy knew his shit and knew where to find items buried in his pile of parts. Wish he was still in business.

[cj]

Tom Jones, Jan, Danny and I were just taking about him while we were atop Mt. Hamilton during the Shamrock Rally this past weekend.

Bay Motor Wrecking was a great resource and Ed was fun to deal with. I still have a set of Lux door panels I bought from him. This was back in '86.

[conkitchen]

Strangely: I found him to be very useful for the little things. He had a desk drawer he called "the dollar bin" that contained everything that would fit in the palm of your hand or smaller. His pricing on items was; as he told me when I questioned it, "based on interest." If you had an interest it cost more.

Why hasn't Sherman Martinez opened a similar thing with all the cars he goes through in a year?

Is Vacaville too far to travel?

Thoughts on anyone filling the void left by Eddy?

[Armond]

I remember Ed selling me a working early Tii clock for 25 bucks, a Talbot green dot mirror for 20 but wouldnt budge on a flag mirror for 60 and a purple fog light plastic cap for 15..go figure.

[inkatouring]

Haydays of BMW-ness: Playing two-on-two with Ed, his son, and Stu Krum when we all worked together at the Berkeley BMW Salvage (the precurser to Bay Motor). Ed was the biggest pain in the ass I knew, and a total dick to customers. When Bob (the owner) went on vacation, business went down 25-30% simply because Ed was in charge, arguing with customers for no reason. Wonder why Bob let him go?

In spite of (or more aptly because of) knowing him since the early '80s, I never bought from him.....

[Guest Anonymous]

One transaction with him just before they closed. I needed the rear quarters to re-install on the ALPINA car, so I stopped by and found a Siennabraun 74-76 in his yard. He very kindly sawzalled them out of the car for me (was spring 2008 as I recall) - I believe I paid $150 for the two. Seemed like a nice guy - very accomodating to me - must have been my lucky day!

www.alpinabmw2002.com

[Colin]

Haydays of BMW-ness: Playing two-on-two with Ed, his son, and Stu Krum when we all worked together at the Berkeley BMW Salvage (the precurser to Bay Motor). Ed was the biggest pain in the ass I knew, and a total dick to customers. When Bob (the owner) went on vacation, business went down 25-30% simply because Ed was in charge, arguing with customers for no reason. Wonder why Bob let him go?

In spite of (or more aptly because of) knowing him since the early '80s, I never bought from him.....

Yeah I always thought he was kind of an asshole and his prices were super high. I was always nice to him and he was still a cock each time. =(

[Guest Anonymous]

Ed was a mad genius IMO.

Good, bad or ugly. Take Ed or leave Ed. The vast majority of us (especially me) always hoped that that chained link fence was open. Simply because most likely Ed would have the exact part that you would need.

I will say...... he could give you the Britannica version or the part and it's function or if you were absolutely certain you bought the right part (and you knew not to ask a question) he could lend the readers digest version.

Ed was Ed. I wish his spot was still open, I need a few parts as we speak...

I quote "looks like that x, y, z part is kind of worn, you should replace it, I have a few stock in much better condition if you would like". Ed

=) ira

[Guest Anonymous]

I bought a gas tank from him. I found him to be a very nice and informative person.

[Grover]

"Special Ed" as I used to call him, somewhat affectionately. I went there fairly often and found that his mood varied from day to day, and the prices went pretty much hand in hand with his mood. One definitely got the sense that he had some other income, because he genuinely seemed to care less if a sale walked out the door or not. During the time he was closing up shop, I got some killer deals there by buying in bulk. All in all, I wish he were still there, the convenience was impossible to beat, and he had an absolutely massive inventory especially of the more mundane type parts.

[jmon0261]

In the early 80's I bought my first BMW 02. I was from Sacramento and saw Berkeley BMW Salvage in the phone book. We drove down to find an amazing place. 2002s everywhere, parts were cheap and enthusiasts were working on their cars in the parking lot. A 19 year old tall kid had this amazing Alpina race car on the road( Stuart Krum). A young Berkeley student ( Josh W) was working there part time. Bob the owner was always mellow and knew what part you were looking for. Then there was wacky Ed who seemed to be in charge of the seat belts. A funky organized shop with a great feel to it. Many great memories and the initial good vibe that has kept me with these cars.

I went to Ed's business as he was closing a couple of years ago. It was very weird to see what the place had turned into. At some point Ed had moved into where Moran Motor Sport was. A chaotic mess of BMW parts that we were walking on and around to find deals and rare bits, Ed was a shadow of his former self. I know that he owned a number of real estate holdings in Berkeley. It was a very weird day for me to see what had happened to a great place. Here is an old thread that talks about this subject.

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,57/page,viewtopic/t,290844/highlight,berkeley+bmw+salvage/

[tjones02]

You guys are reming me of great memories of hanging with my Dad when he'd go visit Franz and Bob. I picked up so much loose change while climbing around all those wrecked cars as a kid. I even found a 20 once but wasn't allowed to keep that one.

Josh, maybe you remember this Tii customer from those Berkeley BMW Salvage days...

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/tjones02_bucket/Tii%20The%200007/?action=view&current=CCI00031-1.jpg

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/tjones02_bucket/Tii%20The%200007/?action=view&current=439.jpg

I got to know Ed professionally much later when I wrenched for Mike Schwartzbart of Berkeley Motor Works (in Richmond, then Albany... go figure). I remember digging through piles of CIS fuel distributors to find a decent one, piles of air inj. diverter valves, and other smog crap. He charged me more because I just had to have that clear drivers side window glass instead of the normal green tinted ones. I can't remember who started it but we called him "Special Ed" then.

In the last weeks of his place I got to dig through his piles to find treasures like his last 4.10 short neck, boxes of cool emblems, switches and every broken lensed early US flat turn signal he had because nobody else saw any value in them.

Rumor has it that he's one of the wealthiest property owners in Berkeley with multiple apartment buildings and rental houses to his name. That he really only did the parts thing as a hobby. These days Laslo at Moran's can get a hold of Ed for stuff that he and Ed saved in their stashes over the years. If I were in his position I probably would have had a very similar yard. Maybe just a weeeee bit cleaner though.