Cars make their graves wherever they break down.

But there is a home for vehicles of any age tripped up by wear and tear, crashes, or the overwhelming costs of repair.

At Greenbelt Auto Parts in Toledo, across a laminate counter filled with various components, an orange cat named DT guards the cash register where the co-owner of the salvage yard, Ziad Hummos, 57, greets customers with a warm smile.

“Now, people are trying to prolong the life of their cars, you know, especially with the instability of the financial situation right now,” Mr. Hummos said.

And it’s not only fiscally responsible to buy second-hand, sometimes the parts people are looking for can only be found in salvage yards because they have been discontinued.

“Somebody busted my window out this morning,” said Cassius Harris, 25, a customer from East Toledo who was navigating a difficult morning. “They probably used a screwdriver and tried to rip my radio out.”

Within a few minutes, one of Greenbelt’s employees dropped off a window that would fit Mr. Harris’ truck, and he could move on with his day.

Salvage yards, which shouldn’t be confused with junkyards, make up a valuable part of the automobile ecosystem.

A car may cease to function as a four-wheeled form of transportation, but different bits and pieces of it can live on.

“I’ve been going to salvage yards all my life,” said Greenbelt Auto Parts customer Matt Hood, 32, of North Toledo.

Mr. Hood was looking for a right-side mirror and two specific rims for a Mercury Grand Marquis.

The requests that Mr. Hummos receives and fulfills daily are as varied as the people that visit. Some customers come in looking for an entire engine, while other customers are simply looking for a new knob for their car’s stereo system.

About every five years, people would switch up their cars, Mr. Hummos estimated, but now he sees an influx of 50 customers each day looking for odds and ends.

After scouring two other salvage yards before coming to Greenbelt Auto Parts, Mr. Hood followed the trend and tried to breathe new life into his 2002 Buick Park Avenue he received for “next to nothing.”

“My dad's a mechanic, and this is like the cheapest way to get parts,” Mr. Hood said.

On the spot, Mr. Hood replaced the rims on his car and sold his previous rims to Greenbelt for a discount.

This service is made possible for customers like Mr. Harris and Mr. Hood with a constantly moving staff and a lot of storage space.

Coming from auctions or sometimes directly from the side of the road following a breakdown, the cost per car varies, but the average is about $500, Mr. Hummos said.

Towed for the last time, cars are marked with a sequence number on their windshield and wait outside the main office of Greenbelt to be processed.

Each car is inventoried, and its catalytic converters immediately cut from underneath the car before Greenbelt’s “friends on the 3rd shift” can have their say, said Jalal Kanan, 60, the other co-owner of the business.

Buicks, Mercuries, Mercedes, Volkswagens, and more from 1966 all the way up to 2021 all coalesce as Greenbelt Auto Parts’ wheel loader moves both functioning and nonfunctioning cars around the yard.

Decades of engineering and design are scavenged and parsed with the first step in disassembly made by Greenbelt’s designated hitter, Jack Hartford, 59, of Point Place, who removes usable engines and transmissions.

After those large items are removed, other workers pull less intricate parts from the shells of the vehicles. Then they are given to Gregory “Deano” Branch, 41, of West Toledo, to be logged into the company’s computer inventory database.

This database is shared with other car dealers and other salvage yards.

“It gives you everything that's there,” Mr. Branch said. “All the cars, what years...the stock number,” and where to find what is needed in the two warehouses full of various parts.

So how long does it take to find that “must have” specific part from a white Chrysler LeBaron?

“Not long at all,” said Mr. Branch, who boasted the exact location could be deciphered in less than five minutes.

While Mr. Branch is taking care of inventory, the bones of the cars are taken across the street to a holding ground where bumpers, fenders, and other outside cosmetic-type parts can be taken as needed.

When something is completely picked over, the raw materials are smashed, and the metals/plastics are recycled.

While giving new life to old parts is satisfying, Mr. Hummos appreciates the value he offers to his customers.

“At the same time, you know, you save that person a lot of money,” he said.

First Published August 31, 2022, 4:23 p.m.