Sun Valley’s Venerable U Pick Parts Junkyard to Close

For more than a half-century, any poor San Fernando Valley grease head who needed a part for his aging clunker would make a pilgrimage to U Pick Parts.

And any TV scout or Hollywood filmmaker who needed a shot of a megajunkyard — often of a wild-eyed captive bound in a car trunk about to be flattened by a screeching crusher — would send a camera crew out to Sun Valley.

Now the 261/2-acre yard also known as Aadlen Brothers Auto Wreckingthat has drained, tossed, ripped, shredded and pulled apart L.A.’s favorite conveyance for the past 53 years will itself be turned into auto scrap. Its up to 4,000 cars, trucks and other collectibles are all being sold before it closes Jan. 1.