Going, going, gone: Torrance aircraft parts dealer says goodby after 30 years.

Mickie Bodell’s going-out-of-business auction is like a family gathering with an undertone of mourning. Friends are coming from near and far for his three-day sale that began Friday at the Torrance Airport.

Bodell, in a bright red shirt, walks through the crowds, greeting people by their first names. They exchange remembrances from years past and then wander through the storage aisles of the cavernous Nagel Aircraft Co. hangar, where Bodell has operated an aircraft parts business for 30 years.

Along the way, the visitors are likely to see something they want to buy from the hundreds of thousands of used parts displayed on shelves.

“It’s a shame,” said Roy Berry, who flew in from Honolulu on Friday for the auction. “Mickie has the best place in the country for parts.”

Mike Walsh, a Lomita pilot, says he’s been buying parts from Bodell for at least 10 years. “Everything from nuts and bolts to an aircraft engine,” he said. “It’s going to be hard to find things without Mickie around.”

Bodell, as are other old-time businessmen at the airport, is closing up shop as the city moves ahead with a renovation project. Its goal, according to one city official, is to “get rid of the old stuff and put up the new stuff.”

Bodell’s 30-year lease expired in June, and he says he can’t meet the city’s new terms: build a new $2-million facility to replace his World War II hangar, or continue in his old building on a year-to-year lease.

“It’s a real sad deal,” said the 64-year-old Bodell, who fits the classic image of a gentle, kindly grandfather. “It’s a lifetime out the door.”

Outside the hangar, countless more aircraft parts are strewn over a fenced-in field the size of a city block. Wings, propellers, seats, nose cones, shanks, shafts, gears, nuts and bolts--virtually everything that goes into an airplane.

An auctioneer, surrounded by bidders, moves slowly down the rows in an open Jeep. His voice rumbles and chants over a loudspeaker, finally winding up with the pronouncement, “Going, going, gone--to buyer No. 100, Tri-Pacer nosepieces for $25.”

Bodell’s grandson, 17-year-old Buster Bodell, watches from a distance. He says he dropped out of high school so he could start his career at Nagel. “I’ve always wanted to be a part of my grandfather’s business some day,” he said. “But now they’ve squeezed us out. This is a small-town airport. Why do they want to change it?”

Older men at the gathering shake their heads in a way that suggests sympathy mixed with an awareness that times change and nothing can stop it. Several spot Bodell and move toward him for more greetings and farewells.