Today i did a cleanup of stuff we had lying around. As I loaded the truck I decided not to stop. Several sets of heads left over from my BB Mopar days went in the back, A couple of good cast cranks more than adequate but not desirable went out along with their balancers. Some rocker shafts , used valves, springs , an orphan or two some alternators and AC compressors and some general scrap. Also several intake manifolds. On the way over i wondered if i would get $10 . I got $108. Way more than I made at the last big swap meet. I also threw out an original 4 barrel 63 Pont 389 carb in servicable condition. i had offered it proper labeling and all at the swap meet for $40 or decent offer. Never even gt a nibble just comment that was too much. . So if you cant find parts for your project it is probably your own dang fault. In the 3 days of the swap meet I made 60 but had gas food two trips there and back and a $25 cost on my share of the space. In reality I lost on the deal. Today i made $108 in 10 minutes. I have a basement full of stuff I have collected over the years. I am thinking of cleaning it all out except the very best stuff. I am bad i know but i am also fed up with swap meet scrouges and hastling over the price of stuff I am almost giving away anyway. . Don
I have original AFBs I can't get $10 for, no one will pay money for an old carb unless you put it on eBay with the numbers decoded. Screw 'em, after a few swap meets I put the stuff in a car I'm going to scrap. I had a clown today tell me he'd scrap a car I have listed that's worth about $4500 all day long, just for the doors and roof out of it - I'm really getting so I hate the general public, let them build rat-rods out of '83 Camaros because nothing else is left.
some people know how to buy and sell.... others just throw it away. had a neighbor with a HOT ROD shop cutting up a rusted 36 Ford sedan. he was piling "junk" outside for the scrap guy. I made about $200.00 off this junk. same shop had a 32 pickup being built into a Hot Rod. the car owner stopped by with some "junk" he was going to throw away. I told him don't throw anything away that has to do with that truck. I told him if he finds a cat turd in there I want to see it. sold $700.00 worth of useless junk from that deal.
Amen, brother! (49ratfink, not the two cranky bastards throwing away stuff they can't sell) I sold over $800 in parts off of a '53 Chevy I bought for $800, and built the rest into the car you see in the avatar. I've already sold at least $300 off of the '51 Chevy coupe I'm currently building, not to mention the $600 I sold off of the donor car I paid $600 for. If you can't sell stuff local, put it on eBay. If it won't sell on eBay GIVE IT to someone who wants it or can use it. But don't brag about scrapping it out. And sometimes old parts really are just junk. I didn't sell every single piece I pulled from the three cars I mentioned - the parts that no one wanted I either kept or threw away. But I didn't bitch and whine about it.
Congrats, you did your parts on turning decent parts into a chinese toaster. You should be proud. Then to top it off, you think its cool too.
If no one is buying the suff maybe there is a reason...... Treasures to some people is junk to another.
Actually it's funny sometimes to watch guys get their hands all dirty pawing through a couple milk crates full of carbs marked $10 each or $20 each or whatever, looking for the Strombergs that I already sold on ebay for $100-$125 two years ago...
Cool part about having a cnc plasma, I can make flanges for any carb I want on my logs. So as all these guys are buying $100-200 carbs to get a tripower CARB, I walk out with a crate full off off brand ones for $20. Enought to have 2-3 six 2v logs
nothing cool about tossing out usable or rebuildable old parts. i think a "REAL" Hot Rodder would avoid scrapping old parts and would rather see them put to good use even if it meant giving them away.
Just because you know what they are does not mean that everybody does. I have not had any luck with strombergs but I have bought many rochester 2GC side inlet carbs out of junk piles for $5 each. make great cores for tri carb setups. Before you throw stuff out why not call your other car friends and let them have their pick of what they might be able to use. better than trashing good parts any day.
I pulled a windshield wiper trans for my '40 ply out of a container filled with rusty junk, 2" of water in the bottom. Offered the guy a buck for it. He told me he'd throw it away before taking a buck. I thought he was joking, then asked how much? Told me 10 bucks. I handed it back to him and told him to throw it away. For 10 bucks, I'd think he'd have it on his table, not in the rusty crap bucket.
my good buddy "SuperDan" does that all the time. when he gets sick of the clutter in the garage he goes through and makes a "free pile". anyone that stops by is welcome to any or all of it. it might not be super valuable stuff but it could save someone a bunch of hunting and/or money if there is something of use to them. no sense tossing it out if someone can use it.
I keep shit like that to take to the swap meet. Old carbs, I don't even put a price on them, the first guy that asks "how much" just won hisself a carburetor. It's only a social experience anyhow. I think the last time I made enough money at a swap to brag about was in the 20th Century.
Anybody watch the recent Gearz tv show with Stacey David?? Very interesting episode about the clunker program and how we are throwing away perfectly good used cars from the 80s, 90s, and even 2000s and how it is affecting the local auto parts store and aftermarket industry. And why take on a 7 year $400 dollar a month loan (don't forget insurance) just to show off a "new" car that doesn't even belong to you until it's paid off.
A rodder named Jack Stewart (you guys might have heard of him ) told me pretty much the same thing nearly 40 years ago... ...and I took his comments on board back then then and still do the same now. This includes giving a friend of mine some early Sting Ray (as opposed to a Stingray) parts that one of my employees found at the local dump (and refused to take any money from me for them). Those parts were swapped for some others that the guy needed to finish off a '64 coupe he was building for his folks. As this parts swapping and horse trading progressed, my friend ended up with a very successful 'Vette parts business at one stage. If nothing else, this shows the value of making sure anything that can get a second life does (or so says the guy that's given one of his friends a bunch of hard-to-get-but-definitely-surplus Czech motorcycle parts for free).
If you think you are going to sell everything at the swapmeet,dream on,I still have stuff in the trailer I've had over a year. I live in central FLA.and every old car part I put on Craigslist I get rid of.Not in 5 minutes but its gone.Are you going to scrap your car if you decide to sell it and don"t have any luck? The word scrapper is almost as bad as the word ### rod.
i have to agree. i understand not wanting to keep too much stuff around but why not offer it for rock bottom prices on ebay or craigslist? or heres an idea, ask your gearhead buddies if they want it or know someone who does! i have a ton of carbs, distributors and other nick nack alternators, generators, brackets, etc because i like to rebuild my own stuff or piece together a motor with some cool parts that arent off the shelf. carbs always come in handy to me cause out of 2-3 you might piece together a nice on your your daily driver....i guess not everyone shares my ideas though. i really like the AMC/Mopar alternators vs the GM ones. the rounded housing look really cool on older motors. oh well, send that junk to china. guess some people would rather open a catalog and built an entire car then enjoy the journey of the hobby
I can understand getting tired of lowballers, I've been there, but come on. The only items I've scrapped were frozen shut, non-repairable, or refridgerators. Would you have taken $100 for the entire lot at a swap? Would you have taken $50? I'm not knocking your decision, because that is your deal you may have been strapped for cash...I've been there also, but would anything have kept you from scrapping it or did you just not want it? But to answer the title question, because somewhere...somehow the old parts get destroyed. Edit: I just realized the title wasn't a question.
to bad you guys would rather throw you shit away. i would rather give it away here, then junk it, sad to see things with history get recycled, or destroyed. but it is your stuff, do what you like with it i guess? just my two cents.
I went to a swap meet last weekend and saw a guy pushing a hand truck with four factory aluminum wheels, mid to late 90's manufacture, bought them for $20.00. Monday morning down at the steel recycler $45.00 profit for some ugly wheels no one wants. I do agree with other posters, i would rather give a vintage item away to someone who will use it instead of scrapping it.
I sell what I can and if it's worth packing back up I do, If it's not and I'm not going to use it I put a free sign by it. Of course there will always be stuff to scrap. Problem here in indy all the junkyards I know of have all late model stuff. Have to search everywhere for the older simple part's or make them. Crazy!
I understand your issue, Ive been parting out a car for awhile and sometimes its quite a beating. You get a request then you go through the trouble to check what you have maybe take a pic only for someone to never get back too you. Or to go through all the trouble of taking old rusty parts off and trying to figure a reasonable way to ship em to bumfucknowheresville only to make 40$ by the time its all said and done with. That bieng said Ive got to much love for these old cars to just throw shit away. Ive been sitting on a car for 3 years now that I could easily get some scrap $ for but for the life of me I just cant do it!! Ive threatend to just haul it off but I cant pull the trigger. I mean its not like their still making this stuff and I would love for something to still be available when My son is old enough to get into the hobby. That bieng said with a little patience and the HAMB Ive sold 300$ worth of parts off a car I would have taken 250$ for complete. And I still have enough left to build the damn thing if I wanted to.
Aluminum wheels go for at least $20 apiece if you find the right place to sell them a little more... There's a place north of Indy that recycles only aluminum wheels for the new wheel industry. they pay a premium for getting the right alloy up front. Cant remember their name but it's a bitch getting in there with a semi...on the east side of town next to rr tracks and narrow 2 lanes with lots of turns to take. Can't even remember the name but the brokers keep it a secret from the junkyards. You know all that pot metal in a car? the lock cylinders, carb bodies...It aint aluminum it's Zinc. Imperial Zinc in Chicago melts it down, refines it, and pours it into ingots to sell back to the automakers. they also buy back the dross and scrappage to resmelt. They buy in bulk from about anyone and the brokers like to keep them a secret too. Got Lead? Doe run smelter in bixby Mo buys alot of batteries by the truckload and recycles the lead. Exide in City of industry Ca buys a lot of batteries by the truckload and recycles the lead. brokers like to keep them secret too
Yep, I've had these for sale for 15.00 a piece for months and the only one interested is (you guessed it) a scraper. Larry T
I was at one of the local wrecking yards yesterday. One of the owners went off on locals advertising money to haul off cars. Anytime scrap metal is high we lose a lot of good cars. Sure, let them have all the Dodge Mini vans, but leave the old iron alone.
If they were only 15", thats what i allways hear. You can't hardly give away 14" wheels, there are exceptions of course.
on here there's a pay it forward thread..and the classifieds..just cant wrap my head around this and the reasons..
A bunch of you guys give him a ration of crap but I'd bet not a one of you would pony up cash for any of those heads or manifolds he had. One of my running buddys just hauled off an apple bin of cams that he had saved to sell to a regrinder that he had been selling cores to for years. Got told, No we aren't buying cores anymore. He has or had probably 100 big block Chevy heads. Got told the same thing by several outfits. No we have enough of those cores and don't need them. When you get too much stuff sitting around you have to do something with it besides look at it and climb over it and if there is no actual market for it it goes for scrap. I have a bunch of stuff that is pretty much headed in the same direction. No old car stuff in it but it might be useful to the guy who needs it at the moment but I don't know what the market is for 79 350 ElCamino exhaust manifolds or a 4 bolt main 350 block that has already been line bored and got severely overheated in my brothers 4x a few years ago. I'm not sure I really want to pawn that one off on anyone with a good conscience. Besides I need room in the shed for my flathead stuff. Anyone need a 350R short block or 455 Olds engine pieces? Cheap? act fast because they are going too.
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