best method for cutting up a car?

I seem to be parting out a lot of cars lately and killing lots of sawzall blades and grinding wheels. What's the best method for cutting of sections of cars, like taking off an entire rear clip?

 

If you not fussy about the results, an oxy-acetylene torch.

 

yeah, sometimes there is something I'm looking to save and sometimes I just want it in managable pieces. Right now I'm gonna chop up a 64 econoline van and once I steal the front and rear axles, I need to be able to dispose of the carcass.

 

Don't cut it up, in the every increasing movement of the greenies you recycle it. Hall it down to the river so this guy can live it it.

 

if it would bring him back to life, I totally would.

 

Can't you call up one of those guys who advertises for junk cars to come get it?

Nothing else on it you can part out?

Anyways, if you're doing that much parting out, a plasma cutter is probably worth the investment. It cuts relatively clean, fast, and with less effort than a sawzall or cutoff wheels.

 

I used a plasma cutter to cut up a 53 chevy 4 door with a big block chrysler in it.

I used a cutting torch to cut up a 1960 El Camino California Rust Bucket.

I caught my pants on fire with the torch. I'd recommend the plasma cutter.

 

I sold the carcass of a 1981 Dodge St. Regis E-58 with no rear, engine, tranny seats, dash, brakes or suspension that was smashed in the front and rear and had been hit so hard it buckled to roof for $200.

 

yeah.. it should be a law that if you part somethig out you got to part the whole thing out. we shouldn't be wasting these old car parts.

 

the engine, transmission, rearend, front axle, wheels and tires, and the roof all have potential future homes. It's just the body that needs to go. Once I steal the axles, I don't have a way to get it to the scrap yard and most of them want titles. I've been advertising them on Craigslist for free sometimes as scrap metal.

I saw on the HAMB here where someone made a wall cabinet out of the back of an Econoline van. That's what got me thinking here....

 

we got guys in trucks around here that will pick up any scrap you give em. I'd drag the chunks out and put them in a pile and they'd be gone in the morning. you got to cut them up in small enough chunks so they can pick them up.

 

Plasma

 

HAHAHAHAHA! Man, that's awesome. I second the plasma cutter.......altho I've used a BFT, that's BIG FRIGGIN TORCH before.

 

""HOT" Wrench

 

damn.. I just remembered the last car I did I used a sawzall and my grinder and hundreds of cut off wheels.

plasma is best. torch second and abrasive cutting third. too many shavings and sparks for me.

 

Back in the early 70's I watched a big red headed guy in Waco,Tx cut up car behind a machine shop on Valley Mills drive with an axe. He was a scrapper and told me that it cost money to cut cars up with a torch. Since then I have cut several junk cars up with an axe. It isn't a good method to use if you want to save body panels though.
The local wrecking yards are paying 100 to 150 for whole junk cars with titles right now. We still have to cut cars without titles up and haul them in in pieces to the scrap yard. I'm not sure what the going price on sheet metal is right now but I got 140 a ton for prepared iron and 70 a ton for engine blocks with the pistons in last week. That 2399 lb load paid for my trip over to Billetproof NW last Saturday.

 

Around here, you have to give a declaration of ownership if it doesn't have a title. If it's chunks, they don't care. If it is 1/2 of a car, the REALLY care. I just call the scrappers that advertise in the local trading papers and they haul it away if I don't have time.

 

Plasma cutter hands down unless you're in a spot without power, then the gas axe wins.

 

quartered a jag (no title)with a saws all only used 2 blades they were the long ones,,got lucky...6 blades to quarter a camero..i think plasma with sawsall back up is the way to go

 

i vote for a 220v Plasma as well. I cut up an entire Trans Am in two days with my plasma and 1 sawzall blade for weird spots and non-metal items.

 

i prefer a victor torch! sawzall the roof post and gas axe the rest

 

Milwaukee SawZall with 'Torch' blades.
Lot less fire hazard than a torch or a plasma cutter...
(Lot less fun, too)
Jeff

 

haul it down to the White River and dump it

 

I cut car with this anywhere in no time.
Pat

 

^^^ Yep, that's the fastest way

 

That thing throws some pretty good sparks too, plus it can only fit in so many places. I cut up an old Monte with Sawzall blades and cutoff wheels one weekend, what I wouldn't have given for a plasma for a couple hours. I've torn the gears out of a Sawzall over time, and cutoff wheels get expensive - plus they can explode in your face. My vote for the plasma.

 

I have chopped up a lot of cars over the years and have found that the sawzall works the best . I own a plasma cutter and the problem is it does not like rust, lead, or Bondo. Nothing says no to the sawzall , the kind of blade is important you need to buy good quality blade's.


Just my 2 cents,

CBB

 

A chopping axe and a wood splitting mall work pretty good.

 

I cut up a '68 G10 van when I worked for the phone co. Used a torch, it took me four days. 'Course I was "on the clock" ;>) Normal Norman

 

200$ a ton for iron,, Atwater scrap, central valley ca..