Folks Of Interest Collectors Vs Scrappers

well that was fun! i used to laugh at messes like that, now my place is getting close to it. really, i'm done dragging shit home unless i know it will sell quick

 

Everyone loves capitalism until a smarter capitalist comes along.

 

Damn RidingMechanic, those are dream sales for me. Glad you saved what you could.

 

The photos show what looks to be deals if you know what you are looking for. I'd pass on a lot of stuff I couldn't ID or was too heavy to lift easily.

 

yep I hate it when they split in two rings. Most of my hoard has came from auction sales. Many times ive bought the entire contents of a building. Going to a auction is my entertainment. more fun than a car show or just about anything else. The thing is when you see some hoarders estate auctioned off its not really a horrible sad thing. That person was able to enjoy their stuff right to the very end.

 

Define too heavy? ive bought bull dozers, school buses, mobile homes , sawmills, semi trucks and managed to drag it all home. Its all part of the adventure.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^ I totally agree, just walking by a car or pile of parts, can brighten your day, brings back good memories or if you have a good imagination that pile of parts can become a fine ride in the future. Bob

 

I have an asshole for a neighbor so storing anything in my back yard is a future problem on my 1/2 acre. Garage full of HEMI's, I could call my Son In Law and save them. Bob

 

An older friend and fellow church member of mine had a really bitchin Gretsch guitar amp from the late 50's, it was a wonderful amp, in mint condition and sounded wonderful. I told him if he ever wants to sell it please give me first chance to buy it. Over the years I checked in with him about it several times, nope, he wouldn't sell it. Finally old age got to the guy and he started to develop problems with dementia. His wife decided to sell the house and move back east with their daughter. I told her, hey, Ray's got this guitar amp I've always wanted, I'm not asking if I can have it for free, I'll buy it, just don't let it get away. She said OK, she'll keep an eye out for it and let me know. She did bring me a vintage Martin tenor guitar and a 4 string banjo her father used to play, and those are very cool, but it's the Gretsch amp that I really wanted. I kept bugging her about it, and after the house sold and they only had a short time to get everything cleaned up she had friends come over and help her clean up. She rented a large dumpster and they just started throwing things out. I kept bugging her about the amp, and finally she told me it was gone, and she thinks one of her friends that was "helping" threw it into the dumpster, it was gone. Crap! It makes me sick to my stomach to think that that beautiful, rare, mint amp got deposited at the dump and smashed under ground by a bull dozer and covered with dirt. I can't imagine a reasonable adult person who would think something like that was trash and would throw it into a dumpster. I hold out hope that somebody made off with it and that amp is still around today, somewhere.

 

I used to go to sales with dad as a kid, and still remember picking out an old Buick chrome rally wheel and telling him, "this is cheap...I'm sure I could make some money on it". I think I made maybe $20 when I finally sold it, but that was the start of the addiction. I love buying first, and selling second, so I had to create a side business over the years just to manage it. It turned into a second career and has paid for a lot of stuff along the way.

I love building cars, but with a couple kids and other family to take care of, its a lot easier to just buy and sell.

Haven't bought any schoolbuses of dozers yet but I almost pulled the trigger on this beast a couple years ago. Glad I didn't - it probably would've killed me! Federal 6x6 army wrecker.

(This was part of the Jeff Chester military vehicle collection along with G503s, half-tracks, scout cars, DUKWs, etc...there's a bunch of pics on the Steel Soldiers forum and elsewhere if you like that kind of stuff. Just google his name plus "auction" or "collection".)

 

One of my hoarder friends tells me that if I go to his auction and see a little dog pissing on someones leg, it is him and he is mad that guy got a deal on that part!

 

Yes that army rig would be mighty handy. I towed buses and other heavy stuff with a home built 64 chevy 3/4 ton wrecker. I placed the front wheels on a dolley. Pulling wasn't a problem. Going down hills without fading the brakes having a runaway takes a bit of nerve and a lot of skill. I also bought and sold and continue to do so.

 

How did you get the bulldozer home? And did it run and drive?

My dad bought an old link belt excavator from a used car lot of all places not too from his house. In negotiating he had them hire a low boy and deliver it to his property. He and my mom bought river property and it was mostly rock. He bought the excavator cheaper then he figured it would cost to hire the excavation work done and did it himself, plus he told my mom he could sell it and get most, if not all, his money back. I think he paid 11 or 12,000 delivered? House is now done and he still has the excavator



This is my Dad, Brother and myself with the Link Belt breaking ground on the shop back in 2013, which he built first, prior to the house.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Son in Law just did the same thing, smoking deal on an excavator to redo the septic system in the spring. Added bonus, AH across the street get to look at it. Bob

 

At present I own5 bulldozers. Two are in good working order. I bought two TD 14 A bulldozers that didn't run. one the engine ran but the steering clutches where bad. the other would start up on gas but the fuel injection was bad. So I swapped the entire fuel system from one to the other. Used the fuel tank filters lines injectors and injection pump. And goy it running . used the running dozer to push the other one on a lowboy. cost me $200 to get it hauled 7 miles. and I walked the running one home. my wife went ahead with boards and tires for when I had to cross the highway & a couple of bridges. I now have a OT 76 C65 ten wheel chev truck with air brakes. Big block 366 , working 5 speed and two speed rear. I hauls my dozers no trouble. Ive got a braden winch It need to mount at the headache rack. I also have a 1940 D4 narrow guage cat. bought it for $750 . paid a guy $300 to haul it home bcause I don't have licence and insurance on my C65 chev. I had to clean up the injection pump to get it running My grandson Grayson thinks the D4 is his .

 

I always loved TD14s and 18s. we had both on the farm. My grandfather kept one of the 14s after retiring and selling the farm. He used it for pulling trees out of the woods to his sawmill he had built for retirement fun. When he decided to really retire and move down south he had another auction at the sawmill. I think the 14 went for $3000. I don't know what they are worth but I didn't really have any use for it so I didn't bid on it. A scrapper guy bought it for pulling junk out of swampy places.

 

yup, every growing boy needs some equipment to play with. 40 years ago i bought a bobcat to make the pad for my shop instead of hiring it done. still have one, bigger, newer, how can anyone live without one?

 

The td 14 and td 18 used the same ring & pinion gear. However the TD 18 was a bigger 6 cyl engine. And if put in a bind would strip the ring & pinion. There where two separate heads on a TD 18. and the exhaust from the dual manifolds both connected to a horizontal muffler. One guy replaced the rotted muffler with two straight stacks made from large diameter truck driveshaft. He had it pushing a Cutter blade clearing timber. You could hear it for miles. The little D4 I bought It was part of a tremendous hoard of stuff. I had to out bid the scrap yard owner operator from west plains mo. to buy it. All day long he bought everything. And I bid against him on almost everything. finally at the end of the sale I was able to buy stuff. I finally ran him out of money.? Then Sunday after the sale he loaded his new one ton truck and gooseneck trailer with a portion of what he bought. He was down the hill with his loader moving stuff. He left the keys in his truck. It was a automatic. And this female Meth Head got in and drove it away. The truck was found in the next county 50 miles away. stuck in a mud hole . the engine blew and transmission damaged. It had 800 mile more on it than his log book recorded. So I guess the dope fiend put 750 miles on it stuck in a mud hole! He was telling me the tale. And I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

 

When I was 10 we lived in NE Indiana. A place they called Hillbilly Haven. Everyone there cane from Ark Ten and Kentucky to work on the cons of the new betehlem steel mill or the toll road. And the toll road was by our house. There was a bar pit That's now called Dombey lake. And I spent every day there. I would pester the mechanics. and enjoyed the big sandbox they where playing in. I suppose I was their Mascot. I would go to the little store and bring them back cigarettes and soft drinks. I got to ride on DW21 cat scrapers. the road grader , bulldozers and other equiptment. Rode in the foremans pickup. I learned how a cat dozer with a pony engine was started. got greasy and dirty learned lots of cusswords' dirty jokes and pussy stories ect. I didn't want to go back to school that fall.

 

If the junkie won't take cash for some of the stuff he "bought out from under you", try a trade, offering more weight of other scrap than whatever it is that you want. Worth a try.
Marcus...

 

The part that bothers me the most is that the scrap yard refuses to resale once it buys the parts as scrap. It's a real crock!!!

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

The durable fix for this problem is to simply stop hoarding.

 

I always believe if its not broken why fix it? I fail to see a problem that needs fixing. It makes very little difference if your collect , hoard , restore , build ,Buy and sell ect. If someone is able to happily enjoy whatever they want to do with their very own time money and life it doesn't get any better than that. Unfettered Persuit of Life Liberty and Happiness

 

There are a certain type of do gooder greenie folks who actually think they are saving the planet by scrapping stuff like older vehicles and parts. They truly believe that folks like us are polluting and killing the planet. So they work to get laws passed to twart our evil behavior LOL.

 

Another HAMB reply that should be cast in bronze and hung on a wall. Thank you!
Bob

 

And with that attitude, the hobby will disappear from the land, long before the fuel runs out, or it's outlawed.

If you are not building, you are building demise.

Vintage hot rod parts are a fixed quantity resource. Artificial supply throttling harms the hobby by driving up prices.

But hey, self-pleasure is far more important than anything else

 

I buy my parts with my own money and decide when and if the project ever gets finished. Don't loose sleep over it.

Bob