Ever have second thoughts about cars taken apart for parts? I needed some pieces from a 55 Chrysler Imperial 4 door and am amazed at how well the car had survived, it appears to have never been hit and no rust, most of the chrome is cherry. I got the car for the front sheet metal and grilles, it was a roller with no motor or trans. If someone is doing an Imperial you need this thing.
I have felt bad in the past and now as they vanish i tend to look for a car not worth saving rather then scrap a good car for parts.
I think that just about any of us who have been at this for a number of years have scrapped out cars that were in pretty decent shape then and often in a lot better shape than the cars we see guys trying to rebuild now. If you can stash that Chrysler long enough you can probably find a home for it where it will be much appreciated as there is probably someone trying to fix one of the same model who has decent parts that he could put back on that body and save himself a ton of work in the process.
Doin it right now. I bought a '66 Impala 4 door sedan 12 years ago with every intent to restore it. Bought it from the original owner, only has 34,500 on the odometer. Runs like a dream. I dropped over four grand into it; upholstery, tires, por-15, radiator, parts.... I haven't touched the car in about 8 years, I got burnt out doing the quarter panels. I totally lost interest in the car so it sat inside untouched for years. All it really needs is a few hours of body work, paint, and reassembly. I tried to sell it a few times with no luck, threw it on Ebay once and it only got bid up to $700. Hey, its a four door and its not even a hardtop. Nobody wants em. Last weekend I pulled the motor and tranny out to swap in my car until I can get my 409 rebuilt. Now the car is really worth squat. Threw it up on craigslist yesterday for parts or whole. Tommorrow I have a guy coming for the deck lid and grill. So now its not gonna be anything but parts....
Yep! 1942 Ford Tudor Sedan http://waywardgarage.com/2898/1942-ford-tudor-sedan-i-parted-out/ 1968 Dodge Charger (no pictures online)
G'dayall, I have parted out several ot fiberglass two seater Chevrolet's. I have always felt bad about doing it but the particular years have not been desirable so it just happens. Tell you what though, if I offer you a Corvette engine, I have the title to back it up. Dad and I have also parted out somewhere in the vicinity of 500 Chevy cars and trucks that were almost all ot. I guess some of the 55-57 stuff was restorable but you can only fix so many of them and store even less. Some of them just gotta go. ms
Yeah. I parted out a '67 Fairlane 500XL 2 dr hardtop with a 390 c-6. I really like that body style. It was even a vinyl top car. The car wasn't that bad. Just needed rear floor pans. It had all the nice trim and options. The motor & trans were gone. I used parts from it for my '66 Fairlane GT/A convertible, and about a dozen other cars as I sold off a lot as well. That's the only one I feel bad about.
Not really a parts car, but a project vehicle that I took to the salvage yard. About 20 years ago, a retired milkman called me and asked if I wanted the short Divco that he had started to restore. I could have it just for hauling it away. I went and got it, but he said that he couldn't find the title and would get it for me. I bugged him for 3 years about the title and he always had some excuse. I finally came to the conclusion that he wanted me to restore it then he would come up with the title and claim it as his. I couldn't restore it or sell it because of the title problem, and just decided to junk it. Thinking back now, it was a really dumb thing to do. My biggest regret in all of the years that I have been playing with old cars.
30 years owned a Jaguar repair shop. All those XKE convertibles I cut up kinda haunt me, but the X-wife would have had them so oh well. Lot of rear ends went into rods so though.
Unfortunately, you can't save all of them. Some must be used for parts too bring others back. ---John
yep, i bought a 56 olds hardtop to fix, bought a parts car to fix the first one, parts car was too good to cut up so i fixed and kept the parts car, and used the first one i bought for parts. the olds in my avitar is the car i kept....john
I know what you mean, I got a mostly solid beautiful 64 Catalina convertable that I just need the frame from, it's 100 percent complete with a clear title, I hate to part it out but oh well.
I hate to say this, but without a complete line of EVERYTHING available reproduction, some car will have to be a donor to fix another. Luckily, I live in the rust belt, so I don't get this dilemma often. It's pretty clear when a parts car is a parts car to keep my driver on the road.
I agree on saving the Imperial for someone who could use it. Be sure to keep it out of Demo Derbiers Hands !!
A lot of nice 4 door cars get parted out to save much worse condition 2 doors. It's the circle of life! Right now I've got a good running '79 El Camino that's going to be giving up everything from the radiator to the rear end to help a better car come to life. Personally, I don't care much about a '79 El Camino, but lots of people want it as is.
I only had one parts car, it was a 49 ford coupe. It had real low miles, a flathead that ran with a new battery and gas down the carb, and every single piece of trim and interior bit was in it. It needed floor pans and rockers, and the passenger door had a large boot size dent. I bought it for $300 bucks, used the drivetrain and dash, kept the front bench, and sold the rest to a guy who cut the roof off it. As I look for another shoebox now, I really feel bad about not just replacing the floor pans and rockers and fixing the door. It was almost ten years ago but I can't find a coupe twice as rusty as that for that price...
Part it out and sell the carcase to the demo guys. They almost always drop a 350/350 turbo into them even if the original motor was good because the chevy engines sit so far back, away from the crush zone. In 1964 I bought a 50 ford crestliner with no grille. Bought a cherry-pie 50 2 door sedan for parts for 15 bucks...it was flawless and even had good tan paint on it! Looking back, I'd been far better off to build the parts car and junked the dinged-up crestliner..story of my life.
Nope. Not me. Just brought a trailer because it had original 20s Hudson hubcaps and Hudson rear leaf springs i needed. Someone offered a considerable amount of cash to buy it from me, but i cut it up today. Not a car, but if its got what i need, who cares.
Don't feel too bad. I scrapped a '55 Crown Victoria and a '67 400 Firebird in the late '70's. The Ford was too rusty, and I bought the blown up Firebird because it had a better hood than my '68. Dumbass! Now I want to save everything I see. No wonder nothing gets finished
How about a 57 dodge sweptside.. Had a smacked bedside and we figured we'd never find a replacement. Parted it out and crushed it. Then approximately 12 seconds later found out that a station wagon quarter would've fixed it. Shoot! (Dodges answer to the Cameo in case you aren't familiar)
I have a personal rule: I don't part out or cut up anything that is in really good condition, and when I do part out a car I take it apart carefully and make sure most of the useful parts go to someone who needs them. A couple years ago I got an '82 Grand Prix, which I personally have always hated the looks of those cars, but I took the parts I wanted and sold practically every single part off of it to someone. Front clip went to a guy with a nice 455-powered one that got wiped at an intersection, doors went to a guy restoring an aero coupe, bunch of incidentals went to a guy who loves g-bodies and redoes them all the time, etc. Hard to feel guilty about destroying a car when it allowed 2 or 3 others to continue living.
I'll be picking up an '83 tomorrow to strip the engine/trans/steering column out of for a couple of my cars. I'll part the rest to people who think that an '83 looks good.
I justify it to myself like this. If had not bought all these cars and parted them out they would probably gotten scrapped, plus I help all these other car people get there cars on the road. I have 63 Cadillac CDV that is just a shell / roller that I'm holding off cutting up since it is straight and rot free and even titled. Hopefully I will not have to scarp that one but can only hold it so long.. If you end up scrapping the imperial I would at least cut off the 1/4 panels if they are good as people always need those
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