You have some valid points, but 49-54 Chevy cars are great parts cars, you can sell them down to a shell if you do it right. Meaning, don't dick around with swap meets, put those parts online and be willing to ship. Well, at least they say you can, my luck has been the nice parts sell fast, and the other odds and ends may as well go in the scrap bucket. I advertised a rearend for months, scrapped it, then had someone speak up they needed one. Oh well.
Sorry Bob, someone had to do it. I just envisioned 3 days on the road to get it all, the fuel and lodging expenses, the work to prep it all for sale, then the hauling, unloading, reloading to a place like Hershey where EVERYBODY who needs ANYTHING should be, and taking about 80% of it back home. Good thing I don't go to Hershey to sell seriously. You too?
Highlander is spot on! Reality sucks. Wally; you even said in your opening statement that you "don't have the space or extra $ to buy anything". And so it goes... I'll say the same thing I did in your other post (which was deleted) on these cars; Storing and shipping out large sheet metal parts is a tough gig. Make a deal to spend a day going through the yard and pull all the desireable, light, small parts; stainless trim (2 dr's.), dashboards, steering wheels, 49 chevy bumper licese guards, etc. Then list it on line (HAMB). If you get the stuff cheap (just prior to the crusher dates) you stand to make a couple hundred + off each car. Flipping entire cars isn't likely as MN is probably same as many states in that the cars, once in a yard, cannot be sold whole-scrap title. Maybe "I'm going to crush them all" is BS. I bet it's taken a long time to drag in half a dozen 49-51's, several 53-54's, etc. Those cars have probably been there a while.
I know the guys that own the yard. I watched Dennis pick up a 1947 Chevy 2 door coupe off of a flatbed trailer with the claw and make it flat one of the days I was there.
Yup. Bob's right. I have a damned nice 46 Ford Coupe body for sale. Not so much as a nibble. Thinking about putting it on an S-10 chassis and driving it to the crusher.....
I'll say one other thing too - when I had the chance at a yard, I bought the best car I could and flipped it quick for what it would bring. The cash from that bought four more cars. The cash from those four bought still more. Eventually I got about 40 of them out of there. I picked a few turkeys, to be sure, some I still can't sell, but for the most part they all went and I can't complain too much. One $150 pile I sold two times for a grand total of almost $4000.
I've bought collections like this for my yard, but only locally. Transportation and labor costs would kill any kind of profit, unless there were valuable cars involved. Sadly, pickups and low-line vehicles just do not bring much, especially in this economy. ---John
Maybe a yard like French Lake Auto Parts in Annandale, MN may be interested? He's a HAMBER and always buying cars, I don't know how close he is to this place?
Looks like about 157 miles according to Google maps driving directions. https://maps.google.com/maps?gs_rn=25&gs_ri=psy-ab&tok=gOmxO2Rx6OxFhtP342Ix2g&cp=13&gs_id=5&xhr=t&q=annandale+mn&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.51156542,d.aWc&biw=1680&bih=987&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl
For all that iron to be gone forever without a chance for the car hobby folks to save them, is just a shame. I have seen this happen more than I care to remember,and every time I see a new batch about to come to an end it makes me sick !!
Incorrect statement.The OP said he has been spreading the word about these for over a month and nobody has showed up. The "car hobby folk" never seem to get it that the guy is running a business and if he is getting XXX for scrap weight he isnt going to sell it cheaper just so some car hobby folk can "save" it. What I usually do is talk to the owner and offer $80-100.00 per car and for that I get all the light weight stuff.Trim,steering wheels,carbs etc. leaving them with most all the weight still there.Everything fits in my parts hauler.Has worked for me for years. I dont touch sheetmetal other than maybe a grille shell.As mentioned above,it doesnt sell.I get calls from people looking for sheetmetal...as long as it's cheap,near perfect condition and they dont have to pay any extra cost like mileage or labor. Saving a old car isnt hard to do.Just do the math of what the total cost will be to get it home and decide if it's worth it. These cars are 146 miles and 3 hours drive time away from me.Lets use 300 miles as a round trip figure and 8 hours for drive time including loading and b.s.ing. 10 MPG with my hauler equals 30 gal.of fuel at $3.50.$105.00 in fuel to get 1 car. Whats my time worth? You readers can fill in your own number and times that by 8. Any additional costs like water food or beer? Add $20 just because you need a number.Now add in the cost of the actual vehicle and you have a idea of what you have in it before trying to sell it.Have a number? Now add time spent cleaning and/or advertising it.If your parting it out dont forget those numbers either. After all that you will have a fairly accurate number of time and cash in the car you want to save or think others should save.
Just last night my Son In Law with a John Deere and forks put a OT project car in my garage. All my car projects are inside now, town is talking about yardnazis, yuppiepolice. Unless you live on a 20 acre farm or have a huge pole barn buying junk yard cars isn't going to happen these days. Bob
To crush old stuff like that doesn't make any sence. When they crushed they just get what ever the price of steel is. What would the price be on a 52 chev deluxe be a the wrecker? Probley 200-300 bucks maybe. They're probley worth more as project cars than they are wrecked
I ran out to this yard this a.m. Most of the cars looked pretty good but the interiors were totally shot. Dennis said he'd take 600-700 for each. Double scrap price. I spent a couple hours picking out parts, hubcaps, trim, emblems, tailgates, carbs, truck box, etc. Dennis is real friendly and easy to work with. He said he may crush them soon but didn't know for sure yet. He also may be getting some titles for the cars/trucks
WAY TO GO Brock! I'm glad you saved some of the items. I hope someone else can get a few parts they need too or whatever before there gone.
Of course, when you pick on a mostly complete car for the hard trim parts, you pretty much doom it to be crushed because no one will buy it to build without those pieces, but....
That stuff is really clean for Minnesota cars. I bet they scrapped out a collection from a barn, or brought those in from somewhere else. Sad to say, but there's places that look like this all over the country, and empty farmers barn/groves/fields to prove it! My Dad was just down in south central Nebraska earlier this summer. He went around to all the places where there had been stashes of old cars 20 years ago. The old farmers that had most of the stuff have all died, and the stuff ended up in places like this!!
Went to a little old junk yard about an hour away from me sat. I hadn't been there in a few years.Sad to say they were cleaning up, no old cars left, crusher on site. Its happening everywhere.The old guy said he wasn't selling much and the price of junk was up.
I see that so many are hung up on the philanthropic view of this shit. NOBODY OWES THE VINTAGE CAR GIG A FUCKIN THING. Other than the smile on your face as you go out for a morning coffee, what is it YOU are doing for the history of the automobile? I'd bet not much, and especially here. We fuck em up as a matter of course. Some of us have done more "preservation" than the entire membership combined, given the years dedicated to restoration. But I'll say this, that in over 40yrs of hammer welds, dolly blocks, burns, cuts, scratches, paint fumes, old gas smell, rat piss, rat's nests, mildew, wood and metal rot, not once did I feel the need or drive to do for free "just to save it". I've donated to museums, helped some venues with show admission fees, but other than that kids, YOU AND YOUR PRECIOUS DREAM CAR ARE ON YOUR OWN. Don't think that's right either? Pay attention to the scowling faces in the bigger cities when your out driving. For decades, and it gets worse over time, too many feel we have no need and would like to remove the liberty we all share to build and drive as we wish. From insurance agents to 70yr old grannies, you never know what bullshit diatribe you'll hear. "3500 hours? I dare say, wouldn't that pay for a few college educations?", said to me about one of my cars. My reply? "Fuckin eh, it paid for mine!" Perspective kids. Don't get me wrong, I love this shit, all of it, most every color and shape, but somebody has to leave the snooze button alone on the clock radio sometimes.
I made him an offer on 4 cars. we were close, and he wouldn't budge!! I have the room to store a few cars, if you have the money
Thats just it. he would rather crush them. Eff him. I tried dealing with him, both a buddy and myself to BUY cars. He has our contact, wont call us back and wont send pictures. The guys are morons. Sad to see the cars go. But he isn't selling. At least that is what I have felt on dealing with him. He was an ass because I wanted to come down and walk through his yard to look. He can have a stroke for all I care.
These cars are way to modern for my tastes. Lol, let denise destroy em. He sounds like a real winner.
I'm only a 6 hour drive. I got a truck trailer and some money I can embezzle out of the savings, I'm calling tommarow. Thanks for the info.
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