OK, I found a parts car today for $300 bucks. It's sunk about six inches into the dirt and pretty smoke on the bottom side. The guy said he free'd up the brakes about ten years ago but assumes they're stuck again. I really only want some of the car but he would rather I took it all or at least stripped it as much as possible (fenders, doors, hood on and on). Is it worth the hassle and anybody have any good advice on how to load it or strip it?
It kind of depends what car it is would be my guess, A 57 chevy Nomad will part out a lot quicker than a Escort wagon.If it is something that people are wanting parts from go for it .
It's a '55 Cad that has a few pieces I'd like to keep. It comes with an extra '53 front bumper. I'm not looking to make money off the car but if it paid for itself I'd be happy. The car is about an hour and ten minutes away.
Forget the scrapping part ,Take what you need then Ebay it or craigs list ,Or upull it If you have a vehicle with a hitch measure the car and rent a trailer from uhaul .Sounds like you need to get it flatbedded though .
I'd strip it at home. You will get way more value that way. How? If the car is is not blocked in and easy to get to; I'd get a local rollback guy to pull it up on the bed, then transfer it onto your trailer. Even with stuck brakes, flat tires, a good operator can get it on your trailer quick... "if" it's not hard to get to.
Take the whole thing home, have a wrecker load it if you have to. Pull off everything you want and whatever you think you can sell, and scrap the rest. You'll have what you want, you'll get most of your money back in scrap, and you can sell the parts at your own pace. Whenever you strip a car in place, you'll end up leaving stuff that you didn't think of, or stuff that was too hard to remove with the car where it was. Happens every time, without fail. I wouldn't bother with eBay or Craigslist for the whole car. Parts cars don't bring shit, especially if they've been cherry picked of the best parts. You'll come out way ahead by selling it in pieces, and you won't have to sit on the hull for 6 months while looky-loos come and kick the tires on it. This is pretty much what I do for a living, I have a lot of experience with it. If you can, start selling some of the extra stuff before you scrap the main body, because once people know you're parting out the car, they'll ask for shit that you'd never think to save.
Part nothing, I just used a forklift and but in a dumpster. The driver gave me a "I know nothing, I see nothing" answer when I asked if it would be ok. I removed all I.D. #'s of course.
I recently picked this car up, a '37 Buick Limited for $150. Brought it to my shop and spent two days tearing it apart with a torch. Anything that looked usable was pulled with care using hand tools and penetrating oil, everything else was cut apart and went to the scrap yard or the dumpster. I was fortunate, I had a person ready to trade parts from this car for parts I needed for my '37 Special. We both feel like we came out ahead. I figure I got over $1000 worth of parts for the parts I salvaged from this hulk plus another $100 for scrap. It was completely gone in two days.
Exactly what I was thinking Squablow, I'd end up leaving something I wanted. You guys are right. So what's the best way to get a car that doesn't roll onto a trailer without a tractor?
brute force + comealong. been there, done that. Loaded a dead OT '90 chevy PU up onto a flatbed with a comealong and chains.
First try to bust the drums loose. I start out by beating on them with a sledge, and shooting some WD40 through the adjuster hole. Crank with a breaker bar against the lugs. More often than not they'll come loose with a little work. You may have to pry off the drums, remember the nut on fronts, and throw out the old shoes. Remember to take some good spares and air tanks. If all else fails, I have a 3 piece portable A Frame that I use. Position it over the car, lift up one end with come a longs, and back the trailer underneath it. Remove the old tires and wheels, and once the car is over the trailer lay a piece of pipe the width of the car under the frame and winch the car to the front of the trailer rolling it on the pipe. I usually use three pipes.
Get a rollback ...... Take the Caddy home and strip what you what. Put the neat pieces on eBay. If that does not go fast enough for you. Then SELL the rest for scrap. Scrap is bringing 11.55 a hundred around here. That Caddy is HEAVY. If you only have 3200 lbs of Caddy left ... that is $369.60 ... so you can come out like a bandit. The Caddy should weigh more than 3200 lbs.
come-a-longs, chains, pulleys and cables with a second "snatch vechicle. There are a lot of different ways to load stuck cars. A few planks of wood, a couple of those "dollies" used for storing a car works good. You can even use a skateboard or two!
A couple of times I have called a salvage yard that I often buy from and offered them a car at the usual scrap price or the current going rate, if they let me pull off the parts I wanted before they made it available to their other customers or crushed it. I told them what I wanted to keep, then they figure what they want to pay me for the leftover hulk, or I trade it for "store credits" for other parts I need from another of their cars. They offer to come and pick up any car they buy from you. I don't have to drag it there. They usually gave me about a week to pull the parts I wanted before it became open season. The only danger in that is if someone else comes in and pulls parts before you are finished.
The car I posted above didn't have any wheels, it was sitting on the ground and only one brake drum turned. We loaded it onto my tilt bed trailer by raising the rear and blocking it up in front of the rear axle. I tilted the bed and backed it up to the blocks, hooked up the chain hoist, removed the blocking and cranked the hoist as I backed the trailer farther under the car. Once I got the trailer up to the front suspension it just slid up the trailer. This was a '37 Limited, the biggest model Buick had in '37, I'm sure it had to weigh as much a your Caddy, if not more. It's good to have a few young backs to help. I was able to rangle up my three nephews:
I've gotten a car on a Friday night and made it dissapear by Sunday night with the use of some Sawzall blades and cuttoff wheels. Would have gone much better with a torch. The drivetrain is almost a pleasure to remove after the body has been hacked away from it. You might need a few more days to cut it up if you need to salvage body parts and brackets, etc. from it though.
You'd think someone would need a whole '37 Buick Limited, since very little intechanges with anything other than 37-38 Buick Limited. Anyways, if it's sunk in up to the hubs, you dig a hole, put something down in the bottom, jack it up, put rocks under the tires, then go do the rear end or other side. If the brakes were free and he didn't use them again after, it will probably roll. And a rollback makes even quicker work of it, which is why we finally got one a few years ago, we've scooped up cars that have rotted in one place for 50 years no problem. A 55 Caddy you should be able to sell down to about a bare shell, I know there used to be one in one of the yards here and it was basically a bare body on a frame and it was that way 15 years ago. I've wanted to nab a complete dash from one for a while now, thought about picking up a local one for more $$ to part out myself.
You're correct, after tearing into my '37 Special I found it needed a lot more than I thought. I found the Limited about 60 miles away for $150 and thought I might have found the parts I needed. I called guy who is very knowledgeable on '37-38 Buicks who informed me that other than the font headlights and grill, the Special and Limited share no other parts. I've a lot old Buicks since buying the Buick last fall. It worked out pretty good for me though. I salvaged a bunch of parts from the Limited and traded the Buick guy for almost all the parts I needed for my Special, later I ended up buying a better body and frame from the guy. All I ended keeping from the original car is the front clip and a few other parts. Still good parts for the initial $550 purchase price. I see it as buying a parts car first and the main car second.
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