Teach me - Buying wrecks for parts

This question has been at the back of my mind for a long time. I'm not necessarily going to go out and buy a parts car in the immediate future but I'd really like to know more about this subject.

A lot of the build threads I've read contain posts along the lines of "I picked up this shell from an insurance write-off" or "I bought a wreck. The powertrain is perfect but the body is toast".

So GRM forum, learn me - buying wrecks and write-offs.

Are you looking for engine parts? Will the car drive? Will the engine run?

Obviously, don't buy one that's been hit frontally, if you want the engine, but don't overlook a rear hit. It can shove a rear end and drive shaft into a transmission hard enough to do damage.

Rollovers seem to be nice for engine pickings. Engine fires can leave a rear axle untouched. I say look at the damage and how it was caused. That will determine if the car is viable.

Watch out for side impacts too, the mounting points on the engine and trans can break right off.

Troll Craigslist for salvage title vehicles- many times they're nowhere nearly unusable especially if they are an older car that the insurance company would jump at totaling for next to no damage.

The truck that I bought for its engine to put in my Challenge car cost me $550- a '89 K1500 with a salvage title. I pulled the engine and parted out the rest- and am currently up about a hundred dollars with several hundred in parts more still unsold (plus lots of sheet metal for the Challenge car).

Know what you want, what scrap value is and what you're willing to pay for it in the end if you can't sell any parts, and if the difference between what you're going to pay & scrap value is close enough or less to what you're willing to 'pay' for the part(s), go for it.

Also, as long as there is nothing untoward about the car/sale legally, if there's a car with parts you want for $200 or less and you can transport/store it? GRAB IT!

Thanks guys.

More advice on sources for these types of vehicles would be great.

Craigslist is a good start but I feel like it's just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe I have this irrational notion that there are insurance depots or yards full of these cars that can end up at auction but can also be purchased directly.

Stanp7 wrote: People usually buy wrecks fo the future use, they repair it etc but it is also possible to buy salvage cars and other vehicles for parts as well. I've got a wrecked bmw 2 years ago and used it for parts for my other 2 cars, the car was unrepairable anyway as it had a very severe damage.

You could use it to haul your CANOE

In reply to Appleseed:

Buying a car for the drivetrain would be the likeliest reason.

On the flip side, chassis with minor damage could be fun to swap a different engine into.

copart.com is a good place to go, but it isn't exactly cheap.

I picked up an RX-7 that was sitting at a shop. The customer brought it in for repairs, decided it wasn't worth it and just left it sitting there. I got in touch with them (the shop had their phone #) and offered to buy the car for a ridiculously low price, which they accepted without haggling.

Keep up on the classifieds in enthusiast forums for your desired make/model. Post up "want to buy" ads, you can sometimes get whole cars in those places for reasonable prices as well if you're willing to travel. A rust eaten northern beater can have a perfectly good engine in it, for example.

Ashyukun wrote: blah blah blah

Ashyukun - is that a bike rack on a Delorean in your avatar? If so, that rules.

I was stuck in traffic one day in a wierd location, "there is never any traffic on this road!" ( I said to myself) granted it was a little wet, and then I noticed that the backup was from an rx7 gone sideways into a tree (in a 25mph zone)

as I passed I noticed it was turbo model due to the exhaust and the hood and etc.

I contacted the town and asked who did their towing.

called the 4 tow places that tow for the city

identified the location of which yard it was at

went to the yard, spoke with the managers, got owners contact info.

got in touch with the owner of the car

Verified that he was was alright ( he broke his femur and some bruises) , the proceeded to talk business

step 2: ?

step 3: profit!

It also helps to be knowledgeable on the car that you are picking up, I needed a few things and then i parted everything else out until all I had was this:

also check with your local laws and or neighbors about having junk heaps on your driveway, some people tend to throw a fit or cops will like to give you tickets.

teach you buying wrecks... first off, they aren't as cheap as they used to be now that any hulk with a cat and alloy wheels is worth about a minimum of $400 in scrap.

My hulks have all come from 1) message boards. enthusiasts get attached to cars and know the parts will save othercars when they are crashed. thus, they tend to post cars for parts on boards instead of scrapping them. Many can't keep the car to part it out themselves, or simply bought it back from the insurance company to get their aftermarket parts off it. 2)craigslist. People have cars they know they aren't going to do anything with. It would be a pain to list them for sale on ebay, and they know they aren't worth much. a craigslist ad with no picture and a $200 or $300 price and they know the car will be gone in 48 hours, and they get a few bucks. finally, 3) local free to advertise trading journals. Same deal. People want free ads and quick results from local people when they are listing a cheap car they need to get rid of quick. If you take a car to a junkyard they typically only offer $200 or $300 for the scrap, so a lot of people will just throw up an ad for $500 to make an extra $200 and get rid of the car. could be a great deal if it has a running driving engine.

Craigslist is easily the most addicting, the way its split into regions and the way you deal with all sorts of people (who can't spell, don't know what they have, list a long list of requirements for potential buyers, and etc) means you can spend hours on there finding things and lots more hours calling, texting, emailing, visiting, kicking tires, and negotiating to bring home things you don't need.

But, anyway, back to the point, typically if you are working on a car built between 1980 and 2000 ish you can probably find a wrecked but running one for less than the price of a gasket and bearing set. lol. sad but true.

Brett_Murphy wrote: Keep up on the classifieds in enthusiast forums for your desired make/model.

I typically find them this way. I found a locked motor GTI that once parted provided me with a free heated leather interior swap for my Golf TDI, brake upgrades, spare wheels/tires, and numerous other spares. Made money back on the trans/exhaust/suspension/scrap/good sheet metal, etc.

I've also bought 2 or 3 cars off Craigslist to donate drivetrains, and parted the rest to make money back. You can typically find collision cars that the owner had PLPD and can't afford to fix but are still in verifiable running condition. I prefer buying cars that had been driven up until a catastrophic failure or accident, as they are likely to have had working parts, vs. cars that have been sitting for years with unknown seizes/rust/etc.

As noted, make sure you have garage space, as most townships will frown on a car chopped up in your driveway.

If doing it in your driveay, have a plan of action so you can try to make the whole thing go away fairly quick. i.e. decide what you want to keep, what you can sell, and then just scrap the rest. My neighbors know I'm quick about this kind of stuff and generally don't mind, as I keep it clean and tidy the rest of the time.

DILYSI Dave wrote: Ashyukun - is that a bike rack on a Delorean in your avatar? If so, that rules.

It is indeed- the was my small stable's pride and joy at the DeLorean Car Show this year down in Orlando. I drove it down for a week vacation in Florida with my well-worn bike on top (sort of- the rack mounts to the luggage rack, which itself mounts on the back of the car over the louvers...).

At the show though, the guy making/selling the DMC-licensed DeLorean bikes jumped at the chance to take some pictures with one of his bikes on the back of a DeLorean, so I got some really good pictures of that as well, one of which is my avatar picture.

I'm rather lazy and have not done anything in the way of filling out the info on the car in the My Garage section... one of these days when I have to go out on business I need to dump the pictures of it from my comp to my iPad so I can do so with all the time I sit around with nothing to do on the road...

Back on-topic for the discussion though, another avenue that can be worth looking into is salvage yards themselves. The parts car that donated the engine my old FC convertible ran while I rebuilt its original engine as well as a whole host of other random parts was bought from a local salvage yard for $300. It was the kind of place where they pulled the parts for you, and when I went back and listed off a long list of what I wanted off of it and asked what it would cost they offered to just sell the thing to me whole and I jumped at it. This obviously works better with things that aren't in high demand.

Getting to know your local salvage yard staff is definitely good in general- they often know what's in the pipeline and will be put out soon so you can get a heads up and find rare parts off of them.

When I have a bigger garage & driveway to hold more vehicles, I'll probably be doing more serious bargain hunting and parting out... it's hard to do with a 1-car garage, 2 running cars and one project car (and the back half of an El Camino in the back yard), and a 1-car-wide driveway. Thankfully my neighbors are either never around or are old and retired and amused by my antics...

I bought a 240sx convertible from a junkyard with a blown headgasket for $650. It needed a new regulator a few other bits but with an engine swap it was running. Not necessarily the best buy I ever made, but I really wanted an s13 vert and was having trouble finding one.

Hey here's a tip: The one part you need that's missing from your parts car that you think "oh it won't be that hard to find"...that's the one that's going to be hardest to find.

Gameboy has no idea how true that is.

Thanks guys!

Craigslist is retail. Insurance and towing auctions are wholesale. Best of luck!

poopshovel wrote: Craigslist is amatuer hour. Insurance and towing auctions are commercial. Best of luck!

fixed it for you

GameboyRMH wrote: Hey here's a tip: The one part you need that's missing from your parts car that you think "oh it won't be that hard to find"...that's the one that's going to be hardest to find.

That is why I figure out beforehand what I want, need to keep, and forget the rest.

andrave wrote:

poopshovel wrote: Craigslist is amatuer hour. Insurance and towing auctions are commercial. Best of luck!

fixed it for you

Boy, that's weird, because I'm a berkeleying picture framer, and I've bought at least a dozen cars from towing auctions and iaa, all running, and most of which were under $300 delivered.

I don't know where you live, but all the tow companies around here either scrap out anything doesn't run, or leave it in their impound till summer and sell them to derby runners.

and besides I'm not saying you have to be a business to buy them, I'm just saying its a commercial enterprise. craigslist isn't. its a free want ads. its a totally different thing.... and I wouldn't call it "retail," unless youre talking about all the dealers that post there. I've bought several running cars off craigslist for $300. I must be a berkleying picture framer too.

No, just a berkeleying smartass. We can smell our own. Most iaa auctions are open to the public, and I've never seen cars go on craigslist anywhere near as cheap as at towing auctions or insurance auctions. Ymmv.