What are some good cars to partout for side money?

I've been looking for cars to partout recently for some side money. A few weeks ago I scored a wrecked 1986 BMW 325es. The car has a bent frame rail and is missing most of the front end parts, making it the perfect candidate. I originally bought the car to save some parts for myself, such as the manual transmission and LSD. After listing the rest of the car for parts, I've received all kinds of inquiries on the most random items from people all over the country and even overseas. I have no doubt I'll make money on this deal.

With that said, I've been in the e30 game for a long time and I knew I would do fairly well on this thing. But my question is, what other cars out there could I partout? E30s aren't as common to find anymore, at least cars that are destined for the scrapyard. I know a lot of guys have had luck with Miata parts. What else is there that is in demand?

I've found that as long as you don't overpay for the car you'll do well with almost any car. My mr2 spyder made me a few thousand dollars and my current 2012 c300 has cleared a few thousand while still having a ton of listings up on eBay. I've got a Volvo S90 I need to tear apart but that's not going to gross or net as much but it was as much a favor to get it out of a friends hair as anything. One key is keeping up motivation and for me having stuff you're using off the car helps. Just doing it for money is harder because the motivation is different. Specialty cars will sell parts faster and people will seek you out. The C300 has been more like selling appliance parts whereas the Spyder had guys travelling to come get parts and emailing me later asking about other stuff and was generally a lot more fun. It helped that I was using major parts from it to get my own spyder on the road. 

An individual can only do so many part outs in a year. It takes me more than a year to get through one but I've got very little time to dedicate to it. I bet you could find a scrap e30 every year or so and keep yourself busy with them but I also understand the allure of tearing apart something new. 
 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/parting-out-cars-for-profit-and-maybe-fun-2012-mer/145788/page1/

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/parting-out-cars-for-profit-and-maybe-fun-2012-mer/145788/page1/

I think my answer in a pre-corona world is different than a post-corona world.

Pre-corona choices like e30 or MR2 are directed to customers with disposable income looking to improve their "fun car."  I think in the post-corona world this pool of people with the disposable income will shrink dramatically.  I think the customer base will be more about keeping some DD'er on the road.  

I think the attraction will be a car that was made in significant amounts but not such significant amounts that every JY has one in stock.  A Ford Fusion would be too common and too readily available.  Another factor would be to find a car with a following and a car that is cost prohibitive to replace (so you try to keep the old one going.)    There will be a customer base who still really needs awd capabilities yet buying something new with real awd capabilities will be cost prohibitive.  

Jeeps will be too common and too much inventory available.

Base on these ramblings, I think a good choice might be a Hummer H3.  Maybe.  

I searched out some H3 listings and found this one:

https://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/pts/d/waterford-parting-out-2006-hummer-h3/7073719411.html

I have no context of how long he had had this H3 up for sale but in the words you can see that he has unloaded some key items that likely brought some good dollars.  

He also has this listing down to just the shell.  

Before:

After:

NOT TR7s!  I tried that and it was a bust!  BMWs would be a good choice.

There's a Mini around the corner from me for $2500 that says "needs some TLC". No idea what's wrong with it but it's all there. Something like that might be a good candidate- they break a lot but people love them so they're interested in keeping them on the road. 

Ones with platform sharing.

Honda's with K24s is where I start. Fleet spec full sized pickups are another option.

In reply to cdygrubbs :

Not Jaguars. 
For some reason still recent Jaguar owners seldom consider used parts and when they do they want them so close to free it isn't worth your time unless you just happen to have it sitting on the shelf collecting dust. Or they want it in near new condition. 
Then  vintage stuff like  XKE's  or older, become so valuable people are restoring trash and still making money. 
I was given a XJS V12 from a junkyard because in holding it inside for 20 years he hadn't sold enough parts off it to justify the space let alone the time to pull parts. 
 

That's not universal though. There are Jaguar specialty yards that do a good business.  I think it has something to do with herd mentality.    I know from personal experience it has nothing to do with marketing.  

Cars that are either cheap and plentiful (so you have a large market for selling parts) or cars that are rare and difficult to find parts for (so if you have a part, chances are someone wants it).

But really, any car you pick up for $500 or less will generally make money. Good example is the old e34 5-series I got to take the engine out of. I paid $400 for it and all told (after taking the engine) I think I sold about $550 in parts (without even trying hard, and it's not like there is a big market for old 5-series stuff), and got another $100 or so in scrap for it. Had I actually sold the engine/transmission I probably could have added another $500+ to that amount. And that was in under a week, since I wanted to get the car out of my garage and gone. If I had a big place to stash it, probably culd have sold quite a bit more. 

If you join all the facebook groups relevant to whatever car it is, it's almost certain you can sell almost everything off of it. 

E39 and Rabbits were my go tos. Now I tried an e36 vert and made some money but not what I was looking for. 

To tie into what Irish said, I would recommend something that you think you can recoup the investment quickly, off just a few parts.  

I've always done great with FC rx7s but thats really because thats all I know and if I don't sell any parts I just add it to the hoarde piles of double and tripple sets of spares. 

morello159 said:

There's a Mini around the corner from me for $2500 that says "needs some TLC". No idea what's wrong with it but it's all there. Something like that might be a good candidate- they break a lot but people love them so they're interested in keeping them on the road. 

I was wondering about these as well. I see a few either wrecked or broken but not sure if this cars reputation for poor reliablility is killing the market to keep them running.

In reply to frenchyd :

I have found the Brit car contingent to be a bit like T-Rexs. Little arms too short to reach the wallet!

To answer the OP...I have slowly become a fan of this Youtube channel. I found this video to be germane to what you are asking. What I also found from a longer view, is that it is a slippery slope to becoming an old car junkyard.

Oddly, I had almost no luck selling parts for the last few years.  The used car dealership guys tell me business slowed down a lot, people were buying new cars.

That will change now. 

hot is used cats because they are not allowed to be sold legally and very expensive new for California.

RX8 with a confirmed good engine, engine and suspensions are sellable.  Prius with a good battery.

W126 coupes. Especially running one's. I bought a 88 560sec with a hole in the cylinder head for $1100. The interior was good and all the electronics worked. Body panels were good too. After parting it out I made a 6k profit

Anything that LKQ can compete with is and will be tough to make much money on.

I am still doing what I always did on eBay- focus on niche vehicles and parts.  

I picked up a parts car for my roadrace integra and was able to keep the power train and suspension and some other bits and sell the rest and made a few bucks on the deal.  This one was sort of set up for autocross.  I am working on another one that I hope to pick up shortly and hope to do the same.

Probably did not make much on a per hour basis but was sort of a fun project.

I got a wrecked '05 Focus for free and spent about a year on and off dismantling it.  In the end, I netted about $1,100 off of it and I've still got a shelf full of parts that I haven't tried real hard to sell.  If I would have taken the time to work out things like what it would cost to ship things via freight I could have done a little better - all the really big stuff (transmission, seats, bumper cover, doors, etc) I only listed locally.

Three weeks ago, I would have said that your best bet would be something that was expensive enough that there's enough value in fixing it rather than getting rid of it, but uncommon enough that aftermarket parts and used parts aren't crazy-plentiful and cheap.  A door switch from a Focus goes for five bucks but the same part out of an 8-year old German luxobarge can be 10-20 times that.

Here in the coughpocolypse, though, who knows what's going to happen.  If we hit 10% unemployment new car sales will drop and parts demand will probably go up.  If we hit 30% unemployment, you might be better off building a Hoover Wagon rig to attach horses to front bumpers.

In reply to dculberson :

Yes, it is definitely time consuming. Thanks for sharing your Mercedes part out thread. I laughed when I read the post about taking 2 hours to construct a box. I found myself making several boxes this last week. Pulling parts is easy on the e30, shipping is what takes the most effort.

In reply to John Welsh :

Interesting thoughts on the pre-corona vs post-corona world. Very curious as to how things turn out after this is all over. Thanks for sharing the Hummer idea. They're not my cup of tea but uncommon enough to make some money with on a part out... exactly the types of vehicles I'm looking for.

irish44j said:

Cars that are either cheap and plentiful (so you have a large market for selling parts) or cars that are rare and difficult to find parts for (so if you have a part, chances are someone wants it).

But really, any car you pick up for $500 or less will generally make money. Good example is the old e34 5-series I got to take the engine out of. I paid $400 for it and all told (after taking the engine) I think I sold about $550 in parts (without even trying hard, and it's not like there is a big market for old 5-series stuff), and got another $100 or so in scrap for it. Had I actually sold the engine/transmission I probably could have added another $500+ to that amount. And that was in under a week, since I wanted to get the car out of my garage and gone. If I had a big place to stash it, probably culd have sold quite a bit more. 

If you join all the facebook groups relevant to whatever car it is, it's almost certain you can sell almost everything off of it. 

I don't think plentiful cars will make me much money just because there is so much competition. But yeah, rare cars and just cheap cars in general could be money makers. It seems like you can't go wrong with any old BMW stuff right now. All of the BMWs from the 80's and 90's are hot right now.

wae said:

I got a wrecked '05 Focus for free and spent about a year on and off dismantling it.  In the end, I netted about $1,100 off of it and I've still got a shelf full of parts that I haven't tried real hard to sell.  If I would have taken the time to work out things like what it would cost to ship things via freight I could have done a little better - all the really big stuff (transmission, seats, bumper cover, doors, etc) I only listed locally.

Three weeks ago, I would have said that your best bet would be something that was expensive enough that there's enough value in fixing it rather than getting rid of it, but uncommon enough that aftermarket parts and used parts aren't crazy-plentiful and cheap.  A door switch from a Focus goes for five bucks but the same part out of an 8-year old German luxobarge can be 10-20 times that.

Here in the coughpocolypse, though, who knows what's going to happen.  If we hit 10% unemployment new car sales will drop and parts demand will probably go up.  If we hit 30% unemployment, you might be better off building a Hoover Wagon rig to attach horses to front bumpers.

Haha, yeah I'm sure new car sales have tanked already. $1100 is pretty impressive for a Ford Focus.

Thanks everyone for all of your input. I've been talking to my father over the last few days about what kind of cars I should be looking for. So far we came up with old BMWs and Mercedes, Integras, RSXs, and IS300s. But, like irish44j said, anything cheap can probably make money.

rustybugkiller said:

morello159 said:

There's a Mini around the corner from me for $2500 that says "needs some TLC". No idea what's wrong with it but it's all there. Something like that might be a good candidate- they break a lot but people love them so they're interested in keeping them on the road. 

I was wondering about these as well. I see a few either wrecked or broken but not sure if this cars reputation for poor reliablility is killing the market to keep them running.

The problem with Mini is the same parts break on all of them, so no one needs the parts you have, they need the same stuff yours doesn't have.