Ive been thinking of trying to pick up a few extra $$ by parting out a car or two. Beyond the obvious buy low sell higher any words of wisdom or particular car models that are good candidates. I was thinking along the line of Porsche 944 or BMW 2002s. Thoughts? Better ideas?
I got a free BMW 2002 Tii and could barely give it away.
YMMV.
I used to do this, but eBay has killed the market.
A good forum helps greatly.
In 2004 I sold a lot of Mk1 MR2's via www.mr2oc.com
Residing in Ohio I found that most the MR2's were rusty here but my specialty was interior pieces and exterior plastic pieces. The parts mostly went to the south where their interior pieces and plastic was sun faded and cracked.
Actually a friend of mine is making pretty reasonable beer money by parting out motorcycles so I guess if you do it right, you might still make a few bucks. Not sure if it's worth the hassle, especially if you have to ebay off most of the parts.
building our challenge e30 we payed 850 for, we surprisingly recouped somewhere around 1200+ and still had a functional car using the original drivetrain. 65 or so for the ski bag, 170ish for the complete airbag system, 250 for the cat+muffler exhaust, around 80 or so for the basketweave wheel bolt covers, the list went on for surprisingly valuable parts.
i think the key is choosing a model with lot of parts that has a strong enough following where you can sell stuff easily on both forums and locally like CL, where parts are used on TONS of models, or like a suburban where after you strip the drivetrain stuff its still worth a bunch in scrap.
Derick Freese wrote: I used to do this, but eBay has killed the market.
+1
I also got tired of boxing crap up to make $8.00 after listing fee's, selling commission's, and paypal fee's.
Although some craigslist dude just gave me $125 for a Z car 5-speed that was sitting in my basement.
any car that has a large racing following, ie Miata, 944, maybe even Focus and E30, are good bets for parting out decent bodies and running gear. if they've got a large street following, you can always get rid of good interior pieces as well.
fiat spiders too... X 1/9s got no love last time I tried to part one out
I have done well with Suzuki Samurai's
Vintage/Classic Motorcycles like Yamahas and Honda CB's are somewhat difficult...because all the people who want original parts wants PERFECT original parts, and all the people who want bobber/cafe stuff just want a title, engine, wheels, forks, and tanks as cheap as they can get them.
My best luck parting out cars comes from buying them for something I need and selling off the rest. I would imagine that different markets behave differently so I can't give specific advise, but... I was given a 96 T bird in running condition that had gone into a bar ditch. I got one call from craigslist and couldn't sell a thing. I made a bunch of money off of a clapped out F350 dually but I got lucky and found some good buyers. If I was buying something just to part it would be an enthusiast car with lots of aftermarket parts thats broken somehow. Local sales are better than ebay.
I think a car with a strong forum/following would be the best route.
I've parted out a probe and sold a lot of parts on a ford probe forum... the car's haven't been made since 1997 so new parts are scarce or pricey. There is a large demand for good working used stuff.
Then once I get tired of parting it out, I always find a guy who will tow it away for $75-100.
Ebay tends to be flooded with parts so I would focus on the forums/CL aspect. If you are on any car specific forums already, start with those cars.
I recently bought a truckload of Porsche 911 parts from a guy who had built a race car, sold it and was now moving. He was in a hurry to sell and I bought everything he had fairly cheaply. I only needed a few things. I placed some ads on Pelican without much luck.
Then I took photos of every little thing that I had and posted an ad for "FREE 911 Parts". I listed all of the stuff I didn't need and didn't seem to be worth much, or was hard to ship. Then, at the end, I listed some of the more valuable stuff in a For Sale section. I also mentioned that if someone absolutely needed something small to be shipped (something that can be dropped into a USPS Flat Rate box) that I would send it out for the cost of shipping and a small donation. The ad got a million hits.
Only one item was picked up locally. People made offers on everything. It was a bit of a PITA, but I ended up making over a thousand dollars in profit.
WilberM3 wrote: building our challenge e30 we payed 850 for, we surprisingly recouped somewhere around 1200+ and still had a functional car using the original drivetrain. 65 or so for the ski bag, 170ish for the complete airbag system, 250 for the cat+muffler exhaust, around 80 or so for the basketweave wheel bolt covers, the list went on for surprisingly valuable parts. i think the key is choosing a model with lot of parts that has a strong enough following where you can sell stuff easily on both forums and locally like CL, where parts are used on TONS of models, or like a suburban where after you strip the drivetrain stuff its still worth a bunch in scrap.
I thought you couldn't recoup more than the car was purchased for? 
It might work if you have tons of space, popular cars, and live in a highly populated area.
oldtin wrote: I was thinking along the line . ....BMW 2002s.
I'll suggest you'd make far more money selling parts for a car that still exists in some quantity.
Got space, live halfway between chicago and milwaukee - looking at forum activity it seems like e30, miata and 944 stuff moves pretty well. Missed out on a cheap miata w/hard top yesterday. It was gone in minutes.
In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:
it didnt on the budget sheet but it did for our wallets.
Wait, when you part out a car you are supposed to SELL the parts? Man, I got this whole thing wrong.
oldtin wrote: Got space, live halfway between chicago and milwaukee - looking at forum activity it seems like e30, miata and 944 stuff moves pretty well. Missed out on a cheap miata w/hard top yesterday. It was gone in minutes.
do you have a way to dispose of the shells?
do you have a way to move them around/get them to you?
there is someone who is/was on this board that was doing miata part outs around these parts.
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