How to scrap out a car?
 

Can I get some advice on scrapping out a car?

A while back, I bought a 1977 Mercedes Benz 240D (diesel).

I purchased it strictly to get the engine to use in another vehicle. Now I have an old Mercedes sitting in my driveway I need to get rid of.

I ran a Craigslist add saying that I had a parts car for sale, and to make me an offer for any and all parts.

Today, a guy driving past stopped and said hello. He's a scrap hauler. He said he saw the car there and offered to haul it off for me. When I asked what it was worth to him, he said "as little as possible".

Can anyone give me a range of what to expect or ask for in dollars to let somebody else drag a vehicle off for scrap steel?

I figured I would pull off any of the fancy/shiny parts and sell them on Ebay.

Any suggestions from you guys on getting the most money I can out of this car without putting in way too much work?

Thanks in advance,

-Ben

He will make 150-350 in scrap prices, so you can go from there.

Did you download the repair manual I posted? It's for your bike.

Right now scrap prices are going up, a few weeks ago they were $165 a ton here for car bodies, two tons of car... $300 or so because they charge you for the tires on it, no engine might give you a little more as they have to drain fluids before crushing it, personally I would list it at something like $20-25 per door, hood or any other part that can be pulled that might be usable.

When I scrapped a Jeep last year, I gave parts to friends that needed them, used parts I needed, and set some aside for later. Then we hacked it to pieces. Luckily, I had the title when we took it to the scrappers...

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w...hopitup008.jpg

My buddy got the back half of the Jeep and turned it into a trailer... Which explains the square tube in the frame rail in the above pic...

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/s...0911150031.jpg

Tracks nice, still has the 20 gallon fuel tank. Has 20 gallons of water on board and soon to have a 10 gallon air tank.

Not a project for everyone, but certainly a different way of recycling a vehicle...

Love the Jeep.

I love the trailer.

Don't give me ideas....

That 3" square tubing was part of an awning that fell on my truck 2 years ago. The awning came down in a wind storm, and we had to cut some of the awning away to get the truck out. Owner of the store let em keep about 40' of the tube... My buddy used some of it to run down the Jeep's frame rails, welded and bolted it through, then more of the tube for the rest of the tongue.

Recycling...

Sweet use for a scrap jeep, never seen one for a Cherokee! I bet you get a lot of envy on the trails.

Anyone who comes too you to buy scrap is going to pay you about half of what they are going to get 5 miles down the road at the scrap yard, take it there your self with the title, your ID and remember that they tend to pay out in cash so make some room in you wallet for more money.

With which you could haul the rest off to the scrapyard, and so the snake swallows itself :-)

I'm curious, though. You needed the title for the front half at the yard, but your buddy probably needed some sort of title to register the trailer...

you don't need to cut a car up to scrap it out but the price per ton does go up if you do have it in 3 foot or smaller chunks, I think it goes up by close to $50 per ton at current prices, but most scrap yards will take whatever you have, in whatever shape it's in, if you have a title I think they give you a little more and have less paper work for you to fill out.

It is also a perfect time to get rid of any scrap metal you have laying around. Just pile it in the car when you haul it in. They usually don't care what kind of metal is in it as long as it isn't fence wire. The current rate locally is $7 per 100lbs so the heavier the car the more $$$ you get. Every place I have taken scrap to usually gives you less for scrap metal than a car. But if you take the scrap metal in with the car they give you the car price on all of it.

If it has steel rims they usually take the rims off and give them back to you so if you want them gone as well pull the tires off the rims before taking it in. Just use a recip saw with a metal blade and cut the tires in half to take them off. It isn't like you care if the rims get damaged a bit when removing them.

Not to go against what has been posted already the Merc W123 series is a car owners like to keep on the road if possible so parting out the car and posting it as such on a Mercedes board may be a better option.

Have a look at:
PeachParts - Mercedes Parts & Tech Info as a starting point.

In my limited experience Carigs lists . ebay and the like are populated by people wanting either everything for nothing or close to it or people wanting this but not that - timewasters in other words.
Tread carefully.

Peter.

Trailer will get a new title and a new VIN as a new construction. Be careful with trailers, as different states have different requirements based on size and weight. For example, here in Utah, many trailers don't need a plate at all, as long as it doesn't exceed 750 pounds dry. This one weighs just under 750 without fluids. 3 guys can pick it up. But since my friend intends to take it through other states, he will register it. We did consider keeping the VIN tag and the title for a later crawler project, but we did get a bit more for the scrap with the title. Or, let me rephrase that. I gave the scrap and the title to another friend that had helped me a lot, so HE got the money...

I got $200 for old Fiero

I would try to ebay it if you think you have that kind of time for all the money to come, if you don't, scrap it.