Love this job! (with pics) - Page 2

Hey Focker, what all do you strip from cars?
The competition is pretty fierce here and I try to do what I can to make a deal on a car when I buy them, but I'd probably never give $500 for a grand prix, much less 600! I can't work that cheap... I grab aluminum wheels, cats, and whatever else is easy to grab, aluminum or brass copper lines, brass radiators (alum. hardly worth the mess) battery cables, batteries, and about any core items that are an easy grab or worth the effort. Some guys I know of strip the entire car, all the wiring harnesses, etc. I don't really wanna spend a whole day stripping them though. I spend maybe an hour tops on them usually and I make out like a bandit. It would be hard to make myself spend a good bit more money on the car, then force myself to spend half a day stripping it to get my money back out of it. I can't make a huge mess at my property and I like to stay somewhat clean LOL. Like I tell everyone I don't operate a salvage yard here, so I only get what is worth my time and trouble and doesn't take a ton of room to store. I have enough room but I don't want my trailer tied up with a car for a day or two. I want to get what I need and get it gone. I have unloaded cars in my driveway to go get more on the weekend when the yard was closed, then take them all in on Monday. I would prefer to do that more often VS. having one car on the trailer all weekend... I have no problem rolling them off and hauling them later, that just means I'm staying busy My rig and tools etc all are paid for, I don't believe in owing anything to anyone, and its a pretty cheap setup, but I just don't want to work for a few bucks. I will drive an hour away to get a car though. My truck and trailer weigh 10k lbs empty and truck will get 16 mpg on highway with trailer and I buy fuel at 2.95 a gallon so driving 40-50 miles for a car isn't the end of the world to me if its the right deal. I've found that not all loads will be local buys, but a little driving never hurt and it doesn't cut too deep into my profit (not as bad as paying too much for a car does).... I've really gotten into the core parts lately, there's several (i mean, gobs) of places here that buy cores, they travel all over buying truckloads of core parts, and a small timer can take in stuff and they are glad to buy it from you.

Last week I put an ad in the paper, it came out this past Thursday. There's about a half dozen other ads in there for buying junk cars, but one guy has two ads in the paper in two seperate spots, that's what really sold me on it, was knowing it was worth his money to put in two ads. But I haven't gotten any calls on it yet. $190 for a month of advertising. We will see how it works. Thought about yard signs. I am on craigslist multiple times a day trying to find deals, you have to jump on them fast or you miss out.

I think so far I'm about 50/50 on getting business from word of mouth and from craigslist. The biggest thing is being able to drop what your doing to go pick one up and being the first one there with cash in hand.

The cars at that auction pretty much guaranteed all run and drive, they do a 'drive through auction" where they have a building with doors on both ends, the auction assistants drive the vehicles in, they auction it off, drive it out, and roll the next one in and so forth. Rarely do they have anything thats wrecked, non running, etc. although I have seen a couple that drove in and had to be pushed out LOL. Usually any running vehicle with a title brings more at the auction than I would give for scrap... and I have to drive an hour away and spend a few hours sitting there watching everything go through... entertaining but not time or cost effective really.