Circumstances and Perseverence
I would love nothing more than to rant for hours on end just to have someone read it but rather than go on and on about the why and hows and so on I'll just lay it out.
I am a full time mechanic, I do specialty work on euro cars and diesels of all makes. Alot of my work is at the customer residence, I have shop space but for better than half the customers this is not feasible. I am also a tuner, not the import fast and furious variety but the performance tuner, I reprogram PCMs for a living. I make enough to live on doing this stuff after expenses. The owner of the shop I lease a bay from (sort of how a barber may lease a chair from an owner) had a stroke just before christmas. His son has taken over business duties and decided my "rent" was way too cheap and promptly doubled it...probably to get me out of the building, I got along famously with his dad but I always considered him an irresponsible titty baby. All this week I have cleared out my space and moved my tools to a storage unit, my garage already has a rolling tool box and it's own tools, not to mention my truck. But like I said, my work also takes place at the customer residence so all is not lost.
I am also in the recycling business with my cousin, for a long time we would simply get together and cruise the garage sales, curb shop and hit up a regular route of dumpsters. I also did this by myself, and so did he, collecting cell phones, computers and batteries for me to take in. Then he lost his job, the contract expired for the company he worked for and the new contractor brought in their own people, terrible but there it is. So now, his ONLY income is our scrapping ventures, and better than half my income is also scrapping. I get nothing from VA but the headache of dealing with their crap on a weekly basis. I've had a three year long bout of GI tract problems that have been misdiagnosed twice, but that's more of a personal gripe.
So with the circumstances, let me explain what we've done. Between the two of us we have two vehicles and two motorcycles...not much good this time of year. I have the truck he has a car. The car does very little good when scrapping nor is it much good taking for a mechanic job in most cases, just not big enough for tools, and the portable air compressor (need one thats big enough to run an impact and a air ratchet, air hogs for sure). It would also have to carry the canopy and sheeting along with the diesel heater...and that's not possible.
This is what we do. I get the truck during the day, I take it on jobs and I do the shred and iron runs during the scale hours. I also pick up lots that we won in auctions. I do this by myself unless absolutely necessary. When I get home I take a break and my cousin goes out to run the dumpster, stash spots and goodie bin route...we run three different routes depending on the pickup day. It's about a 150 miles to run the route and can take all night long if you have to unload and go back. At night the trailer is in use. He has been pulled over by curious cops before, so have I, part of the chosen trade. We never pick from private property we haven't gained permission (in writing) to pick from. Anyways...The truck sees double duty every day of the week. 1300 miles a week or more. I do break down between jobs and he sleeps when he can otherwise he does all the pickups, including my regulars right now. We still buy exotics like inconel, monel, carbide, nickel and things like that, but it doesn't come around often enough to make a living at that alone.
And I don't just do scrap. Three times a week we pick up bread, bagels and eggs that the grocery store is throwing out. I'm one of those people, can't afford groceries as it is, so I'll take the stuff thats two days away from it's sell by date. I get all kinds of things like this from pick n save and piggly wiggly, including meat. Having a connect that works as a stocker in those stores that can call you when he has something because he knows you'll provide him with a pack of smokes and a fiver is nice. No dumpster diving required. I also go to international paper and get free tp and paper towels about once a month. Amazing what they just...throw away. We both dive the trash cans at gas stations to pull the cans out while it's pumping gas...time wasted so a half dozen monster cans adds up when you get 40 or 50 of them every day. I'm a picker, I'll go to the salvation army, goodwill, you name it and look for anything of value. I get carbide like this, always bring a magnet, utterly amazing what you get. I remelt wheel weights in a turkey fryer, again, it's more money. We are going to get out of the battery game if WI passes the 10 dollar core charge law...I digress.
The bad is we use more fuel in a month than most do in a year. Although with the craigslist hunting, curb shopping and contacts I can get 1500lbs of shred every day. That pays fuel, and the rest is made in breaking stuff down and reselling things that still work. Tonight I got a few stainless steel commercial foodservice trays...I figure for 5 bucks each on craigslist someone will want them. I'm looking at replacing the truck with new...I know your thinking why new that costs money. Sure, but I spend 1900 a month on fuel. A 2014 dodge ram 1500 quad cab 4x4 3.0 diesel gets 28mpg costs 40 grand and is the same to insure. Money well spent I would think. Payments around 500-550, and MAYBE 700 a month in fuel cost. Also, it's still rated to tow my trailer.
So I thought I'd share a bit to explain that when you get lemons, to make lemonade and so on. BE VIGILANT, never shy about anything. I used to scrap when I was younger (before I joined the army) and now I'm at it again. It's taking over my time and seems to "pay" better than working on cars...at least more reliable. I've learned more about corporate programs to handle metals and how in the dark most of them are. I plan to take advantage of this. We are looking to lease a small warehouse so I can acquire more material for better payouts. I may also get into the car game again. I have my dealer's license but the area is totally choked out by car dealers. We shall see.
