car scrap

i was going to get the wire harness out of the dashboard but got scared of the airbag so i just ripped what i could out of the engine area and im in the process of stripping the wire oh and i got the fuse box to lots of wire on that yay. i was wandering if i strip it all how many lbs of bare bright will i get? i get bare bright for any wire even stranded. it said the average wires in a car is 55lbs is that bare wire or insulated? i didnt do the trunk how many lbs should be in a trunk? its a 2002 hundai elantra?

Way back when, (before the whole EPA got involved) we would strip about 20 cars, burn the wires, crush the rest( do NOT burn copper wire). We always averaged about 20-25 pounds per car. Now days, prob be more than that...more electronic parts and computers. That also included the brass ends. You would have to clip them off to get bare bright price. Also, some if the wires may be tarnished, so that wouldn't go as bare bright. Personally for me, if it's not at least 60% recovery, I sell it as insulated wire. Most wire I come across is over 35% so I get at least 50¢ /pound. All my fine stuff, I sell as communication wire, 35¢/ pounds. Hope this helps.

I just cut up the remnants of a firehouse training. It was a somewhat newer (1990-2010) buick of some sorts. all the wires were easy to get to since the training was pretty much torching the engine bay and then trying to put it out. so all the plastic melted leaving the wires exposed. I got 15lbs. of #2 copper and about 6lbs. of wire harness (auto loom) out of it. and that was pretty much every wire that car had. I also accidentally lit my 98 very basic Tacoma on fire as I was torching the frame in half. That was a more complete burn and I was able to recover 10lbs. of #2 copper. I normally recover 3-7lbs. of wire harness on cars that are not burned. If you think your getting 55lbs of copper out of any car you must be dreaming. And also if your planning on stripping that stuff, based on your previous posts, you probably already know that stuff is a pain to strip. you'd be better off just getting a job at mcdonalds or taco bell or something if you need something to do with your time and turning the wire in as is. Unless you granulate that stuff in high volumes or burn it you won't even make minimum wage trying to get the insulation off of 18-20 gauge stranded wire.

Originally Posted by ScrapmanIndustries

I just cut up the remnants of a firehouse training. It was a somewhat newer (1990-2010) buick of some sorts. all the wires were easy to get to since the training was pretty much torching the engine bay and then trying to put it out. so all the plastic melted leaving the wires exposed. I got 15lbs. of #2 copper and about 6lbs. of wire harness (auto loom) out of it. and that was pretty much every wire that car had. I also accidentally lit my 98 very basic Tacoma on fire as I was torching the frame in half. That was a more complete burn and I was able to recover 10lbs. of #2 copper. I normally recover 3-7lbs. of wire harness on cars that are not burned. If you think your getting 55lbs of copper out of any car you must be dreaming. And also if your planning on stripping that stuff, based on your previous posts, you probably already know that stuff is a pain to strip. you'd be better off just getting a job at mcdonalds or taco bell or something if you need something to do with your time and turning the wire in as is. Unless you granulate that stuff in high volumes or burn it you won't even make minimum wage trying to get the insulation off of 18-20 gauge stranded wire.

lol well i got about three lbs of bare bright from the harness that i stripped and also from 3 small spools and 2 motors to the radiator luckily i dont do cars that was pretty much a one time thing for me. the battery cables were easy to strip and some of the bigger wires from the fuse boc in the engine. i was gona not strip some of the wire and then the yard gave me #3 for it even though the harness was gone and it should have been num#2 insulated do they change? can something be #2 insulated and then not be?

I'm not really sure how your yard grades wire. I know weitsman has a #1,#2,#3 grade as well but i haven't dealt much with them so I'm not sure how that grading system works. but how it works at the place I work is 80% #1, (THHN, mcm, Ect.) 70% #1, (romex, well pump wire) 50% #1, (cat5 and such) 40% #2, (extension cords and pretty much everything else) 55% #2, (coated mcm and old house wire), battery cable #2, and wire harness (auto loom) are their own things. but we also tear apart around 20 something cars a day with an excavator type thing that can recover all the wire harness in each car so with the amount we recover it makes sense to have wire harness be its own thing. some of the yards that don't really process cars like we do will probably just toss their auto loom in with their low grade.

oh and to answer your last question yes sometimes you can come in with something one day and it be lets say high grade or clean something or other and the next day it be low grade or dirty something or other. Stuff happens behind the scenes that you may not see as an occasional customer that can effect grading on certain items for really random reasons. like for example we used to buy aluminum window frames as clean aluminum as long as you had the screen mostly cut off. now they are a slightly better dirty aluminum. as a customer you might think we are now ripping you off because those were clean the last time you came in, but in reality we had to change around our aluminum piles from one gigantic heap that we ran through the mill to now having one pile for super clean stuff and another for anything that has anything not aluminum on it, which at the moment seems like its really difficult to sell since everyone is freaking out over this whole national sword business. places also switch buyers occasionally for what ever reason and different buyers might want things seperated differently. Thats like when you go to one place and they take off for having nails in your aluminum and the place down the road doesn't. same thing just on a larger scale.

Originally Posted by ScrapmanIndustries

oh and to answer your last question yes sometimes you can come in with something one day and it be lets say high grade or clean something or other and the next day it be low grade or dirty something or other. Stuff happens behind the scenes that you may not see as an occasional customer that can effect grading on certain items for really random reasons. like for example we used to buy aluminum window frames as clean aluminum as long as you had the screen mostly cut off. now they are a slightly better dirty aluminum. as a customer you might think we are now ripping you off because those were clean the last time you came in, but in reality we had to change around our aluminum piles from one gigantic heap that we ran through the mill to now having one pile for super clean stuff and another for anything that has anything not aluminum on it, which at the moment seems like its really difficult to sell since everyone is freaking out over this whole national sword business. places also switch buyers occasionally for what ever reason and different buyers might want things seperated differently. Thats like when you go to one place and they take off for having nails in your aluminum and the place down the road doesn't. same thing just on a larger scale.

hm i see didnt no you worked at a scrap yard thats interesting helpful to know.

Originally Posted by sledge

I averaged around 33 lbs of wire in my day of gutting vehicles.
Method of extraction: Sawzalled the dash out. Fear not the Airbag. Battery disconnected, everything killed in the car electrical wise- no worries.
I even got an airbag canister once. Tell you what the surround and bag itself is the toughest steel in the whole vehicle!

hm wish i had new that i could have gotten the wires in the stearing collum ugh well now i know not that i do cars. i prefer things with less steel like window a/c's and house wires wish i could get more of that but its uncommon.

Originally Posted by mike1

hm wish i had new that i could have gotten the wires in the stearing collum ugh well now i know not that i do cars. i prefer things with less steel like window a/c's and house wires wish i could get more of that but its uncommon.

An this is why one should read the archives. No not you, a general you.

Lots of info just sitting collecting dust.

Sirscrapalot - I'm scary. /roar