Scraping cars etc

I guess it depends on your operation, what your costs are, how much time you have, and how motivated you are..........

We've hauled in em whole with only pulling batteries, aluminum wheels and cats. Those are 3 things you never give away no matter what. Period.

That being said if you have the time and are fast, or have fast cheap labor, the other core items add up. What area are you located in out of curiosity? I have cheap very fast labor that strips cars for me. I buy them, winch em on the trailer and drop em off at the yard, then pickup one he's done with and haul it in, hit the repeat button and go again. He strips as fast as i haul. He had all the core items removed and pulled engine and transmission from a S10 today in about an hour (pretty much all the parts you listed plus motor and trans). Wiper and heater motors we don't mess with and we don't disassemble engines for same reasons you mentioned and we're only getting 10 cents a lb. for dirty aluminum..... but if an engine or trans doesn't have a core value, we get considerable better money for them at their respective scrap prices than sheet metal would fetch. Small 4 cylinder front wheel drive cars we leave motor and trans in due to weight-to-difficulty/time consumption factors, but rear wheel drive V6 and V8 vehicles get stripped clean. He also cuts out as much of the wiring harness as can quickly grab.

I think its different for every situation but for us, I've done the math many times over and it won't be worth it to everyone by any means but for us with his good fast cheap labor its well worth it. And without him we would normally take batteries, cats and wheels, but now we don't even have to touch any of it just let him do all the work and we get even more money than just those things, pays off well for us in the end but again its different for everyone I suppose.

If you're gonna do it the quick easy way and do cats batts and wheels, I'd still pull copper radiators, as they are worth $25-40 here, but aluminum ones are worth only a few bucks so time you drain coolant (lost weight) and spend time cleaning the radiator you were better off to leave it in and have the added weight of the coolant. Just my opinion.... I always grabbed alternators and a/c pumps if they were easy, some front wheel drives have easy to grab starters. And I always cut battery cables out as much as I can easily get. The weight in copper on those adds up quick.

I'm not scrapping for living, kinda just want the junk gone. Dont mind the classic stuff and musle cars or interesting stuff staying but dont care to keep a taurus, or ranger, camary, etc hanging around. I dont run the garage anymore cause I got offered a very good paying job with benefits and couldnt refuse. I just keep power on to work on race car and street rod change oil in my junk etc "nothing that pays" but that was one of the conditions of the job I got was closing my shop. Thought the kids could make some change and get their hands dirty.
Only problem is if they only get $20 each that wont even get them into the track on saturday. Also as you said your guy rips and tears stuff out I am making them unbolt everything and undo plugs without breaking anything, if they do they have to wait for me to get there and explain what they did wrong before they can continue to work. They are also making way to many trip to the tool box to turn much time. I may be better off to haul the cars and find someone wanting a motor or trans swap done for them, cause they are slow.

I know what ya mean. If i was in your shoes then i wouldn't mess with it just grab batteries cats and aluminum wheels and haul the rest in. On the aluminum wheels take all but one lug nut off and loosen that one, then when you get to the yard take the nuts off before they snatch the car, then when they pluck it off the trailer you can knock the wheels off real quick.

Where are you located?

The cars are in south east VA. I have a deal worked out with a yard to take all steel and cars dont want to elaborate cause I grew up with owner and have seen what he gets at shreader and know what HE not the girls at the window pays ME. He cant give a good price on converters or aluminum so I take that to another place and he is fine with it cause he actually sells hat stuff to the then and they have the steel guys trucks pick up roll of containers of steel that the take. It works for them and me.
I am going to let the kids finish this car and clean the mess they made in my shop up and find my 1/4" ratchet, ext, and anything else missing and i'll just give them every thing the whole car brings for thier work. If they want to make money i'll get them a clutch job or motor swap or heater core on a caddy.
I believe i'm better suited to teach them to be mechanics if they will listen than scrap haulers. We may gut some more stuff but will have to see how much stuff brings. Dont get me wrong i'm not hating on scrap haulers cause till this last 50 maybe 70 cars are gone I am one to and you will see my trucks and trailers hauling them ever chance we get, just think the kids can make more money fixing cars. They did have fun and learn some stuff so i'm happy in the end.