Anyone on here started a salvage yard?

[Criscobath]

I've kept toying with the idea of opening a vintage (pre 1990) salvage yard for years. I figured I could do a pretty nice one on 15 acres or better. These days, I wonder about all the regulations and assorted BS that comes along with it. Anyone have any experience?

[DanStokes]

I've always WANTED to do that but never have. I do know that all liquids and Freon has to be captured (and I supposed recycled) these days, at least in most states. Lots of fact-finding needed before jumping into this but I like the idea.

I've always wondered how they decide to allow people into the yard or not. Some of our local yards and of course our PnP do while some act like they'll have the cops on you in a second if you even TRY to head out there. I'm guessing there are insurance issues and so on but that's a guess.

Dan

[Criscobath]

I can understand the security issues. I used to have a great yard near by when I was a kid. It was loaded w/ late 60s and early 70s muscle cars. Little by little, their lackadaisical approach to monitoring visitors led to lots of small parts disappearing w/o payment.

You're probably right, Gov't regulation and insurance are probably the two biggest hurdles.

How about a double secret, private, members only yard? A yard, by invitation only, type of thing. Might help keep the respect of lucky visitors.

Unfortunately we live in an age where everyone is a "picker" and will scalp your inventory for resale on Ebay. That keep the sweet deals opportunities low.

[Deaf Bob]

Worked in 2 wrecking yards, a scrap yard and semi involved in another yard..
1. Fuel has to go someplace.. One place put the old fuel in open topped barrels and let it evaporate..
That is extremely frowned upon.. To crush cars, we had to put a 5 gal bucket over the tank and poke a hole in it and capture fuel..
Now the crushers have a sharpened spike over a tank like thing and let cars on it to run fuel into the recovery tank.
Sometimes fuel could be put in your personal car but be prepared to change filters often
2. Oil must be recovered at recycle yards. They generally charge more for undrained motors/trannys ane rears.
3. Batteries must be in metal lined boxes..(old pickup boxes are ok)
4. Freon must be sucked out.. Some places reuse the gas..(as a general rule, scrap yards will NOT take empty 2 gallon freon tanks) simply venting it into the atomosphere is severely frowned on.. I used to haul 45 appliance loads 2-4 times a week, motors and compressors must be removed and a speciality place buys them (not a scrap yard, usually) and the appliance repair places and scrap yards forbis me cutting freon lines on their property.
5. If applies, airbags need to be removed by "experts" or disabled

Hope this helps you ponder your yard.. I know alot of what you do may not apply, but knowledge is power..

[chevybuytroy]

I was thinking in some states now one has to be on a asphalt or concrete service. No more in the grass somewhere.

[Dan Barlow]

I think it would be fun collecting cars and selling parts but I would put them in a pole barn and take off what was good and scrap the rest would be scrapped . It would all be tidy. Might would have a online store and focus on one or two basic models 3rd gen Firebirds and camaros or the whole fox body fraternity .

[pdub]

Our next door neighbor flips Jeeps out of a monthly rental storage unit up the street. He doesn't even use his own two-car garage. He buys wrecked CJs and has somebody pull the parts off of them for him and when he gets one worthy of rebuild he puts one together for sale with all the used parts. He doesn't advertise, but word of mouth gets out and to hear him tell it, when he has another one dragged in, there are folks standing around right then and there wanting to buy the parts off of it right then. To hear him tell it, at least.

Bear in mind he's the strange one, the doctor who put a fence on our property, so that's just what HE says.

[68scott385]

I think it would be fun collecting cars and selling parts but I would put them in a pole barn and take off what was good and scrap the rest would be scrapped . It would all be tidy. Might would have a online store and focus on one or two basic models 3rd gen Firebirds and camaros or the whole fox body fraternity .

Let me tell ya about a little place in South Dakota...... Pole barns after pole barns full of anything and everything you can imagine and as of 7/01 NONE of it was for sale. It was/is a tourist trap and a dreamer's heaven/haven.




My local chain PnP knocks holes in every oil pan & every trans pan to drain the fluids. Forget going there to get a pan unless you are willing to do some repair work on it. Oddly enough I pulled a 10-bolt cover off and ruined their EPA standings....OOPS! Technically not my fault if their fluid removal technician isn't swift enough to drain the differential. All the A/C systems are drained/reclaimed. The place is all gravel, no grass whatsoever. They have a sheriff go around sounding their siren(s) at closing time. I guess the more honest you are the less trouble you'll have, as a customer....not saying I haven't loaded the toolbox and kept my mouth shut while paying for larger things......25+ years ago. More recently I've taken a wheelbarrow load to the cashier and some let things like thermostat housings and air filter housing spacers go without charge while others have nit-picked every little nut & bolt. I think they remembered my face after pitching a fit for waiting an hour for a forklift to carry a complete rear-end....in July/August. I told them they could charge me 1/2 price if I had to carry it to the register myself.

[Barry Donovan]

I gathered just enough when I was a kid, the town was going to tax..but no other concerns.
As time went by, even the well respected had to clean up. One had air force cars, etc.

I went on to know, the sleeping cars are there for a reason..
I'd even contemplate on the common wind direction, and what is at the end of it.. if to go about a junk yard today.
I would have no power lines, underground or above, a water table running deep...
A lot to ponder.
it is not just a junk yard.

[68scott385]

If I had an acre and a carport situation I'd have a dozen cars from the PnP doing the strip & ship shingo. A couple years ago I found a 472 Caddy motor in the car, complete, and drooled and drooled and drooled over that thing but could not justify the cost/time/space to set it free from its confines.

As it is I already don't have room for the cars and parts and more parts and tools and home owner necessities.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'd never run an open wrecking yard - there is just too many regulations and too much theft. Buy a building in an industrial park and follow LKQ's model. Strip them, inventory the parts, sell the waste. With a good inventory system, you could easily scrap parts that aren't selling rather then storing 10,000 14 bolt axles (for example).

but I've said it before and I'll say it again... you cannot love cars to sell them, it's too easy (as a hotrodder) to keep the "good stuff" for your own builds at the expense of the cost of business.Even if you save yourself money, you'll never have the parts that keep people coming back...

[Stewzer55]

My grandfather had quite a setup going for a while, place with some good fences, storage buildings (mostly repurposed box truck bodies) and he would strip parts that he could use or knew he could sell and scrap what he couldn't. EPA be damned, used oil for weed control, freon being let off without recapture, bonfires with a tire or two hidden in the bottom. He never got caught either. My uncle has an old barn full of Ford and tractor stuff, goldmine of FE engines.

[Deaf Bob]

Was burning wire at night among the trees, pallets for fuel, wire on top.. Load it down with wire til it was almost out then add another pallet..
Was getting a little too hot so I went and got the cat.. Coming back I could see a flashlight..I had it to drive back, Gary was talking to the guy with the light and I could see the shiney star on his chest.. Dropped the blade, covered the fire and out it went, plunging the area in darkness.. Cop couldnt see we went to the house then finished early am by uncovering the pile and adding more pallets.. Reason for night burning is black smoke is hard to see..