Scrapped my first car

I came across a deal on Kijiji (used buy/sell site). I decided to jump on it (mid 90's bmw for $800). I have the same car and I needed the rad so I figured I could snag some parts for myself.

It took about 3 weeks of me picking at it in the evenings to salvage all I could off it. I stripped all I could out of it; but left the Iron block and transmission. Otherwise there wasn't much left;

Overall it went pretty well;

$200 for the stripped body (not rolling; and this was having them take it away)
$120 - Cats (currently at ebay)
$50 in scrap for the head and other metal work left over from the scrapping
$2350 so far in used part sales; still have lots of parts to go but likely many of them will just be scrapped as all the desirable parts seem to be gone.

Some things I learned.
It wasn't worth the effort to take all the steel off the head. Even with just some cut off studs remaining they would only give me the irony aluminum price. I wasted too much time on this

There was a 0 gauge wire leading from the battery in the back to the engine compartment. I stripped this in a few minutes and it got me $13 in copper

I think the money from the resold parts was mostly a fluke; I just stumbled upon the right car at the right time. Luck was a big factor. But I'm definitively keeping my eye out for more cars like this. I had the advantage of knowing the car really well before buying it and knowing its and enthusiasts car which people are always looking for parts from.

Thanks for sharing. What other advise would you pass on to others who might want to duplicate your success? I am wondering what means did you use to sell the parts, ebay, CL? Mike

good luck in the future

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Originally Posted by miked

Thanks for sharing. What other advise would you pass on to others who might want to duplicate your success? I am wondering what means did you use to sell the parts, ebay, CL? Mike

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So I sold the majority of the parts on Kijiji (CL never caught on where I am; but kijiji is the same thing). I was watching for a particular model (328) as it had the largest engine of the non M series cars so people with other cars often want parts off of it. I think the trick was finding a car which is popular with car enthusiasts; most cars of the mid 90's are being scrapped where as these are bought up and kept running or restored. This one had many parts recently replaced but the body was completely rusted out. Things like power alternators/water pump/hood/headlights/bumpers/window motors were first to go. Now its pretty much stopped though, the remaining stuff would sell on ebay but its probably not worth the effort as its all $10-$30 stuff and I'm not really set up to put it on ebay and pack it / ship it.

Thanks for sharing. Like many other things knowing a lot about an item helps you recognize its value. Mike.

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Now its pretty much stopped though, the remaining stuff would sell on ebay but its probably not worth the effort as its all $10-$30 stuff and I'm not really set up to put it on ebay and pack it / ship it.

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You might try the Ebay classifieds, if I'm not mistaken their free.

+1 on the enthusiast aspect. I've parted out lots of cars and always made sure they had a cult following or were popular in some way or another. For example, cars that are often autocrossed/raced/tracked, because hobbyists usually have money and will pay for parts they need, and when you race cars, things break and need to be replaced or fixed.

Have you tried selling parts on any BMW forums? I have lots of luck selling 90's VW parts that way. It helps to be active on the boards but it's definitely not necessary.

BMW's have a beautiful wiring loom.

All the plug connections are easy to work with, most have a little lever thing to push them out & they slide out easily.
On Jap cars they use different plastics, some soft, some hard, they 'weld' themselves together too

The plastics solid but thin & when you break it it turns into flakes.
Jap plastics hard but pliable, hard to break & too pliable to cut

The wires don't have little brass clips on them as they use each wire for its own job.
Where in the Jap cars theres hundreds of them, they keep connecting extra wires onto the main wires.

The main connections, theres one on each side of the dash, under it. All wires go from one side of the dash to the other, or from that connector to the 'job'.
Makes it easy to change from a 'left hand drive' to a 'right hand drive' in the factory.
You can isolate each part of the cars (job) operation. Or add a extra wire by just plugging it into the main connectors
Jap cars, OMG! theres sub wires everywhere, you can't isolate anything, or add to it

The dash, hell, in a accident you just remove the dash, they no braces that go thru the dash to hold it in place, just remove the F window, pop out the dash, slide a hammer down there & swing it & all the plastic just turns into large slidey flakes taking up almost no volume.
The steering colums is just a small setup of small but strong metal parts, connected to a diecast Ali bracket.
The heater core & the aircon core are the same size, both Ali, take up little room & don't use much extra padding or insulation. They have small electrical controls (solenoids or electric motors) that are controlled by switches on the dash.
Jap cars, hundreds of bolts holding the dash on, lots of metal braces going thru the dash, holding it & the heater cores & under steering wheel parts in place.
Theres lotsa of plastic insulation around the aircon (which is 3 times the size of the heater core) & heater cores, which have huge dia hoses going to them.
They are bolted to just about everything else in the dashboard & theres a 30mm dia tube running from one side of the inner dash to the other.
Same with the heater controls, all uncuttable Bowden cables & stringy wires, all attached to metal braces under the dash, fixing the lot together

Hell, if I was in a accident & had to be cut out of the car, I'd much rather be in a BMW...

Pop the window out, bash the dash off, smash the under dash into flakes & 100% access.
Jap car, it'd be easyer to cut the car in 1/2 first

That's a good start to scrapping Good luck.:)