How to deal with "Runnables" and I'm not mechanically inclined to fix? - Page 3

Ladies and Gents:
Ok so I have a bit of a quandary.. It has been one ever since I wanted to get into scrapping cars. Most of the time it was never an issue because the cars I pulled in were literal junk.. they had lived their lives and were ready for someone like me to come along and put them out of their misery. As of late I have been having a bit of luck getting calls from people who have just "given up" on the vehicles. They don't know what is wrong, or they know SOME of what is wrong.. and they just want it gone and am happy to take my offer and have it hauled away.

Here is the issue. Once I get them home I go through them and basically look to see what is wrong.. as best as I know how. Once I figure they may still have life left in them.. I have tried and tried to find someone.. anyone.. who may want to give it a try to fix it with me.. knowing that the deal is- we get it running, we get it safe, we sell it off.. we both make money and both are happy.

Case in point. I just pulled in a pretty decent 1996 4WD Chevy Blazer. Basically, it has a short somewhere in the system and it is slowly draining the battery. I plopped a good battery in it- it fired right up, runs excellent, and pulled it off the trailer. 2nd major issue is that someone has been messing with the shift cable. When the shifter is all the way up- it only goes to neutral and not park. The rest of the issues on it are cosmetic. It needs side-view mirrors, it will need some new tires by the next owner.. a few little things on it here and there. So when I say I drove it off the trailer- I did.. at a guys shop that I have known for a while. For nearly a year he has been BEGGING me to up my ante and look to find cars that we can fix together, over and over he tells me "I'm missing the boat just scrapping- we need to get ones that we can FIX and sell- that is where the real money is!!" His shop is slow- like near non-existent.. right now he has one vehicle that he is working on for his friend- it has been being worked on for months (should I answer my own question here) I dropped it off nearly a week ago- his conversation and mine went like this "Hey, do you want to look at this Blazer and see if we can't get it road-worthy.. we fix it, we both make money.. what do you think?" His response "Heck yeah.. I could use the cash.. bring it over here, we'll get that thing running and turned in no time" So we are both in agreement that AS IT SITS, it is a vehicle with problems, he'd sell it off to someone as is and omit the issues and still sleep at night- I personally wouldn't. I do it "right" or she goes to scrap.

My problem now is that I've pleasantly asked "Get anything done on the Blazer today? in couple day increments. Each time "Uh nope, well I was making doctor appointments, well it's supposed to be warmer tomorrow".. on and on So in a nutshell, it has sat for nearly a week- with absolutely NO progress- I swung by on Monday evening to see it literally hadn't been touched. Now mind you I'm not worried about the outlay of cash.. I got the vehicle for a good price.. but My point is.. I want to fix what needs to be fixed and move this down the road. Right now I can't even list it for sale.. if I get it mechanically correct- I can.. but right now- no dice!

I have another guy who is a car mechanic. He owes me for a tow, and gave me the same "We can do this and turn it" Hard to believe since the swap for the tow was for him to put in my fuel pump on my truck.. I ended up paying another guy to do it because I told him I had the part and never heard from him again until he needed ANOTHER tow.

So bottom line is this: I know my limitations, I'm great at tearing vehicles apart- not so good diagnosing them and fixing them. So I'm at a disadvantage right off the bat. This blazer is too nice to go to die, but in my current knowledge base.. I don't know how to begin to fix it.. so I'm at the mercy of someone else.. problem is- I can't even seem to find this "someone else" to work with- after a year of asking every single person I thought would even be interested they all "really want to make the money" but when I get one to fix.. they have other things that are more important. Any advice to find someone to help when needed? I'm a no B.S. kind of person, and everyone who knows me- knows that- we are talking- someone just pulled away with a vehicle me and "mystery mechanic" just fixed and flipped- I'm handing him his cut before these people are at the first stoplight!

It has been the one piece of the puzzle I have yet to find. As I said about 90% of the time it is a moot point.. but when you get a vehicle that in good condition 4WD, with winter coming, that books on Trade in in this area for about $2600 bucks.. it is tough to not want to fix it immediately and try my luck at selling it off.



Any advice out there. Thanks for taking the time to read this mountainous mind-puke!