Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Hi all,

Welcome to 2017!!!!

During a quiet moment, I began to ponder the few cars I've bought since the 1980s that were bought solely as spare parts donors for cars I was working on, or driving. Off the top of my head, in no particular order, they were as follows:

1969 Mk3 Spitfire, "Spit The Dog", £50 given, parts went into the resurrection of my first Spitfire in the late 1980s, the remains went to a Triumph specialist.


A 1967 Mk3 Spitfire, £FOC from a work colleague who needed it gone, I kept a few bits "just in case" and the remains were swapped on for a couple of posters and some A40 bits. The year? 2000.


Red Volvo Amazon, £50, 1991, donated its engine (and a few spares) to my dark blue 121.


Blue Volvo Amazon, I don't recall the price but <£200, it donated its excellent wings to my green 122S, the rest was rotten.


White Amazon, £50, 1991, it was already part-dismantled, in the end I let an acquaintance buy it off me (again for £50) as it began to look like a whole heap of aggravation to actually move it (axles not fitted, etc etc)


Austin A35, painted in bathroom pink. This was donated to us £FOC, parts were used as spares for the A30 that 'erindoors ran in the 1990s, the rest was scrapped.


Ford Model Y, a chance conversation led to me getting "salvage rights" for the remains of this Ford, for the grand sum of £20. Not much was retrieved but a few bits headed into my stores pile, again "just in case". 2005.


I don't have a photo to hand, but in my A40 Devon days (mid-2000s) I did rescue the remains of an A40 Countryman, from a forum member as it happens. It was in diabolical condition but did offer up a few useful parts. The remains were given to a pal of mine who has a van, he salvaged the mechanical parts and scrapped what was left.

RJ
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[kevin2306]

I parted a mk1 mx5 and a series 3 landrover years ago, not to raise funds, just to get rid. Still got the Mx rear lights in the garage that I must remember to skip.

Kev

[mikeC]

Over the years I have broken quite a few, although for the most part I didn't photograph them.

Back in the seventies I broke quite a few Austin Sevens, although in all cases the chassis (with logbooks) lived on and have resurfaced since! These two Rubys would be considered eminently restorable now, but back then it was a case of breaking them to allow them to survive(!):





One of them has remarkably become a Nippy, whilst the other is now a special - even as spares a Seven never dies!

This chummy was bought to break, simple because it was a 1929 body on a 1924 chassis; the body went to a bodyless chassis of the correct period, and the rolling chassis became a coupe replica:





In the eighties I broke several Heralds, a Spitfire, a GT6 and a Bond Equipe, whilst more recently I broke a Lancia Flavia which I couldn't sell; it was a perfectly good car, but it made twice as much as spares as I was asking for as a complete car


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in the garage: 1938 Talbot Ten Airline
Recently departed: 1953 Lancia Appia, 1931 Austin Seven, 1967 Singer Chamois, 1914 Saxon, 1930 Morris Cowley, 1936 BSA Scout, 1958 Lancia Appia coupe, 1922 Star 11.9 ... the list goes on!

[Ellis]

I helped many friends dismantle cars in my youth but the only two I parted myself were a Ford Anglia 105E and a Land Rover Series 3.

The Ford Anglia was a 1964 deluxe awaiting it's fate in a nearby scrapyard.
The engine had already been sold but the body was saveable. I paid £30 for it in September 1988 and the original registration number, 902 ACA ,was on the DVLA computer.
A spare engine was found in Anglesey for £25, fitted after some sill and rear floor patching and it passed the first of 3 MOT tests.
Delightful car it was too.
By 1993 it was getting beyond repair so I dismantled it and transferred the number onto my own car.
All the parts sold very quickly. I wish I had kept the front wings now, one was only a few years old and the other in good order.
The steering box was sought by several people. The most eager paid £45 for it.

THe second was a 1977 Land Rover Series 3 88" hardtop I bought for £50 in 2007. It yielded a good 2286cc diesel engine and box, a hard top with a rare "cat flap" and numerous useful spares. In 2011 the remains weighed in for £100 at a scrapyard in Bangor.

I won't dismantle a car at home again.
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Starting Handle Expert

1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet

[Phil - Nottingham]

My first, when my dad helped me in 1970 when I was 15, was a 1958 Goggomobile T400 saloon

After that over the years a 1961 DKW Auto Union 1000 Universal, a 1959 Auto Union 1000 Coupe, a 1976 Mini Clubman Estate, a 1972 Rover P5B 3.5 saloon, a 1981 Metro 1.0L, a 1969 Rover P5B 3.5 saloon and finally in 2011 a 1961 Land-Rover SWB S2.

All these 8 were for spares and were cut up using oxyacetylene.

I doubt if I will do anymore as I have sufficient spares now and it does take the time to get it down to a shell!

They are a good source of spares the surplus of which can also be sold to fund the cutting gas and sometimes the shell pieces have had a scrap value. The Goggo and the 2 DKW's are rare now and even then eminently restorable but in the 1970's they were more useful as spares.

I learnt to drive in the Goggo my mother had to do the same (she never succeeded) - I was too young but drove it round the lawn & drive and parked it on the road to allow others cars in onto the drive



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Rover P2
Rover P4
Rover P5 & P5B
Land Rover S2 & S3
Morris Mini Traveller Mk2

[MikeEdwards]

I broke a couple of Audi coupes when I was running mine as a daily driver. I bought the cars, but was allowed to retrieve as much as I wanted at the yard of the place I bought them from, and they disposed of the rest.

The only other cars I broke were cars that I'd run but then stripped as they became uneconomical to repair.

[badhuis]

Most cars I scrapped I regret doing that. Yes they provided parts but usually lots which needs space and many which will not be used. The parts that are used are often not that rare and can be bought secondhand for not much money.

1977 silver Mini 1100 Special
Sister in laws car. Very rusty. My wife had a black Mini 1100 Special (1978) at the time so it seemed to make sense to take parts from it before it went to the scrappy. Not much was saved and almost nothing used. 1985

1969 polar white Sunbeam Chamois
Owned this for 10 years, in the end it was too rotten to repair so I dismantled it and scrapped the main body. I still have many parts from it, used the engine and gearbox, front suspension. Many memories. 1993

1975 poop brown Triumph 2500 TC
Was on the forecourt of a scrapyard without engine/box and identity/registration. Saved most parts, used the rear suspension and LHD steering rack. 1994

1973 black Triumph 2500 PI
Bought this for peanuts as a non runner without PI parts and without cylinder head in 1998. Body was pretty good... Saved the excellent leather seats and main mechanics, used the OD gearbox. Still have many parts from it. It cost me 9 years of storage and I saw no future with me for it. 2008
Pictured when moving from one storage space to another. My CX 2400 IE auto in front of it.

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a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[baconsdozen]

I broke a couple of land rovers and an 1100 a fair number of years ago and have also collected all sorts of spares from scrap yards and car boot sales etc.
One thing I've noticed is that if you have a spare part available for a vehicle then the original will soldier on for ever,but if you ever decide to have a clear out and dump,give away or sell a part then no matter how rugged they are and even if one has never been known to fail or wear out on any of the examples made of your vehicle,then it is certain to fall off,break or catch fire within days,
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

[peter scott]

We had a less than desirable neighbour who abandoned a Bond 875 in the lane that we shared with a number of other neighbours. After he moved away I and another broke it up and dumped the parts in a skip.

On another occasion my cousin and I scrapped his Sunbeam Rapier but took off every part that we could that didn't prevent us from driving it to the scrap yard. If memory serves me correctly we drove it without battery, starter motor and many other ancillary parts.

Peter
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https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Keith D]

When I lived in Melbourne in the late 1960's I wrecked a number of Austin A40 Devon's for spares. As our house in Victoria (Australia) was built on stumps, we had plenty of room under the house for all sorts of bits. The unwanted body shells would be trailered down the tip.

The only downside was that care was needed when retrieving the bits as snakes also liked living under the house among the parts!

In those days an A40 still running, but unlicenced, would cost about $10 maximum and often even for free!

In more recent times (1980's) I bought several sad old vintage Chryslers very cheaply to wreck for parts to help me rebuild mine. However, as Western Australian (where I now lived) houses are built on concrete slabs, spares had to be kept in sheds!

Keith
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1926 Chrysler 60 tourer
1932 Austin Seven RN long wheelbase box sedan
1950 Austin A40 tourer
1999 BMW Z3
Its weird being the same age as old people.
You are either part of the problem or part of the solution

[Rootes75]

Quite by chance many years back we found a very rough 1934 Hillman Minx about a mile away from us, it was languishing outside in a garden. At the time I had a 34 Minx with the rare 4-light bodywork that was in bits. Long story short I left a note at the address of the rough Minx and about a month later received a letter saying that for £75 they would let me have the remains of the Minx.
I couldn't say no to that and we picked the car up and found it had a very good chassis and all the mechanicals were present. The body simply fell apart so we got all the glass etc and parts for patterns.
Its the only ever car we have stripped for parts.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Ashley]

Not quite the same thing, but I remember back in the sixties when the big ends went on my Ford Popular, I set off to Jack's Hill Scrap Yard on the old A1 near Knebworth where I paid about £3.00 for another engine.

It was a morning like today, so bloody cold and the engine was still in a wrecked car, but by lunchtime, me and my mate had removed both engines and fitted the good one in my car. We were oily, frozen and our clothes were plastered, even a Pop felt warm and I thought it was a good job until I discovered that I hadn't attached the front brakes! I didn't crash, I fixed it and drove many miles in that old car.

[47Jag]

I bought a rough looking Jaguar MK2 for £200 in 1985 at the time when concours ones were fetching £40K. I already had two other restoration projects on the go and didn't have a proper garage although plans for a 4 car garage were stuck in planning (another story). Eventually the plans got passed for a 3 car and the MK2 lay outside for years while work interrupted play. I eventually cut it up and sold the all-synchro gearbox with pedal box and flywheel as a 'manual conversion kit' for £600, £300 for the wood, £250 for the seats, the biggest surprise was £80 for a pair of sun visors. The centre dash went for £200. The engine is a 4.2L from a series 1 XJ. This is long seized but I've salvage the straight port head which will go on the bay in the Spring along with a 3.8L Mk10 engine a bought. These seem to be earning good money just now.

Oh how the money rolls in

Art

[Ray White]

Talking about parting out old Jags, I am contemplating building a replica SS100. As I mentioned in another thread, the kit can be supplied by Suffolk Sports cars who can refurbish and send all the necessary parts harvested from a dead XJ6. Usually a Mk 2 or 3.

One way that I could save a lot of cash would be to source my own donor car and refurbish the parts myself. One downside, however, is that I would be left with a shell but with no means of moving it. Even parted out the XJ6 is a big heavy lump and without wheels I imagine would be difficult to get onto a car transporter.

I wonder what other people do? Should I buy a transporter with a floor and strip the car in situ or is that impractical?

Some of the potential cars I have seen advertised seem too good to break but they are beyond economical repair. Even so, I must admit to having mixed feelings.

[BigJohn]

Previously, when breaking a car I bent badly, I cut the shell into manageable lumps and scrapped them a bit at a time. Although it was 40 yrs ago and I would now use a cutting wheel in my grinder, not an axe and a 4lb hammer like I did back then.