Getting rid of donor vehicle remains

[Hindsight]

Somewhere I saw a build thread where someone found some people who came to their house, chopped up the donor vehicle shell, hauled it away, and paid like $400 for the scrap metal.

Curious to see how commonly available this kind of thing is and how to go about finding someone who will do it.

Second question is: Do you have to sign the vehicle title over to the people who take the shell? If that's the case, then I worry it presents a bit of a problem because when you go to register your 818, at least in the state I'm in, you have to have a police officer come out and validate that the vehicle is not stolen (they do an inspection and fill out some form) which includes ensuring you aquired the engine, transmissions, and other components properly. I would think that no longer having the title for the donor may cause an issue there.

Any input would be appreciated.

[billjr212]

Illinois would not issue me a fresh salvage title in my name, despite me having the bill of sale and signed over title from the insurance company that I bought my donor from (went through copart). I dropped my shell on a couple rolling carts and stuck it by the curb the afternoon before garbage day. Scrapper came by within an hour and 5 of us slid it up onto his trailer on it's side (it was a tiny trailer).

In any event, you should not need the old title to prove it is not stolen, only the bill of sale for your purchase of the donor which should have shown the VIN. I would keep a copy of the title anyway just in case (even though it will say "VOID" all over it when you make a copy).

$400 seems like a ridiculous amount for the scrap metal. I would ballpark the bare shell (no doors, trunk, hood, etc) at 800 pounds, which is less than $100 of scrap. You may be thinking of the build where the shell was sold to someone who was going to use it for a rally car.

[Jaime]

I cut mine up and took it to a local metal recycler in a rented UHaul. I got $80 for the steel and paid $60 for the truck and gas. At least it was out of my garage. I kept the VIN plates just in case.

[Hindsight]

Thank you both for the quick replies. I may have remembered that $400 wrong.

[Mechie3]

I got around $74 for mine. I cut it up with a sawzall so it would fit on my small trailer. Since it was cut into so many pieces the scrap yard didn't consider it a shell, but scrap metal. I kept the title (still have a salvage title for it...haha!). One yard wouldn't take it because it was cut into more than 2 pieces. That yard was setup more for industrial use, not the average joe coming by. Kept the vin tags and cut the VIN off teh firewall too and kept that just in case.

[Evan78]

Somewhere I saw a build thread where someone found some people who came to their house, chopped up the donor vehicle shell, hauled it away, and paid like $400 for the scrap metal.

Curious to see how commonly available this kind of thing is and how to go about finding someone who will do it.

Second question is: Do you have to sign the vehicle title over to the people who take the shell? If that's the case, then I worry it presents a bit of a problem because when you go to register your 818, at least in the state I'm in, you have to have a police officer come out and validate that the vehicle is not stolen (they do an inspection and fill out some form) which includes ensuring you aquired the engine, transmissions, and other components properly. I would think that no longer having the title for the donor may cause an issue there.

Any input would be appreciated.I would think that their investigation of theft would consist of simply running the VIN to see if it is currently reported as stolen. If you can show a purchase receipt and it is not currently reported as stolen, the donor car's location, existence and current owner will be of no concern to them. I have no direct experience for this, just speculating on what seems logical to me.

[RM1SepEx]

They took my shell away for free, I kept the title, it was only worth $50-75 in scrap it was so light. I kept a bunch of stuff to sell and only got rid of the bare shell

[theburner9]

I got $76 for scrap for my shell.

[metros]

Sold my shell for $500 locally. It was fairly clean though.

Kept the title as means to prove ownership. Not sure it was absolutely necessary but I hate dealing with the dmv and paperwork.

[jaw777]

In Illinois I was directed to transfer the title from the owner I bought it from to a salvage title. I am supposed to keep a copy of the title. The original salvage title had to accompany the shell to the shredder where I got $85.

When I go to get it licensed I will have to have that copy of the title and the receipts for my 818 and parts to get it titled.

[tmoretta]

In this part of Ct. you get 10 cents a pound for scrap. Not much. I was happy to have a recycler come to my garage and winch the non-rolling shell out of my garage for free. He let me keep the title too.

[Mechie3]

Scrap metal 2 weekends ago in Indy was 200 (220?) nt ton. When I scrapped my chassis it was $180.

[billjr212]

Did you scrap your doors/hood/trunk/fuel tank all together, or sell off those parts? I was guessing my bare shell weighed in around 800 pounds (took 5 guys to lift/slide it on its side up onto a small landscaping trailer)

[RM1SepEx]

sell off everything that you can, I just broke through $2000 sold from a $3500 donor inc shipping. It does take time and effort tho... craigslist, ebay, uncle henrys nasoic etc..

[billjr212]

Dan - i think the only parts that were left on mine that could have been theoretically sold by the time it went to the curb were the fuel filler neck, rear bumper beam and the windshields. I wasn't brave enough to risk a pile of broken glass for a few bucks on the windshields and I ran out of time/energy before garbage day to pull off the other 2 things. (garbage day in this case happened to be day after father's day, so had tons going on to get ready for family party at the house). Also - stop making me look bad, every time I sell a few parts and up my total recovered amount, seems you are maintaining your pace as well...haha. I just passed $1,200, making my donor "free" (excluding pesky things like copart fees, shipping, and repairs/upgrades).

Hindsight - let us know how it works out for you. Sounds like answers have been fairly consistent from the rest of the crew here.

[Mechie3]

Hood is aluminum and sold for scrap as it was folded. Door skins sold for $75 each minus one I kept along with a trunk to fix my 02.

[Hindsight]

Thanks for all the great info everyone.

[RM1SepEx]

Mine was UGLY but donor cost w/o fees and shipping was $1850, I just reached $2033.74 and I took pictures of 4 more items for EBay this weekend. I've been pretty slack in the past 6-8 months and I need to get rid of more.

Right now my donor costs with all the new parts is $6117.69

[Hindsight]

Wow, I doubt I will do that well on mine Dan. My donor was $4k including shipping and all fees, and is a roll-over. Body-wise, the only good parts left are the hood, maybe the RF fender, and the RF door. All door glass is good though. It's a 2007 with only 60k miles so there should be a lot of other goodies I can sell like all the A/C related stuff, rear diff, headlights etc.

I'll be really happy if I can sell $2k worth of parts.

[CptTripps]

Selling a clean shell with a title will net out about $500. Selling a busted shell to a yard will net you $100. IF you leave a bunch of "heavy" parts on the car, you'll get more, but then you're in the "mixed metals" category and wont get much more.

I know if 203 people now that have parted the car out for more than they paid for it. All depends on how nice the things you have are.

KEEP THE TITLE IF POSSIBLE! You may need it to prove ownership of the donor car for the DMV inspection. I needed to have my shell in my name so I can prove it. I'm keeping a binder for every piece in the car. down to the rivets I ordered. Just a thought for you.