Sometimes I wonder........

[TexasT]

There are some items that will never be reproduced. So there will always be a need for used parts. I got a quote on the 86-87 Main accessory bracket & the power steering reservoirs. Big $$$ !!!

Funny you mention these as I buy every one I come across used, and that ain't very many. I don't go looking for them but when they present themselves they get put "In Stock". Tensioners, n air filter assemblies too. The stuff "everyone" took off and put aftermarket stuff on will be in demand just like the emissions stuff and stock air filter assemblies on muscle cars.

Parting cars is big business with steel where it's at just crushing things makes money for those willing to crush em. I go to several metal recyclers regularly and you would cringe at some of the good stuff that goes through the shredder and into a container headed to china. Hopefully to be rolled into sheet to make the repops for our cars.

I have seen several hot air cars lately with what would be considered ludacris asking prices just five or so years ago. Several in the 5 digit range. Just let the economy get going again and prices will skyrocket just like the 90's did for muscle cars.

 

[Tom87GN]

Wow guys.....I am shocked at the honesty and the feedback on this topic. I never thought that so many would be so vocal about this.

I know that the aftermarket and used parts are vital to the survival of these cars, so I never have any hard feelings towards anyone who sells it. I need it too, and will continue to need things in the coming years. Without used parts and aftermarket repops, everything would die off slowly.

Many thanks to all of you who "forward" the TR hobby and lifestyle!!!

I feel a ton better about this already after having read the replies. I hope others do as well.

Happy New Year to everyone! This forum has been invaluable to me over the years for many more reasons than just entertainment.

 

[Bweavy]

Funny you mention these as I buy every one I come across used, and that ain't very many. I don't go looking for them but when they present themselves they get put "In Stock". Tensioners, n air filter assemblies too. The stuff "everyone" took off and put aftermarket stuff on will be in demand just like the emissions stuff and stock air filter assemblies on muscle cars.

Parting cars is big business with steel where it's at just crushing things makes money for those willing to crush em. I go to several metal recyclers regularly and you would cringe at some of the good stuff that goes through the shredder and into a container headed to china. Hopefully to be rolled into sheet to make the repops for our cars.

I have seen several hot air cars lately with what would be considered ludacris asking prices just five or so years ago. Several in the 5 digit range. Just let the economy get going again and prices will skyrocket just like the 90's did for muscle cars.

I hoard the stock stuff too. Power steering reservoirs can be found on some of the s-10, cavaliers, pontiac sunbirds as well. Just hard to swallow $19,000.00 for a power steering reservoir tooling then having to buy 1000 at 2005 prices. When we bought the new ones up to keep the prices reasonable $45.00 back in the day. So it wouldn't be $200. I just bought a used one to help fill a customers order $100 & shipping so I sold it for $125. Never would of thought that.

tensioner quotes & as of recent Moon roof cables. Cheap after you buy the first 800 with 60% down. Then the next 250 are about half price. Don't ask.

Tensioners I have down at Baer. I figure if we had to build one that would be an arm & a leg Rick Elam could do a billet piece. Try supporting the passionate ones

The tensiners had bought a bunch of these up in 07 & were selling for $85.00. Then I had to pay more for units further away & they went to $119.00. I think the last 3 I had I sold for $179 NOS. I didn't want to but the cars needing them were low mileage examples that had a broken ear. It needed a mint unit. So I sold them. I still have a couple stashed.
Metal recyclers I know what you mean when you say what you see getting shredded Rich.

There is a yard up here by me that has 50 Gbody's in it. They are rough but restorable. Moon roof GP's, 86 442, etc.. Steel was so hi I couldn't do a package deal with them. I have to check steel prices. I know they had dropped off some. It would be nice to see some of those cars saved.

Rich parting cars is Big business ever hear of LKQ? They have it to a science & are buying everything up.

Tom your thread is not the first one. I think it was the timing. Good timing on a thread like this.

 

[TexasT]

Lkq is the big dog but there are many more. With the govt buying and crushing a few years ago, used stuff has gone through the roof. Just simple supply n demand. I hardly see any gbodies at the yards Any more and the used stuff is 3k n up for some pretty rough examples I see on Craigslist list and the like. Hard to believe.

Sillier than that is the next generation. My son won't even get his drivers license. He likes cars but doesn't see the need to have a license to drive. Makes my head hurt thinking about it. I guess ill just keep doing what I can and hope the bottom doesn't fall out again. I just keep moving forward.

 

[charlief1]

Charlie I had a walk in customer yesterday who is getting ready to drop 10,000.00 in a LS GN clone. His friend had an 85 GN t-top & I asked what he did with it? Still sitting behind his home. He drove to Ohio & bought a 83 T-type for $4500. I said really? Yes it was that v8 turbo car they made but the turbo set up is missing. He will be calling you for the stock parts. I said oh my LOL, have him call me we need to talk.

I'll be happy to help him if I can Brian. I think I can help him out with some interesting ideas.

 

[Intercooled88s]

how many turbo regals have been parted out over the years......

Seems like every day I see one on this forum that is being gutted. Granted......most of them are probably parted out due to some unfortunate event like fire, flood, accident or other. But I see complete cars with running engines and full interiors that are being taken apart and sold.

The sum of the parts individually is greater than the complete package.

I know people need to make money, especially in this economy, and I look for the right replacement parts for my GN just like the next guy. It just seems like the desire to bring one back to life isn't there, and it's just easier to part it out.

The only reason I even started this thread is because it seems like there are a LOT of turbo regals that get the axe.

It's kinda sad to me. Just my opinion.

I think I'll go home and hug my GN after work today.

Ive parted several hundred Turbo Regals, since 1988. In the beginning they were cars that were in accidents and were totalled, by the late 90's I was finding Hot air cars for $500-$1000 complete but rusty or really beat. And Intercooled cars for $1500 or less, usually with engine problems or project cars that needed more work then they were worth. I still find parts cars but the prices are much higher. I only cut up and scrap cars that are rusty or have title issues. I try to save as many of the bodys for the future. So they can be restored. Any rare Turbo Regals I save regard less of condition.

I dont think we will see the parting of the cars stop until the demand and prices go up for these cars whole. I follow what used parts are selling for in the parts for sale section here, and they are constantly going up. Alot of the cars I buy are worth 3 times more in parts then whole because of rust.

The reproduction parts that are coming out will save alot of cars, that would other wise get parted out.

 

[TURBOTIMMER]

i have probably parted about 30 turbo cars maybe 40 perhaps but guess what they were all shit boxes beyond repair !!!!! if a car needs doors,floors,holes in the quarters and usually a bunch of interior or the t top roof is all rotted guess what its coming apart!!!!!!! i'm not out just chopping up somewhat repairable cars just for the fun of it.
i currently have 7 turbo cars here now that are mine

we4 #1 was rescuced off someones lawn that was sitting there for 4 years and it needs doors and some other stuff done to it because its all original as far as paint goes.it went 11.80's within a month of owning it and it was all original to begin with.

we4 #2 was bought without a engine in it and looked really bad inside due to water leaking in it. i putall the seats in from another car,changed gauge cluster that was rusty had to swap out rear package tray because it was green with algae. the gas tank was out for fuel pump and the rear was out for better control arms and bigger rear bar. also had axels out to do longer wheel studs. stripped another gn of its engine and tranny and exhaust to bring this car back from the dead.

my maroon trooper t cop was dead for 21 years sinking in someones front lawn and i swapped in a engine and tranny from the wrecked gn i parted out the year before. also the gas tank was rotted inside as well as the sending unit so these parts came off a rotted out blue turbo t i stripped. the rear suspension was all out to do hotchkiss stuff and big rear bar that was off my old t that i stripped because it was rotted. most people would of stripped this car but i chashed it for 9 years so it will live again

blue t # 3 of mine was off the road since about 1994 ish the previous owner registered it and only drove it for a lil bit probably because he knew the turbo was shot and i converted most of this car over to black trim and put buckets in with a console and column and gauges . same thing tank was out to do pump and i had rear out to swap out bigger sway bar and better control arms. also did hr parts motor mounts, swapped turbo and dp and complete exhaust etc......

my other cars i have also did plenty of work on them but they werent nearly as bad as the 3 above.

so im not on here just killing cars for the fun of it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am a enthusiast just like you guys and i'm not paying other people to do all my own work on my cars for me,

and if any of the cars i parted out were worth saving believe me i would of saved them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't mean to offend, James. I've never dealt with you, but I've seen pics of your stash. Quite impressive.

FWIW, I find it hard to believe that so many of these cars were shown no respect by their owners. Treated like just any other car. I've been playing with turbo regals since the early 90s. I parted an 84 t, 85 GN, and an 87 GN. I just recently bought a grey 87 T out of a field. I thought I'd be able to save it, but it's just too rough, so I'll eventually be parting it out, too. Just baffles me how people can let any car sit and rust to the ground. This grey car was a perfectly good running all stock car. I remember seeing him driving it around town all the time. He parked it in 99 for no reason other than he bought a newer car. I've been begging him to sell it to me for 10 years, and he finally did.

 

["Turbo-T"]

The ones that are so badly rusted/wrecked to the point of no return I can understand. However I see quite a few of them get the axe when the owner can't sell and get what he wants out of it.

 

[Bweavy]

The ones that are so badly rusted/wrecked to the point of no return I can understand. However I see quite a few of them get the axe when the owner can't sell and get what he wants out of it.

The point of the whole thread summed up in 2 sentences.

Bob & James in your region it is obvious why you part a car out. Paint & body work is expensive espescially rust issues. When I was in PA. we would buy the Northern cars with severe rust issues. Then get the southern cars rust free with no drive trane or blown engines. It wouldn't take a week to take 2 cars & make a nice running vehicle. Then part out the interiors & trim for the other hi milegae cars. We use to get a lot of wrecks in during the fall from deer hits. The cars are not daily drivers like they use to be. It's hard to remember the last time i had a wrecked Buick with less then 50K mile on it. You just don't find low mileage wrecks any more.

When I look at a car I look at 3 major things
Body & paint
Drive trane
interior
It needs to have 2 out of the 3 going for it/ Paint job less then $3500 isn't very nice. Engine or trans your in at $3500. Interior you can dump up to $3500 for a complete like new one,but usually less.
So if you look at a car you have to have about $7,000.00 worth of repairs that will not be needed. $2500 to $3500 of repairs needed you can still buy a Buick & make $ on it.

This is changing for me as of recent. I look at it buy it right, make a couple hundred, & more then likely they will buy the parts from us to fix it. Making $ on the back end & seeing a car saved. Labor is expensive unless your doing it yourself. I sold a Monte SS 2 years ago for $1200 with a 350 in it. Car needed paint & interior but ran great. He stopped by last week with pictures . New paint, 22's & needs the interior to finish up. The car is saved even if you don't care for 22's. No labor on my end. I made a couple hundred. I will make a couple bucks on the interior now. Hard to sell parts to less & less vehicles every year. So you have to change your thought process.

 

[gmpower6]

Tom come look at the white 87t in my garage now floor boards are gone its a parts car. Thats why i bought it thought about saving it but its too far gone. Sold a few pieces here and there but its time too get it gone out of the garage. Need to bring back the silver t. later Sean

 

[charlief1]

The ones that are so badly rusted/wrecked to the point of no return I can understand. However I see quite a few of them get the axe when the owner can't sell and get what he wants out of it.

Don't remember which one but there was a GNX parted out a few years ago because the owner couldn't get what he wanted out of it. Hopefully this trend stops but greed is a powerful thing.

 

[Rivical]

Just my .02

Anybody who thinks Buick's get rusted beyond repair should take a quick look at what sort of Mopars get restored today. Like many have said, the time is coming for the Turbo cars. Just setting on a rust bucket today could pay off well in the future. It isn't uncommom to replace an entire sub structure on a unit body Mopar with used western or new aftermarket parts. This extends from the realm of Hemi Cuda all the way to the F-Bodies which are worth significantly less. Those are in the realm of Turbo Buick's and lower today. And nobody thinks twice about all that work, they just do it for the PASSION! Another great word shared here....

Keeping the rust buicket's around today will provide additional opportunities for the aftermarket to sell parts tomorrow.

 

[mturbo87]

If you guys that parted out turbo cars think they were not worth repairing, It might bite you in the ass someday. If you consider 55's , 60's and 70's cars that people have restore by having nothing much more than what you parted and scraped. To each his own.

 

[we4Mateo]

If you guys that parted out turbo cars think they were not worth repairing, It might bite you in the ass someday. If you consider 55's , 60's and 70's cars that people have restore by having nothing much more than what you parted and scraped. To each his own.

This is very true. How many tri-5 Chevys were parted out before someone realized that? There is a time value of money as well. Money in the hand now for parts may be worth the same as the whole lot sold for twice as much but 10 years down the road.

 

[Rivical]

This is very true. How many tri-5 Chevys were parted out before someone realized that? There is a time value of money as well. Money in the hand now for parts may be worth the same as the whole lot sold for twice as much but 10 years down the road.

In combination with the depreciation of currency you have to consider the appreciation labor and parts cost's. If you make your money on any aspect of rebuilding a niche vehicle, you still stand to profit more in the future from what's considerred 'junk' today. Consider if there were 5,000 TR's left out there. If 3,500 already were completely restored or restified, what would be the point of aftermarket support? That runs on money no matter the timeframe. Continued and increased aftermarket support depends on there being 'raw material' available to "new" people to the market. Depleting the market of genuine and documentable performance models no matter their condition will hurt niche support because the real numbers just won't be there to warrant tooling up. Then a healthy niche dries up for all but those who got stuff "back in the day".

 

[we4Mateo]

In combination with the depreciation of currency you have to consider the appreciation labor and parts cost's. If you make your money on any aspect of rebuilding a niche vehicle, you still stand to profit more in the future from what's considerred 'junk' today. Consider if there were 5,000 TR's left out there. If 3,500 already were completely restored or restified, what would be the point of aftermarket support? That runs on money no matter the timeframe. Continued and increased aftermarket support depends on there being 'raw material' available to "new" people to the market. Depleting the market of genuine and documentable performance models no matter their condition will hurt niche support because the real numbers just won't be there to warrant tooling up. Then a healthy niche dries up for all but those who got stuff "back in the day".

Excellent points.

 

[INEEDAGN]

In combination with the depreciation of currency you have to consider the appreciation labor and parts cost's. If you make your money on any aspect of rebuilding a niche vehicle, you still stand to profit more in the future from what's considerred 'junk' today. Consider if there were 5,000 TR's left out there. If 3,500 already were completely restored or restified, what would be the point of aftermarket support? That runs on money no matter the timeframe. Continued and increased aftermarket support depends on there being 'raw material' available to "new" people to the market. Depleting the market of genuine and documentable performance models no matter their condition will hurt niche support because the real numbers just won't be there to warrant tooling up. Then a healthy niche dries up for all but those who got stuff "back in the day".

That's exactly what happened to the old mopars. HOWEVER, mopar guys are whole different breed. I come from a family of them. They hoard sh!t that they will never, ever, use, restore, or sell. Just to say they have it. They'd rather have sheds full of rusted up crap than one nice car. Raw material will always be out there, hell rare old mopars are still out there, they're just owned by hoarders that think it's worth barrett-jackson price, needing full resto. Everyone's observations and experience is different. Restoring any "common" old car from a complete pile of rust is a labor of love and is very rarely profitable. Hemi cuda? absolutely. Regular roadrunner? you better have mad fab skills and parts resources to be able to come out on top if you don't start with a decent body. Almost all LC2 cars are gonna be more in the realm of "regular roadrunner".

 

[Rivical]

That's exactly what happened to the old mopars. HOWEVER, mopar guys are whole different breed. I come from a family of them. They hoard sh!t that they will never, ever, use, restore, or sell. Just to say they have it. They'd rather have sheds full of rusted up crap than one nice car. Raw material will always be out there, hell rare old mopars are still out there, they're just owned by hoarders that think it's worth barrett-jackson price, needing full resto. Everyone's observations and experience is different. Restoring any "common" old car from a complete pile of rust is a labor of love and is very rarely profitable. Hemi cuda? absolutely. Regular roadrunner? you better have mad fab skills and parts resources to be able to come out on top if you don't start with a decent body. Almost all LC2 cars are gonna be more in the realm of "regular roadrunner".

WOW! You DO know Mopar people! I don't think the hoarding is just to say you have it though. It's the hope of living as long as Methuselah and actually using it someday when you're about 900 years old!

But you say "regular Road Runner". Those guys do this without further thought because it's just the cost of ownership.

Someday when all the clean TB's have dried up, like in ten years when they're the same age as a late 70's RR is today, the same will be true. And there will be those who pay others to do it all day long. The only difference I see is in the madness of Mopar people. I'm not sure Buick people would do the same things with a complete lack of aftermarket support like with F-Body Mopar's. Only time will tell. But for today, there's a healthy Buick aftermarket with growth potential. It can get even better or go away depending on that growth potential's "raw materials" continuing to be around.

 

[INEEDAGN]

I guess I'm not up on the times because I wasn't aware of a mad mopar f body following. That musta been in the last 10 years or so. Not that I'd blame them, probably a better, lighter car than anything from the 60's and cheaper too. There is a volare roadrunner in a local junkyard. Want pics next time i'm there? It'll be april/may-ish. Here's a regular roadrunner dad bought from a junkyard:

Real airgrabber, 383/4speed car. no motor/trans or much else of value truthfully. Dad sold it for under a grand in 08 or 9. We figure the buyer paid retail for the airgrabber and the 4 speed pedals/hump and got the rest of the car free. Hope they can save every trinket off of it. But I pity the fool that would attempt a resto.

 

[scojack_2001]

I had a 86 WH-1 back in 2004. Massachusetts car. Bought it out of PA. Im sure Brian remembers that car. Had a considerable amount of rust on it. Totaled it December 27th of that year. 45mph to zero in about 4 seconds. I was lucky to walk away. Im sure the pictures are still floating around here somewhere. Bent the frame, needed a full front end and a door. Im absolutely sure there was some cowl damage. When the tensioner is broken in two, and the accessory bracket comes off in three pieces, it took a hit. I parted it out. It was done. Caught a lot of heat for it but I did what I had to do. Now 8 years later, Im in a better situation. Ive got a DD and the GN lives in the garage.

Took me a long three years to get back in the game after that. I hope I never have to do that again.