I took my (late father's) old P/U to the junkyard on Sat. 83 GMC Sierra. V-6 Stretch bed. 72k miles all it had. Rusted nearly away tho.
Like the Corvair, Unsafe at any speed.

Scrap value was about $0.11 per lb. $310.50.




Note the junker sitting next to it!

A guy I know was going to open up a free meal center for hungry people. Thieves had a field day. Biggest heist was an 800 lb aluminium access ramp.

MAYVILLE - For the eighth time in nine months, thieves have stolen metal from The Free Meal Center (TFMC) on Route 9 in Burleigh. The robbery happened either Sunday or Monday night, April 24-25.

According to Douglas Jewell, chairperson of TFMC's board of directors, "This time was especially painful. The thieves made off with a 24-foot aluminum handicap ramp that was to be used as the front entrance to the soup kitchen." The ramp, with aluminum handrails, weighed about 800 pounds, including heavy chains and padlocks which bound the two 10-foot and four-foot sections together.

TFMC asks that anyone noting suspicious activity behind the facility on either of those two nights, or a truck carrying the aluminum ramp, to contact the Middle Township Police at 609-465-8900.
http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article/crime/mayville/72049-access+ramp+stolen+meal+center

That's what I thought at first, but I was thinking of this kind of scraper:

SCRAPER CATERPILLAR 621B - YouTube

We had a pair of those at FOB Wilson that were constantly springing air leaks, and six of them at the AT in West Virginia that I went on last month. They're terrible machines. The brakes are lousy even when they work right, they have no traction (note the dozer pushing the one in the video), and they're easy to roll over it the operator isn't careful. Add to that the fact that every government owned one I've seen was a 1985 model with an iffy maintenance history (at best), you have yourself a real pile of junk.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

Low income housing sites in NYC during the early 90's were nightmares of copper pipe thievery. The job super caught one guy hiding in a steel drum- the rotweilers that were his night time security had trapped the guy and it was the only place to hide. After the dogs were called off and before the cops arrived some of the carpenters pounded on the steel drum with hammers.

Recently a contractor I know took a bunch of scrap from a job to a yard and had to provide all kinds of info- including his drivers liscense- before the yard would buy it. He told me that the yard holds stuff for a few days in case anyone comes looking for stolen items.

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95 E300D gave away
77 300D, 227k, station car
83 300CD 370k, body gone away to the rust gods, engine is in a Yota pickup, going strong
89 190E 2.6- 335k, no more
79 VW FI Bus- 154k summer driver
59 VW Beetle ragtop- 175k
12 VW Jetta- 250k
74 MG Midget-78k

We had the LEOs run a sting about 2-3 years back when copper was going for $3.78/lbs..

They took a roll of copper to the three main scrappers in the area and each one bit. One even told the UC officer that he'd have to scrape the labels and tags off the reel before they'd buy it from him.

He complied and the deal was made.

All three got nailed.

Since then, things have tightened up and rightly so.

I've dropped scrap off at two of the yards and they run you through the ringer, now, before they even let you unload a pop-top.

Bad press will straighten out the worse operators REALY FAST once the ink hits the paper.

Maybe a few stings around the country might make a few others fly right.

Won't know unless someone gets off their butts and goes for the gold. (Pun intended.)

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M. G. Burg
'10 - Dakota SXT - Daily Ride / ≈ 172.5K
.'76 - 450SLC - 107.024.12 / < .89.20 K
..'77 - 280E - 123.033.12 / > 128.20 K
...'67 - El Camino - 283ci / > 207.00 K
....'75 - Yamaha - 650XS / < 21.00 K
.....'87 - G20 Sportvan / > 206.00 K
......'85 - 4WINNS 160 I.O. / 140hp
.......'74 - Honda CT70 / Real 125
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“I didn’t really say everything I said.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Yogi Berra ~

Scrappo-Americans unite!

So for those legitimate scrappers out there...what is the current going rate for scrap metal? Does it vary from state to state?

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

I wonder what copper is going for? I have about a thousand pounds of scrap from jobs. Maybe now would be a good time to cash in. I no longer leave large rolls of wire in the back of my truck when I have to go to town just in case.

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1984 300TD 1981 240D

For scrap autos, it's going for $80-$100 per 1000 lbs. Prices change regularly. I haven't taken a load of scrap in for about a month, so I'm not sure what it's going for today.

Last month, I picked up a junked Ford van off of Craigslist for $200. It didn't run and was in pretty poor shape. I trailered it, after getting the title taken care of, over to the salvage yard and picked up roughly $800. Total investment, including gas was about $260...it netted me roughly $550 for about 2 hours worth of work on a Saturday afternoon.

I segregate metals according to types. I keep structural steel apart from machine shop chips.

Each type commands a different price. Brass, bronze, copper, iron and steel bring in different prices, if sorted.

We rent a small storage place to store the scrap metals as well as the antiques. I'll probably have 3 loads to take in sometime next month, which should net me about $2500 total. Currently, the company in the neighboring business allows me the use of their forklift, so I'm able to store most of the metals in crates...which makes it easier to load.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

My parents unintentionally became scrappers when my uncle up in ME passed away. His basement as well as a rail car were just stocked with scrap metal. In addition to leftovers from him machine and fabrication shop, he would collect and barter for it, then stockpile it until the price was right or if he needed money for something. He had a couple cars and a fire truck out in the back 40 as well. While the metal was stockpiled, that doesn't mean it was sorted. They spent the better part of summer weekends separating it and grading it. A guy up the street would cut up/separate any mixed metals (my uncle literally had a ton of brass and bronze valve bodies, the neighbor split them open and took the unlike metal on/off assemblies out). The same guy loaded and hauled all of the metal to the scrap yard for 20% (he actually wanted less, my father insisted on him taking the 20%).

So far the estate has netted $12,500 and there is still a rail car (including the truck assemblies, the guess is 30 tons), a couple 40 yard dumpsters lying on their sides and welded together (which was his machine shop), and a utility trailer full of copper wire left to scrap.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

i would get rid of it

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1984 300SD Orient Red/ Palomino
1989 560SEC
2016 Mazda 6 6 speed manual
1995 Ford F-150 reg cab 4.9 5speed manual

Also known as the law of natural selection......

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Copper Scrap Page

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

I sell my junk metal on ebay for -hopefully -top dollar. i was disappointed this deal didn't do better
vintage art deco yankee turn signal switch and Arvin heater 32 33 34 ford scta - eBay (item 130581838070 end time Oct-02-11 17:55:43 PDT)

I save all the copper, brass, and alum I encounter in my work. The other day, I was at the transfer station and spied a sink with a huge faucet still attached. I was able to get it off w/o being hassled, took it home and it weighs almost 10 pounds. That's about $20 right there. I threw old faucets and supply valves away for years. It could be that someday it will be determined that landfills have more recoverable copper than many mines, per ton of material extracted.

About twice a year I take in my haul and get about $100. I have to wait a few days for the money now, an anti meth-head measure that may or may not do any good. Two trips to the place now instead of one but it's on my way.

I was unable to sell the last two cats I took out of my Bimmer, so I just threw them in the scrap metal bin at the Palo Alto recycling center, a really good one next to the former dump, closed a few months ago. They'll get the approx $10 apiece for them I can only imagine.

A couple years back, some nimrods stole a brass shutoff valve at some toxic liquid holding tank and beau coup toxins flowed into the bay - cleanup estimated in the $10s of thousands and I don't imagine it would be complete at any rate. Where's my aluminum baseball bat.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K