Junk And Projects
We had a rude awakening this week about the high cost of
acquiring old truck projects.
Jimmy had an early 70's Brockway. High mount cab, long frame
tandem axle. An old concrete block truck with no body.
We had taken out the auxiliary transmission to keep for another
project. Anyway, there wasn't much left of the old girl. It had been
parked right next to the railroad tracks, and all the glass was gone,
the hood was off for years before it came to us and it didn't run.
The opportunity came along to sell it a while ago for $500.00 to a local
guy with a few other old Brockways.
The fellow never took the truck out of our yard. So Jimmy offered to
haul the truck for scrap and split the money with the new owner.
Now for the rest of the story -
If that truck was really worth $500.00 is really questionable.
But, it brought $2,700.00 as scrap!
No wonder we are losing a lot of good restorable iron every day.
So - How do we fix this problem?
Makes me feel really good about asking $3,500.00 for my R-600.
It runs and drives perfect. You could drive it home easily.
But, using the same junk price, it would bring over $2,000.00
as scrap. And no hassles.
No, I'm not scrapping it, or anything else I own.
But it does make you think. And, being the extremely
kind and patient person that I am, I'm sure I'll exercise
real diplomacy the next time someone tells me my
price is too high.
Cars have been being crushed for years. There are a lot more cars
than heavy trucks, however. And the collectible cars are worth a lot
more money as projects than as scrap. So the threat is minimized.
With trucks it is really sad. The inventory is small, and the scrap value
is at an all time high; and a lot of history is being lost as we speak.
My own suggestion is to gather up any projects you might want,
and hold onto them, at all cost. The good stuff is going to skyrocket
in price very quickly as the inventory dries up.
Just think - your wives and girlfriends might even thank you for making
such a wise investment! And you'll have a toy that very few others can have.
Case in point-
A few weeks ago, we had a coal train derailment in Palmyra.
About 22 loaded coal cars, almost all in "light rollover".
(1,000,000 pounds of coal)
The salvage company immediately banked up the coal for
reloading. Then they cut all the trucks off of the rail cars,
and proceeded to cut up the hoppers right onsite!
According to their foreman, at today's prices, it is much more
economical to scrap the cars rather than send them in for rebuilding!
That's unbelievable to me.
Anyway - that's this week's rant.
17 Comments
Recommended Comments