parts car, or potential project?

this question has been bugging me for a long time.... say you find a nearly complete potential rod car while hunting parts in a salvage yard... and it has the exact parts you need. the car is, as i said, nearly complete, maybe missing powertrain. do you go ahead and remove these parts, and maybe set a chain reaction in motion that causes a potential rod to fade away, or do you keep looking for another less-complete donor?
or do you hightail it back to the office and make an offer for the whole car?

 

Is it a 4-door or a 2-door? Is it hard to find? If it's a convertible, the question is kinda dumb, you buy the car, flip it, and use it to buy the parts you need.

 

.....whole car, everybody needs more projects!

 

Depending on what the car is. Some need to go, and some need to be saved.

 

And if it's a 2-door, but you can get most of the pieces you need from a 4-door, then again there's no reason to ruin a buildable car. Particularly it's ridiculously rare, or it's not rare but not that hard to find one in the northeast that's half rusted into the ground -

 

One mans junk is anothers treasure etc...

I'd like to see google streetview adapted to s****yards

 

I believe it all depends on your skill level, and how much you desire the car, regardless if it is a 2/4/longroof/coupe, etc.
If you are only robbing a few small parts....the reaction has started, and of course the road to junker has indeed begun

 

If it's in a salvage yard, I'd either buy the whole car or just buy the parts I need. Because you could p*** up a great opportunity to get all of the pieces you need, in an attempt to "save" the car, and it'll end up getting s****ped or picked over anyway.

If you don't buy the whole thing, what are the chances that someone else will want it intact? It's much more likely that someone else will strip it of the same parts you wanted, or that it'll get recycled after sitting around for a while.

I know there are quite a few cars that people sold whole cars for cheap prices, because they were "too good to part out", only to be parted out by the new owner. Same principles apply here.

 

Depends on the model. If its a 52 Dodge 4 door sedan help yourself to what you need and move on. If it's a 1930 Model A Sedan delivery, well you get the idea. I'm real curious as to why you intentionaly neglect to mention what it is.

 

I usually try to get the whole car.I decide later weather to save it or part it.

 

Specific year, make and model would make a HAMB'er decision easier
but
It's in a junkyard.... grab the parts you need!
or
If you can buy it for the sum of the parts.... strip it in place
or
haul it home, sell it as a project or part it out.

A parts car in the drveway........ A dream come true....

 

a few parts missing from a car doesn't detract much from the value if the car is in poor condition. I've bought vintage rollers for cheap, stripped a bunch of parts and sold the parts for more than I paid for the car, then sold the body for more than I paid for the car again... if you are building a custom you don't need a lot of the trim parts anyways.

 

What is it, what will it cost to get out of the yard, and will the stripped parts be worth more than the cost of the car?

 

there is a lot of factors but probably buy the whole car, get what i need and sell the rest (either whole or part it out)

 

i see by the replies that most of us do consider a fairly complete rebuildable car almost "off limits" to random parts scrounging, if there are other donors nearby. i omitted any specific info regarding the body/make/age of the car to avoid preconceptions of rarity or value.

i unfortunately have s****ped too many savable cars over the years. some of them were pretty good, actually driveable cars, which would bring pretty good change today.

interesting spread of responses. thanks!

 

Tell us where it is then so we can decide for ourselves!

 

I also have some car project on going. it is already finished, though I am still thinking if I should install some blue ox hitches on it or not. They say it might became useful in the future.

 

This is a moving target. In the 60s 4drs and SWs were always considered merely donor cars. If they had a nice front clip that was even better. With the cost and availability of 2drs continually on the rise, 4 drs have become a whole lot more acceptable that they were when we were young. It could get worse in the years to come although we will be dying off and our cars will still be here. Will Honda Civics ever be worth more than a Deuce?

There is a picture in one of the early little pages R&C that showed an early 30s Chevy roadster. It still had remnants of the top material hanging from the bows with a caption about it being too rough!!

What was too rough 20 years ago is very fixable today. 20 years from now??? Who knows.

 

I sat too long on decideing whether to strip a car (look below), or give them $500 and attempt to find a space for it and it got crushed. I say depending on condition, either strip or buy ASAP! I still kick my self in the *** over this. Do you have pic of that car?

 

Buy the parts and build your car. Its just another car. Look at it this way your car had those parts missing and you tackled it right? Who's to say someone else won't tackle the other car with those parts missing.

 

If you've got the space and the scratch, by all means buy the whole car. Leaving it in hopes that someone someday might buy it and rework it is admirable, but foolish. It'll end up crushed. I've seen it happen.
Right now I'm trying to scrounge up the funds to save an old f1 that's dangerously close to being crushed.
2 door, 4 door, save as many as you can. They won't be making any more...