Dont scrap it, break it.

Rolandtheroadie

I've repeatedly seen "scrap my car" threads where advice given is to strip rather than weigh in.

So here we go. I've a W reg Corsa lying in the drive that I bought with the intentions of fixing but alas, I've decided not to.

Engine hydrauliced, that aside it aint too bad.

Step 1 was buy 100 metres of 1 metre wide bubble wrap from ebay for postage. The cars got a new exhaust, minimum of 1 new tyre, recon starter.

Before it's swim, it ran a1 with no faults.

Parts will be advertised on ebay and gumtree, also anywhere else I think they'll get a buck.

pendulum

I used surprisingly little bubble wrap. Most car parts are quite big so scrunched up newspaper in a box is the usual way to pack, even the smaller bits I tended to use scrunched up newspaper for

Organisation is everything, as soon as I advertised "This auction is for a wheelnut but if you need anything else please contact me" I got a flood of people asking for different stuff. If you haven't already got most of the car already dismantled by that point then you'll struggle unless you've got loads of time on your hands or have done it before and work fast.

If I was to do it again I'd buy lots of bags/boxes to help organisation, store and label everything that you take off (religiously) and keep all the bolts together etc

Some things will sell that you wouldn't think would, others will take ages to sell that you'd think people would want

Make use of Free Listing Days

Should easily make £££. I ended up buying an engine hoist and a few extra tools to strip my car down to bare shell and still ended up with a couple of hundred quid more than I could've sold it for.

Weird_Nev

Try a couple of the corsa forums too, see which bits are commonly sought after there and make sure you don't let anything go too cheap. Post pics of the car so people know colour and trim level etc.

Asheboy

Is it a Corsa B or C?

TrickyWicky

Not entirely sure of the purpose of this thread really - there isn't a question you just seem to be telling us what you're doing!

Anyway to share my tale I also broke a car up a couple of years ago. Its a bit more of a pain now as the DVLA don't allow you to self declare destruction and most scrap yards want a complete-ish car to make their money from before issuing a DVLA destruction cert. That said, if you sell off bits then you could probably pay for the chassis to be taken to them and get the cert. When I broke mine up a couple of years ago it was still legal to self declare breakage so I just ticked the box and let the local metal man take it on the back of his wagon. He literally got a chassis - I stripped pretty much everything (he commented "Blimey, you had a lot of that mate, I'm surprised you didn't have the roof too" - I had intended too but ran out of time!).

If it has air conditioning you'll need to get this sucked dry first as it's illegal to release these gasses into the atmosphere - they're also dangerous to your health too.

Good luck!

Rolandtheroadie

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Not entirely sure of the purpose of this thread really - there isn't a question you just seem to be telling us what you're doing!

It's really just to show if it's viable or not.

I've always been of the opinion it's good in theory but never had much success in the past selling bits and bobs off cars or bikes before scrapping.

I think for the majority of people they would just be better getting rid of the car right from the start.

worried_jim

Have you put any parts on ebay yet?

Apples2

This'll be an interesting thread to follow.
Maybe edit the first post with a list of items sold and money made.

pendulum

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Its a bit more of a pain now as the DVLA don't allow you to self declare destruction

Yes they do! I did it a month ago, there was an option hidden on the V5 that says you've self-destroyed it, I sent it off along with a short handwritten covering letter and they sent me a letter back saying it's been dealt with and I'm no longer responsible for it

If you have a newer V5 than me (mine was 4 and a half years old) perhaps the option isn't there? [Edit; it isn't on my motorcycle which I bought 2 months ago]. But I'd still expect them to sort it out if you wrote a letter, after all you're just telling them the car doesn't exist any more and needs to be unregistered, they can't ignore that info. You do need to tell them that you no longer have it, if you still have it even if its in bits you still need to SORN.

It won't be too much of a problem

If you have broken up the vehicle yourself, you must either continue to tax it or tell the DVLA that you are keeping it off the public road. You can do this by making a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification). You will need to make a SORN every year until you have taken it to an ATF, or told DVLA that you longer have it.

Rolandtheroadie

I've not put anything up for sale as of yet, and to be honest I wont put on here where or what's being sold.

As apples2 suggests, I might edit the first post with whats been sold and also where it was sold after parts are gone.

I'll edit it just now, as the battery was a good one and went in another car 6 months ago. No money in, but must be at least a £10 saving.

harveybobbles

I bought a Mondeo Ghia X for £150 last year. 51 plate with 190,000. Petrol. Head gasket gone.

First thing I took out was the leather seats and door cards - sold on Piston Heads for 150. So the rest was profit

Took most things off and sold them on ebay etc - used a friends yard to strip it down, which happens to be next door to the scrapyard. Drained the fuel tank and got about £20 of petrol too lol.

Then I got £120 for the engine, gearbox and shell

Didnt keep tabs on how much I made, but I think it was 4 figures.