Please look at the club site for all of the pictures. What do we need to do with them?
We have several suggestions on the club site but need suggestions. Here is an example
http://www.914club.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=221309
I say let go of the good shells for cheap to those who will take the time to restore them properly.
Are you doing anything with them now?
Do you need the land for another purpose?
The correct answer is to harvest the salvageable parts or sell them off as parts cars - neither of which is an easy undertaking if you have 200 cars back there.
After 20 years of outdoors storage, how many of the parts are still salvageable? Do you go out there now for parts? Or are they just sitting?
Zach
Start a Save the Orphans Fund. You know, "for 38 cents a day you can adopt a neglected and downtrodden 914 for your very own. Your teener will write you letters and send you pictures and let you know how your donation is affecting their life."
Seriously, rent some goats and get the vegetation cleared so we can see what you're dealing with.
Give them all away. The sale of parts from AA to restore even a couple of them will be profitable and certainly better than what your getting from them now.
Durring a slow time of the year, have the giveway at the same time as an AA sale, gathering, party, tour, show, how-to clinic, BBQ. You'll get tons of exposure for your buisness and lots more sales than normal.
Wow. About 5 or so years ago we bought a parts car out of your junkyard and it was quite the site then. It has really overgrown since.
If it were me, I would clear the yard out and line all of them up in neat nice rows and take inventory of everything you have. Its been so long you have probably forgotten most of the jewels in there. You should at least know what you have before you start liquidating. I would then gradually start selling whole cars and parts for cheap to the loyal AA customers.
Boy Scout projects! Like pinewood derby only on a larger scale.
Give the cars away, just as they are. Some of them may end up in the recycle, but some may go to fools (oops, did I say that) who will spend way more money than they should on restoring them. You'll end up selling them parts.
thank you all for the replies. We need to find a way to dispose of them without a lot of labor involved, because I can just call a crusher and he will clean the lot for 2000 in my pocket. OBVIOUSLY the cars are worth much more than that. Just the late model shift linkages would be worth the strip.
However the cars are overgrown and jambed up there, and I would be afraid that even if I gave a few away that would still leave me with the rest and the ones given away the pick of the litter. Even taking the labor to cut down the mess move the cars into straight lines and inventory would be a crazy labor expense.
Number them and do a dutch auction
sell all 200 for 1 price each
random luck on what we get, but we may get several
I liked the "Buy $1500 in AA parts and get a 914 roller FREE" idea we tossed around earlier this year. The problem is shipping because no car carrier wants to deal with an inoperable vehicle. However, if a carrier were given 50 cars to ship around the country, they may make an exception to the rule.
Hmm, what about an "Automobile Atlanta Debit Card"? For $1500 you get a debit card to purchase 914 parts and a roller 914, shipping not included.
Maybe an Automobile Atlanta Grill and Weedwacker fest?
Hey Gint!! You've a lot more open garage space now
Mike
BTDT....good luck with that
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=34415&hl=scrap
This reminds me of something. In the late 90's when I was looking for ih scout parts down around bryan, tx, I found a old guy that had brought a bunch of cars south to tx from the east in tractor trailers and some had already been restored as far back as the early 60's. The ford I looked at needed a repaint but it was complete except he said his grandson had forced one side of the hood open and bent it because the hinge was siezed. There was at least 5 trailers with two or more cars and stuff in them. He said he was going to get to all of them but he was 70 then. The last time I saw him he was mowing around all the cars and trailers with a push mower about noon one summer day.
That is quite a dilemma.
It sure would be nice to find a way to get those parts into the hands of people who could use them and maybe save a few more 914's that could go back on the road. The labor would be a big expense. I don't suppose some kind of defoliating spray would work well enough to allow you to set up some kind of pull-a-part yard.
Obviously, with all that stuff sitting out in the weather like that, it is not in pristine condition, but, what would you say is the general condition of what you have out there?
I will have to think about this a while.
Is this it?
Attached image(s)
very simple:
hire several local car nut school kids to cut & clear, part out ect... for the promise a 1st car builder 914.
from a business stand point alone, you've just added a new generation of teeners
opposite of the wonderful "cash for clunkers" idea that worked so well
Well, how many 914 guys are around you that REALLY know how to dissasemble them? I mean with a 914 on a forklift about 2' in the air one person could dissasemble a 914 completely in about 10 hours or less. (Obviously this person would need to be able to operate the forklift in order to pull the engine/trani)
I say you concrete a 20x20 pad, 3" of concrete should be good, Say about 1-2k. OH and get a 200$ large white tent to put over top so the worker wont die.
Then pull every car off one by one onto the pad, Inspect the car.
1. If the chassis is solid enough to drive on, and the car is complete or near complete, Pull it off to a cleaned area of the lot and offer them for sale for 500-1k. This would be your quick movers. I figure you'll have 10 of them.
2. If the chassis is solid and the car has minor damage or lots of parts missing, Strip it down to a rolling chassis and steering column. Put these in another area that has been cleared. I figure you'll have 40 chassis. You should offer the rolling chassis's for sale for 350-500.
3. If the car has been in an accident but has really good body parts, strip the chassis completely and set them on wheels similar to pick n pull. You should do this to a max of 20 chassis. After that, start stacking them to be crushed, send 2ea a week to the crusher.
4. If the car is rotted but has good parts, Pull the good parts and send the rest to the crusher.
5. If the car doesnt have any good parts, the chassis needs a lot of work, Offer the for sale for $25, If they need help loading onto their flatbed its an extra $50 per man per 1/2 hour. As you come to them, Offer them for sale for a total of 1 month, after that if you have a pick n pull by you, offer it to them for sale, if they wont take it, Crusher.
Now there are possible solutions for the labor here, You could have your laborers do the work. OR you could offer up to the locals some options such as.
Strip one car and get $250 in parts at current days rates off of any of the parts that have been stripped from the lot.
Strip 4 cars and get a complete car of your choice.
Team up with your buddy's and bust out a couple cars in a weekend for group rates!
Quick and nasty solution. Itll take a couple of years to go through it all if you have one laborer do it.
Pricing and all that is up to you, I just put in pricing that "I" would pay.
Yea, the satellite pic looks like cars with green mold taking over.
Shoot, those are free rust southern cars!
Cherry pick the good cars. Give the others away to anyone who wants to come
with a trailer and get one in the next year. Crusher the ones that are too far
gone and you probably still get 2000.
IIRC there are 30 or so easily restorable cars on AA main grounds as well...
I hate to see any Porsche not restored but better to save a few than none.
John
OK George. Here's reality. You don't want to pay to have the cars dismantled and you want them gone.
So. Pick a date 6 months out and this is the week that anyone in the country show up to pick up a car. First come. No favorites.
Make a deal with your local charity. Give them all the cars and take your $25k write off. The deal is that anyone can come pick up as many cars as they want and make a $100 donation per car to the Charity.
You make out. The charity makes out. 914's make out. 914 owners make out.
For all this effort, you'll sell 10 times as much in parts for those wanting to start a new car project. Many cars saved!
(ps. Sorry, I wouldn't pay $1500, and probably not many others would.)
I would make the 8 hour drive and crash at a buddies for the chance to pull parts.
They do something here local that might work. They have a flat fee for all you can pull and carry across a set distance. So say $50.00 all you can carry for 75 feet over a week or 3 day weekend. Once it is over call the crusher and that would be the end of the 200 cars.
This is so simple
Goats to clear away the foilage
Kill and bar b que the goats to feed the illegal mexicans to do all the labor.
I would start soon - and pick a weekend each month for the next 6 months to let 914 freaks load a 18 car trailer for a set price - I would take a parts car and a few other large parts(core motors/trans) for ,,,,, let say $300 - $500 ---- OR pay by the lbs. But if you have a 3 day weekend each month - people from all over can schedule a trip - more locals could do multiple month trips - hotels near by could have an AA rate - ....................................... My other idea would be to give AA credit for people with heavy equipment and strong backs - I would "WORK FOR PARTS" more of the barter system - you get labor for parts at retail - but pay wholesale - So a $500 parts credit may only cost you $250 - But if you had to pay someone cash you are out the whole $500 ...... spray paint a huge dot on each car - each color is a different price - $1K - $500 - $250 $100 - free ----- then no negotiation - take a "free" with a parts car - ............... another idea is have a HUGE saw-zall party - 1/2 cars are much easier to move than full one - you buy blades , we bring saws and labor - and we get to take 800 lbs each for out days work - 2 work days get you a parts car -
Well all of your ideas made me think of something. What if we got 20 people to commit to 1500 dollars each of used parts from the cars or 40 people each to commit to 750 each worth of used parts from the cars. That way we could afford to strip them properly and the parts would go to a good cause. As the parts were actually not really costing anything now we could make it a "free for all" so to speak where the 1500 would buy four times as many parts as the regular retail, for example a set of fuchs alloys would be 200 instead of 800 and a 2.0 engine would be 400.00 instead of 1600 etc etc.
In addition we would have a week long dismantling party paid for by the parts sales. We hope after all of this to have our four acres up the street cleaned so we can plan and build the new Automobile Atlanta with the best facility to celebrate the 914!!!
George, giving away a shell creates a customer... one that will instantly like you. Just saying...
Do cars rust in GA? What is the current condition of these 200+ cars? There is no way you could have a bunch of people decend onto your property and hack away at the thicket and assume the liability. I suggest you hire someone with a liability policy to clear the overgrowth. Then you could be reasonably certain you could have people walking around these cars. What about snakes and deadly insects?
Rule #1 is find the best chassis you can find.If there is a good chassis in that pile George isn't Dr. 914. Have a picnic at AA and let the faithful descend on the cars and have what they want.When its over crush um for the $2k.
My vote is to de-foliate the area. Stack up all the cars in a lot temporarily and price them to move. Hold the sale for the whole cars, do not part them out.
Pretty much the whole 914 community knows that they will be for sale. After a month, crush the rest. If no one buys them for a couple hundred a piece then it is their own fault. (why a couple hundred? because most people will have the additional cost of transporting the shells home.)
You would have done everything in your power to make sure life could be breathed back into those cars, and your conscience should be clear.
Judging by your posts, you are not looking to make a fortune out of the junk in the back yard, you just want it cleaned up and maybe make a buck or two.
It cost me north of 1K each trip to get the last two cars I bought. Add that to the price of the cars and they have to be salvagable to be worth the trip. A free shell still costs north of a grand.
WOW,
Having just completed a clean up project of much smaller proportions I can say that you have a lot of work ahead of you..
I have friends with idle heavy equipment sitting around, let me know if you need their number.
I'd be willing to come yank a few out with the Pinzgauer for ya one Saturday.
Am I the only one who is curious about how there come to be two hundred 914s sitting out in the undergrowth doing nothing? Why are they there? Were they being kept as parts cars? Were they all put there at once, or one by one over the years? Is it an investment hoard that went wrong?
I am sure George just woke up one morning to find them all grazing in his back yard unexpectedly...he must have figured seems all those cars were attracted to him, that he would open a store to cater to them.
I agree that these cars need to be saved. You probably have some that structurally are beyond saving as a whole car, but I'd VOLUNTEER time to clean out the lot in exchange for some 4-bolt (or 5) fuchs, a tranny, etc.
Imagine if that were a lot of 356s! People would go ape $#!+! 914s are the 356/ early 911 of the future.
Konrad
So if I wanted to get rid of my stash, I don't guess this is a good time to ask George if he wants a couple more parts cars, is it?
And their value hasn't so much dropped as plummeted?
If you need any help dismantling or clearing the lot or whatever you decide i'm only three hours away. I am also a broke college student trying to finish building my own car. But not having any money to finish it makes that difficult Why not this for an idea: Pay per hour in the yard (not including just removing a whole car) Pick whatever you can in a certain amount of time, and just have a set price if they want a whole car.
Is there really anything worth saving? My car sat in a closed garage and developed serious rust issues. Just talked to Jayman in Philly and he has the same issues with his car after garaged for 17 years and his PO took great care of the car. After sitting in the open for 5,10, 20+ years, what's the chance of any of these cars surviving? (at least enought to make restoration a possibility) If AA was located in AZ it would be different but I just can't imagine there's much left of the metal.
I had the same 'rot in the garage' issue but that was in the great white north where you get condensation issues going from cold nights to warm days. The 'storage rust' would probably be limited to areas where the rust had already started - longs, floors, hell holes - the usual suspects. other body panels could be very usable. It would be really interesting to go at that lot with an ice pick just to see how the rust progressed.
I know there was tongue in cheek reference to agent orange earlier on but Round Up would probably be really useful in clearing the area. Bit of a fire hazard though as all the grass and stuff dies off.
George you need to host the mother of all sawzall's party! If nothing else you need to save the NLA parts.
Except for core parts like some of the brake calipers, transmissions, rear hubs, it looks more like scrap metal to me.
If I could get someone else to clean up that mess, I guess I'd try that first too.
Here is a idea for you George
http://bringatrailer.com/2010/08/02/65-car-new-hampshire-yard-sale/
Those things are likely all held together by the remaining paint. Georgia/southern humidity and years of rain will have taken their toll.....
Rust free california cars still have rust.
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