re: Parts car and transporting it

[Dwight Varnes <xmxbreed@lancnews.infi.net>]

I'm finding that the majority of tow places have flat beds, or
roll-backs now. You may want to seek out the one-man towing operation
over the big multi-truck places. I recently had a car I purchased towed
about 40 miles by a garage owner on a weekend at his leisure quite
inexpensively. Body shops also often have tow units. Since these trucks
are expensive, the smaller guys are usually eager for any tow job they
get, so if you explain your need for a "reasonable" bill, they may be
willing to help out.
If you can borrow someone's truck/van/or dare-I-say SUV, you can rent
one of those car-caddy things fairly cheap. Probably cost you a third to
half as much as towing it.
I haven't had to rid myself of one lately, but scrap value on steel is
pretty good, and a free car is usually enough for a salvage yard that is
close by to come get it. I don't know of a yard that doesn't use a
flatbed truck, so loading it isn't a big deal--they can just drag it on.
I paid $35 about twenty years ago to get rid of a carcass that had
NOTHING left on it, but then scrap wasn't valuable then.
What's a parts car worth? The most I ever paid for a Fiat was $250, and
that was a mostly for-profit acquisition of parts. I would pay probably
twice that for a CGT parts car depending on the condition, but generally
$300 is the limit for something common like a 4000.  Of course, YMMV
depending on what parts you need/can use.
My Fiat, BTW, was completely made road-worthy for the first few years of
ownership by the purchase of several parts cars. It also helped keep the
eventual restoration cost down to an acceptable level, proved profitable
as a part-time business selling the extras, and gained me many new
friends!
-- 
"Life is too short to drive a minivan."

Dwight Varnes
1970 124 Spider (restored)
1986 Audi Coupe GT (waiting for more HP)
1989 VW Jetta GLI 16v (wife's ride)
1998 Ford Contour 16v (co. car, got to pick the color)
1965 Buick Skylark conv. (coming soon)

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