Could you build a car using a junkyard for cheap?

Question

i can put a car together...itll take awhile but who cares...i needa ride and cant afford it, are junkyards inexpensive?

Answer 1

You can defintiely score at junkyards, but even better in your own neighborhood. Simply look around and if you notice a vehicle that looks to have been sitting a while(cob webs, dirty windows, flat tires,) ask the owners if they are wanting to get rid of it. Have scored plenty of free cars that most of the time, only needed minor work if any.

Answer 2

Chris,

   I used to work for a guy that got all of his cars from junkyards.  He'd find something - not too old, wrecked in the back, and something similar, wrecked in the front, and put them together.

   That being said - you are talking about the bottom of the barrel here in the car world.  I mean - presume you get something running for 500 bucks.   It's going to cost another few hundred, even from the salvage yard, to get it legal and even somewhat reliable.  

   That being said - why not start out with something running in the first place?  I mean,  you can go to www.craigslist.com or ebay motors and get something tough but with a couple hundred thousand miles for less than a grand.   Yahoo motors  is literally packed with ads for all kinds of vehicles and you can sort by price and zip code and everything else.   It would probably have tires on it.  If you can work on cars, find something half decent that in individual needs to sell but is giving away because it's not worth it for them to fix it.  

  

  Example: I can't change a clutch.  I had an old jeep comanche pickup I got for 1500 bucks a few years ago to haul dogs and c**p for my house.  I put 30,000 miles on it and kept those miles off my good car.   When the clutch went out, I wasn't going to pay somebody else 500 bucks to put a clutch in it, so I sold it for 700 bucks to a coworker that planned to fix it himself.   I know all kinds of stories like that.  If you can do a headgasket, or a clutch or automatic transmission, you are going to find all kinds of solid old vehicles that will run another 50,000 miles.

Tip:  get something with a timing chain.  It's one less  big repair that you won't need to worry about, and people generally don't change the timing belt before dumping an old car.   It's either a major repair you'll need to do yourself waiting to happen, or a $500  you'll need to pay somebody else on a $1000 vehicle.  Not worth it.  

Pickups are built more ruggedly than cars, usually have timing chains,  stronger transmissions,  and are not hotrodded like cars.   People are almost giving them away now because of the gas mileage sucking.  

If it were me, and I were you,  I'd find a small high mileage pickup with a straight six motor and an automatic transmission.   My jeep comanche had way over 200,000 miles on it when it crapped out.  Those things are tough.  So are ford rangers and chevy silverados.  

I just did a search on yahoo autos.  There's a zillion trucks for less than a grand.   Check it out, see what you think.

-Kevin

Answer 3

thats how i got my camaro that now does a 1/4 mile in low 13 seconds. bought it and a wrecked corvette from a junk yard for 2500 total took trans and engin outta corvette put it in the camaro. tuned and fiddeled. fore about 5000 i got one h**l of a cool car.