maximizing scrap car value?

[grampy666]

I am divesting my never-gonna-get-to-it car projects and I want to maximize the scrap value. I know if I just pack up the scrapped car with all my junk that a scrapyard will only pay me "mixed tin" or whatever the lowest price is (currently around $60/ton in my area).

So, aside from cat converters, what components from an early to mid 90's US made car have more scrap value? Radiators? Heater cores? A/C condensers/evaporators? Wiring harnesses? Starters/alternators? I know enough to do a magnet test for ferrous/non-ferrous, but really don't know how to tell aluminum from brass or brass/copper. I do think that aluminum doesn't spark when you hit it with a grinder?

your insights welcomed...

[milehighXR]

If you have the time, part them out. It will take serious effort to get the wire harness out, and even then, yer only looking at $0.10-.20 per pound on the wire based on my local experiences. AL is primarily only found in the intake manifolds, or rads. For me to get the most out of the rads, I had to take the end tanks off, then I could get "clean" rate on it. Same with intakes, no steel on them at all. Elsewise it's "dirty". On the XR and Scorpio the bumpers(behind the covers) are AL.

I parted out a Scorpio to nothing but the shell, and I got $50.00 for the 700lbs that remained. I still have parts laying around from that task, and need to take them to scrap(bumpers and other sheet metal). To me it was not worth the effort to part it out. I think it took me about 20 hours to break it down, and another 12 months to liquidate most of the parts. I didn't keep good track of how much I got, but I wanna say it was only about as much I could have gotten if I sold it as a runner. Maybe $1000.00 at the outside. Not really worth the effort IMO(pulling the wire harness thru with the goal of selling it to someone took over an hour, I don't know how they did that at the factory to make it fast).

The part about the whole thing that sours me on parting out cars is that I would post something with a fair price, and I would get a dozen replies from people wanting to pay less than half of what I was asking, or they would back out once they realized it typically costs about $1.00 per pound to ship most items that don't fit in a flat rate box.