Parting out (say) a perfectly good 1985 308. Can you make some bank?

Serious question: In looking at what several older model parts (Ferrari parts in general) that are being sold, seems to me that if you had time on your said (say five years), you could make $200K+ on parting out a perfectly good 1985 308. Yes? No? If a buyer comes to you for a right front fender for example, it means they need it and they will probably pay top dollar to get it.

 

I don't think there is $200K worth of parts on one. I may be wrong but certainly you will have to COMPLETELY part it out nearly down to the individual bolts to get anywhere near that. In other words, you cannot sell the engine complete to try to make that number. It will have to go piece by piece.

 

No, just no.

 

The 1st third sells fast. Next third a decade. Last third you will never sell. But yeah those parts have value…

 

I love ya man, but this is just wrong. Why even contemplate such an idea?

Wrecked one? That's a different topic.

"Perfectly good"?

Just comes off as trolling to me

Jedi

 

If that was the case, then everyone would do it. 200k of parts on a 70k car... who are you fooling?

(yourself, it's rhetorical)

 

I had a perfectly good 1970 Fiat 124 that had a "difficult" title and parted it out down to the frame. Took about two weeks. I was amazed at how many folks came out of the woodwork like ants and took apart the car. I made 10x on what I paid for it by selling the bits. It was quite annoying to my neighbors who called the cops on me every week I had that shell sitting in my driveway. Finally, when the Fiat was down to the bolts, we dragged it onto a trailer and dumped it at the wreckers in the middle of the night as it was the only way to dispose of it without a good title.

The experience was quite negative though. Seeing a car that I really enjoyed taken apart piece by piece was very sad. I would never do it again.

 

FerrParts has a yard filled with body panels that people have yet to pay top dollar for.

That's not to say there's no market for such parts, but to demonstrate that having such parts doesn't = "constant line of people down the block waiting to take them off your hands and throwing piles of cash on your desk."

Certainly, all of us need a part at some point. But with ONE car - expect to spend a lot of time answering emails, "No, I don't have that bracket anymore. But are you interested in a passenger seatbelt? No, ok, thanks for calling."

 

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I was told Ted Rutlands would walk the rows of concours-level cars at Concorso Italiano looking for people willing to sell their cars. He was running a parts business. Parts are worth more than the whole. It is just a question of how much.

 

My apologies to make you think I was trolling, I don't go there. I thought of the thread topic after viewing a few posts of parts for sale and looking elsewhere for the same. I was kinda blown away at what some parts are going for such as a front left lock hood assembly for a 360 on eBay for about $1500.

 

I certainly agree with this. Especially a non-running example.

 

Do it! You'll be rich. Heck, why stop at just one? Buy a couple.

 

Sorry but 'YES.'

 

Back in the day, it used to be the case that, from when the cars were new, to around the time they were @ 5~10 years old, you could get brand new parts for them from Ferrari.

After that, you basically needed to rely on parts from cars that were being broken up, because Ferrari stopped making the parts (basically, they didn't care about the older cars), and there were very few companies making good quality new/aftermarket parts for Ferrari's. Parts supply was limited, and so people could charge pretty much what they liked for used parts.

Today you have companies that still break Ferrari's for parts (such as Eurospares in the UK ), but there are also a lot more suppliers of good quality new/aftermarket parts too.

And a major player in the new parts market for older Ferrari's is .......... Ferrari!

Ferrari have finally come to realise just how big the "affordable", modern classic Ferrari market is, and they have started to supply new parts for cars from the 1970's/1980's/1990's.

Here in the UK, they are even trying to get owners of modern classic Ferrari's from the 1970's/1980's/1990's, to have their cars serviced/repaired at official Ferrari dealerships once more, by offering to match the pricing of local independent dealers!

Yes some parts are still not available from Ferrari, but if they get enough requests for a part, they will get them re-manufactured.

Something else to think about is: What will sell quickly, what will sell slowly, and where you would store all your parts.

Engine and gearboxes are big money earners, but ........ Ferrari make pretty robust engine and gearboxes, so their not exactly sought after by every single owner.

How many owners are going to need a replacement 3*8 GTB/GTS engine cover for example? - It's a big part, that will rarely be required, so are you going to store it somewhere on the off chance that someone might need one some day?

How many owners require a complete new dashboard? - Another sizable item that may need storing for years!

Seats and interiors? - Big parts that most owners don't need!

And one of the biggest problems with breaking cars? - People always seem to want things such as windscreens, doors, wheels, boot lids, hoods, convertible tops first, leaving the remains of the car open to the elements, and impossible to move around.

At the end of the day, if there really was $200,000 worth of parts in a perfectly good $70,000 dollar Ferrari, the companies who already break Ferrari's for a business, would be buying up all the $70,000 Ferrari's they can, to make $130,000 on each car - But they don't, because there's no real profit in breaking a perfectly good $70,000 Ferrari for parts, when you take into account how fast everything will sell, storage costs, and other associated costs.

 

The previous owner of my car bought it from Ted. He had already sold the stock wheels and put on the gold BBS basket wheels. I suspect if the PO hadn’t bought the car it would have been broken up.

 

There is a gent parting a 308 GTSi in Los Angeles. I bought some parts and asked him what was wrong with it, was the engine toast etc. He said no, it was a running, driving car in decent condition and he was adamant that he'll make more parting it. It's not the first one he's done apparently and he's always looking for another.

 

There has to be a more honorable way to earn a decent living d;-(

 

Did it with my old TR3
recouped the money I had in the car but always felt dirty even though I tried to convince myself that I was keeping other people's cars alive