Tips for parting out a 94 Sunbird?

[phinneyj]

I have a 94 Sunbird SE with 48,500 original miles on it, and even though it runs great, there's a rust hole in the rear-right inner wheel well where the shock in that corner should connect (so now there's no support in that corner). If I didn't drive 75 miles a day for work, I'd be fine with fixing it up whenever an issue arises.

As it is though, I had to get a new car and have been unable to find a buyer of this one on Craigslist. This leaves me with limited options, and I'm considering parting out the car. Does anyone here have experience with parting out a car, such as what parts are more likely to sell, or in what order to remove parts from the car? I may need help identifying certain parts throughout the process, too. FYI: I'm not a big car guy, but I know my way around a toolbox.

My main interest in selling the parts is that I replaced the entire air conditioning system in the car half a year ago, and those nearly-new parts will go to waste if I junk it. The tires are nearly new too, but they cost a lot less. Plus, the parts should, in total, fetch more than the $1000 I was selling the car for.

Any help anyone here can offer would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Joel

 

[melsg5]

advertise the whole thing on ebay/craig's list as a parts car and see what requests you get. You also could donate it to charity and get a tax writeoff

 

[phinneyj]

advertise the whole thing on ebay/craig's list as a parts car and see what requests you get. You also could donate it to charity and get a tax writeoff

Thanks for the suggestions. The charity idea sounded good at first, but because I'd only get a tax writeoff for the amount the charity sells the car for, I'd likely get much less than if I sold the car for parts or parted it out.

I've just put a parts car ad in craigslist. I'll pop back in here if that's unsuccessful and I still need tips/suggestions for parting out the car.

 

[92 Sunbird LE]

I'll take a few parts if you come back here empty handed.

Doug in P.R

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[phinneyj]

I'll take a few parts if you come back here empty handed.

Doug in P.R

I'll keep that in mind Doug. I've only had one reply so far and the guy seems to be trying to scam me, so really I've had no interest from craigslist yet.

 

[frmotors]

ok this might get winded but I have been parting out (I'm not a professional) on the side for over 10 years. I have used ebay (it will cost you an arm and a leg) and Craigslist (it will waste your time with bogus requests that never pan out) and of course I still put stuff on forums here and there.

BUT.... it can be tough to keep up with all the requests and update part list etc anywhere... about two months ago I found a new site that has made it much easier - partingout.com

Basically, you upload pictures of the car and you can list specific parts but whats cool is buyers list parts. Instead of questions and picture request all you get at partingout is offers attached to money. Personally, I would rather get 20 serious offers to buy than 100 of the other requests you get at craigslist.

I'll wrap it up, I've just been so frustrated with all the other options I can get on a soap box for this new site. its free to use, and the only fee is 4% of final sales, but you will sell so much more parting out this way the 4% will end up being nothing.

I love it and hope to help you out, but whatever you decided good luck because there is a lot of money to be make parting out.

 

[phinneyj]

Well, the only offer (scam) fell through, so it looks like I'll be parting the car out after all. I hope it'll be a worthwhile endeavor.

Thanks for the suggestion of partingout.com, frmotors. You couldn't be more right about Craigslist, too. Have you looked at justparts.com? Their sales fee is 5% but they have no fee to list your parts, which almost makes me want to start there. Anyone else have experience with JustParts?

Oh, and Doug: What parts were you interested in?

 

[92 Sunbird LE]

What motor does it have? 2door or 4? color in and out?
Doug in P.R.

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[92 Sunbird LE]

Doug in P.R.

 

[melsg5]

try sending a PM