Where are the Best Salvage Yards in America?

The Concierge’s Corner: Best Salvage Yards in America

July 27, 2011

Wondering where you can find a salvage yard that might have the parts you’re looking for? With Registered membership in the HVA comes the benefit of having your own historic vehicle “answer man” just a phone call or email away. Check out our concierge’s picks for the top three historic vehicle salvage yards in America and become a Registered member today.
 
Of all the thousands of questions HVA concierge, Glenn Arlt, answers for members every year, one of the most common is where to look for parts.

“When searching for any hard to find part, it’s better to play by the numbers,” says Arlt. “In other words, you’re more likely to find what you’re looking for in a salvage yard with thirty thousand cars rather than one that only has thirty.

People asked about how to find parts so frequently that Hagerty prepared a pamphlet about it. Check out the complete guide, Find That Part: Locating Used and New Components For Your Collector Car, by clicking here. In the meantime, here are Glenn’s top three picks for best salvage yards in America:

Windy Hill Auto Parts
Located in New London, Minnesota, Windy Hill Auto Parts is home to approximately 12,000 salvage cars and trucks. Over 8000 of these are pre-1968, sitting on 150 acres, according to Arlt.

“The age range of their vehicles is 1930-1990, approximately,” says Arlt. “Engines and transmissions and interior parts, is what I generally send people to them for. And they’re happy to ship.”

For more information, call Windy Hill Auto Parts at (320) 354-2201. Check out their website www.windyhillautoparts.com.

Hidden Valley Auto Parts
Located in Maricopa, Arizona, Hidden Valley Auto Parts stocks 8000 vehicles on 80 acres. These vehicles range from 1940 to 1989 and includes some foreign cars.
“I usually send people here when they’re looking for exterior sheet metal and trim parts,” says Arlt.
For more information, call Hidden Valley Auto parts at (520) 568-2945. Or to check out their inventory and inquire about parts for shipping, go to www.hiddenvalleyautoparts.com.

Turner’s Auto Wrecking
Located in Fresno, California, Turner’s Auto Wrecking specializes in classic and antique vehicles from 1928 to the present. They have a huge warehouse full of car and truck parts and an over 70-acre lot with more than 10,000 vehicles.

“This is a good, all-around place for all components,” says Arlt. “Plus, they ship worldwide.”
For more information, call (559) 237-0918. Or check out their parts inventory at www.turnersautowrecking.com

Those are three great suggestion. Do you have suggestion of your own? Please let us know by commenting.

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Did you have an opportunity to read our last News/Blog "What will you be driving when you are 101 years old?"

Are you about to buy or restore a Classic Car? We recommend: Research, Research, Research and Insurance.

 

Before buying a Classic or before restoring a Classic Car do yourself a big favor. Do research. A lot can happen to a car in 20 to 100 years. Without the research, you may own a beautiful hunk of metal, not totally worthless, great to look at but not a collector’s item or not the collector’s item you thought it to be. Research will help you to decide whether or not to buy or to restore a car.

This is important, it can help you save money and protect an investment.

So where to Start?

First do research before making the purchase. Make sure there is a real car and make sure it is really for sale. Ask and get as much history as possible. Keep in mind, now days there are many car builders very good at counterfeiting cars. Verifiable history can eliminate this problem.

Note: This is not the time to cut corners. If you are about to invest between $50,000 and up you should get a professional appraisal service. Who would purchase a $200,000 home and not have it inspected and appraised?

After the history is verified and the appraisal is in then it is time to negotiate a sale. Like the housing market, negotiating a price is the hard part. The sellers holds that their beautiful, one of kind, rare Classic Car is desired by all of the Kings and Princes of the earth. The buyer has seen 200 of these on eBay and there is a chip on the right quarter panel.  The market is volatile and is driven by unseen and unknown factors. What was popular yesterday is out today and the worst part, the professional appraisal service’s quote is vulnerable to these pressures.

So what to do?

Advice for buyers and sellers: be reasonable, do your own research, and hire a professional broker/appraisal service. If you feel that all information is in, then set a price in your mind and recognize that prices can move up or down on a daily basis.

For those of you who are about to restore a Classic Car, again, do your research, get a best estimate of value upon completion, and be reasonable about you expectations.

Once the car is purchase, make sure that you have Classic Car Insurance in place, even if it is a project car, put insurance in place. We recommend Hagerty Car Insurance. Experts in Classic Car Insurance. 

Recently on facebook I found this picture of a project car, just finished up and was out on it shake down run. No Insurance!

Before the Fire

On Fire

After the Fire

We recommend: Research, Research, Reasearch and Insurance.

   

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What will you be doing when you are 93 years Old? Read about "Walt" our last news/blog.

Operation Ignite!

News - Hagerty (Insurance)

Jay Leno is a fan of Operation Ignite

April 01, 2011

Jay Leno with McKeel Hagerty

In a recent video on Jay Leno’s classic car website, Jay’s Garage, Jay had a chat with Hagerty CEO McKeel Hagerty about our youth program, Operation Ignite!, and our Youth Reporter Contest. Turns out, he thinks it’s pretty cool. In fact, he even offered to hang out with the winner. So not only will one lucky kid go to classic car events around the country all expenses paid, the winner (and his parent or guardian) will also get to meet Jay Leno and check out his amazing garage.

Do you know a kid who likes cars and would be great in front of a camera? Make sure they know about the Operation Ignite! Youth Reporter Contest.

In a recent video on Jay Leno’s classic car website, Jay’s Garage, Jay had a chat with Hagerty CEO McKeel Hagerty about our youth program, Operation Ignite!, and our Youth Reporter Contest. Turns out, he thinks it’s pretty cool. In fact, he even offered to hang out with the winner. So not only will one lucky kid go to classic car events around the country all expenses paid, the winner (and his parent or guardian) will also get to meet Jay Leno and check out his amazing garage.


Do you know a kid who likes cars and would be great in front of a camera? Make sure they know about the Operation Ignite! Youth Reporter Contest. Our submission period closes on May 1 – so enter today!


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Did you get an opportunity to read our last news/blog "Classic Car Seller's Remorse" ?

Happy Hagerty Insurance

Feature Segment

Jonathan Kilnger of Hagerty Insurance

This week’s podcast show guest of Jonathan Klinger from Hagerty Insurance. For a lot of us, car insurance is one of those necessary evils we must deal with in life. We know that we need it, we know that it’s important, but for the most part we realize that dollars spent on insurance premiums are ones that we’ll never see again unless something really bad like an accident, theft, fire, or the neighbor kid’s baseball ends up causing harm to our ride. Since most of the muscle cars we all know and love qualify for antique auto status, the type of insurance that we require is truly dependent upon the amount of coverage we desire and the use of the car. Will it be a daily driver, or just an occasional fun-mobile? Will it spend time on the race track? Have we put $50,000 worth of Pro-Touring speed parts into that in no way conform to “blue book value?”
For the most part, the type of insurance that a majority of classic muscle car owners will use is called “agreed value” insurance, especially if you have a high dollar car.  This is a type of policy where you and the insurance company agree on an amount of coverage value for your car (say $40,000), and you pay a monthly premium on that.  Companies like Hagerty have been issuing these policies for years, and the premiums are far lower than those of traditional car insurance for a car of the same value. It’s a great way to get your car covered for a high dollar amount at a low price.  If you have your car insured with them for $40,000 and it’s stolen you’ll receive a check from Hagerty for $40,000. It’s that simple. What’s the catch?  Usage.  Most companies that issue “agreed value” policies do so with the provision that you are insuring a specialty car that is NOT to be used as daily transportation (i.e. the car you drive to work).  They also stipulate that your specialty car be kept in a garage when not in use. One huge plus though is that there are absolutely no requirements on limiting annual mileage and an appraisal of the car is almost never necessary.

What if you’d like to use your car more frequently, or as a daily driver?  In that case, “stated value” insurance is the way to go.  This is essentially just like regular car insurance, so you’re covered in every situation, but with a value stated on the policy for the car’s value and coverage amount.  This differs from agreed value insurance in that an appraisal of the car is usually required and you’d need to find an insurance company to work with. Allstate offer these style of policies (along with many others).  It will NOT be as cheap as the agreed value policies, but it will provide you the coverage that you’re looking for. Keep in mind that in the event of an accident or full total of the car your insurance company would still do a market analysis and try to find the current market value of the car, regardless of the State Value amount.

Jonathan did a terrific job of walking me through all of the scenarios, and did make a point to note that while most policies don’t cover cars on the race track (including Hagerty), some specialty policies are available. They too have a catch though as the race event must be cleared with the insurance company upfront, which is not a simple, or easy task. Jonathan didn’t give me an idea on what that type of policy might cost, and I didn’t ask! For the most part, if you plan to drag race or autocross your car just know that you are not covered during the act of racing itself, but you are everywhere else.

One last thing about Jonathan that you’ll be impressed by is that his daily driver is a 1930 Ford Model A. He’s on a run to drive his A every day for a year. You can follow his exploits at 365daysofa.com. I did ask if he uses a Hagerty policy on his Model A, and he admitted that since it’s his daily driver he could not do so, so he’s got a standard auto insurance policy on it and he’s just hoping that nothing bad happens. I’ll give him this; he’s honest!

-Robert Kibbe

TheMuscleCarPlace.com | Muscle Cars for Sale
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Please go to our latest article   "Good for Collectors: The Arizona Emissions Study "