Starting a vehicle dismantling business?

[gtijon]

I'm thinking of starting a business dismantling cars, and selling the parts on after a refurb / cosmetic alterations. I'll be operating as a sole trader, and really the idea is that it's a way of making a bit of cash without being beholden to a job, as I quite fancy doing a Master's degree.

I already have a fairly good understanding of what people do and don't want, what sort of prices each part will go for etc.

Setup costs will be near to zero as I already have space in a workshop and my own tools. I'm aiming to sell through ebay, as it costs me nothing up front.

However, there are a couple of questions sticking in my mind.

Firstly, do I need to be insured? Some parts (say a refinished inlet manifold for a show car) would have a very slim chance of ever failing, and would be very unlikely to fail in such a way as to cause an accident. Other parts, such as brakes, suspension arms etc. would be safety critical. Am I going to need to be insured in this case (I somehow find it difficult to believe the average scrappy is insured for public liability )? Could I avoid the issue by farming out all brake parts for refurb by an external company, safe in the knowledge that it's very unlikely that cosmetic parts will fail? I'd like to avoid being visited / pestered by the public if at all possible, so there's no chance of anything falling on anyone but me.

Secondly, are the environment agency going to be after me? I intend to send the shells with whatever I don't want left on them to the scrapyard, and any oil / water / brake fluid that I need to remove will be collected and gotten rid of properly (exactly as a garage would when changing fluids). I'll be working in a workshop, with hardstanding, so it would be very unlikely that anything would be draining into the groundwater.

Thanks in advance for any light shed on this.

 

[asonda]

If you're going to be breaking down cars, you need to follow a set of regulatory rules and I'm not sure if you need a type of permit to operate such a business.

At most scrap yards (All the ones I've been to) have been very dubious over brake parts. Some won't sell any of them at all, technically I think the rules state they shouldn't sell them but I could be wrong.

Environment yes yes yes.

I think you should have a look at these guys:

http://www.mvda.org.uk/

 

[Aspect Investments]

You will need a very large workshop to set up a breakers. It is more cost effective to set up this type of business in a fenced off yard. The council do not like breakers and rarely give permission for a new one to be set up. There is good money in it if you can get permission from the council.

If you are having people visit your premisies you will need public liability. Regarding insurance for failure of the part you are selling that is really a manufacturers issue.

If you are selling engines/gearboxes etc, you can give a warranty with them, but you are not required too by law as far as I know.

 

[gtijon]

It wouldn't be a breakers in the traditional sense at all. I'd be likely to buy a maximum of 2 cars a week (more likely 1), strip them, indoors, of any valuable parts, and then get the shell and whatever's still attached out to a real breakers.

My aim is to avoid anyone visiting me, except the bloke with a lorry who's dragging my old shells away to be cubed and melted down. If I can beg or borrow a trailer, I can remove that element.

To be honest, if I can't sidestep heavy regulation, then it's almost certainly a waste of time - it's the sort of thing a lot of people do to make a few quid, working in their garage, breaking a car every couple of months or so.

 

[ORDERED WEB]

I'm thinking of starting a business dismantling cars, and selling the parts on after a refurb / cosmetic alterations. I'll be operating as a sole trader, and really the idea is that it's a way of making a bit of cash without being beholden to a job, as I quite fancy doing a Master's degree.

I already have a fairly good understanding of what people do and don't want, what sort of prices each part will go for etc.

Setup costs will be near to zero as I already have space in a workshop and my own tools. I'm aiming to sell through ebay, as it costs me nothing up front.

However, there are a couple of questions sticking in my mind.

Firstly, do I need to be insured? Some parts (say a refinished inlet manifold for a show car) would have a very slim chance of ever failing, and would be very unlikely to fail in such a way as to cause an accident. Other parts, such as brakes, suspension arms etc. would be safety critical. Am I going to need to be insured in this case (I somehow find it difficult to believe the average scrappy is insured for public liability )? Could I avoid the issue by farming out all brake parts for refurb by an external company, safe in the knowledge that it's very unlikely that cosmetic parts will fail? I'd like to avoid being visited / pestered by the public if at all possible, so there's no chance of anything falling on anyone but me.

Secondly, are the environment agency going to be after me? I intend to send the shells with whatever I don't want left on them to the scrapyard, and any oil / water / brake fluid that I need to remove will be collected and gotten rid of properly (exactly as a garage would when changing fluids). I'll be working in a workshop, with hardstanding, so it would be very unlikely that anything would be draining into the groundwater.

Thanks in advance for any light shed on this.

Funnily enough I am just completing a website for a client of mine in this very sector..

I digress..

You will absoloutley need insurance, and will be governed by a raft of regulations in terms of H&S, environment. Relating to any thing you dispose of, or machenery / tools / gas cylinders you use or store etc.

You may need a licence relating to transfering waste too. In saying all of that, I dont think they are very "big" obstacles. worth really defining what you do intend to do

 

[mpen]

My mate use to have an operation just like your discribing, he broke BMWs and over the years made a small fortune ....until all the new regulations came in, it was a nightmare, different agencies around week after week. he ended up giving it up.

 

[easyasit]

you know i did hear of a medical doctor who did just that.

Only what he did was, he dismantled the car and sold the part on ebay.
nothing too offical, it was a side, and yes, he made a packet out of it.
Buying the car for scrap, £100 or so, and selling off the tyres (if any good), engine, breaks, sound system etc etc
If targeted well, you can indeed make a packet out of it.

Its time consuming though, and you would need to know your parts VERY well, which i am sure you do.

 

[mpen]

A couple of guys making silly money breaking old UR audi quattros at the moment

 

[Matt1959]

if I had the space, I'd be doing this like a shot. I've broken a few cars years ago on a casual basis and its amazing what people will buy and how the money mounts up. When I say space, I mean a rural property with some big sheds/ barns outbuilding etc where your space is your own and you bother no one.. If you havn't got this set up, you're into overheads or having cars propped up on bricks at the end of your cul de sac

 

[gtijon]

Matt, that's pretty much the setup I've got. Loads of room to break a car, store all the parts etc. and all indoors. Could probably have 5 or 6 cars and only use half the shed... At them moment, I've got my old car which was ruined by a break in, but has a lot of saleable parts. I'll get those off and see how it goes, what sort of money it raises in total and I'll have more idea of viability.

I suspect I could do it on the side, but I'd rather not. I like sleeping at night, and the taxman & the environment agency are not people I want to upset. Not least because I might want to train as an accountant one day, and my previous job was in the environmental field and I might need to go back to that at some point to earn a crust. It would also be nice to have on my CV "Ran my own business selling / producing x,y and z", which I wouldn't be comfortable doing if it wasn't above board.

As for the others, yep, I know what would sell, what wouldn't sell and roughly what sort of money I would get for the parts. The clue's in my name - a lot of parts are now no longer available from the OEM, much like the ur quattros.

Another option would be to sell parts for upgrades - I could get brake caliper brackets and a few other metal bits made up, which would be a good seller, presumably reasonably cheap to produce in somewhere like china, but you then come back to the issue of insurance and type approval. That would have the advantage of the gear being new and a known quantity, but I'm not an engineer - however, I do know one or two... Yet another option would be to find somewhere (probably china or taiwan - they make a lot of carbon fibre bikes) that would make cheap carbon fibre body parts. Obviously carbon fibre screams expensive, but non-structural show off parts don't need to be made F1 style strong and light with an autoclave, and can be made in a similar way to fibreglass parts.

To be honest, I'm looking for a lifestyle business to allow me to study and have some money to live on, rather than running down my savings, and I suspect breaking cars or selling parts that could in theory cause major problems if they failed would be too problematic for me to make a return on in the short term. But I can try with the car I've got and make more of a judgement after...

 

[gtijon]

And yes, I know, I'm looking for the holy grail when I say I want to start something that doesn't risk a great deal of my capital and gives me a quick return...