• Zacks
  • Ripened Lemon
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  • Registered: 2022-10-17
  • Posts: 113

Topic: Dumpster parts value

I was just randomly thinking: rules say parts lying around are not free but valued at "what the last real person paid"  but what about used literal garbage parts from the scrap bin?

I was thinking about this cause I saved parts for years, things like oh someone cracked pistons?  Well the crank might still be good and pulled blocks from the bin and disassembled to hoard parts.  Well after 5 years of doing this I built an entire longblock for my daily driver.

I always bring a spare dumpster clutch to the race as a spare part

These parts were never sold separately but came installed on new cars so no old price to look back on.

Would this be valued as scrap steel by the pound?  (Since it came from scrap)

Honestly I know valuing cars has turned into a kind of nebulous affair, but I'm board and my mind is running around so I just got curious

Our actual Lemons engine is from picknpull probably cause I never bothered to hoard shitty parts.

  • From: Camarillo, CA
  • Registered: 2021-03-26
  • Posts: 386

Re: Dumpster parts value

Our miata is built with dumpster parts but still goes into A0, and I'd bet I can install a set of Ohlins and it'll still be A0. It's only fair, everyones sick of seeing miatas all over Lemons.

Unfortunately BS isn't going to spend this much time digging through it unless you have an extreme edge case.... they are surprisingly good at classing cars off their gut feeling. I think you'll see hundreds of threads regarding the "$500 rule" and you'll see the consensus is run a hooptie and get into C or B, run a miata or BMW and straight to A. Don't think too much here.

Full Ass Racing
#455 Piñata Miata - 1990 Miata
#735 BMDollhÜr 7Turdy5i - 1990 735i

3 Reply by chaase (edited by chaase 2024-04-30 12:02 PM)

  • chaase
  • Lemons Staff Stalker
  • Offline
  • From: East Meadow, NY
  • Registered: 2009-08-06
  • Posts: 1,566

Re: Dumpster parts value

At least when I am judging, I don't care about the cost of spare parts. The fact that your clutch went kablooey is usually punishment enough.  You lost race time replacing it when it was supposed to be out on the track OR you had to wrench into the wee hours of the morning. As long as you don't have a spare cheaty crate engine sitting there to swap in after tech, it's not going to matter to the judges.

We have three racecars and we always try to have piles of parts. Noone cars if you are following the spirit of the rules.

1992 Saturn SL2 (retired) - Elmo's Revenge -  Class B winner, Heroic Fix winner x2
1969 Rover P6B 3500S(sold) - Super G-Rover - I.O.E Winner, Class C Winner
1996 Saturn SW2 - Elmo's Revenge (reborn!), Saturn SL1  Dazzleshipm Class C x2 and IOE winner
1974 AMC Javelin - Oscar's Trash heap - IOE,”Organizer's Choice" and "I got Screwed" award winner