Welcome to Sports Car Salvage. We are a niche hobbyist sports car dismantler located in Northeast Ohio, selling parts for C4 & C5 Corvettes, Mazda Miatas, and other sports and performance cars. We also restore diamonds in the rough. Let us help you with your restoration project.
Mustang Fun!
October 15, 2017 | Posted in Corvettes, Mustangs | By fastwrecks
In amongst some other vehicle projects and trades, the past few months have been spent parting out two Mustangs. The first one was a complete, running 1999 Mustang with an additional set of donor parts. It was a 3.8L coupe with minimal rust (for Ohio) and a drivetrain in excellent used condition. It was repainted at some point with a beige primer. The engine and transmission are still up for sale as of this posting (Here is a video of the car in action here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHfBT05tayU)
The second Mustang was a 1996 convertible with a blown motor.
Somebody had tried to put it back together, but mothballed the project and never got back around to it. The manual transmission appeared to be in good shape, so we pulled that, along with any of the engine parts and accessories we could get to. You can find all of the parts for sale here: http://stores.ebay.com/sportscarsalvage
We still have many parts left for sale, including body panels, interior trim, seats, wiring, and more. Check out our eBay store for more.
Our next projects involve getting a 1976 Corvette ready for paint and doing some work on a 1989 Chrysler LeBaron convertible. The LeBaron was initially bought to be parted out, but after doing a little investigating and tweaking, it will be repaired and then sold.
While you’re here, enjoy the baby goat picture! This is Abe, our first baby goat. He is almost a month old and is SUPER cute and cuddly 🙂
Ford Escape Subframe Replacement
June 13, 2017 | Posted in Shop Time | By fastwrecks
Spoiler alert: You don’t have to pull the motor to do this. It can be done without a lift.
The great Ford Escape. These were recalled because the front subframes rusted out. Depending on the amount of rust when taken in for recall, one of two things happened. Either the subframe was replaced, or a crossbar was installed. Unfortunately, the crossbar does not magically stop the subframe from rusting. There will be problems down the road….literally….but you’ll at least be able to pull over in an orderly fashion instead of having your steering components going all different directions.. This one had the recall work done in 2014 where the crossbrace was installed, but the subframe rusted apart sometime in early to mid 2016. I was able to drive it up on the trailer, but it made horrible clunking noises.
Tools needed: Breaker bar, impact, jack, jackstands, lots of extensions, crowbars, hammers, swivels, metric sockets & wrenches, needle nose pliers, penetrating oil, an updated tetanus shot.
Put the vehicle on jackstands. Remove the lug nuts with a 19mm socket.
Remove the crossbar that mounts at the bottom of the subframe. It’s held on by 4 15mm bolts.
Remove the outer tie rod ends from the steering knuckles on both sides and remove the cotter pins from the castle nuts. The nut size can vary, but will be around 18mm. If they are stuck, tap on the knuckle until the outer tie rod end can be freed. Inspect these – I went ahead and replaced them while they were out already.
Remove the 21mm nuts holding up the front of the subframe. You will likely need a deep well socket for this.
Take out the 15mm bolts holding in each front lower control arm.
Loosen the engine support crossmember. It’s held onto the bottom of the subframe with an 18mm nut and to the front of the vehicle underneath with 2 15mm bolts. It will be held up by the rubber insulator, but will be able to be moved out of the way.
Remove the 21mm bolts that mount through the rear of the subframe and the rear control arms. The control arms will likely have to be pried out of the subframe.
Separate the rear transmission mount. I had to get this from the top with an 18mm socket, about 2 feet worth of extensions and a swivel. After this is out, the engine and transmission will move, but it won’t fall. If you can remove the back half of the mount from the subframe before dropping it, it will make your life easier. Use the same 18mm socket and the extensions to get this. (I had to wait to get this off until after I dropped the subframe and could get an impact directly on the nuts.)
Remove the 10mm bolt holding one of the steering hoses onto the subframe, also easily accessed from the top of the vehicle.
Drop the front driveshaft. It’s held on by 6 T-45 torx bolts at the front and 4 8mm bolts with clips at the rear. Remember to mark it before removing it so that it goes back in in the same orientation. (Thankfully there aren’t any splines to match up, but there are weights mounted to the front of the driveshaft)
Remove the 2 nuts from both exhaust flanges. They are 15 or 16 mm (The ones I removed were horribly misshapen) and remove the middle exhaust hanger. There is an exhaust hanger on the subframe, but this exhaust had been repaired and did not use that hanger.
At this point, if the subframe hasn’t lowered at all, pry on it with a crowbar. It should drop a couple of inches. You’ll need that couple of inches to remove the steering rack and the sway bar. If you are able to remove these from the wheel well, good for you!
The steering rack is held into the top of the subframe by 2 15mm bolts. Remove these and then gently pry the steering rack forward.
Remove the 4 15mm bolts holding on the sway bar. You may be able to get these from the wheel well. I had to get them from underneath because it was the only place for me to swing a 36 inch breaker bar. (I did say this was being replaced due to extreme rust, right? The nuts and bolts are no exception.)
The subframe is now detached. If the transmission mount is still attached, it will have to be gently wiggled out, as the steering lines wrap in and around the top and back of the subframe.
Re-assembly is slightly different than removal. I made sure to look up torque specifications before putting everything back together.
Side note: While everything is apart, it’s a good idea to check outer tie rod ends, shocks, etc. and anything suspension related that you won’t come into direct contact with as a part of this project. We ended up replacing the outer tie rod ends and the shocks.
The back half of the transmission mount was still attached to the subframe. I removed it before reinstalling everything.
The first thing I did was to put the front of the subframe on over the mounting studs with the 21mm nuts. I only put each one on a few turns so I could reach the steering rack and such.
Reattach the steering hose to the subframe with the 10mm bolt.
Put the transmission mount back on. It is held on by 2 18mm nuts and 2 18mm bolts. For this mount to line up with the front bracket and the subframe, the back of the transmission will need to be propped up.
Tighten up front subframe nuts. You may have to put the rear subframe bolts in for position temporarily.
Reattach the steering rack with its 2 15mm bolts. A pry bar may be needed to pop this back in its mount on the subframe.
Reinstall the engine crossbrace.
Reattach the exhaust and the driveshaft. Make sure the exhaust sounds good before doing anything further.
Put each control arm back into the subframe. This can be tricky – it took some doing to realign everything. A crowbar and a large drift were very helpful. Hold off on reinstalling the sway bar until you’re done with this part. You will have to remove rear bolts if you used them for position. I did this one side at a time so that things didn’t get too far out of position.
Now you can reinstall the sway bar with its 4 15mm bolts.
The last thing I did was to install the bottom crossbrace – it’s the straight bar across the bottom of the subframe held on by 4 17mm bolts.
If your shoulders aren’t killing you at this point, give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done 🙂
This year, I am thankful for….
December 3, 2016 | Posted in Family, Shop Time | By fastwrecks
….Not parting out another SUV.
After acquiring a series of collections of already parted out vehicles and consignment lots over the past year, I was itching to dust off my large collection of 10mm sockets and wrenches and part something else out.
Enter this 1987 Toyota Supra MK3 A70, which we got shortly before Thanksgiving.
It has a blown motor and had sat for 5 years before we got it to part out. Fortunately, most of the other parts so far appear to be in very good shape. It has a black exterior, gray cloth interior, 180K miles on the drivetrain, and most of the electronics work. It’s 90% parted out right now. Our eBay store has a new category for the Supra parts, which I am adding to every day.
2016 has been a very productive year for us, both at home and around the shop. We’re hoping that 2017 is even better!
What’s happening?
October 22, 2016 | Posted in Family, Humor, Shop Time | By fastwrecks
In short, a lot.
You may have noticed that I haven’t written a blog post since April. Much has happened since then.
We got the second load of Porsche 914 parts in May, which I am still working my way through. There are still a few things to retrieve (mostly glass) but, for the most part, it’s in my workshop. I have seats, gauges, interior parts, assorted relays and modules, steering parts, a transmission, and much more. Visit our eBay store to see what we currently have listed. There is more being listed every day.
In June, we got two more goats. Tiara and Thompson were born in March of this year. They are Kinder goats (a cross between pygmy and Nubian goats) and are, of course, extremely adorable. Tiara will be old enough to breed next Fall. Thompson is her brother. We adopted them both so they could pal around together – Goats tend to pair up and we figured it would be good for them to have a similar age/size companion.
Thompson and Tiara, our Kinder goats.
July and August brought lots of gardening and outdoor adventures. We even started a new Facebook page to showcase our homestead adventures: https://www.facebook.com/witzendfarm/?fref=ts
Our nearly 1000 square foot garden was planted with mostly tomatoes for canning. This was the first summer that we had the goats, so mowing the yard was just a run of the mill chore, not an all-day project like last year. 2 acres is a LOT to mow and weed eat. When it wasn’t too hot to be at my workshop, we waded our way through Porsche 914 parts, tinkered with our 1985 Mercury Capri, and took in a few valuable consignment items. Our friends at AutoInterests had some assorted Mustang, Taurus SHO, and Jeep parts that they consigned to us to sell. You can find them in our Assorted New and Used Auto Parts category on eBay.
September was warmer than normal, so we enjoyed our swimming through the end of the month, more gardening, canning, and of course, garage time. Around this time, we started expanding our fenced area at home in anticipation of (surprise, surprise!) two more goats. They arrived at our farm a couple of weeks ago. Elliott is a 100% ABGA registered purebred Boer buck and his companion Blondie is a Boer/Alpine cross. He dwarfs all of the other goats at approximately 200#.
Our two newest goats!
The big E trying to look innocent.
That’s our past few months in brief. Here in the next few days, we will be receiving a Ford Escape to look at, plus I have been perusing our collection of automotive magazines and listing them in amongst the other parts. 2016 has been a very productive year for us all around and I hope to continue the trend.
Spring Cleaning, with surprises + the obligatory goat picture
April 29, 2016 | Posted in Uncategorized | By fastwrecks
I once had an empty garage bay. That was the most boring 15 minutes of my life.
In anticipation of another load of parts, I’d been making room in my incoming work area. What I ended up with was not what I was originally expecting, which was another run of Porsche 914 parts. (That’s still on my agenda, by the way)
A friend of ours wanted to consign some 1999 Chevy Blazer 4 Door parts. We got a few boxes of mirrors, lights, interior switches, some 4.3L engine parts, and all of the glass from the vehicle except for the windshield. Everything appears to be in really nice shape, and I’m still working my way through the items. We even have our own store category for it.
But wait, there’s more!
Around this same time, we found a great deal on a 1995 Honda Civic plus an extra set of wheels. We were mainly interested in the wheels, as a friend of ours who is selling a Civic wanted the upgraded set. The car runs nicely, although it has some shifting issues at the moment. It does a really nice job of going forward….The rest, not so much. I’ll take the fact that I was able to drive it into the garage as a plus. This is my next project.
A stock image of a 5th generation Honda Civic sedan.
Can you believe I used to have one just like this? This was before I had a business, a family, and animals. Somehow I don’t think I’d be too comfortable with a husband, an array of large packages, 4 goats, and a crate full of chickens in this.
Speaking of goats, I did mention an obligatory goat picture, didn’t I? Our friends have baby goats, including this cutie pie, Munchkin.
Munchkin, the bottle fed baby goat.
Porsche 914 parts…..everywhere!
February 5, 2016 | Posted in Porsche | By fastwrecks
The Toyota 4Runner shell left this garage a little bit before Christmas. It wasn’t too long after that that we acquired several new large shelves on wheels. I was able to do some serious organizing and consolidating. I present to you Exhibit A, the empty and clean garage bay.
No better time for something completely new to come together, right? We’d finalized a deal to pick up a large lot of Porsche 914 parts shortly after acquiring the 4Runner. The Porsche 914 was a 1970s two-seater roadster made collaboratively by VW and Porsche. Here is an example of what it looks like in nice, running, restored shape. (This is not mine, by the way.)
Here is an example of what they look like apart:
Our most recent Sunday started very early, before the sun came up. I was greeted at our gate by 4 very confused goats who are used to getting their food, water, and goatly love mid-morning. The rest of our day consisted of traveling, loading the truck and trailer, finding a bite to eat, and locating a hotel for the night before heading back Monday morning. The above array of totes and piles of parts filled our truck bed plus a small trailer. Remember the nice clean garage bay from earlier? It is now nearly full. We picked these up this past weekend and have begun listing them on eBay. Believe it or not, this is only a fraction of the parts and there are at least 2 more loads this size. A lot of the parts aren’t made anymore, so what is still in circulation is popular with collectors and restorers. Once I’ve organized, catalogued, and listed what we have, it will be time to get the rest. What a great start to 2016!
How to remove paint from auto glass – 3rd Gen Firebird T-Top
January 4, 2016 | Posted in Pontiac, Shop Time | By fastwrecks
We came across these T-tops from a third generation (1982-1992) Pontiac Firebird. They had been painted over once upon a time, and had been left in a garage for quite a while. The latch mechanism needed some WD-40, but this paint just….needed to go. It was extremely faded and worn out, especially around the edges.
I watched some Youtube videos on how to remove paint from glass. I decided I’d try the razor blade method because I have plenty of those on hand. You won’t scratch up the glass doing this! The razor functions similar to an ice scraper. After verifying that the T-tops are actually glass, not acrylic plastic, I sprayed some Goof Off spray on the paint and let it soak in for a few minutes before starting anything. (Side note: some removable tops are made of acrylic. Goof Off specifically says in its instructions not to use it on that kind of material.)
This is after getting the majority of the paint off. At this point, I sprayed some more Goof Off to soak into the white residue. I then took the razor blade and scraped in the opposite direction as I did on the first pass.
After the second go-round, I cleaned off the glass with glass cleaner to see what was left. At this point, a little Goof Off and blue Scotch Brite removed the little bit that was left. The photo is not blurry – Goof Off is working its magic.
Wonderful! It’s a huge improvement. Total time was about 2 hours. The latch mechanisms are also getting easier to work with after being sprayed. This project was well worth the time and I encourage other people to try the same.
It’s beginning to look a lot like….Goatmas!
December 18, 2015 | Posted in Family | By fastwrecks
Allow me to deviate from all things automotive to tell you about our goats.
Lucy and her ears
Yes, goats.
Onyx and Marshmallow confused because I came in the wrong gate.
Java eating.
I spent a great part of the summer working on getting our barn in order and repairing the fence in anticipation of these four beautiful and funny goats. Some friends of ours downsized their farm and wanted to know if we’d take the goats. Uh, twist my arm! I am a huge fan of goats. It’s hard to believe that we’ve had them for almost two months! They add a lot of amusement and cuteness to our place.
When my husband’s parents bought this house in 1978, they had kept horses and some other animals here, but there hadn’t been any livestock on the property since the last horse left in early 2010. The two acres was kind of lonely without animals…..not to mention the extra yard work that had to be done. Let’s just say that yard work is far from my favorite task. I can’t walk past a plant with “poison” in the name without breaking out into a rash.
All four goats at the fence.
While they don’t eat garbage (a huge misconception,) they do eat poison ivy, and that is an equally valuable service. If you think a goat isn’t listening to you, try opening the feed sack – they can hear it rustle from a mile away. They love to chat. There may or may not be video evidence of me having conversations with the goats. Goats are very smart animals. I don’t know how they knew when I was planning on giving them their regular dewormer, but somehow they figured it out….but stopped caring once I lured them over with a little sweet feed. Talk about bait and switch!
They are also as amusing as the funny goats you see on YouTube.
The plan is to have these guys as a foundation for raising meat goats, which we plan to do next spring. These goats will always be here and will keep any other stock company. (Put the curry powder and the soup pot away.) I find the company of these goats very rewarding. They are much better at posing for pictures than the chickens, and well….did I mention the reduction of yard work?
Goats. I love them.
The newest arrival – 2000 Toyota 4Runner
November 17, 2015 | Posted in Uncategorized | By fastwrecks
In the “odd looking sports cars” category, there is a 2000 Toyota 4Runner sitting in my garage to be parted out. It was wrecked in the front end, and has some dings in the rear, but I’m feeling very thankful that it was driveable enough to drive onto the trailer and then into the shop. It’s originally a South Carolina vehicle with very little rust. Desert Dune Pearl with oak cloth interior. Power windows, locks, sunroof, everything. The interior is in great shape.
We picked this up yesterday. After going through and testing all of the electrical items, I took a brief video of it running. I’m in the very beginning stages of tearing this down.
Did I mention that it has very little rust? I’m excited! Tear-down will likely go very quickly.
Back to basics – A 1977 Corvette
September 20, 2015 | Posted in Corvettes, Shop Time | By fastwrecks
We’re parting out a 1977 Corvette. Lots of useful parts on this one! This one suffered a passenger front corner hit, and then sat in a barn for several years afterward. The front clip is (as expected) a basket case and the interior is rough, but with it having originally been a southern car, doesn’t have a whole lot of rust. I’ll be listing parts on eBay as they come off the car.
What can I say, my floor jack is oh so thankful that we didn’t bring in another 4 wheel drive vehicle or an 18 foot long land yacht. 🙂 While we originally had planned to make this into a restoration project, it had more significant damage that we noticed once we dug into things further.
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