Have you ever cut up a car with a sawzall?

Kern Dog · Jun 14, 2012

Wow... what fun!
Over the last few days, I cut up my 15th and 16th vehicles, both Dodge RVs. I saved the engines from them, both 360 2 barrel motors with less than 75,000 miles. Unfortunatly only one had a slip yoke and neither had a Gear Vendors overdrive!
I had a set of torches here to use, but with my track record of starting unexpected fires, I used the recipricating saw once again. With the first RV, I went through 5 "Lenox" long blades and 4 short ones, plus 2 cutting discs in the Skilsaw. Before I started the 2nd RV, I bought more blades, but since Home Depot stocked Milwalkee blades, thats what I got. MISTAKE! What a pack of crap! They dulled out quicker and bent too easy. I went back to Lowes and got another pack of Lenox blades.
Oh... What are the torque specs for lug nuts on these things? I broke a 1 1/8" socket and a breaker bar tring to remove the lug nuts! My impact gun tops out at 140 lbs. I had to CUT the housing at the spring pads and take EACH dual wheel end to a tire shop so they could shock the nuts with more volume and power.
I've cut up Valiants, Trucks, a Mercedes and a few others. By FAR, the Mercedes was the most brutal. THAT car had double thick steel in all sorts of places! Hard to reach bolts made it seem like the car was built by an army of tiny men.

D575 · Jun 14, 2012

What a mess, when I was in High School a friend and myself cut up a 1960 impala because he wanted the engine for another car. the car was cherry too. I wish I had that car now.

Disclaimer : Just an example of the car, Not the actual car.

Bruzilla · Jun 14, 2012

I was based in Bermuda for three years, and they don't like cars. To keep the number of cars on the island to a minimum, the laws are that a family can only own one, and if you want to buy another car you have to sell your car to someone else and wait one year before you can register a new one, or you take your old car to the airport and there's a guy there who will cut it in half with torches and saws. He cuts the car in half, certifies a statement and takes a picture of both halves of the car pulled apart, and you can buy your new car.

Cranky · Jun 14, 2012

Why cut them up? If you're scraping them out, just pull em up on a trailer and haul it across the scale...unless you don't have the title, they take em. If you don't have a trailer, that's another story but man, that's too much work but if you are going to keep doing this, buy yourself a plasma cutter. Way better than a sawzall for this sort of stuff.

67 coronet · Jun 14, 2012

my buddy needed the frame of an s10 for his 52 chevy truck hotrod,so we had a sawsall party with 6 guys and just cut the body off the frame.a few 6 packs later and we had a blast.

Kern Dog · Jun 14, 2012

I dont have a traditional trailer, only a converted truck bed and frame. Theres no way that I could load a car into an 8 foot bed unless it is in pieces. 95% of the time, I'm working alone....NO forklift here either. I get cars and trucks and if I want the brakes or suspension, that pretty much leaves the cars UNtowable anyways.

ws27 · Jun 14, 2012

It's fun isn't it? Ive taken battery powered sawzalls to the junk yard it really helps with speed. Has anyone ever used a simple cole (or is it cold) chisel and hammer. It takes a little patience, but is very effective, you can cut a car in half with those simple two tools.

ChargerPilot · Jun 14, 2012

Sadly, recently I couldn't sell my 1978 Magnum XE with a factory 400 so I ended up pulling the engine, transmission, and misc. parts; then cutting the car in half so I could load it in my pickup and take it to the scrap yard.

Kern Dog · Jun 15, 2012

Often times I get cars that have parts on them that I want to keep. I usually scrap the rest. If I had a forklift and a traditional trailer, these jobs would surely take less time!

Sonny Black · Jun 15, 2012

I watched a guy chop up (with a Milwaukee sawzal) after umpteen
hours of work because he had a disagreement with his buddy on what direction to take a car....."gasser" or street rod!
65 chevelle!!!2dr post!.....strait as an:argue: arrow...
FREAKED ME OUT!
ok, the mind set of a G.M. person? who knows.
?

BuckNeccid · Jun 17, 2012

This was insanity... my cousin was junking, and to get the cars on his truck, he was using a meat cleaver (industrial) from a local packing company. About 20 minutes and he had the '68 GTX pictured quartered and on his truck. The 70 GTX in the background went later. Not cherry cars, but MAN I wish I had them now, they weren't that bad.

You can see him swinging away in the background.

Kern Dog · Oct 10, 2023

To date, I've chopped 22 vehicles. Some were fairly easy like the '74 Duster I did a few months back. That car was rusty from being close to the SF bay area. The worst was the '78 Mercedes convertible. That damn thing was a tank.

Rusty knuckles · Oct 10, 2023

Only Sawzall work I've done was to cut a hole in the top of an Astrovan for some late night illegal fun.

Cranky · Oct 10, 2023

I've cut up a few but most of the time I had a title and a few that I didn't have a title but I found a yard that would take them anyways so long as they were not too gutted. In more recent times a guy gave me a Dakota and was supposed to get the title to it but he died before I could get it and his widow didn't want to mess with it.... rust free straight body too. It surprised me how easy it was to take it apart.

MIKESPOLARA · Oct 10, 2023

Cranky said:
Why cut them up? If you're scraping them out, just pull em up on a trailer and haul it across the scale...unless you don't have the title, they take em. If you don't have a trailer, that's another story but man, that's too much work but if you are going to keep doing this, buy yourself a plasma cutter. Way better than a sawzall for this sort of stuff.

I had to cut up a 55 chevy and figured my plasma cutter would make it easy. It did until the roof insulation pad caught fire, the underside of the roof is also covered with black tar looking stuff. All was highly flammable. Black smoke started billowing before I could grab the water hose. Got it out and i was concerned a neighbor might call the fire dept then I'd probably have to explain shxt..

1 Wild R/T · Oct 10, 2023

I've done a few... Hammer & chisel? Baa!!! Hammer and Hatchet!!!! Hold the hatchet handle in left hand, blade in contact with steel you intend to cut.. Hammer in right hand, stike te back (Hammer end) of the hatchet... Hatchet typically moves 2-3" with every blow....

My buddy nicknamed me "Capitan Caveman"

Cranky · Oct 10, 2023

MIKESPOLARA said:
I had to cut up a 55 chevy and figured my plasma cutter would make it easy. It did until the roof insulation pad caught fire, the underside of the roof is also covered with black tar looking stuff. All was highly flammable. Black smoke started billowing before I could grab the water hose. Got it out and i was concerned a neighbor might call the fire dept then I'd probably have to explain shxt..

Always had a live water hose nearby that sort of stuff cuz just never know what's going to light off...

ffgreg32 · Oct 10, 2023

Yup

firefighters-during-exercise-in-fire-station-cut-a-car-glass-ept04g.jpg

1 Wild R/T · Oct 10, 2023

The hatchet of choice among car butchers....

The forged head doesn't care about sheet metal.... And the handle absorbs the shock..

Rennkafer · Oct 10, 2023

Doing it now on the (very badly) wrecked '16 Challenger I picked up for the drivetrain to use in my Coronet. I think I'm going to end up breaking out the plasma torch too, the sawzall is kinda slow. The pile is growing though.

Have you ever cut up a car with a sawzall?

Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

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Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

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Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

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Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

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