HOAs and Advertising: If you live in any area with a Home Owner’s Association, check with them well before planning any event. There may be restrictions or fees. The placing of signs or flyers on community property might cause fines to be levied. You can safely place flyers on bulletin boards at grocery stores, in some public libraries and most coin laundries where that is permitted. Newspaper ads for these kinds of sales are cheap and very effective, and there are always online sites like Craigslist. Word of mouth also helps.

Once you have the title in hand and the car is cleaned out, take it to the salvage yard. If it cannot drive, ask if they would be willing to tow it, or arrange for towing. When you arrive with the car, you will be offered a final sale price after the employees inspect it. Be prepared to negotiate, because this is expected. If you are happy with the price, accept it and sign the title over. You will then turn over the car and the keys and be on your way, no longer worrying about that old junker in your yard.

If you must buy used, be sure to do a thorough visual inspection. That means you need to look inside and out. Inspect for internal corrosion and damage to the cooling fins and hose connections.

The Rolling junkyard: This person drives a 1920 something or other. It’s usually held together with duct tape and garbage bags. This car constantly drops its parts everywhere. Have you ever seen old mufflers, hubcaps or car parts lying in the road? They came from the rolling yacht sailing.

So my father and I began our project that week and it was so much fun. I was so intrigued by everything. We found all of the parts to build the bike through yard sales and junk yard, it was just so cool. We pretty much paid 50 bucks to build a very nice sleek mini motorcycle that ran perfect, and looked brand spanking new. I was in charge of the sanding and painting. So when my father was getting the engine running, and fixing other things, I was sanding down this old rusty frame we found at the junk yard. Thing looked like crap at first! After a solid sanding job and some half descent paint, thing looked like we had just bought it. Hey, as they say, there’s nothing like a good paint job!

Speak to an auto mechanic and ask for advice. The chances are that they will use a salvage yard. Ask them where they go. You have to take the time and effort to do the research. If you simply drive around you will not find what you want and at the end of the day you are probably going to come back empty handed.

Every time I set out for California, never once did I think I was not going to get there, the first time I went I was 17, just me and my dog! I ran out of gas twice and ran out of money in Boulder Colorado… did I give up? No, I had options, it took me two more days than I planned to get there, but I got there!