• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A TR3a scrap metal

Share this page

AEW

AEW

Jedi Hopeful
Country flag
Offline
I'm in the process of getting rid of some low value parts. A couple of frames and three engine blocks. Don't get too excited they are all worth less than shipping to anywhere. I plan to use a local scrap buyer. My question is... Has anyone ever heard that the old metal was higher scrap value than modern cars? At 53 this stuff is cobalt free. I heard somewhere that that was important. Any thoughts?
 
I know my junk guy wouldn't care. Steel is steel to him, and it all goes in the same pile, with the iron. Not to say some other junk guy might separate it out by age...

John
 
OK thanks, also I think it's too small a quantity to be important so not worth anything more. Just that there was something I vaguely recall. I think it had to do with needing old steel to recycle because all new steel has a radio emission. Manufacturing things like medical instruments requires the cleaner metal. There was something about that being the reason for salvaging old pre-war vessels. Maybe I'm just over reaching for a more noble purpose for these old triumphs bones :smile:
 
I know I have read before about certain older steels being used in specialized applications where they needed to be free of the trace radioactive contaminants that can occur since the open air bobmd tests of the late 40s and 50s. What was of interest apparently was steel made before 1945.

How true or accurate all this is, I don't know however. In any case, if true your frames and blocks would be too late manufacture for it to matter.
 
AEW,

Well, there is the German Fleet at Scapa Flow. Terms of the WWI Armistice required the German Navy to move its fleet to Britian's Scapa Flow for eventual release to the various Allied nations. By late November 1918, 74 ships were there but dithering over who and how many each nation would get stalled the process. Rather than have his fleet officially surrendered by the Treaty of Versailles, Adm von Reuter hoisted flags to scuttle at 1000am, June 21, 1919. Almost all were sunk or beached and seven wrecks still remain. FWIW, here is what Wikipedia has:

"Minor salvage is still carried out to recover small pieces of steel. This low-background steel is used in the manufacture of radiation-sensitive devices, such as Geiger counters, as it is not contaminated with radioisotopes, it having been produced prior to any chance of nuclear contamination.[30]"

I bet that English Sheffield steel from the '50s is better than the stuff from China today. I hate to throw anything away, but ya can't save it all...

Jeff
74 & 75 TR6
 
Interesting info! I would imagine you'd have to call around to find someone interested in the older iron and steel. I'd be interested to hear if you find a market for it somewhere...keep us posted. All the junkers I've dealt with in Texas can't even pronounce the word isotope!

John
 
Back
Top