How to safely take apart a truck? (Many pictures)

[AnBello]

Well, after some unexpected circumstances, you could say that I ended up with an abandoned truck at my "side-yard". It seems to have been there for about 10 years, maybe. It is kind of a god-send, given that I'm starting up in this craft. It seems that there is a LOT of usable materials, of different quality and composition, and some parts that might be useful as they are, even if they are not good as forge material. I know that I can (at least) use leaf springs, axles, and maybe some other parts. I see some tanks that can be useful as a gas-forge, and quenching-tank.

I know almost nothing about cars, and even less about trucks, so I'm standing here, asking for your help today. I want to take all usable part from this vehicle, but I have no idea how to do it SAFELY. I really wouldn't like a leaf spring to jump full-force into my face, a tire blowing up, or the whole truck falling on me.

Most likely I won't be able to use any electric tool, since there is no electricity in this particular space yet, or anywhere close.

Here are some small photos: (More High resolution pictures in this link: http://imgur.com/a/v9pIW#0 )

This is the old truck

A lot of leaf-spring metal  4 of these stacks, one for each wheel (safety goggles for scale)

Future gas forge/quenching tank (there are 3 of these tanks, oil tanks I believe?)

BIG heavy chunk of metal. Probably useful, right?

No idea what this is, but it seems to be aluminium. It left these marks when I hit it with a very small hammer.

What's that? Could it be...?

Yep. It is. The engine is still there. Useful?

 

This is all, sorry for all the pictures. As I said, I'm quite lost as to how to go around with this. I have never really done any kind of "real work", but I want to do this. I believe it will be a great experience, and I will learn a lot from this. But, I don't want to break a bone, lose a finger, or worse. So, can you please help?

 

PS: More pictures, high quality: http://imgur.com/a/v9pIW#0

Edited June 22, 2015 by Andres Bello

[Glenn]

Those leaf springs are under a LOT of pressure. Use caution when disassembling them.

If the engine and tranny runs, think tire hammer, tumbler, and many other things. The rest of the truck can be used in many ways limited only by your imagination. 

[DSW]

Round tank shown in pict 3 is most likely the air tank for the air brakes as I see a line running aft of the cab. Square tank on the passenger side may be the fuel tank.  not sure about #3 as I can't see it. Alum thing is the tranny. Air tank can be useful if you need a tank for more air from your shop compressor. It's already rated at 125 psi of air, so it's safe for that use.

 

Be very careful around the air brakes on the axles. They have a very powerful spring inside the can. You'll have to "cage" the spring before taking them apart. If you google caging air brake springs, you should come up with some good info. If not I have a link to a thread on another site that talks about caging the springs on the brakes. I'm not talking about those big leaf springs shown in the picts. the air brake springs are inside the "cans" attached to the drake drums and activate the brakes when air pressure is lost.

Another thing to watch out for is the rims. I can't tell if those are split rims or not in the picts, Split rims can be very dangerous when under pressure. People have been killed when rims separated, usually during inflation/tire mounting, but if you knock the retainer loose, the rim will fly apart. I'd pull the stems/ schrader valves before messing with them too much just in case.

Leaves on the axle springs probably aren't too heavily loaded. I'd cut the U bolts holding them to the axles 1st with a torch. Then you can probably take the weight off the springs with a jack or piece of heavy equipment. Then simply cut the spring hanger bolts.

Some older trucks have a simple fan/radiator in the cab for heat. They can be useful if you ever want to build your own tig cooler. Oh and everyone needs a big air horn LOL. You can salvage the air valve and train horns to run off any compressed air supply.

 

Keep in mind once you start disassembling this, it gets harder and harder to get rid of unless you have some big toys to play with. Once the springs are gone, nothing is going to hold on the axles, so towing it to a yard is out. You'd have to find some one with a roll back lowboy trailer, or some one with a good sized machine with forks and a trailer to haul off scrap. Tires themselves can be tough to get rid of. Many places won't take them around here unless you pay to get rid of them. To scrap it you may need to talk to the state and get a salvage title for it and have it declared abandoned. Otherwise many yards won't touch it as scrap. You are going to have a lot of useless scrap out of this. Best use for that stuff is going to be wait until scrap steel goes up and sell it and use the cash to buy what you want/need.

[Frosty]

While there's a lot of attractively useful steel on that old beast there's a lot more that you're going to have to pay someone to haul off especially after you take it apart.

As it sits right now it has value, maybe enough to buy some tools and new steel. Even at present low scrap prices there's a market for sometimes hard to find parts for old vehicles and a wrecking yard may give you above scrap prices and haul it off.

You will want to check with the local department in charge of licensing and registering vehicles to find out the proper procedure, wrecking yards won't touch stolen vehicles so aren't going to touch that without proof of ownership. Heck, you might get lucky, find the original owner and charge him storage. . . Well, you COULD get lucky.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Not sure of how vehicles are taken care of in Argentina, but here in the states there are groups that would love an old truck like that to either restore, or hot rod. If it runs it would probably be smarter to sell complete rather than parting it out. The money it sells for can buy a lot of tools, and good known steel to work with.  There should be a manufacturer's name on it somewhere, and possibly a data plate with the date of manufacture. I would research its value as is before cutting anything on it. 

[ianinsa]

I too live in the 3rd world and things are sometimes very different here!  First, take pictures of the truck and it's location, make sure you get pictures of any license plate and or disc also of the engine and chassis number, then go to the police and Ask them about what and if! You may get into major trouble if you don't know

[AnBello]

DSW: Thank you for your input. I didn't know that about air brakes, and I could have done something risky. About the 3 round tanks I'm talking about, 2 of them don't appear on the pictures, but are exactly like the ones in the 3rd picture. They are located in the center of the truck, you can barely see them in the first picture. These ones:

 

I'm not considering selling it as a whole mainly because of all the regulations there are for vehicles here. It's not illegal to destroy it (unless the owner has some way of claiming it), but it IS illegal to try to use it, unless you have all the corresponding papers (which are surely long lost). I will check if I can work out the numbers on the license plate, but there's no hope of it being still useful as a vehicle (even if it runs).

I'm seriously considering the pros and cons of taking it appart. But so far, the best "deal" I got was to give it away for free (they can keep it if they take it somewhere else), or just take it to the side of the road and "Inform the town that there is an abandoned truck in front of my house", so that they take care of it.

I'm not sure how to explain it, but basically: We've bought a "vacant" lot almost next to our house. In this place, we found the truck and a half-demolished house (house project actually, only the walls were built and then partially demolished), so the place is half-filled with rubble and plants/small trees growing in there. So there will be a lot of cleaning to do, and it's somewhat a mid-term project (2-5 years). No hurry to get it clean, and all the broken bricks and concrete will be about as much work as the truck. The owners of the lot have nothing to do with the truck nor the building, they just lent it to someone else for a long time.

I see that there are some issues I hadn't considered, and I'll need to think a bit more before actually starting, but so far it still seems to be the best idea for me. I could try to sell parts of the engine/transmission, but most other parts seem to be far too rusty and old to be used in a vehicle.

 

If I finally decide to carry on, I will most likely start with the rear leaf springs, and the 3 air tanks. If I wanted to take apart the leaf springs, Which part of the process is the most dangerous one? What is the step when I need to stop and say "If I'm not careful, this spring will hurt me"?

Do I just cut the U bolts, or do I first find something (strong bricks or something) to put under the structure of the truck to keep it from falling? Do I take the wheels first, or just go straight to the springs?

Edited June 22, 2015 by Andres Bello
Added photo

[Dogsoldat]

lots of good solid blocking will be your friend  think 6x6 to 10x10" maybe 2' long.  crib it if at all possible  and make certain that its all stable.  if your getting into the springs   best to block up the frame.  if you pull the wheel first gives you more room to get into the u-bolts and springs.also makes for a little more room to move and stay out of the way of things if needed.

I'd consider calling a wrecker for commercial trucks and see if they are interested in the complete axles.  the carriers that go into the center of the dif are worth a fair amount and at least on the logging trucks I work on,  the do pile up often enough.  the 5th wheel plate may be worth more to them as well,  as long as there are no crack, typically on the under side around where it pins to the frame.  even the steering axle may be worth something to a wrecker.  we've had to change more than a few on the fleet. 

Guess the biggest thing is everything is heavy and when it drops free it goes with a thump.  think twice and do it once safely...

 

the air tanks do make nice little propane forges.  I happen to be using a short little tank that I rescued from the scrap bin and with a single burner makes plenty of heat.

 

 

 

[Charles R. Stevens]

Iuep, cribing or jackstands so mothing falls and crushes you, engin hoist to move the engine and transmition, posably the fromt and rear axles. The springs inside the air break cans are indeed stout, the safest way I know is to compress them in a press and then unbolt the clamp. Nice peice of 1/2 spring steel in them. Certainly look into parting her out, there may be some of those old trucks still on the road, both front and rear axles, glass, cab, engine and transmition may be of value. if not, one certainly can sell much for scrap, but even the bolts may have value to the right person