We’ve all seen it. The aftermath of a bingle on the Kwinana Freeway, the sight of red and blue flashing lights, and the vision that inevitably follows: a crumpled car being lifted onto a tow truck. Or maybe it’s a more subdued, domestic tableau: that long-serving family sedan in the driveway, the car that has done hundreds of school runs and taken you to Margaret River for every Christmas holiday. It has finally flunked pit inspection and the estimate for repairs is more than the car’s worth.
These are the moments when it’s easy to imagine an end. We have a problem, an end-of-the-line piece of metal. Such is a widely held and completely understandable perspective. But for us, it is not an ending at all.
Welcome to WA Auto Parts. With more than a decade and a half of service to Perth behind us, we think of today as the start. It is the sign of a smart, interesting metamorphosis to come. That isn’t about junking a car so much as it is about systematically transforming one type of presumed indebtedness into an endowment, as the old fear of a negative ending on that investment becomes a positive for the college’s endowment. This is the story of that trek, peeling back what happens behind the curtain to coax your wrecked car back into existence.
Step 1: The Beginning of the Evolution…From Cart to Stock!
It’s not a monstrous bang but rather the small phone call you make to our office on (08) 9358 1392. When a car owner gets in touch, our process starts. We aren’t just hearing “a broken down Ford Falcon” or “crashed Toyota Corolla.” Our brains immediately start calculating the possibilities. At M&Z we are experts when it comes to Japanese, European, Australian, Korean and American cars and we realise what makes each and every collectible worth having!
When it comes to our Perth yard however, the vehicle is not unceremoniously dumped in a corner. It’s checked in, and its identity is confirmed. The first legal thing we actually do with battered cars is deal with the Department of Transport (DoT) paperwork and register the vehicle from one under personal ownership into our name as a licensed wrecker. This is an important measure, one that offers protection to all parties and, in effect, marks the car’s new life.
From there, the ‘harvest’ begins. This can be thought of as a deliberate reversal of the factory assembly line. The painstaking disassembly is then undertaken by our expertly-trained technicians, which know these vehicles in and out.
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High-Value Mechanical Parts: Let’s begin with the heart and life of the car. The strong motor of a Mitsubishi Pajero, the sturdy transmission from a Hyundai i30 or the tough alternator of a Toyota Hilux are all painstakingly unbolted and extracted. This is no mere used part; rather, a lifeline for other Perth drivers and a cost-effective way of ensuring that their own cars are once again on the road. Every salvaged component is evidence of the engineering that went into it, just waiting to be put back into use.
Usable body and interior parts: A car seldom gets wrecked in its entirety. For example, a head-on collision might damage only the front doors and windshield. We rescues these cosmetic parts as well the interior elements like seats, cluster of dashboard, stereo system and wing mirrors. It’s these parts that stock our one-stop used auto parts store and save a fellow motorist or mechanic hundreds of dollars on a simple replacement.
Part II, The Heart of the Matter: A Transformation in Core From Product to Product began as Commodity
After all that reusable hardware has been taken apart and stripped down, the vehicle’s shell rolls into the next, and perhaps most important phase of its metamorphosis. It’s here we begin to feature shared values, environment responsibility and uncovering value. A car is a concoction of fluids and stuff and it’s our job to make sure it doesn’t damage the beauty of Western Australia.
The Enviromental protection (De-Pollution): The vehicle has to be rendered environmentally ineffective prior to crushing or shredding. This is a tightly controlled, non-negotiable process. Our crew empties every last drop of fluid – the engine oil, petrol, coolant, and brake and transmission fluid – into their specific receptacles. These are sent to approved recycling centres. We take out the battery to have its lead and acid recycled, we remove the tyres and any other things that are hazardous.
The Secret Value Snatching: Car washed, and we’re now out to look for the hidden treasure. People are surprised by the amount their old cars actually fetch in raw materials.
Metals: We take off the catalytic converter gently. A small, unassuming piece of the exhaust system holds a precious ceramic honeycomb coated with precious metals — typically platinum, palladium and rhodium. These rare earth metals are expensive, and they have been sent to be refined and reused in new converters — exactly the sort of common consumer electronics that last year’s scratching needs.
Precious Metals: Next we pull the wiring loom. The tangle of delicate wires that once supplied electricity to the car’s lights and electronics is full of kilograms of high-grade copper. We also find, and extract, other useful metals (aluminium in modern engine blocks, wheels or body panels).
The car is a hollowed-out shell at this stage, its identity and most visible parts removed ready for the final transformation.
Part 3: Last Transformation – From shell to raw material
Here at the “junkyard” is what most people picture when they arrive at a junkyard, but it’s actually an extremely efficient industrial program.
The Crush: The naked metal hull is hoisted, Henry VI-style into a mickle hydraulic compressor. The machine exerts an enormous pressure, and now the former three-dimensional vehicle is pressed into a compact rectangular shape. In these brief seconds, the car ceases to be a car and organizes itself into one self-sufficient mass of travelable metal.
The Shredder: A conveyor belt carries this metal cube to an incredibly powerful machine: a shredder. With a thunderous roar, huge rotating hammers complete the shredding of the metal cube into thousands of fist-size chunks. What remains on the other end is completely unidentifiable as a car in any shape or form; only molten squealed metal.
The Separation: This is where the stuff of magic occurs. The shredded pieces are sorted through a sophisticated stream. Giant, superstrong magnets pull out all the steel and iron (ferrous materials), while powerful air cannons blow other materials another side. Other sophisticated technologies, such as eddy currents, also produce magnetic fields that cause non-ferrous metals to repel off the solids they were sent on – thus separating lighter weight aluminium and other metals (such zinc and copper) into separate clean streams.
What’s left is not a giant junk heap, but some tidy stacks of commodity-grade recycled metal. The car has been processed and converted into a raw material at last – the car is simply, and entirely, scrap now, ready to be sold off for melting down at the steel works or foundry so that it can have a new existence!
Concluding: The Transformation of Perth
From a well-known and loved car to a list of proven parts, through rounds as de-polluted shells, curiosities and in truth just pure recycled metals; the cycle is fulfilled. The real impact of this change can be seen right here at home.
Economically, it powers an essential local industry. It generates good jobs for Perth mechanics and technicians. Best of all, with large stock of cheap second hand car parts – thousands of West Aussies have been able to keep their wheels turning on a shoestring budget.
Environmentally, the benefits are immense. This significantly cuts down on the waste that gets dumped into our landfills. Through metal recycling, we save at least a whopping 95% of the energy which may be consumed if that same product had been directly produced from raw material, saving on our precious natural investments such as iron ore and coal.
‘Car wrecker’ sounds old-fashioned, after all. Actually, WA Auto Parts is a major participant in the new resourcing management and recycling initiatives. You’re not just removing a problem out of your life when you decide to take your old car to a professional wrecker, though. You are making a prudent financial choice, a responsible environmental decision and you are launching your car on its own surprising transformation.
Instead of seeing that vehicle at the end of the line, cast it in a new light. See its potential. Call WA Auto Parts on (08) 9358 1392 today and unlock the value in your vehicle and convert it from wreck to resource.