Douglas Valley Breakers Ltd

[VFK44]

I noticed today that an Interceptor Mk1 carb was being offered on eBay by Douglas Valley Breakers Ltd. I was intrigued to see it was a Weber - usually thought of as a European carb. Having realised that it was actually a Carter type carb, built in the USA when Weber took over operations, I sent this message.

Hi, I noticed that this carb was described as a "Webber". Although it has Weber stamped on it, and was made under that company's ownership, the carb is actually much better known under its American name as a Carter, or later on an Edelbrock. You might find more interest if you described it as 9636 SA Carter type. Also, Weber has only one "b"!
I don't know much about this subject but I think that equivalent Carter/Edelbrock carbs are not very expensive, so the price for this one might be ambitious.
Stephen

He could have chosen to ignore me if he thought I was impertinent, but he instead replied,

clear off
Regards

Please Call Douglas Valley Breakers LTD
01257 795 272 for more information.

I thought you might all like to know the class of person running this business!

The carb will presumably continue unsold at this rate. Incidentally, was I right to say that this rusty 9636 SA 1707 was overpriced, or is it a rare one?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363232753806 ... SwHvJfCFF0

carb.jpg (163.58 KiB) Viewed 1307 times

[AH1951]

You're no diplomat, Stephen.
Most people dislike being corrected.
They see it as an insult.

A little anecdote:
My sister-in-law in Mobile, Alabama, was viewing a Chevrolet Lumina APV with me.
I tossed out the only little fact I knew about the vehicle, telling her it had a body made from composite/glass fibre, so it wouldn't rust.
"Oh NO it ain't." She said.
I said nothing further until after getting home and printing out the Wiki entry on the van, showed her the line where the body was described as composite.
She looked at the paper, looked back at me, and shouted, "That's the trouble with you, Adrian, you's always gotta be right!"
So, even when I was right, I was wrong!

At least your victim added 'Regards', after telling you to clear off!

[johnw]

They were breaking a fire damaged Mk1. That part if you look closely appears to be complete rubbish now having been through an engine fire. It might look like an original 60s part due to the modern finish having been burnt off, and with all wiring and modern plastic electric choke parts melted off, it looks more like the older style but isn't. These later versions sometimes have plastic floats, which would likely be melted inside too. The mechanism is looking poor, and there is always a chance it warped during the fire. Here is a page containing a comparison of that carb and the earlier one:

http://www.geocities.ws/MotorCity/7902/carbs.html

That carb in the advert would have been about £280 new from a parts dealer when they were marketed as Weber, though they are closer to £350 new boxed today, with accessories and instructions these days. One business model is to target the type of home restorer that runs out of money early on and never finishes a car so no complaints about dud parts.

[DPP]

They have been breaking this mk1 for about 8-9 years, I contacted the owner a long time ago wanting to do a deal for a large amount of parts which he wanted way too much money for and he would not move on his prices even for a bundle.

Now when I watch American Pickers you always get a discount on a bundle

[Mark1Stu]

For Stephen’s benefit, I understand the keyboard used by admin at Douglas Valley Breakers is missing the ‘F’, ‘K’ and ‘U’ key tab. Rumour has it they were sold off for £100 each.

[VFK44]

Rumour has it they were sold off for £100 each.

Almost right, Stu. They were actually removed, wrongly advertised as "piano keys" and remain unsold after two years.

[Chris_R]

Douglas Valley Breakers are one of those businesses that will take insurance write off cars for a percentage of the write off value and then seek to recoup their outlay by selling off the car or the parts. They won't budge on their prices. It's a rather murky side of the insurance business that we can occasionally come across if we're unfortunate enough to have our classic written off by the insurance company.

[johnw]

Douglas Valley Breakers are one of those businesses that will take insurance write off cars for a percentage of the write off value and then seek to recoup their outlay by selling off the car or the parts. They won't budge on their prices. It's a rather murky side of the insurance business that we can occasionally come across if we're unfortunate enough to have our classic written off by the insurance company.

This could be for some accounting reason. If the agreement to buy for a percentage on a burnt wreck is way over market, the part stays on the books as high value stock, it falsly maintains company capital assets, may be useful for lower interest loans eventually tax write downs.

Best to have the option to retain the car after damage if UK insurers still do that. The UK is scary as rebuildable 50s Bentley with ruined bodywork but OK chassis can be forceably destroyed.

[jvcarrier]

Brokers are not that silly, the percentage they pay varies with a number of criteria, age etc and certain types of damage are excluded from the general agreement- burn outs being one of the exclusions. They would have paid next to nothing for the vehicle.

[Chris_R]

A little known feature of classic car insurance concerns the salvage rights and what you might have to pay back to the insurance company to retain the salvage. Rob Heydon wrote about this about 3 or 4 years ago in the magazine based on his experience and discovery from when his Healey was written off after a fire. There doesn't seem to be an exclusion for fire damaged cars, at least not in Rob's case and his was burnt out from the bulkhead forwards.
Most classic car insurance is underwritten by KGM and they have a deal with salvage companies that if they write-off a car that the salvage company will take the damaged vehicle and return a certain percentage of the value to the insurance company, in other words they buy it from the insurance company.
The price they pay is a fixed percentage of the write-off amount. However, that percentage varies according to the write-off amount but can be as much as 40% once you go over something like a £25k settlement value.
If you want to retain salvage you will have the amount that the insurer could get from the salvage company deducted from your settlement, which, as said, could be as much as 40% of your agreed value. I don't remember the exact numbers but in Rob's case I think the salvage settlement for him to retain the car jumped from something like £1100 to over £3000 simply because he negotiated a higher settlement figure on the car. The salvage amount then jumped into a higher percentage band jumping from something like 10% to 20%.
If you settle at £10000 it will cost you £1000 to retain the car. If you go over £15000 it will cost you 20%, over £25000 it will cost you 40% (£10,000) to retain the car. If you settled instead at £24000 it would cost you £7200 (30%).
If the car this came from was valued at say £35k the insurer will sell it to the salvage company for £14k (40% of the write off value). On top of that the salvage company must make its profit. This is why there have been some high prices for these parts.

[jvcarrier]

I was only talking about the salvage contract between insurers and salvage brokers, these are quite specific and whilst vehicles less than three years old that can be sold complete as a salvage vehicle might command 40% of value this generally reduces with the age of the vehicle. As I said it will also vary by the category of the damage.

Burn outs and flooded vehicles for example generally have to be broken and sold for parts thus brokers pay less because their experience shows there are lower returns on these vehicles.

It has been 20 or so years since I have been involved in signing off these type of agreements, but in line with the greater information available I would have expected these type of contracts to have got more detailed not less.

Most brokers tend to set part prices at around 50% of new, or what the market will bare for rare parts.
The broker in this case clearly believe it is a rare part and will be happy to relieve any uninformed purchaser of their funds.

Whilst some insurers will sell the salvage to the insured these deals vary considerably by insurer and policy terms.

[johnw]

Whilst some insurers will sell the salvage to the insured these deals vary considerably by insurer and policy terms.

I would not bank on being able to buy the car back, unless it is in your policy. What happens though if you have a buy back clause and insurance categorize the car as Cat A or Cat B, basically must be crushed?

The insurance company define this presumably. Can I say I don't want to make a claim, and tow it home myself before assessment? If I have 3rd party only, is there any way a Cat X can be imposed on it?

[Chris_R]

Historic vehicles are outside the Insurance category write off scheme and specifically excluded. Regardless of where the car is located it remains your property until the insurance company have made a total loss payout on it, however even if a total loss is made, it cannot be given an insurance write off marker.
The deal between KGM and the salvage companies was uncovered by Rob Heydon during his insurance claim when his Healey suffered a fire in the engine bay. Many of the policies sold by the various classic car insurance companies are at the end underwritten by KGM.

[johnw]

Interesting re Historic Vehicles. So if my not significantly modified car is 40 years plus, eligible to be Historic on logbook but not updated to Historic yet, could that cause my car to be considered part of the category write off scheme?

[Chris_R]

8.0 CRITERIA FOR CATEGORISING VEHICLE SALVAGE
It is the appropriate qualified person’s responsibility to apply good engineering practice and safety considerations when deciding whether a vehicle is categorised as repairable, broken for spares or totally destroyed.

8.1 Question 1 - Is the damage sufficiently severe to warrant application of this code?

Some vehicles will remain outside of this code, for example stolen recovered vehicles with no or minimal damage.

It is recognised that some historic/ classic vehicles or vehicles of special interest may be repaired irrespective of extent of damage, providing it is safe to do so. In these cases the vehicle will fall outside the Code of Practice, which will not apply.