Can you sell old radiators for scrap? Yes, you can sell old radiators for scrap at local metal recycling companies. In today’s automotive marketplace aluminum radiators are used for a number of reasons that include it being lighter in weight compared with radiators when they were first used for automotive purposes.
Did you know that all cars and trucks until the mid-70’s had radiators made of copper and brass. Some of the radiators weren’t painted but most of them were painted black.
Although cooper radiators are not seen as regularly as aluminum radiators are in vehicles today, tons of them are still brought into metal recycling companies everyday.
Now we realize that you don’t always have time to breakdown or separate your metals before bringing them in to the scrap metal recycling yard. Radiators on the other hand, are a type of scrap metal that you should always set aside for dismantling.
The majority of aluminum radiators that you will find will have two covers on them that are made of plastic. One at the top of the radiator and one at the bottom of the radiator. Some vehicle’s radiators have these covers on the left and right side.
The cover at the bottom of the radiator where the tubing connects has a brass tube within it that it as wide as the radiator. There is generally nothing beneath the top cover.
Now that you have removed everything from the radiator-coil, including any pieces of plastic or steel put it into your clean aluminum scrap pile. If have other radiator in your clean aluminum scrap pile that still have parts or plastic still attached to them, they are not considered clean aluminum.
Clean aluminum has its own pricing table and so does mixed aluminum.
Copper radiators remember will be all black. I know some aluminum radiators that you find definitely look black but you can always just do a simple scratch test. Aluminum will appear silver like and brass will look of a golden tone.
The two covers on copper radiators are made of brass so don’t throw them out like the plastic covers.
With all brass and other metals or plastics removed from the copper coil it can be recycled with the rest of your clean copper at your local scrap metal recycling yard.