The Aluminum Piston Story

1963

How I beat the scrap yard crooks at their own game A True story

Written 2014* 1862 Words *

By Howard Yasgar

By November of 1963, my friend Lou Gladstein had just closed his auto wrecking business in Miami.

Lou’s wrecking business had been the reason my wife and I had moved to Florida.

Unfortunately, Lou’s manager had embezzled so much of the company’s funds, it forced Lou to close

the place down before I had a chance to do anything.

I had just gotten married in Connecticut, and Lou had been my best man.

Lou and his wife Gladys had convinced me to move to Florida and run his business. They said coming to Florida would be like a honeymoon for us.

At the time my friend Lou was in the used car business in Stamford Connecticut, and to entice me to move to Florida and run the business he offered me the use of a 1959 Plymouth to make the trip. He also provided me with two Connecticut JUNK DEALER license plates, so I had liability insurance.

Once Lou’s Miami wrecking yard was closed, I had to decide about staying in Florida or returning to Connecticut.

It was kind of a difficult decision to make, because if we stayed in Florida, how would I earn a living? Eventually my wife and I decided to give Florida a try.

I knew the used auto parts business, so I started driving all around Miami buying and selling used parts.

I was driving on NW 27 Avenue in Miami when a police officer decided to stop me. He said he had never seen Connecticut JUNK DEALER license plates before. He asked for my license and registration.

I didn’t have any registration, and my license was from Connecticut.

The cop said it was illegal for me to work in Florida with a Connecticut driver’s license, and he impounded the 1959 Plymouth.

I Spent the next 3 days calling the police to find out when they would release the car.

By the 4th day the police informed me that the 59 Plymouth was a stolen vehicle, and the serial numbers had been removed from the engine, they also said a detective would be coming to see me in the next few days.

I immediately called Lou in Connecticut, and I told him what the police said.

Lou said the police in Florida are crazy and they didn’t know what they were talking about. He assured me that the Plymouth wasn’t stolen.

He then said I should do the following:

Lou said “take the second JUNK DEALER plate you still have at home and go to the boat slip that I have in Miami.

At the boat slip you will find a 1958 Ford Station wagon.

Put on the other JUNK DEALER license plate and the keys for the Ford are under the floor mat.

Then find out where Plymouth is impounded and remove the JUNK DEALER license plate.

I did what Lou said, and I never heard another word from the Miami police, and Lou never mentioned the 1959 Plymouth Again.

I now had a 1958 Ford Wagon to drive, but I still needed some way of earning a living.

That’s when I saw a sign in front of a company called “National Motor Exchange Company”.

As soon as I saw the sign, I stopped to see if they had any good used parts to sell.

That’s when I met Irving, who was the owner of the company.

After talking to Irving for a few minutes, I realized that Irving didn’t have any parts I could use but he had tons of scrap metal everywhere in his building.

In one room alone Irving had around 50 metal drums filled with used aluminum pistons, they were left over from many years of rebuilding engines.

Now I knew that scrap aluminum was worth a lot of money. At the time, I knew that clean aluminum was probably worth around 15 cents a lb.

The problem was, all the aluminum pistons Irving had, still had iron piston rings on them, and

that made them contaminated aluminum, which was worth much less, probably around 6 cents a lb.

I studied the situation carefully, and I determined that if I could remove the piston rings by myself,

The pistons would be higher quality aluminum and worth more money.

So, I did an experiment, I took a dirty piston out of the barrel, and with a little practice, I found that I could remove all the steel piston rings.

I then started cleaning all the pistons by hand.

Next, I took a sample of one cleaned piston and went to one of the largest scrap yards in Miami called “Metro Iron and metal Company”.

I chose them because I knew they had a big aluminum smelting furnace, and I assumed that they would pay the highest price in Miami.

Another reason I chose them was because I had met the two managers that were running the place, and we were all about the same age and I felt they would treat me fairly.

I took my sample aluminum piston, and caught the attention of one of the managers, his name was Arthur, he was the quieter and less hyper of the two partners.

I told Arthur that I could bring him about five thousand pounds of clean aluminum pistons, the same as the sample that I had shown him.

Arthur was as friendly as can be and said he would pay me 12 cents a pound for the clean automotive pistons as per the sample.

I went back to National Engine Exchange, and I told Irving that I could sell the aluminum pistons for 12 cents a pound, so if I cleaned the pistons myself, I could pay Irving 9 ½ cents a pound, leaving me with a 2 ½ cent per pound profit.

Irving agreed to it, so I started to remove all the steel piston rings off the pistons in the barrels.

By the next day I had filled up the back of the Ford station wagon with aluminum pistons.

Then I headed to the scrap yard to sell my load of clean pistons.

When I got to the scrap yard, I drove the Ford wagon with the pistons onto the weighing scale and got out of the car to get my weight receipt.

As I did that, I was approached by the second partner, his name was Norton.

Norton walked out of the office and reached the back of my car and took out one of the cleaned pistons.

He said, “We are going to pay you 8 cents a pound for these pistons.

“My heart nearly stopped, hold on, I said, I have paid 9 ½ cents per lb. for them, and your partner Arthur quoted me 12 cents a lb.

I can’t sell them to you for only 8 cents a pound, I would lose money.

I didn't mention to him that I also spent the whole day cleaning the pistons and cutting my hands to shreds while I was doing it.

Norton knew he had me between a rock and a hard spot and he said, “I don't care what Arthur told you, you can take 8 cents per lb. or leave it.”

Hearing what Norton said, I was shocked and depressed.

Norton knew that I couldn't drive the car away, because it was late in the day and the car was really

overloaded.

Even if I did drive off, where would I go? Norton knew he had me over a barrel, and he was determined to take advantage of me.

So, here I was, with tears in my eyes, I reluctantly agreed to let them pay me 8 cents a pound. It was obvious to everyone there listening that Norton was taking advantage of me.

The junk yard employees instructed me to drive over to their aluminum smelter and unload the pistons.

I drove the station wagon off the scale and backed up to where their aluminum smelting furnace was, and there I unloaded all the pistons out of the car, and I received 8 cents per lb.

I had lost money, it was money that I could not afford to lose, and I felt cheated by this guy Norton, who I thought might be friendly.

When I returned to the National Motor Exchange, I saw Irving and told him what happened.

Irving looked at my receipt and saw that I had received only 8 cents a lb.

He said he felt bad that they had cheated me, so Irving told me to lower the price I was paying him, he didn’t want me to lose any money.

I didn’t sleep a wink that night, I didn't understand how I could have been treated so badly by the scrap yard.

The following day, I started to clean more pistons, but now I had a brilliant idea.

On the floor near the barrels of pistons, were neatly stacked, several piles of giant, and very heavy Mack truck engine flywheels. Those truck flywheels were solid steel and very heavy, some of them must have weighed over two hundred pounds.

With superhuman strength, and some help from Irving’s employees, we put six of the flywheels on the floor inside the back of the station wagon.

I think that they must have weighed way over twelve hundred pounds in total.

Then I covered them all up with the clean aluminum pistons that I had prepared.

I went right to the scrap yard and drove onto the scale, and after weighing up the car, I backed up to the area where the aluminum smelter was.

Next to the smelter I unloaded all my aluminum pistons.

Once the pistons were out of the car, I unloaded all the heavy steel flywheels.

They were so heavy I could hardly lift them, so I rolled them out of the station wagon and onto the ground.

I then drove the station wagon back on the scale, and got my weight receipt, and my payment for 8 cents a lb.

I did the same thing two more times, until all the aluminum pistons were gone.

By the time I was finished I had also brought 18 heavy flywheels.

I estimated that they weighed at least thirty-six hundred pounds in total, which I had been paid 8 cents per lb.

Scrap yards are notorious for cheating their customers, they do it all the time, so it gave me great satisfaction to be able to beat them at their own game.

When I told Irving what I had done, we both had a good laugh. Then I gave him the full 9 ½ cents per lb. that I had promised him.

Irving was so happy he sent out for pizza.

About fifteen years later, I had a reason to visit Metro Iron and Metals Company again, I had heard that the managers, Nordy and Arthur had been fired.

While I was there, I took a nostalgic stroll down to the old aluminum smelting area, which, by then, was no longer being operated.

There they were, my thirty-six hundred pounds of steel flywheels, still leaning against the metal barrels just as I had left them so many years before.