Acquiring metal on the cheap. How to get it?

Body shops will have a scrap pile. Mostly sheet metal, but don't forget they replace a lot of damaged suspension components as well. Aluminum castings of lower control arms are quite common, as are struts. Not sure what strut shafts are made of, but simple enough to cut off. You'll find it hard to come by CV shafts though - they are usually sold with a core charge so they rarely get tossed into the scrap pile around here. I managed to get 4 axles from a Subaru carcass (4130 I think) left over from an engine conversion I helped my nephew with. We put the Outback's 2.5L Soob motor in his VW Vanagon. Fun project that turned out great.
 
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here's the original thread
contents change depending on what lands in my lap and what the local scrapyard has when I visit, but typically mild steel round from 1/2-2" (sometimes larger), miscellaneous steel and alu plate/ solid (got lots of the latter right now) and various other bits'n'pieces. It's a good way to stock up on a range of sizes and price per lb comes out to about $1.25-1.50 all in, which is pretty good.
 
This is really not cheap, but reasonable. A local trailer repair and a local fabrication shop both sell new steel, will cut to length or cut in 2 to make hauling easier. Good selection both places. If they don’t have it in stock, the fab shop will order it for me on their next stock order but I buy a full piece. Good selection both places of angle, channel, etc. they are both friends and really nice people, but I think they offer this to everybody. And new, unrusted, unbent, steel that you don’t have to cut flanges and stuff off is a joy. Looks professional to use the right product for the job. I always buy extra to have some for small projects.
 
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