Don't look now, but that restorable 1957 Pontiac Bonneville hardtop you've been wanting to buy as a project car from your local salvage yard may become an I-beam for a skyscraper being built in China as you read this. The demand for scrap metal from overseas countries such and China and India, which are currently experiencing explosive internal growth, has been and will likely continue to be high.

One of the prime targets for the scrap metal industry are salvage yards filled with older vehicles. These vintage cars and trucks have a high metal content, versus the modern cars that have large amounts of plastic in their makeup, and regularly weigh in at a ton-and-a-half or more per vehicle. According to Yvette VanDerBrink, head of VanDerBrink Auctions (www.vanderbrinkauctions.com), who leads the industry in salvage yard auctions and grew up in the salvage industry working at her father's yard, Nordstrom's Automotive (www.nordstromsauto.com) in Garretson, S.D., current scrap metal value is at $165 per ton. What fuels the problem during the winter months, is much of the scrap metal, whether vehicles or other, is buried under snow and not accessible. As supply lessens, the price paid per ton increases. VanDerBrink believes the price will reach $225 per ton before it levels off. Once the snow melts, and more scrap metal becomes available, the price paid per ton should come down. But if demand from overseas buyers continues strong, the value of scrap metal will remain high.

Over the past several years, salvage yards that have catered to the old car enthusiasts have been closing at an alarming rate. The crush value of these yards' contents have allowed the owners of these yards to reap an immediate cash windfall, and no one can blame these owners for making a sound business decision, even if crushing old cars is counter to the mindset of hobbyists who want to preserve vintage iron. This advanced rate of yard closures will continue as long as there is high demand for scrap metal. Among the many threats to the future growth of the old car hobby, this should rank as the most insidious. Without the parts donor cars that salvage yards provide, the only cars and trucks that will be able to be restored in the future are those that have aftermarket parts support, which is a minority when compared to all vehicles produced since the dawn of the motoring age.

The other frustration factor in this plight is there's not much the average old car hobbyist can do to "fight back" against this near invisible threat. The threat stems from the simple supply and demand logic that drives every society steeped in capitalism. Aside from purchasing donor parts vehicles and "squirreling" them away before the crusher arrives at a yard, if scrap metal values remain high many more old car hobby-friendly salvage yards will close. Quoting a famous line from a popular horror movie: "Be afraid. Be very afraid."