I wanted to know before tearing apart my old wrecks, just what and where any toxic materials might be. Cars built before World War II do not have our current solidified soup of plastics and plasticizers. I remember the steering wheel of my folk's 1971 Chevy Nova: something went wrong with the plastic formulation in that model year to cause the plastic to sweat out plasticizer or related liquid. You had to literally mop the stuff off because the wheel was too greasy to grip properly. Pre-War cars were primarily metal, the interior upholstery was natural fibers, and plastics were relegated to a few knobs or small decorations. Light and instrumentation covers were glass. Fiberboard and felt was used under the floor and door coverings. Radios used vacuum tubes and capacitors with sealed electrolytes that were okay if they remained sealed. One cool feature of pre-plastic cars: leather axle seals. This is where, in a 1941 Plymouth for example, a stone age remnant works alongside high-tech era wheel bearings. I say "works" because new axle seals using leather are still available.
I knew that the brake pads were asbestos. This material was phased out of use in brakes in the mid-'1990's. But it was (and is?) used in gaskets and clutch plates also. Paints used were lacquer or enamel, no problem there? No air conditioner fluids. No power steering fluids. And it is a no-brainer that you need to be ready for really old gasoline in the gas tank (don't get any on you! Whew!), brake fluid in the brake lines and reservoir, rusty drool in the coolant reservoirs--radiator and engine block, and molasses-like oils in the transmission and differential. Take this stuff to the local hazardous waste disposal place.
Probably the most prevalent chemical worry was and is gasoline vapor and exhaust gases.
One suprise: radioactivity. Radium in radioluminescent paint was used to make watch and clock faces glow in the dark. So far I have not found any clear indication that this paint was used extensively on car clocks and instrumentation. The information I have is that during the 1920's, primarily, it was used on clocks and watches until it became obvious that people, primarily those painting the parts, were getting sick and dying. There are only suggestions that the paint was also used in automobile clock and instrumentation displays, but there is specific mention of, "automobile steering wheel locks" being painted. These are not the modern anti-theft locks but some earlier sort of lock. Mention is also made of "automobile shift quadrants", the diagram on the shift knob that shows you where to find each gear. I do know from personal experience that military vehicles up through the 1950's had radioactive materials in the paint on dash instrumentation. Well, I guess if it glows in the dark, you might want to run it by a Geiger counter.
The 1950s were a time of focus upon radioactive materials, no doubt. Ford floated a design for an atomic fueled, steam-driven car! The Ford Nucleon, with a uranium fission reactor in the trunk. This was also an early use of the later Chrysler "cab forward" design aspect, but for an obviously more compelling benefit!
I'm not too worried now about tearing apart my old cars. Another indication that the cars built since, say, the 1970's are more toxic than the older cars, is the evolving controversy in California about the disposal of 'car fluff', the dross left over from the shredding of wrecked cars. Lead, copper and cadmium in the fluff that has been put into California landfills for decades, is now probably polluting the groundwater there.
What about PCBs--polychlorinated biphenyls? These were banned in 1973 for use in 'open' sources, such as plasticizers in paints, cements and adhesives. Their primary use is in large electrical transformers and remains so. My rather shallow investigation into this possible hazard indicates that this is probably not something to worry about but still an open question.
Now I can go ahead and tear apart the old wrecks knowing more about what I'm getting into. If you have any additions or corrections to the above, please let me know.
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