News

Jan 23, 2024

A PLACE FOR YOUR JUNK

Is a disabled car rusting in your yard? Give Dickey’s Auto Recyclers a call. To

Is a disabled car rusting in your yard? Give Dickey's Auto Recyclers a call.

To help improve the area's appearance, Elmore Dickey will send a truck – free of charge – to pick up your vehicle. Then he’ll put your junk in order.

Like a work of abstract art, recovered auto parts lie separated into carefully sorted piles of various textures, shapes and sizes. They recline hidden from public view behind Dickey's recycling business, located on Route 17 near Gloucester.

"We’re complete recyclers," Dickey says, pointing out various recovered components, including radiators, windshields, automotive glass, mechanical and body parts, motors, transmissions, copper, brass, Freon and oil.

Tire rims are pressed into cloverleaf shapes of No. 1 steel. To accomplish the reshaping, he purchased a special piece of equipment – a Multitek tire and rim crusher. A tire splitter cuts tires in half.

The oil is removed from vehicles and stored to be picked up and properly disposed of to protect the environment, he says.

Dickey has found it's often difficult to get local bank financing for the expensive equipment needed to make the business environmentally safe. He estimates the cost at about $500,000 to start a business like his. For example, a RobinAir EnviroCharge, which pulls Freon from air-conditioning units and recycles it, is the business’ newest specialty machine, purchased at a cost of $4,000.

After all the parts are removed from a vehicle, the remaining hulk is picked up by a 545 Alis-Chalmers prime mover, placed in the Big Mac crusher and flattened between heavy metal plates. The compressed cars are then stacked in bundles of three, piled 3 bundles high in two piles – a total of 18 compacted hunks of steel – and hauled off in Dickey's tractor trailer truck to a metal shredding company located in Chesapeake.

Dickey works directly with Sara Delo, Clean Community Program coordinator for Gloucester County. For the past seven or eight years, his business has picked up and recycled abandoned vehicles under a cooperative program with the county and the Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles. Dickey keeps an account of all recovered vehicles for both the county and DMV.

Christi Lewis, director of community education for Gloucester County, says, "The county has been very pleased with the Clean Community Program, because not only does the community benefit from the removal of unsightly vehicles but also from the state's reimbursement, which generates revenue."

Dickey owned a body and fender repair business in Westchester County, N.Y., before moving to Gloucester in 1977. His family came three years earlier, and he drove back and forth between New York and Gloucester every weekend before he could sell his business there.

Originally, he had planned to operate a body and fender repair shop but gradually the business expanded into auto salvage.

Ever since Dickey Sr. had heart surgery a year and a half ago, his son, Elmore "Danny" Dickey Jr., has been running the business.

"We recycle about 60 cars a month," the younger Dickey says.

He is proud of the business he and his father have built together. "Recycling enables the consumer to save money. They can buy quality pre-tested auto parts at reasonable prices," he says.

Dickey's Auto Recyclers is a member of the Virginia Auto Salvage Dealers Association and the Automotive Dismantlers and Recyclers Association (ADRA) as well as other local and professional organizations.

* To have your abandoned vehicle picked up, call Dickey's at 693-5860. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday. Car removal is done in conjunction with the Gloucester Clean Community Program, Sara Delo, coordinator.

ELMORE DICKEY SR.

HOME: Gloucester County since 1977; native of Lynchburg

EDUCATION: Dunbar High School, Lynchburg

OCCUPATION: Auto salvage

INTERESTS: Would like to learn to create oil paintings.

FAMILY: Wife, Martha Dickey; son, Elmore "Danny" Dickey Jr., a graduate of Gloucester High School and a partner in the business; daughters Laverne Dickey, who teaches learning disabled children in Virginia Beach Public Schools, Katherine Denise, who is employed by the IRS and Lynn who lives in Alexandria and works for the federal government.

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