can you do body work... alot of salvaged cars have the rear quarter panels damaged on them, and when that happens you gotta saw a 1/4 cut (pain in the ass, i used to have to do it) on 2 cars then weld a new one on... some rebuilds aren't as bad it all depends on the hit..
like this one for instance.
bonneville
just by looking at it you can tell that the rad and support are still good, the frame is slightly damaged but a puller would do that easy, then after that it's just a rebar, bumper, headlight, fender and a few other little things... but chances are that car will go for alot at the auction because almost everything on the car is salvageable
one time i had my boss bid on a 96 GSR it got creamed in the rear, but what i wanted was upfront, the bidding went all the way to $2800 on it, those guys aren't dumb
now see this civic sedan.... i'm sure it wouldn't go for much more than 300-400 bucks because the whole front is fucked and the bags are deployed
civic
that car is worthless, yeah you could weld a whole new clip on, but when it's all said and done you won't make cock off it.
but there are some cars that get sent to these auctions that are low value trade ins from dealerships or reposessions, it's a quick place to sell those cars and they generally have clean titles, thats where you get the deals.