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The components that keep your car nice and cool during a Texas summer are heating up Gold Auto Parts Recyclers’ business prospects.

Yet Gold isn’t just using the AC compressors that its specialists salvage from automotive scrap metal – and rebuild into shiny good-as-new parts – to drive its own bottom line.  The Dallas-based company is also an economic engine of sorts for two sets of customers: the independent dealers who sell Gold the raw inventory of used scrap metal, and cost-conscious consumers who buy the remanufactured AC compressors at Gold’s website (www.goldpartsonline.com) as a way to save money on auto repairs.

Throughout the entire process, Gold is also helping the environment by recycling the used auto parts. Everything that is dumped onto the loading docks at its massive East Dallas warehouse either ends up retooled and reused or disposed of properly – even leftover oil and oil cleaners.

That’s the way Gold’s president and managing partner Jerry Amman envisioned things when he became fascinated with the idea of “dumpster diving” for used auto parts as a young man. “Years ago I was thinking: why can’t I take this greasy, dirty part – right from a guy’s pickup truck – clean it up, rebuild it, and sell it?” Amman said. “I can pay this guy more money for it because there are people who are interested in buying it, and I can save the people I’m selling it to some money, and make this thing work.”

Amman and Gold’s chief financial officer Lane Weitz see the potential for success in taking one person’s trash and turning it into recycled auto parts treasure. It’s estimated that 3.2 million units are sold annually in the automotive air conditioner compressor market with revenues totaling nearly $344 million. Gold says 1.3 million remanufactured A/C compressors will hit the market this year, with distributors earning $120 million in sales.

Those statistics also factor in the desire for auto owners to extend the lives of their cars thanks to a challenging economy. The average age of a car on U.S. roadways has jumped from seven to ten years. In fact, the recent recession gave Gold an opportunity to put its plans for bypassing the middle-man in the auto parts market into practice, thanks to the Internet. “What made that happen was this downturn in the economy. It really helped us,” Amman said. “When the economy went down, we had the ability to talk to our employees and say, ‘This is now the time to take this thing to this market – the Internet, the end user, one at a time.’”

That market starts with private scrap dealers bringing junked engine blocks and other used automotive parts scavenged from installers, garages and body shops, and selling it all to Gold. “We have a real strong core base of customers that are selling us product,” Weitz said. “They know we are going to take care of them. They know they are going to get good, fair prices every time they come.”

Gold’s specialists then begin the process of separating AC compressor wheat from scrap metal chaff. What stays gets sorted and stored for remanufacturing; what doesn’t gets disposed of properly.

The AC compressor cores are categorized according to auto make and model. They are input into Gold’s computer system for inventory tracking, tested for quality and then taken apart, cleaned and remanufactured. Another round of testing is done before the rebuilt part is boxed and placed on racks for resale to consumers online.

A select group of quality control experts – some of whom have worked with Gold’s team members for 20 years – makes sure the remanufactured A/C compressors can take the heat of a scorching summer and meet high standards when compared to any new, similar part. “Quality is the key,” Weitz said. “If the part is no good, it doesn’t matter how cheap it was, your customer is not going to be happy. When you’re selling this type of material, it’s being able to bring the product to the end consumer who needs their part to fix the air conditioning in their car when it’s 103 degrees out. And being able to offer the quality product at a fair price – with a warranty – that’s really what our remanufacturing operation is all about.”

That warranty is for two years – for a part remanufactured in the U.S. – compared to a one-year warranty offered by Gold’s competitors, many of which get their rebuilt parts from Asia. The two-year warranty is proof, Weitz says, that Gold Auto Parts Recyclers can be a viable, trusted option for consumers looking to save money by buying their own parts online and giving them to a mechanic to install in their cars.

“It’s all about making it easy for the customers, being reliable, knowing that they’re going to get what they paid for. That’s what makes it work – whether they’re out in the country somewhere and it’s very difficult for them to find what they need for their car – what vehicle does it fit, what year range, what engine size – it’s right there at their fingertips, and it gets delivered right to their door,” Weitz said.

“We knew we could compete with anybody out there price-wise, and once we figured it out, it just kind of took off and we knew we were on to something.”

For more information, go to www.goldpartsonline.com