Only learned a year ago or so that these babies are worth hanging on to rather than just in the bin.
At a scrap yard, I watched as Falcon came in, got unloaded, flipped on its side, petrol angle grinder 12" blade came out, and the cat was removed much the same way kidneys might be in a back alley somewhere overseas.
The fella told me some cats can be worth up to $50 alone, so they get a scrap fee paid out to former owner, near paid back already.
I had a weird one kicking about in cast iron exhaust manifold set up, tried to separate the two but was jammed in with some sort of expanding mesh wrap, so even a hammer light tapping did nothing to remove- which was lucky for me.
I called in to a scrappy that deals with cats - some don't - and asked what it was worth. Surprised I suppose - $25,Commodores worth the most, this was off a four banger.
Turns out, if you have enough of them at a time you can sell to the bigger specialist extracting guys who pay almost 50 bucks each!
The cats go through some process to extract the platinum ? out, involving carcinogenic chemicals so there is a danger factor there
The scrappy told me they once had a guy short on space who opened up all his cats or knocked the honeycomb out and when he had a 44 full, brought it in to cash in - worthless , as apparently the extractor needs to use the cats housing to get the stuff out. I'm thinking maybe they fill cat housing with chemical to wash it through or something ...
good reading here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalytic_converter
thanks to the people at wiki - send them a postcard to show your appreciation ?
In searching for the extraction process I found a forum that sounded to me it is dedicated to doin' bad stuff. One post was suggesting what may be interpreted as going into business collecting cats from vehicles ...not yet ready to yield their cat, suggesting 5 - 10 G a month from ill gotten gains.
The process is a cyanide wash, and filter or boil off to get the platinum and other precious metals
