Mobile Mechanic and Auto Detailing in Dallas, TX

Section 18-20 and the notice that follows

Dallas Code Compliance describes the junk motor vehicle rule, Section 18-20 of the city code, on its page listing city code violations. Motor vehicles that are inoperative and/or partially dismantled and have expired license tags or safety stickers are considered junk motor vehicles, the page says. The city's checklist for its Non-Owner Occupied Rental Program summarizes Section 18-20(b): a person commits an offense by causing or maintaining such a public nuisance, by wrecking, dismantling, partially dismantling, rendering inoperable, abandoning or discarding a motor vehicle on a public right-of-way or other public property or on the real property of another, or by permitting a junked vehicle to be parked, left or maintained on personal real property.

According to Code Compliance, the owners of a junk motor vehicle and all lien holders are notified of the violation by certified mail. If the owner fails to remove the vehicle from the property or prove it operable, the vehicle will be towed and sold for salvage. The page gives no further detail on what proving a vehicle operable involves.

These are summaries of city web pages, not the ordinance itself, and this is not legal advice. Before leaving a car partly taken apart at home, confirm with Dallas 311 or Code Compliance. Most Dallas households rent: the Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimate (table B25003) is that about 310,000 of 537,000 occupied homes in Dallas, or 57.8 percent, are renter-occupied. The survey is a sample, so these are estimates. A lease or HOA rule is separate from city code, so check that too.

Old parts, litter and the 24-hour outside storage rule

The same Code Compliance page tells homeowners and tenants to keep their property free of litter, and its list of litter includes auto parts and appliances. The area covered runs from the curb in front of the house, or the edge of the pavement if there is no curb, to the middle of the alley, or to the back property line if there is no alley. The rental checklist summarizes Section 7A-18, which also reaches the gutter or parkway next to the premises and half of the adjacent alley.

A separate entry covers illegal outside storage. It says a person commits an offense by placing outside on a lot, for more than 24 continuous hours, an item that is not customarily used or stored outside or is not made of a material resistant to damage from exposure, unless zoning and a valid Certificate of Occupancy permit it. The page gives no examples and does not say how the rule applies to a home's yard or garage, so ask Code Compliance whether a box of used parts counts.

Dallas Sanitation's brush and bulky item page describes monthly curbside collection and says to set items out between Thursday and Sunday before your collection week. Check the city's collection calendar for your week. The page's accepted-items list does not name car parts, so confirm what is accepted before setting any out.

From 0 to 71 days at 100 degrees in the Dallas/Fort Worth record

As of the pages' latest data, the National Weather Service's Dallas/Fort Worth climate pages list 71 days at 100 degrees or more in 2011 as the most in a calendar year, and none in 1973 or 1906. The data table shows 69 days in 1980, the year of the longest run, 42 straight days from June 23 to August 3. The 1991 to 2020 average is 20.2 days a year, including 7.4 in July and 9.7 in August, and the record high is 113 degrees, set in June 1980.

The National Weather Service also publishes a separate normals page for Dallas Love Field, with its own 1991 to 2020 normals, and they run warmer. Average highs there are 96.9 degrees in July and 97.1 in August, with average lows of 77.7 and 77.4. The Dallas/Fort Worth normals for the same months are 95.6 and 95.8, so Love Field's average highs are 1.3 degrees higher in both. Love Field's normal annual precipitation is 38.32 inches, and October, at 4.79 inches, edges out May at 4.57 as its wettest month.

I-635, I-35E and a 16-to-23-lane interchange

TxDOT's page for the 635 East Project describes an 11-mile reconstruction of I-635 from US 75 to I-30, including the I-635/I-30 interchange, and says that when complete there will be 10 general-purpose lanes and two tolled managed lanes. Check TxDOT for current construction status. The page, which is not dated, says I-635 East originally opened in 1969 and was designed for 180,000 cars a day, that average daily traffic on I-635 reaches 230,000, and that the road has a top 30 ranking on Texas' most congested roadways list.

A separate TxDOT alternative delivery page says the agency evaluated the I-635 Managed Lanes Project, on I-635 from east of Luna Road to Greenville Avenue and on I-35E from south of the Loop 12/I-35E split to south of Valwood Parkway in Dallas County. In the Horseshoe Project area near downtown, TxDOT's project sheet says the I-30/I-35E interchange, known as the Mixmaster, was reconstructed with 7 added lanes, growing from 16 to 23.