Technical What unusual ways have you transported car parts?

Rode to work on a Friday and had to run brake lines on a 64 Chev on Saturday. 25ft roll of tube cable tied to the spokes, managed to stay on the 10 mile ride home

 

I had a Mustang 5.0 engine AND transmission in the trunk of a Monte Carlo....rental....still connected together.

Dave

 

Hauled this racing engine from Muskogee to Nashville, where my friend and I transferred to his pickup so he could take it on back to Virginia.

 

I strapped a 56 Chevrolet fiberglass front-end on the back on a 63 Chevy II Station Wagon. Went on "backwards", and strapped to the roof and quarters of the Chevy II. Yeah, I got some looks, taking it to my rented garage. I also hauled my rear engine dragster chassis to Art Morrison's shop in Fife, Wa, about 50 miles from Everett, Wa., in the back of my DD truck, with it hanging out the back. Had to update the rollcage, and I could't see loading it all into the trailer, unloading, going home, coming back, etc. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

The starter on my Chevy van went belly up. I took the old one off,put in the wooden milk crate I had attached to my 1940's single speed bike and rode to the parts house a mile or so across town.Then back home again.

 

It's not unusual, but I did a "lap of Texas". Left Houston after work Friday, went through San Antonio and scored a 10-bolt and a couple of Pontiac heads "free" off Craigslist. Turns out the guy has a carb business, can rebuild my 4GC and even had a kit on hand. Then on to my in-laws near Uvalde to crash the first night. Got up Saturday at 6 and drove to Alpine to meet up with JOYFLEA and loaded up his extra '38 frame I had bought weeks prior. Had a great time looking at his projects and shop. Then fired up and drove to El Paso to pick up the front half of another '35-'37 frame with axle and wishbones off of Craigslist. (nearly have a roller now!) Then from El Paso I drove to our family place near Burnet, arrived about 2:30 a.m.. Long day. Unloaded all the frame stuff Sunday morning, then drove to Dallas to pick up two MORE pairs of Pontiac heads. I needed these to be able to run the '62 Tri-power intake I have. Left Dallas and drove back to Houston. Dang. 1867 miles. Anybody need Pontiac heads?

 

Sold a '67 440 HP motor to a guy at Chrysler Carlisle. He had gotten robbed at a truck stop on his way there. He only had a few bucks left. He gave me some money on it. And a couple of weeks later I loaded it, in pieces, in my wife's new PT Cruiser. And met him in Asheville NC.
First 440 PT Cruiser??

 

Back in '62 I was working @ the GM Fisher Body plant in ATL and we went on strike over work standards.
A friend's father had an auto salvage yard and "buy here, pay here"used car lot, and I went to work for him on a cash basis, patching up old clunkers to sell, mostly with parts from junked cars out in the yard.
That yard was huge and filled with all sorts of old cars, back into the '30s, and I found a Ford with a 3.54:1 rear gear under it that I got for my '32 Ford, complete with housing, wheels,tires, torque tube and driveshaft.
No truck among my circle of friends then, so I sat in the open trunk of a friends '56 Merc. and held onto the bell and collar at forward end of torque tube while he drove slowly about 5-6 miles to his house over country dirt roads, trailing the axle behind us.
Installed it later at my friend's house in the backyard.

 

Started hauling "stuff" as soon as I had a license:
abandoned 30 A roadster body upside down on the roof of my Mom's 63 Dodge Dart.
Spare engine in the front trunk of my '60 Renault Dauphine.
Spare 283 in the trunk of my '57 Chevy.
Spare rear end in trunk of '69 Camaro.
Transaxle for '66 Corvair in Dad's '62 Rambler.
Driver's seat only in '69 Camaro so I could haul taken apart 8 foot tall "A" frame hoist to a friend's house for an engine swap.
Not car related: 250 lb "I" beam on top of my V8 Vega wagon so I could remove a wall in my house. It was 16 feet long and took five of us to get it into the house.

 

Sixty six or seven, a friend bought an ex-police Harley. All he had to haul it in was a '64 Chevy wagon. We put the rear wheel in the third seat foot well, frame on the tail gate and let the forks and front wheel hang off the back. Transmission was in boxes on the back seat. We drove from Oxen Hill to Bethesda in evening rush hour traffic on the beltway. (Back then traffic actually moved.) When his wife got home she was not exactly pleased to see the bike in the living room and us re-assembling the trans on the dining table.

 

Hauled a set of small block heads to the machine shop tied to the passenger seat on my BMW motorcycle. My dad once hauled a 4 cylinder motor back from Arizona to Iowa in the trunk of a Dodge Dynasty.

 

In the 1950s,I dragged a far number of parts home on my pedalbike and or in RadioFlyer wagon,some times ,I Tom an Huck'ed my buddy's in to helping as well.

 

fiber glass t-bucket body in the back of a chrysler pacifica-fit great,but had a pretty good buzz from the resin smell.old heavy franklin quick change.most of it fit in the trunk of 98 camry,steered REAL easy!20 foot lengths of 4130 tubing tied and duct taped to the side of my amc gremlin,stuck out front and back

 

Not car parts but I've purchased and craned multiple motorcycles that I've seen in the side of the road up on to my boom truck and strapped em down.

 

As a teen I rode my motorcycle across town with a lower control arm for my 67 Charger strapped to my chest with bungee cords.

Recently I made a several hundred mile trip with a 40 Ford frame sticking out of the back of my new F150 with one of the tiny 5 1/2' beds with a camper shell. I left the shell's tailgate open, the tailgate on the truck was up. This frame jutted up out of the back of the truck quite a bit. I got some strange looks going down the road....LOL

 

Did you know a fiberglass T-bucket body fits nicely in the trunk of a 63 Impala. Carried one from Missouri to Iowa that way many years ago.

 

1970 I carried a power antenna from a new Lincoln, a electric wiper motor from a 57 Pontiac and belts/pulleys/brackets/alternator along with other stuff I have forgotten together with clothes and other junk bungee corded to the seat of a 67 BSA from north of West Branch to Farmington Michigan. Latest one was to carry the engine block, crankshaft, pistons and conn rods of a 1925 American LaFrance fire truck from Grand Rapids to Milford Michigan in my Astro van, about 1992. Had to remove the third row seat and one of the second row bucket seats, that was a long engine block. I was just able to close the back doors with it inside.

 

I got this Full Cage into a 1999 Oldsmobile. Bob

 

Hello,

When we had the 58 Impala , it was a daily driver, grocery store runner, beach cruiser and all around drag racing/cruising car. It was in superb condition as that was the way I was taught to keep a car in showroom condition. So, daily vacuuming, wiping off that shiny red dash/chrome pieces, and dusting off prior to closing the garage door for the night, were the daily chores for my Impala. My wife says it is a “thing” with me about cars. “Women feel guilty about, well, just everything… some men (me) feel guilty if the car is not washed and clean.” It is a priority thing, learned from an early age.

When we were building our cars, some parts had to be purchased at swap meets or scrap yards. But storage for transportation home was a different matter. It had to fit in the trunk, but not if it is going to roll around or slide from one side to the other. If we did not bring an old wooden milk crate for storage, one had to improvise.

After lining the spare tire well with an extra beach towel (plenty of those) we put in the dirty, sometimes greasy part(s) in the well and covered it up. The deep well was a protection of sorts and to keep everything from sliding across the carpeting. Different carburetors, distributors, valves and rods, etc. were all brought home at one time or another. Some were new, some were not so new and slightly dirty, etc. Most heavy items were wedged on the floor with the spare or those milk crates. But the smaller parts needed a deep built-in pocket for protection, not of the part, but for the cleanliness of the impala.

When we started to use the 58 Impala as a primary tow vehicle for our 1940 Willys build, my eyes lit up at the thought of getting things dirty. It was going to be the abundance of racing parts, gas, oil, and just stuff inside of the trunk and rear seats. Luckily, in 1959, we had installed the old “Sure-Fit” clear plastic seat covers for some protection from greasy Levis and such. Those seat covers did the trick as upon selling the 58 Impala in 1964, the new owner claimed that the seats were brand new!!! Those “Sure-Fit” clear covers worked!!!

Jnaki

Today, our cars are usually spic and span, as the impression has to be excellent when we take our granddaughter on various shopping trips or a picnic at the harbor. A cover tarp for the floor, built in straps, and things to wedge items to keep them from moving around is the mode of the day.

 

Doesn’t exactly fit the theme of the thread but back in the early ‘70’s we loaded down a friends ‘60 Ford pickup and lashed a ‘33 Ford grille on the front end to go to a swap meet. We had a lot of laughs with that and there were offers to buy it just waiting in line at 6 AM before the gate opened. NFS, it went back home.

 

Not a car part, but I was kayaking down a small backwater of a river and found a Jeep pedal car body sticking out of the side of the bank. I dug it out and bungy corded it to my kayak and paddled it out.

 

I Delivered A Fordy Deluxe Hood To A Village 300 Miles Away By Mounting It On My Fordy Delivery...

 

Not very unusual but it works. To get paint that is illegal in the People's Republik of Kalifornia I have it delivered to a relative in an American state and they forward it to me.

 

Not near as impressive as others listed here but I picked up a /glass 27 roadster body at Spirit Industries in Arkansas with a Ford Expedition (long version). I really didn't want to pull my car trailer that far for something that light. I had the short version Expedition, so I borrowed my son's extended version.
No one at the factory thought it would fit,"never gonna work" as they carried it out. Folded the 2nd and 3rd rows seats down, It slid right in closed the hatch with 1" to spare.

 

When my Brother & I were getting into cars as teenagers we needed a gantry to pull engines out with as we had a block & tackle......the local scout hall fence was trashed one weekend and the 3" round pipe fence posts that were 8foot long were to be thrown out.........we were able to get a few for nix and gas welded them together using many coat hangers we had got from the local dry cleaners to make our gantry 7foot high, wide enough to fit a car through with legs on the bottom 3foot long..........it worked a treat but our calculations in making it meant that it turned out to just fit in the back of my 1969 Holden Ute, the Oz GM version of Oz Fords Falcon Ute or Ranchero.........with the tailgate down it sat hard against the front of the ute bed with the back horizontal piece sitting in the area between the tailgate and end of the bed, as it was 7' high and sitting about 4' above the road in the ute bed it made an impressive sight being transported to various friends and fellow rodders houses when needed, we got quite good tying it down and used to the comments from passing motorists...........years later I brought home the 1940 Dodge Coupe trunk lid I'd bought tied onto the roof racks of my wifes 1970 Toyota Corolla........only thing that this was on our honeymoon and entailed a 200mile detour to pickup the trunk lid then a 600 mile return trip after the actual honeymoon, the trunk lid acted as a sort of spoiler........lol..................but by then I think Libby knew what she was getting herself into.............lol...........andyd

 

Need a head gasket for that engine?


Bones

 

Got to use them, I could of easily used my daily driver pickup truck, but what fun would that of been.

 

Anyone remember that thread where the guy got the free small block Chevy but had no truck to transport it the mile or three back home ?
Him and his kid used a wooden furniture dolly and a piece of rope to physically drag it all the way back home.