Here's some cheap tech. Next time the significant other drags you to Walmart or Home Depot. Sneak off to the section that has the bathroom stuff. Take a look at the flexible shower heads. Some are real chrome or stainless and make great headlight wire conduits. Hell of a lot cheaper than the hot rod shop stuff, no shipping or waiting and you just cut it to whatever length you need & stick it through a gromet on each end and string your wires. Any other cheapscate ideas???? Let's hear 'em! We haven't done this for a while. It was fun last time and the new HAMBers probably haven't thought of this stuff.
Rat Rodder...........you're cool DUDE!!!!!! Ya fuckin rip people off so you can be a cheap fuck and hurt the people who put their money on the line to make a livin. (for you and the rest of the people who haven't won the lottery) Get off your computer and start a business and hire some guys to rip you off..... see how you feel then when it comes out of your pocket...... Michigan Dick
Sorry Joe........... I'm all over cheap tech.......Rippin people off is about as low as you can go... just ask the guy who use to drive a Snap-On truck in Seattle.
I bet you worked in fast food, and didn't wash your hands after you took a shit. Need to change your name to "Shit-Fingered Discount."
Let's see if we can salvage this and get it back on topic. Anyone else have cheap/easy ways to do hotrod stuff?
Back to the original post,I'm all for creative $$$ saving tips,but WALMART?? That's great if you really want the lowest quality crap available on Planet Earth,from China.Buy your shower massage parts from a better quality source,please. Just ask my wife,she seems to be a real expert when it comes to shower massages..Wonder if that's why she ignores me lately?? Hmm.......Just seeing the word Walmart and Hot Rod in the same sentence gives me the heebie-jeebies...
For you guys with mini bikes a chrome leg off of an old dining table makes a cool exhaust pipe. When I was a kid all the girls in my neighborhood had a burn scar on the inside of their right thigh from riding behind me on my custom ride!! Come to think of it I havent seen many chrome legged dinette sets lately except in antique shops. WTF.
Smokin.. When i was building my '32 and needed conduit for the headlights..i went in my basement and started looking for something that would work..i remembered seeing something down there.. Well, I found a bag with an old shower head..the rest is history It really does work good! Rat.....
Well I buy their batteries and all my Rustoleum "Byproducts"!also you see the nicest people shopping there.........
That's a great one Joe. Many thanks. Been thinking about what I'm gonna do on the 31's headlight wiring and that sure looks like the way to do it. One small one I found was USA made chrome acorn nuts at Orchard Supply. Lowes and Home Depot may have them as well. Price, about 4-5 bucks for three or four 3/8". They are nicely done and have good chrome. Other sizes run different prices. Only real problem is you gotta beat the Harley guys to em. They're lots cheaper here than at the Harley shop. My other cheap one is to make gauge and switch panels out of aluminum electrical cable pass through boxes. These are a box, open on both ends, about 3/16" thick aluminum and are great for cutting out aux panels and the like. Available at electrical supply houses. one box makes lots of gauge panels. Here's a pic of a semi-finished one I made to go on grandsons Ranger, design to his specs. He finished up the aluminum with a brushed finish and it looked pretty good in his truck. Note the nice curve on the 90 degree break. That's the way the boxes come and the smooth rollover makes for a good looking panel.
Target has some towel bars that are slightly curved chrome round bars 3/4", 18" long. perfect for a grill opening. Also, Walmart and Target have plastic shower rod covers, sometimes you can find them in chrome, easily trimable. make that spreader bar, tie rods, or anything round, chrome for abour $5.
Here's one i used in my '33 pickup.. I didn't have a dome light..and i didn't want to wire one in or install jamb switches.. I bought one of those small "tap lights" (2.99) and made a bracket to mount to the roof brace. Install one 'AA' battery, and 'tap', instant dome light. Works pretty good, just gotta change the batteries a couple time a year. Rat..
This is the stuff I live for.Been builting cheepo stuff for years.I always look at stuff to see what else it can be used for.I have a few so here goes. Have a old set of lights that the reflector are bad in,well I took a stanless steel salad bowls and trim them down to fit into the lights.Take the light socket off a plastic headlight by cutting the part of the light that the bulb socket locks into.Then cut a hole in the middle of the bowl and urethane the part of the light to the bowl.A new light reflector. fitzee
Home Depot Head on over to the cement section and purchase a few of the black plastic cement mixing pans. They're great for oil changes, brake jobs, or anything else you'd use a tray or shallow pail for and instead of the $10 you'd pay for it at PepBoys, it's only around $4 or so. Buy a lot, they're very useful.
This lock was from Home Hardward.it was a small closet door latch.I cut one end off and welded a flat washer to it, then welded the 2 X 2 plate to the body of it.You have a door latch that is less the a inch thick. fitzee
whilst yer at home depot or similar place, check out the sink drain pipes in plumbing. some are usefull as upper radiator pipes. shiney and everything.
I needed something to mount my fusebox and a positive battery power junction to, and I wanted it to NOT conduct electricity, for obvious reasons! I found one of those little blue plastic boxes in the home electrical aisle at the local hardware store this morning. I think they're SUPPOSED to be used for switches or plugs in your house...but I saw a 49 cent thick plastic box with an open end for easy access! After making an aluminum bracket to hold the box, I had my fusebox/junction point mount pretty much done. Wiring this car is a simple affair...and the fusebox is going to be a small universal job that accepts the modern 'blade' type fuses mounted on "top" (as it's positioned NOW) of the plastic box. That'll keep all the "hot" wires pretty much safe from accidental shorts...I hope! (I suppose you COULD sneak into a new home construction site and STEAL one of these boxes...but at 49 cents, even I ain't THAT cheap...and I got two FREE nails with it to throw away or use as I see fit...what a DEAL!!)
As far as making Aluminum switch panels, brackets, etc... There are tons of Aluminum sheets of assorted sizes and shapes just sitting along the sides of pretty much every road or street around here! Uhhh.... not that I would ever steal a road sign or anything..... a ...uhhhh friend told me about it.... that's it, a friend!
I haven't actually done this yet..but it's an idea I've been wanting to do. To get a little different look on your regular old plain-jane aircleaner. In the local hardware store they have some sheets of aluminum with die cut designs, like clover looking things. I think it is for lower portions of screen doors. You can cut it in a strip and wrap it around the outside of the element, then sandwich it between the lid and bottom of the air cleaner as usual.
I love the hardware section. I'm doing the plywood floor now. I'm using a magnetic cabinet glass door latch for the M/cyl trap door.
a guy once told me that he wanted a shiney battery box so he got one of those household door-bottom kickplate things (usually in gold, stainless, or chrome) and bent it into a rectangle to house his battery
Towel Rail Chrome tubing = tube grille...just piched the ends... Oh and doing a modern bathroom? Use a stainless Mixing bowl instead of the overpriced Stainless Bowl Sinks..just have to hole saw a hole and add the drain....
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