I'm sure that this has already been talked about in one of the 800 zillion threads here but I'm curious to see pictures and hear tales of projects that were built almost strictly from leftover, project parts or what you had laying around. I think that some of the coolest, economical and most creative cars have come about in this fashion.
Nah...plenty of great hot rods built from "leftovers". Come to think of it, aren't almost all hot rods built from leftovers?
Nope....not what I'm asking about here. I didn't say non-traditional pieces of dangerous shit that were thrown together in a weekend with mailboxes for air cleaners, etc. I suppose I should have worded this a bit differently. I just enjoy seeing creativity and quality work come together when you have a lot of the foundational parts already laying around and the idea for the car started coming together that way. Basically, using what you have for the most part.
I'll play- I built this from a pile of parts that were either laying in my garage or ready to be thrown out by various people I knew. It was alot of fun When I was done with it. I still miss it. It wasn't a Rat rod but an economical and fun way to clean out a few garages.
ragged old model A coupe body with no floor,firewall, or roof was the start of this one..had the front and rear axle leftover from my '34 PU when went to a dropped axle and changed the rear to a 9" Ford...engine,trans, wiring,and steering came from old V8 Vega project... Built this in 1987 and tried to keep it in $500 range to show my sons highschool buddies that it could be done...BUT kept adding swap meet stuff...chrome backing plates,chromed the split bones, found a tri-power and ended up more like $ 2500.00 to build it. Was a fun car and traded it for a '32 3wd project in '97
Ha! RDR...searched for some threads on this subject for Bugsy, since me a Hawk hijacked his thread. Didn't find a lot, but I did see your car. Was gonna post a link, but you beat me to it.
Well, mine won't be 100% from leftovers, but the major components are, so I guess that counts. I scored the body when my Son changed directions on his rpu project. All the hard work was already done by him, and I think I asked his permission to confiscate it, before moving it to my side of the shop. The frame is some 2 x 4 box tubing we had, the engine is a 394 Olds I built probably 7 years ago but never fired up, the 8 inch rear was given to me by a friend on another forum, the 3 link rear also came from my Son's first incarnation of his rpu, the front spring was on the front of his car but it sat too low and he had to go with the next higher one, the rear coil overs were originally on my Dodge bobber that I sold before finishing it, and the Model A grille shell was also my Son's before he decided to go with a Deuce shell. I also got his metal tonneau cover that has 224 louvers punched in it and I am going to cut it up since my bed is shorter, and use part of it to make a louvered tail gate. I stole, er "borrowed" a 32 dash he was no longer using, as well as some misc suspension pieces. I did buy the Speedway bomber seats from him when he decided they were too wide for his new rpu body. (I THINK I paid him) The transmission is a Jackson Racing TH350 that I bought some time ago for some forgotten project, and the wheels came off of the Dodge bobber. There are a lot of parts I had to buy, like the tires, Speedway wishbones, and a NOS 34 Ford front axle. I want this one to look like it has been around for awhile, so it will be a little rough around the edges, and is going to look like one that I owned in about 1970. Here is how it sits , and I intend on getting back on it because some other things are out of the way and I have the time now to devote to it. Don With Masonite mock up bed to get the proportions. Don
TERPU, RDR and Don....this is exactly what I'm talking about. Thanks for posting. Rickybop...thanks for searching around for some more, I agree with you too that most are probably built in this fashion to a certain degree, I just like to see what people can come up with when they use a lot of what they already have around.
I don't know if they count as left overs but most of what I have built over the years have been built from everyone else's cast off parts. Nearly everything that I build has a leftover part of two from another project or a part that I thought I was going to use on another project. Hell come to think of it, Wilbur's stude has a bunch of parts that he convinced me to use on it that were being saved for future projects. Damn him and his ideas.
I've been collecting other people's left overs, and planning on making something outta them. There is a truck I've seen around, that has "bits and pieces" painted on it.
truck in the middle was my parts truck. loaned out the sheet metal for a garden display at the county fair. decided when i got it back i'd build it. added independent front end, disc brakes, power steering, airride, & a stroker motor/350 combo. way fun to cruise
Not sure about leftovers but my donor vehicle was blazer I got for $150. Guy swore uphill and down the engine was rebuilt and his(spoiled) kid had done something and now it would not start, the father sounded somewhat pissed with his kid and he repeated the story 3 times convincing me that he was sincere. So I brought it home and found distributor out a couple cogs..Engine fired right up and purred..Also used the tilt steering column and rearend and various other parts and sold the tires and rims off to recover my $150.00
My Buick is built from all leftover parts other than a few pieces of glass, validated keeping all those parts for years I knew I would need someday!
Check out what Thuderbirdesq is doing on this thread... Good stuff... Hot Rods Enough monkeying around: let's build a 5w, or another 4dr bites the big one. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=654839
Hardly a new idea....... I think God made giraffes and goats from leftover parts! When my Sedan project is done, I'd like to make a small 2-seater based on an extra '29 frame I have and some other collected stuff I have. Stick a 4-banger in it and have cheap fun!
not OT- but I swapped a good running chevy 250 6cyl and th350 into a DD 84 ford ranger pickup I HAD the 6cyl and the v-6 in the ranger spun a bearing, I had no extra $$$$$ to replace the v-6 so the we had a "shotgun weddin" out in the garage. not the easiest swap I've ever done but that ranger sure did scoot afterward. had to remodel the trans hump with a 4lb hammer to the point that I needed to move the gas pedal left to clear the floor.
Just finishing this up. The only 'new' monies I spent were luggage rack, tires, glass, fluids etc.. Had everything else left over from varied projects. True.
Chances are, you aren't going to beleive this,.... I have had a number of parts laying around that I do a lot of moving from place to place, as well as tripping over them,... I had bought a old used and abused Hot Rod Deuce Chassis from George DeLorian back in 07',.... He and his brother used to mess around with Hot Rods back in the day,... and theres no telling how many decades this was buried in the back corner of his garage. The Body I have had for a very long time ( But it was sitting on a different frame), and the flathead came in with a bunch of other stuff on a trade 10 or 11 years ago,.... it's a little grungy, but it runs pretty strong. I bought 3 or 4, 39' Transmissions a long time ago from Frank Mack. And a bunch of left over junk that has been collecting dust in the barn for years,... Well it all started innocently enough,.. I literally tripped over the flathead a couple weeks ago,... and later that day, I was looking at the pile of transmissions, steering box & column, gauges, spools of wire, dented gas tank, and a number of other parts, not really premium stuff, not worth a ton of money,... but just stuff that was just accumulating. A day or two later, I was over at the barn, and just happened to have the trailer hooked up to the truck (I had hauled another car to the barn),... so I load up the old Hot Rod chassis that I got from George, and took it back to the shop,.... I was mocking up a Hemi in a Deuce frame I'm building for a friend,... The cherry picker was right there and so was the flathead. ( You can see where this is going ,...huh? ) Well, I have only tinkered with it a few hours here and there between other projects over the last couple weeks,.... But it's starting to get me pretty "Durn" interested ! I am really thinking, this might be the new parts chaser / shop truck / back and forth beater,..... That is, if I can only keep the momentum up,... But I kind of like this little bugger ! nothing really exceptional,.. Just on it's way to becoming a fun beater,..... or not ? , We'll see how it goes . I have thought about selling it a few times,.. then talk myself out of it.
This car is roughly 90-95% stuff I had or found, traded for or bought from sold parts I had laying around. There is no getting around having to buy some stuff, like tires or an intake. I think I have about $2,000 or less into it right now. It's as traditional as I can get it without spending a ton of dough. I pulled the 8CM merc flathead out of a farm truck that I parted out, so I basically got paid to use this engine.
I think that there are more than just a few pretty nice rods on here that got their start with a bunch of parts that were sitting around the shop or behind the shop. You start cleaning things up and here is this engine that came out of the car you put the 350 in and sold two years ago and the matching trans is over under the bench. Out back there is an eight inch rear end out of a Grenada that your buddy pulled the 302 and auto out of for his pickup and you got the rear end and front rotors before the roll truck came after the hulk. behind the wood shed is a Model A frame that you traded a transmission for 20 years ago and that front half of a 27 T touring is still out back where you put it ten years ago when you picked it up on the way out of a swap meet for too good a price to turn down. Then there is that old set of ET 15 x 8's in the back shed that came off the 71 Mustang you had 30 years ago along with a pair of 14x6 matching wheels for the front. Then you remember that your cousin pulled a nice 31 A front axle and wish bones out of his 31 when he put the dropped axle and four bar in it and it's still out behind his shop and he owes you for that nine inch you traded him for parts to be named later five years ago. From that comes a little T modified on A rails.
Harms Way....I friggin' love it!!!!! That's what I'm talking about!!! Mr48Chev....sounds like you're speaking from experience here!!!
Im building this roaster uhhhh....thing. Ive got very little money into the project and am lucky enough to work at a restoration shop where plenty of scrap parts are laying around. Trying to use as many pre-67 or fabricated parts that I can, but you gotta make compromises sometimes. I know it doesnt look like much right now, but this will NOT be a RR. big plans, but slow progress, im kinda anal, and everything is in the "mock-up" stage. When everything fits to my liking, finish welding, fabricating embelshments etc will be added. Heres a pic, and a link to my thread here on the hamb. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=570948
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