Technical Necessity really is the Mother of Invention

I put the left one on first!

 

A thinking man! I haven't had to join the SF's yet, but after 33 yrs. of marriage, well, it IS a consideration!

 

Couldn't find reproductions of the Handle Boot or The Shifter Knob 55-59 GMC
So had to think of a way to make them!

 

They look great but tell us what you did. HRP

 

Tiddlywinks also work well.

 

Love that dash and selector shot. Everything looks indestructible!

 

Pretty cool stuff HRP!

 

When I made the finned air cleaner for my tri-power set-up I used three old light shade bases from a ceiling fan light kit I wasn't going to use as hold down trim pieces.

 

American infinity still alive in our hobby. This is how our fathers kicked Hitler's ass!

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Yeah,that is definitely using something that may have ended up in the trash,,and it looks custom made at that! HRP

 

X2, more details. I REALLY like those!

 

There are some really great ideas on this thread!!

 

Years ago I had to replace the hi beam indicator jewel on a 40 ford dash, I used the small red jewel from an old shit canned stud finder.

 

great thread subject...and some great ideas. Here's a few of mine: The outer tailight rings in my avatar pic were made from stainless steel dog dishes. The '63 lenses were about 5/8 smaller than the '57 housing.
The chrome rings around my cowl drain tubes are plumbing floor flanges.
My windshield wiper motor was moved to inside the cowl, I gained access via a weatherproof outdoor electrical box moulded to the cowl. Ignore the red arrows..I was using this pic to show someone the location of the infamous rubber cowl drain tubes.
I've got a dozen more..need to find pics.

 

Needed a quick tool to align the oil pump so I could drop the distributor in........grabbed a handy piece of sched 40 sprinkler pipe, drilled and forced a brass nail thru and Bob's yer Uncle!

 

I really like this. Cool idea


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Tech week already?

I love the simple ones that everyone can do!

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a couple more....sorry, not traditional by any means, but the "thinking outside the box" theme is there... I used stainless sink drains for the outer ring on my back seat cup holders. The cup holders themselves are chrome Bed Bath and Beyond bathroom cotton ball jars.
The main framework for my console is from a porch swing.
I used a gate hinge on my gas pedal. I have 3/8 padding under the carpet, so the thickness was no problem. (I needed a cable throttle control, but wanted a more traditional floor pedal...thus the "different" linkage setup) This was the trial fitting, I had not cut the pocket in the carpet and padding yet in this pic.

 

Love this kind of stuff. It's why I never throw anything away. I can't count the number of times I've pulled some piece of 40 year old scrap out of my stash to solve the problem of the day. The heavy seat-belt floor mounts make good brackets for engine mounted stuff and they are shinny.

 

Speaking of seats...I used Unistrut from Lowe's for my seat tracks. Unistrut is a very heavy duty channel used by electricians and heat/air folks to hang heavy equiptment. All the angles, tee-nuts and hardware made for it are very heavy duty, and cheap. It's available in at least two different widths, and you could always tack weld a few together for added height if needed. I used my original oem mounting holes to mount the track, then the angle pieces to get it to match up to the seat's track.

 

Made the shifter in my coupe with the original 5 spd base, a piece of metal tube I found in the parking lot at Home Depot, and part of a model A shifter that I cut and re-threaded for a 5 spd knob. I love walking around hardware stores and having the clerk ask" Can I help you find something?"and answering"No thanks; I won't know what it is till I see it." They give you really funny looks!Great thread- way to go HRP.

 

X3

 

I know that feeling well. But I start in the garage. Walking around. Looking on shelves, in drawers, boxes, etc. waiting for the solution to jump out at me.

I nothing comes of it I'll continue at the store. Figure something out every time.

 

What a great thread!! Thanks for starting this one HRP. And thanks to all that show their ingenuity. This ones giving us pack-rats justification for ways. LOL

 

Thanks everyone. Now when my wife asks why I keep all that junk I have another excuse.
Also, ya ever notice after you throw away that crap you've been falling over for years you find something you could have used it for.

 

I know you traditional guys probably don't have any metric tools in your boxes, but sooner or later.... you're gonna run into trying to mate up metric engine components to sae products. I ran into that with the heater inlet/outlet from the engine. My solution came in the form of heavy duty shrink tubing..this stuff is about .02 wall thickness, adding about .04 to a tube dia.
While your shopping the isles of Lowe's, swing by the tool dept and pick up a bottle of DuPont liquid teflon. This is a teflon powder suspended in alcohol...great for freeing up old sticky cables, like hood release cables, heater cables, w. wiper cables, ect. Just get the cable in a vertical position and drip the fluid thru it till it starts coming out the other end. After the alcohol evaporates, it leaves the teflon coating....works great.

 

A sink strainer basket made a pretty decent trim ring for the gas filler in the bed of my truck.

 

This is not a household item but I found this at the upholstery supply when I was buying the material for the wagon.

I needed something to clean up the line between the vinyl on the door panel and the carpet.

This is aluminum trim for a the landau tops,but it works great for my purpose,,most people think it's factory interior trim. HRP

 

This is the last of the making usable parts out of junk.

The wagon didn't have pull straps for climbing in the back seat but did have provisions to make and add them so Dave whipped up a couple of straps.

With them made and in place they really looked unfinished so I started looking for some sort of cap and I found this piece at Brads North Georgia swap meet.





Believe it or not this is 1966 VW running board trim,,well a couple of inches of each end. HRP