Folks Of Interest What's the coolest thing you have found dumpster diving?

Local bowling alley was torn down in the early 1990's to build a Walgreen Drugs. I drove by at lunch and asked the track-hoe operator what's with the sign and I'd give him a couple hundred for it. He said get it down by the time he got back from lunch I could have it for free but after he got back it was going in the dumpster. Lucky I had some tools and a heavy duty extension cord with me to let it down off the roof. Lucite letters over neon.

 

O.K.....not really a dumpster dive, but I found this out in an orchard. This Pegasus was rolled up into a ball and laying in an orchard. A buddy of mine and I were there looking at some MoPaRs for sale and it was beside one of the cars. The owner said I could have it, so I brought it home, donned a pair of safety goggles and unbent it as best I could. Here is where it found the perfect place to be mounted....

 

In 1980 I took a friend to get a hood for his 32 chevy. It was on a farm on an old Chevrolet doddle bug. I walked up in the woods. And there was an old sink hole,that was used as a dump. I found a 37 Ford pedal car in it. I ask the farmer about it. He said hows $5 dollars sound. I built it for my daughter at the time. And I have used it for my kids and now for the grand kids. A photo from 1980 and my grandson now. Ron... now. Ron..

 

This is one of my favorite things I have found. Pulled it out of a pile of rubbish! I haven't taken a photo of my actual sign yet, but it's the same as the one in the photo. It was in a pile of old twisted up rain water tanks and wire! Also scored a couple of pairs of 1930's front fenders, two old coins and a radiator shell in the same area! It was fun!!!

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About 2-years ago our neighbor tossed out in the Wednesday trash several hundred dollars worth of extra large clear container tubs, the type that can hold and store just about anything in a garage. I got them all. I don't understand the logic and wisdom of throwing away something that is perfectly still good but they work great for me.

 

I had a friend who was a dumpster diving lunatic, nothing really car related, but he had a dark colored van, and to beat out the locals (he lived in Richmond, Ca at the time) he'd pull up to the lot where he wanted to look through, then key the mic off his PA from his CB...he said the bodies would scatter like cock roaches, then he'd swoop in.

My only decent score was a Budgit 1/2 electric hoist, back in the '80's...heavy SOB, didn't work, just "hummmed", my Dad said bring it by, he put a new start cap on it...been a workhorse ever since.

I remember checking prices on them just a few years back, new about 2K...all for a 10 dollar cap.

 

One autographed plaque of Dale Earnhardt Sr. I still have it.

 

My wife got a puppy once, thought she heard a baby cry and climbed in. Sam the golden retriever got another 7 years of good living.

 

At a yard sale just a few weeks ago picked up few good deals. a set of M/T valve covers, tools etc. on the way out I notice a pile of stuff with a FREE sign in front of it. there was a small box containing a complete disassembled holley carb, looked up the numbers when I got home and it is for a 69 super corbra jet. Sent it to holley for a complete refurb. Local mustang guy has offered $1200 for it when I get it back. I live in a college town and the kids throw out tons of stuff when they leave so I have dumpster dived a ton of good stuff for yrs. but rarely car stuff. This is by far my best pic ever.

 

Nothing car related, but the place I used to work the CEO would throw everything in the dumpster at work. Most of that stuff was still in very good condition, and he could have sold it or at the very least donated it. When I worked there I pulled out a Dyson vacuum cleaner, and a sthil backpack leaf blower. This was a $500 leaf blower that needed about $5 worth of new fuel lines to get it working again. I fixed it up and sold it for $300 and bought a two stage snowblower.

 

As a teenager (early 90's), our town had a spring cleanup. We would go around and grab every lawnmower. Carb cleaner, new gas and a plug was all most of them needed. Took a few weeks to sell them all.

 

Center steer rack & pinion from a 60s Porsche 911 for the gear on my Mysterion clone. Never have been able to find what Ed used on the original (doesn't look like an automotive R&P) but this is the perfect center steer gear. I am 100% sure Ed would have used it if it had been produced in '62 when he built the original.

 

This goes back some years but I had this neighbor that was a heavy equipment operator at the dump/land fill. I'm not sure how the subject came up but a garbage truck driver he knew had scored a jukebox, kept it on his enclosed porch a few months and now wanted to get rid of it. I got the phone number, address, etc. and went to check it out and sure enough, it was a Wurlitzer Model 1015, 78rpm, bubbler. One of the plastic pieces was cracked and it needed a bit of linkage for the record changer to work but otherwise, it worked. I paid him $50 and carted it home.

Just a short time before this, my dad was packing up to move to Florida and he offered me 2 or 3 boxes full of 78's, about 50 pounds worth, he had saved from the time he owned a honky tonk back in the late 40's, early 50's. The timing was off off for me, I didn't have the use or see the need and he had to dump them in the trash. (This was around 1970 when there were still more hoarders than there were collectors.) They say "Timing is everything".

Chapter 2: My wife's son's first major job was manager of a waste transfer station in Houston, where the garbage trucks dumped their loads to be reloaded into bigger trucks for the landfill, later. He was constantly finding worthwhile stuff such as a genuine oriental rug. Another time, a box full of about 50 various bottles of perfume, all full but missing the individual cartons. Probably worth a couple thousand dollars. He had to get choosy to keep from bringing stuff home all the time.

Though I wasn't a dumpor or a dumpee, I was a beneficiary of those activities.

 

In the eighties I was a mechanic at the motor pool on the Fed Center. When the honchos would do a walk thru, like a military I G inspection, things had to be lookin real good. We had a bin full of take off bumpers from installing winches on new trucks. The boss had two guys load up a 3/4 ton truck with a load of them. Haul them to the landfill & dump them. The guys in the truck ahead of them took a look & asked "whats up", when told that they are throw aways, they dumped their stuff very fast & backed up to the truck load. the bumpers never hit the ground.

 

My Dad found this Model A fan shroud in a garbage pile at an abandoned Farm , so I put it to use on my 29 Business Coupe

 

Not car related but funny. Friend worked at a landfill and would bring things home. Came home with a new tread mill in the box. put it together while his wife was at work and it did not work properly. He put it back in the box. His wife comes home and tells him to put it back together, that he must have done something wrong.. He puts it back together and it throws him off breaking his wrist.

 

Was at local my local golf course hitting balls and they were remodeling the clubhouse. When I came out there were 2 large framed prints leaning against the dumpster. I assumed they were junk and went home, but something kept gnawing at me, thinking such large frames might be worth something. I went back 6 hours later and they were still there. Loaded 'em up and leaned them against the garage. I'm no art expert, but they looked to be original paint with an artists signature. Goggled her name and found a local gallery that represented her, a noted pastel artist. They gave me her e-mail address...long story short their worth about $15,000. I would trade them for a 28-31 roadster if anyone is interested! Edit, I was sort of joking, but then I realized I really would trade for a complete car or just one for a Roadster body!

 

Not as cool as everybody else's, but used to go thru Harbour Freight dumpster every day.
The yoyo's working there cut, scratch, and gouge tons of stuff with those box cutters which in turn is
thrown away. Got a engine hoist that was missing the ram and turned it into a beautiful all steel cab cradle and roller for my 34 pu cab.

Then they began locking the dumpster.

 

When I worked at Sunnyvale Harley Davidson, a customer came in with a big smile. He told me to come to his house after work. He worked for one of the space industry contractors and his job was to clean up and haul scrap to scrapper. They had him haul off two truck loads of drills bits. Number, letters and size. He sold full sets for $15.00. He would take load to scraper and have them weigh it then take it home. He then would figure what scrap was worth by the pound and take cash to his boss who never knew. As i recall he paid boss about $50.00. I still use mine and wish I bought more.

 

About 10 years ago I was dropping a load of garbage off at our local dump, jumped out of the back of the truck after and I spotted a box of old toys, so I reached in and pulled them out, put the box behind the seat in the truck as we aren't supposed to take anything back out.

Got home and looked through it all, had a mint 1939 Lewis Marx lithograph train set, a couple Parker pens in their boxes, a half dozen mid 50s model kits, a set of 1954 Topps baseball cards, and other misc stuff. Someone must have cleaned out an attic. I sold off the train set for a couple hundred bucks, kept the rest.

 

Back in the early seventies a friend was at the wrecking yard to buy some fenders for a salvage car he was rebuilding and saw one of the yard hands dragging a brand new Bridgeport vertical mill complete with optics across the yard. They had bought it as truck crash salvage and were going to sell it as scrap. He was able to buy it for the scrap metal value.

 

Read the first line of your post and my first thought was, 'He found a Marx train set!" I was right. I collect Marx, mostly post war plastic 027. Have to set limit somewhere.

 

I think just about every rug is oriental now.....

 

Not from a dumpster, but from a few old rubbish dumps! Really fun few days of tin hunting!

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and a few more I have probably already shared

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Yes I have.

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Yard sales are usually baby clothes and womens purses so I rarely stop but when I do, I always ask if they have anything rusty. One snotty woman asked, "Why would I sell anything rusty?" Answer: Because you can get money!
Asking for rusty items has benefitted me several times

 

I found a dead cat once, it was as cool as a cucumber.

 

Did it taste the same?