Hot Rods Building hot rods when you used the local junkyard for parts.

Replying to Ron's thread ," Cool cars built for under $10 grand ",I was reminded that most of my ideas were taken from magazines like Rod Acton and Rod & Custom.

I remember finding a datsun pickup truck , removing the bench seat and cutting out 12 inches to make it fit the tight confines of the truck.

I had such a tight fit for the steering joints and tried several before I found a Pinto flex shaft,it worked like a champ.

My cab was minus any window hardware,cut down Chevy truck window regulators were the answer.

Remember this is the early 70's and although there were a few people offering aftermarket parts I was building on a tight budget,a friend loaned me his Speedway catalog and I wanted a 4 bar rear axle set up.

I went back to the junkyard and spent most of the day removing 5 Chevy Caprice sway bars,I brought them home and cut one end off and used my granddad's pipe threading tools to install female rod ends and I used cardboard patterns for the bat wings and transferred those to 3/8" sheet metal,then used a fire wrench to cut the patterns followed up with several hours with a huge grinder,back breaking but satisfying.

One thing I had to save up to buy were the Koni coil over shocks.

All this was long before the internet and our car club was just getting started,i was going for the resto rod look. HRP

 

More builders need to spend more time in junkyards like we used to.

 

In building my F-100, I had to source a number of different parts from my local junkyard, including, but not limited to the original rear end and the current ‘88 Chevrolet truck bench seat. I’ve also been able to get what I call “incidental “ parts like hubcaps and such.


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I too used whatever was available to get it on the road.
Toyota radiator, junk yard fuse panel, switches and new wiring by hand. One wire at a time. Used 350 and 3 speed, junk yard seats, lots of brkts from semi trucks. Must 2 ifs .
I took my time and did it right. But it had whatever I could get my hands on for cheap or free.
Mid 80’s time period.

 

My 27 was built almost entirely from 2 yards in our area. The antique auto ranch, and harry mayes personal yard. This was done in 2003. Today I'm afraid this could not be done.

 

I sourced my car from a junk yard...


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What good would it do today? There is nothing in there but plastic front wheel drive 4 cylinder fart cars. I spent most of my teenage years in junkyards. Now days its just a waste of time unless you can find some out of the way yard where the owner doesn't crush the old stuff.

 

Checkbook rodding is not traditional.

 

Don,As a teenager & young adult I too was free to roam around and gather up the parts I needed but today with insurance cost the owners of the yards don't allow people to set foot in the yard for fear of someone tripping and suing them. HRP

 

I do miss spending a day getting parts in the junk yard. It has been at least 20 years since you were allowed in ours.

 

30 years ago junk yards was my major source of parts. back then you could actually find a Vega steering box. i'd look for a driveshaft the right length, or one that could be cut down. you could find `37-`48 ford spindles and F1/F100 brakes too. now they are all gone from the yards. fortunately i have a good stock pile of spindles

on my `28 tudor...which has been on the road 22 years....i copied Pete & Jakes front four bars , rear ladder bars, master cylinder mount , motor mounts , shock mounts, etc. cut down a driveshaft myself. junk yard seats from a Honda Civic

today, for me it's a new driveshaft and call Pete & Jakes ...the only junk yard part on my `30 coupe is a Dodge mini van middle seat

 

Back in the day there was no internet to source parts from. A junk yard was where we got our parts. We routinely scoured the local yards for engines, transmissions or other parts we needed. It was not unusual to see a wrecker back into my Grandpa's garage with an engine hanging from the hook. The local Chevrolet dealer was also there to provide 283 goodies from. We built a 55 Buick Special with a 364 Buick Roadmaster 315 HP engine and a big 37 Buick 3 speed floor shift that had many transmission problems. We used to take the gears out of a 48 Buick transmission that we paid $5.00 for.

Gary

 

Yes that is what we did in that time. But at that time there were several junk yards around here. No more. I can't cruise the junk yard if I wanted to anymore. Progress.

 

Most of my builds were from junkyard parts. That was all there was & all I could afford. Went back to my favorite yard in Denver a couple weeks ago. Nothing for my old rides, just all front wheel drives and mini vans. I miss the old days.

 

Don't forget the T body Ed Lloyd whipped up from a 90s Ford body panels

 

The days before the internet.
Computer, credit card, cardboard cutter that's how it's done now. that's the new way.

 

Got a pic?

 

LOL.. back in the day searching the salvage yards was the only way I could build a hot rod... A poor man has poor ways...

 

Here you go low budget

 

Ya it scripted like this: Hey Oly, Ya got a grill for a 53 chevy? Ya, down on the southwest corner just past the DeSotos next to the pile of hemis.

 

Times certainly have changed....being (73) years old I totally remember all the posts above about scouring thru the junk yards. Back when I was in high school you could drive in with your tools and take whatever you wanted, from little parts to engines etc. (they would provide the wrecker to lift them out)
Those days are unfortunately long gone...due to theft as well as liability... I recently went to one an hour or so away to look for some wheels...they would not let me walk thru cause I was wearing shorts.. Rolling eyes...
I can only get into one yard close to me now, and due to my back and leg problems as well as knowing them well from buying stuff, they will let me drive in to look around...when I do go, after looking for what I want, I do spend a lot of time "Cruising" before I find my way out

 

We do. But HAMB purity and all. You will not see it here. You need other boards for that.

 

Grew up in San Diego and there were half a dozen junk yards in the city limits back in the fifties. Land values, environmental concerns and liability issues have pretty much eliminated them in urban areas. Even out here in the country, there are not a lot of junk yards and those that are still in business generally are hard to deal with.

 

I built my ply in the 80's out of parts from junkyards.I kept track of what cars the parts came from.The list has 27 different cars which donated their parts.Must have used the right stuff because the car has been on the road for over 20 years with no problems.

 

Paneitz Salvage in Fairbury Nebraska. Late 60's early 70's, hauled complete 33 - 48 front ends out by the trailer load, disassembled them and sold the axles and 37-48 spindles to Speedway. Did the same with 57-59 Ford rear-ends only sold them privately. Also remember finding a 36 delivery, several 40 Fords and lots of other early cars that I bought and sold from there. Also a deuce grille and shell along with a really cherry 33 hood I found squirreled away in an old car. Was my source for Buick drums, bought and sold so many I lost track. Craziest find was a car packed full of 15 and 16 inch trim rings, filled my pu, Sold them along with the hood and lots of other old parts from this yard at the early 70's OKC NSRA event. Also was my source for Vega boxes when I started building chassis. I literally made my living out of that yard for many many years. Long gone now, just an old abandoned yard with all the 50's, 60's and 70's cars crushed..

 

Here the "Junkyard" is a myth. They have been exterminated by zoning. I have a local place but it is like Pic A Part. The cars have 90 days and the trucks do not last that long before they are crushed. All of the Farmer, Hoarder and Mechanic yards were cleared out 30 years ago by the local gov through fines on your property tax bill. If you did not clear the yard and paid the fines. They seized your land, cleared it and sold it at auction.

 

Junkyard,who could aford that?,,LOL in the 50s, The woods down the street had a number of old cars dumped in them an more then a few big lots with sawgrass as high as your head+ with dumped old cars hiding in there. All free for taking needed parts plus the scrap piles behind the two body shops a few miles away. Good thing there's not any photos of trying to balance car parts on my pedal bike pulling RadioFlyer wagon,from a number of trips,going home from the big game hunts. There was a time I would not of admitted the ways,my buddys an I removed some parts,Boyscout ax an BFH always in the satelbags with pipewrench,that all was more lbs then the bike,you know'all the high tech tools of us teens. Feel bad that city started towing off all the dumped old cars in the late 60s here in Miami Fl. Kids then had crap to pick from=ya it was cleaner,but not as helpfull to young teens getting a hotrod car habbit.

 

Junk yards were where the rich town guys got their parts. We grew up so far out in the poor end of the country, we scrounged through fields, thickets, back yards, friends of friends. The guy with a 283" in a '50 Ford was hotshirt; a 327" was beyond the dreams of avarice.

jack vines

 

Thanks, I remember something about this now, forgot the details tho.

 

I vividly remember when Brenda was driving home in the '54 Wagon and the front bearing froze and destroyed the front spindle,at that time in the mid 80's the yards were crushing everything in site and although I checked around no one had a spindle for the car.

my thought was put the car in the barn and someday in the future I would put a mustang II front suspension under the car.

A lot of time past and when I joined the hamb I decided yo build the wagon,I already had a deuce roadster & a 4 door deuce,,I also learned the internet is a valuable tool for finding parts and I found a spindle right here on the Hamb

I also found a lot of NOS parts and bought a lot of parts from Flat Top Bob in Wellington,Texas. HRP