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Hot Rods Have you ever broken a irreplaceable or hard to find part?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by HOTRODPRIMER, Dec 4, 2017.

  1. topher5150
    Joined: Feb 10, 2017
    Posts: 3,338

    topher5150
    Member

    Cleaning out all the car stuff from my dad's barn and on our last trip to metal dumpster I grabbed a couple sets of, what I thought were some old lanterns. I didn't realize until they left my hands that there was Ford logos on them..... Dummy you just threw away a perfectly good set of model t cowl lights
     
    HOTRODPRIMER likes this.
  2. I used to have a '64 Comet Caliente hardtop, factory 289/4 speed, bench seat. It had an optional headliner (only available on the Caliente hardtop, and only in '64) that was a 'hard' headliner; rather than bows, it had three 'hard' sections that were held in by three snap-on chrome plastic pieces that clipped over a 'rail'. Very rare, I only ever saw two other cars that had one. All three plastics on mine had some damage, so I started looking for replacements. All the aftermarket vendors told me to give up, just put in the standard headliner. I searched off and on for several years, no luck....

    My X and I went down to Roseburg, Oregon to visit her brother. Just for the hell of it, I got the local phone book out and called the local yards. 'Ya got any '64 comets?' I asked; answer was no until I got the very last listing, a yard in Winston. 'Oh yeah, we've got 4-5 of 'em.' 'I'll be right over!' and out the door I went. It was Comet heaven; this guy had 6 in the yard, in various stages of being stripped, but I scored a complete OEM radio with knobs and faceplate, half a dozen pieces of Caliente exterior side trim, three pairs of almost-impossible-to-find taillight lenses, a cherry fuel tank, two sets of factory seatbelts, a set of '64-Comet-only horns, and the piece de 'resistance, a cherry set of the plastic headliner trim. It was near-flawless, but was brittle as old plastic can get. I removed it carefully intact, I was thrilled! I carefully loaded all of the swag, paying particular attention to storing the headliner trim so it wouldn't get damaged. The X goes out later to get something out of the car, I tell her to be careful. She wasn't..... the trim slipped out of position and she closed the tailgate on all three pieces, breaking about 10" off each one....

    Never saw another set... ever....
     
    Drunk Man and HOTRODPRIMER like this.
  3. I had a friend in high school that had a '64 Caliente w/t the 289 & 4 speed,that was a nice car! HRP
     
  4. In high school, there was this gal named Bonnie that broke my heart. :oops:
     
  5. I had a crush on a Bonnie Sue in high school but that's as far as it went. HRP
     
  6. chopolds
    Joined: Oct 22, 2001
    Posts: 6,208

    chopolds
    Member
    from howell, nj
    1. Kustom Painters

    I modified a 1950 Chrysler grill to fit on my 47 Chevy. Got it done, sent it to Frankford to get plated. 3000$ later, it was sitting on top of a couple plastic garbage cans, with a board across it, getting assembled. Next morning, found it on the ground, with the bottom grill bar broken in 3 pieces. STILL looking for a replacement. Probably cost more than the whole grill to have the broken piece repaired (pot metal)
     
    HOTRODPRIMER and '51 Roadmaster like this.
  7. topher5150
    Joined: Feb 10, 2017
    Posts: 3,338

    topher5150
    Member

    every girl in high school broke my heart....except they didn't know it
     
    Texas57, Terrible80 and HOTRODPRIMER like this.
  8. '51 Roadmaster
    Joined: Aug 13, 2017
    Posts: 231

    '51 Roadmaster

    Yeah - the hood ornament for my '51 Buick! Finding one isn't too difficult - finding one that isn't deeply pitted, bent or gouged up that doesn't cost an arm and a leg - that is tricky!

    Not car related but still maddening - My grandfather was a paratrooper in the Luftwaffe in WW2 and left me his medals after he passed away. I researched his military history and shared my findings with the family at a get together. I thought it would be nice to pass the medals around. My Uncle's wife was looking at the paratrooper badge and dug her thumbnail into the gold plated eagle to 'see if it was solid gold' and flaked off the plating on the eagle's beak.....She didn't say a word and just passed it down the line.
     
    Corvette Fever and HOTRODPRIMER like this.
  9. Back in 1956 I had a 39 Plymouth That was rodded and all the glass was perfect . I was jacking up the car with a bumper jack and walked away for a minute when I heard the jack ratchet down ,as it went down the jack handle wrench went flying up as I watched, it came down right through the windshield .
     
  10. Back before this part was being reproduced, I was polishing the thin stainless oval trim ring that goes around the opening in a '32 Ford dashboard. I was not doing carefully enough and it ended up wrapped around the shaft of the buffing wheel. The worst part was that I had seen one at a swap meet the previous weekend, but had passed it up. Why would I need a spare?
     
    weps, HOTRODPRIMER and '51 Roadmaster like this.
  11. Oh man,I was buffing a piece of trim on the wagon and I too had the pad grab the piece and sling it across the shop,not a impossible piece of trim to find but it was a NOS piece and that was what hurt. HRP
     
  12. steel rebel
    Joined: Jun 14, 2006
    Posts: 3,604

    steel rebel
    Member Emeritus

    While installing the Cadillac tilt telescopic steering column in my plymouth I broke the turn signal switch. I knew I should have taken it off but "i would be careful" Famous last words. I then found that are made of unobtamium plastic.
    SANY0079.jpg
     
    HOTRODPRIMER likes this.
  13. vitamindart
    Joined: Jun 15, 2010
    Posts: 41

    vitamindart
    Member

    broke not one but Two 1966 Valiant rear glass. its a 1 year only piece...... first one was safely ( or so I thought ) tucked into the rafters. was sweeping up my mess from sand blasting when it started raining glass.
    the second, was just pulled out so I could do a proper paint job and set on the bench on some padding. as I am taping the car up I hear " click" and glass pours off the bench.......
     
  14. Atwater Mike
    Joined: May 31, 2002
    Posts: 11,625

    Atwater Mike
    Member

    <<<Golddigger>>>
     
  15. Two stories:
    My buddy and I were pressing a new bearing race into a 9 inch ford "Daytona" pinion bearing retainer with the press where he worked and it was going pretty hard....POP! Little pieces of cast steel flew all over the shop. I was able to find an aluminum aftermarket retainer to replace it.
    The local chrome shop guy use to do chrome work for our shop and I got to be good friends with him. One day he comes to me as says he'll do any chrome work I want for my 72 C-10 stepside if I can find him a 49 Olds 98 [only] upper grille bar...the mustache... He'd broken a customer's part during buffing. It just happened I'd been to a local junk yard the previous week and seen one with a tag on it, on a shelf.
    I bought it and teased the shit out of him for about 10 minutes before I showed it to him. I got a whole bunch of my pickup parts chromed for that mustache.
     
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  16. toml24
    Joined: Sep 23, 2009
    Posts: 1,620

    toml24
    Member

    I once loaned a irreplaceable vintage jalopy rule book to a person I meet at a car show. He was an older gentleman who wanted to build street version of a track jalopy. I loaned the book to a good person. Weeks turned into months and then into years. No contact. So I called his phone and a family member answered. I heard words that said "Uncle Buck passed away a year ago and we tossed out all his car stuff". The rule book was in fact loaded to me and now I can't ever give it back to the original owner. The people on the phone did not give a shit. What could I do? It was a very sad day for me.
     
    Drunk Man likes this.
  17. jimmy six
    Joined: Mar 21, 2006
    Posts: 14,795

    jimmy six
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    A machinist at work was restoring a 37 Packard formal sedan and the chrome shop lost a visor holder mount. It took him 4 months to make the identical but reverse of the one he had from stainless. It ended up looking so much better than the chrome one he made another one to match.
    After the car was sold it was invited to Pebble Beach. The new owner campaigned it where the restorer wouldn't.
     
  18. The Judges probably never noticed they were stainless instead of chrome plated. HRP
     
  19. DDDenny
    Joined: Feb 6, 2015
    Posts: 19,137

    DDDenny
    Member
    from oregon

    A friend had a 64 convertible, reeely hard to find parts.
     
  20. Dreddybear
    Joined: Mar 31, 2007
    Posts: 6,084

    Dreddybear
    Member

    Cracked one of these babies mounting them to my car. Finding another one was fun. I ended up buying a whole other set that had an extra just to get the extra, then sold the set after. Should kept it now that I think about it. I still have the first set though, it'll go on something rad someday.
    taillens002.jpg
     
  21. Dreddybear
    Joined: Mar 31, 2007
    Posts: 6,084

    Dreddybear
    Member

    Here they were on the car. Now that it's painted it has 53 Buick lights, they fit the style a little better. Loved these though.
    2F914CC0-A6BE-4ADC-8609-5253219AD2DD_zpsbvubaxw5.jpg
     
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  22. nochop
    Joined: Nov 13, 2005
    Posts: 3,818

    nochop
    Member
    from norcal

    IMG_0883.jpg Not something I broke, but fits in here ( delete if not suitable). Around '95 or so I had a young (10yo or so) kid stripe my deck lid at CHRR. (Bakersfield). Now I want to finish my car and am going to remove the pinstripes. My thought is what if this kid got famous and I destroyed a work of art, oh well.........any body want to trade deck lids? (jk)
     
  23. texasred
    Joined: Dec 3, 2008
    Posts: 1,202

    texasred
    Member
    from Houston

    If he did that at10yr old and he is still dragging brush I'm sure somebody knows who he is..
     
    nochop likes this.
  24. dirt car
    Joined: Jun 26, 2010
    Posts: 1,045

    dirt car
    Member
    from nebraska

    While backing my 55 Nomad out of the garage my unlatched drivers door caught the over head door casement breaking the left door die cast moulding.
     
    nochop likes this.
  25. I invoke the Fifth Amendment .
     
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  26. jnaki
    Joined: Jan 1, 2015
    Posts: 9,291

    jnaki

    Hello,

    In 1961, I had a 40 Ford Sedan Delivery as my daily driver/ surf transportation. The Flathead powered, sedan delivery was as slow as molasses, but was reliable enough to get me to our favorite surf spots all up and down the coast without any huge mechanical issues. (recycled oil not counting) This delivery had a stock look, was easy to maintain, and had lots of room in the back.


    One day, one of my teenage friends was going to lift the hood up to get it ready for the biweekly dose of recycled oil, for a surf trip down Coast Highway 1 to Laguna Beach and San Clemente…a round trip of at least 4+ hours and 100 miles. He grabbed the hood latch and jerked the hood up by the latch.

    Instantly, he snapped the shiny lever off and the hood dropped back down to its resting place. We were all surprised at this turn of events, but with large pliers, the latch could still be opened and the hood could be raised for service. A faulty part or constant opening and closing because of the numerous times of adding oil? Or…teenage power and improper technique?
    upload_2017-12-13_3-35-36.png
    upload_2017-12-13_3-35-56.png
    It wasn’t a hard to find replaceable part as early Ford parts stores had them, but the cost and the drive to get there/back seemed a little far. Mail order then was virtually non-existent other than Honest Charley, but since the hood did open with minor adjustments, (and lack of funds) we drove the sedan delivery like normal teenagers.

    Jnaki

    Finally, we were able to find one at one of the local swap meets. Back then, the swap meets did have new old stock (N.O.S.), as well as old crusty parts. So, it was replaced and looked as good as new. From that point on, I was the only one that raised and lowered the 40 Ford Sedan Delivery hood. No more searches for the part(s) and no more hard earned (teenage) cash spent for broken parts.
     
    Gotgas and Corvette Fever like this.
  27. Corvette Fever
    Joined: Feb 18, 2014
    Posts: 142

    Corvette Fever
    Member
    from Michigan

    30 Year’s ago I bought a pretty nice 39 standard Ford. One of the few items that needed attention were the rear fenders...a friend of mine had a NOS pair in his attic he had for 20 years...they were still wrapped and perfect.
    Looking for the perfect place to store my new find, I decided that I would put them under the rear of the car until needed.( you know where this is headed don’t you)
    After installing the 53 Merc engine with tri power and headers me and my buddy just had to take the open header Ford for its maiden voyage....
    Got both of the the lowered rear axel.
    Of course since I had new rear fenders I had thrown the repairable originals away, the backed over nos weren’t repairable


    .


    Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
     
  28. On an OT 67 series 1-1/2 jag e-type

    Doing some underdash work went for lunch and came back to a God awful smell of burnt hair!!

    Left the old incandescent trouble light on and it melted the carpet on the right side !!!

    Rule in the shop after that was fluorescent light only !!!!!
     
    olscrounger likes this.
  29. ceege
    Joined: Jul 4, 2017
    Posts: 204

    ceege
    Member
    from NW MT

    1969 I fell 10 feet flat on my belly. Ruptured spleen. Never did find a replacement.
    Don't really miss it much.
     
    czuch likes this.
  30. Yes the brass y banjo fitting on the brake master cylinder of my 51 Hudson. Actually I stripped the threads out. All of the ones I could find were larger than the one Hudson used.

    Sent from my A520L using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     

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