Hot Rods Mixing & matching different junk yard parts

If your talking about down in Ellenwood ?

By the way, What part of Tenn. you from ?
was raised just south of Knoxville in a little spot called Fairview.

 

Yep, Ellenwood. Found him back in the 70s from the yellow pages. His ad said auto glass, large selection of older models. No shit. VW bugs from the very early 50s, the oldest Datsun I've ever seen, and tons of 40s and 50s stuff. I would go down and get Merc and Buick stuff every winter. His prices were great. Thought it was my personal Merc spot. I'd cut up one in March, leave parts on the roof, go back the next year, and the parts would still be there, where I left them. Lots of 50s cars with Ga Tech stickers, and peace signs, that looked like they were driven in, no body damage. If you ever went after Merc rear window sections, I'm the guy who got there first. All the 53 Buick trim a guy could want. I was going after some 50s Olds stuff one year, called ahead as a courtesy, and his son told he was gone and the crusher was there. I asked if I could come down, he said too late. When I started going, it was a shitty gravel road with nothing around. Every year civilization got closer. The road got paved, and the subdivisions got real close. The last time I went, you could see the tops of houses from his gates. His many acres were getting more and more isolated. David told me he'd been offered millions for the timber, and might sell "one day". I remember asking when, he said don't worry, no time soon.
I'm in Oak Ridge.

 

The trips where I didn't have to get back so quick, I'd stop at Old Car City on the way up 75. Difference in how they ran their yards was night and day. I bought stuff from OCC a few times, but David's yard was better, and he was better to deal with, too.

 

I still prefer to build stuff that way...or maybe my budget dictates the only way I can afford it. I am still also big on buying a parts vehicle if possible when building anything since that seems cheaper than buying all the individual stuff needed.

 

Yes its all I can afford, I like making parts work.

 

Love that Barracuda in the background.

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I like your off topic! Would like to see it... I got some Cummins projects in the fire too.

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It sucks that his kids didn't appreciate what their dad had built up for them...

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Most everything on this Model A pickup came from the junk yard, the vinyl upholstery and glass are the exceptions. HRP

 

I remember combing through old hot rod books to find what fit what and heading out to the junk yard in search of parts. This of course was back when magazines would tell you what was used and have" how to" sections. Nowadays most magazines want you to buy from their advertisers and most don't list these things anymore. I remember Street Rodder started a pattern page for hidden hinges, panhard brackets, etc... and wasn't featured very long. Best wealth of things was from the old guys at the time. Bunch of the guys I've hung with for thirty plus years were at a cruise night a while back and looked around and realised we are the old guys now!

 

Come on now, don't you find it helpful when the magazines save you time by telling you what and how to modify things so the new "bolt on" kit will fit and function.
Built my frame from remembrances of a HRM article. (Tex Smith and the XR6, I believe.) Layed out on the floor with chalk, leveled on cinder blocks with shingle shims, and measurements checked and rechecked a hundred times while tacking, then welding it up. Another magazine had a dimensioned diagram of the caliper bracket to adapt 122S Volvo disc brakes to Ford spindles. Way back a lot of guys were building stuff with no more than a set of end wrenches, hacksaw, hammer, and a drill. Access to a buzz box and a set of torches was Nirvana.
I think what precipitated the end of how to articles was the first guy who discovered he could blame his stupidity on someone else. Legal looked at it and everyone in corporate's asshole puckered. Can't really blame them, they didn't want stupid owning the magazine.
I don't know what you guys in business, especially the ones building cars, are paying for insurance, but I'll bet a family moving north could probably live quite well on it.

 

A lot of truth to the old magazines like Tex Smith published and the hands on articles he punished.

Many of us were building cars before all the magazines where full of advertising. HRP

 

Danny, have you been out to Moores yard lately, I pick up a 9 inch axle today.

 

This thread reminds me of reading The Hot Rodder's Bible, which outlines this method in detail. That was one of the first things I read when I decided to get into building hot rods and away from musclecars and late model stuff. This, only being about ten years ago, meant that in my area, it already wasn't as viable of an approach as it once was, with most of the pick-a-part yards having closed up, scrapped out, turned into condos, or just gone inventory based "recycler" format. Also, what few yards of any type that were still around (most have since vanished) didn't keep anything older than the 80's and half or more was import stuff. That book seems to be out of print now.



A few years ago, I was told a story about a huge junkyard up in NH that was chock full of antique cars and parts which, when steel was insanely high, was "leased out" to someone, which gave them rights to everything there. This guy shredded everything in the yard for scrap without a second thought.

I'm sad that I never really got to play around in the old junkyards. I've had to find everything from online forums like the HAMB or CL, eBay, speed shops around the country like So-Cal, and yes, Speedway, and, thankfully, Alliance Vendors and Swap Meets.

 

It's funny you talk of legal issues as I seem to remember an article in one of my magazines in the eighties about a legendary customizer chopping a merc and was doing it step by step for the magazine over the course of a few issues. They abruptly stopped in the middle of the process due to some legal issue that seemed to arise. I often wondered what happened.

 

Best junk yard piece I ever got never quite got to the junk yard. In the 70's, a guy down the street from me had a 68/69 Chevie sedan, TERRIBLE vibration at low speed, pretty much went away at higher rpm. He was done with the car. Asked to borrow a tow dolly to get it to the yard. I knew the engine was a 327, so I told him I'd give him $20 bucks and come pick it up. DEAL!! Drove it home. Sure did shake at low speed. A couple of weeks later, I get around to pulling the engine. Drain the radiator and pull it and I notice 2 blades missing on the clutch fan---REALLY??----I put the battery back in, pulled the fan and pulley and started it up. It ran so smooth you could have put full glass of water on the air cleaner!! I used that engine in a project car for 5 years until I sold it. Never did a thing to the engine except a rattle can cleanup. It sure worked for me!! Bill Rinaldi

 

Not really a street car, but that's the way most all dirt cars were build back before the jig built cars started taking over. One of ours was a '56 ford frame, wheelbase shortened for a Falcon body. Three quarter ton truck rear end. Honeycomb radiator out of a Dodge truck, Chrysler leaf springs in the rear. Front springs from a 64 Galaxy wagon. First year was a 240 Ford six, the next it had a 289 Ford motor. I was just a kid, that's about all i can remember, but most of it was just made to fit after that.
Most of the old junk yards were hot, weeds three feet high and covered in 'skeeters and wasps. You had to dig to get those treasures.

 

For my Henry J in HS I took the Ford built IFS, (yes, Kaiser used Ford front ends) cut off the spindle stubs and used AMC Ambassador bolt on spindles and disk brakes. I was told it was done a lot in the 70s and never saw a tech article about it until 20 years later in an old Rod Action I picked up. Rear end was a Dana out of a Volvo, 4 bar and disks. It was setup up like the red one Scott Sullivan built a few years back, low and not gasser style. All I could afford and build as a teenager.