This morning on the way to Brenda's shop I stopped at a yard sale and as I walked up to the table in the driveway I noticed a old homemade wooden box with a handle & latch, I suppose it was originally a tool box at one time, I am a sucker for old wooden boxes ,so I ask the price, the lady quickly replied 5 dollars, I didn't try to get a better price and just handed her the money. As I picked it up I realized it was much heaver than just a wooden box, I sit it on the edge of the table and opened it up and found a bunch of tools inside, I got her attention and told her about the tools, she said the go with the box. I got to thinking, lets have a 5 dollar challenge, be it tools or part's you scored at a swap meet or yard sale, lets see what 5 bucks will buy. HRP BTW, when I get home this afternoon I will post a couple of photo's of the box and it's contents. HRP
Got a two-window NOS (NIB) Delco distributor cap for for my 327/375 HP fuel injected SBC for $5 at Carlisle.......about 5 years ago.......but still a BARGAIN price!!
HRP, You're not serious, are you? I have a shop full of old car and truck parts, vintage machines, old metalworking and woodworking tools... One thing I can say with certainty...that is no matter what tools were acquired, my favorites are not the cheap ones, my cars are kinda like that also... Are you just interested in mostly cheap acquisitions? Those are always great tales to blurt out around the campfire, heh? I bought a Nichols Horizontal Mill on Ebay in the very early days. Back then people didn't really know how to list the stuff..., lots of stuff in wrong categories, starting bids low and increment low, etc...anyway, I was the only bidder on a Nichols mill and won it for $19.95. Not a bad deal, actually, 1200 lbs, so I'm calculating that at $0.17/lb. I did have to pay California sales tax, so that probably cost me a couple bucks extra... Anyway I like to go by tonnage as I'm a believer in "he who dies with the most iron, wins!", and it's so hard to weigh it all, I'll never know how much is there...LOL As a bonus, I can fabricate parts for my old cars and trucks! All that said, I'm $14.95 over topic on this thread!
I bought a ‘32 Commercial Car dash tunnel and instrument panel for .50 cents at a swap once but even better was the new, in the box, finned, 8” SBC damper I bought at a garage sale for $5. I ran the damper on my coupe for a while but then sold it to a ‘vette guy in 1983. I got $200 for it and bought a Fluidampr, I figured the steel hub on the Fluidamper was better with a blower. BTW, @TraditionalToolworks takes the cake for the best purchase. That one will be hard to top!
Bear in mind this was a long time ago, but .... One rainy, drizzling Sat. late afternoon a friend & I are driving around way out in the country drinking beer & doing radio in my '52 Chev coupe. He says we never been down this road. I said probably not, it's gravel ... he said it won't matter today, will it ... We come to a 90 at the end of the road that goes to the left, & there sits a '51 4dr Fleetline with every optional decoration they offered that year. Plates expired years ago. I put my jacket over my head & run to the door. Really nice granny lady answers, & I ask if I can buy it. She gets grampa to the door, & he asks me what I'd give for it, because the motor was no good .... I've got 2-3 bucks in my front pocket & nothing in the wallet. I didn't want to insult the folks, so I yelled for Marv, ask him for some $$. We ended up getting it for $6, & towed it about 10 miles home with a strap using the Powerglide as brakes.
Bought a complete dash with all gauges and a clock for a 50 Dodge at a swap meet for $5 just as it was closing. The guy didn't want to take it home. Have a friend that has dashboards hanging from the wall all the way around his shop, traded him the dash for a C4 transmission. He still has the dash hanging on the wall between a 49 Cad and a 36 Ford dash.
Couple of years ago I stopped at a yard sale and found a set of M/T valve covers for $5. But that isn't the good part, as I was leaving I saw a small pile outside that had a little sign that said FREE so I looked through it and found a box that had a torn apart holley carb. Parts is parts so I grabbed it. when I got it home I ran the numbers and it turned out to be from a '68 super cobra jet. my friend the Mustang guy gave me $600 for it as is
This is fresh from Sunday, bought at the swap meet, left over from a friend’s restoration- 1949 new yorker, I would call it driver quality.
Have posted this before, but since you asked: first pre-war swap at Chickasha, OK. Bought a "not-Ford" new old stock 2-barrel updraft carburetor (Zenith 105-DC) for a 1929 Stutz Blackhawk. Price was $1.00, so I got $4.00 change from your title. Jon
Sounds like you really scored, as for the acquiring cheap tools (I like to refer to my purchase as tools cheap ,actually free with the wooden box. There is a heavy made gear puller, several craftsman screwdrivers & assorted Craftsman sockets, a whit stone, vice grips, folding bow saw and various other odds and ends, all this was a bonus. HRP
Went to an estate auction that had a house, guest house, out building and a two story garage full of nice stuff. Everything that was not marked was a dollar. We got some great signs, tools, gauges, shop manuals, gas tank, distributors, and a nice set of early Ford tail lights all for a buck a piece. I went back the next day and bought all the metal stock that I didn’t see the first time up in the rafters. Ten foot angle, flat and round. I think that there was just so much stuff they got tired of pricing. That was a good day.
I used to never stop for yard sales, now whenever i see one or a sign for one, I always give it a browse. Never realized the cool stuff you could find, especially for cheap, havent found anything especially cool yet, other than a really old combination opener
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