History Have you ever thrown away parts that you thought were worthless?

But later on you found out the old adage holds some truth, " one mans junk is another man's treasure?"

I suppose this as a common occurrence before the internet.

In the early 70's I had a '65 Dodge A-100 with a 273 V8 and automatic transmission, it had all the appointments needed during the van craze but I wanted better seating so a pair of Mach I buckets replaced the original A-100 bucket seat.

I stored the original seats in the storage room but a few years later I was cleaning up the mess and needed additional so I saw no need to hang on to these old seats and hauled them to the dump.

A while back I was made aware that the guys building Thunderbolt clones were searching high and low for the A-100 seats which supposedly used in the '64 Fairlane Thunderbolts.

I don't have a clue as to what they go for but I bet the ones I threw in the dump would have made somebody happy. HRP

 

I scrapped several cars in the 80's that I got for free or for well under 100 bucks that would sell for 3/4K in the same condition I got them in now. They were just parts donors then.,

 

Crap,I was trying to forget about doing that !!!!

And then too ,I have hunted for days an weeks for something I know I had,but likely forgot about giving away. I must of put it in a safe place<safe from me!!

 

My first high school car in 1966, a '57 Chevrolet 150 2 door post. A friend of my dad's gave it to me to get it out of his yard. I got the 6 cylinder running on the first day after I drug it home. The car had fender skirts and a sun visor that all got removed immediately. I put them up in my dad's garage. About a year later, he got on a cleaning kick and told me to get rid of the junk in the garage. I watched the skirts and sun visor get bulldozed into the ground at the local city dump.....

 

^^^^^ Ouch!

 

I remember talking with a guy in the classic Chevy club and he was looking foe a bench seat for his car, he had a standing offer of a grand and someone finally found him one. HRP

 

I *thought* I tossed a factory DeSoto dual quad intake; it got found.

 

I’ve trashed good parts before knowing they were good parts but didn’t have a way to transport or store them and after months of trying to sell no bites. Is what it is.

 

That's what the previous owner of Taboo did in the 90s redo of the car. Pulled the stock 2 dr bench seat out and hauled it to the dump.

Tossed quite a few cast iron intakes for small block chevy's not thinking they were worth anything till I spotted some at swap meet and saw what they were asking for them. Same thing with exhaust manifolds.

My grandpa jokes about all the stock multi carb air cleaners he threw away back in the day. 348 tri power air cleaners, bat wings, even just stock small block snorkel air cleaners all tossed in the trash.

 

Yea, bench seats out of tri-five Chevy's are nuts anymore...I don't remember ever pitching one of those...just one out of a Chevelle I built years ago that was probably also rare... I know I have thrown away lots of parts that later became worth alot or I needed shortly after. But, I also have WAY too much crap that I haven't thrown away because of the few times I did and wished I wouldn't have...

 

Just before I got drafted in 1971 I had an o/t 1950 mgtd that the PO installed a flathead 60, trans and cut down closed drive shaft rear end. I replaced the Ford running gear with running gear from a wrecked MGA. While I was in Basic Training my dad had someone haul the running 60, trans, and rear end to the dump. I guess they are living the good life with all the exhaust manifolds that got replaced with headers, factory air cleaners that were discarded in favor of Cal Custom ones, and hub caps that were replaced with mags. If only we knew then what the stock stuff would be worth now.

 

I tossed the factory air pump on my '69 Javelin SST. I still feel good about that.

 

Story of my life.

 

Didn't so much throw away - more like giving it away. Late '60s until the '90s, I'd give shiny flathead stuff to the Ford guys, because "I'm a Chevy 6 guy" ....

 

I never throw away anything but I have given away lots of stuff, including 32 Ford parts that I no longer wanted to use at the time and now wish I had back.

 

I have done that plenty of times as the most mundane parts after a long enough time, become valuable. But this story is about a friend of mine. It is set in the early 70's. My buddy had found a complete early Mopar 413 Sonic Ram that he wanted to freshen up to replace the 383 in his Belvedere. He was still living with his parents and had the disassembled engine components in their 1 car garage. As Fall rolled around, his dad told him to get that junk out of there so he could park in the garage for the winter. He put the block, crank and heads in the trunk of his car where it stayed until the following Spring when he threw those away. The complete intake, carbs, air cleaners and linkage he hauled to a local scrap yard thinking he could get a few dollars for the scrap value of the aluminum. It was Saturday and they were closed, so he just tossed them over the fence and drove away. For those who are unaware, here is what they look like.

 

I never did throw stuff away . There in lies my situation now trying to simplify.​

 

well, if we hadn't of trashed all that good stuff back then, it wouldn't be worth so much today, would it?

Because of me, there's a 59 chevy truck bench seat and rear bumper in a dump west of Tucson...happy digging

 

Worst case. Saved a part to use later. Nope. So then I tried to sell it. No joy. So I tossed it. Now I need it again.

 

64-65 My Dad gave all my flat head stuff and a nice T coupe to the junk man--gave me $40 he got. Oh well.
Late 60's got rid of a bunch of Chevy stuff stored at my folks ranch. Couple of sets of 997 heads-big bucks now.

 

That story made me cry.

 

Who hasn't? Far too many to even count and admit too.

 

Me too....I would love that setup for the ‘64 convertible


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

didn't throw away exactly - but, prices that I sold cars for long ago was like throwing them away compared to today's prices ^^ oldscrounger's comment above reminds me that my Dad paid a auto wrecker to haul away a complete '56 Ford with 312

 

When I bought my '32 Ford pickup for a hundred bucks, it had a nailhead with the Buick 3 speed standard trans and Buick rear end. I scrapped that junk pronto so I could drop a SBC in it.

 

I've been following your thread and something like that would be great for you ride.

 

Geez, when I was eighteen we moved, 1970. Left behind and or scrapped a mint 54 Bel Air hood with the ornament and emblem, a set of power pack heads, 283 block and crank, disassembled but complete 361 and complete Torqueflite. Early 70's I tossed a set of Pontiac eight lugs, nobody wanted those. Lost count of the Muncie parts, it was cheaper to buy a used one than trying to fix a broken one back then. Moved across the country, tossed a complete 322 Buick engine and a porcelain Buick dealership sign, thing had to be 12' tall, complete except for the neon tubing. Not even taking into consideration of the things I declined to take because I didn't have storage space, won't even get into that.

 

I was having a good day. Thanks for the downer post HRP. ☹️
Seriously,we all tossed good stuff. Get a big block Mopar, Chevy or Ford and the first thing to do was get the headers out on. Originals in the scrap bin. Who knew??

 

Just the opposite. Back in 1963 someone threw a Rochester FI unit, complete with distributor, in a trash can.....it was in terrific condition......pulled it out and ran it as-is on my '55 BelAir.

EDIT - I built a 283/315 long block to put under it.