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Motion Pictures What was the cheapest cool thing you’ve ever gotten?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Flogknaw, Dec 9, 2018.

  1. verno30
    Joined: Aug 25, 2008
    Posts: 1,148

    verno30
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    I have 3 that come to mind.

    A family friend gave me a '32 Ford "Banger" motor complete with a Thomas Intake, 2 -97's, and a Winfield Aluminum Head back in '03

    In '06 I was headed to an auction that had gotten canceled. While in the area, I knew of a guy that had a couple of Norton motorcycles he thought about selling. I went to his house, struck a deal, and proceeded to part them out for 10x my money.

    Finally, a body shop in town closed in the early 80's and was not re-opened for sale until 2014. I bought a NOS pair of 68-72 Nova Bumpers with the blue wax still on them for $150. Sold them the next day for $950 on eBay.

    The remainder (99.8%) of the deals I partake in have not been so lucrative. I guess even a blind dog finds a bone sometimes.
     
  2. Dave Mc
    Joined: Mar 8, 2011
    Posts: 2,576

    Dave Mc
    Member

    My Dad found this Original Model A Fan Shroud for my 29 Ford Coupe 4 cyl. it had been tossed into a debris pile at an abandoned farm in the Sierra foothills. Free is cheap as it gets
    IMG_0711.JPG
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2018
  3. cody ellingson
    Joined: Dec 28, 2017
    Posts: 76

    cody ellingson
    Member

    Just scored a running '69 327 with 461 camel hump heads and a rebuilt th350 for my 52 Styleline Deluxe - - $350! So far the motor looks clean to the point where somebody went through it and didn't put many miles on afterwards. Pulled it from a '55 Nomad that is getting an LS swap.
     
    Hollywood-East and Flogknaw like this.
  4. 2NDCHANCE
    Joined: Sep 11, 2007
    Posts: 997

    2NDCHANCE
    Member

    My daughter-in-law inherited the family farm with quite a few old cars on it. Sitting in the barn was this old Mustang GT that her Grandpa bought in 1980. I inquired but nothing happened. One day she called me and said meet me at the court house in 15 minutes. She gave me the Mustang but said it has to stay in the family. I can handle that. Her name and my name on the title. Grand kids love it already. So does the wife. BETHANDMUSTANG.jpg IMG_3659.jpeg
     
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  5. 2NDCHANCE
    Joined: Sep 11, 2007
    Posts: 997

    2NDCHANCE
    Member

    Later I found out a classmates brother owned it in the 1970's and that Dale Boesch (famous car builder from Humphrey Ne.) painted it green in 1970 so it would not sell at his family's auto business. He's the 2018 NSRA builder of the year. He really would like to have the car back. A 225 h.p. 289 can get you into trouble with the cops if you let it. Nowdays everybody wants 1000 h.p.....
     
    mkebaird likes this.
  6. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,753

    Deuces

    Was there an fe Cammer in the shed also????
     
  7. flyboy89
    Joined: Oct 6, 2010
    Posts: 442

    flyboy89
    Member
    from So. Cal.

    For triple D. A few pictures from my driveway and in the garage. The ‘54 next to it and the ‘41 pickup in the driveway.
     

    Attached Files:

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  8. DDDenny
    Joined: Feb 6, 2015
    Posts: 19,142

    DDDenny
    Member
    from oregon

    Very cool, thanks.
     
    Deuces likes this.
  9. flyin-t
    Joined: Dec 29, 2004
    Posts: 1,421

    flyin-t
    Member

    Isky gave me this tag when I was a kid. My dad was putting a then near new 425 Olds in his '56 ford pickup and took me with him to get his cam, I think he bought a cam kit but I only remember the word "cam" being thrown around. I was probably 9 or 10 so that would have been '65 ish. I remember him pulling the engine out of a totaled brand new car that was in the junkyard on South st. in North Long Beach, very near where the Early Times clubhouse was for decades.

    fullsizeoutput_2c9e.jpeg
     
    Shamus, Deuces, Squablow and 2 others like this.
  10. Constructionbob
    Joined: Aug 28, 2011
    Posts: 94

    Constructionbob
    Member

    Got this one for 30$ at a local swapmeet.
    realscot.jpg scotreal.jpg
     
    wraymen, Rick Hegdahl, Deuces and 2 others like this.
  11. philo426
    Joined: Sep 20, 2007
    Posts: 2,097

    philo426
    Member

    It is a 66 not s 68 stang fastback.
     
  12. I'd be ashamed of what I picked up off the bulk trash curb.....and regretted selling.....
     
  13. Had this for probably 35 years but it was a pretty good deal at the time.
    Alexander OHV conversion for A/B banger. Still not on a running engine after much work. $200!
    IMG_2052.JPG
     
    flyin-t and Deuces like this.
  14. wackdaddy
    Joined: Nov 11, 2015
    Posts: 214

    wackdaddy
    Member

    A friend at work gave me a set of sbc offy staggered bolt valve covers that had been sitting on a shelf in his shop for years. Didn't look like they had ever been mounted :D IMG_1506.JPG
     
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  15. Dick Stevens
    Joined: Aug 7, 2012
    Posts: 3,710

    Dick Stevens
    Member

    That would have to be a Rochester fuel injection complete with the distributor off a 57 Belair that a used car dealer let me have in a straight across trade for a 2 barrel intake and distributor, although I had to pull it off myself! ;)
     
    belair and olscrounger like this.
  16. LilBlue82
    Joined: Dec 16, 2015
    Posts: 102

    LilBlue82

    Bought a 150 count cigar humidor for 100 bucks. A Baja Warrior Bike for 50 and a gibby Sg for 100

    Sent from my LG-M327 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     
  17. The cheapest coolest thing for me was a momento from my trip to Bonneville in 1999. I ran out of gas heading south from the bend. As I was walking to the gas station, I found this magnet laying in the ditch. I personally think it's pretty cool. And it has a funny story for my wife and me forever.
     

    Attached Files:

  18. A buddy and I stopped by a local farm auction for the helluvit on our way home from a swap meet. This rust free Willys pickup was for sale...had been a parts truck for another one. I bid $50 for fun and nobody else bid. I got it.
    Got it rolling with a 61 Pontiac rear axle and a "wavy" mopar front axle. Sold it to "Fiddy four" here on the HAMB and he swapped the axles and dropped a 430 Buick in it. 49jeep_pu.jpg 49JeepPU.jpg
     
    Flogknaw likes this.
  19. squirrel
    Joined: Sep 23, 2004
    Posts: 55,941

    squirrel
    Member

    I wonder what lucky sucker is going to buy this thing and sell the wheels.... :)

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/163763788488?ul_noapp=true
     
  20. jetnow1
    Joined: Jan 30, 2008
    Posts: 2,152

    jetnow1
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from CT
    1. A-D Truckers

    Too long ago I bought a 64 GTO Muncie m20 for 100 bucks, guy needed cash and I had it. Also bought
    a set of spindles for an early ford axle from a guy, he would not split up the axle so I bought the 32 axle
    and spindles for 100. Helped a coworker move some things from her apt when it was being redeveloped, when we got it all moved she asked me if I wanted her old vw. I opened the barn it was in
    it was a 64 Karman Guia, had 22,000 miles on it. Battery had died in it 5 years before, she parked it.
    I put a battery in it, got the frozen clutch freed and sold it for 2500. Still have the axle and 4 speed.
     
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  21. tubman
    Joined: May 16, 2007
    Posts: 6,914

    tubman
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    My vintage dirt modified. It was sitting in a farmers field pretty stripped down, but otherwise complete. The engine was missing, but the CAE in/out box, Frankland QuickChange, and the full floating hubs (with finned Buick drums) on all four corners were still there. It was definitely worth the $400 the guy was asking. Two years and several thousand dollars later, I had this :
    Thurmer Brothers #102.jpg

    A year or two later, I took it to a vintage race at Jackson Minnesota. It turns out the car had been built in Jackson and had been very successful. I even met one of the original builders of the car (The Thurmer Brothers), who gave me permission to use their original number, colors and lettering. Over the next several years, I found out how famous this car really was; ERTL even made a plastic model of it (not very accurate). Over the years, due to the generosity of some old time race fans, I have compiled a file folder over 2" thick filled with original race programs (with the results penciled in), newspaper articles, and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, including a "pin-back" button that served as a pass for the 1967 season at Jackson with a picture of the car on it. They used this car on the button as it was the track champion and "Minnesota State Stock Car Champion" in 1966. They had a different take on "stock cars" in those days.

    The only downside is that I put the hemi in it before I knew the history of the car. During it's heyday, it ran a highly modified 324 Olds Rocket. Not to worry, I have one of those stashed under the stairs in my shop.
     
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  22. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 18,828

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    bought a Bud Man stein at a yard sale for 5 bucks and got $300.00 on ebay. they sell for half that now.

    bbbbbb.jpg
     
    chevy57dude likes this.
  23. G V Gordon
    Joined: Oct 29, 2002
    Posts: 5,713

    G V Gordon
    Member
    from Enid OK

    '56 Cadillac Coupe de Ville for $65. Last sale of the day at an auction cold and in the rain.

    Sent from my SM-G920T using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     
  24. Pistol grip shifter out of an E body for $25 2 years ago at the Howard fairgrounds swap meet. Picked up a polished sbc Edelbrock tunnel ram with the single top and Holley carb from the same guy. I can't remember the price though, $50-70.
     
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  25. tubman
    Joined: May 16, 2007
    Posts: 6,914

    tubman
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Oh yeah, then there was the '54 New Yorker that supplied the engine for the dirt car (above). I was at the Chickasaw swap meet Halloween week end in 1991. The Chrysler ran excellently but didn't have any brakes. The guys who had it started at $1200 on Thursday, when it started to rain. Friday, when the rain had turned to sleet, they were down to $500. On Saturday, when it had changed to snow, they offered it to me for all the money I had on me. I had $29 in my billfold and they didn't want to take it home in that weather.

    Some day, I'll tell the tale of the trip from Oklahoma to Minnesota during the Halloween Blizzard of '91.
     
  26. maker
    Joined: Nov 19, 2019
    Posts: 6

    maker

    Best deal is equal to my biggest regret of things I have let go. My then girl friend and I visited her uncle, drove away in a completely stock 1952 Chevy 3100 with the title for 249.00.
    Sold it a few months later for 1100.00 ... dummy.
     
  27. As a kid in the late 60"s I scored free stuff a lot.A buddy pulled the 57 Chevy rearend out of his car,and put in a Pontiac.Mine if I took it.Another guy offered me a free model A frame.When I got to his house it already had a 4 inch rear kick up installed.Free if I would take it.I did.In the current century a 80 year old buddy was going through a life time of paper work he had saved ,and he discovered a 27 Ford coupe title for a car that got parted out in 1959! He gave it to me.Its in a state that doesn't do inspections if the cars been off the road a long time.All they want is money to reactivate...….
     
  28. Greg Rogers
    Joined: Oct 11, 2016
    Posts: 802

    Greg Rogers
    Member

    Went to a garage sale couple summers ago. Saw some Chevy orange off in the corner. The orange was a set of 327 valve covers and a 66 holley type cast iron intake, also on floor was a M-20 Muncie 4 speed. Asked seller about it and he said he thought trans was a 5 speed. I said I think its a 4 speed " Oh I don't know it was in my rod and I changed it over to a automatic". Anyway paid his price for all three items- $65.00! Sold the intake on Craigslist for $75. Sold the Muncie and valve covers at Hersey for $500. I'm not even a Chevy guy. My wife was semi-pissed at me for buying car parts when we were out with friends on a nice summer day and having to put them in the trunk of her car... Worked out well.
     
  29. MeanGene427
    Joined: Dec 15, 2010
    Posts: 2,307

    MeanGene427
    Member
    from Napa

    Got my first '62 Sunliner around '78, was helping a friend work on his '24 Dodge, when the guy across the street wandered over and announced he was getting divorced, pretty down in the dumps. He says hey, do you still have that '62 Ford (the 406 car)? Yep. C'mon over here. He opens his garage door, and there sits the Sunliner, white with the red, black and white striped interior, original hubcaps, duals, sweet. He says I need to sell this, want it? What do you want for it? He says if you get it out of here before my wife gets home, $25. Sure- but I don't know how quick I can get a trailer. Don't need one he says, reaches in and turns the key, and the 352 pops to life and just purrs. It was early June, and I can verify that you can fit at least 6 happy sunburned Daisy Duke'rs in a Sunliner in relative comfort on cruise night- or one in luxury at the drive-in
    This is my second one, an XL, just like the 406 car

    Croozer Twin.jpg
     
    catdad49 likes this.
  30. Boneyard51
    Joined: Dec 10, 2017
    Posts: 6,440

    Boneyard51
    Member

    Columbia rear end for $10.






    Bones
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2019

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