What was the hardest single part of your hot rod to find??

Time is the only thing stopping me

 

like everyone else.....money......but finding a steel topolino eluded me for 20 years....either to far gone or too pricey...then mine find me....

part wise i thought it would be the roof that was hacked out..spent a year and a half trying to find someone to make one... i kept striking out on that..then suddenly, i find a whole roof....

so i guess it still comes back to money......

 

.............Time............

 

My dad sold his '50 Willy's truck with the Stamped "W" tailgate to an old highschool buddy cheap because he thought he would restore it. Then the guy resold it a very short time later. Oh well.

 

A small piston I made into a Gear Knob.(I know, it's been done to death, but, if it's good enough for Milner's Coupe, It's good enough for my 31.)
I put it away in a safe spot in the Garage, until I found a Car to put it on. That was about 4 years ago. I still can't find the bloody thing.

 

I've been looking for 6 years for a pair of these (tail light - '55 Mercury WAGON):

 

The '59 Pontiac Bonneville brake lights that I have in my '60. Paid good money for them on evilbay and then spent a couple hundred more having them rechromed.
Now I'm hunting for nicer lenses for them, which is harder than finding the housing themselves since apparantly they cracked even when new.

 

Took me 11 years to find a set of Canadian flattie heads... then I found 2 sets back-to-back.

 

A decent set of 34 truck doors and latches that aren't thrashed.

 

The Roller cam for my DeSoto Hemi...then figuring out what lifters to retro fit...

 

Money, then time to do the work.

 

Running boards and rear fenders for a 36 Ford pickup that are not fiberglass or repoped. 75 years ago a pickup was a tool and not many survived the hard work they were subject to.

 

Inside window trim.

 

Door latches for 48-52 pickups and trucks.

Every truck out there needs them replaced and nobody so far is re-popping them.

 

34 pontiac hood sides........still lookin

 

An early-style, straight stack Hilborn for a Chrysler Hemi. This one was cast in 1959. (thanks to howardt on the HAMB for selling it to me!)

Hopefully I can get it to run worth a damn...

 

ya jogged my memory.every time i see ya post i think "blown hemi"....maybe cause i want to forget,,,,,i passed on a blower manifold for my 325/315 dodge hemi..under $700 new, never installed...i guess i can keep telling myself ya didn't have the cash...and ya wasn't smart enough to know then that high deck dodge intakes are few and far between....i also passed on a set of nos finned polished valve covers...and a block crank and other goodies for $600 ...this stuff was on the wet coast...and again, i figured not enough funds for the project back then, moneies needed elsewhere in the build ..again i thought at the time i'll get some later...and again i didn't realise how rare parts are for my dodge hemi....cool part about the valve covers, they had the fins and finned plug covers, but also had been cast to use with the upper driver's side gen location..covers were cast for fitting right around it.....


now i set and wait...and wait...and wait....

what can i say, i'm trying to come up with what every one else DOESN'T HAVE........

 

Took me 25 years to find a nos hood ornament...

 

Crank pulley for a SBC with a 3-71 and Cragar drive.

 

The two P's - patience and persistence.

 

Toss up between Time & money.

 

motivation and experience

 

i had a 53 WO 4wheel drive..had all the trim ..sbc and turbo 400 i stuffed in it with a 2.5-1 transfer...had the painted white grill bars..53 being a v'ed grill..found a set that was chrome and cherry...took forever to find them..still have them, truck long gone...one day i'll list them to go ...

 

Roto-flo lever shocks.
Many many years to find those suckers. Got a full set at Portland swap this year, took a flight from Australia to that swap to find them though :/

 

Like the one below on my coupe? Seen sets on evilbay for 1000$. My set was a freebie from a good friend. They don't fit stock model A(s) with fenders just so you know.-Weeks

 

1929 Nash anything. Headlights, door handles, steering wheel, etc... Finally got lucky on an original set of headlights with perfect chrome. Yes!

 

hardest part to find...the hot rod itself.

 

Still looking for a Blairs Speed Shop licence plate frame. The sand cast one with Blairs Speed Shop on the bottom and Pasadena on the top. Or any other one equally cool.


Anybody have anything of interest?

 

The TIME to work on it is the hardest for me!!!

 

That Willys tailgate is worth some bucks! Saw one go on ebay for over $800 a few weeks ago. I had a helluva time finding doors for a 24-27 Ford TT truck, ended up with 3 cabs to get a pair of doors.