Art & Inspiration non automotive parts you have used on your hot rod or custom

I've often shopped the local hardware store looking for truck parts. Here's one pic.
I used a 1 1/2' rigid electrical conduit 90 degree sweep for an upper radiator hose.
I also used some toilet seat hinge pieces as tailgate strap anchor points, numerous sizes of steel pipe for various things, PVC pipe and fittings for overflow tank, etc.

 

Used half a pair of worn out wire strippers for the turn signal handle in my avatar. Some people thought I had a Klein turn signal switch.

 

There is something fishy about how you did this.

 

It gives your instrumental panel an Art Deco look, too.

 

Very creative stuff here. I use what is around too. I needed padding between my gas tank and trunk floor. I looked around Ace Hardware, finally selected a rubber mat that is used to keep carpet from sliding. One side was sticky.

Another was a gasket for my heater duct. Nothing was available on the Ford parts sites. I had a wheel barrow tube around, that got cut up and worked out.

 

Is there a breather on this to let air out as fluid goes in? Im thinking of doping something similar on my 40

 

Used a boat dash panel to hold my gauges on the coupe i had.

 

It has been suggested that these lights are boat items. I couldn't identify them otherwise. They were going to be B-pillar indicator repeaters on the Morris Minor.

 

Yes, I will get better photos went I get home from work.

 

Old cabinet friction catches for plug holders.

 

On my mid '60s dragster made a brake handel from a lever off a horse drawn pice of farm mach
Used s 6 volt dry cell battery to run the fuel pump.

 

We used tigerwood decking for the bed in our '59 Elky. Added stainless strips intended for Advance Design Chevy pickups.

 

Made a fuel filler door out of a cabinet side that I pulled from a scrap pile at an estate sale. Just made the coupe rear roll down window pan out of the stainless steel scrapped top from my old grill.

 

A broken cable from an exercise bicycle, makes a good throttle cable, with SS tubing as a shield works great.

 

Overflow tank out of stainless exhaust pipe and scrap plate.
Ready to be finish welded.

 

The dash in my T was made from an old mahogany church pew…

 

Not the finished product, but the bung for the breather.

 

Aluminum water bottle overflow tank…

 

I love the old "diver's helmet" taillights as made by CAV, Rotax, Lucas, etc. but they are rare, and the new ones are hellishly expensive at somewhere around USD1100 each. So I sporadically try to figure out how to replicate them. My first thought was the ball knuckles used in industrial balustrade stanchions:

At least one local steel merchant sells the ball knuckles separately, and I went as far as to buy two, but on reflection thought they're a bit heavy (0.1" wall) and rather coarsely finished.

There are other possibilities. This stainless steel curtain rod finial scales to about Ø3¼" — just about right:

 

I used one of those little gray plastic ammo boxes from Northern Tool for a speaker box in my Advance Design truck. I put a pair of 4" speakers in it with a wad of pillow stuffing and have it tucked up in the dash in the stock speaker location, secured by a bolt from the bottom lip of the dash.

 

914 Porsche seats in the Willys, can't have the stock headrests, whack those off, nice upholstery lady does a nip and tuck and a knee pad from an old weight bench becomes a headrest. Old belts are great for door pulls, door check straps, and holding down stuff like the toolbox in my old 56. Denim pocket on the Willys door panel for stuffing time slips in to.

 

Frying pan skillet lid for an air cleaner cover

 

My interior door pulls from Lowes cabinet hardware

 

No Pictures, but the rolled rear pan on my 49 F1 is made our of the old furnace body from my house. ( a 53 )I trimmed the edges to fit, one short weld down the middle and a recess for the license plate.

 

Picked up this cutie for $10 yesterday, then saw the rear radiator panel was louvered... I think I lucked into a nice under-engine bellypan/shield, measuring 23"x24":











A little straightening here and there and it should work fine with some tweaking.

 

I used a piece of copper water pipe for a battery cable guide under the toeboard and a piece of aluminum tubing from a folding outdoor footstool to route the cable to the starter.

 

Hello,

Bluetooth in a speaker is impressive. It would have made things a lot easier in our 58 Impala. I had wired two drive in speakers to hang loose except for the original hooking mechanism(s). we hooked them up and set them on the window channels for a cool look. The speakers were nothing to write home about. But, it gave the interior some extra head turnings from those that walked by and talked to us when we were at the local drive-in restaurant parking lot.


During the time we used those silly “reverb boxes” to the system, it was strange sitting between the two speakers. That did not last long. Novelty at best ...


Jnaki

Jump up many years and when I got the El Camino, there was only the stock speaker. So, I wired in the same two drive-in speakers to sit behind the seat on the floor. We no longer hung around any drive-in restaurant parking lot during those times. We just wanted a different sound and we got it. The extra sound coming from behind the seat in a small enclosed cab was not too bad. Plus, it was now, FM, not AM, so the technology broadcast was a lot better, anyway.


But, I took those out when new 6x9 speakers, I put in a pair of custom wooden boxes for the area, took over. The drive-in speakers were sitting around our house on a small table for decoration. When, my brother visited us one summer, he wanted one of those metal drive-in speakers. He got the first one back in the late 1958 era. Mine came from the 1960-61 era. So, now, I only have one left and it is used as an office bookshelf, book end item. No wires, just a clean metal part of early So Cal history still in place.

 

A heater for my coupe

 

Me Too! Way to many years ago to have a pic. Pulls I used looks kinda like early 50s Buick dash knobs. Put them on an aluminum mesh in my '52 chevy.

There's sure a lot of ideas in this thread. I'm gonna use the header flange holder for sure.

 

I was considering (still might) using these Mirro Medallion mid century spun aluminum serving trays as alternative Moon style discs, paired with a dog dish style cap. They are mocked up inside a 16" Ford donut spare in the pics, but the fit is almost perfect, just need to figure out a secure way to mount them.





They have just enough dish IMHO to pass the eye test, and they are thick enough that distortion when affixing them shouldn't be a problem, either.