I've seen the wheelbarrow used for a hood blister, could always cut an opening to make it a scoop. Also have seen SS tubular swiming pool ladders from a scrap yard for exhaust pipes. I use old refridgerator drawers, the brides old plastic dish pans, roasting pans, and other kitchen cast offs for drain pans and parts buckets. Less $$ and a lot closer than the dollar store even. Made a stand for working on rear ends from parts of an old weight bench. Buddy made an adapter to also use it for a stand to mount his bead rooler. Free from curbside supply. With pay per bag for trash removal gaining ground around here folks have taken to leaving unwanted bulky stuff out front with a free sign on it. Tag sale close outs have same sign and locations, just gotta keep your eyes open and mind thinkin' Ed
I'm cheaper than that. I go to second hand stores for stuff. I save the leftover plastic for stuff I build on the job for parts and tooling. I've built brackets from bedframes people throw away. 2" electrical conduit from the local home improvement shop makes for cheap exhaust pipe. I'm always dumpster diving....always looking for the next chunk of shit I can polish up and put on a project. It's fun to take an old sauce pan and build an air cleaner out of it. It's even more fun when somebody gives you $20 and a case of beer for it! There's a lot of "found" parts out there waiting for you.
http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/restore.aspx Check this out...It is construction seconds and donated material from Habitat for Humanity. It's basically the Salvation Army stores for construction material. From old knobs to pipes and sheets of steel...plus it goes to a good cause at the end off the day!
Tractor Supply Company sells all sizes of fenders/wheel tubs for trailers and other "farm" equipment. They are cheaper than pre-fabed wheel tubs in most hot rod catalogs and you can save on shipping if you have a TSC near you. They have more at the store than whats online and can special order bigger sizes I believe. When I get to that point w/ my truck I think thats the route I am going to go. Here's a link; http://www.tractorsupply.com/traile...-trade-fender-with-back-9-in-x-32-in--0175512
i agree lewis. im as hard noses as anyone about keeping our dollars at home but you cannot help it these days. tell me the last time you bought american oil to put in your car, manufactured from american oil fields. how about the gas you burn in your motor? think thats american? light bulbs in and on your car, are those all american? the rubber seals in your indows and doors, made in america of american products? get real buddy
Not my idea but will use it. Bed Hole Caps <hr style="color: rgb(209, 209, 225); background-color: rgb(209, 209, 225);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> I've been looking around for bed caps for my truck and was having a hard time paying $24 just for some darn caps. I know there's lot of cool ones out there, but I did a little measuring and came up with a cheap alternative... Thanks to my51chevyrocks and the The 1947 - 1959 Chevrolet & GMC Pickups Message Board
This is the last ill reply, but if I can buy american I will. And I will always shop at a local store. I try my best to support my country. Sounds like you lack the will to due the same or you have family members who work for Walmart. So instead of bashing me for my effort to do so, bash yourself for allowing this country to become a "service" country. Bottom line is I do what I can to help. I dont give in and wont. Thats the american way. Thank you and good night.
Here is something I stumbled on tonight while watching TED. http://www.afrigadget.com/ While not hot rodding site, I think this site shows just what thinking outside the box can accomplish.
Great thread! Started in 2004. Wow someone dug up an old one. I am so glad I didn't stop reading when that fuckhead 2tall2beahotrodder brags about stealing shit. I hope that jackass has got his in return. Everyone should quote his current posts and just write the word thief.
Trex decking cut into body mounting blocks instead of wood. it will not rot and will not absorb moisture.free scraps at some construction sites.
why all the fighting about where the parts come from? it's hard to find American made stuff anymore, I try to buy it when I can, I wonder if the person complaining, tracks down scrap pieces to see what the country of origin is? I can understand the feeling, but this thread is about fabricating things and thinking outside of the box. Whether the pieces and parts came from here is for another thread. Whether the stuff came from china or tim buck 3, It's American ingenuity that is making it into something else, and you can't get more American then that. My car is off topic, but I have made many pieces and parts from whatever I could, scrap materials machined into other stuff, pieces and parts from the junkyard, etc. I love going to a salvage yard with an idea and just looking at stuff, and all kinds of different parts until I see something I can use to solve a problem, It doesn't even matter what kind of car you are building, it's all about using that thing between your ears, to make parts that often, people don't even know aren't factory. And for that thief guy, a lot of times they want you to THINK all the cameras are fake, you may see those, but you don't see the real ones, I used to work in store security camera installation, a lot of the obvious cameras are fake, but you get distracted by those, and don't see the real ones. Many times only the manager knows the secret. also that vcr you often see, it's fake, no one uses vcr's anymore, it's all recorded on a hidden digital recorder you never see. Often it's recorded off the store property. I hope they nail your ass to the wall when they catch you. In today's digital world, there may be some guy watching a camera 500 miles away.
How dumb do you have to be to think people who shop at Walmart ONLY shop at Walmart or that everything in there is made in China? I buy Orowheat bread there for less than they sell it at the day old store...Everyday price and it ain't day old. AND I'm pretty sure it's not baked by children in a sweat shop in China. Walmart employs millions world wide. Some of them might buy your company's product or service keeping you working. "Mom and POP" couldn't employ all the people who work there nor move as much product...And moving more product requires more logistics...You know like warehouses and trucking...People build warehouses, work in them and drive trucks...People build trucks, even welders...Get the picture yet? or you have family members who work for Walmart.OMG, wouldn't that be awful!Oh wait, let me guess. If Walmart was unionized it would suddenly be OK to shop there. Do you know who handles all that shit coming from China and wouldn't have that job otherwise? 100% union dock workers earning huge wages. All of their equipment requires maintenance and mechanics, even welders. Are you getting it yet? I don't like the fact that shit is manufactured anywhere else either but there are a lot of reasons for that and I've learned the hard way it can't be discussed here. That's my last say on the subject too.
+2 on that. I just wonder if it compresses and "gives" like a real piece of wood and rubber. I'm not sure, but surely curious. I've only dealt with Trexx once and that was when it first became widely available. I built a deck for my buddy. I remember it being a lot different than tree wood and was pretty inconsistent dimensionally. They probally fixed those issue by now. I do remember them stressing that it can't not be used for structural purposes. They certainly is a big difference of a body block and something holding up a roof or something that can fall down and kill folks.
Everyone is using the word america. Buy america and I think we all know that we mean buy USA made stuff. Because there is three americas south , central and north america. The president even makes the same mistake. This is United States of America noyt america. Mexico is america too (central) my 2 cents
Now what really screws with people's heads is when at a car show I'll put my battery charger on the ground in back, hook it up to the battery in the trunk and run a 20ft. orange cord and plug it thru the window into the receptacle in the dome light. When they ask me if I have a dead battery I telll them ya that's why I am charging it. They kind of look and say Oh ya o.k. and walk away with that " Well how the fuck does that work" look on their face.
I have used an empty can of beans to patch an exhaust pipe in the past . Just take the paper off, split it length-wise with a power cutting wheel and then open it up carefully to put it around the pipe then use wire or better yet, hose clamps to hold it tight. works great until you get the time and money to properly repair it. Lundy
right now i've got an aluminum water bottle that someone left behind at my house for my radiator overflow, i mounted it to the wheel well using a pre-existing hole and a bicycle water bottle holder. i need to change the cap of the bottle for something that looks a little nicer and then strip the paint. i've built a breather can out of a percolator before. i was trying to make it so it would look like it was bubbling, but ended up just sticking the filter through the little glass cap. used a tobacco can for an air cleaner cover (or could use to hide the velocity stacks) got to get a good metal one though. working on making a gas pedal out of a padlock latch, a good piece of steel and a converse sole right now. made a tray for the side of my toolbox out of a cut and folded cookie sheet and some bicycle gears for the ends of it. working on a canister to hold my paint gun to the side of the box with a big gear for the bottom and spokes wrapped around to a big gear at the top. i'll post up some pics soon.
The Jalopy Journal
