Art & Inspiration parts finding stories around the world

amazing how with the internet connections can be made that would have never been thought of when the cars we love were built.

post some parts finding stories

 

Not so much a finding story on my part but I sold a Merc flathead and 4 speed toploader trans with a Jeep shift tower to a member in Australia. Other parts sent down under and to Europe and Canada as well. I guess the most unique story would be the NOS front fenders and used hood for a '40 Ford big truck I sold to a guy in Norway. They were for his grandfathers truck that had been appropriated by the Nazi's during the war. He found it abandoned in the forest and did a complete rebuild on it. He emailed me some photos of the do***entation with the Nazi ******** stamp on them. There is a build thread on the FTE if anyone is interested. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1607407-my-long-lasting-40-project.html

 

My wife and I had booked a long vacation in Brisbane to see our daughter going to school at Queensland University. The trip was booked in the spring of 2001 with us leaving on the trip in the middle of December of that year. In my luggage for that trip was the hydraulic cylinder and ***orted wiring for a 1964 Ford Mustang convertible top mechanism that our daughter’s boyfriend’s father owned and could not buy locally

Then came 9-11

Yes, they looked through my luggage ! Yes I had to answer a lot of questions.

John Trasch got his Mustang parts

best I got

 

Cool!

I supplied a set of '32 Ford wheels to a fella in Africa. He had been looking for some time.
Yes indeed, the webernet!

 

Sold my 63 merc to a guy in England .

When I worked in automotive I went to Cuba quite a bit for family vacations , I would bring spark plugs , tune up parts carb parts etc etc lots of small stuff and give it out once I was there .

sold a bunch of stuff into and bought out of the states .

 

My favorite examples of this were three items I had zero hope of finding in building my reproduction of Ed Roth's Mysterion show car. He used a lot of vintage parts that you never see any longer, let alone even know exactly what they are. ebaY was my savior on all three.

#1) 10" x 15" Inglewood Pos-A-Traction recap slicks. Stumbled onto a new/old pair that had never been on a wheel! Got them for $100 for the pair.
View attachment 5446616

#2) a 1962 Del Monico portable 7" TV. I had no idea what Ed used. I poseted a picture of his TV on a vintage TV collector web site and someone clued me in on exactly what model it was. Back to ebaY I landed the exact TV I needed. This is an amazing TV. It is a true 7" portable but 100% vacuum tube, hand wired construction. No snap together plastic, ***embly was with a machine bolt, two washers, a lock washer and nut at every joint. Remember in '62 was before transistor radios, printed circuits, even before 8-tracks!



#3) An EELCO 6-hole aluminum dash. Again I had no idea what Ed used. I stumbled across this dash while looking for vintage Stewart Warner gauges for the car. I snapped it up instantly. It came with SW gauges but for a diesel engine. I have only seen one other since then. Really rare.

 

I had been traveling the PNW swap meet trail for a few years trying to chase down a rare #3245 Holley carburetor, came only on 66 Chevy II's/Novas with a 327/350 hp engine.
I always carried my list of part numbers and it served me well, especially the day at the Corvallis Oregon swap meet, a small one in the lower Willamette Valley.
Started pawing through a big bucket of misc Holley carbs/parts a guy had and staring me in the face was that "holy grail" Holley carb, right down to the OEM number stamped into the air horn, looked like a fairly fresh rebuild but was missing a few external bits.
I nearly s#!t myself, asked the guy what it fit, he says Chevelle, WRONG, but I didn't react, he says he wants $85 for it, I offered him $75, he said ok, reached in my wallet, only $20.
I gave the guy holding money and said I knew a friend that would be there and borrow the money from him, he was looking for some of the same parts so I had to fib a bit until I had the carb in hand, boy, the look on his face when I held that Holley carb up and pointed out the numbers...... priceless.
Here it is after sending it to Holleys' Custom Shop for restoration, their charge was $200 plus $20 freight, a total of $295 invested, today they are bringing huge $$$.
Other NOS parts shown but gotta run for now.

 

I took a job working away from home. Lots of down-time at night with little to do. Ended up taking Stromberg carbs from home with me each time I flew to work, overhauling them, then taking them back again. Usually carried them as carry-on luggage.

Put my bags through the X-ray machine one afternoon only to have the machine operator grin and mention "those are a pair of Strombergs". You find gearheads all over the place

Had another X-ray operator baulk at an overhauled carb. Figured I would have to put the carb into checked-in luggage, but that was not OK either. The operator was worried about the sewing maching oil I used to lubricate the shafts being a fire hazard Asked to speak to the manager, and explained that it was a perfectly clean 80-year old piece of steel off one of Australia's first Holdens... shame to have to bin it. He grinned, and OK'd it to go into checked luggage. Another gearhead in the right place at the right time.

Cheers,
Harv

 

the world is a smaller place

 

I've bought parts that came from China, does that count?

 

the world is a smaller place- Ted you are right. Walt Disney knew it in 1970. I have sold cars and parts to Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and UK. They are more appreciative than anyone in the US.

 

No where near as far as the above, but I found on ebay a complete nose for my 1939 buick. I lived in CT, it was in NY,
I figured close enough. Won the bid, printed out directions on mapquest, wtf 6 plus hours, took me all the way up into Canada then down into NY to the address. Bought it, loaded up and started back. About an hour into the return trip
was stopped at a border patrol checkpoint

 

Not only bought parts from China, but I bought them in China. I was using a master cylinder from a Toyota vanwagon - one of those cars with the engine under the seats because it had a remote reservoir. While in China, I spotted a larger similarly configured Toyota van and went to the dealership and purchased a master cylinder from one of those. It had a larger 1" bore. Had a hard time explaining to the parts guy what I wanted since I don't speak Chinese. I saw a van parked there and started pointing in the right direction under the dash and somehow managed to get the part.

 

haha. unfortunately that is too easy to do

 

When I was a kid (a long time ago) i liked to read my Grampa's American Legion magazine. I remember a story about a Newspaper from England sending a small group of reporters/explorers to remote areas of India in a Model t Ford (1912 I think-anyway pre WWI). The car broke down in the mountains far from any large city, with a stripped pinion gear. They had to walk quite a ways to a small trading post and see if they could arrange to get a message to order the part. While they were there, one of the guys saw that the proprietor was using the exact part they needed as a counterweight on his balance scale. They made a deal on the gear and repaired the Ford.

 

that was lucky

 

And the presence of mind to see and recognize that it was exactly what they needed!

 

In 1985 I bought a -60 T-bird from a buddy . 3 weeks later I went to a big car show with a swapmeet. Spent a couple of hours looking true a lot of pieces , and on the latest row with tables is a cromepiece with a small note that says T-bird 60. I couldnt identify wher it would fit, so I asked the seller. - It's the grille for the hoodscoop, he says. Wow that's miising on my car- I'll take it I said and payed him. Then I took a look at the grillepiece, and between the ribs was trares of old paint, Pink/lavender or something like that, My T-bird was painted that way when my byddy bought it in the seventies. Where did yoy get this from? i asked. From A bird I owned a long time ago He said. - A Tbird with registration no DPJ 796 ( Swedish reg no) Iasked him. He went 3feet long inthe face - How do you know? - Well I'm the owner now and the chrome is going back where it belongs!! sorry for bad spelling

 

I sold this 2 speed Ford-O-Matic to a fellow in Germany for his Fairlane. He sent me pictures and was very greatful .

 

amazing!

 

That is a great story!

 

Hello,

When we had saved up enough money to go on a summer month long vacation with my brother and his wife, we were happy and told ourselves, it was well deserved. We selected the U.S. Virgin Islands, made reservations and had a nice old house on a rocky shoreline all ready for the 4 of us. With the jitters of several shaky airplane rides to the small island over, we began to settle in as we just relaxed on the white sand and super clear blue ocean, everywhere we looked.

We swam everyday, checked out several surf spots, no swell in sight, and just had a “vacation” without any worries about “other things,” like the world’s problems. It was a vacation, after all. We cooked our meals, had a beach lunch, dinner and relaxing time for several days, without an inkling about traveling anywhere else on the island or nearby islands. We were just there to relax and let the time p*** by while swimming in crystal clear water, all the way to the bottom.
the view from the back porch/patio...

Jnaki

Then we all took a taxi into the local town and it gave up a lot of old rusty sedans sitting in the tall overgrown gr***es and bushes. Almost every home in the “older” section of the town (actually the whole town back then was old…) gave up several cars to mother nature’s weather conditions. Super hot and piercing sun’s rays with rain to liven things up on the surfaces of old cars. The cars driving on the street were in good condition and seemed to be the later models, whereas, the ones in the bushes were not necessarily Model A’s and T variety, but the 50s-early 60s sedans.

The weather played the most tricks on the cars. The amount of rain kept everything moist and the gr***es/bushes/trees were very thick and grew at a fast rate. The gr***es we normally see at home were no taller than 6-8 inches at the most, when unattended. Here, they were taller than the cars stuck in the overgrowth.

As we all have read and seen the history of Cuba and their affection for 1950s USA cars. This Carribbean Island, along with other nearby islands we saw on this vacation had similar car models in the bushes, but there were refurbished ones and on the roads, too. YRMV

 

stories?

 

I've sent two boxes of Studebaker Hawk parts to Australia, the shipping was more than the value of the parts.

 

I found the parts I needed in my garage 1 time. Does that count?

 

It's funny you should mention that. I'm finally sorting out boxes from when I shifted house 2 1/2 years ago. I didn't know I had 4 of those and 6 of those and when did I buy that?

 

I’ve bought a lot of parts from the States for Cads but couldn’t believe it when the Offy intake and a Spalding flamethrower were local here in West Oz. A mate put me on to the intake, the seller not knowing what it was for, and the fully rebuilt flamethrower came as a offered payment for a diff centre weld job. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than clever.

 

A guy in my old car club sold 3 deuce roadsters to the U.S. in the 80's. Obviously pre internet, but people did communicate in ****ogue.

 

I've sold parts to a few places around the world. Hemi engine, couple sets of 36 rear bones to Australia, set of 34 wires to Guam, T turtle deck to France. Other sales to Belgium, Denmark, England and others I don't remember

 

A Grand story I deed . I've at times wondered and thought this while building but for me I'm sure it was just Builders Mirage but you have the proof and I hope you super glue the fasteners to the hood lol