Newer cars worth scavenging parts from

As a former manager of a junk yard. I can tell a lot of guys are looking for the f-body sub frames and rear axle are very popular for 50's chevy trucks and some cars. Also any chevy 350 carb or later throttle body set up. 700 r4 and 400 are still very popular esp if you can get a 700r4 with a cable kick down. 9 inch fords are still popular. Always had a pile of drive shafts that guys would come measure for there projects. Always guys looking for buckets and bench seat. Ones of of 96 to 02 chrysler mini vans and chevy truck seats 88-99. Depends on how much work you are willing to do to find what you need. My truck has a radiator out a 75 d100 turbo 350 trans out of a 72 chevy truck engine out of a 92 converted to carb with a set of 305 ho heads & a cadillac drive shaft. It may be built with newer stuff but still built in a traditional way of getting what i can afford and not ordering my parts that are plug and play.

 

99 jeep cherries seats look and fit well in a 53-56 f-100 with a little work.

 

99 Jeep Cherokee stupid autocorrect

 

You shouldn't have said anything. I thought "Cherries" was the hip way to refer to jeeps now, and I felt silly that I hadn't already known about it.

 

Damn, I just remembered.... My 64 Chevelle and son's 56 GMC pick up both have radiators out of Datsun 280zx. Cools just fine, vert flow, inlet and outlets were in the perfect spots.

 

I like the 89-95 350 truck engines. They accept roller cams and lifters, have a once piece rear main seal and you can bolt any head you like to the block. The guy that does my machine work will drill out the block for the fuel pump rod for extra 25.00 bucks, so you can run a mech pump, if you choose. I also like the 93 M48-49 and 94-97 T56 6spd trans. they bolt to traditional chevy blocks and if you have a 2 piece rear main seal, you can use a flywheel for an 83-85 V8 F body 5spd.

I love this thread, it has given me a lot of great ideas!

 

Since I retired from fulltime work about 18 months ago, that is what I do for cashflow to feed my car habit ..

 

Sorry, pet peeve.

All 700R4's have a cable, and it is VERY EMPHATICALLY NOT A KICKDOWN CABLE. It is a TV cable, throttle valve. It is akin to a mechanical throttle position sensor, that controls the line pressure in the transmission.

Leave that cable off, like you can a kickdown cable, or hook it up, and adjust it incorrectly, and you will smoke that transmission before the end of the first block.

 

I was just thinking if someone is looking for a 700R4 with a cable kick down, he's going to be looking for a long, long, looooong time.

 

Interesting thread.....

I'll throw in my .02 worth. One big reason I came here is there's guys here doing it the 'old fashioned' way, i.e. scrounging/building/adapting 'stuff' to do the job, regardless of the source of the parts. To me, that's the real 'spirit' of rodding; is the part affordable, does it function as well/better than what it's replacing, and does it look 'right'? Now, the last part of this is where the trouble starts: who defines 'right'?

I ditched most all my car mag subscriptions more than a few years ago as I got tired of most of the articles either being thinly-disguised ads for the latest trick of the month or high-buck 'perfect' restores on a 'milestone' car with a bunch of unobtainium parts that they scored from so-and-so. Well, I don't know so-and-so, and couldn't afford the parts if I did. It doesn't help that I live about 30 miles from the Lemay Museum and ol' Harold pretty much cleaned this area out of affordable old iron years ago (he paid his garbage truck drivers bonuses for any old iron they spotted and he could get). What he didn't get has either disappeared into the earth or is priced out of reach mostly....

So while I fully appreciate a period-perfect 'traditional' rod/custom, it's not always possible for everyone. If that was everyone's goal, the pressure on the remaining supply of 'real' parts would quickly price many out of the market altogether or force you into the aftermarket repros. I kinda figured this site was to foster interest in 'real' hot rodding, not start another elite of 'correctness'. Sure, if you're building a open-wheel or exposed-engine car, you can't stray too far off the path without loosing the 'flavor' of the design. And I'm as sick of all the billet crap as anybody (anybody who uses digital gauges should be horsewhipped...lol), but then again skinny-ass wide whites on steelies aren't exactly the best choice for handling/braking either.

So while I like the 'trad' builds (the Cromer Willys is a fav, but I have a real love for big FE fords), the one that impressed me the most was the Charvonias' Kaiser. Oddball car, lo-buck non-hamb-friendly late chassis (one that many dismissed earlier as having 'no usable parts'), home-built, and is one of the most original builds I've ever seen. A perfect capture of the 'spirit'....

Me, I've got a set of '03 base-model Mustang wheels that I think would look killer if detailed a bit differently. 16" diameter, so not stupid big and look a lot like the Halibrand wheels used on Cobras and some other early 60s racers.... a lot of backspace to deal with, and widening the rears may put this out of reach, but we'll see. Only paid $150 for the set....

 

Maybe just edit your 1st post instead of doing another one ..

 

I think the traditional thing hasn't got so much to do with the technology itself as with one's attitude to the technology - and of course the way some technological artefacts support that attitude and some don't. The difference between the old and the new is subtle and elusive - I've been trying to put my finger on it for years, more intently the past few months as a US-based think tank have asked me to do in effect just that.

At the risk of doing, through oversimplification, more harm than good to the understanding of all this, I'd say the difference between "traditional" tech and modern tech is that the former recognizes two classes of stuff, i.e. the natural and the man-made, while the latter has a third class of stuff brought about by the introduction of mediating protocol, which has the effect of constantly referring the artefact back to its origin, or transforming artefacts into processes (i.e. goods into services). This stuff is really hard to get one's head around. Don't worry if it makes no sense to any of you, it is only beginning to make any sense to me.

Perhaps a useful analogy here is the distinction between the attitude of a skilled craftsman and that of a hotel guest, and the consequent difference in their respective attitudes to stuff. One engages with stuff in terms of manual manipulations (i.e. literal manipulation - manus = hand) while the other does in terms of commands to someone else.

Now, a lot of what fills today's breaker's yards is stuff intended for the "hotel guest" attitude, but this is not to say that it can't be lifted, as it were, out of that philosophical context. We can approach the lump of material as a lump of material per se, and with luck we'll find a few that have a shape etc. that suits our (artisanal) purposes. And that is certainly something that sits right in the middle of the tradition of hot-rodding.

 

GREAT freakin' axle.... I got 3 of those in all my rides....

 

Thank you...i couldnt have said it better,,
That being said,,, i get trinkets from interiors kool little back seat ash trays,, simple dome lights,,, any cigerette lighter will be the same for like 50 years,good bose speakers that can be hidden , any 9 inch ford axle no matter how wide,, keep an eye out for stuff you can sell at the swap meet,,, last month i got an off topic aluminum wing off a wrecked off topic car for 30 bucks and sold it to an off topic customer for 100 and he got a deal,

 

I seem to remember that some Mazda/ford ranger pickups have a real nice rear license plate light and bracket that can be adapted to almost any old car.
I also have been thinking of using some of the small stereo speakers to hide the speakers but still enjoy the sound. Many newer cars have oodles of these speakers.
Manual seat tracks are getting harder to find but can still be had,
Like others have said, lights, wires, nuts, bolts, hoses,trunk and gas cap manual release cables. Anything used will be cheaper than new and in many cases if you are buying other parts, yards throw in the fasteners for free.
Also, many cars have rear power antennas that can easily be made to work in 50's customs.
I will be hunting for seats for my 55 that should be way cheaper than having mine redone. Hope I find a matched set that actually fit.

 

No can do.... dizzy spins the wrong direction unless mounted to the back of the head

 

usually seats could be used ..

some of the wiring harness of these cars ( power windows are sometimes cool ) ...

also seen people converting them with pop out gas doors ( like pulling/ pushing a lever )

some with newer rear ends ( and cutting them down to size )

these are just some of the things i can think of or have seen at the shows that i have been too ....

 

I'm using a folding sunroof on my Victoria from a 1990s 2000s Renault Twingo. It's a simple full length fold back cloth roof with a vinyl type covering. You twist a lever and slide it back by hand and the roof folds back. It's as simple as roofs in the thirties and every junkyard here has loads of them. The plastic front spoiler gets thrown away.

 

Cool, for you guys in the EEUU.

That was never sold in the US.

 

Gimpy, you could probably find a totalled FIAT 500 with that same type of roof, if you project were to lean that way.

 

No doubt. I have seen three get totaled, in my neighborhood alone. I love my neighbors, I just wish they would learn to drive someday.

Lots of curve to the roof on those.

 

How about this for a couple bucks versus spending 100 to get my Ranco watervalve rebuilt. Thanks Toyota!

 

The skinny gas shock that hold up hoods are great for replacing large, clunky hood springs and arms. If you have the metal know how to make it work.
Like said before, some rear ends. Maybe few trannys, alternator. Maybe low back seats reupholstered. Nothing else can be hidden easily

 

I thought that this was just a yap yap, going nowhere post but hey I got a lot of good info here!!

thanx guys

 

I get the cutters out and chop out most of the wiring loom from a newer car. The wire don,t wear out, and it's a good cheapskates way of doing a rewire.
Also the plastic globe sockets are handy to replace rusy old ones, , just remember to run a seperate ground wire to the socket outer terminal.