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

My old T bucket had numerous non-automotive items.

Floorboards and bed were made from teak and holly plywood sourced from a marine restoration supplier, to mimic a vintage Chris Craft:


Vintage cooler in bed housed the battery, too.

It also had old Indian Motorcycle taillights:



And a glass eye for the hole in the grille shell -- not to mention the expanded metal grille:



Lots of cool stuff going on with that little bucket.

 

Sorry no pictures, I have previously used universal Bicycle brake / gear cables for unobtanium throttle / choke cables, cheap, easy to find and you can always carry a spare all for a few pounds (dollars).

 

Kinda like the AMC Gremlin with the Levi's interior package...

 

Oh God... I had one of those........

 

Leather from a discarded couch
Shifter knob, well, you know

 

Took bird cage wire, fine scotch brite and screen door screen and made filters for my frog mouth scoops Keeps out big bugs

 

I shaved the gas door on my Chrysler, and installed a Mustang fuel tank in the stock location. I cut a hole in the trunk floor directly over the tank's filler tube, then used a flush-mounted stainless marine 'GAS' deck fill inside the trunk connected with a short piece of rubber tank hose. The hardest part was tightening the clamps on the hose. The filler cap is a sealed unit to keep fumes from escaping, so I added a vent/rollover valve to the Mustang tank before installing it. It's simple and unobtrusive, cost $20, and looks better (IMO) than most of the solutions people have for a shaved gas door.

 

I love the turnout this thread has gotten just today.
Old Rheem AC steel now a custom airbox. (Air and Air)
Old Stainless steel trash can now a heat shield.

 

Yup, I used one of those that I picked up from the local boat supply store. Set it in the right rear fender of my 49 Ford truck.

 

I used a couple of conduit straps to hold my heater hoses to the fender well.

 

That’s neat and all, but how do you put gas in without it dripping into the trunk carpet?

 

Shake it a little before pulling it out… lol.

 

Words to live by

 

Really used a lot,little odds n ends that are chrome,but used right ,make great stand in's for higher $ trim thingys..
But one that dose not seem to be listed,yet may be used,I do,,,is Pizza box=pretty good gasket stuff for home made gaskets.

 

Hello,

When we had an accidental bottom out with our 1962 4 door Rambler Sedan with 6 people aboard, we knew we had to fix it fast. The 6 of us were driving on a bumpy off of the main highway dirt road leading back into a thick jungle. The reward was going to be one of the most beautiful places that was known only to the locals living in the northern area of Kauai. (back then, the tourists had not discovered this place in droves, like it has been over time…)

There was a smell of gas in the car on the way home and it was not good. But, we had to get home. The bumpy dirt road must have done some damage and we could not wait to see what it was.

Upon arriving home, here were 4 surfers standing around looking at a gas tank sitting on a set of saw horses. Yes, there was a dark spot on the corner of the gas tank. So, our first thought was to weld the crack shut. But the next thought was flames to an empty gas tank is still not good due to fumes still lingering.

Earlier upon drying our surfboards, one of our friends was doing a “ding repair” using fiberglass cloth, resin, and shreds of matte fiberglass. He had hit a reef upon losing his board and caused some damage that could not be left alone. The resin was in a gallon container and there was a small bottle of catalyst to start things off. The fiberglass cloth was "a given" for any surfer, as ding repair is just one of those things that we all learn to complete at one time or another. The mixture is the potent part of the whole “shebang.”

Jnaki

So, being surfers and access to the same fiberglass cloth, resin and shreds of matted cloth material, we had the fixings of a “hole-crack” water tight sealing compound. The dirty caked on undercoating had to be somewhat scrapped off, but only to the width of the cloth coverage and seal guarantee. The surface was sanded and prepped as if it was a ding on one of our surfboards.

After the initial layer of cloth/resin combo, it set and was ready for some sanding to prep the surface for the next wider layer of cloth/resin on the metal surface. We had assumed a two layer repair was going to do it, but since this was our only metal repair, we decided to give it a third layer when ready. Again, spreading farther out to the edge of the scrapped undercoating barrier.

A well deserved nap and snack prepped us for the gas fill check for leaks scene. It worked as planned and we were a bunch of happy surfers. A nice black spray can did the cover up job and it looked great, too. In no time, with the running on dirt roads, the black paint was covered up and it looked as old as the car after a couple of days.

Note: Why did the gas tank hit the bumpy dirt road obstructions? The normal height of the 62 Rambler was good and high off of the ground as usual. But, we did not take into account 6 adults and one little toddler for additional weight. We probably looked like a low-rider cruiser going down the highway to get to our destination. YRMV

Note 2: A year or so later, since we gave the house owner our share of the Rambler upon leaving back for our So Cal apartment, he told us that the gas tank repair is still holding up well. They have now limited the amount of riders in the Rambler, unless it is going to be a level highway into the nearest community nearby. It even survived one big hurricane water level rise, sitting under the house. Ha!

 

This was removed but too good not to share....

 

On my pickup I have used this serving tray as the dash dash facia panel



Here is what I ended up with



I used some of the excess as an infill on a small panel I made to hold the ignition, wiper and head light switches



and with the switches installed (it looks better in real life - but there is a lot of reflection in this picture that I could not get rid off)



The rest of the gauges are going in the soon to be painted header panel



Overall I am very happy with it.

 

I didn't just want to use a stainless overflow tank on my pickup so I bought the fire extinguisher on the left. I thought it would make a good radiator overflow but the more I looked at it the more it looked (to me) to be too big and out of proportion. So I made yet another purchase for the elusive radiator overflow tank............. that would be the hand pump on the right.



Out with its guts and a bit if tickling, drill a hole here and there, make some brackets, shove a core plug in the bottom and you have this :shock:

 

Another non-automotive item I used was a few small pieces from the hardware store that I mixed with the original firewall mounted throttle/return spring pedal. the small threaded stainless steel rod and the two swivel connectors.

The parts with the red X are pieces I discarded to clean up the look and also to adapt the new carburator to the original throttle pedal.



I can report that it works like it was made for the car and it was! HRP

 

the diamond embossed stainless gauge panel is part of a printing press. It is stainless and a muther stabber to work with but it does make a cool gauge panel.



I have used glass door knobs for shift knobs. I have a small brass door knob that is over 100 years old that came from the KC Star building that I am eventually going to use in something.

 

I saw a tray exactly like that on Antiques Roadshow. It was worth thousands of dollars...

 

I cobbled this foot feed together for my roadster using hardware store end pivots, rod ends, some stainless rod I threaded and bent and a brake pedal from a (I think Honda) motorcycle.

 

What a waste of an extension cord! Why hell, that and some wire nuts and you could have hooked up yer taillights!

 

Had to get the e brake cables off of the exhaust pipes, these are actually simular to the factory cable pulleys on the firewall on a 57 chevy. Universal pulleys found on Amazon...

 

Bates motorcycle taillights like this 40.

 

From @topher5150 's Northern Nats coverage topic: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/northern-nats-2023.1300980/#post-14983796

 

Now that's thinking, a sucker not a blower

 

I needed a trunk latch and the automotive ones I found in the junk pile just didn't work out. I had just replaced the locking door knob on my garage and had leftover latch pieces so I used them to make my trunk latch. It is activated by a 1/4" square shaft and in order to attach it to some sort of handmade lever, I found a spare 1/4" drive socket (think it was 7/16") drilled for a set screw for it to stay on the square shaft and brazed on a lever. Made additional stuff for cable release and it works good.

 

That's cool. I've heard of guys using those to make belly pans on hot rods. I believe the jesse lopez coupe used one on the grill somehow.

 

Some other good ones I've seen and heard about are guys using cake pans for recessed license plates,
also I saw a guy use those cup shaped drawer pulls as brake scoops.

here's my old T. I used a bundt cake pan (angel food cake?) as the little cover for where my sprint car steering popped through the cowl. worked out great!