Featured Art & Inspiration USING THINGS NOT DESIGNED FOR HOT RODS & CUSTOMS

I think we have touched on this in the past but I had lunch with a couple of old hot rod pals and we were talking about having to come up with ideas to replace parts that are non existant or make something work by using something that wasn't intended to be used on a car or truck.

The first thing that came to my mind was when I was reworking the dash in the Boss Ladys Ranch Wagon, the green turn signal piece was brittle with age and had crumbled and fallen apart.

Brenda had called me in for lunch, she had the makings for sandwiches, as I was making mine I pop off the plastic top of the turkey container I thought ,that would work of the turn signal on the dash, I knew I would have to steal it before she new it was gone, lets just say she missed i and come out and questioned me if i had it?, I lied as I usually do when my **** is in trouble, but that's another story for another day.

The green lid proved to be the ideal replacement part with a sharp pair of scissors ( which I didn't steal from Brenda) and works great to this day.

What about you guy's, what have you used? HRP

 

Excellent idea^^^^

 

Such a great idea. Filed away for future use.

 

Most excellent!Thanks for sharing!

 

Next in line was my pal Dave's idea.

Dave had just finished the uphoilstery in the wagon, I was checking out the folding rear seat and the bottom seat is hinged to fold up against the back of the front seat, then the back of the seat lays down to enlarge the storage area. the only problem was the rear seat bottom has 2 pens that aligns with the rear seat back, I dropped the seat back and it punched 2 gaping holes in the uphoilstery - Man, that made me sick and Dave wasn't too happy either.

He said that's enough for the night and we will decide what to do tomorrow.

Tomorrow came and the first thing I did was look at the mess I made, I was shocked that Dave made a repair using common household kitchen untinsels, the night before Dave had gone to Wally World to buy his weekly grocery's, he was thinking the whole time and was walking by a display of silverware and spied some serving s****s that are larger than the regular table s****s, he said that's what we need.

He brought two of them and when he got home went out in the shop, he grabbed a body hammer and started beating the oval part of the s**** flat, he bent the handle to 45 degree's, cut off the excess handle and loosened up the metal trim around the seat and wedged it in place.

Dave had made a guide to keep the overstuffed uphoilstery from getting pinched and we didn't have to recover a brand new seat or use some kind of patch, the funny thing about it is the s****s is they look like something that was designed at the Ford Factory. HRP

 

I needed a new inside door handle panle finish* around the nob*> that nob* is a house drawer nob=I think they look good...I had added Bear Claw latchs*way better latch*,so old Ford stuff was not a fit any more.. *I used a sliver house curtain ring split* in two n contact glue.

 

The riser to keep the air cleaner up off my carburetor is a cut down coffee can. If I remember correctly, there was interference with the linkage grandpa had installed, or maybe with clearing the distributor, and we needed some “lift,” my pop eyeballed the leftover coffee can, we measured, and sure as anything, was the perfect diameter for the Quadrajet.

Painted silver it blends right in.

 

I cut a set of old ten speed handle bars and made my tail light stands back in the late 80’s.

 

Many items have given up their life for my builds. At the moment, I can't remember any.

 

Think about it and let us know what you used.

Some great ideas fella's, keep them coming.
Maybe the thread should have been- "Whatever works" HRP

 

While perusing the 'kitchen' section of WalMart, I came upon this utensil holder and thought 'what a great turbo heat shield that would make'. Cut it up and bolted it to the hot side of my turbo. Ran it my O/T Mustang first then later in the roadster for years!

 

Here's mine. Frying pans for backing plates. WOW, I did this in2008. Crazy. There's lots more things I've used on cars that wasn't meant to be on cars, but this is all I have right now. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/new-backing-plates-from-frying-pans.285695/

 

Also, a great source for flat and 90* 18 gauge sheet metal is washers/dryers. Back in the day, the 'free' section of Craigslist was full of 'em. Nowadays, FB Marketplace has 'em. I've used them for dozens of patch panels.....

 

Check out Fat *** Whitewalls thread. This looks great. HRP

 

I had to replace my old steering box{I let water get in it/rust to junk F1},so new better newer design box n arm= new bracket an little def placement/is why you see arm swing relief pocket in lower body cowel. Even that fix goes back some years,,. The extra chrome arm cap* coving the arm big nut ; is off top of some spraycan at Food store? I don't rememeber what brand it was,just looked right,so I got it. The coins I added long ago as something that would be shiny,with out costing me much.Bling Bling But do need a polishing now n then,,,,

 

I always shun attention at the hardware store because the clerks (bless their hearts) can never comprehend why I'm looking for something for what it is rather than what it is meant for so I can use it for a totaly unrelated purpose.

 

The round object where the pitman arm is that's a Boraxo hand soap dispenser lid from the 1950s.

 

My old Sedan Delivery...made from a '31 Ford Slantwindow Fordor Sedan.

SPREADER BAR; Stainless handicap bathroom grab bar (Home Depot)
HEADLIGHT BAR; Threaded rod covered with chrome sink supply line (Ace Hrdware)
TURN SIGNALS; 1950s Schwinn bike fender lights
HOOD ORNAMENT; Novelty pen, chrome cat
AIR CLEANER COVER; 1938 Ford hubcap


TAILIGHT HOUSINGS; Stock taillights mounted inside cut down desk lamps (Lowes)

HEADER PANEL made from section of vinyl rain gutter (Lowes)

 

This one seems a little simple but it too works like a charm, I needed a red lens for my hi beams light indicator but all I had was a bright light and I couldn't find anything that was thick enough to mount in the small lens holder.

Again, I found my new red lens in the kitchen, in the trash can was a empty Jif peanut ****er jar with a red thick plastic top.

I'm thinking this will work but when I tried cuting the top with scissors that was a no go, then a utility knife nope, I decided I needed to try something else, I'll figure this out later.

A few days later we were at Texas Roadhouse having dinner with friends and as always we started talking hot rods,what we were doing and projects, then Brenda ask how the dash was coming and I started tell the story about trying to use the peanut ****er lid but it was difficult to cut such a tiny circle, then Brenda chimed in and said the circle is not going to be a problem, she told me about a hole punch set she had bought many years ago to punch holes in leather and she actually knew exactly where it was.

After dinner we went home and within 5 minute I was holding the punch set in my hand, I went out in the shop and selected one of the punchs, set it on the lid, smacked it with a hammer and bingo! I had my red lens. HRP

 

I think the only household item on my truck is a chrome plumbing bezel were the column p***es through the floor.

There are a few bits and pieces that would normally be found on a semi. For example, this weathertight junction box, air line separators I used on the heater hoses and some neat frame clips which I used to secure the wiring and fuel lines along the frame. All good quality stuff for reasonable prices.

 

In an attempt at maximizing foot space in the A coupe, I repurposed a set of stainless steel side shelves off my old barbeque. After upholstery above the stainless, I will have gained a few inches on each side, even allowing room for a driver's foot rest (4th pedal). That's the plan anyhow. Cool thread! Given enough time we will all remember a dozen or so more examples. The divot you see in the floor is for planting your heel in while operating the go pedal.It was previously a steel toe out of an old pair of work boots.

 

9” cake pans for air cleaners. Does that count?

 

Back when I changed out my rods gone bad F1 steering box,that also made me have to make n new steering column/plus a updated steeringwheel I was given< to match other wood parts of my ****pit! Old steering wheel was cracking kind bad anyway. The old F1 box,used the F1 outer tube column that no longer fit.
So I made a new homemade column*an wanted blending cone from steering wheel down column to tube=
The new column outer had been a shiny alum. tube from Picnic Table Umbrella< I made a alum. bearing for upper tip ,hold inter shaft centered, I had reused most inter shaft from F1/added a small u-joint to box; The spline fit the new wheel nice as well.
The steeringwheel mount hub was about 2.5 in. thick below it= I wanted a finished looking tappered blend under steering wheel hub to help it look good> I found a tappered statinless steel cup at the food store that was a little tiny bigger around at it's bottom then my column tube{;put a hole in bottom of cup the size of tube and mounted the top of cup to bottom of steering wheel coller. = I think it looks like a good finish. Dash hold bracket was fab from some alum. n stainless s****s .

 

I'M NOT ALONE!

"Sorry sir, we don't stock Giffard-style dirigible parts ..." I've taken to outright telling the whippersnappers not to ask what it's for, on pain of losing my custom forever. It remains frustrating that they seem unable to think whether there are any semicylindrical bits of br*** about yea long in any part of the shop.

 

how about an in wall toilet paper dispencer used in the under dash firewall on a Model A so you can access the distributer when you are running a 671 blower? It's already chrome with a mounting flange!

 

The floor of my A is covered with 1/4" thick rubber gym flooring; commonly used in weight rooms.
It's reasonably priced and is a great sound / heat insulator.

 

Used an old suitcase as a wiring closeout/firewall decoration. I ended up also doing the driver's side and t******* the edges with some u-channel but I don't have pics of that

 

If check closely the “shroud” the fan is mounted on is a cookie sheet from a restaurant supply store.

 

Hospital bed side rails.

 

This was not my idea but was done by Ron, we did some trading and I got his Deuce hiboy fordor.

Being a fordor it came with suicide rear doors, knowing the latches are not the greatest on rough roads or railroad tracks the doors are prone to pop open, not good for the door and unsafe for the back set p***anger should they try to catch the door, they have been known to eject the p***anger.

Ron found the saftey latch at the local hardware store, it's inexpensive and works great . HRP