That 12v bulb reminded me of another one. I had an old drop light and put one of those 12v bulbs in it. Cut off the electrical plug and spliced some alligator clips on 2 of the wires(white/black). The drop light comes in handy when you are out in the driveway or far from an electrical outlet. Just clip the wires to your car battery for light.
RADIO SHACK --90% of the components for my hot rod's simple wiring harness I bought off the shelf. Fuse holder, momentary switches for starter & horn, on/of keyed switch for ignition, plastic wire holders & loom, the wire, and the metal wire ends. I built an entire harness for less the $50. All the parts are hidden under the dash --it may not look fancy, but it was cheap and works great.
Home improvement stores, ask the guys for the material that seperates section of goods on pallets of paneling, formica and other sheet goods. It is a fibre board iten that gets inserted between stack os 10 or 12 pieces on the pallet. Its a fiber stuff that gets throw away, but its great for door panels, headliners, truck cabs etc. If you wet it it can be bent, like over pvc tubing or pipe, ad when dry it holds its shape. It can be cut with mat knife or snips, cut with hole saws and it takes paint well. It ususally free, if you ask the recieving guys nice they will set ti asside for you sted of throwing it in the dumpster. Also for wiring trailers or running wire for rear car and truck lighting, I buy a length of bulk outdoor extension cord from the hardware 12/3 or 12/4, its color coaded, and the covering is plenty tough to use exposed like from cab to box on a pickup.
Why not shop at a local mom & pop shop for do it yourself hot rod ideas? Anyone who supports Wal-Mart is nothing but crap in my eyes.
Just a quick search in Santa Rosa,CA brought these up.... Friedman's Home Improvement www.friedmanshome.com - (707) 584-7811 Orchard Supply Hardware www.osh.com - (707) 566-7514 Mission Ace Lumber & Hardware www.acehardware.com - (707) 539-7070 Bennett Valley Ace Hardware bennettvalleyhardware.com - (707) 524-2515 Village Hardware & Rental www.truevalue.com - (707) 539-1600 Guerneville Fulton Ace Hardware www.acehardware.com - (707) 525-8635
never said i didnt have any near me, so way to go smart guy. the same formula cant always apply. also google how far away the nearest wal-mart is in relation to my location and try to then guesstimate my shopping habits
also, for you really nut job wal-mart bashers out there. aside from the wal-mart brand in house stuff (that every store produces) wal-mart sells THE SAME STUFF AS THE OTHER STORES!!! so shove that in your pipe and smoke it you wacko's
Its called my opinion. And in all reality it doesnt matter due to the fact people could care less about others as long as they are fine and doesnt directly affect them. Put Walmart chinese crap on you car. Cause it dont matter how nice you make it look, its still chinese crap on your hot rod.
I bought a couple of polished stainless steel mixing bowls to make custom taillight buckets on my 62 Galaxie.
Those turnbuckles can be made easily into an effective adjuster for an alternator or generator, one end on the block/head and the other where the slotted adjuster strap use to bolt to the alt/gen. No wrestling around trying to keep tension on the fan-belt as you try to tighten the bolt holding the alt/gen in position.
Side pipes made from old scraped military commercial dish washers, lots of mandrell bends and lots of straight stainless pipe, mig welded with stainless wire.
I bought 5 gallons of molasses(the syrupy stuff used for stock feed) for $15...poured all of that into a 44 gallon drum,with a lid,up the back yard...filled that up with water...any rusted parts I have I need to use,get a piece of welding wire attached and a hook bent on one end to hook onto the top lip of the drum...the molasses and water will make the rustiest parts like new in a week or so....not so handy if you need it straight away but if time permits,its an excellent solution to rust problems...parts need to be cleaned,blown off with air and primed ASAP though... Ive used curtain rod ends for shifter knobs,magnetic latches for glove box duties,astro turf for carpet...the list is endless and your only held back by your imagination... Some good ideas in this thread and Im gonna use a few on the current project
they have the same stuff in Nebraska at Menards---autobond carpet. lays nice and you can hit it with a rubber hammer and it will stretch to go into a "dimple" or whatever--this is one great thread.
This ladies and gentlemen is why we are hotrodders and not purists! great thread! over the years with time and no money have "recylced" a lot of things some already posted but will share another. while not using a recylced one but starting anew, my steering column "boot" at base of steering wheel is fashioned from a toilet plunger! and sure that is why i didn't recyle!
when i did the side panels in the trunk of my 55 chev i used real thin plywood-like sheets i got at a local glass store. their plate, sheet, etc. all comes in big rectangular boxes made of this stuff. it's pliable, easy to cut and best of all--- free.
Man this post brings back memories. Other then wally world,Boat stores have a lot of parts for hot rods to,chrome wiper motors,Chrome wipers.fuse boxes etc. One i just did was replace a hand brake on a car I have.Seems most of the local parts stores don`t carry the universal hand brake cables any more so what did i do but go to my local Home Depot and go to the garage door section and picked up 15 feet of garage cable for 9 bucks and used old hand brake bodys for mounting them in and welded nuts to the end of the cable. New hand brake!
Tire store dumpsters are a good souce for valve stems, wheel weights, etc. I'm talkin' NEW here not used. Also a good source for boxes for your wheel shipping needs, You would be surprised what retailers throw away. Used to get model car kits and tools and more out of a local K-Mart dumpster years ago.
I too am a bit short changed most of the time.And when I scored a repro banjo wheel on CL with no attachments I cut my old wheel (that was wasted)to use the mounting base, but it was ugly. So when I needed to find a cover to cover the mess where the wheel meets the column I used a can of beans cleaned out with the wrapper cleaned off.It gives it the corregated metal look, which kind of matches the factory 50 ford horn button.
I got a complete mid 30`s dodge front and rear axle with 4 mint 16 inch wheels from a local dumpster!!
I couldn't find a radiator hose with the bends I needed. A trip to the hardware store got me a under sink chrome P trap with the bends I needed. Just spliced the radiator hose I had and put the bends in the right place. Just to add.....while I am all for cheap, I prefer to buy my parts or find them for free, but not steal them from the stores.
If you have a small amount of toggle switches in your ride...you can by dice.....color of your choice....match a drill bit to just a slight hair under the widest part of the toggle....mark your drill bit with tape so you dont drill through...drill them out...add some loctite super glue or epoxy of choice....and you got custom switches. It aint much but it adds some flare
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