What is the strangest piece of metal you used?

A couple of metalworking posts have shown weird pieces of metal used to make body parts. A mixing bowl here, a bed pan there. What is the most unusual source for your rod metal?

 

Aluminum pizza pan hammer-formed into an air cleaner.

 

I used excavator vandalism panels for floorboards....
Afterall...metal is metal....

 

I had a few pieces of bronze and brass rod that came from my grandfather's house. I had gotten them around 1965 at age 10 and hung onto them, for no good reason. These date back to pre-1945, as that was when he had passed away.

Fast forward to 1982. I was involved in building a stock car and we had gutted the interior including most of the steering column. I now needed a bushing to support the steering wheel shaft bearing. I had nothing on hand and remembered my box of metals from 1965.

I poked around and came up with a 6" long piece of bronze that was perfect for the task. I chucked it on the lathe, did all that work, parted it off and then did the milling work that would secure it to the remainder of the steering column. I still have the leftovers and the rest of the 1965 stash waiting for the next time to use them. I think that my granddad would have approved the use of the material.

Bob

 

My boattail project is full of oddball metal....1954 Cadillac roof, salvaged porch post for some of the 1x1 tubing, various pieces of UNISTRUT, cop car roll bars and kick panels, and the transfer case mounting crossmember out of a WWII 4x4 ambulance.

 

A wheelbarrow tub for my lower rear quarters.

 

I bought a 40 Ford convertible in the late 90's that had a road sign post as the upper shock crossmember......

 

Aluminum cooking pot to replace a 7" headlight bucket that was so rusted that it twisted apart when I fiddled with the alignment screws. This was in the days of no money and lots of time.

 

I used a piece from a lamp for a steering colum bottom of steering wheel cover.

 

Coil springs from a variable pitch airplane propeller

 

<==== Buddy of mine donated a piece of stainless for the floorpan in my supermod. Got looking at it and found out it was Inconel, not regular stainless... Made interesting sparks when the car was running full of fuel!

 

Coleman lantern lower difuser
Spot light lense ring (not used on spot light)
Home lamp parts
dishwasher door springs
I drive past a steel mill everyday, and do a lot of work in there..
I find scraps of steel on the side of the road, and all over the place
have made parts for my cars with them

cant think of everything ive used
My wife wonders why im interested in the bake trays and pans at the store

and old appliances..check the backs of some of them..there might be some cool louvers back there

 

Made a grill for my daily out of an old stainless steel fryer.

 

Red Greth (of Speed Sport Roadster fame) was remodeling an old adobe house up here and we knocked out the old concrete shower stall (nasty) which had a chrome bar of some sort for the curtain. We dug it out of the wall, and it was a 30s headlight bar-complete. It's now a towel bar in that bathroom.

 

My firewall is a Yardworks wheel barrow......

 

Didn't have to go far for these -- transformed the sides of my hood into a set of running boards ..............

 

This guy uses refrigerators, washing machines and driers to build his cars:

 

Here is the mixing bowl used to make the upper corners of the cab.

 

Ever try to machine Stelite?? That stuff chews up carbide inserts like their going out of style..

 

Real Estate For Sale signs for floor boards

 

A kids steel wheelbarrow turned upside down and welded to the hood of a 55 Chevy to clear the tunnel ram.

 

I've used a dryer and washer for the complete floor of a GPW Jeep.

 

building a tee bucket for a guy, 2 X 3 frame, needed a 3 inch tube for front cross member, was going to turn down the ends to 2 7/8 , model a drive shaft housing is 2 7/8 OD heavy wall, worked perfect.

 

The grill is made from gutter guard

 

the rear stake pockets on my truck are made from the sides of my old dryer

 

Used gas pool heater panals to patch floorboards.

 

Freon bottle for my tranny tunnel.

 

Miniature Radio Flyer wheelbarrow bucket for a hood blister on a post-apocalyptic movie prop car.

 

My Dad used a couple of fairly large 7-UP signs as patch panels( the door skins) for a 1950 Ford 2-door. Then he painted them with a brush. He bought the car for $25, drove it for 5 yrs until the exhaust manifold fell off the block. He traded it in for a used 1960 Falcon and got $25 for it. As he was signing the deal a guy came in and bought the 1950 Ford for $75.
George

 

A scum bag who owned my car previous to me, not sure which one as I am sure this car changed hands many times, used rain gutters for outter rocker panels. This picture is what started my road to the poor house.. hahahaha......