Art & Inspiration Would you rather rescue/save a part or buy another one?

Taking a page from Beeno's book,I am a pack rat,when all my friends were removing perfectly good axles,spindles and bones out to replace their front suspension with Mustang II I was there to offer them a few bucks for the cast off parts,sometimes they were actually free. HRP

 

I'm cheap and usually have more time then money so I'll fix and use what I have within reason. Some things I put together temporarily are still that way 30 years later and wouldn't change now even with more money available than I had at the time.

 

"I went on Goggle and saw a guy just hone out the wheel cylinder and use the old rubber parts again{because it was made in the U.S.A. not China} and it worked .I did the same thing but found a brake puddle under the wheel so I guess I will have to buy the rebuild kits.Bruce."

There is still an independent brake shop near me where I can buy brake cups individually for a buck apiece, which is the only part you usually need to change. You can "hone" the wheel cylinder with a piece of fine emery paper around your finger while it's still on the car, thus avoiding the whole misery of broken brake lines etc. etc.
A friend worked for a used car dealer who had him do this trick on many of the cars, and it always worked.

 

With Beaner and Primer. Immediate need may force me to buy, not fix, but I'll be back to the pile of accumulated castoffs soon to fix, repair, improve or modify that which once worked.

 

Bruce when it comes to wheel cylinders most of the time a cylinder and a kit are almost the same price and if the new cylinder leaks you have a come back.

 

LOL my front brakes for the A are someone's castoffs. he was replacing bendix 2 piston brakes with GM metric floaters.

I got lots of stuff that has been following me around for a long time, someone's castoff, something that I replaced or up graded and lots of stuff that nobody thought was cutting edge enough. Leaves me in good shape to help someone out a lot. Need an oddball part, dig in the beaner's stash. LOL

I have discovered that rebuilt and repaired stuff multiply on the shelf. Do Not ask me how, some sort of a quantum physics space time continuum birds 'n' bees thing. About 5 or 6 years ago for example I put new brushes 'n' bushings in a GM 3 bolt starter, and put it on the shelf in the basement. Someone needed one so I said I got one in the basement that you can have. We braved the spider webs to get to the shelf and found 3 of them. All 3 had new brushes 'n' bushings. I may still have one or I may have a dozen.

 

I like the challenge of fixing things either back to they way they're supposed to be or improve on them. Comes from not having a ton of $$ to spend. When $$ is available I buy what can't be fixed.


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I think most of us like to tinker and fix old stuff.

If we just wanted new shiny stuff, we wouldn't be here.

 

Also, when you live in the middle of nowhere, and it takes weeks to get something by mail or the next swapmeet is weeks away, you can get very handy at fixing the unrepairable.
It pays to know a few Street Rodders because when they start a build, they will throw out all kinds of neat old stuff, because it's not shiny/blister pack/the latest trend.

 

Sunbeam.I hate to disagree with you .I went to a site where this guy deals in old Chrysler parts.Ther rebuild kits are $10 a piece and the cheapest I have seen on e bay for a wheel cylinder for my car is $39.00.Tough discion when your on a limited $$.Thanks Bruce.

 

It's my favorite thing to do! The cars I build start as such junk that I spend way too much time saving as many original parts as I can, even if repro stuff is cheap, original old stuff adds character!


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For cars that they make new wheel cylinders in china, you can get a cylinder for five bucks, or a kit for five bucks. But for the oddballs, you pay $30 or more per cylinder, it gets expensive.

I pretty much always replace the rubber parts in brake cylinders, unless they were already replaced recently.

 

You are right they are higher but Rockauto has them for less than $25.

 

I have a delima every day at the shop on this. Makes a difference when you have a customer paying you by the hour. Most the time I leave it up to the customer. I'm building a 34 Dodge right now. The original front fenders are rough, real rough and good replacements are hard to find. Gave the customer a choice, fiberglass or originals, originals will cost 3 times as much to repair with my labor as new glass. He opted for glass, I would of repaired the steel if it were mine. Sometimes I don't give them the choice, especially with trim, I just tell them it's worth the extra money to fix original rather then using crappy off shore repops.

 

What gets to me is when things are way over priced; I just won't pay it. This has led me through the years to buy tools and machines "To make my own" that are way more bucks than if I would pay the greedies. What started it all was a guy in New York wanted $800 for the rear license plate holder on a 38 LaSalle. This got me into the casting or foundry game. Next a guy in Canada thought he had bought all the remaining glass tops for the Ford Sky Liners and was asking $1300 for them. This got me into the molding game. When trim prices shot through the roof, up came roll forming. When license plates got over $125 I made my own, any state, any year. If it needed welding of any type, pressing, punching, braking, turning, milling, grinding (including centerless), forming, casting, gear cutting, or anything part or procedure used on a car I never had to leave the shop. Over
80 now but don't regret one bit choosing the dirty fingernail life over the biochemistry one I schooled for. I just wish the failing body and fading eye sight was thirty again so I could keep on keeping on. The down side is as each machine rolls out the door a bit of me goes with it. Bout cried when I learned my mandrel pipe bender that made beautiful headers, frames, and roll bars is now being used for making hospital bed frames.

 

Coilover don't feel too bad, if there's a car guy working there he might try to bend up his own rollbar at work like many of us would.

 

I think you have actually hit on something that is rather large and mostly overlooked by the majority of us. The big picture is that we spend countless hours repairing old parts. A project is just a pile of parts that have either been reassembles in a different fashion or repaired by us.

LOL I had opportunity to make license plates once, but appealed the decision. Best decision I ever made.

 

I bought an old 55 chevy fender a few years back for 5 bucks that was pretty rusted out over the brow and a pretty good portion in the back was too but all I needed was the head light bucket and the lower valance piece so good deal, stuck the rest in my scrap junk stash......fast forward a few years later, I bought another 55 that needed that side fender so one day out in the garage I got to looking at it and thought what have I got to lose. so I cut out the rust,shaped some metal and welded it back in.......hmm didnt look bad, a little later ground it down, added some filler and what ya know, a few hrs work and I had my fender.........That car ironically needed most of the exact extra 55 parts I had stashed back, It turned out to be a pretty decent ole driver..................

I guess in the end we have to decide what we want the finished car as a whole to be in the end when deciding the quality of stuff we use or the quality of work we settle on........

 

For me, its going to depend on if the part is for me, or a customer, and the difference in the quality and cost of the finished product. Many customers don't want to pay for my labor to repair items, if China replacements are available. They understand that if the "new" part is defective I may charge them to replace it again, but most people still think that "new" is better then "rebuilt".
Brake parts I tend to replace, most replacement parts are about the same cost as the kits to rebuild them, and around here, most original housings are pretty bad shape because of rust damage. Gene

 

So then are you saving the fenders to sell off or repair yourself? If someone wants to cast off original in favor over something else at least I hope the rest of us can have a chance at them.

 

If I can still salvage the original (made in AMERICA) stuff I will hands down. Due to it fits perfectly works better and lasts another xx amount of years. Shoot why not. Till of coarse a certain extent and that extent is if I can get it locally and it's minor and cheap heck why not. Also like others posted. It's a hobby.

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Yea coilover I know I would, for sure.

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depends on what it is , its use , and how fast I need it fixed , like last winter I had a air powered wiper motor that needed rebuilding , but since it was for a snow plow and used all the time I opted for a rebuilt one , but one weekend the rebuilder was closed so I had to rebuild one . now chickens teeth items , try to fix it as often the prices are more than what I want to spend to have it rebuilt or the down time .

 

I try to rebuild anything I can if not for anything but for the fun of just to see if I can lol sometimes it works out sometimes it hits the trash can or junk pile which I keep for a long time just in case I need a piece off it or someone I kno might need a piece I have, lol u gotta do what u can afford right, HRH


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Squirrel, that's the plan.Thanks Bruce.

 

Sun beam, I will check out Rock Auto.Thanks Bruce.

 

Yeah, actually I did. Found a guy that wanted to try and save them for his build, sold them to him real cheap. I hate throwing anything away.