or "it's just a 305". here's a post i just put up on the book of faces about a stupid 305 that i built for my stupid Camaro for a stupid trip...
anyone else have any similar tales of becoming emotionally attached to a car part that doesn't seem like it's worth it?
I have a new Track Bar for an XJ Cherokee with a 5" lift I've had for 10 years.
I haven't had a Cherokee in about 9 years...
I also have wheel bearings, brake hardware and other small stuff from my Samurai's, they've been gone for even longer.
They just remind me of a time when life was easier (not better, just simpler).
AutoPower 6-point bolt-in roll cage I had in a '87 Escort GT in the early nineties. I later sold the car but kept the cage... ya know, because. It's been stored in my shop, the basement and rode around the back of my truck for a while. Bet I'm the only guy on the block w/ a roll cage on the front porch. Ya just don't get rid of stuff like this.
Well, the birds since claimed it as a perch and the porch needs painting. Last night on midnight shift I ran across a gear head that builds some interesting off the wall stuff. Ran it past him and he'll gladly take it. I couldn't give it to just anybody though, I know he'll build something cool w/ it.
I had a 4150 from my last big-block Ford that I refused to get rid of.
I used it as a diagnostic carburetor at work. Had a 289 that was both lean misfiring AND fouling the plugs. Ran like donkey poo. No amount of tweaking or upgrading the ignition was solving it. Swapped on ol' 3310 and magically the car ran 500 times better. Note that this is a 750cfm carb on a 289 Proof that once again, Demon Claw carbs absolutely and completely suck in all ways that aren't "being shiny" and "having good advertisements in the magazines".
It's now the throttle body on my RX-7, which probably makes more power than that 460 did.
I work on cars for a living, and we develop an unnatural attachment to good-but-useless parts. We have shelves full of wiring harnesses, half-sets of brake pads, sensors pulled from engines (or cars!) going to the junkyard, boxes of relays and fuses, etc. However, these things are kept because they might be useful someday. Like that 4150 carb.
Another example: The past week or two, the shop owner's brother has been occupying the place replacing the soon-to-be-dead 3.2 in his Legend with a 3.5l. This entailed a lot of fabrication and he also swapped the cams and intake from old to new, put on a set of OBX headers which required some tweaking and fiting and the collector sucked so he grafted on a merge from Vibrant, etc. (Gearhead-ism runs in his family. He also did a 6-speed swap when he bought the car) Every now and then he needed to make a bracket, or a spacer, or something, and I'd pull something from the Stock of Stuff. He'd ask if it was okay to use, and I'm like, no, that (bushing/chunk of wiring harness/whatever) has been sitting on the shelf waiting to be used for something for probably eight years. Use it or we're just going to throw it out someday when we need to make room for more stuff.
I have a strong personal attachment to anything small and shiny and keep my stuff in what once was a china cabinet.
There's also the recurring dilemma of needing something a few days after you've finally thrown it away because it sat collecting dust for several years.
never.berkeleying.fails.
There should be a term for that, like "GRM's law" or something.
One of the reasons that the Range Rover is still dead in the backyard is because there was a time long ago where wedging that particular Rover V8 into a 914 was a hot setup. I always wanted a 914. I never did get one and probably won't and even if I did the world has moved on from stuffing Rover motors into them, but I still wonder.......
Just my 5 inch tach, it was the first aftermarket tach i purchased and it has moved around alot of cars in the last 12 years. Most of them not really needing a 5 inch tach and shift light
i just seem to want to put it in everything!
If I ever get organized I suspect that there will be a shelf somewhere with enough taillights for two dozen trailers.
The_Jed wrote: There's also the recurring dilemma of needing something a few days after you've finally thrown it away because it sat collecting dust for several years. never.berkeleying.fails. There should be a term for that, like "GRM's law" or something.
I wonder if the law can be rigged in reverse. Like, if I save some LS1 parts for a few years, then throw them away, would I come into a $500 C5 that needs a set of injectors or something two days later?
I have a set of Ronal R9 wheels with track tires that I'm keeping just because I like them.
I've been dragging around the radiator I blew up in my Miata at the Ascutney Hillclimb for years now. Cracked clear across the top.
I've been dragging a rubber duckie named Herb from car-to-car.
Does that count?
i have an old tired 307 chev, its been a brutal spare, circle track, street, even in a boat, it leaks looks like hell, but keeps running, it brought me back to canada from florida. i can't get rid of it
I have a complete factory leather interior from a 1995 Neon. I sold my last Neon in 2007. I have even actually tried giving it away, but karma somehow wants me to keep it.
I still have new rear wheel bearings for an A4 that I haven't owned in about 4 years.
I have a collection of Recaro seats. Three spare pairs and one pair in my GTI.I also have a second set for the Miata and a set of Viper seats serving as den chairs. Until this thread I didn't realize I had a problem.
My former dining room looks like an explosion in a tiny, shiny parts store:
My car parts are valued inversely proportional to the wifes disposal desire.
I have a crank and set of rods from 4.8 that I have been hauling around for a few years. I intended on building a 328-331ci (big bore, short stroke) LS motor with LS3 heads and ASA cam.
I know the day I sell it, exactly two days after that, LQ4/9 shortblock will fall out the sky into my garage. Because that's my luck 
I have a Ford manual trans that is a 4 speed, but it's basically a good ol' 3 speed with a shifted overdrive. Came out of a 78 Granada and was going to go in my 69 F100 to get a little better highway gear. It's a bolt in swap once you shorten the drive shaft. Even uses the same clutch.
I sold that truck in....'98? no...'97.
I keep thinking it would make an awesome trans for a DD rat rod or old lead sled. Which I'd ;love to build one day. And it's the only one I've ever seen...so it gets to hang out under my workbench.
Gasoline wrote: My car parts are valued inversely proportional to the wifes disposal desire.
My father had a complete Norden bombsight and about 250 ft of 1/8" fiber optic cable that my mother threw out one day because she was tired of looking at them. They had been in the basement for years so I couldn't really see the aesthetic issue. Never did figure out if it was malice or stupidity.
I seem to have...6 sets of wheels for my ms3? I've even tried to sell some, no dice.
I have a 1.6 8v out of my 1977 Rabbit that I rebuild in school. It has never run, and never been back in the car. Probably never will, but I keep it, stuffed behind my work bench for all eternity for no real reason I can justify.
I'm currently looking for a set of valve springs I have in a box around here. I've found several other stray parts I forgot I had, but still no sign of the valve springs. Heading to the basement now to move the assorted boxes of parts that might someday get used to see if they wound up down there...
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