What's the best junkyard upgrade that you've done to your car?

Fun zombie thread revival.

I did a lot of junk yard scrounging for my 79 panther LTD. From multiple different vehicles, I got a set of p71 sway bars, fender braces from a station wagon, a certified calibration speedometer and speedometer gear, a set of 15 in steelies, and a set of dog dish hubcaps. 

Hood and deck lid. Door hinges. Intermittent wiper control. Odd fasteners....

The interior got a map light out of one of the p71s, and a set of bucket seats with integrated center console out of a cougar. 

I wish I still had that car. 

Hmm, not a ton of sweet upgrades. Mostly just factory parts to replace other broken factory parts. Although on my 2nd car, a 1998 Taurus, I traded my one good tail light and some cash to a junkyard for their two good tail lights, because theirs were from a 96-97 Taurus and had the yellow turn signal section instead of the all-red versions that were on my car. Fixed a broken thing AND got some sweet yellow bling! Woo 

I up-optioned my super-basic F150 with junkyard parts. Skidplates, tow hooks, door panels w/map pockets, bucket seats & console, aluminum wheels, Navigator sun visors w/Homelink, Kenwood speakers, K&N filter, sliding rear window, etc.

I built my 87 rx7 racecar with a ton of different car parts....  camaro trans.  S10 flywheel. corvette driveshaft. dodge truck diff yoke.  G6 engine.  L67 ecu.  Etc....

My favorite junkyard upgrade of all time is the jeep steering shaft (2 u joints) that replaces a g body steering shaft (rag joint).

Growing up I did more upgrades using junkyard parts.

Swapping out rear axles in trucks for better gears, changing out 3 speed column shift for an SM420 including all cross members and the driveshaft. 

The most recent one was adding factory Bluetooth to my wife's 2010 Sedona. The Sedona didn't get BT until 2011 or 2012, but the majority of the harness was there. I ended up getting the factory BT head unit, steering wheel controls, and wiring harness jumpers for the wheel controls from the salvage yard.

I had to get the microphone from the dealer, and that required searching online ads to find a vin  for a Sedona with BT and a gray interior so they could look up the part number. 
 

Left is stock brakes for my truck, right is from an '04-08 (I think) E150.  You need to change the upper balljoint to the E150 style, then the master cylinder and bolt it on.

Great upgrade.  Diameter increase of 1" and twin piston calipers. 

The red paint made so much HP for me.

Been getting Aluminum 17s over two years for both crown vics off several Towncars. Looks great and shaves around 80 pounds off the suspension over the oem steelies.

Cadillac 500 into a 66 Bonneville.  Monster torque.  Even with only three speeds and a 2.73 rear, first gear was useless for anything except melting tires.

I thought I had lived before that. I have driven cars with 1000 hp, but having a behemoth motor with such a huge, broad torque curve was an epiphany.  Everyone keeps looking for ways to add ratios.  4 speed overdrives, 6 speed manuals.  There I was craving a 2-speed powerglide and a LOWER stall converter.

Not my car but we put a junkyard 6.0L truck engine into his Chevelle and added an LSA supercharger.

Car is nutty.

Easy. Sway bars from an AWD blazer into my 2wd S10. Aside from the LSD, adding a rear bar to that truck was the single best improvement. 
 

I keep thinking of finding a later, injected 2.3 from a ranger and swapping it into my mustang, but I don't think I ever actually will. It's fun to think about though.  

First car, 1978 Delta 88 got a set of 15x7 Olds SSII wheels and a class III trailer hitch.

Second car, 1983 Delta 88.  Got 82 Delta 88 grilles, F-body front sway bar, 9C1 spindles and upper/lower A-arms, Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport steering wheel, late 80s Custom Cruiser dash panels for 1.5 DIN radio for the Pioneer DIN stereo it had.

The '67 Cutlass I had for a while got a factory 4bbl aluminum intake on its 330 Olds.

The pace car got the junkyard upper/lower A-arms, this time with Global west del-a-lum bushings installed.  Another WS6 trans-am donated its front sway bar.  It had a factory 4bbl intake until recently.  The rear Impala SS brake calipers, backing plates, park shoes and hard lines on the rear axle were all pick-n-pull items.

My c1500 truck got sealed beam headlight buckets during a 1/2 off day.  Same for the rear shackles.   Still have all the brackets and drop spindles to do a 2/4 drop on it if I ever get that far with it.  Got a junkyard VSSB and re-soldered the jumpers for the speedometer to read closer to stock with the 245/70R17 tires (30.5" tall).

My wife's old Ford Taurus got an SHO cluster and a cadillac rearview mirror with a compass to help her not get so lost.

I picked up a sweet '7' badge for my Locost build... Somebody had put it upside down on the trunk of a Lexus. 

Best junkyard upgrade to a couple of my cars was leaving them at the junkyard. 
 

Bam!!!!!   The junkyard was upgraded. 

Set of 87 Celica seats swapped into my 89 Toyota truck. Various shift knobs I found as well.

Sorry for the necro thread, I was searching for a different thread and after searching a while I thought, 'the hell with it, I'll post here'

M62 supercharger from a 94 Buick- $54

Jeep 4.0 intake manifold- $35

"Supercharged" badge from said Buick- $1