I agree, lots of parts to be had. If I had the space, I'd end up with my own junkyard, saving corpses with usable parts for the rest of us. The last year or so I've been training my eye to see through the harshness of these left for dead cars. The grille surround was what caught my eye first, someone needs/wants it.
Because I’ve been messing with them with a little too much force I recently lost the driver’s side turn signal housing somewhere between here and Ann Arbor....
It’s my winter daily and it has around 156K on it. I haven’t had too much time to source any salvage yard parts for it although I do check Craigslist once in a while. The headlight assemblies have been giving me grief as they are out of adjustment and all the adjusters are inoperable. It seems they saw fit to mold these metal threaded nutserts into the plastic housings and now all of them spin freely in the plastic so removal of the assemblies is impossible.
I could also use a brake pedal, not kidding.
The car was givin to me by a client and dear friend when he was no longer able to drive it. Interestingly he had polio and didn’t have use of his arms for almost his entire life. He bought it new and had it converted so he could drive with just his feet so you can imagine how nice the steering wheel is.
I'd love to do that, but you'd have to do it almost as a charity. If it's a bigger yard, they're online. A smaller yard might not be online, so a lot of folks might not know about them. Aquiring pars represents the biggest challenge. As for getting, transporting, and then potentially installing them, the price could climb to the point, a regular shop would charge close to the same, and give the car owner solid ground if something didn't go right. A bored retired person, or a younger well off person could do it, but I think it would be cost prohibitive. I love the idea though!
Interesting, I would love to see a picture of those controls installed... or even on a bench. I was certified to install hand controls from 2 manufacturers into these car during that era. Got a look at a lot of very ingenious alterations when I went to the local vehicle outfitter for parts too, amazing what they can do to keep someone on the road.It’s my winter daily and it has around 156K on it. I haven’t had too much time to source any salvage yard parts for it although I do check Craigslist once in a while. The headlight assemblies have been giving me grief as they are out of adjustment and all the adjusters are inoperable. It seems they saw fit to mold these metal threaded nutserts into the plastic housings and now all of them spin freely in the plastic so removal of the assemblies is impossible.
I could also use a brake pedal, not kidding.
The car was givin to me by a client and dear friend when he was no longer able to drive it. Interestingly he had polio and didn’t have use of his arms for almost his entire life. He bought it new and had it converted so he could drive with just his feet so you can imagine how nice the steering wheel is.
I bet the liability insurance costs made up a sizeable chunk of that conversion. Thank you for the tutorial Matt, I will keep on the lookout when I next go scrounging for late model parts.
How in the world (aside from having plenty of cars
) have you managed to ONLY put in 4500 miles in 20 years?!? That's like me having a car that only goes to my parents house once s year! Congratulations, I think. I couldn't do it.
How in the world (aside from having plenty of cars
Are they really much faster, or just have more torque to launch the weight? I never really got to drive the 94-96 versions where I could find out. My 93 Buick was a nice machine, but I was always very pleased with LH cars and 97 was the year to get IMO... IIRC 96 was still bank fire injection, and 97 was sequential. Not going to go verify my memory right now.
... The sunroof models, like Matt's, were even a little tight for my taste...
