Custom parts from the trash; what's old is new, etc.

[W Humble]

Despite all the fine resin and printed parts now available, I still rely on salvaged/repurposed items for many of my builds.  I've been saving packaging (especially clear plastic for windshields, etc.), removable parts, and even toothpaste-tube metal for my old-school kits.  Another source, despite some drawbacks, are used-up toys; some very wild shapes and fitments are even available in the "Kids Meal' offerings at a local fast food, and the plastic is okay.  I recently made a 'modern' engine top-cover for a scratch-built Diesel V-12 (okay, but it's a model!) from a ribbed section of 'nose-hair trimmer' from Harbor Freight!  Some great small black 'wheels' (thinking wheelie-bars) from a vertical blind we replaced!  Long, strong plastic 'wands' can be salvaged from window-blind controllers, and a really neat oval tube that works well from the stiffeners on some curtains.  Small rattle-can tops -- like kitchen sprays -- cut down into great wheel tubs for big slicks.

The 'click' style ball-point pens often yield really nice chromed metal rings and fairings -- I'm making a set of those torpedo-shaped headlights (L&G? L&?) from two tips and chrome cap rings with kit parking light lenses -- and the push-down tops can be sawed into very convincing 1930-40's air filters, esp. for side-draft carbs.  I make distributors from a pop-rived (shaft and base), carefully cut section of chromed brass radio antenna (cut with roller tubing-cutter, which forms a nice even chamfer), and plug wire of choice.  The olde-school antennas do very well as exhaust extensions, especially the typical 'pencil tip' so loved of used-car dealers.  I haven't really put any time into making belled 'scavenger' tips from them, but I'll bet it's doable.  Good collectors for solder headers, as well, and they don't need Molotow paint!  

My best repurpose so far was to graft a gen-II TransAm roof and windows from a broken plastic TOY onto a roofless JoHan '61 Chrysler (broken back in the 'sixties when stored when the Draft caught up with me!) which, with scale 6" extended fins and huge modern wheels/tires, looks really fine.  Even the toy interior adapted very well!  For the record, I also use Parks distributors, etc. and some resin rims, but not a lot.  It's sort of a fun challenge to attempt to scratch up nice builds with modest resources.  Find the old Spotlite books on car models from c. 1962-5 and see!  Thx for all the parts help, forum cats, also!!  Wick

[W Humble]

Aaugh!  I forgot to add: watch out for non-polystyrene bits in salvaged parts!  Polyethylene doesn't glue very well with kit cement or CA; usually if I'm forced to employ it, I use two-part epoxy.  The latter can usually be detected by it's greasy feel.

 

[deuces wild]

Foil candy wrappers like the ones Kit-Kat used to have... I used that chrome foil on a '68 Dodge Dart and it turned out ok... No glue required...? 

Another one I've been looking at lately is the Pop Tart wrapper... Almost looks like a bright stainless steel... great for doing window trim... But that needs a real thin glue.. For plug wires, you could buy those cheap ear buds for your cell phone from any dollar store.. Those have 30-32 gauge wire..

[Ace-Garageguy]

Heckdarn...half the real parts I use to build my own cars come out of the trash.  

Just today I rescued a pair of nice OEM seats out of something fairly new from the scrap dumpster.

They're way nicer than the shredded bench seat that's currently in my '89 GMC. Clean 'em, dye 'em, good as new.  

Edited February 8, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy

[Bainford]

I'm also a scrounger of stuff for model building. Pop can aluminum, cat food can aluminum, and disposable turkey roaster pan aluminum make great scratchbuilding materials. Every piece of electronic equipment that is disposed of is first disassembled to harvest the model parts & supplies hiding within. Old o-rings have possibilities. Cigarette package foil (from the days when I smoked). Any piece of plastic or metal with interesting shape or texture is scrounged away. I used to save any automotive light bulbs for the filament, but I just buy cheap ones now as unused filaments are more robust. So many things. Been doing it since I was a kid. It fun making use of some random bit of scrap for a model project.

Edited February 8, 2022 by Bainford

[NOBLNG]

I scrounge stuff too. I have used candy bar foil for rear view mirrors.

[W Humble]

My only modeling pal is a nephew 70-miles away, but we share stuff, paint, parts.  I just found part of a plastic product box, a lid, that has possibilities for casting 1/25 tuck n' roll by the 7X5" sheet, which we think has possibilities.  Also, I'm itching to try some panels from 3M N-95 masks which might simulate a square-tufted upholstery; have a radical '60 Impala (not my late, lamented year-of-issue one!) that might get this inside the stock seat/door inserts, IF it works.  There is also a exhaust-flap guard that might work on some bizarre 1/18 creation.  I too save micro-wires; I have used up a mile of the old phone 'spaghetti' colored wire; a bro-in-law does phone line contracting. :-<)

O-rings are a natural, and Harbor sells them cheap -- but they are hard to glue in, unless stretched in tension.  Those big diameter plastic clothing hangars have decent material, some nice curves, and I guess could be heat-bent?  I also took the heat-shrink tubing idea to heart, but boy when it is hot enough to shrink -- styrene is read to melt!  Good on solder exhausts, tho.

Thanks for the feedback; lets keep this ball rolling, as I see ideas I can use popping up already!  The old pros!  Wick

[Leica007]

From the pens mentioned above I use the springs, the sizes are good for front coils and coilovers. But never thought about the other parts.  Thanks! The plastic cookie trays and other bakery trays that have ribs can be used for for rolled upholstery, and I cut my headliners from styrofoam plates (only use acrylics to paint and use double side tape to attach). Medical duropore tape can be cut into 2 or 3 mm strips for seat belts/harness and painted any color (looks like real webbing material) and it's adhesive.

Like the wire source from ear buds.

[W Humble]

Yeah!  I have an AMT street rod I built about 1962 with pen coils... that I had to rebuild partially because I couldn't get 'em to work, tho the idea was a winner!  I find stuff inside them for magnetos, F.I. fuel pumps, and lots more.  I convert all my kits to wire axles partially because most of them tend toward the 'curbside' level, and partially because it seems like they don't get stuck up with CA or Testors (your brand here____), but I don't like the fronts on Detroit iron to have the old promo wire through the engine block, so I use aftermarket tubing with brad/nails shoved through from the inside and trimmed to the right length.  The styrene tubing can be located in the old-style platform frame at about any level for getting the 'in the weeds' look, or even the 'jacked -up' super-stocker attitude of my era, the early 'sixties.  Plus a dab of Vaseline on the axle keeps it reasonably mobile.  I know the later plastic axle spindles look more realistic, but they are so fragile and the glue... !   An number of my kits are older than '61 or '62, and have to have the hood opened and a reasonable facsimile of the stock engine compartment created: firewall, suspension, and the usual accessories -- to say nothing of requiring an engine/transmission provided.  It's just fun to plant a Tri-Power 389 in a '60 Pontiac coupe when it never had one in the beginning; most guys don't even realize the 'enhancement', but the engine/trans is the soul of the car, right?  Whee!

[TarheelRick]

There are always the popsicle sticks cut down for bed floorboards in older pickups.  Another use for ink pens, especially those large round ones, is to split the barrel down the center and use them as headrests on roadsters (sporty types); similar to the D-type Jaguars.  I have also used packaging trays from cheap cookies to make a sleeper bed for my 1/32 race car hauler, simply sprayed it with photo cement than flocked it, looks quite impressive.  And yes, I do have a large selection of clear plastic packaging in multiple shapes.

[W Humble]

I'm using half a 'bomb' from an aircraft kit for a 1/25 headrest on my old T-bird 'roadster'.  Not a big late-Bird fan, but the Sports Roadster is a wonderful adaptation of a convertible; impractical but so seldom seen in 1/1.  Dental floss 'boxes' are always handy, as are some of the Rx inhaler containers, and White-Out dispensers.  A hobby within a hobby!  :-<)