donor car
- Thread starter Johnny
- Start date
der Spieler
Member
Rick said:
And if the donor is in reasonably good condition you can salvage the parts you won't need and swap or sell them to get some of the things you need
donsrods
Member
I too like the donor car thing, you essentially turn one running car into another running car. But sometimes for some reasons it may not be the best way to go. First of all, you have to have a place to put the donor while it is being cannibalized. Depending on where you live it can present problems with code enforcement, etc. Then there is the problem of getting rid of the carcass when you have all the goodies removed. Generally, the rear axle has been removed, so if anything you only have the front end to roll it away on.
Even junkmen are reluctant to take non running cars away these days...........who would have thought they would be picky! :hb: I recently junked a 49 Ford to get some room in our shop and 3 of the 4 guys who advertise locally said they wanted running cars only. Finally I got the 4th guy to agree to take it away, only after telling him it was cut up into manageable pieces.
Finally, cars up until about the late 70's were pretty good donors because the motors, transmissions and rear axles were nice and simple. Now engines have computers and fuel injection (although these can be changed out for carburetors and regular hot rod stuff) but most of the cars today have coil spring rear suspension. With that you get a lot of unnecessary bracketry that you have to torch off to clean up the housing. The old leaf spring rears were so much cleaner to start with, just a couple of spring perches usually.
I personally like to buy a donor that was in a wreck and was hit in the rear. You know it was at least running when it got creamed, and a rear hit leaves the motor undamaged most times.
So yes, I still like the donor car thing, but it is not always the best way to go. Just thought I would give the other side of the coin.
Don
Even junkmen are reluctant to take non running cars away these days...........who would have thought they would be picky! :hb: I recently junked a 49 Ford to get some room in our shop and 3 of the 4 guys who advertise locally said they wanted running cars only. Finally I got the 4th guy to agree to take it away, only after telling him it was cut up into manageable pieces.
Finally, cars up until about the late 70's were pretty good donors because the motors, transmissions and rear axles were nice and simple. Now engines have computers and fuel injection (although these can be changed out for carburetors and regular hot rod stuff) but most of the cars today have coil spring rear suspension. With that you get a lot of unnecessary bracketry that you have to torch off to clean up the housing. The old leaf spring rears were so much cleaner to start with, just a couple of spring perches usually.
I personally like to buy a donor that was in a wreck and was hit in the rear. You know it was at least running when it got creamed, and a rear hit leaves the motor undamaged most times.
So yes, I still like the donor car thing, but it is not always the best way to go. Just thought I would give the other side of the coin.
Don
oldtman
New Member
My first build in the 50's was a 36 chevy coupe, we used a fast but broken frame 49 Olds. all the drive train and instrument panel, wiring Etc. but we had a thousand acres of storage space. and a big farm forklift .easy to change engines, bodies etc. some donors are a lot better than others. some cars have a lot of parts you can sell.. others have sat for a month with no response on the ad. we help out the local wrecker at car crushing time and he has been saving stuff with small block chevies , auto trans etc for us. Used car dealers don't want big cars these days. the last 3 chevy caprice's were undamaged running, one only has 70 k miles, the grandpa died and the grand ma didn't like to drive it.
