Betcha didn't see this coming...

reply to post by TheRedneck


try ( auto parts warehouse ) they have loads

just checked for you

Yeah this is something I have run into myself. It used to be I would call around to junk yards to find a part for an old car. Now they tell me they don't even have the cars . So what do you do? Pay lots of money for after market parts - IF they are being made. Sucks.

I currently have a 99 wrangler that I am replacing some non-engine parts on. At least this model (TJ) ran for many years and its a popular vehicle. I can find parts online but NONE of the local junk yards have even ONE single wrangler from 97 to 06!! I find that amazing

reply to post by maryhinge

Got a link?

TheRedneck

I had an old musclecar and when the junkyard I relied on for parts scrapped everything because the price of metal went up I sold the musclecar and bought my first japanese sportscar and you are spot on we consumers are herded like cattle and you often do not discover until the day comes when all of your efforts to stay free of the corral are thwarted by those who have nothing to do all day other than count your/their money and find new ways to make up your mind.

Now you still have a way out...all of those old fashioned skills you may have like welding can help you to reengineer a solution.

If you have your old radiator you can find out its capacity by plugging lines and filling it up with water till you see no more bubbles and then pour out into gallon jugs and that will help you determine.

find a radiator with same water capacity and similar dimensions and then "move" the radiator mounts if you even have to do that and weld into new positions. often a cutting wheel on a small hand grinder or a cutting torch will suffice and you may be able to mount by drilling new holes and screw into position in case you ever find the proper rad.

if you do this rework clean enough you may not even have to define your vehicle as custom or modified, might as well keep your name off "their" books as you continue to buck the system.

reply to post by gypsycat


I have wondered this myself but there is a big line between hoarding/stockpiling and being prepared for an emergency/catastrophe.
6 months food and water for 3 people is smart and doable, 10+ years for 10+ people is ludicrous especially if there are not 10 of you to stockpile for LOL.

After 6 months if things have not returned to normal or a close proximity they probably will not for a long time.
And if an event lasts beyond 6 months or longer with no signs of return then at that point it might be better to change your strategy than to continue sitting on a stockpile as a immovable target.

Wow...a Luv. I haven't seen one or even uttered that name in a LONG time. Coulda,woulda,shoulda but Summit racing or Jegs is great for an nice after marker NEW radiator....and you would be surprised at the price. I can understand the idea behind crushing melting cars that are x many years old, kind of a shame though, where will our children's children be. I mean that's a passage of manhood. Getting an old piece of cr@p car, keeping it alive by visiting junk yards. I think car are and will be more so disposable.
Anyway the point....what in our markets isn't artifically price controlled? Gold I do believe that many of these "buy gold now places on TV are actually the government trying to build its dwindled gold supplies back up...just a hunch. Seems many countries are asking for their stored gold at Fort Knox or God knows where back. All these things just really add to the overall feeling of impending doom.
S&F for the old memories for a gear head like myself.

reply to post by TheRedneck


I confess that I've not read ahead in this thread but have you tried personal, online parts purchasing? If so, and you were unsuccessful, rural areas such as I live in, have a surplus of older auto parts.

Well, it seems that teamwork does pay off... a radiator pulled out of another identical truck is headed my way from Colorado with a 30-day guarantee to make sure it holds water.

Thank you to everyone. This is one major heck of a community. I'm proud to be a part of it.

The conspiracy remains, though. Economic manipulation, in ways that we don't even think about until we try to break loose from a chain, and I fear there may be quite a few people who have tied themselves to a very heavy chain by investing in gold. I do see the same market forces being used that were used on car parts, and there is obviously a more pressing issue for powers that be controlling gold than controlling repair parts. The latter just makes more money for an industry which does provide a needed product and does employ a large number of workers; the former is nothing more than an eco-political control mechanism.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


seems to me like people are stocking up on anything worth real value : real estate, metals, water, food, etc.

reply to post by couldbeanyone


Food, water, vehicles, protection and fuel. That's all you really need if you know how to get by. Even then food and water reserves don't matter, though.

reply to post by Magnivea


throughout the media and such i've been noticing how things are changing along these lines. the housing bubble-- kicking everyone out of their homes en mass worries me the most. the banks own all the property, next to mc donalds and wal-mart. they are taking the land and every possible natural resource.

Here you go Redneck

Check this place out..If you search it says they have the radiators in stock

www.shopcarparts.com...(AND(make:Chevrolet,model:LUV,year:1980),AND(universal:1))&Vi=9941+4294962569+1588&y=1980&mk=Chevrole t&md=LUV

I know the feeling all to well The Redneck. It makes me sick to see all of the Aussie classics heading into the crushers here. For years my hobby has been restoring cars, in particular Australian Chryslers from the 60s and 70s. Cars at wreckers are getting very thin on the ground, and few companies are making new parts for them. Its a frustrating exercise for sure.

To me, what is worse is people who buy a perfectly good car, like a mid 50's Desoto ive seen recently, DRIVE it home, then cut the car in half just so they can mount the rear half (or front half) on a wall.

On the gold, theres a company thats popped up in the last year or two called Cash For Gold. They also have stalls in all the major shopping complexes here in Australia. I think there may even be one or two more. Ive never thought about it but this thread definately raises the question.

reply to post by TheRedneck


Just a suggestion and I hope it helps you and your son out. I rebuilt two vehicles from the ground up, a 1971 Dodge Challenger (440 bored to 505) and a 1988 Fiero GT with an Aurora Northstar and independent (dual) bank supercharging. Obviously the original rads ain't gonna cut the mustard. So what I did is I went to custom rad shops and in both cases had custom 5 core rads made. It cost me a bit, but they were the most reliable and long lasting rads I have ever put into cars. I'm sure there is still someone around who can take a couple of side tanks and solder in new cores, isn't there? They can't all be plastic side chambers now, can they? Or you could always take a newer truck rad and retrofit it to work in the vehicle. There's always a solution to every problem, it just requires a little critical thinking.

Cheers - Dave

I've always gone to a radiator shop and had them rebuilt. Do they still exist?

Metal prices have more to do with mining and production costs than supply. Most of the cost of metals of that type now are related to the insane cost of either mining or importing. I abandoned prospecting because if you find anything the costs are so high to get around the Fed's, you can't make anything.

A significant part of Golds value is due to extraction costs and most of those costs are caused directly by regulation and a never ending battle with the fanatical Sierra Club Lawyers. Their goal is the end of mining. Of course the worlds economy would collapse if they succeeded, but hey, what do they care as long as they get their huge salaries.

I have not checked lately but I'm sure Gold extraction costs are now at averages above $700 and ounce. They were over $300 in 1998. Before the Gold prices went up, mines shut down because you could buy it cheaper than they could mine it. Speculation was only a small part of the picture. When the balloon breaks, I predict it to drop to $750 or $800. Soon I think. The hysterical demand can't go on much longer. When the bubble pops a lot of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teethe will occur.

you go to a machinist he'll bring up skimatics for it. duh.

reply to post by TheRedneck


I remember my fathers Luv truck. Couldn't fit much in the bed, it was a god-awful yellow and rusted ridiculously fast. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that truck a Chevrolet/Isuzu product? Is there a chance you can acquire the needed parts from Isuzu?

(Sorry, I know that wasn't the point of the post. I let nostalgia get the best of me.)

You hit the nail right on the head with what will bring around the eventual total collapse of the world economy, and it's been done before.

In ancient Rome, the money lenders controlled the entire gold supply. At one point, they massively increased the amount of money (gold) available to the Roman Senate, who underwent a massive expansion project of public and military spending.

Quite quickly, the money lenders then retracted the amount of gold available (they simply didn't extend new loans when existing ones ran out - sound familiar) and the Empire found that it couldn't meet the payments on their obligations (sound familiar).

As the collapse came, the Roman Senate argued that they couldn't reduce military spending, and distracted the general public with more gory and more elaborate public events as things got worse (sound familiar)?. As the empire collapsed, so did the morality level of the people living within it (sound familiar)?

The collapse of ancient Rome was swift, dramatic, and contributed to 800 years of the Dark Ages.

I'm guessing that the collapse of the American Empire will be even quicker and more dramatic when the time comes.

reply to post by babybunnies

My God, talk about parallels. I hadn't even considered Roman history, but you're right. We are heading down the same road.

Awesome thinking.

TheRedneck

reply to post by Blaine91555

Yeah, they still exist. A rebuild will cost me $350. I have held onto that as a last option, but of course i now have a used one heading my way.

The prices are reflective of supply (and demand), but when you consider how few suppliers of metals there really are, it is easy to see how slowing the supply would increase price, cause older parts to be sold for scrap, and in the end increase both the demand for metals (because parts must now be remade and no metal recycling is even close to 100%) and the price. Now, if gold supply is restricted a bit, raising the price, it has the same effect of taking gold items out of circulation. While the objective in the case of gold would be more control of monetary policy, it works the same way as in the automotive parts industry.

TheRedneck