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While idly waiting for my car to be fixed at the local garage the blokes behind the counter reckoned profit on selling new cars was not good for the dealers. They make the money now by charging big bucks for parts. They estimated a £10,000 Focus would cost £40,000 to build from spares at market prices!
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This has always been the case.
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\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
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Didn't some guy do this with a Morris 1000, too many years back?
Got everything except a door handle, or something you'd think easily obtainable, from the spares available.
About 10 times it's cost if could have been bought new.
& everyone thinks I'm crazy!!
VB
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thats why cars vans and motorbikes are stolen so often ,the sum of the parts is infinately more than the whole 4x as much if those figures are correct.
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There's a song about building a car from spare parts.
I think it was done by Johnny Cash, does anyone know for sure?
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Well, I left Kentucky back in '49
An' went to Detroit workin' on a 'sembly line
The first year they had me puttin' wheels on cadillacs
Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by
And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry
'Cause I always wanted me one that was long and black.
One day I devised myself a plan
That should be the envy of most any man
I'd sneak it out of there in a lunchbox in my hand
Now gettin' caught meant gettin' fired
But I figured I'd have it all by the time I retired
I'd have me a car worth at least a hundred grand.
I'd get it one piece at a time
And it wouldn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'Cause I'll have the only one there is a round.
So the very next day when I punched in
With my big lunchbox and with help from my friends
I left that day with a lunch box full of gears
Now, I never considered myself a thief
GM wouldn't miss just one little piece
Especially if I strung it out over several years.
The first day I got me a fuel pump
And the next day I got me an engine and a trunk
Then I got me a transmission and all of the chrome
The little things I could get in my big lunchbox
Like nuts, an' bolts, and all four shocks
But the big stuff we snuck out in my buddy's mobile home.
Now, up to now my plan went all right
'Til we tried to put it all together one night
And that's when we noticed that something was definitely wrong.
The transmission was a '53
And the motor turned out to be a '73
And when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone.
So we drilled it out so that it would fit
And with a little bit of help with an A-daptor kit
We had that engine runnin' just like a song
Now the headlight' was another sight
We had two on the left and one on the right
But when we pulled out the switch all three of 'em come on.
The back end looked kinda funny too
But we put it together and when we got thru
Well, that's when we noticed that we only had one tail-fin
About that time my wife walked out
And I could see in her eyes that she had her doubts
But she opened the door and said "Honey, take me for a spin."
So we drove up town just to get the tags
And I headed her right on down main drag
I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around
But up there at the court house they didn't laugh
'Cause to type it up it took the whole staff
And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds.
I got it one piece at a time
And it didn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'Cause I'll have the only one there is around.
--
RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
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There are several urben legends about car plant workers building cars in their garages with half inched parts. Austin Rover as it was then, seems to be the favorite source. I heard a few about someone being caught with something as benign as a headlight hidden in his car on the way out. The security people went around to his house to see what else they could find and found a nearly completed car!
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There is a Sierra RS Cosworth registered on something like a Y plate that was built from brand new parts. I would imagine that it cost alot more than £40k to produce!
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During the late eighties, I was an apprentice at Cowley - you could buy bits at a hefty discount (from stylish vehicles like Maestros and Mongos!, so you can imagine the demand!) in what was V building. You were given a chit to get you past security with your prize.
I think that V building has long been knocked down, it was up at the North end of the factory, on the Eastern (Pressed Steel) side of the by-pass, and was always full of imported engines for the V6 800 series Rovers, and lots of obsolete tooling while I was there.
Number_Cruncher
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