What's your greatest/favorite Grassroots modification?

I'm talking about something you took from wherever, and used it on your car and it turned out looking so good or working so well you can't help but feel a little proud at what you came up with.

I can't really say I have had one of these yet. I've fabricated some stuff and made parts fit on other cars, but nothing yet that's made me stand back and go "damn that works/looks good".

I've seen some super creative stuff on this forum though, and I want more of it (Recently Mr. Burrito combining Fiat and VW struts together to make a really sweet looking coilover setup). So show me that Grassroots spirit and feed my addiction. Please..

This is the favorite one I have ever done. (I still need to get this car reliably running so I can use it more often).

MGB James Bond Mod

Home made "tall-boy" shifter from some scrap aluminum, a 5 ball and a spherical bearing. Lathes are awesome.

Home made cool suit cooler. $29 drybox cooler, $11 marine fishing well pump, 2 $7 dry break fittings from McMaster... some tub silicone and wire.

E30 sedan fold down door panel because climbing thru the window is hard. $5 piano hinge... fist full of rivets.

$50 Variable Geometry Turbo on my Diesel Mercedes.

Insta-boost and 10 psi revving with no load.

I put a new-to-me engine in my Volvo, I bought said engine from another state and had is shipped to me. The engine was an older engine, but with fewer miles than the one I was replacing. I had never heard of Volvo Variable Induction System (VVIS) but the "new" engine had it, and my old engine didn't. I thought I'd just swap my old engine's intake manifold onto the new engine, but soon found out that the ports/runners were completely different. I had to keep the VVIS manifold on the new engine, but my car wasn't equipped with any means to control the VVIS, so I drove it with an inoperable VVIS for a few weeks after the swap. Since the VVIS was inoperable the car had no bottom end power, so I decided to fix it. A cheap RPM switch, a 3 way solenoid valve, a relay, and some minor wiring later, I had just "retrofitted" a working VVIS into my car.

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/i-did.html

http://www.ehadesign.com/~dsmith/shift-fix.htm

Subaru XT6 Electro-hydraulic power steering, rear mounted to the cage in an E30. (shown sans plumbing here). $35 pump from a member here, $110 worth of braided hose and a little more for banjo fittings to the BMW rack.

Wing support tied to the frame rails using 5/8 round tubing harvested from some old shelving and a cheap (but effective) ebay wing. Total cost: $49

rcutclif wrote: This is the favorite one I have ever done. (I still need to get this car reliably running so I can use it more often). MGB James Bond Mod

LOL. When I first heard the noise I was looking for a rotating license plate

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Home made cool suit cooler. $29 drybox cooler, $11 marine fishing well pump, 2 $7 dry break fittings from McMaster... some tub silicone and wire.

I've almost finished putting together all the parts for the same thing, I might build it this weekend.

I'm also DIY'ing the shirt.

Great ideas. Keep sharing!

Porsche 911 floor board:

An IC spray using garden store patio misting nozzles and an old fuel pump I found in my toolbox. I got a couple of seasons outta that pump, mildly amazing.

I've got lot's of them. Here's one of my favorites.

Plastic 7" halogen headlight with integrated LED turn signal/running light with modified stainless steel mesh protective screen made for jeeps set into modified headlight bucket. Lighter than stock headlight and not required to blue tape glass headlights at track days is a bonus. I did this so I could use the original park/turn signal openings for air ducts.

Then I used pieces cut out of old factory grills to keep debris out of air ducts.

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Okay GPS, this is exactly what I was looking for. That folding drivers door panel is just genius, and the cool suit box looks like something you'd pay $100's for.

Rally lights mount on my 97 Outback:

1. Scrap piece of a garage door opener
2. Some fender washers and bolts
3. Light bar with 2 Hella 500's and a couple of Bosch fogs - $85

I could jump up and down on that sucker and no movement or vibration!!

I would probably say my favorite is my shifter adapter. The rearward extension pieces holding the aft shifter cup is actually an old bed rail I cut up.

Other than that, I 3d print a fair amount of non structural parts.

Using 20$ civic eBay "coilovers" on my Celica, kyb age rear mr2 struts for my fronts, kyb agx camaro rear shocks on my Celica rear, and mustang GT springs in the rear. Total cost for semi adjustable suspension? 300$.

Hockey Puck Engine Mounts

Old Mount:

Hacksaw out the busted old stuff:

Heat the housing with a blowtorch to expand it a little, drill a hole in a regular hockey puck to make room for the bushing, and press into the hot housing with a bench vise. A little RTV around the perimeter to keep it in place

$4/mount

Has to be the bike water bottle/Cuissi steel bottle cage windshield washer fluid unit:

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In my 1979 323i. Suggested by a fellow GRMer, when I complained that I had to get rid of the stock unit after I put an oil cooler in its space.

I don't have pics, but when I was building my challenge car (1984,5,6) GLH, I needed something to hold all the switches and gauges in the place where the HVAC controls and radio used to be. I went in the dumpster behind work and found an old gutter. I took it to the wire wheel to strip off the paint. When I was done I had a nicely textured, aluminum panel. It looked great. I could have polished it, but I wanted to avoid blinding reflections.

Rad_Capz wrote: [URL=http://s240.photobucket.com/user/NOTATA/media/The%2014%20Car%20Safety%20upgrades/The14Carinterior480.jpg.html][/URL]

Your car gives me wood.

Mine would be the junkyard tbi injection i retrofitted into my 64 el Camino. So wonderful to drive now.

Or the ls1 brakes/jeep steering box/trans am sway bar/s10 bilstein shock combo on that truck.

Or the camaro 3.4 swap powered by 3.1 lumina harness/ecm swap in my s10.

I love making unrelated E36 M3 coexist happily. Next project is Chrysler seats, Dakota console swap into the elky.