Automotive (non-race)

[Rhea]

Every now and then my husband and I have a “date” at the junkyard. They had two ”new” copies of my commuter car there this weekend, so I went hoping to get a colored dash panel to replace my boring black one. Rollercoaster of emotions. Found a lovely yellow one and pulled the dash, but when we took it out to mine, it was too narrow for the more modern instrument panel. It would have looked so cute!

And the other one was a sport model with nifty-looking alloy wheels, but alas, too wide for my model. They would have looked nice.

I left with only polished chrome pedeal covers. Still it was a fun day looking for parts and go-fast goodies.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Every now and then my husband and I have a “date” at the junkyard. They had two ”new” copies of my commuter car there this weekend, so I went hoping to get a colored dash panel to replace my boring black one. Rollercoaster of emotions. Found a lovely yellow one and pulled the dash, but when we took it out to mine, it was too narrow for the more modern instrument panel. It would have looked so cute!

And the other one was a sport model with nifty-looking alloy wheels, but alas, too wide for my model. They would have looked nice.

I left with only polished chrome pedeal covers. Still it was a fun day looking for parts and go-fast goodies.

You should paint it yourself. Duplicolor likely has what you need.
After I backed up at the self serve car wash with the wand hose hooked on my side view mirror, I primed, painted and clear coated a new mirror myself. Followed the instructions of the multiple coats needed and wore a P-100 respirator.
Been splattering bugs for a few years now and is still holding up.

 

[thebeave]

Junk yards are great...highly undervalued. I haven't been in one in years, but it was a savior in my younger years when I was poor and needed a special, rare part for my Toyota truck (Cold start injector as I recall). They didn't have my model truck there, but there was a Camry (or Corolla??) that used the exact same device. IIRC, the Toy dealer wanted over a hundred for a new one, but I got mine for less than $10 and it lasted the life of the truck. Even picked up a few other little doo dads that I didn't immediately need, but thought they could be nice to have on hand.

 

[Rhea]

JUnk yarding is one of the skills we intentionally gave our kids. Then my daughter’s car got hit, and when the insurance company totaled it and gave her $1,800, we told her to keep the car, and took her to the junk yard and she replaced the fender and door for $112. She enjoyed doing the work and made a little tiktok out of it. Now she has a car at college that no one is likely to steal, because she chose to get the door off one junk, and the fender off another, and neither matched the base color. There was a car there of the right color, but that was not her vibe that day, so a tri-color car with a stick shift in a college town - she can practically leave the keys in it.

As a life skill - it can save you thousands of dollars.