Crash creations: A new purpose for old car parts

At some point we’ve all been there. Our much-loved vehicle starts to die. Whether it starts to rust away, something rather important breaks or we just can’t afford to maintain it, the result is often an ugly mess sitting in the driveway.

In the midst of experiencing the above, I realised that more can be had from your broken car than just a couple of hundred bucks from the broken car collector. You can recycle car parts into useful and sometimes incredibly cool stuff.

ENGINE COFFEE TABLE

An engine can make a base for a coffee table.

If you happen to have a busted engine lying around, why not make it into a coffee table?

We’ve all admired Top Gear’s V12 coffee table as seen on the popular BBC show’s set.

Trying to buy one will cost you an arm and a leg, but you can make something similar if you happen to have a broken car with a V6 or V8 sitting around. At its simplest, all you need to do is disassemble the engine, give it a thorough clean (you want to be able to eat off it after all), make a base and table top, and then connect it all together. I am in the process of making one out of a Subaru flat four.

DIY RACING SIMULATOR
If you’re into your racing sims such as Gran Turismo or Forza, you’ll know how expensive the full racing sim set-up can be. But you can make your own from lower spec controller sets and used car seats. Most modern cars have excellent bucket seats as standard, and some older Japanese cars came from the factory with some that are incredibly close to being race seats in their own right – think Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Evolution seats as an example. You can find them on Trade Me and at wreckers’ yards for a reasonable sum.

Add these to a wooden base, add a steering wheel/pedal box controller combo to suit your gaming needs and you’re sorted for less than half the price of a full-blown sim kit.

If you need to accommodate more than one person you can make a couch from used back seats. Units fitted with a fold-out centre and cup holders would be our pick as they can be made into excellent versatile couches with little effort.

TYRES

Tyres used as pots at South Auckland’s Drury Tyres. Picture / Mathieu Day

Happen to have a few old tyres lying about? There’s a multitude of options to repurpose your old rubber. The best part of repurposing old tyres is the most sophisticated tool you’ll need is a hacksaw to cut through the inner canvas and wire just below the rubber surface.

You can use them as handy planter boxes, or cut them up and make anything from edging to interesting garden sculptures.

Tyres also make great swings for the kids, as seen in almost every family movie from the 80s and 90s.

HALF-CUT BARBECUE

Small old car front ends make excellent barbecue stands.

Did someone write off your car from one end? Cut the good half off and make a barbecue.

Not for the faint-hearted, the task of chopping a car apart and building a barbecue into the engine bay is one of the more extreme ways of keeping your much-loved auto in your life. Apart from needing to think of how you’ll manoeuvre a large barbecue into your garden (Driven recommends swivel wheels fixed to the bottom), you’ll also need to think of disposing of wiring and other non-essential equipment. It also will take up more space than your average barbie. That said, it would make a great feature in a car-themed garden.

Smaller cars such as Minis, Morris Minors and VW Beetles that are beyond returning to the road can make some cool garden additions with a little help.

SEATBELTS
Seatbelts are made to be durable, and using some weaving skills you can make bags, cushion covers and even replacement canvas for your favourite deck chair.

UTE TRAYS
It’s become more common to see wellside ute trays becoming trailers these days.

Conversions are towed behind all sorts of vehicles, often mimicking the ute that is towing them. Not only does a trailer made out of an old wellside ute tray look good, you get the same functionality as an aluminum trailer, only it looks much more stylish.

Unless you are a welding whizz, this is probably a job for a professional, as it will need to then be registered and warranted for New Zealand roads. Alternatively, an old ute tray can be made into anything from shelving to benches.

• Since cars have literally thousands of parts, the only limit to what you can repurpose is your imagination. Show us your creations at Facebook.com/DrivenNZor Instagram.com/driven_nz

-Source: NZ Herald