Post your best budget mods! ($50 or less)

[Indyuke]

Speaking of radio delete... PO had cut my dash so I made a radio delete plate out of a piece of .063 stainless. Masked of a little chevy symbol, painted the plate and then peeled the masking off leaving a shiny bowtie. Several pieces of 3M double back sticky tape and it's still firmly on after 3 years of daily driving.



While I had the double back sticky tape out, I put up some home depot heat reflective headliner to cover up the ugly left behinds of the stock headliner till I can get to it later. Trimmed it out with aluminum tape so the edges look pretty nice. It sure makes a difference in the winter, I can actually feel the heat bouncing off and keeping my head and shoulders warmer.

[FLDBRED]

Originally Posted by Indyuke

Speaking of radio delete... PO had cut my dash so I made a radio delete plate out of a piece of .063 stainless. Masked of a little chevy symbol, painted the plate and then peeled the masking off leaving a shiny bowtie. Several pieces of 3M double back sticky tape and it's still firmly on after 3 years of daily driving.

[IMG]http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/indyuke/P1040272.jpg[






















While I had the double back sticky tape out, I put up some home depot heat reflective headliner to cover up the ugly left behinds of the stock headliner till I can get to it later. Trimmed it out with aluminum tape so the edges look pretty nice. It sure makes a difference in the winter, I can actually feel the heat bouncing off and keeping my head and shoulders warmer.

That's nice! "the radio delete" I am going to do the same thing.This is a great thread,keep em coming boys!

[Longhorn Man]

here's a couple of the ones I've posted that I like...
Cleaning rust off the body... LINK

My clear roof mounted marker/ID lights... LINK


The already requested frenched marker lights... LINK To stay within the guidlines I posted, you could use a file, or a dremmel tool instead of the air cutoff that I used.
(texanidiot25's pic is better than mine)


Plywood bed floor LINK This may come in over 50 bucks now, but with a sn=maller bed, or cheaper plywood, it can come in under 50 bones.


No thread, but junkyard van tilds are always a favorite mod of mine. I have never paid more than 35 bucks for one (bought 10 or so over the years).

Washing and a full detail inside and out is always time well spent IMO, and it's hard to spend 50 bucks in soap and wax, use an old T shirt for an application rag if you get to the $50 limit.

I could probably go on and on

[sjarrett71]

FREE sway bar is my best mod to date. Of course I had to buy the bushings for $17.00 and nuts and bolts for about $5.00. I also upgraded to a CS alternator using a FREE alternator and a $2.00 resistor from Radio Shack. The headlight relays are the next mod I'm going to tackle.

[fair1138]

I built this console for under 50 bucks. Im just an average guy and gave this a shot. Never did anything like this before. Already had the gagues and shifter. The MDF and fabric was cheap. The fake diamond plate I picked up at Home Depot. Hope you enjoy.

[ricks71pu]

i got on this site, got a lot of good ideas, cost, free. people on this site, priceless!!!

[Already Gone]

ttt

[bollybib]

My Chevrolet was a Custor

But then I bought this great glove box door emblem from Ironhorse in the parts board for five bucks and glued it on with silicone I already had.

This probably doesn't count as a mod, it's more of a fixit, but I'm such a stock guy this is the edge of the envelope for me haha.

[Old Yeller 1970]

Replacing the lights in my instrument bezel with LED's. After installing them I could clearly see all the gauges at night for the first time ever. I bought white 5 bulb LED's off eBay for way less than $50. I tried some single bulb LED's but they weren't any brighter than the standard bulbs. The 5 bulb LED's are just right, IMO.

[Roadmarks]

Please tell us more about the LEDs! I have seen no direct replacement for the push in dash light bulbs. What did you do?

Thanks!

[Old Yeller 1970]

Originally Posted by Roadmarks

Please tell us more about the LEDs! I have seen no direct replacement for the push in dash light bulbs. What did you do?

Thanks!

The bulbs I used are direct replacements for the wedge shaped 194's that originally came in our trucks. They are usually listed as 161, 168, 194 bulbs on eBay or where ever you can find them.

[BBrendal]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller 1970

Replacing the lights in my instrument bezel with LED's. After installing them I could clearly see all the gauges at night for the first time ever. I bought white 5 bulb LED's off eBay for way less than $50. I tried some single bulb LED's but they weren't any brighter than the standard bulbs. The 5 bulb LED's are just right, IMO.

Does the LEDs still dim?

[Old Yeller 1970]

In the vein of clean up mods that save good parts from being replaced with expensive new parts, here's a little experiment I did cleaning up my visors. At the time I was living in Mis'sippi and my visors were nearly ruined by mildew. I experimented with several cleaning agents and you can see how bad they looked and how great they turned out below with some simple elbow grease and Gumout Carb cleaner.

[oldblue1968chevy]

Swaybar-15$ from my buddy then $25 or so for new moog bushings, then some paint i had laying around

power brakes-was on my parts truck, but you should pick one up for around $50 brackets and all

headlight relays-if i had to do it again i would get junkyard relays with nice sealed pigtails, but it really makes a difference in night driving $30 (relays,wire,misc connections, i had almost all of this in stock in my shop already)

cool thread i realy like it

[oldblue1968chevy]

brake indicator mod

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=425922

[pritch]

This would be for the Panel and 'Burb guys, but here is an easy map/dome light.

Now for full disclosure, this part is off a F*rd (Pritch ducking rocks and flaming arrows)

I had a '88 F-150, but I'm sure this part would be under five bucks at any junkyard.

For some reason, there is a threaded hole just above the rear-view mirror on Panels and 'Burb's



I ran a wire up the pillar (high degree of difficulty, BTW) and it lays in the space above the windshield and roof-(another Panel/Burb thing)

I then drilled a hole in the light assy. and screwed it to the hole. This ruined the dome light section of the light assy, but with a little more finesse and smaller-headed screw, the dome light could be retained. Of course, this would require running a second wire.



The light assy. don't match the curves quite exactly, so I made a gasket out of a .89 cent mouse pad:



It works very well and looks pretty good too, IMHO.







Another thing I do-not a specific mod, but a cheap tool that works well. Whenever I need to hone something or clean up the inside of a small bore, like a master or wheel cylinder, or any number of things, I get a piece of steel wool and a drill bit several sizes smaller than the bore. I use a cordless drill for this, because they seem easier to control than corded drills, but I let the steel wool wind up on the drill bit, and then use that as a hone. It works very well.



Another thing I sometimes do, and I know I'll get flamed for it, but when I can't afford to have my valves properly ground, I will stick the valve in the hole, then chuck it up into a (this time corded) drill and put some valve lapping compound on the seat area and spin that valve as fast as it will go while pulling up on the drill, like trying to pull the valve through the head. You need to be careful not to get any compound up into the valve guide area, but I've done this many times and again, it works very well.

[j3162978]

great idea on brake indicator idea, thanks

[bo-w]

well its not exactly a mod but im doing cap, rotor, plugs & wires tomorrow. best money spent is in maintaining the monster right lol.

[FLDBRED]

Awesome thread! I am already going to use some of these ideas.

[Hottrucks]

gotta throw out the zip tie plug wire holder...they work great and you can buy a bag for $5

also

Magic eraser works killer for cleaning vinyle

and

0000 steel wool is the best window cleaner also works on SS parts

[Roadmarks]

I think "Putter" has a dandy inside hood release if he'll post it! Pretty Please!

[Old Yeller 1970]

pritch, this is the second truck I've seen this week that has the ashtray converted to a cup holder. How is this done?

[lakeroadster]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller 1970

... this is the second truck I've seen this week that has the ashtray converted to a cup holder. How is this done?

Check out this link: Cupholder Conversion for Classic Chevrolet Trucks - Cups, Not Butts

[Old Yeller 1970]

Originally Posted by lakeroadster

Check out this link: Cupholder Conversion for Classic Chevrolet Trucks - Cups, Not Butts

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, after contacting Brother's I found out they no longer carry it because the supplier tripled the price. Looks like I'm SOL.

[wild4wheels]

Call me nuts, but I think that insert looks a lot like a rear seat cup holder out of a 96 Toyota 4Runner.