The automobile has been, almost since its inception, a canvas for artistic expression. Whether it be a flourish of brightwork dressing up an exterior, or a particularly elegantly engineered mechanical element parts of cars can be the subject of aesthetic appreciation unto themselves.
I have a hubcap from the first car I ever owned—a 1961 Chevy Corvair—hanging on a nail in my garage. It’s actually one that I replaced on the car as it had been scraped against a curb by a former owner and exhibited the scar that encounter left. Today that scar is just part its history and I like the memories it elicits every time I see it.
With so many aesthetically pleasing automotive parts from which to choose—impossibly snaky exhaust headers; cool deco dashboards; voluptuous valve covers among them—is there a specific part from a particular car that you would like to possess just so you could gaze upon its beauty? What is the car part you would own just for its artistic merit?
Image: ©2017 Hooniverse/Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved
Hooniverse Asks: What Car Part Would You Want Simply For its Artistic Merit?
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36 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What Car Part Would You Want Simply For its Artistic Merit?”
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Reliant Robin – and make a track car out of it.
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Low-hanging fruit waiting to be harvested.
http://forum.caswellplating.com/photopost/data/504/medium/AdamP01.jpg-
http://images.gtcarlot.com/pictures/62444100.jpg
Not as good, but I prefer I4s, and almost bought one of these because the intake looks great (and it was cheap). -
I plan on salvaging the snakes nest from my SHO if it ever gets totaled…
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I’ll take a pair of these seats for the living room.
http://www.sub5zero.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/P8050078.jpg-
They’d go well with the shaggy I guess.
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One of the coolest gauge clusters ever is the one in the 1961 Chrysler New Yorker. It looked like glass half-globe with floating needles. Very jet age and I imagine incredibly complicated to repair if it ever broke.
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I actually have a BSA A65 rocker box cover that I bought just as a piece of sculpture. I am going to make a table lamp out of it. It will stand on four alloy rods, with some LED lights mounted under it.
https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/ByQAAOSwbYZXVMRM/$_12.JPG
…although mine looks more like this:
https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/311707614165_/Finned-Rocker-Valve-Cover-BSA-650-A65-Lightning.jpg-
Beautifully Art-Deco.
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This Alfa Romeo V6 has always been more sculpture than engine.
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–Ss7J7Sdv–/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/18d3kz8i4edwpjpg.jpg -
How ’bout a nice instrument cluster from a Heckflosse?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b85f1232fcfd543cad0cd77abb14bf226058f1b07efcbf09722a4b7eabc3d59.jpg-
What the heck is a Heckflosse?
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It’s the nickname for the W110, W111, and W112 series of Mercedes sedans produced from 1959 to 1968.
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Also known as the Fintail or “Finnie” Mercedes
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It’s what the dentist says to most patients.
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It’s what Brazilian women wear at the beach.
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While Dagmar’s Dagmars were real, this stamp sadly isn’t. It never made it to production, though it was an actual proposed design.
http://www.clcsocal.com/webpages/history/dagmar.html
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I could look at a Pagani shifter alllllll day
http://6886-presscdn-0-53.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pagani-huayra-gear-lever.jpg -
Plymouth hood ornaments from the 40’s and 50’s. They depict a ship sailing through the sea.
’41 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/564e16fdea250059b3838d04b3461532dfac05795af64f91be54ab63077ef324.jpg
’47 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57158ea8e9d4676810573e940feaa45b1250818d2c204d838444aaf266c32d3c.jpg
’50 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4a6aad930c0baecffb8f310f68fe834049c7a209fcf838e0866a57d1988cccd.jpg
’51 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a21bffb1aaca6cb48611858d225bf303490fb6639066a91e57b40ad01da20d9c.jpg-
There are lots of hood/ornaments & mascots that would fit here!
Saw this one a couple of years ago, appropriate for a French car!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dd20615e64ca43d6f492b6b90849d69afa83a7063d0f14169fcb8d9a92c3e52a.jpg
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i’ve got a firebird nose with the popups intact waiting to do this with
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Cool!
Is is possible to rig up the popups to work off a switch or remote? Because that would be quite the party trick!
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I’ve got the hood and tail lights as well. I want to make a like basement light fixture with em, so light strips along the sides of the hood, the tail lights at the back, and the pop-ups in situ, and it would all come on with the wall switch. I’m still working out the details
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Gremmie!
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Yep! A Gremlin is his dream car, so when he saw the grille at a swap-meet, he had to have it.
(His tastes are bit odd, but hey, that’s cool on the ‘Verse, right?)
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I’m pretty sure all our tastes are a bit odd. BTW, there’s a Gremlin still roaming the streets in my neighborhood.
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On the furniture front…
I’ve been wanting to make a coffee table out of one of these old TopKick grilles for years.
It’s a hard part to find in clean condition, plus I can’t even tell you the last time I saw one of these early 90’s trucks on the road.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63a79f9d0f625fe8140fd426c03296c7bdad4ad276f9dd01a4e28b58fd4cd631.jpg
Also, motorcycle cylinder blocks make great desk organizers for the architecture office.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/585aada9bf42e47145a55c12ef296e974d90ae7edbb8889fc30e6d198ca074a7.jpg-
Or you could use the Topkick cylinder block to hold your large T-squares. Might need to reinforce the desk though…
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I still have the banjo style steering wheel from my old Austin A40. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03f7f4894349e887e65179e14e0972d0386546792cefefe2f8492558f50c9c0a.jpg
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