What's the coolest thing you ever garbage picked?

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What's the coolest thing you ever garbage picked?

By teal_dx
- Thu Nov 14, 2013 1:40 am #338816 No shame in a little trash picking every now and then, right?

10+ yrs ago when I worked retail, someone threw a trampoline in the dumpster! I spotted the black canvas part and saw a bunch of other parts like the legs and frame. I dug every part out and filled 2 shopping carts up and then drove my car around and loaded it up. It must have gotten tossed because it was missing one of the curved frame pieces. So I bent one from pipe and jumped on it all summer then traded it for an old 8' slate pool table someone wanted out of their basement. Still have the pool table. :thumb:

A recent find was a 12v jeep power wheels sitting by the curb. It is old faded Barbie colors and the battery is dead (charger wasn't included) but I'm going to give it some fresh paint and teach my daughter how to drive.

It is just like this one but more faded. I already power washed all the barbie stickers off. :thumb:
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There will be a build thread!

That's all that comes to mind right now...
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By Leppy
- Thu Nov 14, 2013 1:51 am #338818 My brother threw away a 61 inch DLP TV... It stopped working on him, so after yelling at him, I grabbed it up and starting pulling it apart.

He replaced the projector bulb, and then gave up on it. Turns out it was just the color wheel. I'm still using it as my main TV.
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By nd1983
- Thu Nov 14, 2013 2:14 am #338819 back when i was 10 i grabbed a jeep similar to the barbie one painted it camo and tossed in a weed eater motor with chain drive.

best grab to date was a 1965 Johnson 5hp Outboard motor. the recoil was smashed with a hammer but otherwise it runs great. i'll get a pick next time i'm at my shop.
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By TrailerTrash
- Thu Nov 14, 2013 4:07 am #338820 I found a big ol set of bull horns like Boss Hog has on his caddy :thumb:
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By Apexracing
- Thu Nov 14, 2013 5:36 am #338825 My dad just picked us up a really nice riding lawnmower from the village dumpster site. It had no mower deck and it had a flat tire. He got a new tire and deck for it from a mower parts place for 150$. And now we have a riding mower for next year!

By rustyrex
- Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:42 am #338828 About 4 years ago I found a matching pair of Orion amps. A hcca 225g4 and a hcca 250g2. The guy said he was throwing them away because they wouldn't work. It turned out he was running them at too low of a ohm load. I still have them to this day.
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By #ROBIN#
- Thu Nov 14, 2013 12:57 pm #338845 i found a pair of sneakers... still wearing them today, i took the cool boxer shorts aswell but had a hole at the rear so i wear it in and around the house.

no care :thumb:











seriously though, in South Africa people dont throw things away easily...they either fix it or hand it down. I guess being a 3rd world country people here tend to want to keep their items running as long as possible. So no trash hunting for us.

So a little envious of your find Teal, I can picture the jeep the same colour as your eg for your Daughter? I think that would be tight :thumb:
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By TrailerTrash
- Fri Nov 15, 2013 4:11 am #338881
teal_dx wrote:
TrailerTrash wrote:I found a big ol set of bull horns like Boss Hog has on his caddy :thumb:


Tell me you installed them on something! :D


not yet :P

i might slap them on the handlebars of my friction drive bicycle when i get it finished 8)
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By teal_dx
- Fri Nov 15, 2013 3:08 pm #338896 Was in the garage last night and remembered another one of my favorite finds... I was driving my truck one day and saw 4 house speakers on the curb- saw the red foam on 2 of them and knew they were Cerwin Vegas so I slammed on the brakes and reversed and threw them all in the bed.

Two of them were CV 10" and two were an off brand 12" but the mids/highs didn't work in that set.
All four had sat in some water, the bottom of the cabinets were expanded. So I took the woofers out and let the cabinets dry out.

The CV's live in my garage, powered by a sony stereo someone was going to throw away (CD player doesn't work) and I took the 12" ones to the warehouse at work.

Here's a pic with the Pool table from my first post and the CV speakers.
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I get so much cool shit from work. Before it even goes into the dumpster my boss now asks me if I want it. Everything in that corner: 32" TV, PC monitor & old mac, Cabinets, even the Matco Tools sign (not real metal) were all picked before they went to the dumpster. The only thing I paid for in that corner was the barstools- $10 ea on Craigslist.

As for painting the Jeep, I'm waiting for her to learn some colors so she can tell me her favorite color. :thumb: In the meantime I gotta get another battery and fix the camber. I think some adults drove it cause it has some wicked negative camber up front. 8)
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By AutoXRacer
- Fri Nov 15, 2013 10:01 pm #338924
teal_dx wrote:Was in the garage last night and remembered another one of my favorite finds... I was driving my truck one day and saw 4 house speakers on the curb- saw the red foam on 2 of them and knew they were Cerwin Vegas so I slammed on the brakes and reversed and threw them all in the bed.

Two of them were CV 10" and two were an off brand 12" but the mids/highs didn't work in that set.
All four had sat in some water, the bottom of the cabinets were expanded. So I took the woofers out and let the cabinets dry out.

The CV's live in my garage, powered by a sony stereo someone was going to throw away (CD player doesn't work) and I took the 12" ones to the warehouse at work.

Here's a pic with the Pool table from my first post and the CV speakers.
Image
I get so much cool shit from work. Before it even goes into the dumpster my boss now asks me if I want it. Everything in that corner: 32" TV, PC monitor & old mac, Cabinets, even the Matco Tools sign (not real metal) were all picked before they went to the dumpster. The only thing I paid for in that corner was the barstools- $10 ea on Craigslist.

As for painting the Jeep, I'm waiting for her to learn some colors so she can tell me her favorite color. :thumb: In the meantime I gotta get another battery and fix the camber. I think some adults drove it cause it has some wicked negative camber up front. 8)


That my friend is probably the sexiest garage I have ever seen! Jesus! I wish mine was heated! lol
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By Flatland_EG
- Sat Nov 16, 2013 2:03 am #338929 Me and my roommate used to go dumpster diving all the time, damn gypsies ruined now, and we've found subs, amps, computers, bikes(mongoose, diamondback, haro, etc.), tons of other electronics like receivers, home amplifiers, speakers, and dvd players along with small knick knacks and oddities we grabbed simply because they were interesting JUST TONS OF GOOD SHIT! :D
99% of the stuff that worked or that we repaired and got to work was pawned or sold for straight up cash money. 8)
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By Virux
- Sat Nov 16, 2013 9:36 am #338936 lol my little story has been blogged http://www.spinchat.com/hp/DJGizmo/blog/id/228990 They aren't really subs though, lol. They're midbass drivers. Which is all I care about anyways so it's close enough.

Also my girlfriend's stepdad went to the scrapyard one day and brought back an 80's vintage Team Losi JRX2 RC buggy frame. He didn't even know what it was, lol. Snatched it, rigged the suspension and put in a spare Traxxas 550 motor and some spare electronics I had laying around, the thing flies and I speak from experience.
http://imageshack.com/scaled/1024x768/209/eb2j.jpg
http://imageshack.com/scaled/1024x768/35/mqgi.jpg


... and holy lawd that garage is so fantastic!
I thought having a normal garage would make me happy but I guess I'll never be happy now.
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