A write off is more than a quick date with the crusher or a trip to car wreckers sydney. Lighting workshops, farms, and even living rooms all throughout Australia is one of the spunkiest, most creative uses for obsolete automobile components lately. Actually, long after its final run around the block, a battered wheel or a rusty alternator has plenty to offer.
While artists and do it yourself fans utilize their ingenuity in another direction, vehicle enthusiasts share stories about iconic designs. Has anyone seen a contemporary glass coffee table set on four Ford Falcon alloy rims? Alternatively garden chairs created from a wrecked Subaru’s backseat? With some elbow effort and some welding, Junk turns into more “wow” furniture than “waste.” Talk about talking pieces: let them know your lamp was a Hilux crankshaft.
Using scavenge wrecker yards for supplies is much loved in schools and workshops. Great practical learning tools are engine cutaways. Auto classes and STEM projects those vintage cylinder heads are more useful than a stack of textbooks if you want to genuinely examine how the moving components really fit.
More is there. At Surry Hills, renovated, cleaned, and rewired ancient speedometers find themselves beeping to life in cafes. Strong, shiny, with a tick to match Big Ben, mechanics have built shop clocks out of brake disc rotors. Artists even delve deeply: grille pieces, emblems, and hood ornaments set on wood shown in galleries, or hung in man-caves and lounges.
Also seen by practical brains are opportunities. Rural Aussies feed buckets from robust as boots and convert truck tyres as garden planners. Either they cover agricultural buildings or serve as solar array backing from recycled steel panels. Those once useless windscreens turn out to be really effective sneeze guards or odd glasshouse windows.
Parts have second cracks in the most unusual ways. Some non profit groups even hold contests called “Build a BBQ from Car Bits,” where the inventiveness is off scale. Families show up blazing barbecues made from vehicle bonneys, drinking coffee at tables from axle stands, and watching their kids swing on tire chairs.
What looked to be a landfill becomes treasure, and the surrounding area finds relief in the process. Recycling transcends the melting of metal. Sometimes it is about sparking creativity and stretching every bit of value well beyond the end of the road.
Steer clear of counting off an old door you find worn the next time. With some imagination and fun, yesterday’s automotive component might be the discussion starter next month. Nobody knew your living room lamp might have crossed Great Ocean Road.