I found 3-4 motorcycle salvage yards in Portland; Travis and I set out to take a look at what they had to offer last week. The first one we went to was between our two houses (incredibly convenient...), and had tons of parts to take a look at. Wheels, brakes, engines, frames, etc etc..

Our first goal was to find wheels. I wanted the tallest spoked motorcycle wheels I could find. The largest standard motorcycle wheel size is 21", and this would have been plenty big.

Poring over the pile, we found.. and I still think this is totally incredible... 2 23" motorcycle wheels! C'est Incredible!

Or, as they say on pimp my ride... "I'm riding on 23's yo!"

We also fount a 19" wheel to put on the rear of the car, with it's brake totally intact and ready to use (you can pull on the mechanism and make it engage, very nice...)

These bad boys will allow the center of gravity to be so far below the axle line, we'll be able to corner on.. Hmmm, words can't describe how good the cornering should be... hehe

I decided to use a steering rack from a real car -- I suppose I could make a rack and pinion out of plywood, but I want to finish the car sometime this century.

I called up one of the local wrecking yards, they said "We only have power steering racks, you'll have to go down to the U-pull-it". So I did.

Actually convinced Cecilia to go along with me, and we had a lot of fun (really!). Found a 92 Geo Metro with the engine removed but with the transmission still in place. Not being terribly familiar with how U-Pull-It's work, I didn't have enough tools, so we couldn't quite get it out. I only had a ratchet set, and I needed a box end wrench to remove some of the bolts (they were hidden behind the transmission).

I also stabbed myself on jagged metal while trying to remove the castle nuts from the tie rod ends.

So we went home, and I came back the next Saturday with Dan Koster, who's always game for some crazy scheme or another. The Geo I was dismembering had disappeared, but we found another Geo that had both the engine and the transmission removed (yay!), plus the hub and uprights had been removed, so most of the work was done for us.

Dan has this impurturbable good luck field, things just always seem to go right for him.

At one point we thought we needed an adjustable wrench, and were standing around, trying to figure out what to do (because of course we didn't have one...) When... Sitting right on top of the car... an adjustable wrench! Sure it was a bit rusty, but never look a gift wrench in the jaws...

Oh, and if you're trying to get the steering rack out of a car (well, at least a 92 Geo metro anyway), you practically need to take the whole steering column apart, including taking off the wheel, etc etc...) Unless the steering is unlocked (good luck finding that in a U-Pull-It yard...). Have fun, and don't hurt yourself.

Oh, and the best part? $20 for the whole thing.