This article described: as man making gun use as source old car parts.From http://yarchive.net/metal/gun_make.html
"Nothing to it, Jake. Why, you know that 1955 Chevy Pickup that Chris
[my girlfriend at the time] just gave up on? I could build a rifle
from pieces of it with just a file, a hacksaw, and some visegrips.
Probably take about two hours."

"Could not!"

"Wanna bet?"

"Yer on! $100 says you can't."

We gathered the Requisite Tools, and adjourned to the shady tree under
which the clapped-out pickup lay.

I removed the steering wheel shaft housing and the engine head using
the vise grips on the nuts holding them on, and used the hacksaw to
remove a chunk of the head with an intake valve port.

The steering wheel shaft housing was the barrel - I filed a slot
around the circumference and flattened the sides to create an
interrupted thread (with only one thread), then fitted the breechblock
(the valve port, opened to fit over the threaded end of the barrel) so
that a quarter twist of the valve port would lock it tightly against
the end of the housing.

A few more minutes with the file on a small bolt resulted in a firing
pin, which, with a scavenged spring (from the gas pedal), and a couple
of other small parts (sear, trigger, trigger housing created from bent
fender metal, a couple more small springs), all held together by slots
and clever cutting and bending (no pins, bolts, or through holes!),
gave us a firing mechanism. The firing pin passed through the hole
for the valveshaft in the breechblock.

Total elapsed time, about an hour and fifty minutes.

Back to the house and copped twenty of dad's .45-70 cartridges, and off
to the gravel pit.

Baling-wired the gun to my truck's rear bumper, and took the first two or
three shots from behind the truck, using some string to pull the
trigger, after cocking the gun by pulling the bolt head.

Ater determining that it wasn't going to blow, we set up a target 100
yards downrange, and "walked" the gun onto the target, which is how we
determined that it could put three shots into a 10" circle at that
distance.

The cartridge cases were grossly distorted, and most of the primers
were partly backed out, both symptoms of the very loose "chamber".

Jake happily paid up, and we discarded the breechblock in a dumpster,
and tossed the barrel into the bed of the junk truck.
Nice story :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Two hours and you had own cannon.True this or no, i dont know..

I don't know.....but I sure as shit wouldn't be firing a dodgy 45-70 in any position but remotely. I don't really know the dimensions of the parts spoken of so can't really comment.

Give me a four winds any day, proven and safe.

Nice story Two hours and you had own cannon.True this or no, i dont know..

I don't know how true this story is either but, when you take a file to certain part of hardened steel that you will encounter on a automobile, the file will just slide off, removing nothing, since the metal is so hard. It would require softening before hand.

Cutting parts like the steering shaft with a hack saw will be a tedious job to say the least, that will take more than a few minuets to accomplish with a hand hacksaw. I have found this out when removing one from my jeep when the torx bolts were stripped. I tried a hacksaw and got no where, then moved on to a grinder and went through 2 disc's before getting the dam thing off!

Cutting an Engine head with a hack saw by hand, would also be one hell of a job and I'm sure would require the part to be softened before hand. Not to mention removing the part wth only a pair of vice grips... I'd like to see that. :rolleyes:

I don't know.....but I sure as shit wouldn't be firing a dodgy 45-70 in any position but remotely.

Agreed. If this is actually feasible, but from the sound of it, it doesn't seem like it is. A pair of vice grips, hack saw & File will not be of much help when removing the head from the engine or the steering shaft for that matter. Many tools are required, since not all the part are accessabe by a bulky pair of vice grips.

Just my 2 cents.

But....
Automobile's contain lots of useful parts that can be fabricated into parts for guns as most know already, such as Axles which can be used for bolts, gas cylinders & Barrels & any other round parts needed. Leaf Springs are a good source for flat stock (Triggers, etc). Car & truck frames, are a good source for certain receivers, Shocks & Hydraulic cylinders are useful for round stock & Tubing. Engine valves are a good source for firing pins.

One problem that one will face will be the some of the stock will be too hard to machine & will require softening. To soften some of the larger components of a automobile one will need a very large furnace which the average person will not have access to such a item, so other means will have to be sought out.

Don't quote whole posts. BAD!


A chop saw, grinder and plasma torch will get those parts down to a manageable size. I've found even a cheap plasma torch and an offset template will will give an amazing amount of accuracy, even in the hardest of metals.

In Bill Holmes Vol II, he described an expedient annealing process requiring a "good sized wood fire". It's in Chapter 7 where he describes using automobile parts as a source of metal.