History Main / ResurrectTheWreck

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Bendin' in the Wind" has someone dig up a van from the 60s and let Fry keep it. He turned it into a groupie-mobile when Bender went on tour with Music/{{Beck}}. Amy, Leela, and Zoidberg lived in the van with Fry.

* ''Contraband Rocket'', a 1956 sci-fi novel by Lee Correy. In the future, only rich tourists and those who pass stringent physical criteria can go into space. Some rocket geeks find an atomic-powered RetroRocket abandoned for scrap and help restore it for a flight to the Moon. This means not only ResurrectTheWreck but proving in court that they're not crazy (when losing can mean being BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood).

* ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedPayback'' has the derelicts, cars found abandoned around the map. They only appear after the first five racing teams are defeated with each team leader giving the location for one. After finding one, the player needs to find the other parts to have a running vehicle which can then be modified for racing.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': The final two episodes of the series reveal that Geordi spent more than 20 years rebuilding [[spoiler:the USS ''Enterprise''-D after destruction during ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'']], and they take [[spoiler:the ''Enterprise''-D]] to fight [[spoiler:the revived Borg]].

** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E21PeakPerformance Peak Performance]]", a team led by Riker are put in charge of an eighty-year-old, semi-decommissioned starship for a battle simulation exercise. One of the first things they do is get the warp drive working again, at least for a brief hop, which the mediator of the exercise thought impossible.

* In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife The Doctor's Wife]]'' the Doctor builds a working Tardis console from the wreckage of various Tardises, with the help of the soul of his own Tardis that has been transferred to the body of Idris

* In one episode of ''Series/SevenDays'', a man who was presumed dead after testing an earlier model of The Sphere turns out to have survived. After he blows up the current Sphere, the Backstep Project's only hope to travel back and undo it is using said earlier prototype. Not only is this risky to begin with, but this one had spent years lying in the jungle.

In RealLife, armies in the field on the front lines may face supply line problems, so that the only way they can repair non-functional jeeps, tanks and planes is by salvaging spare parts off wrecked vehicles and planes. Sometimes a skillrd mechanic can use a few wrecked vehicles' parts to put together one jury-rigged, but functioning vehicle.

* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''/''Series/StargateUniverse'' crossover "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13312588/20/Destiny-and-Voyager-Crossroads Destiny and Voyager: Crossroads]]" sees the crews of ''Destiny'' and ''Voyager'' join forces to get them both home after finding a wormhole linking the Milky Way galaxy in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe to the galaxy that ''Destiny'' is currently travelling through in [[Franchise/StargateVerse its own universe]]. The final plan sees ''Destiny'' take both crews back to the ''Star Trek'' Earth (which is a journey of only a few months at ''Destiny'''s maximum speed where ''Voyager'' would still need over thirty years), where Starfleet works on repairing ''Destiny'' properly. Starting with fixing its hull damage, the repair work goes so far as to give its FTL engines such a complete overhaul that ''Destiny'' can travel at three times more than its previous top speed and no longer needs to run for at least four hours followed by four hours' 'downtime'.

* The ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "[[Recap/FireflyE09Ariel Ariel]]": As part of [[TheCaper a heist]] the crew resurrect a [[FlyingCar flying ambulance]] (that they literally got from a junkyard), repairing, rebuilding, and repainting it to transform it back into a functional and clean-looking emergency vehicle.

%%* The plot of ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix1965,'' its [[Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix2004 2004 remake]], ''and'' [[TheFilmOfTheBook the novel on which both were based]] is centered on this trope. However, instead of a derelict plane they discover and have to repair, they build a new plane out of the wreckage of the one ''they'' crashed in the first place. %%Example talks about "them" without mentioning who they are.

* This was also the whole premise of ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato:'' a wrecked ''oceangoing'' battleship from World War II is resurrected as a ''space'' battleship.

* ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang'': The titular race car crashed in its last race and has been little more than children's amusement until it is due to be melted and scrapped. The Potts kids convince their father to scrape up the money to buy it, which he does, and then refurbishes it into a shiny new automobile [[OrWasItADream that may or may not be able to float and fly.]]

* The plot of ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix1965,'' its [[Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix2004 2004 remake]], ''and'' [[TheFilmOfTheBook the novel on which both were based]] is centered on this trope. However, instead of a derelict plane they discover and have to repair, they build a new plane out of the wreckage of the one ''they'' crashed in the first place.

%%* ''Film/TheForceAwakens'': as the First Order attacks the market on Jakku, forcing Rey, Finn, and BB-8 to escape, Rey leads the other two to a ship. Finn points out another, closer ship as they're running, which isn't completely wrecked but Rey dismisses it as garbage. When the ship they're running to is blown up, though, she changes her mind and says "The garbage will do!" and they run to the previously-unseen ''Millennium Falcon'', which is in even worse shape than usual.

* When the titular group from ''Series/TheATeam'' [[ATeamMontage works on a vehicle]], they're usually [[WeaponizedCar weaponizing it]]. But in the episode "Knights of the Road", they end up fixing up an old tow truck that hadn't run in years. They end up using it to go after the VillainOfTheWeek [[spoiler:and when they've sufficiently angered him enough to attack them, ''then'' they weaponize it.]]

* Happens in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E6TheDoomsdayMachine The Doomsday Machine]]". While investigating the wreck of the ''U.S.S. Constellation'', Kirk, Scotty, and a damage control team get stuck there when the titular weapon attacks the ''Enterprise''. Kirk and company work to get the derelict ship running to at least provide a distraction.

** Scotty does it again - with the help of his ''Enterprise''-D counterpart, Geordi La Forge - in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E4Relics Relics]]". After losing contact with the ''Enterprise'' while working to recover the sensor logs from the wrecked USS ''Jenolan'', the pair work quickly to get the ship flyable in order to find out what happened.

* A ''VideoGame/SnowRunner'' player can acquire almost half the trucks in the game this way. There's a number of tasks where the goal is to repair a truck in the wilderness and deliver it somewhere. Other trucks can be found in similar condition just by roaming around. (However, some are actually in perfect condition, so this doesn't always come up.)

* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''/''Series/StargateUniverse'' crossover "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13312588/20/Destiny-and-Voyager-Crossroads Destiny and Voyager: Crossroads]]" sees the crews of ''Destiny'' and ''Voyager'' join forces to get them both home after finding a wormhole linking the Milky Way galaxy in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe to the galaxy that ''Destiny'' is currently travelling through in [[Franchise/StargateVerse its own universe]]. The final plan sees ''Destiny'' take both crews back to the ''Star Trek'' Earth (which is a journey of only a few months at ''Destiny''{'}s maximum speed where ''Voyager'' would still need over thirty years), where Starfleet works on repairing ''Destiny'' properly. Starting with fixing its hull damage, the repair work goes so far as to give its FTL engines such a complete overhaul that ''Destiny'' can travel at three times more than its previous top speed and no longer needs to run for at least four hours followed by four hours' 'downtime'.

* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''/''Series/StargateUniverse'' crossover "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13312588/20/Destiny-and-Voyager-Crossroads Destiny and Voyager: Crossroads]]" sees the crews of ''Destiny'' and ''Voyager'' join forces to get them both home after finding a wormhole linking the Milky Way galaxy in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe to the galaxy that ''Destiny'' is currently travelling through in [[Franchise/StargateVerse its own universe]]. The final plan sees ''Destiny'' take both crews back to the ''Star Trek'' Earth, where Starfleet works on repairing ''Destiny'' properly, starting with fixing its hull damage and going so far as to give its FTL engines such a complete overhaul that they can travel at three times more than its previous top speed and no longer needs to run for four hours at a time.

* ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife'': Trevor manages to breath new life into WRECTO-1 with a bunch of other old car parts and get it into ghost-chasing shape again.