Working on my 29 Tudor this weekend, I bought it from the guy that built it over 30 years ago, he did almost all of it from home except paint, interior and chrome. Some of the frame work was farmed out but this car is mostly homebuilt. Everything on this car from the frame work, suspension, brakes, wiring, etc. is FIRST CLASS..... I can't believe the details and the way things are fabbed up, remember this car was built before the hot rod aftermarket we have now, he couldn't just make a call and get his parts, he had to go to swap meets, friends and by word of mouth. My point is when working on this car, I remember some of the HACK JOBS I have owned and the time spent making them right !! I owned the Rod & Custom Budget Beater for over 2 years (talk about HACK) I redid everthing even most of the frame and suspension welding that was coming apart.. Remember this car went to the Nationals, after the first time I drove it on the freeway, I wanted to jump out and walk..... Lets hear some of your HACK STORIES.................
I had a '49 Ford with both rockers full of foam and newspaper. The PO said he did it to keep mud from slinging into the back seat
Some of the bodywork on my '69 Chevy was done in TJ... they used burlap and newspaper as a backer for the bondo. The patches in the cab on the floor were made with cut up paint cans.
The Cutlass my brother just bought has the original oil filter on it from 1994 because it won't come off with the headers being in the way.
my 54 sedan was owned by a "mechanic" who decided to shave the door handles by taking off the old handle, filling the holes with bondo, and not installing poppers so you have to open the door through the vent window. he also recarpeted the interior with house carpeting, and welded some crappy hardware store metal over the holes in the floorboards. and finally he decided to paint all the chrome trim with red primer.... I hope this guy never decides to build a car again.
Most of the early hot rods were hack jobs. The standards have come a long way from the early days. Remember cars in the magazines were state of the art for that time period. The best of the best.
Didn't the steering wheel come off the Budget Beater while Rizzo was driving it to the Street Rod Nats?
Yes, the current shitbox truck i've been rebuilding the past year. Nothing specific that makes it a "hack job", just the whole thing in general. Oh well, thats how we learn.
No not the steering wheel, the set screws backed off on the steering coupler and the steering shaft fell out...................
57 chevy, inner rockers had 26ga. pop riveted over them and then think coats of tar and seam sealer, quarters had about 1/2" of filler, frame fell in two the second week i owned it.
My O/T shop truck came to me re-wired with speaker wire from one end to the other. I pulled it in the shop one night, reached under the dash and started pulling. It's all better now, even has a fuse box! Shawn
I don't own it, but I am fixing it. 58 chevy pickup. Really bad frame clip, wheelbase off by more than an inch on one side, 5 degrees negative caster, and twisted an inch to the right. Steering shaft, Ujoint, and Column all welded together, and the column welded to the dash. Engine mounted 15 degrees down in front, and in the chassis crooked by 2". A real gem
Never owned a chop job and cant say I have seen many, even our early rods were well built from the ones I have seen. Our Rego rules see to that thank god! Ihe closest I have seen are some project cars at swap meets, never pass an engineer! Though I did drive a rally car for a while that a mate owned. It was a well built car but he decided to put some more bars in the roll cage, I was happy with that untill on the first test drive one of them fell out! He sent it off to a chassis builder to re-do all his work. I crashed the car about a year later, (He missed a page on the notes as he was navigator) that cage saved our arses big time! Took the front off the car, motor/gearbox on a tree and rolled about 6 times. He broke both his legs but I walked away. Lucky. Doc.
I was under a 46 ford once and noticed thet the entire camaro front clip was held in by 4 welds, totalling less than 2 inches in length. I was scared to be under it, and it drove into my shop.
My '51 Ford that I have now is one. The grill shell and rolled front pan are made from chicken wire and bondo. I'm not sure what the rest looks like, and I'm a little scared. But the floors are solid!
Uh, did you say HACK JOB??? I posted this many months ago... the drivers side is finally almost done. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=223426 Welcome to my nightmare, ns
I've posted a lot of times about my '50 Chevy. A sign (an old porcelain covered one from the looks of it) forms part of the floors - cut in two, one half on each side of the car. One lower quarter is strips of galvanized tin pop-riveted in and covered in bondo. The rear wheel arches don't match and a factory skirt wouldn't fit either one. The right quarter is patched with the quarter off a 4dr - including the door section, with a big gap between filled with bondo and lead. The top seam was to be hidden by the chrome cap on the fender. There's lots of filler in the front fenders and more little pop rivet patches - and the entire front clip except the hood, and left door, are all off a black '49, the rest of the car looks to have been tan originally, then painted blue. When I got it with the glass all busted out I found a chunk of windshield with a 1971 inspection sticker on it, and a lot of the work appeared to be old - the spray can primer had faded or worn off a lot of the sides of the car. And what have I done? Most of the replacement glass is out of a Pontiac, and I used the original rubber, or the rubber that came with the new glass. The rear window has Deluxe chrome, the front doesn't. To make it look less ugly, I repainted the sides of the car - with spray cans, in primer. Cleaned a mouse nest out of the rocker arms, too. So once a hack job, always a hack job. Well, that's not entirely true, I've slowly been rounding up pieces to go to a dual chamber master on the firewall, I put Bendix front brakes in, I have a late model trans for it, and so on.
model a sedan "project car" ....came with a chevette frontend and the rearend welded to the rear crossmember....won't even go into details on the chopped top...
I never owned one that someone else put together that wasn't a hack job. Some of them got worse as they traveled with me I'm afraid.
My F1 had the steering column held in by plumbing strap, the tranny crossmember was just laying on the frame, the angle iron motor mounts didn't have bolts fastening them to the engine. They had mirror stalks from a HD Sportster in place of bolts (at least they were chrome). I don't think the motor ran very long anyway as the front was several inches lower than the rear, and the 4.27 rear with 24" tall tires spun it pretty good on the higway.
I bought a 56 Ford F100 this spring and have been re-doing most everything except the body. Fuel lines and brake lines hanging down, wire tied to the crossmembers. Steering rack leaking lots, wiring a mess, steering shaft u-joint coming apart, and lots of other things. I knew about most of them when I bought it, figuring I could repair the problems easier than building a whole new truck, but it does take a long time to be comfortable with something like this. A friend of mine has a set of conduit radius rods on his wall that was on an A coupe that drove into his shop.
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