Technical Crazy Stuff You have found...maybe not so crazy

Speaking of previous owners repairs and fixes......

I found a working tail light just dangling under the dash of my F1....It lit with the key on. Come to find out that was some kind of early backwoods 6-12 volt trick either for the ballast or the gauges.
Of course I ripped all that out with enough wire to do 3 vehicles. Most of that wire was connected to......absolutely nothing.
What odd stuff have you found?

 

My 1939 Ford truck was wired with all red wires. It was a rats nest of wires under the dash and when I shook it, sparks shot out!

 

Oh and then there was this guy.....
Fw: Snake pics by Travis Brown, on Flickr

Fw: Snake pics by Travis Brown, on Flickr
Chicken snake....Actually it was getting ready to shed. I tried to put her in a safe place after the photo....

 

If I would have found that under my dash I would have first had to change my undies and second have to replace the whole dash after the shotgun blast!

 

My 50 Chevy was an electrical marvel, meaning it was a marvel that it didn't burn down. The right rear turn signal had a piece of telephone wire running back from the front signal. The right tail light was connected to the the left with a four foot length of wire which had been spliced four times with four different kinds and size wires, lamp wire was one of them. The blower motor was controlled by a household light switch, and everything under the hood, including the electrical fuel pump and the radio were run off of the coil.

Sent from my SM-G920V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I went with my brother to look at Yellow Chevy 2 door. I was 20 at the time he was 16. Yellow and black was the theme...Bondoed on hood scoop...You know where this is going....Of course my brother was in love.
The windshield was busted.

The guy had glued a black plastic spider to the crack.

My brother became a heck of a car guy and works in the field to this day. For years he thanked me for talking him out that disaster.

 

Wow!

 

That's one hell of a "over the shoulder selfie" pic. A safe place for that critter would be in the ground. Holy crap.

 

I'm with you on that!

 

Saw a car once that looked like it had a hood scoop on it. It was a upside down paint roller tray that was bondoed on.

 

was that on Sonny's or Cher's?

 

No problem, worked on aircraft the last 25 years of my working life, (retired now). Most aircraft are wired with nothing but white wire (fun tracing down a circuit) and usually have lots of leftover wires from old radios etc. Removed 27 pounds of unused wiring from an old Cessna.

Also had an old VW that was wired completely with three wire extension cord wire.

 

I had a car where in some areas of the fuse box was cotter keys instead of fuses

 

Back in the 70s a guy I knew that was given a '53 Chevy truck that the mice had chewed up all the wiring. He had a couple of spools of lamp cord and wired the whole truck with it...With the exception of the battery cables, for that he used on old set of jumper cables that had bad clamps he cut off. And all without a fuse block...I kid you not. The crazy part is he drove that truck every day for years and never had a problem. I guess that proves E.J. Potter's quote: "Ignorance is a powerful tool if applied at the right times, usually even surpassing knowledge."

 

I 'found' this last week, after I cut down a large tree. At least it missed the garage.

 

My 37 Ford Ute must have had at least 15 of those splice-locks under the dash. You know the ones where one wire is laid in and then a second is laid next to it and the metal piece is clamped over both? To make matters worse, none of the wires were same colors or gage. So trying to decipher the mess was almost impossible. Some in-line fuses here and there. I ripped it all out, and have had the car down for several years, for a repaint and body repairs, but it is getting an all new harness.

 

I have seen some huge rats but living and dead in old junk cars. HRP

 

You really don't need fuses.....until something shorts out!

 

I thought Remington .22 rounds were the preferred sub?

 

"Engineered" motor mounts and a "repaired" gas tank filler pipe found on my '36. These repairs were made by an local guy reported (according to him) to be the "best traditional rod builder around) ! Finding these items, as well as a few others, impelled me to begin what has become a 5-year, frame off, restoration.

engine mounts2 by TagMan, on Flickr

engine mounts1 by TagMan, on Flickr

GasFiller1 by TagMan, on Flickr

 

I had an old OT CJ5 that I bought for a few parts to rob and sold a few I did not need. One fellow called me about the dash and gauges which he came and got, leaving the wiring behind the dash dangling. The jeep sat up behind the house where my barn now resides
We had 2 pet goats to help keep the weeds down. Them suckers got in that jeep and stripped/ate all the wiring they could yank out of that old jeep........amazing what them suckers will eat.

 

I had a 32 coupe in a few years ago for some repairs/upgrades. I started looking at the steering from the column to the rack, it was a combination of junkyard joints, the handle of a ratchet(ground down on the end to make a double d) and a conduit clamp for a support bearing. The guy I was doing the work for had just bought the car and told me he had had it up to about 70mph. The old guy that had put the car together had stopped one day and was telling me all about how he had stopped at a hot rod shop to ask them about doing this car and after he saw what they did he decided he didn't need them to do it for him because he could do it himself cheaper. Needless to say it was all replaced by the proper joints and supports. I still have the "cool parts" I took off hanging on the wall of shame in my shop.

 

I found this pen in the dispatch pocket (a.k.a. glovebox) of the Bonneville Diamond T. It advertises preferred risk insurance "For Non-Drinkers".

In Ab Jenkin's book and in the Boys of Bonneville movie it is recorded that Ab gave credit for his endurance, physical, and mental health to abstinence from drinking. I'd love to think there is an actuall connection here, but I'm guessing that would be pretty common in Utah.

I googled the name of the insurance agent, and the first hit I got was a mugshot of a fellow booked for drunk driving. Ironic, huh? Probably the guy's great grandson or something?

 

And then all you need is a cotter pin.

 

Brrrrrrrrrwwwwhp Rats. I hate rats.

In the '90s I picked up a parts car that had huge rats under the hood. One of them pulled a knife on me and said, "Waaas up mang!" Mrs Beaner was strapped and capped him. LOL

I don't have a pic but I found a half full box of 22 shells in then '53 F-100 I was building when I first joined the HAMB. The way I found t was by running the torch over it when I was cutting the floor boards out. It was exciting to say the least.

I have a Navy blue elbow length satin prom glove here in the garage that I pulled from under the back seat of the '53 Stude that I was working on for a while. I wish it could talk so it could tell me how it got there. I think that there may have been some hanky panky goin on in there.

 

Like it or not ,those parts are probably indicative of traditional hot rod parts used back in the day !!

 

I bought a truck from a boy scout troop master, was a 49 chevy 1/2 ton punkin orange with black fenders and wheels.
I was told that it only ran on 5 cylinders, was a scout project and they fixed the truck up to go camping and haul their gear. Now it needed a valve job. I paid $100 for it.
Probably more then it was worth at the time, but I had a good used head to put on it, and just needed a gasket set. And it was a real nice looking truck. The way they had painted it.
Pulled the head off and sure enough, they removed the piston/rod from the #1 hole.
I put my used head on it and she ran great, nice and smooth idle, enough power. I drove it for awhile, then sold it to a friend who helped me put the head on and knew the truck, he drove it for a long time.

 

If I found it.......I'd be dead , I hate them things

 

DANG!!!I hate snakes.LOL.Bruce.

 

WHOA!!!!! Bruce.