Ever had a project where everything seems to go wrong? It's a sad tale of how I came to own this hot-rod. It was started by a father and son hoping to build a cool hot-rod together. The son was tragically killed and the father didn't have the heart to finish the car without his son by his side. The car was sold to Sam Mckay of Firebikes where it languished for a while. His shop burned down to the ground and he needed the money and space to continue with his business of building custom, low-rider bicycles. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2262241/1 I discovered a bunch of issues with my T coupe and it's all adding up to be a big pile. Every time I get near this damned thing, something goes horribly wrong. -The bear claw latches seemed to work fine until one day I slammed the passenger door and the damned striker snapped off. I discovered it was a door striker with a length of ready rod welded to it to make it longer. -the bitchen chrome reverse wheels for the front turn out to be 15" x 6"- too wide for the 165s radials on the front now. The 15" x 5" are only marginally better. (nobody makes a 15"x 4" chrome reverse?) -Each wheel has at least 2 stripped studs...on brand new axles/rotors. WTF? -The new master cylinder started leaking like crazy just rolling the car up and down the driveway. -The radiator is mounted to the grill shell and the grill shell is bolted to the frame. -Tried welding the grill shell only to discover that it is virtually made of bondo. nice. -The body is held onto the frame using ALUMINUM nut-serts. Trying to remove them resulted in them spinning around in the frame. Dammit. Maybe I should make some body mounts huh? I need to get this thing on the road soon! Forget the mounts..weld the body right to the frame. Half-assed at best but effective. No gas! so I use my flux core Welder, after all it dosent need to be pretty... Spent a bunch of time welding the body and ended up with a wicked sun-burn on my arms. The result is a bunch of bird shit welds. Yay! My own stupidity rears its head. -Bought a trunk latch for it and it turns out that the factory trunk latch is friggin scarey. One good yank and the trunk opens without the latch. ..So I try re-aliging the trunk so it sits a little closer to the rear valence... Negative. After the trunk lid slams on my finger...I mess around with it for a while and end up with a gap that you could slip your finger into. At least it's an even gap now. (anybody have any ideas for a trunk latch?) I'm thinking about using tool box latches on it or possibly leather belts. Better yet, I should sell this to somebody that will build it the right way... Today I tackle wiring! I have a fire extinguisher on hand...
Looks good...........Karma can be a tricky thing..............it's not related to a certain plymouth fury is it..........
I have a car like that right now. In the past year, i've had to put a lot of money in it, it keeps eating parts. Almost like everything wore out at once. I had a strong gut feeling that I needed to get away from it, like something bad was going to happen, but not anymore. Gonna put some labor into it to make it nicer before selling it. Some cars are just bad news, plain and simple!
Most all rodders had one of these. No matter how cool it looked or how much good attention it got (or even love) the thing was still an evil bitch. Showing her ass and costing you money and embarassment at every turn. Let her go. SHe'll always break your heart. Rod
I forsee a new streetrod craze. Adding to thier tops to make them taller soon as they run out of station wagons
I've always heard stories about a cursed car. Sounds like you have one. Get rid of it before something worse happens to ya. You'll have other cars.
OT, but Ihad a '52 Panhead that was the same way. All new stuff in it and it broke down every time I took it out. Not simple breakdowns eigther,Busted rocker arms,busted rocker towers,busted push rods. I finally started having bad preonitions about riding the damned thing. So away it went ! Good Riddence! AL
yeah i hear that, had a car be nothing but trouble, weird big stuff breaking. everything checked out fine but the motor was basicly eating itself from the inside out dispite what it specd out to. put it up for sale and the day it sold my brother was driving it and it got t boned hard enough to throw the car a good 3/4 block. damn near gave it away after that. lol shit i forgot to add this, i sngaed a bunch of stuff off it. just little stuff brackets and new headlights. and when ever i put any of it on a good running car itd crap out and just not run. take the parts off and put the old ones back on and itd run fine again. got rid of that box of parts to
Here's the deal . Just dont add to the shit work by doing more slipshod work on top of it. Make sure everything you do and re-do is done thoughtfully and correctly. Eventually you'll get to the end of it. Take an "I'm gonna win" attitude and dont be denied. It really is a cool lookin car. There are no ghosts or karma.. just a confluence of circumstances...
Chaz is right! My 55 chev has pretty much been a nightmare from day one.Almost everything was going wrong no matter how carefully it was thought out and done.Just when I was about to give up on it and sell I got really pissed and told the damn thing it was not gonna win.This car had been cut apart and taken apart to the frame in 1986 and not touched til I got it.Almost like it was damned if I was going to rebuild it.I'm now winning and finally approaching wiring and the final body work.Don't give up on it cause eventually you'll get the upper hand and start winnng the game.Don't let the bastard get ya down!!
Nothing wrong with starting at the front and making all the wrongs right. It's only a machine, we lose track of that aspect sometimes. Make the wrong parts right, I'll bet you could do that in a month with a good plan of attack. Looks like a good start, sits right and looks right.
Thanks for putting it back into perspective guys. I think the single biggest issue is that I am rushing the project. This would be a good time to step away and take a break for a few days.
Cars do have personalities but you just have to make sure that you show them that you have a much stronger one.Sometimes ya do have to step away for a few days. It gives ya time to think and maybe come up with more ideas how to tackle a problem.Good luck man
i just seem to have bad luck with my ford stuff lately, i couldnt kill them in my rompin days, after i wrecked and scrapped one, i have had nothing but stupid luck, sold the new truck and cut my losses, and am thinking about selling the 55 to generate funds for other stuff. tries starting the freshened up motor today and it was being a whore still. i am afraid once i do the few more things i want to do to it b4 i sell it, i wont want to.
walk away from it for a while and put it out of your head.Usually when your not thinking about a problem all of a sudden an answer comes to mind and ya think shit, why didn't I think of that before? well, at least that's worked for me
The Jalopy Journal
