Technical Look out for the "Mickey Mouse" repairs of Previous Owners....

I had a customer bring in an OT Pinto around 1978, car was a '73 or so. The motor didn't sound right, we figured to look over the valve train since the valve cover was leaking. Whoa... someone neatly cut and fit an old bedspread to conform to the inside of the valve cover. The valve train sounded like angry rattlesnakes. He had a relative that was a NY state trooper, he took him back to the dealer with the car, full refund.

 

Okay, I have to profess. Early 80’s I had a Jeep J3000 PU and the clutch went out. Snapped a few bolts off the flywheel holding the pressure plate on. I worked at an Exxon station in Phoenix at the time and was doing the clutch at night when the place was closed, up on the rack I’m thinking I’m screwed. So, rolled the mechanics 120 volt buzz box over , clamped the PP the best I could to the flywheel and buzzed the piss out of it.
Thinking back I pity the fool that had to change the clutch the next time.
I apologize if anyone found my “fix” for broken bolts

 

Damn it! That "hinge-O-bracket" was gonna be my submission for the next "Tech Week"

 

Ok, that connecting rod exhaust pipe hanger is just plain cool!

 

^^^If not a little too "rat rod".^^^ I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

heres one i seen at the auction,kinda cool when you think about it,the other is a honda at the same auction on a different night.

 

A guy drove to my shop to have me check out a repair he made to a rusted out steel brake line. He replaced the line with miniature hose clamps & apiece of rubber vacuum hose or maybe fuel hose. Wow! Greg

 

Best line i heard was " it's only temporary unless it works" from an old engineer. Unless your the original owner, who knows what you'll find.

 

I have done this. 283 rods, with bearings, for 2" pipe.

Gary

 

OK...
I don't want a pity party. On the contrary I'm in some kind of euphoric (tongue in cheek) state right now. No, it is not alcohol or substance induced. Rather...I'm just amused.
You see I spoke today at a good man's (who if it was not for him I probably would not be here today) funeral and sung a song. I sung " What a Day That Will Be" . It's a good song you need to look it up.....

Anyway after something so heavy today...at the moment I'm in rare form.
My mind goes to some of the comments of this thread. I guess after such a day, it's fun to turn to silly stuff.

The subject is...you guessed it....Bitching! yes bitching.
I dare say, that at least 80+ percent of the conversations on the HAMB is some type of bitching. If you do not like that number guess what....You can bitch about it.

Let me get this straight.
So you can bitch about....
California.
people that bitch about California.
people that bitch about California that have never been to California.
Radial tires.
Bias ply tires.
Disk Brakes on hot rods.
people that put disk brakes on hot rods.
people that don't put disk brakes on hot rods.
Drum brakes.
people that run drum brakes
people that don't run drum brakes
350s
302s
Flatheads
People that remove flatheads to put in 350s
people that remove SBCs to install a flathead.
the high cost of building a flathead
a flathead built on the cheap
Boring 1932 Roadsters that's not yours.
Speedway
People that bitch about Speedway
people bitching about people bitching about Speedway who have never ordered anything from Speedway
The status of the Hobby
Homogenized Hot Rods
What a hot rod is
What a hot Rod is not
1950s cars
The Old HAMB
The new HAMB
the HAMB
sellers
buyers
People that wont sell
Flippers
builders
people that buy instead of build
patina
paint prices
color choice
wheels
Rimz
Gassers
what a gasser is
what a gasser is not
ratrods
1960s cars
cry baby dolls
Print Media
a magazine
people that bitch about the magazine
people bitching about people bitching about the magazine who do not subscribe to the magazine.
original paint
shiny paint
no paint
people that talk to you about your car
people that don't talk to you about your car
young people
geezers
gold chainers
rust
Rustoleum
Mechanics
Automotive technicians
Rod shops
Thieves
People that do not want to beat/kill/maim thieves over a car
police
DMV
titles
people that give advice on titles
loud pipes
mufflers
T buckets
What a T Bucket is
What T Bucket is not
The price of gas
people that birch about the price of gas
6 volts
people that convert to 12 volt
people that keep 6 volt
restorers
modifiers....
I could go on
and on
and on....

But you Can't Bitch about...
what a previous owner has done to Your Freaking Car that you Actually own!
Funny thing...I did not realize I was actually bitching.

 

I knew a guy who blew a rear line on a '65 F100.
He beat it flat with a rock.

 

I started wrenching on cars when I was 14. Without a doubt, I've screwed up a lot of stuff since then. By the standards set by many HAMBers, I still and screwing up a bunch of stuff. I believe we all have our own visions of what we think is a "correct" fix on some wore out junk that we can not find any replacement parts for. We fix it right by our opinion.

I like cars with good brakes. I screwed up a lot of brake stuff before I learned some stuff. It took a few years to understand why I had to pay those huge prices for the right parts to fix some of that brake stuff. Then I got into hot rods and had to figure out how to make modern brakes work on old cars. By the number of brake issue help needed posts on this site, that still seems to be a pretty big problem, and I'm not smart enough to help.

I like cars with good steering. I screwed up a lot of steering stuff before I figured out why I needed to but new suspension parts in order to get good steering. The learning curve involved with modified suspension and good steering is another whole big step up. I don't have any problems admitting there are several suspension systems I don't know anything about, how many of you have looked under the fenders of the new stuff? Just Wow!

I like cars with fuel systems that don't leak fuel. It took a while to learn there are a lot of things on a fuel system that can cause a fuel leak. I've recently discovered that even modern high pressure fuel hose connected to a steel line with a flared end, and double hose clamps can still blow off with the modern high pressure fuel systems. Who knew the modern plastic lines are safer then the old steel lines?

I like cars with an electrical system that doesn't short out and catch on fire. A few years ago the 8 year old wiring on my coupe caught on fire when I turned the wheels tightly to the left pulling out of a parking space. After the fire I discovered when the tires were turned tightly to the left, the tire was rubbing on the inner fender. That inner fender was pushing the battery hot wire up against the bottom of the battery box. After 8 years, the pinched wire finally broke through the wire insolation and shorted out. Fortunately, is was a small contained fire and was quickly extinguished with my on board fire extinguisher after the batter cable was disconnected from the battery. The wiring has been repaired, and rerouted. That area won't be a problem again.

Someday someone is going to get my coupe and under that shiny paint, they will discover what a cobbled pile of crap it is, and I'm sure they won't have good things to say about me either. I'm OK with that, I know the car would not be here if it wasn't for the cobbling I did to it. They will just have to cobble it up to their standards. Gene

 

grumpy old men, - what else have they got to do all day............?

Sorry for your loss.
.

 

Who started this BITCH-FEST THREAD anyway ?


Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Hey! its not just the cartoon Mickey that gets some bad raps at times!
LOL as the kids say. My work is getting better though.

 

I tend to imagine what the next care taker of my project will
see, think, when that person observes the work I have put into
modifications and restorations on the car. My Dad used to tell
me to work to a standard that you could sign your
name on and be proud. All I can say is the person who did some of
the mods on my coupe probably could not sign his name at all. I just
shake my head and fix it.

 

Close this bitch thread already...no one has a gun to our heads making us work on these old cars..jeeez

Sent from my SM-T560NU using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

This is my philosophy as well.
Last year I bought this car knowing it had trouble. I'm really glad that it was me that got it.
Somebody that does not know these cars, somebody that was expecting easy fixes, somebody that was aged and could not do work, they would have been in a fix.
The old car would have been a garage queen like has been for the past 30 years.

You make a great point.

Do work that you can sign your name too.
^^^ This has been my goal.

 

I got a chuckle from this

 

Haha, reminds me of a story. Supposedly right before I started at my current job the boss sent a new kid to get a Phillips screwdriver out of the box and he came back and told him they all said Craftsman.

 

if the cap fits wear it

 

Which is the BEFORE and which is the AFTER picture? Hate to get this wrong.

Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

*Disc

 

A new gas tank, the right mounting pads and a new sender is on the way. I also ordered some other things the car needs. That's what you do. You use the right stuff to do your repairs.

Altogether it was about $500 worth of stuff including shipping which was almost a quarter of that cost. I thought Day-um, shipping is a killer. I'm very glad those parts are available. Expensive? Yes, but now it's going to be fixed and fixed right. Also, compare similar to a later model car. It would take some real cheese to replace the same parts on a late model. It's all part of it.

Sometimes the right parts are not available. The first option should be good parts off another car of the same year or body style. If you have no luck there, and have to use generic or something from a another make or model, a general rule is to always modify the cheapest part.
A good example is cutting up a perfect dash to put in a used $20 dollar radio. Don't do that! Always modify the cheapest part.

 

One of the toughest things to get into a high school kid's head was, "Take the extra day or two to do it right so you are not on the side of the road in the rain patching the patch so you can get home."

 

Bolt that bumper on , please .

 

Why is there never enough time to do it right the first time but always enough time to do it over again ?

 

I did one of those temporary repairs on an international pickup. They have left hand lug nuts on one side and I boogered up a couple of them. The parts store only had right hand studs so I ended up with three right hand lugs and two left hand lugs on one wheel.
I kinda felt bad about it when I sold the truck but when the buyer didn't pay me I figured he didn't need to know.