Art & Inspiration Most absurd things seen under a car.

I was think in back to car I saw at a rod run. I am always interested in suspensions and engineering.
This was the worst ***embly of parts ever maybe.
A car had three separate rear suspensions. It had a set of ladder bars, a set of four bars, and a set of triangulated bars.
All hooked up.
I have seen this one a few times. Bolt on steering arms but also a section of pipe and a bolt used to drop the hiem ends even further down. The bending stress and the rigidity is always suspect.
My 32 when bought goes here also. The 55 Chevy rear end had 3” C channels bolted to the spring pads. The front ends were boxed and a strap went around and a 3/8 bolt was originally meant to hold them to the frame. The bolts were missing. The car was driven that way. The only thing holding the rear was the spring. No shocks. The channels were ******* bars.

 

In the early 70s the garage I worked at a 1962 Catalina came in for a starter problem.
When we put it on the lift the entire exhaust system was made of 1 inch water pipe.

 

I can't laugh about that. When I was a kid I had a '60 F100 4wd for tearing around in. Base model 223 6 lunger and 3 on the tree. Body had rust in usual areas. Anywho, exhaust rotted off so I grabbed a chunk of the old galvanized downspout laying next to an empty building. Made an interesting noise.

Other than that, just a petrified critter under a car carc***.

 

I suspect the Magic Muffler Fiat holds the ***le for most absurd thing seen under a car:



Cheers,
Harv

 

Yep, pretty sure the rotating ***embly doesn't go there!

 

I worked in a muffler shop and one of the guys was saving up exhaust pipe adapters. He had a sizeable box of them. One day after work, he built an entire exhaust system using the adapters crimped together with a muffler clamp, no clamps held anything together except at the dumpster-picked muffler. It did last for a while and it was quiet.

 

A truck…

 

No pics but flexible steering shaft on an econobox, factory setup. Cannot remember what car, early '70s

 

35 Plymouth, SBC, the guy brought it over to check out a vibration over 80 mph. It had a Mustang front end with the original crossmember. I jacked the car up in front off the crossmember, put stand under the frame, and when I let the jack down the crossmember came with it. Two pieces if 1" angle tacked to the crossmember and to the frame were all that was holding it in.

 

Pink and green LED's.

 

A pinto?

 

Yep, Pinto had a cable for steering shaft.

 

Thank you, guys. It was freaky..

 

my father-in-law was a "do-it-yourselfer," and spent many sunday mornings patching his exhaust system with beer cans!

 

I forgot about a pinto disaster. I was at a run and there was a car there with a pinto stranded cable steering shaft. It had been shortened. The end had been cut off and put in a piece of tubing (pipe?) and a bolt run thru it all.

 

Yes, those were the first version Pintos;1970-72?.

 

Remember the early 70"s style of jacking up the rear of the car? On leaf spring cars like the 55-57 Chevys it was easy,shackles, air shocks. On the later coil cars it was a bit harder I guess. Saw a 64 Chevy where the owner removed the rear coils,and put 6 inch round 12 inch long sections of log inside the coils,and reinstalled them.The car sat higher,but had no spring action at all.Must have rode like a tank.

 

Internet pic of a mattress under a car

 

How about pine 2x4's for spring spacers?
Could have at least used oak!

 

Meanwhile back at the muffler shop... I had one old guy that came by and asked about exhaust pipe to fit something he was holding. I pointed him to the s**** pile of pipes outside, he would even climb into the dumpster and root around. He drove an older Cadillac and I later noticed the DDS plates on it.

It turns out that he was the dad of one of my brother's friends. He was a retired dentist, was on the board of the ADA and had apartment houses in NYC to generate income. He was filthy rich, but looked like a bum. His family house was immense by the water and remained unfinished inside until his death.

 

Going by the ***le,,,, I'd say me. Under my van, Sleeping off the load that got me flagged.

 

I think one of the worst I saw was a 54 Chevy I went to look at before I bought my merc .

nice shiny paint , wheels interior etc . Buddy was asking top buck .

went to look at it , you could tell the bondo was a structural member of the car !

the worst was under the car , it had a camaro clip that was just kind “ there” one weld on each side to mate it to the original frame on an angel and welded to the floor

the rear leaf springs where off I ***ume the same camaro and the shackles and mounts where simply tacked on one side to the rear frame , all the cross members removed and what looked like a piece of exhaust pipe used as a ****** cross member .

told the guy he wasted my fu$&ing time driving an hour to go look at it and he should be ashamed at trying to screw someone over for a fancy paint job and some stupid wheels .


Car was for sale all last summer into the winter , then just disappeared, hope no one got screwed on that purchase .

 

Winder if that works in the car pool lane. Or maybe a modern version of the mother-in-law seat.

 

Worked on a O/T muscle car that the owner installed longer rear wheel studs and added lengths of copper tubing behind the brake drums to space the rear wheels out.

 

Pintos had a flex steering

 

Hey now, that isn't "that absurd"!

Ok, maybe a bit absurd.