Folks Of Interest "Buy one done!" Share your horror stories

I rewired my first car entirely with a roll of red wire.....

 

Yeah, we all now how this goes, with those in-between cars..

You got a new headlight rim, cause the old one had some rust on it and the chrome is flaking off.

You pull that ring, and under it you encounter an other "little issue" that you need to fix, before putting on that new shiny ring. No biggie - right?

At the end of the day, you have removed your whole front fender, got a first glance at your fort end, and it's a bloody mess.

The next day you start to take the front end apart (first time since 1941), and of course (like all front ends, it's a stubborn bitch) and you break at least one thing, while stripping the skin from your knuckles in the process. And so it begins ..

Frank

 

When you get up in the $30, $40, $50, thousand dollar and up territory, there sure is some definite temptation for phuckery for the many lowlifes walking around. Better do your homework!

 

"That fuel pump needs a Relay"
...Got it

 

My last '63 Galaxie had badly fucked up steering gear, but, since it wasn't driveable when I got it, I didn't notice it until I got it running. both tie rod ends were slap worn out, but the killer was the drag link; it was bent all to shit and couldn't be straightened. Non-power steering , too. So that's some more new parts that went into a car I traded off.
can't really blame the guy I got it from; he's just a reseller. But I need to be more critical of a customer.

 

That was like my '65 C30 I picked up in 1975. The owner was selling it cheap, he said the transmission (SM420) was shot. I drove it up and down the block, it did shift hard. I got it home, dove under it for a look. There was a 3/8" gap between the transmission and bellhousing. A 5 minute fix, after that I could shift it with 1 finger.

 

My friend put a 350 in his '65 C10 last year, and ended up using the wrong throwout bearing, so the clutch slipped because there was not enough free play. His solution? He put stacks of three 1/2" washers between the transmission and the bellhousing, and was quite proud of his "fix". This year it is getting a 4 speed Saginaw, so that garbage is going away.

 

One thing i have learned is is there is a huge variation in the acceptable standard of hotrod construction. I think its made worse by all the reality TV crap that makes some stuff look easy while glossing over the details that really make a difference to reliability and safety. Even some of the aledged "Pros" do stuff that makes me cringe at times.

 

My first truck was an mid 60s f100 custom cab with a 427… that’s all I saw at 15. When I got it home I found blown fuses wrapped in tin foil… wire nuts through the electrical system. On the body, the cab corners didn’t even have bondo… just a Mickey Mouse t shirt to keep out the elements. Oh and the 427… actually a 390 bored to 427 with 427 covers… the borg Warner 4 speed… just a Torino 4 speed. I cleaned it up and still had the coolest car in school though!

 

The big thing in the 1970s was "bolt on" equipment that gave the illusion that any yoyo could install a part and be good to go. TV car shows are full of this disinformation. The amount of these parts I have had to dick around with to make them work is endless.

 

Honestly people, you can't buy a new car that doesn't have issues. Why should you expect perfection from one that has been messed with for the better part of a hundred years?

 

like cutting out a perfectly good and beadrolled '57 apache firewall to weld in flat steel instead.

 

I hear stories from both sides of the street. One side telling of a trouble car problem that was a nickel and dime repair that the seller could not find and the other side of the street of a buyer obtaining a car that a mechanic named, "Mickey Mouse" worked on. Regardless, everything that I obtain, needs work, even if is only to my own satisfaction. As you can tell, I am the guy who does not spend money on other peoples workmanship or skill and place the value on how much of my work is required to meet my own satisfaction. The guess that is why I have a garage full of unfinish projects. Don't forget the often use catch phase, "oh that, it is an easy fix, anyone can do it".

 

Here are a few wtf moments from a "hi-end" 36 Ford I was asked to work on a few years ago.

 

This month, I have been to two garage/car guy museum shops where the owners have great looking car collections. Some of them, they built but some were purchased built. I just look at them and am envious. Would love to be in a position to just get one all done up.

 

I think we've all had some bad repairs uncovered on our stuff, and shops sometimes do sub par work. My 53 customline was missing a driveshaft tunnel when I first got it and the carpet was dragging on the driveshaft, front floorboards were rust covered in sound deadening and fiberglass, transmission mount threaded holes had smaller bolts with nuts on the top, torched springs, body trim holes covered in filler, and probably a ton of other stuff I can't recall. I was just talking to my wife the other night about it, as I had added up all the receipts for the parts (I keep and file all that stuff) and figured I'm 9 or 10k into the car more than i purchased it for.. and visually it still looks exactly the same. i always joke with my neighbor and tell him I'm selling everything and I'm going to buy a Honda Ridgeline and take up playing checkers instead of this horse shit. But I believe most of us work on these garbage wagons because we love it, weather or not it's fixing someone else's mistakes or doing something you want to upgrade.

 

Fresh out of the army I worked for a street rod shop in Central Arkansas that was supposedly respected nationwide. I assumed he wanted everything perfect so that's what I did. First example was a 29 Oldsmobile door that had an 8" scratch dent.... aside from the fact there was just the one dent it looked like it'd hit some barbed wire. Anyway he originally wanted me to fill the whole mess with Bondo(keep in mind his shop labor in 2002 was something like $125 an hour). Ended up using a shrinking hammer and a heat gun to get all of it out aside from a spot half the size of a dime where the dent started. Moved on to sanding filler someone else applied over a rocker patch on a front fender off a 62 Impala. Kept finding high spots. Finally deduced the patch needed rewelding. He saw me with the big grinder about to remove the filler to do said rewelding and ran over to tell me to put another thick layer of Bondo on and that the trim would cover it.....trim was maybe 2" high. Bondo spot was 10" tall and already pushing a half inch thick in spots. Then there's the 47 Oldsmobile he did where the Bondo on the trunk was so thick he had to make a 1" longer rod for the trunk handle for the trunk to open lol. Few jobs like that later he let me go and finally admitted he was just a glorified overpriced maaco for vintage cars roflmao. He did pay nice so bad I known I probably would have done most of it how he wanted. But the whole time I was led to believe everything from his shop was supposed to be high end perfection. That was 2002. That experience resulted in a mentality of never buying a supposed finished car regardless of budget or time roflmao

 

At least in your case the same look after dumping a lot of cash in is still an appealing look.

 

I had a customer bring me a 36 Plymouth he had just bought to check "a vibration at 80 mph". I started jacking up the front of the car on the frame, and the original Mustang II front crossmember fell of in my driveway. That was the beginning of a two year frame off project before I was done.

I had a high end 40 Ford come in. All aluminum SBC with a 6-71 blower. It had wiring problems on a $3000 wiring job. It had five wires from the dash to the rear of the car. At the rear seven wires came out, none of them the same color as the ones from the dash.

I have many more.

 

I have never bought a finished car, I build them, I also don’t sell anything so no one will be subject to my butchery anytime soon

 

Hello,

My wife had a great idea and as a young 20 something that actually liked old hot rods, who would say no. Her idea was that we should get an old hot rod project. What??? We had a 65 El Camino and a 62 Corvair, just married and doing just fine, living away from others in our respective families. No one liked the coastal areas and that was ok with us. Our day could be spent at the beach and who could ask for more? Ideals and attitudes for and against somethings just did not jibe with family members. So, who needs that conflict?

1950 Ford Coupe long enough to store a longboard inside with the rear seatback taken out. The blue flame is a tribute to good friend, Gary Gabelich.

I was floored at the idea of getting another hot rod to work on and use as our photo business and surf vehicle at the same time. But, I knew she did not want to drive her 62 Corvair after getting stuck several times and having to walk to a public phone… remember those? Whew! So, it was on the for sale block and we started looking for a station wagon, but, she did not want a big one like large families had back then. A 59 Chevy 4 door wagon was their family car and it was so large, it would not fit in a normal size garage of the 50s houses.

It definitely would not fit in our apartment garage as the original owner built a platform in the deep front wall for storage and it was high enough for clearance of a hood, but what car would fit? The 65 El Camino had low profile tires and it barely cleared as we pulled inside to see which car would be located.

The Corvair was little and could fit anywhere. But, over time, a photo bench/developing film/prints/counter was constructed and we bought a Harley sportster, so the Corvair went outside to battle the constant salt air incursion every day and night.

So, we decided to get rid of the Corvair and get a different narrower coupe or sedan. Her idea was one that would require little extra work and would have A/C. The warm So Cal weather, you know… of course, the minute she said that, I knew which car she would be driving daily.

The black 50 Ford coupe we found was pristine outside and had mohair cloth insides. But, as nice as the coupe was, the owner made the inside smell like body odor. So, my wife gave me the “high eyes” and we left. There will always be another one lurking somewhere out there…
Not Kodak Ektachrome...

Finally, the 327 powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery was found and despite the extended 6 month’s +++ work needed to get finished, it was very reliable. And… it had A/C. It was difficult to keep my wife away from using the 327 sedan delivery as a daily driver. She even drove it in the rain as I slogged around in the Corvair… ahhh young married life… YRMV

 

I know a fella who purchased a OT musclecar at the Smoky's several years ago. nice running driving car.( id consider it nice driver condition) the first winter he owned it he decided to fix the rust on the top of the dash he hadn't noticed when he purchased, so he pulled the windshield. A few weeks later I stopped by and he had the doghouse off ! (I must mention this friend is a lil anal ) He said it made it easier to get to the dash and also figured he'd clean up the firewall/engine compartment to his liking. When he did that he noticed rust in the firewall behind the heater core and the front fenders had been patched up poorly. along with not being happy the way the floorpans had been patched... NEEDLESS to say I stopped in to visit in the summertime and the car has on a rotisserie and had just been sandblasted, I couldn't believe he had completely disassembled the car and after the sandblasting it was evident how poorly that body had been patched up . He would have been many many dollars ahead had he just started with a rust bucket project.