Sutpid, stupid stupid!!!!!! So I put a new starter on my 51 Chevy tonight. No biggie standard stuff for the most part. So I go to fire up the car. It starts and runs fine. Then I smell fuel. Now most old cars smell like fuel. But theis REALLY smelt like fuel. So I walk to the front and I see fuel pissing out of the rubber fuel line right before the carb. And its pissing right onto the exhause manifold!!!!!! As it turns out, there were zip ties instead of clamps on the fuel line! I guess its my fault not to chekc such an obvious thing, expecially after I found the hot exhaust touching the plastic gas tank. ARGHHHH!
I feel your pain....I've spent more time fixing previous owner fuckups than about anything on my last two rides. But then again...their next owner will probably say the same thing
same thing here. The person before the one I bought the car from wasn't that keep on fixing stuff. There's a real difference between stuff he did, and stuff that was done professionally, like the motor. That's why i'm having such a hard time with the thing... all the stuff he shit on 5-8 years ago is finally breaking on me.
Hmm where should I start?? I have seen radiators held in with zip ties, Rust holes on the roof filled with epoxy resin no cloth no prep just resin poured in the pitted areas. When I removed the headliner it looked like the roof of the Carlesbad caverns. Some folks shouldnt be allowed near tools and cars at the same time. Dawg
mine wasnt too bad actually,,, left about $700 worth of parts in the trunk they didnt know about till the deal was done... got mine at a rust broker so his loss i figger
My entire truck is a previous owner fuck up. I'm doing the next one from the ground up on an unmolested vehicle.
The alternator on my inline 6 was held on with a coat hanger....but you could adjust the location with the custom threaded hook thingy that attached it to the firewall
I hear you man. The cat I got my truck from did some "work" to it before I got it. He tried replacing the kick panels inthe 51 chevy truck with a gallon of bondo NO STEEL !!. Then, after looking at the floor boards, he took alluminum and covered all the rot without removing the rot first then used the smallest riviots he had to attach the tin. After removing all the shit he did, I ended replacing the rocker panels, makeing new kick panels out out steel and getting a new set of floor pans. I can't beleive some of the work people will try to do. sometimes it comes down to saftey and strength.
I found the remains of a campfire full of melted beer bottles in my trunk, think trunk full of ashes and broken glass.
Maybe that was a wantabe arsonist that didn't make the cut . Some folks just can't do anything right.
Hmm........seems to me if you looked at these issues and still bought the vehicle you should go into the bathroom and complain to that guy you see in the mirror. Actually it's kinda kool buyin' junk from others as you can usually buy it for a junk price and have the challenge of correcting the problems. I could write a book on the crap I have found over the years. Best thing found to date is an entire car wired using masking tape for insulation.
What P.O. do to street cars is bad enough but no a 'pimple on the butt' what P.O.s do to race cars as cars get cheaper so do the folks that own them I've got one car with a cracked head the P.O. tried to fix it with RTV!!! And this guy is a respected restorer?Guess what? The best thing I can say about POs is the saved the car till you could get it
Yeah I feel your pain on that one. The Stude truck I got a few monthes ago, I finally started tearing into. They don't have rockers perse, but that wrap-around door bottoms had a good 1/2" bondo, whole bottom. Easy removal though, heat hammer and removed in one giant piece. Both step boards - bondo total. At least he admitted to me when I bought it, he bondoed a lot. I'm not complaining though, a 50 Stude, that I can repair the body for buck fiddy, runs, drives (only a dirty carb). And came with spare I-6 (good mechanical), over-drive trans and Commander rear for $600 together. It is still scary what you find though.
Whats with all of this previous owner bashing I mean c'mon, Did this guy twist your arm to buy this car There buyer is supposed to beware when a purchase is made. so trust no one & suspect everthing!!!! This could go both ways. I sold a perfectly fine,running & driving 34 3Wcpe to a guy pestered me for it. @ the time I felt that he would be the perfect owner for the car. I was getting married the next month so I felt that I should be more responsible & put money into the bank for a house for the wife & I. This guy was all over me to own right then, so I agreed to take $5k down cash,a 54 Lincoln Capri and he'd owe me $5k- I thought that we were friends until he screwed me out of the money owed to me. He drove the car before he bought it, he checked the car out @ so many cruise nights, I drove it on the 1st R&C Americruise with no problems. The car was a looker & he tried to make it his own. It would be like a car Clark aka So-What would build, It may have had a new owner, but it was a signature rod. Well, he swapped it for a Harley about 2yrs later,ten tried to swap the guy back, The new coupes owner told him to get screwed!!!!!! bad mouthed him too. John Labelle bought it from the guy who originally owned the Harley. It was a good car, was built right @ had the look. I wiish I knew where it was now. John said he sold several years ago.
I heard this topic once before somewhere else, but it was about all of my ex-girlfriends.....seems i always ruin 'em for the next guy.........j/k
There are guys out there that think it's acceptable to use NON-automotive parts on their cars. I'm not talking about being creative, yet safe, with parts and supplies, I'm taking about using stuff that's down right stupid and ignorant. Your car is NOT the place to cut corners when your safety and the safety of others on the road is concerned. A person has no control over how someone else builds their car but once you are the "new" owner you do have a responsibility to make it right....and safe.
I knew it when I bought it, and I only bought it for spare body peices, butMy 49 F1 PU (wrecked when I bought it for spare peices) had the cab and bed both welded to the frame with chunks of scrap angle iron (different sizes). The frame was shortened by cutting it and just butt-joint welded together. Passenger side frame rail was cracked and about to break free from the weight of the truck. The running boards were then welded (with more of even different sizes angle iron) to the cab and rear fenders. Front fenders welded to the frame also. The only peice of the entire truck I could remove with a actual wrench was the hood. Every other peice was welded somewhere to something! What a retard.
but in all seriouness i think some kids tired to burn thier empties, and when it didn't work they decide to throw thw remains in the trunk.
I agree with Nads, Buyer Beware! I think after working on their own cars some previous owners think to themself's this can't be safe, I'd better sell it. And if luck would have it, a H.A.M.B.er comes along to save the POS from the Crusher and turn said POS into a save, reliable and COOL Ride! FF
Got a rabbit from a girl I used to work with. Her ex boyfriend converted it over from fuel injection to a Weber carb because he couldn't get the FI to work right. (Plugged up he said). He got drunk one night and she overheard him bragging in a bar about getting $300 for the FI on her car and replacing it with a freebie carb off a dead dune buggy. He used a 30.06 rifle shell to plug the return line to the gas tank. The fuel line he did use was held onto the carb with twisted bailing wire.
I bought one of my projects from an old man who seemed to have a ton of stuff in his yard.City came down on him hard so he had to sell quickly. I made the deal,got the truck home and started the dismantling procedure.The motor mount were bolted to the front of the SBC in the holes where the early mounts bolted to.The "mounts" went directly forward to the frame crossmember.When I gave the motor a little throttle,the engine rocked severely as there was nothing to support it side to side.When I cut them out,they were only tack welded.And the previous owner had driven it like this.And I haven't even mentioned the 3 foot tall fishing pole holder welded to the rear bumper. Shortly after I started the project,a buddy stopped by.He knew the history of the truck and the previous owner.The old man I bought it from was the father of said previous owner.Previous owner is doing life in the slammer for bludgeoning someone to death with a shovel.Still kinda gives me the creeps.