If we really knew what was pulling up behind us at some traffic lights. We would stand a better chance running the light.
I really don't know what to say over thew screw job this poor guy suffered. Thank God you interceded and the little "A" is going to get repaired the correct way.
I personally like Billy simply because his shite work LITERALLY kept crushproof in business for about two months...and it STILL shows up from time to time. I can personally attest to Reggies skills and let you all know that the car is in good hands. As far as the owner being as stupid as the builder, I disagree. This guy snowed MANY very intelligent HAMBers, and did a pretty good job of b.s. ing his way around it. then, he simply dissappeared. and it isn't all stuff that is all that obvious, because the guy was The Great Bondini...for example, Buzzards coupe had a broken hairpin. half ass welded and covered in bondo. I would have never noticed had I not had my face about 6 inches from it with a halogen bulb shining on it. Left brain said "Hey! that looks like a crack! Right brain said "No way,it is right up against the axle mounting point, it would have surely broken, dug into the ground and KILLED buzzard on one of his nearly 100 mph passes" Left Hand says "touch it with the grinder in a spot where it is not too noticible" nose says"is that Bondo?" he literally had tacked the thing together and smoothed it back together with Bondo. ON BOTH SIDES. not to mention the way the shocks sit on thier bumpstops at all times (okay,they might have a half inch of travel.mabey) my point is this. I tell all my customers to come in, take photos,and get hands on with thier project. not everyone has this option, but at least I try. Unless you are John Force, you should have no problem letting a customer come in and poke around every once in awhile. just keep your greasy mitts off the fresh primer and were cool!
Reggie, I saw pics of that car and always liked the looks of it. Too bad your buddy got screwed. I am sure you will guide him down the right path.
I have been following this post closely. I am at a complete loss for words. Every picture made me cringe more than the last one. But the real scary thing is that there are a lot of cars like this out there. I went to the Hunnert Car Pile-up for the first time this year and saw 2 things...some guys REALLY know what they are doing and have great ideas and some guys have no clue what they are doing and should be banned from ever owning a welder!!! I have never seen such a large collection of really bad welding in my life. Some of the welds look like a 3 year old girl blew snots on it and they said...that looks good!!! This is not meant as a slam to "rat rodders", it is in all aspects of this hobby. It does seem however that they are a lot of guys running around, chopping up frames and globbing on weld to rusty parts and calling them hot rods. Just my 2 cents.... Matt P.S. Reggie, I feel really bad for your friend. A friend of mine got burned on a motorcycle deal also. From what I have read, the car is now in good hands with you, but if I can help in any way, please let me know. If you're looking for parts or anything....
Reggie - I don't think you are being negative with this post at all. It's great that you took the time to show us this stuff. You may have even helped out a few people who didn't know better.
Reggie, I'm glad the cars in good hands now and it will be build right and safe!! There are probably more cars out on the road like this which is scary!! there is a Nash being build here that I looked at and it is so un safe and fucked up the guy building it should get his fuckin ass kicked!!! Tman you know what car I am talkin about. The "Customer" is one of the nicest guy's you could know and looking at the car I can't believe he would be happy the results. Hopefully know one will every get hurt in this car Yikes!!!!
I agree totally. This post can make a guy realize that maybe his welding/fabricating skills need a little more work before they do a frame or vital mounting points themselves. I know I'd never want to trust my welding on anything of the sort. When someone asks if I can weld, I tell them I can make 2 peices of metal stick together, but I can't weld. Posts & pics like these are a good reminder to remember that! Hope its finished in time for the Roundup!
Please tell me the bolts through the floor are not attaching the seats, or seat belts.........................
We can't blame the owner on this. He's a hard working guy who paid honest money for honest work. He doesn't live close at all, else the builder would have had a noose around his neck. There is no excuse for this kind of work. HRP, I'm using my '29 Panel's cowl just to mock the car up. The body and paint is fairly nice on the car (I'm sure someone else did this work). I'm trying to do as much as possible without having to use the real body. Lux, the welds on buzzard's car makes my stomach sink. Check this out....I tried to use as much as possible since the car had all new parts. I looked at the split bones and thought...man this is an extremely nice looking piece. I decided that I better put the grinder on it to check out the welds.....and man what a horrible pile of bondo. The tie rods that were used on the ends were literally tack welded in and covered up with bondo. It would have broken with a good panic stop. Did he put the front disc brake kit on Buzzard's car? If so, he should check his spindles. The inner bearing adapter is typically heated so that it can expand and slide of the spindle. It's a zero-tolerance fit. Instead of doing that, this bulder put a grinder on a brand new pair of spindles to get the bearind adapter to slide on. The spindles are ruined. I'll PM Buzz to make sure he's ok.
Yep, those would be the bolts mounting the seat. It has no underneath support at all. That has to come out too. I've only mentioned a small part of the mess. Check out the upper steering column mount.....you can wiggle the whole thing at least an inch by hand.
This is another reason to inset the boxing plate into the channel of the frame rail and do a full-penetration fillet weld. ANDTHEN DON'T GRIND IT! I know that So-Cal has trademarked the term "Step Boxed" but that is the SAFE way to box a frame. Yes, it takes more time to fit the boxing plates, but the welds are then out of sight and they don't get ground for "appearances" sake. A boxing plate weld that is gound down to "look" nice will always fail in an accident or in this case, before. There looks to be quite a bit of rust, which also contributed to this failure. Thanks for posting this thread. Again, the H.A.M.B. comes through with the technical info to show the RIGHT way to do things. Building cars is fun to do but you must do it right. Your life and the lives of your family depends on it.
that is just freaking scary. this is a case of if something had broken, that shop is lucky that they didn't get sued. (not to bring up the litigious side of our society, i don't think that any of that work would stand up in court)
Yeah that car gets my blood boiling Dave. Probably worse than what Reggie is showing. Even worse, HIS FRIENDS did the work and took the money. Ignorance must be bliss.
He wasn't my friend...barely knew him. There was a huge story on a San Antonio news station that showed a bunch of people that were taken. One of the stories was about a lady who wrote a check for $9K to get her father's life long project finished before he lost his cancer battle. Well years later she lost her money, she can't find the pieces to the car, and her father never saw if finished.
My God! I can't hardly beleive it. The thing that kills me is that this guy was running a business. Selling people a shit product that could kill. Just think, my 3 year old daughter runs out in the street to get her ball (she knows better actually, but this is just an example), driver of the "jewel" hits the brakes hard and tries to steer out of the way...pedals rip out of the floor, and the steering box pulls off of the frame..... that's a mother fucker.
Reggie, good for you showing these pics. This hobby of ours needs to spread the good and bad so we can all learn and make better and safer vehicles. Unfortunately in this caase we are learning from the bad, what NOT to do. I have to agree that it is good you are helping out to make this car right and be able to keep seeing your friend at a car show instead of a funeral.
This does really suck and to make matters even worse this is just one example of hundreds, if not thousands, of other "hot rods" on the road that people build, "professional" or not, and drive them like they've built the best car ever. OR even worse, they know they've "built" (and I use that term loosely), a pile-o-shit yet they don't care. Stating it's their "right" to build it however they see fit. Some people really piss me off. If you can't built it safe don't fucking bother building it at all. On a happier note, I am really looking forward to seeing it in person at the RoundUp....so get busy bud!!!
when was all this done?..and is there ANY recourse for the owner to take? like a "smear campaign" boycot, somethin to get that guy out of busness, or does someone have to die first! your a blessing to your friend..good eye!! is there some way to get a custumer list to warn the public about this guy? like running an ad in the local paper to find out if anyone else has had work done there?.that could be helpfull to others. BRUCE
Scary shit Reggie... I'm working on a Car that is only marginally better than that one, right now. An old build from the 50's, that was stored for a long time. It has the look, the stance, the old speed equipment, but nothing else. I knocked critical parts that were welded to the Chassis off with a chisel without damaging the frame! I'm trying to make the Car driveble, without loosing its timewarp character...
Reggie, That sucks, Just goesto show in a picture paint can sometimes be bad news. looks like you gonna have it handled. So did Buzzard coupe get built by this guy too?
That shop was just a few miles from my house. I used to drive by occasionally just see what kind of cool stuff they had behind the fence. I'm glad your buddy at least got his car back. Others weren't so lucky. Slonaker
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