Lets see you jimmy rigs, quick fixes, and all around funny mods!!!

[treveiger]

I was searching through threads and saw a bunch on mods to trucks but not very many on crazy mods, quick fixes, and jimmy rigs and want to see what you have. Lets see pics of things you fixed on your own or modified to make them work, the crazier the better.
Remember!

[raycow]

The worst hack job I have ever owned, I didn't do myself. This was a DeSoto on which a PO had done a transmission "swap".

1. The shift linkage - column shift - worked backwards.

2. There were only two bolts holding the transmission to the bellhousing. The other two holes didn't line up.

3. The parking brake, which was on the transmission, wasn't connected. The cable ended in a ragged cut-off stump. Have you ever tried parking a fluid drive on a grade where there was no curb to bump the front tire against? I had to carry wheel chocks around with me.

4. The front and rear U-joints were different types. To deal with this little hiccup, the genius cut up two driveshafts and attempted to BUTT-WELD them together. The tube diameters weren't even the same. It was impossible to drive the car over about 30 mph because the vibration was so bad.

Sorry, but no pics. I owned this car during 1962-63 and never even thought about photographing its problems. Eventually, I got it patched up well enough to drive it 1100 miles home from school and, amazingly enough, had no problems on the trip.

Ray

[Shyguy]

This should be an interesting thread once it gets going.

[Dano69c10]

When I bought my '70, it had a cardboard carrier bearing for the driveshaft. Had rice rocket bucket seats bolted to the floor with 4" long (1/2'') pipe spacers. It also had drag racing seatbelts with the mounts welded to the back of the cab.

My '69 had no battery tray when I bought it, the battery was on the inner fender. The z-bar was a piece of galvanized pipe,...

[rsavage]

My brother in law had a 59 or 60 Plymouth that he painted silver and black. We called it the Batmobile. It looked pretty good until he go hit hard on the driver's door. Door was trashed so he built a new one out of plywood and two by twos. Even had a lexan side window. Of course it didn't open or close so he got in and out of the passenger door. It was a slant six 3 on the tree and the shift linkage was totally shot. He cut a hole in the tunnel and had two sticks bolted to the transmission dog ears that came up through the hole. He would shift it by pushing up and down on the sticks. Obviously, he was the only one who could drive it. I wish I had some photos.

[treveiger]

Man these are crazy keep them coming

[Jacfourteen]

Originally Posted by rsavage

He cut a hole in the tunnel and had two sticks bolted to the transmission dog ears that came up through the hole. He would shift it by pushing up and down on the sticks. Obviously, he was the only one who could drive it. I wish I had some photos.

Never seen the twin stick option in a plymoth!

[1968CHEVYC10]

Originally Posted by rsavage

My brother in law had a 59 or 60 Plymouth that he painted silver and black. We called it the Batmobile. It looked pretty good until he go hit hard on the driver's door. Door was trashed so he built a new one out of plywood and two by twos. Even had a lexan side window. Of course it didn't open or close so he got in and out of the passenger door. It was a slant six 3 on the tree and the shift linkage was totally shot. He cut a hole in the tunnel and had two sticks bolted to the transmission dog ears that came up through the hole. He would shift it by pushing up and down on the sticks. Obviously, he was the only one who could drive it. I wish I had some photos.

I was seriously considering doing this to my truck awhile back when I was having trouble with my linkage haha

[Jacfourteen]

Originally Posted by 1968CHEVYC10

I was seriously considering doing this to my truck awhile back when I was having trouble with my linkage haha

Well it would have been a great theft deterrent!

[chuckmc8]

I have seen lots of these, but the most memorable was in a 1949 or so Dodge P/U with a flathead 6 cyl. I bought this truck when I was a teenager-IIRC I paid like a $100 or so, that was in the early 1970's.....it had dead skip in #4 cylinder. The PO said it had a bad spark plug.....when I got it home I did a compression test (stuck my finger in the spark plug hole and turned it over, notin dere) so I pulled the head and I found (wait for it).......it had spun the rod bearing and ruined the crank journal, so they just took the piston and rod out and stuffed an old towel on the cylinder.
It ran pretty well on 5 and I used it for a farm truck......It was Dodge, so I had no emotional attachment to it.....At this same time my 1971 Cheyenne Super (which was not my farm truck) was just a year or two old......those were the days!

[chuckmc8]

Here's another one I just have to mention, my pal had the raggedest 1964 Buick whatever, ,maybe a LeSabre, I mean it was badddd, but we used to ride to work in it nearly everydaty (circa 1976-77 or so) no matter how fast he was going (it had a powerglide) he would yank it intoi LO and floor it......flat black, no muffler....
but here's his cool mod.....he rr-routed the windsheild washer hose to the back tires and put oil in the reservior. He would pump oil to the back tires and do burnouts in the parking lot where we worked durin shift change...it would smoke so bad you couldnt even see the building.......I have never seen someone so hard on a car, but that old Buick never once let him down.........

[71 super]

I had a friend in high school that had a 76 chevy with 305. The truck was a death trap to say the least. The bed had rusted so badly he cut it off and made a new onle out of old pallets and bolted down with lag bolts. It was the friday tradition as we left school to "Light" the tires up as we pulled out of the parking lot onto the access street, one friday while doing this, the throttle cable broke on this truck and he was cheap, real cheap. He was a skater dude before skater dudes were even well skater dudes, so he removes one of the shoe laces that he never tied anyway and loops it through the carb eyelet on throttle plate snakes it through the dash and makes it a true"manual throttle complete with lawn mower pull handle, and left it that way. The old truck had a three speed saginaw in it that the column shifter was worn out beyond repair, so he went to the junk yard and pulled the first shifter he could find- a mr gasket three speed, puts it it wrong so it shifts backwards and calls it good. The seats were bolted down with more lag bolts and 2x4's and the truck was every color in the world. Imagine aweful, look it up on wicopedia and the thruck would be the only example provide. The only cool thing that I ever saw was a peg leg burnout that was at least 250' long out of that old thing with out power braking etc. He pulled out and pulled the throttle and busted them loose for ever it seemed. I was always amazed that he made it to school every morning alive in the hunk of junk, but in retrospect it was some of the funniest making do with what you got stuff I have seen to date.

[cam.man67]

Nothing to compare to that, but a couple "PO-did-this" jimmy rigs:

1. Had a new-ish radiator, radiator overflow was an old antifreeze container with a hole cut in the top. The way he had it, it was pinched down between the fender and the right front quarter, and somehow developed a leak, a big one. So one day I parked it, walked away saw a ton of antifreeze running out from underneath the radiator area. Thought I had blown a hose. Then I found the overflow, replaced it with another antifreeze container, I've been good to go. Total cost to me to fix, 0 dollars.

2. My seat has been reupholstered at least once. Rather than take the old one off, the PO decided to put a completely new cover overtop the old one. And, when he put the seat back on, he used 1 bolt apiece at each corner. And they were metric...

3. Rather than buy a correct set of valve covers for my 80s era 350 in my truck, the PO apparently had a Proform set for an earlier model, which had a breather on one side and a PCV on the other, no oil fill. So for the first six months of owning my truck, I had to fill the oil via the breather. To top it off, the breather was all the way in the back on the right side, so is was virtually impossible to keep truck clean while filling it.

4. The PO of the PO for some reason removed the tailgate, and replaced is with one of those cargo net.


I've also got an old jeep, which is just a monkey barrel full of WTH-PO mods. The body itself is mostly bondo and tin, although the hood appears to be steel. The seat is some adjustible jury-rig job that slides forward every time you hit the brakes. At some point the PO unhooked the heater box and removed the vacuum booster for the wipers. The top is a dry-rotted, cracked affair, that has a set of decent doors and a good bikini top. So rather than put the full top on this fall, I hooked up the bikini top, the doors, and a couple rods to keep the doors in place. Works well, except is pulls exhaust into the cab like nobody's business.

[pritch]

I was a pretty good Motocrosser when I was a kid, totalley into it, but too poor to have a decent bike. I had a '70 Yamaha DT1 Enduro that I had converted over to be as close to a motocrosser as I could get it. This was when I was in high school in '74. About that time, I started noticing that team Maico was running away with every pro race because they were the first to come up with the forward-mounted rear shocks. This was revolutionary at the time. So I took my 250 to my high school welding shop and copied as best I could what they had done. That next season, I won every race I entered that my bike stayed running. It was my glory days-it wasn't until the next year that the forward-mounted shocks started showing up on factory bikes. I have some pictures of that old thing, but not digital and no scanner.

[travisfraughton]

if you want some really funny ones you need to check out this site

http://thereifixedit.failblog.org/

awesome stuff

[dccarpenter]

I used to buy smash and grab cars for cheap from the police auction, got a Bronco and a Jeep for under 200 dollars each. I used to have to hotwire them to start them since I never bothered fixing the ignitions.

It was fun to impress dates by pretending I was 'stealing' my car.

[treveiger]

Lol these are insane. Its funny how poeple just "made due" with what they had back then and now everything is completely different.

[bigkountry]

Brake switch went out on my 81 K10 so I tapped into the brake light wiring harness and put a toggle switch on it. When I went to stop, I would flip the switch and brake lights would coem on....take off and flip the switch again.

Rear wheel cylinder went out (started leaking), I unscrewed the brake line and put a large head steel brad (nail) in it with some teflon tape as a seal then tightened the brake line back down...no more leaks.

Put an old sony CD player in my moms beater truck and the antenna plug would not reach so I installed it upside down so it would reach.

[JJorgensen52]

on my '69, the po had the following (Holy old thread, Batman!)

1. Floorpans were rusty, so riveted sheetmetal to the rust and laid the carpet back over it

2. Cab corners are made out of NY state road signs, complete with reflective markings on the underside!

3. Washer switch had a loose pin - solution? Cut wires add a toggle switch

4. Power steering:
a. steal a pump from a car (probably a B-body) complete with box and hoses b. Install pump using custom angle iron brackets and threaded rod
c. put protective covering on the lines where they rub on the frame and fender because they are the wrong shape
d. move alternator (from newer car) to passenger's side, requiring change to a short waterpump and extend the brackets to fit. Wire into old wiring, don't bother to remove voltage regulator even though it's an internally regulated alternator (result, 16v system!)
e. make sheetmetal guard for lower radiator hose, where v-belt on new short pulley now is rubbing a hole in the radiator hose.

You can see the threaded rod/angle iron, sheetmetal hose shield, and the extension on the alternator bracket in this pic (the day I put a deposit on it) -- ooh, and the clothespins holding the plugwires!


5. Brakes - front rubber lines were not for this truck, each one had a different stack of adapters (3 on passengers side!) to adapt threads

6. Battery - too cheap to buy the correct size (or replace rusty pan) so build a plywood box to make small battery fit, bungie cord in place

7. My favorite - gaskets. Don't buy new ones, just re-use the OEM cork with LOTS and LOTS of permatex blue. Like, pounds of it...

[Meatman]

When I bought my blazer I only paid $1500 for it. I was told it had a freshly rebuilt motor in it, but It had wiring issues and needed a new harness. When I got it home I went over the wiring and it all looked good minus some really bad repair in some spots. I replaced all the sensors and made sure they were all hooked up, the only one hooked up was the O2 and the TPS and IAC.

Go to start the truck and it starts. But.......I sounds like a diesel with every bearing bad. I pull the motor out of the truck and tear it down and about crap my pants. Block was .40 over with standard pistons in it and crank was .30 over on rods and mains both with standard bearings in it also. Turns out the ladys brother who was an air force mechanic rebuilt it. Genius.

-It also is supposed to have a 4L60E trans in it and they stuck a 700R4 in it. So had to wire it up so lockup works.

Last winter 1st time it snowed and threw her in 4 wheel drive and take off to work. Get up to speed and truck starts darting all over the road. I take it out of 4 wheel and it fine. 90% sure it has mismatched diffs in it. I need to figure that out before it snows again.....

[Woody]

I had a '75 Opel Manta that I broke the Throttle cable on one Labor day weekend while riding around sipping on a few. Got a dog leash from the trunk and hooked it to the carb, ran it in the drivers window and away we went. I used my left hand to give it gas, right hand to steer and my brother shifted gears (4 speed). We got almost to my house and ran up on a road block w/ NC State Trooper on a side road I was going to turn on to. As he asked the driver of a car he had stopped for something, I turned off my signal and continued straight ahead. He never noticed us. We went around to the other end of the road and to my house without gettin caught.

Woody

[DT1]

Originally Posted by Meatman

When I bought my blazer I only paid $1500 for it. I was told it had a freshly rebuilt motor in it, but It had wiring issues and needed a new harness. When I got it home I went over the wiring and it all looked good minus some really bad repair in some spots. I replaced all the sensors and made sure they were all hooked up, the only one hooked up was the O2 and the TPS and IAC.

Go to start the truck and it starts. But.......I sounds like a diesel with every bearing bad. I pull the motor out of the truck and tear it down and about crap my pants. Block was .40 over with standard pistons in it and crank was .30 over on rods and mains both with standard bearings in it also. Turns out the ladys brother who was an air force mechanic rebuilt it. Genius.

-It also is supposed to have a 4L60E trans in it and they stuck a 700R4 in it. So had to wire it up so lockup works.

Last winter 1st time it snowed and threw her in 4 wheel drive and take off to work. Get up to speed and truck starts darting all over the road. I take it out of 4 wheel and it fine. 90% sure it has mismatched diffs in it. I need to figure that out before it snows again.....

Holy Cow!

[406 Q-ship]

I found this on my 74 C10 SWB truck. I was going through a drive thru one evening and the damn truck dies.....no electrics what so ever. So I push it out into the parking lot, damn those trucks are heavy, and start wiggling the battery cables.....nada. Now mind you this was a really late night munchie run and I was not wearing shoes with a 3 to 5 mile walk home (left the cell at home too). I have resigned myself to a long walk in barefeet to my apartment when I give the key another twist.........it fires. A mad dash home and park the truck until I do some diagnosis. Next day I check out all the connections but nothing seems loose or broken, now the harness in the truck is not pretty but workable. I drive the truck for the next few years without incident. When I had to replace the starter I decide to clean up the sketchy harness, well I start unwrapping the starter harness and find butt connectors with bare hot leads about to short out. OK so I will keep unwrapping until I get to a clean section of wiring to connect to. More unwrapping I get up closer to the alternator, now I find flat bare 10 ga hot leads from the starter to the Alt and Battery......yikes! My first thought I an lucky this thing never caught on fire....well, more unwrapping and I find where the harness had been on fire at least once and just taped over. I found burned wire, bare hot leads, and solderless connectors with insulators stripped off exposing the wiring to shorting. I finally removed the whole harness and made the repairs needed but I can't believe this thing only died on once.

Oh yeah, When I lowered this truck I found someone has "rebuilt" the rear leaf springs and had just stacked the leafs randomly, long leaf then a short leaf, then a leaf longer than than the one above.....stupid.

[Critter]

When I got my blazer I knew it had a few questionable customizations, but the price was right and all in all it hadn't been messed with that much. The main thing that I saw was this. They put 6 inch lift springs on the front, but on the back they just cut up and stacked a bunch of leaf spring leaves. At first I thought it was extremely dangerous and I barely drove it further than around the block. Then I realized they had at least tack welded all the pieces together and run a bolt all the way through so they really weren't going anywhere. Needless to say I replaced everything with rear lift springs as soon as I could.

The other funny thing about it is they put an angle shim at the TOP of this stack instead of the bottom. This made the axle sit farther forward than it should have. If they would have put the shim at the bottom of the stack it would have rotated the pinion like it was supposed to.

[Critter]

Another situation years ago on my first truck. When I bought it there was a reman 350 sitting under the hood and it would start and run but was obvious that it was kinda a half-@ssed attempt. It was originally a 6 cyl truck and this was the first time it had a V8 not to mention an HEI distributor. Long story short I redid a bunch of stuff under the hood, painted it, and drove it everyday. After about a year it started sputtering and backfiring every now and then for a few minutes then clear up. It did this off and on for a few weeks and I could never find a problem, rebuilt everything in the HEI, checked the plugs, carb, etc. Finally I looked under the dash and the HEI wire that the PO put in was simply hand twisted to the back of the ignition switch with a little bit of electrical tape covering it. No crimp connector, no wire nut, no solder, nothing. Just twisted together by hand. It had come loose and was only touching together a little bit. The vibration and rattling around had caused the backfiring when the two wires wouldn't make contact.