Worst PO repair?

[soule64]

My apologies if this has already been covered - I searched and found nothing. After finding myself scratching my head after each new discovery, I keep asking myself "what was this guy thinking?" It started with the cab corner that was formed around a beer can with bondo (Coor's Light, BTW...), then the front grill braized to the fender because of a stripped nutplate, next came the transmission arm made of flat stock and then welded to the output shaft, the radiator and shroud held in place with coathangar wire and duct tape and finally (so far), the bumper brackets welded to the frame. I discovered most of this before I bought the truck, so I knew it was repairable and I am not griping. I am curious though, do I win the 'worst previous owner repair' award or are there some better stories out there?

[Fred T]

I thought I had seen some bad ones until I uncovered this on my truck. And it's not the only thing.
P O Rant link

[463]

can you say _________

[Longhorn Man]

How about this?
The truck my old 69 GMC C/1500 short/fleet;


The PO... also known as the dope smokin old man, did a brake job while drinking. He couldn't *figure out* the self adjustors on the drums. So he simply left the adjustor arms out.
He installed a TH350 where a TH400 once resided. When the tranny mount wouldn't reach the cross member, he just took a piece of flat stock that was about 3 inches wide by 6 inches long, drilled a few holes in it, and made an arm... or a "remote mount" as he so proudly called it. Not only, the did the leverage and weight end up ripping the cross member, but when he installed the arm, he didn't line it up very well, so the shift linkage didn't reach. So, instead of UNfking his artwork, he cut the linkage, and added 1 1/2 or so inches of flat stock metal to make it reach.
"remote mount"

The linkage;


nice huh?
Or... how about when the stock amp guage went bad, he installed an aftermarket one. All the stock one needed was a single fuse... but whatever. To wire it up, he took a piece of SPEAKER WIRE, hooked it to the battery positive terminal, ran it up and OVER the engine, through a rough hole on the firewall, to some nice heavy wire, and to the guage... then back up OVER the engine...with... you guessed it, SPEAKER WIRE, and to the terminal on the fender.
It gets better.
After the guage stopped working, he unbolted the two eyelet terminals off the back of the guage... BOLTED them TOGETHER... then... tucked them under the carpet.
No... i did NOT forget to mention electrical tape or anything of the sort. The crimp ons can be seen in this photo on the tranny tunnel.
More speaker wire... this time from the fuse box, constant hot... to a rocker switch under the dash, out to the HEI.
Yes... itty bitty K-mart speaker wire.
His "custom threads" as he so proudly called them...were uglier than a man's ass.
Yes... brown and tan... on a red truck.
Dig the dash pad.

In this photo, you can also see the toggle under the dash to the left, that was the headlight switch. he couldn't figure out the headlights... there was green powdery flakey crap oozing out of the dimmer switch plug... but what ever. A toggle will get it going.
You can't see the HEI switch, but you can see the horn button in the radio knob hole, the one he was gonna wire to the starter since the ignition switch went bad. He never got around to it since the screwdriver to the starter method kept him from driving drunk MOST OF THE TIME. (his words... not mine)
There was enough bondo in this truck to hand form a 67 vette.
Broken panhard bar... when asked about it, his repsonce was "Yeah, it's been like that for a few years"
His "custom harness" as he called it, makes you wonder if Mickey Mouse was an electrician.;

And the top honors...
He wanted a headliner, so he made one out of the same material as the dash pas and seat, then took his trusty cordless drill and screwdriver bit... and some 1/2 inch long screws.
Well... just look at the photo. :cry:

There were 3 that were hardly sticking out, and another 4 that were like this one. You'd be AMAZED at how many times you'd forget about them... untill you were HAND washing it.
All in all, she made a good beater for a few years. I half assed some stuff... but NOTHING like the PROS at the Dope Smokin Old Man's place.
Last known photo;

[soule64]

Ummm... Ok, you win Longhorn. Holy sht... Now I don't feel so bad.

[Longhorn Man]

!!!!
I don't win... it could ALWAYS be worse;





Photos pirated off another board years ago.

[streetstar]

LOL -- he's trying to convert it into an airplane

[ChevLoRay]

Okay, I feel better now. Geeze, I was gonna fuss about the P.O.'s use of industrial silicone, like GE's Silastic. Stuff will stop a leak until the rust it causes gets "right". It takes a while but a ring of it around my wiper motor finally caused the wiper motor to fall out of the cowl. There's other places where it got used, too.

Had a guy we worked with though who used Silastic and Duct tape to "patch" his work shoes. Wish I had a picture of them. I am sure the company could have bought him a new pair of shoes for the wages he earned while patching his shoes. It was hilarious to see.

[463]

the 72 gmc i had when i was in school had a 108" cb antana that was removed from the pass side cab much in the same ase the fuel fill on the drivers side. they used 4 layers of 1" masking tape and color matched (white spray can) oh well. also had a starter button bolted to the dash under the key ( removed the need to get the hood open and the screwdriver out i guess) .

[LonghornJeff]

My firts thought when I saw this thread was "If I ever sell my Jimmy The new owner will win". Then I thought of Andys old GMC (AKA Dope Smokin Old Man Truck) but he beat me to the relpy. In the defense of Andys old truck it was way better truck when Andy sold it. He even sold it with the very rare TOWBAR option

[oldsmobilekindofguy]

WOW.....thats all I got to say.....WOW

[Longhorn Man]

well jeff... it wasn't able to make a 10 mile drive on a bet when I sold it.



Wait... it hardly made it 6 miles home when I bought it!

LOL!!!!
It was a much better truck when I sold it, even with that rod hammerin like mad. I did undo a lot of what he did, and like I said, I did rig some things... but I did a higher class of rigging I guess!
It sure looked cooler... that's for sure!



She had a little more power too! heh heh heh




I do miss the 'ole girl... wish i coulda kept her.

[dieselarmy13]

Lets start off with the custom smoothed body line, complete with chicken wire backing inside the cab.


Then we have the ultra custom alternator mount (welded to the manifold)


And we can't forget the super-ultra custom interior, complete with custom engineered van seats (the battery was dead on my camera when I took them out, I can't even explain how these were mounted, but lets just say my truck lost about 500 pounds of steel that day) and vintage wooden console.


The baby blue paint was painstakingly applied


The best part was the audio system, which consited of a sweet Roadmaster and two factory Ford speakers stuck to the gas tank via magnet.

[1tonblaze]

lol my blazer when i got it had green shag carpet all in the inside with curtians on the side windows . That was the frist thing i did 2 years ago was rip it all out and throw it in the dumpster . Wish i had pics you all woild have gotten a laught . My freinds till this day still call it the shaggin wagon .

[milled]

Don't sweat it, lots of crap work is buirred in these trucks. Mine included, trailer-park trash crap. IE using a nail as a fuse=looser. But at the end of a day of fixing the old girl you'll feel better, beer included. I did.

[71big block]

I have to give a nod to 53sparks. He must have gotten a deal on grade 8 bolts, I bought a parts truck from him last fall and the valve covers and radaitor mounting brackets were all mounted with grade 8 bolts.

[jayharrell]

I'm glad you guys are saving these old trucks, but damn. You need to stop dealing with tweekers when you spot um. Or at least interveen before it gets this bad.

[caminokid]

Well my 69 had the best in custom seats....2nd gen Camaro seats. 2X4's botled to the floor...another set of 2X4's crossways nailed the the bolted set...then the seats nailed to the 2X4's.

[jayharrell]

Long Horn, Looks like you have a rare ambulance under that tarp in the last known pic. Whats the story on that one?? How much did you have to fork over to BJ to get that thing??

LOL

[Longhorn Man]

that's in Tn in ChevyE's yard.
I have no clue whats under the tarp. He gave me $500 for that back in oct of 04.

[ed2552]

My truck had a "custom" center console, made out of 2x8 boards stapled together and screwed to the floor, and it has the fugliest seats ever, and someone pop riveted the new rockers and floor boards over the old ones

[ratrod67]

WOW! Some of that stuff is pretty bad. I thought my old 72 was bad. It had the steering box welded to the frame.

[Camper Power]

the PO on mine sprayfoamed the cab corners

[Ace in the hole]

Originally Posted by Camper Power

the PO on mine sprayfoamed the cab corners

The PO of mine must have been his brother, my cab corners were filled in with foam too. I guess they didn't like to see open road rushing by.

[1tonblaze]

lol i used spray foam in a 77 burb roof to keep water from coming in lol that truck was a spark plug eatting water leaking machine .