A warning to all potenial car buyers

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SGBARRACUDA

SGBARRACUDA

ROY
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I would like to take a minute or two of your time to pass on a car experience that I'm dealing with right now. About a year ago I bought a 69 Dart from another member here who I will not disclose, the purpose of this thread has nothing to do with that. After driving the car for almost a year I decided to start doing some detail work to it. I pulled the engine/ trans to have the underhood painted, also rebuild the front end,paint door jams, etc. What I discovered, blew me away! Two of the driveshaft strap bolts were backed out 1/8", iremoved them with my fingers. 3 of the four crossmember bolts were never tightened,the rt lower shock bolt had no nut, the column had the extender added for P/S to manual steering had a bolt on each end droped in the hole, no nut or roll pin like it should have had. The left two K- member bolts were backed out 1/8 to 1/4", (I thought it had a broken motor mount),
No cotter keys in any of the steering pieces, pitman arm was about to fall off cause the nut was never tightened, sway bar bolts were all loose. and on and on and on. My Point. DON'T ASSUME BECAUSE IT LOOKS GOOD THAT EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT!!!! I'm surprised it drove as good as it did. Don't get me wrong I'm a grown man and I should have looked it over better, but I still luv my Dart and I'll make her right. I guess it's a good thing I only put about 800 miles on it. But before you buy a car for your son or daughter or yourself. CHECK IT OVER !!!!
 
Think about the previous owners screen name :evil2:

You are right, you have to check every thing over real well.
 
Mopower71 said:
Think about the previous owners screen name :evil2:

You are right, you have to check every thing over real well.
Click to expand...

I guess you figured it out, huh? I don't kow how much he was responsible for and how much was done buy the previous owner.
 
It should be a wake up call for everyone, we sometimes overlook the obvious.
 
Absolutely.

The only two things I care about when buying a car to drive are, does it steer and stop. Everything else is secondary if you can't control the car.

I had a car that the entire front end had new parts in it, except they never tightened anything down or put cotter keys in place. Got told it was ready to drive. Yeah that was an interesting deal.
 
Not only the used cars need checking, but any car you are getting. Worked for years at a Ford dealer on the new cars as they came in. Found wrong harnesses put into different model cars, bearings not greased, a multitude of things not tightened down, wiring shorts, freeze plugs not in just to name a few things. That was straight off the convoy truck.

Always remember one dealer we did a dealer trade with to get a customer the colour car he wanted. We always went over the cars regardless of if they came straight off the truck or from another dealer. Found that the dome lamp was not working. Pulled the cover, no bulb. Put a bulb in and the lamp stayed on all the time. Rather than that dealer finding out what was the matter they just pulled the bulb out. Ended up having a short in it where a trim screw was run through the harness. The other dealer had the vehicle for over 2 months sitting on their lot for sale!

Another time the dealership owner called me and asked me to check over a conversion company they were looking at buying vehicles from. Chevy was doing really well at the time with the Suburban and this company was converting Crew Cab trucks and Broncos into basically a 4 door Suburban. The way they would do the conversion was to take a crew cab and cut the back off and put a Bronco rear section on. They would also take Broncos, cut them in half and take the centre section of a Crew Cab and adapt that in. Found them done both ways.

Long story short, found where the roof was a bondo bucket on top where they had done the Bronco with a crew cab centre. Got me to really wondering how they did the join. Took the complete headliner down and found that the roof had been pop rivited every 10 inches or so. That was all that was holding it together. On the outside they had used bondo to smooth it and match the roof contours. On the inside the front section of the roof skin had been cut unevenly with what looked like a sawzall done free hand. Wavy was not the word. The front section of roof slotted in under the rear section and extended back about 6 to 8 inches. The two sections front and rear did not even meet even as the front section hung down about 1/2 inch from the top section and they had just spaced the headliner to cover it and make it look smooth.

Needless to say, in a heavy front end impact (or maybe not that heavy) the front roof section would have the ability to buckle down and back thus taking the top off the heads of anyone sitting in the rear seats. Found numerous other things, but that was the clincher. Showed the owner and let's just say we did not buy anything from the company.
 
Thanks for the tip, glad there are no horror stories to go along with the post. I guess now you have to break out the fine tooth comb and inspection glasses. Good luck on getting it road worthy again.
 
Same deal. Even if it was connected it wasn't correct. I bought a roller, I'm going through everything before I drive it. If something comes apart later it'll be my fault.
 
Thanks for the tip!

Drives home a recent experience with an alignment shop. My pals and I have been working on a 69 Charger and took it to the alignment shop. Drove fine going home, but when taking a look later, realized that no cotter pins were re-installed by the shop. Lots of $$$ have been invested in this ride and it all could have gone bad by something as simple as missing suspension/steering cotter pins.

Lesson learned: On key systems (that affect safety) second check everything...regardless if (1) buying someone else's ride/work, (2) out-sourcing work or (3) even doing it yourselves. Think about how many times you have done work in haste and forgot something. Get a second set of eyes (or rested eyes) to sign-off on work complete.
 
It's utterly amazing how many times this is seen. It pays to check your new ride over well as soon as you get it no matter what your told or who told you. I bought my 68 Cuda from the owner of a Chrysler dealership. He owned it for over 15 yrs. One of 12 cars in his personal collection. Same deal as SGBARRACUDA described. Stuff falling apart everywhere.
 
fishy68 said:
It's utterly amazing how many times this is seen. It pays to check your new ride over well as soon as you get it no matter what your told or who told you. I bought my 68 Cuda from the owner of a Chrysler dealership. He owned it for over 15 yrs. One of 12 cars in his personal collection. Same deal as SGBARRACUDA described. Stuff falling apart everywhere.
Click to expand...

Who knows. Maybe it's why these people chose to sell in the first place. Because they couldn't keep it together.
 
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