Previous owner handywork stories

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The guy who had my Dart before me was a friend of my dad's. In the early 80's, my dad put a bigger cam, a 750 AVS, a set of X-heads, and 4.56 gears in it for him. The car was a real handful on the crappy street tires he had on it. My dad gave him an old set of 7" Casler cheater slicks that were laying around the garage. They were 32 inches tall, and they wouldn't fit in the wheel openings. The guy and his buddies were getting ready to run the car at the track, so he told his buddies he was leaving the garage for 10 minutes, and when he came back he wanted the tires on the car. He didn't care how they did it, just get it done. When he came back, the slicks were on it. The took a big hammer, and beat the front of the wheel openings forward until they had enough clearance. The front of the openings are smashed even with the wheelwell. The car had been painted about 2 weeks before that, and they weren't nice about their hammer work. It was like that when I bought it in 1995, and it's still like that now. I just tell people it makes the car look mean.
 
For most of my life I was lucky. Usually, "handiwork" was damn poor minor mechanical electrical repairs, nothing major. The big hit came with the awful hitch receiver that was on the "White Whale" when I bought it. I'm lucky the damn thing didn't just fall off LOL

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=290772

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After I got it out of there

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Yup. That really WAS what "held it in there"

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The wiring was no better. Evidently they played "Casino" with the wiring. Stripped ALL the wires, left them BARE, and sort of hooked up to sort of what might have maybe been the possibly correct wires

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This is how I found it. Not even any tape, not even DUCT TAPE

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Yup. nice. NOT

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Bought a used receiver from the junk yard WITH BOLTS and bolted it right on, like it should have been to start. Bought some new U bolts and added some leafs from some overloads "to the stack"

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PO on my car had a lug nut missing several others loose / 3 bolts missing and about that many loose on front bell housing / motor mount bolts not tight / clutch pedal rod not secured / distributor not tightened / no roll pin in steering coupler / seat belts just tucked in , no bolts / wrong oil pressure switch / temp sender loose and leaking / rear u joint bolts loose with no retainer clips on 2 cups / no pvc valve just rubber grommet. AND they drove it !!!! About drove me nuts after I bought it.
Yote
 
Once worked on a friends car he had just bought cheap.(Know why now)

71 Duster. Fixing e-cable on passenger side. Noticed some foam under rockers.
PO used expandable foam to fill entire rusted out rocker panels on bothsides!
Also between inner/outer rusted sheetmetal on rear wheel well and quarterpanels! WOW.

I told him there was enough foam in this car, that it probably could float.
 
My duster had speaker wire running to the amp gauge.

A 70 cuda I just bought for parts has the inner fenders pop riveted in.
 
You just got to love old cars, every one is a surprise.
 
the pO of my car told me all the dents were because he couldn't keep the car on the road around corners. I found a combination of worn front suspension and bald tires to be the culprit...
 
I had a buddy stop by w a 72 swinger he bought with a fresh but rough B5 blue paint job, blacked out grille, some SBP centerline auto drags and an awful krylon canned white bee stripe on it. Car looked ok from a distance actually. Everything was held together electrically under the dash w scotchlock connectors and all yellow hook up wire. Lic plate lamp wouldent light, no running lamps in the back, no brake lights, no rear turn signals, no horn. Well there was a horn kinda. Yellow hook up wire and a pushbutton on the dash next to the column.

Where do i begin, well i started w lic plate light, yes there was a bulb in it. They cut the wire inches from the damn barrel connector to take the bumper off. I get that mended w solder and shrink wrap. Light still wont light. I pull drivers kick panel, they cut the wire going to the running lights, and attached it to a yellow hook up wire going to some cheezy under dash gages. I hooked it back up, and viola running lamps and a lic plate lamp working. One tail lamp working a little too brightly. I pulled the lens off, somebody botched in a late model bulb socket. I told my buddy to hit the junkyard for a good correct taillight housing with good sockets to fix that.

Turn signals and brakelamps were all fixed by me replacing the turn signal harness in the column. Old one was all melted together. When i pulled the beat to **** grant GT wheel off to get to the turn signal switch i found the source of the horn problem. Besides the wheel not having a horn button, somebody took the stock dart wheel, and cut off the spokes off leaving just the center nub from the stock wheel. then they removed the wheel mounting nut they installed the grant wheel over the nut, and tightened the snot out of the nut so the grant wheel would turn the column. I couldent believe it. I still cant believe someone did something that unsafe.

We went to Vatozone and Bob bought a new grant wheel, and correct wheel adaptor kit for it and i installed it. When i pulled the yellow hook up wires off the horns and hooked the horns back up to the stock wiring the horns worked fine.

I ended up dewiring all the home brewed **** wiring out of this car, tossing it all in the burn barrel, and helping him wire it up correctly for a stereo and fix the remaining little problems.

No joke this car was that effed up. Took me about 4 hours knowing these electrical systems to troubleshoot and fix it. Thank God he me as a friend to help him. A shop would have raped him to make it worth of passing inspection.
 
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I had a buddy stop by w a 72 swinger he bought with a fresh but rough B5 blue paint job, blacked out grille, some SBP centerline auto drags and an awful krylon canned white bee stripe on it. Car looked ok from a distance actually. Everything was held together electrically under the dash w scotchlock connectors and all yellow hook up wire. Lic plate lamp wouldent light, running lamps in the back, no brake lights, no rear turn signals, no horn. Well there was a horn kinda. Yellow hook up wire and a pushbutton on the dash next to the column.

Where do i begin, well i started w lic plate light, yes there was a bulb in it. They cut the wire inches from the damn barrel connector to take the bumper off. I get that mended w solder and shrink wrap. Light still wont light. I pull drivers kick panel, they cut the wire going to the running lights, and attached it to a yellow hook up wire going to some cheezy under dash gages. I hooked it back up, and viola running lamps and a lic plate lamp working. One tail lamp working a little too brightly. I pulled the lens off, somebody botched in a late model bulb socket. I told my buddy to hit the junkyard for a good correct taillight housing with good sockets to fix that.

Turn signals and brakelamps were all fixed by me replacing the turn signal harness in the column. Old one was all melted together. When i pulled the beat to **** grant GT wheel off to get to the turn signal switch i found the source of the horn problem. Besides the wheel not having a horn button, somebody took the stock dart wheel, and cut off the spokes off leaving just the center nub from the stock wheel. then they removed the wheel mounting nut they installed the grant wheel over the nut, and tightened the snot out of the nut so the grant wheel would turn the column. I couldent believe it. I still cant believe someone did something that unsafe.

We went to Vatozone and Bob bought a new grant wheel, and correct wheel adaptor kit for it and i installed it. When i pulled the yellow hook up wires off the horns and hooked the horns back up to the stock wiring the horns worked fine.

I ended up dewiring all the home brewed **** wiring out of this car, tossing it all in the burn barrel, and helping him wire it up correctly for a stereo and fix the remaining little problems.

No joke this car was that effed up. Took me about 4 hours knowing these electrical systems to troubleshoot and fix it. Thank God he me as a friend to help him. A shop would have raped him to make it worth of passing inspection.
Sounds like you sorted it all in the end. Well done!!
 
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