"What in the world?!" Post your encounters of the stupid kind!

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Another slant six knocker .............

Bout ten years ago I bought a pickup with a slant six that sounded like you were shakin rocks in a can. The seller told me that he bought a bad engine, and after telling me how he had to swap oil pans and that he had to turn "some thing" in order to get the pan on, said he only put 425 miles on it before it started knockin. Autopsy on that one revealed:
1) "some thing" was the oil pump pickup, which was a car unit for center sump
2) oil pump pickup was rotated about 45 degrees to clear rear sump truck pan
3) aside from being uncovered and allowing oil pump to suck air
4) counter weights on crank were hitting oil pickup tube
5) oil pickup tube rubbed completely through
6) much powdered metal ........... big surprise!
 
Bought a 74 Dart Sport once that had a blade from a lawn mower bolted inside the trunk floor to keep the spring shackle from coming up through
 
Oh you guys have nothing on my PO "Darwin Award Winner" When I bought my swinger I noticed the Back end of the car really high to clear the weird offset wide wheel combo. The price was right and I was planning doing a 4 link anyway, so I pulled the car home and noticed that the rear suspension had no give what so ever. This is what I found when I got it home.

The rear swing shackles were gone and welded solid to the frame and he did a spring over suspension lift so the tires could clear. :toothy10: Brilliant and really safe.

The last pic was my solution.
 

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I once bought a 74 duster for dirt cheap with 3 holes drilled in the trunk pan. When I asked why the car didn't run, he said "I drilled the holes to drain out the water in the trunk and I didn't realize the gas tank was below it and drilled through the top of the tank too" so the water drained right in the gas tank. We both had a good laugh and I bought the car anyway.
 
When I bought my 75 Dart I noticed that the wipers worked but made a terrible noise when they operated. I look under the dash and notice somebody removed the bushings and put cotter keys in their place to hold the arms together. I pulled them out and replaced with bushings. Been fine ever since. Second problem with the car after I bought it (besides the busted torsion bar the previous owner didnt tell me about or the fact the gas tank was about to fall out!) was that when I went to bleed the brakes no fluid was coming out. I couldnt understand why that was until I noticed that somebody had put a grease fitting inplace of the bleeder valve! Most likely was done by Big Als muffler and brakes who did the brakes before I bought the car. Oh and one more on the same car. There was a metric socket beat on to one of the axle u-bolts and they couldnt get it off (no duh) I used a torch and a hammer and finally got it off.
 
And probably the most pain in the *** stupid thing I have encountered on any mopar is when someone puts flat blade screws in place of phillips screws.
 
My neighbor had a Pacer fixed up for his daughter to take to collage but when he gave it to her she was not strong enough to stop the car. She would not take it so I bought it for low money. Drove it across the street to my Dads house and brake pedal would not move. I got out and looked at the pedal. It had two holes for the master cylinder push rod. One for power brakes and one for manual brakes. The local mechanic had changed the Master cylinder and put the push rod in the wrong hole. Quick fix for me.
 
71ChallengerSE said:
And probably the most pain in the *** stupid thing I have encountered on any mopar is when someone puts flat blade screws in place of phillips screws.
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I hate slot head screws / bolts !!

They're supposed to be for high(er)-torque retainers , but for the most part , that much 'torque' isn't needed ; not enough to justify having a grudge match with a screwdriver that constantly slips-off its bolt / screw head !! :snakeman:

The resolve ? Close the ends of the bolt / screw head so that the mother fu**ing screwdriver doesn't keep slipping out !!!!

Don't get me going on Torx ... seat belt retractor + factory undercoating / seam sealer + tight space + a bunch of **** in the way = stripped Torx head'ed bolt :angry7:

this is for you , Torx : :thebirdm::thebirdm::thebirdm::thebirdm::thebirdm::thebirdm:
 
LH23H2R said:
I hate slot head screws / bolts !!

They're supposed to be for high(er)-torque retainers , but for the most part , that much 'torque' isn't needed ; not enough to justify having a grudge match with a screwdriver that constantly slips-off its bolt / screw head !! :snakeman:

The resolve ? Close the ends of the bolt / screw head so that the mother fu**ing screwdriver doesn't keep slipping out !!!!

Don't get me going on Torx ... seat belt retractor + factory undercoating / seam sealer + tight space + a bunch of **** in the way = stripped Torx head'ed bolt :angry7:

this is for you , Torx : :thebirdm::thebirdm::thebirdm::thebirdm::thebirdm::thebirdm:
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YES!!!! THAT STUPID FREAKING SEAT BELT RETRACTOR BOLT!!! ARG!!!! :thebirdm:
 
LH23H2R said:
ocdart said:
I remember J&N !! Can't recall where they were located exactly , but I do remember that shop !

I grew up in West Whittier ( near Norwalk Bl and Whittier Bl , around the corner from Ricker Motors AMC !! ) ; lived there from 1970 - 2002 .

So , where was J&N located ? You've piqued my interest and have catalysed my memory !
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Man, we used to be neighbors! I grew up in Montebello but lived on Beverly Blvd. in Whittier from '71-'73. Moved to Placentia in '73 and been here ever since.
Anyway, there were two speed shops in Whittier at the time. A smaller one (can't remember the name, but a friend of mine used to work there) on the north side of Whittier Blvd. just a couple blocks east of the railroad overpass. J&N was also on the north side of Whittier Blvd. a couple blocks further east. The main guy to talk to in J&N was Bruce (never knew his last name), about 6' tall, blond, glasses. Remember him. Knowledgeable guy.
Those were the "good old days" - cruisin' the Blvd. and Bob's Big Boy in my '69 340 Swinger, and racing at OCIR and Irwindale.
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I have heard that OCIR has gone condo.... I use to cruse the boulevard in my 54 Plymouth. Met a great older lady who was driving her 37 Packard. Ah good times.
 
Let's see: the frame rails in my Barracuda were holy. The PO used thin gauge tin and pop rivets.

Did the restoration on a '66 LeSabre convertible once. Taking the car down to bare metal proved to be a chore as we found a body line which wasn't there when we started. From the upper body line to the lower one was all bondo. If you've ever seen the lower body line on a '66 LeSabre you'll know it protrudes from the car a bit. There was a good inch, to inch and a half of bone all the way around the car. And it's no small car!

The '57 Chevy convertible I've posted here before had the X-bracing cut so someone, somewhere along the line, could change the exhaust easier. Guess no one told him what that extra bracing is for...

Did the resto on a '70 LeMans Sport convertible. Needed quarters, wheel houses, etc. It was easier enough to do: cut the tops of the quarters and beat the Duraglass out with a large hammer to separate what was left of the quarters from what was left of the wheel houses.

Jamison's Duster has always been a talking point in the family. The original 318 blew up and the owner had a tech school in TX "rebuild" an engine for it. They bolted a 360 in the old 318's place, hooked to the 318's 904 convertor. But it get's better. Most of the bearings were missing from the bottom end, too. Nice "rebuild." Where exactly was the instructor?

One of the ones that kills me, to this day, is having to explain to other techs I've worked with how brakes work. I see 'em put pads in the anchors using hammers. Ummm...those pads are supposed to move away from the rotors when released as easy as they move against the rotors when applied. If you're (royal, implied) hammering them in, then that implies a tight fit, meaning the pads will get stuck and constantly be wearing against the rotor. Maybe you should be cleaning the rust off the anchor? Maybe? Please? That way I don't have to do a warranty repair on your work free of charge when the owner comes back complaining about noise or warped rotors?
 
pettybludart said:
I like the old squeegie out the window to remove snow while driving.Get the dang wiper motor fixed!
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once saw a guy squeegeeing his windows at a service station. nothing unusual here, except it was his inside windows! Hilarious to see him dip the thing in the water, not shake it out and go at it. He was clueless to me watching him in awe!
 
ocdart said:
LH23H2R said:
Man, we used to be neighbors! I grew up in Montebello but lived on Beverly Blvd. in Whittier from '71-'73. Moved to Placentia in '73 and been here ever since.
Anyway, there were two speed shops in Whittier at the time. A smaller one (can't remember the name, but a friend of mine used to work there) on the north side of Whittier Blvd. just a couple blocks east of the railroad overpass. J&N was also on the north side of Whittier Blvd. a couple blocks further east. The main guy to talk to in J&N was Bruce (never knew his last name), about 6' tall, blond, glasses. Remember him. Knowledgeable guy.
Those were the "good old days" - cruisin' the Blvd. and Bob's Big Boy in my '69 340 Swinger, and racing at OCIR and Irwindale.
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COOL !
Even though I'm only 40 years old , I have a vivid recollection of many things from that time ; things I could bore you with for hours !

You wouldn't happen to remember :
- Mod Top '70 Barracuda
- 1970 340 Swinger , green/green/green , Cragar S/S , owned by a body builder
- Ricker Motors' dealer-sponsored Hurst / AMX

I could keep going on about the cars and places I remember , but I'll stop here .
Feel free to send me p.m.'s !
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Once watched a guy wash his car at the gas station using the window squeegee. I watched him while I was filling up. He had to go to another wash bucket because he used up the one on his side of the pumps.
 
Come on nobody wants to admit to doing anything stupid? Let me be the first. timing chain went out of the 318 in my 75 Duster, rather than replace the chain, I rebuilt another 318. After that it had a bad vibration and the clutch had one spot about halfway down where it would shift. Left the duster sit, pulled the engine and parted the car out. Couple months later a guy calls my dad asking for a 360 harmonic balancer, he goes and pulls the one off of my 318, that I had scrounged off of a 360. Found my vibration a little too late, never did figure out the clutch thing, though.
 
When I worked at the C/P dealer, we got in a new New Yorker.
Since I was on vacation, another mechanic did the PDI on it and the lot boy took it up the street to put gas in it.
The lot boy caught me when I cam eback to work and said that the car had a strange noise somewhere in the back that only happened when you hit a bump.
We took it for a ride and I sat in the back and then rode in the trunk. Narrowed it down to the right side, so I put it on the lift and after careful inspection I found the problem...........

No rubber bushing in the front spring eye, just a bolt.

We left it on the lift and the zone rep came in the next day to take a gander at it.
After he took a bunch of pictures of he told me to fix it and walked away shaking his head.
It was a Monday built car.
 
got my car and found patch panels siliconed on the car and then covered with bondo and he painted the car with a roller
 
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