88TransAmFreak

I'm curious, as our cars are getting older and people just don't want to invest the money into "fixing it right" What are some of the goofy things you've found done that the PO ought to be hung for? My firebird was in pretty good shape when I bought it, but my Corvette had the throttle cable assembly rigged up with speaker wire and the engine shimmed with huge washers (bad frame) when I bought it I've heard stories of owners pulling carpet and finding a floor patch made of an old metal sign or even wood. Anyone want to share their experiences

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gregsz-28

A floor jack had obviously been placed under the floor behind the front seats, on both sides, the floor was smashed up over an inch on both sides. At least that was the only place that was done

craveman85

my 95 ranger leaf springs broke and while i was waitning for new ones i bolted 4x4's in but it was only for about 3 days and one hell of a bumpy ride. have also seen a ford 302 sitting on a bolted in 2x8 instead of motormounts

Brennan

well two of the worse things i have found would be the "repairs" to rust in the floor. behind the drivers seat it was rusted and cracked from the tranny hump to the door, so the PO riveted in a piece of galvanized sheet metal which was about 8" shorter then the hole. and the rear wheel well was rusted out right at the bottom where it was welded to the floor so mr. auto body genius tapes some cardboard over the hole and covers it with expanding foam it has all since been fixed properly and the car is rust free

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Check the car domain:http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2974831
R.I.P. Andrew Melvin Bailey- May/3/1988- October/27/2008.

chas0218

Mine too! but all the wiring under the hood is a cob job. I dont want to tackle it but i have no choice b/c it erkks me to no end.

GOATS2QUICK

my trans am came with no motor,trans, or radiator.lucky for me, they didnt butcher the harness when they pulled everything.made putting another 5.7 tpi in easy.
my 69 lemans convert was a lesson on how cheap someone can be.
every part removed from car had junk yard id numbers on them.
carpet was of a plush household type,sheetmetal screwed in to the floor, i pulled 60 of these screws out. seat, doorpanel, were covered in a marine type seat cover plastic vinyl.
ive had to replace all interior,conv top, lines, seals,carpet,motor, trans,exhaust,paint,
if the p o ever walks up at a show, or at a store, and says yeah, that used to be my car, im knockin his *** out.

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[]

Ca[maro]88

wellllll, as for the PO, he swapped in a 350 and didnt hook up thetorque arm to the tranny, as for myself, the rear exhaust is hung up by tie-wire since the straps ripped. oh and the PO put in a 3 inch exhaust and he made the pipe over the rearend to big, so the exhaust rattles against the heat shield on the fuel tank. so i tied it up for now, but soon ill be fixing the current exhaust the right way.

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358 block, rpm perofrmer heads, rpm air gap intake, comp cam 275 (maybe), 1.6 comp silver lifters, edelbrock 600 carb, mallory dizzy, 150 shot NOS, rebuilt 350 turbo, B&M megashifter, 3.23 gears and more looking to be in by january. shooting for 400-450 hp without NOS. tired of seeing that antifreeze green mustang trying to be a badass around town.

I H8 WWD

Put simply, aftermarket stereo wiring. Why must people be cheap even when it comes to cheap things, like wiring. Also, color code it or something, every wire is red. It'll be fun tearing it out, but once again something I hate doing, electrical.

ND4SPD86

I pretty much had a headliner made of duct tape and some covering a hole in the side bolster in the 91. Other that that nothing out of the ordinary on the GTA or any of the other cars that I own.

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EvilCartman

About the only thing has been a quick wiring job putting new gauges in. Instead of soldreing the wires, I just used wire nuts on some connections lol. Everything has been redone with soldered connections and heatshrink.

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Best times to date, motor pass: 11.81 @ 114.55 1.63 60' 10/18/08
nitrous pass: 10.49 @ 126 mph 1.42 60' 10/18/08
350, AFR 195 heads, Eagle H-beam 6" rods, Victor Jr,
750 Race Demon, ProMagnum RR's, Hooker LT, TH400, Spohn T/A and C/M

madhatter

PO took a quarter panel stuck it over a smashed panel, tached it on and added a good inch and a half of bondo to cover it. it looked fine until i went to repaint the car and got all of the bondo off. there were two quarters on the passenger side i couldnt believe it. what a ****ing pain in the *** to fix. the whole car was pretty messed up. i dont even want to talk about the electrical. the altinator wire melted so there was orange extension cord replacing it. i **** you not, orange insulated extention cord, i laughed my *** off when i saw that one.

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Check out my "How to T-Top a car thread"

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/sh...988&highlight=

CaliChevyLover

PO hackjob fan switch that melted half my harness for the ignition and cooling system

88TransAmFreak

That's pretty ghetto

88TransAmFreak

Good stories guys, keep em coming

bradley23150

All I got is a "hand made" torque arm bushing someone made on my trans am. It was 2 pieces of old radiator hose and a hose clamp. No wonder it made noise.

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Currently Building: 1987 Formula 350:
350 SBC bored to 357, aluminum pistons, PM rods, Full roller block. 700r4 With shift kit, Lakewood Lower control arms and adjustable panhard bar, Borg Warner 9bolt posi Rear, 4 wheel disc brakes, KYB GR2 Shocks/Struts, AG lowering springs, UMI Sub-frame connectors, Full Energy suspension bushings, 36/24 Swaybars, and much more

3rdGenIrocZ

while doing my console swap i found a ton for cigs under my shifter plate. so i searchd my car and then found a random peice of wood under the passenger seat. then discoverd i got a security system, remote doors (dont have the remote)

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http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3148021

JimmyDavidson

Well I was supposed to have a 1984 Z28(Red w/ Silver GFX) with a 305HO, 5speed and 3.73 non posi.

When I dug in, the first thing I found was a 350th tranny with a custom rigged shifter linkage. They also mangled the tranny tunnel and used chains to hold the torque arm in place.

Next thing I found out was that I got 2.73 rear gears instead of the 3.73. And that the motor was replaced with an 85 Truck 305 HO.

Now there's going to be a Carbed 350/T56 with a 9 bolt 3.89 posi so it's all good. Atleast it was originally a manual tranny car

5678TA

on my TA, the PO had a 2x4 drilled onto the clutch pedal cause she was short.

also got an 84 firebird for $250 papers included and it had a generic napa electric fuel pump mounted to the strut plate. thing was running 10 PSI on a carb'd motor. they couldnt figure out why it was running rich. they even ran it without a filter, no booster vacuum line (no brakes) and the carb didnt have a kickdown cable attachment. got it towed home after i couldnt hold it on the brakes. ended up piecing it apart. got a nice glass set, hood, fuel tank, brake lines, a decent shape 305 and a wheelset from it. all for $250. cha-ching.

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1984 Trans Am
385sbc(RIP)/t-5/4.30-9"
1.69-7.44-11.65 @ 116
next up-->383 with mild upgrades

84 camaro z28

All I got was the PO changed the car from tpi to carbed and used silicone to hold the wiring harness in the firewall. So I got a bunch of whires that go no where in my car, Slowly clipping them and putting my own in.

Crux

When I changed the fuel, pump..well, the one that was on there was attatched with garbage ties and plastic tie-wraps.....and some random wire...

The wires for the motor for the windshield wiper fluid were spliced and led to something else..still didn't work.

glock

what is it with third gens and 2x4's ...did a bunch of people who owned these cars get together and vote on using wood (2x4) to fix everything? lol

1ATony

This is some pretty funny stuff.

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Tony
1A Auto Parts
1-866-403-3393
Check out our :Camaro Parts, Pontiac Parts

madhatter

sure is...............until you have to fix it

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Check out my "How to T-Top a car thread"

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/sh...988&highlight=

gregsz-28

Yep, my car came with a 2x4 too, for holding up the hatch and the hood. He was a nice guy though and gave me the 2x4, free.

yevgenievich

91 z28 i bought had the front bumper attached with wire and bondo over it. Bought the car after it hit the curb at low speed and the bumper practically fell off because of poor fix prior. Also there were two spots under the car from the jack being put in the wrong place and the hatch motor was welded. On my 67 Camaro the throttle linkage was just some rod that was bent trough the hole and bolted to the lever on the carb. Radiator was held with some random wire and about one inch of bondo on the rear quarter panel. The original manuall tranny been swapped for th350 and the shifter was just bolted with sheetmetal screws to the floor .
Now everything was fine on my Trans Am but recently my hatch motor started to go out so i waited till it was in down position and took the fuse out. Don't have the money to fix it right now as i still need to get few things to get the car running.

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67 project Camaro, 468 bbc, th350
89 Trans Am, ls1, 4l60e
91 z28 Camaro - sold
92 base stealth
There are only 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't

craveman85

the fifth ave im driving currently blew a brake line about 2 weeks ago and upon further inspection i found that the po had taken vaccum line and put it from the front to the rear brakes with some hose clamps on it. no wonder why it felt so spongy even after i bled the brakes. i also menangled some headers meant for a dart or duster into my fift ave and run a dual exhaust that sits partially below the frame rails but there isnt any other place to put it.

FYRCHKN

When I got my car the hatch pull down was converted to a slammer. The plastic bushings and the motor were MIA. The PO jammed a tooth brush in the sliding track to keep the latch wedged in place. Also, the fuel filter had been installed backwards.

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355 TBI/WC T-5/ 9 Bolt 3.27 Posi w/PBR's, Edlebrock headers, MSD iginition, complete WS6 conversion, open element, energy suspension poly bushings throughout, complete A.I.R. delete, 8mm wires, 165* stat, 4th gen T/A wing, all black leather 4th gen interior, Custom circle grid T/A tail lights, Sequential turn signals.

Creator of the first steel Firebird heat extractor hood

Check out The ULITIMATE budget paint job

EvilCartman

Starting to think I got really lucky with an unmolested '82 Even the stock exhaust was still in place. The radio had been taken out though and the person smoked, bleh! One thing they did do was put a big pillow with the face of a lion in the spare tire area since they lost whatever held the spare from flopping around.

__________________
Best times to date, motor pass: 11.81 @ 114.55 1.63 60' 10/18/08
nitrous pass: 10.49 @ 126 mph 1.42 60' 10/18/08
350, AFR 195 heads, Eagle H-beam 6" rods, Victor Jr,
750 Race Demon, ProMagnum RR's, Hooker LT, TH400, Spohn T/A and C/M

BiggRedd

I got an 86 bird w/ 2.8l Well the coil was bread tied to the firewall, the posi cable to the starter ran in front of the fan and around the passenger side, the passenger kick pannel was duct taped in, All the clips were intact i just used some extra screws and it was fine, electric fan posi was shorted to ground with speakerwire. Every time i look I find something different. I'll keep updating as i find more.

Ca[maro]88

speaking of this, i also did a ghetto thing to my pull down motor. i didnt use a toohbrush, but the plastic bushing things were shot, so i took 2 screws and screwed them into the plastic, resulting in a good working pull down hatch! is it ghetto? yes. should i have spent the money to replace? yes. does it work just like its spose to? YES!!

sonjaab

I am so glad that my 84 was un-touched and 100% original!

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07 DTS/84 Z-28/72 GTO
07 Chevy 2500
77 Triumph Bonneville

1982TA

The thing I found that I can never understand why people do it is cut factory wiring harnesses...oh, that and swapping fuel injection to carb.

My 82 TA has a bunch of the under dash wiring cut out, including the ALDL port, not to mention the bulkhead connector behind the passenger side front fender is all cut...with the connector still in place, that and the power antenna wiring cut. Why not just unplug it?!? Why can't people leave harnesses alone?!?!? They have connectors that can be unplugged, its not hard to do it right!

jensen73110

I had a cheesy Pep Boys lettering kit stuck to my car. I guess they didn't come with enough Rs for Firebird on both sides, so they modified a P and another letter to make another R. Couldn't tell unless you were close, but my buddies gave me crap about the Fipebird.

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JeremyNYR

wow! That's the worst one yet. The previous owner could've been convicted of manslaughter for that one.

Ca[maro]88

cut mine. dont need the wire, cut the damn thing. dont need the computer anymore, cut it out burn it and dance around it naked. heres a better question, why have 6528972 wires that you DONT need still stuck behind your dash? cut the hell out of it and get rid of the clutter fuc. keep it stupid simple. going to carb was the best thing i ever did. ive had 5 cars in 2 years. 4 of them broke cause 1) thy were old 2) somehting in that wiring harness/computer crap messed up. instead of tracking every single wire down i just junk the car for a 100 bucks. stupid fuel injection messed up my camaro. i ripped it out put a carb on it, its ran perfect ever since.

I H8 WWD

To add to that, I have cut my AC and SMOG wires until I can get under the dash and remove them from the computer and from the fuse box as well. I cut mine because eventually they will be completely gone, and people will wonder if this car ever came with AC and SMOG and all the other garbage wiring I don't need will also be completely removed. I have a 305, so power isn't where I will become faster/quicker, but losing any increments of weight I can. I plan for a full fiberglass body (street driven too).

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T1m3_Sh1ft3r

Well when I bought my firebird the T-tops were leaking, and so I had a tube of clear caulk, but I ran out, so I had to use the white caulk on the driver’s side top to keep it from leaking.

i wish the weatherstipping wasnt so darn expencive for t-tops

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Yes it maybe a pile of junk, but its MY pile of junk

bitchin_buick

I did this myself: Toggle Switch Horn >>> I replaced fuse and horn relay and still NO horn! So I ran A Toggle Switch! Gotta have a horn!!!!!!

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before and after pics @ cardomain (82regal)http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3174826

gregsz-28

Seriously? Do you plan to make that yourself?

RED_DRAGON_85

i was about to do that too, but decided to get a new steering wheel.
my problem was the horn button was f-ed. i cleaned every contact, but nothing got better.
to get the horn to work, you had to push it halfway, twist clockwise, then push the rest of the way.


wiring was and is the worst part about my car.
that and the transmission.
apparently OD went out on the tranny and the PO decided that he would start cutting wires and drilling holes in the valvebody.
who knows why, but even after i took it to a transmission shop (two in fact) it was still broke and OD didnt work, and i had no lockup.
finally after i pissed and moaned enough at the guy he just bought a junkyard tranny, rebuilt it with new parts, and put it in my car... for almost free.
it took him close to 6 mos, but i got OD.
still no lockup though.
i suspect that he put in a non lockup torque converter though, because all the wiring is ok AFAIK.

i also had a 2x4 in my trunk, but that was for getting the car out of the mud when it got stuck.
who knows

then there is the motor that was assembled for $400 and leaks out of every gasket, and blows out the pcv so hard you would think i was purging my nitrous
lol

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FireDemonSiC

When I first bought my car, the pothead who owned it before me had installed a B&M megashifter. OK, that's a plus. Except this thing looked like it had gotten some use so I think he grabbed it off Ebay. Upon further inspection, I notice that the gear indicator was gone off it. He had also messed up the throttle linkage the car would not manually go down into first or go into park. Then one day I went to try and unscrew the handle because I found a spare (better looking) one in the trunk, and the handle wouldn't budge. I the noticed that instead of being slightly cocked towards the drivers side like it should have been, the handle was perfectly straight. This idiot didn't like how the handle had a slight angle to it so he Put JB weld on the threads and screwed it on.

Also when we first got it, he told me the AC no longer worked and that all the components had been stripped out. I asked him why. He said, "For The HP!". We popped the hood. The pieces that had been taken out were:

- Accumulator
- AC Lines
- Condensor

But the ****ing dumb*** left the compressor (this alone weighs about 30 - 40 pounds and would probably technically add the equivalent of a horse or two), and get this, had left the V belt ON the compressor, which defeated the entire purpose

CYARS92

Someone put clear sidemarkers on it as a joke.

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stppws4e

in my 88 iroc,i had a door bell duck taped to my center consol for the horn.and fog lights wired to the stereo.wtf haha

Wrenchp

Wow... Inventive.

My Powerstroke has a lot of these kinds of things wrong lol. The OBDII ports was cut off, they had the glow plugs wired to the wrong side of the starter solinoid. They put two bucket seats and bolted them in cooked. It was so overloaded that the rails going accross the bed were flatend. Oh and they melted the air box using too much ether to get it started.

craveman85

my old ranger was the biggest cluster**** ever. had many things screwed up with it that were fixed crappy. my favorite part was the car alarm we found in a bmw at the local u pull it. we wired it in with a toggle switch and put a flasher kit in my roll bar lights and put red and blue plastic over them so we could scare the hell out of people at parties. that siren from the alarm has since moved into a pink/purple camo geo tracker trail vehicle.

vortek

I re-did a quarter panel at the shop I worked at for a guy, and found an old sandwich shoved int a wrot hole and then Bondo'd over. QUALITY!

picasso_88

I noticed that my 86 bird was lifted in the rear and that no one elses I saw had a stance like that so I jacked it up and found that the PO cut blocks of wood and sandwiched them between the springs in the rear. That makes me feel so safe now that ive had the car goin pretty fast around some corners if I ever saw that guy again I would kick him in the nuts.

Also the PO ran the amp wires and wiring to the cheap a$$ alarm over top the front fender and through the door jamb into the the car so everytime I open my driver side door theres the huge wires showing.

The PO also thought he was good at upholstery now the door panels and headliner are covered with this queer looking skull pattern and the fabric isnt even one piece its cut and laid ontop of other pieces. Lol.

The PO couldnt get the water temp/oil gauges to work after the 350 swap so he decided to get some cheap a$$ summit gauges and screw them directly to the dash right in front of the radio/hvac controls so it makes it hard to reach them. He also didnt bother to wire up the lights so I have to use my cell light at nite so I can see the temp and oil pressure.

TIMMYS89GTA

I would have to say that on my 89,the most ghetto was either the digital dash and all int. plastics painted with chevy orange engine paint and the (CUSTOM) plaid doorpanels!
Yeah,my GTA was a lovely friggin' mess when I got it.
Oh yeah,forgot to mention the (CUSTOM) front bumper!LOL!
For those of you that haven't seen it,just click on the GTA link below for the pics.

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The GTA (SOLD!!)
http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o...MMYS89GTA/gta/
The Orange monster
http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o...nge%20monster/

Kevman

Where should I start?

PO somehow smashed the back window and replace it with one from 1986 (Third brake light, took me 45 minutes to figure out how to wire it)

PO, after smashing the car, went in and removed his 'special' alarm.. Which could roll the windows down, lock the doors, flash the lights, set off the horn, pop the trunk.. blah blah blah.. So, he cut everything. Every single wire going to my windows, and such has a butt crimp. I **** you not, there has to be at least 60 of them.

My favourite.. Forgot to put the cotter pin in the nut that holds the disk on for the brakes.. Yea.. It was luckily the right side. Safety check didn't even notice it. I found out when I finally did the brakes... After 800 KM of driving.. Bearings were good, still.

Two right side exhaust tips off of a 90's Bonneville.. It drove me nuts.

The only good thing going for it.. Good running 305 TBI, rebuilt 700R4, mint interior, 160,000 KM, and not a spot of rust.

JeremyNYR

I looked at the pictures of your GTA when you got it and I want to put you up for 3rd gen sainthood for rescuing that car! It looked so far gone and now you have it looking incredible!