lordmetalz28

iTrader: (1)

I KNOW I KNOW shame on me.. ill do it properly once the new engine goes in..i just didnt now how else to join 3 wires into one .. oh well

jensen73110

iTrader: (4)

Winner!

maroon85

when I bought my 85 Firebird the muffler was rusted out, so I took it off to replace it & part of the skin of the muffler was a piece of sheetmetal rivited to the rusty part,, don't know why somebody'd go through the hassle of taking the muffler off then not replace it.

Then after owning it for a while the coil quit working but I couldn't figure out how to get the coil bracket out so I just zip-tied the new coil to the firewall, I plan to fix it right one of these days

the '82 parts car I had, the PO redid the seat stitches with neon green thread, painted the armrests neon green, & painted the fender vent grilles neon green,

the 83 parts car I had a long time ago, had a big a$$ hole in the spare tire well, covered up by a chunk of a cheap rubber floormat that was screwed to the body.

gcgarner

I was riding around with my buddy Micheal last night in his '87 Nissan Hardbody and his air vents made me think of this thread, so I snapped a quick photo w/ my cell phone. Sorry for the blurriness, it was getting dark and we were on a bumpy road:



Yes, folks, that is Gutter Guard! And it is on the side air vents, too! And the cowl behind the hood!!!

He said I could post it as long as I was very clear the HE didn't do it.

He also told me about his cousin who had a Mustang that was blowing oil out of the dipstick tube, so he took off the oil pan, drilled a hole in it, put a plumbing fitting in it and ran a rubber tube from the dipstick tube to the oil pan and just kept the oil circulating.

novafirebirdguy

Hey KnottyBouyz, did ya get to keep the ammo box on the front bumper? That would be awesome.

I suppose I should confess to doing one ghetto thing. A few weeks ago my step-fathers muffler started to peel apart because of rust (it's a stupid honda). So I just riveted it back together. His exhaust manifold leaks so I'm not putting forth a real effort to fix it til he coughs up the cash for an exhaust system. It's just a Honda

KnottyBuoyz

iTrader: (2)

Naw, had to take it off. Got pulled into a roadside safety check about a month after I got my license and they made me take it off. I think the box is still kicking around my Dad's garage. Maybe I'll go to the Army Surplus and see if I can find him another one for Fathers Day! *hehehe*

I hear from a good source that Durabond 90 & Chicken Wire works! :-)

JB Weld?

hedberg667

When i first got my GTA the exhaust rattled like a ****. After the pipe went over the rear axle it was held up by a coat hanger. I eventually had to pull the muffler off to reduce the weight or the knocking i was going to drive me bats*** crazy.
Plus the radio was pulled along with the 3 alarms and the fool that did it just decided to tape every wire togeather so i now need to sort through them to find out how to put a radio back in.

F-Body Demon

iTrader: (1)

Oh my God man, you must be (or be related to) Red Green. I mean damn. Awesome story

KnottyBuoyz

iTrader: (2)

Hey! Red Green is a "GOD" of DIY'ers& shade tree mechanics in this country! I don't recall if we used any Duct Tape when we fixed up the van. It's possible though! Yes Red Green would have been proud. I'll bring this story up next meeting at the Possum Lodge.

This is one of my favorite Red Green clips.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-Lnfpulwjc

Another good one, Red Green on changing the oil in your car...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_b2x...eature=related

sh00k

KnottyBuoyz, haha great story.


I bought a rusted out cavalier when i was 15 for $100 and had grand plans to get it ready for 16. I heard bondo was a good idea to fill holes but I couldnt figure out how to fill the holes in the frame before hand. I worked at Wendy's at the time. At the end of a closing shift, I took all the potatoes (still in tinfoil wrap) and shoved them into the huge holes. I then bondoed over the potatoes.

That car never made it on the road once my father found out how bad the frame was.

sathanous

My 88 as a whole was ghettoed by the PO...

Stero wires were cut way back and replaced with all the same color... that was a pain

Rear speaker were both cut back so you couldnt see them then he ran his own wire through the cab over the carpet... which makes less sense because one speaker was still stock...

THeres a randow wire coming through the carpet behind the drivers seat that i still dont know what it is

First rain my rear carpet get all wet... found out the fuel pump had gone bad so he cut a hole in the trunk to try to pull it out and duck taped over it (he never did replace it)

heater core went bad on him so the hoses became a mess of bolts and bits and bobs cloging and hooking hoses...

trunk motor housing broke so he tied it up with speaker wire...

gas pedal broke so he first bought a cheap plastic one that didnt work (found in trunk) then decided to just saw it off...

inner door handle broke so he removed everything from the door and put a U bolt and bracket on the handle rod...

and i believe last but not least he replaced the stock rims with low profile wides that dont fit the car... taking a full turn it rubs the well (still havent been able to find stocks to replace them)

thats at least all ive found so far... my next step is to find a cheap short or long block i can rebuild to fix the damage his done to the engine...

86WS6

iTrader: (1)

I bought a brand new 1983 WS6 Trans AM, silver, T-tops, 305 HO, and a manual transmission on New Years Day 1983. It was a real beauty. It had a deluxe black fabric interior, the 15 inch turbo mags, and a Bose sound system. As soon as the weather begin to warm up as winter moved on to spring, the car would run hot and stall. I took the car back to the dealership for warrenty repairs, complaining about the overheating problem as well as a host of other issues with the car. The car would maintain a drivable temp on the highway, but with the A/C on or driving in town there was no keeping it cool. The dealer was clueless. They removed the thermostat from the car, and did not replace it. They installed some sort of resistor in the wire between the temp sensor in the head and the wire going to the gauge so that the guage would read a lower temp then the engine was actually running, trying to fool me. The engine burned up completely in May of 83, getting so hot that it blistered the paint on the hood. The car had 3300 miles on it. GM installed a new engine, and the car continued to run hot. In the mean time the passenger door rotted a big hole through the outside skin near the bottom of the door. When they removed the door panel they found a flashlight in the bottom of the door. Probably left in there from the factory, as this was a NEW car. The first time the window was rolled down the window crushed the light, burst the batteries, and battery acid eat through the door. As soon as the engine was replaced, I took the car to a Chevy dealer in the next town and traded it for a new 1983 Chevy C-10. A couple of months later I would get a letter from GM to return the car to the dealership as some of the early 83 Trans AMs had four cylinder and 6 cylinder radiators installed by mistake at the factory, and this would cause them to overheat. After that car it's a wonder I ever owned another thirdgen, but I would own two more, and both of them would be good.

Knight82CA

When I bought my red hard top 82 Firebird SE , the P.O. put chrome "accents" on each of the outer wheel wells, and a chrome strip that ran from the front fenders to the rear wheel wells, the interior was custom and even though it is in near new condition, the custom interior looks ridiculous , Imagine the door panels, the center consol, and both the front and rear seats in yellow and black leopard skin pattern.
The P.O. installed the wrong non lock up transmission instead of the correct lock up transmission and just zip tied the transmission wires to the frame, practically most of the underside was zip tied and duct taped together and some parts were in backwards. the tags were not paid since 2003 but had a 2005 tag from another vehicle and cost me $519.00 just to get the tags current to 2009, It cost me $654.00 just to get the car smogged because the catalitic converter had to be replaced, I paid $1,200.00 just to have the correct transmission rebuilt and installed, $354.00 to have the head gaskets replaced and a new steering pump installed, the transmission has the wrong gearsfor the speedometer and I'm currently working on having that fixed, the transmission shop still needs to adjust the transmission and fix a seal, so that it shifts better and doesn't leak trans fluid anymore, now my engine light comes on even though the car seems to be running fine, I had it checked out and it is giving a code 57, or 54 I think, it has something to do with a computer chip and or a carbuerator issue, I originally paid $1,300.00 for the this car. I took off the crome crap off of the car but it still has leopard skin interior untill I get that fixed. Now that's a ghetto firebird.

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

KnottyBouyz, greatest story ever! Do you have any pictures at all of your van? Was the vinyl tile floor, mohagany panel walls and built in cooler and constant smell of hot tar a hit with the ladies? And it did have a CB to aid in cruising for chicks, right??!!

blg0720

THE PAINT JOB!!

KnottyBuoyz

iTrader: (2)

Thnx Jeremy. It's amazing how resourceful we were back then with no tools and little money. You did what you had to do. No pictures sorry. Wish I did though.

The van was pretty much a community vehicle amongst my friends in High school. You didn't need a key to start it, there was a screwdriver permanently embedded in the ign switch in the dash. The only rule was you put gas in it when you brought it back. Numerous times I got out of school and the van would be gone, no biggie, my job pumping gas was just across the street.

I got expelled once for 3 days when the principle was patrolling the parking lot. He opened the side door of the van and a huge cloud of smoke (herbal variety) engulfed him. Some of my so called friends were in there and I was in school but I got expelled for not locking my van.

We had a small Canadian Flag that got put up on the antenna when the van was in use, ie. a romantic encounter was goin' on in the back, know what I'm sayin'? That requirement was put in place when, more than once, I got in the van to go home and there were sometimes 2, 3 or more people practicing nekked "Twister" on the black & white vinyl floor!

Nope, no CB, just a kick-a$$ Pioneer 8-Track tape deck and something called "Mind Blower" speakers. Each speaker had it's own amplifier built right in. I had 100' leads to each box which could be removed from the van and put up in the trees etc. for bush parties. I also had a microphone & amp spliced in sorta like a public address system. At parties you could do the Karoke (SP) (that was before we knew what Karoke was) but it was fun when you were drunk. One bush party my buddy snuck off into the bushes with a girl to do the nasty and we took the microphone and hung it in a tree right beside them and broadcast the entire event!

Schwinny

My moms saturn has that...

I had to have a horn for my road test.

"Alright, Wheres the horn"
"Right here"(points to toggle)
"Fine... Toggle it"

89RS_82Z

iTrader: (2)

sattys had problems with the factory horn system

WhtIroc

Lol, me too!

86WS6

iTrader: (1)

2x4? Am I the only thirdgen owner that has used a broom handle as a prop rod? Come on, takes up less space, looks better, and less chance of splinters.

chevymec

iTrader: (5)

I bought a '91 RS. I was pulling the interior and found many Dealer plates taped to the floor covering the rust holes.

gurkgurkgurk

i use a spare camshaft out of a 97 z28 to hold my hood up, which is for sale incase anyone needs one. lol.

anyways in my class was this dude who was way into BMW's he liked them all. even the rusted out 30 year old buckets that barely chugged along. well he bought some old 86 bmw with a straight 6 and something went wrong where the sparkplug tip broke off and started flying around all the combustion chambers in the head. he brought the head to class and that thing was mauled. so he smoothed out the chips, but the intake valve guides were turned to ****, so whatd he do? JB weld my friends. he looked up the spec for the size of the guides, then filled his guides with jb weld, and let it get hard, then he took the head to the drill press and drilled them out close to the right size and then smoothed them out with a wire brush. he then checked to see if it held vacuum and put it back in his car.

his cars ran good for the past couple months so i guessed it worked

blg0720

My 83 had a 1x3 that was actually NOTCHED OUT to fit in the round hole to prop the hood. C'mon people...the hood struts are $15 and ten minutes!!

Curtisyz54

iTrader: (5)

mY 86 IROC. ehh nothing really was all stock.

My 84 z, people jacking it up on the floors, and HOUSING wire (like if you were to cut the cord of a lamp) and used it for wireing under the dash.


86 sc, lol prity much everything, But the crossmember cut in half then re welded to the frame then the touque arm was welded to the horrible crossmember.
and random pieces of metel in the floor cover the holes, and stop sign pole welded in the floor for "support". the list goes on.....
oh and when I got the car it was missing one stud from each wheel so i was like wtf? found out the guy cut them cause he didnt have the key lock for the lugnuts.


ANDDD there was a hole in the spare tire well, they put a rag over it and bondod over that!

yellow_lilies86

Little late in the game here, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, the cutest thing was the speakers. It had one actual speaker and then a speaker that goes to a portable cd player tucked down in the hole for the other speaker. For some of the plastic covers, instead of screwing them in place (which the screws were scattered all over the floor boards), he apparently used weather stripping adhesive to "glue" them together. There was a thick stick (tobacco stake) in the back that I'm assuming was used to hold the hatch up since it didn't have the hatch shocks. The motor was a dandy too! He had this long tube that went from the motor to the back of the car, so that when it leaked oil... it'd go in the tube and onto the road, lol. Oooooooooooh, he also gave me keys to the car that I later found out didn't need a key to start and the door keys didn't unlock the doors. Oh yes, and last but not least... the guy was apparently drunk (which he told me in the story) and decided he wanted to go muddin' through a creek that happened to have a whoooooooole lot of red clay. So, not only did I have clay caked up everywhere, but I also had "Grave Digger" keyed onto the driver side door and "Red neck" keyed onto the passenger side door. I'm sure I'll find some more lovely surprises on my way to fixing it up, lol.

novafirebirdguy

Hey, mine came with a 1x2 with a rusty nail hammered through at one end. Apparently the PO used it to defend himself as well

KatsCam

[QUOTE=blg0720;4197676]THE PAINT JOB!!



OK, that PO needs (as a previous post said) to be kicked in the nuts for that one. That's just plain abusive.

KatsCam

Defense weapon. ROFL!

Curtisyz54

iTrader: (5)

lol I got a cruth. FREE!

blg0720

[QUOTE=KatsCam;4208833]Agreed! The whole body looked like that! Thank goodness that paint job is GONE now!! (See the GTA Repaint thread... ) That was his idea of a "restoration".

KatsCam

Small vice grips, on the under-hood shocks. Lol!

19Chevrolet84

Nope, Currently holds up my hood.

jojobo

Do you still have the mind blower speakers? thx, mark

KnottyBuoyz

iTrader: (2)

They might still be in my Dad's garage. I'll have a look next time I'm there. We ran the 8-Track & speakers in his garage off of a buoy battery for years. Buoy batteries from the 80's were HUGE, about 3' tall and 8" in dia. They'd run a buoy lantern for 2 years before having to be changed out. Nowadays with solar panels & LED's buoys only need a small 12 volt battery like one in your car.

jojobo

I would be interested in showing all these new timers a thing or two about "back in the day". These mind blower speakers were deafening when placed in back of my Vega. You really could hear 'kashmir' a mile away. We bought them at Zayre dept stores. Really a great design with the pre-amp built into the speaker, thus no need to find an extra place for an amp--which is a good thing if your dealing with a small car like a Vega or Pinto. I would love to see a pic of your buoy battery set up system hooked up to the mind blower speakers.

wrsjr

I bought an 82 Firebird years ago. The previous owner swapped the V6 for a big block Buick engine and used 2x6 lumber as spring spacers to keep the front end from sagging because of the weak springs. Very ghetto although not surprising considering he wouldn't sell his 15" wire wheels with the car.

KatsCam

Had a set of those mind blowers in my first car, a 1969 Cutlass S. Sigh! Wish I still had that car!

vette gator

This has got to be THE funniest thread I have ever read. I don't think I've ever laughed this hard at car stories. KnottyBuoz, your story is the greatest. I felt like I was 15 again. Keep 'em coming, please.

ejmcdona

I have what appears to be a kill switch under the dash......that does nothing when flipped

the exhaust leaks at every connection and goes from a 3in pipe to a 2.5 in muffler using the best step down in the world ......weld

the PO was an idiot

novafirebirdguy

Well I just found out my alternator is an 80 amp for a 5 rib belt, how retarded can you get

scottycamaroz28

I've had a few ghetto rigs and I'm guilty of a few to get by until my funds got better. But one thing that bothers me the most is hacked wire jobs. My current 91 z28 came with a nice motorized face stereo and "new" speakers. Well on the way home after getting it I didn't know why I couldn't get any of my favorite radio stations in? So upon investigation when I figured out that there wasn't an antenna wire hooked up to the radio, the wiring was just twisted together and the speakers were wired backwards (left front wires connected to the right rear speaker) because he was to lazy and broke to buy the proper wire connector and even black tape from white trash mart (walmart) along with the proper install kit. So he cut all the wires as short as can be and attacks the plastic on the console mounts with some tin snips and turns the front trim piece upside down and mounts the 200 dollar stereo in the opening that the heater controls should stick out of. So if someone has a cheap center console near northern indiana let me know! Also those new speakers were only new to the car but were as old as dirt and had a Chrysler symbol on them

magicman1223

I had a good solid inch to inch and a half of body filler over the entire rear drivers quarter panel. Then the door on the passenger side had about 4 inches in one spot. It was bad. It probably cost more in filler then what it would have to get it fixed right

88-iroc-305

when i bought my 88 iroc the guy before me changed the fuel pump by cuting a big hole in the rear sheet metal and he fixed the coolant resviore with some bondo. the rust holes in the rear wheelwells were covered with bondo then he undercoated the underside.

Curtisyz54

iTrader: (5)

lol id like to see a pic of that.lol thats bad.

t-top havoc

iTrader: (3)

Scotty- I agree 100*! Wiring miscues and hardly anything to work with for the stereo! A few people have told me they CUT THE FLOORPAN to get to the fuelpump assemblies! One shop told me thats the ONLY way they would do it!!

novafirebirdguy

Plenty of people cut the sheet metal above the tank to get to the pump. Considering you have to drop the rear end to get the tank out, and the sheet metal above the tank not being structural. You can see why people do it. I personally wouldn't, but I don't think that there is really anything wrong with it.
Alex

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

Classic!! Mine; 85 TPI 305 T/A. The original owner couldnt get the car to pass emissions ,so in an attempt to get the car to pass, he made it worse! He had the dist. 180 degrees the timing advanced 25 degrees and somehow had the washer motor, the cruise control and the throttle position sensor tied together! Needless to say, the car wasnt running when I got it! I have never seen a cars wiring harness so hacked up! (And I'm an auto electrician, trust me, I've seen it all!) LOL. I finally got it running, but nothing worked (No gauges, nothing interior-wise, except the headlights worked flawlessly.) Step on the brake and the turn signals light up. Turn the right signal on and the left rear and right front flashes! I finally decided, that as bad as this was, My best option was to rip it ALL out and start over!

Krios

haha ok, i have an interesting one for you

im sure most of us have encountered this little problem due to the size of the doors. but after a while those big heavy doors tend to start to sag down a little and the hinges get old. well on mine the hinge was just a little loose, so i lifted up on the door and tightened it and it worked just fine.

well instead of trying to find out why the door isnt lining up right and latching, the morons that owned the car before more, actually bored holes into the door and the side of the car and installed a pad lock..... they were actually using the car as a daily driver, by holding the door shut with a padlock

yellow_lilies86

lmao!!! That is pretty ghetto!

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

wow... a hasp and padlock. My emoticon's names make the perfect sentence for my reaction: Eek! Doh!, i'm Laughing my a** off at the Crazy Idiot