Joiner

The idiots at a local used tire store tried to jack my car up in the front under the radiator support, pushed my radiator up onto my fan, I had to bust away the fan guard so I could drive it home, pull the radiator out, smash the **** out of the support with a sledge hammer, put it all back together, and, on my low budget, use clothesline to hold the upper radiator hose away from the fan with the old AC compressor mount. Took out the old R12 because it has T-tops. Just this weekend (on my low budget) I had to take different sized pieces of exhaust pipe and use all my might to clamp them down together and make an exhaust run out the back because the car was too loud (the exhaust had been cut off right above the rear axle and the front support had finally broke and the exhaust was bouncing up and down from the rumble of the engine, making a very annoying rattle). At the end of the exhaust I clamped a cheap exhaust tip on and used a coat hanger to hold it all up in the back. No more rattle, and I've seen coat hangers out live the exhaust pipe. There was a guy at college that made an exhaust out of a fence post for his S10.

Maverick H1L

iTrader: (8)

Now I've heard everything. I have some bad stories as well:

My 87 was in 2/3 primer when I bought it. Everything from the doors back, the driver's door, the hood, the CRAPPILY installed 90-92 Z28 rear spoiler (damn thing is still crooked even though I have tried to enlarge the holes to realign it), and the sagging aftermarket rear bumper cover (Pop's Firebird Parts in Alabama, anyone? Same story with my also sagging front bumper cover). CHMSL was deleted with fiberglass, but thankfully I don't NEED it to pass inspection (but have one anyways along with factory spoiler). Don't even know what happened to the front end as, like I said before, the front bumper was replaced, the driver's fender is a GM replacement (still has the tag) and the pass fender came from an 88 Formula (as verified by the VIN sticker on the inside). The rear is a complete mess. Most of the pass side quarter has been replaced and has a nice Bondo line around it. There is a crack between the replacement piece and the lower part down by the ground behind the rear wheel because PO couldn't install EITHER properly. Both pieces of the quarter have been TACK welded (probably with an arc welder, I'd guess) to the rear tail panel. Water gets in the spare well because there is like 20 holes drilled in that area, but thankfully drains out the bottom also because of said holes. The hatch motor was disconnected because the housing was cracked and the gear nut stripped, and the nylon guides STILL need to be replaced (so I have to hold it with one hand and close the hatch with the other... those freaking things are expensive for being cheap pieces of nylon!). About 75% of the rubber on the car, INCLUDING my suspension bushings and weatherstripping, still needs to be replaced. The vacuum lines were junk, ALL 4 non-factory sized (195/65/15 front and 235/60/15 rear with RWL AND traction grade B of all things!) tires were junk, the front 2 not hardly holding air and the rears not much better off, even though I have my idiot neighbor and his roofers to thank for the rears. I have aftermarket American Racing rims (one is bent, BTW, but is being replaced soon as I FINALLY found a reasonably priced replacement on eBay), but only got 3 center caps. The only reason I have a pair now is because one fell off .

But, that's not the worst thing. My anemic little 2.8 ALSO had a trailer hitch at one point! Proof? The rear bumper has been notched to fit the hitch, and the trailer harness was still attached to the 2 OUTER BRAKE LIGHTS when I removed it. PO didn't even connect up the turn signals!

Let's see, for the engine: I already mentioned the vacuum lines being bad. The ECM had a permanent code 54, and was a cheapo AutoZone reman unit. The engine overheated CONSTANTLY because the PO had knocked off or removed 3/4 of the air dam, leaving me with a tiny 2" strip of the center piece bolted to the lower radiator support. The 2.8 was supposedly rebuilt 10K before I bought it at 196K, but there was so much crap in the lifter valley from his lack of changing the oil that it looked like it had never been rebuilt. There was a ton of grease covering EVERYTHING. The ailing 700R4 was missing the dust cover, and still is, even though it's not in the car any more. The crossover pipe was broke in HALF exactly 1/2" before the center union, and put together with crappy weld and some sort of exhaust filler. The catalytic converter was removed, the transmission hanger removed, and the intermediate pipe's flange was CUT off, and a test pipe flared and WELDED into place at both ends. Removing that SOB took me 2 days (didn't have anything other than a hack saw to cut it off and still don't) to pass inspection! Not to mention that the gap between the STOCK intermediate pipe and the 2.5" in/out Flowmaster 80 series muffler was filled in with WELD. Not only that, but the dual 2.5" tail pipes were WELDED to the muffler CROOKED, the driver's side hanging lower than the pass side, and BOTH were upside down, coming down and out of the muffler and pointing straight back out the back of the car instead of straight and down, and both were WELDED to 3" by 18" chrome tailpipes that were rusted and no longer shiny where there wasn't rust.

Electrical wasn't too bad. Radio was patched in using the twist and tape method, since the aftermarket that was obviously there was ripped out after being directly spliced to the harness. There was some sort of amp system in the car at one point (not like I have now)... The rear carpet is notched to allow wiring to pass through (still using the notch for the RCA cable), and there was a heavy red wire grounded under the driver's rear seat. And the left turn signal wire (IN the steering column, nonetheless), the light blue one for the front, was shorted to the steering shaft. Left turn? TURN/B/U fuse blows. 4-ways? STOP HAZ fuse blows. Good thing I fixed that wire before I had the car inspected (even though I broke the column bowl to get to it and later replaced the column). Don't know just HOW that wire broke or got cut, (I think it was cut) but it was. Oh, and you know the foam surround around the speaker cones? Most of it was gone in the subwoofers of the Pioneer 6x9s in the rear, and on the pass side midrange, the surround was made of nail polish!

The interior was a complete mess. Most of the panels had the screws tightened so tight that they went completely through the mounting holes (not to mention about half of the screws were missing, especially in the kick panels and the upper rear panel). I didn't have most of the large plastic screws and nuts in the rear (and the replacements aren't all that great). The headliner was redone, but it is held in place with screws in several places that are covered by snapped-on buttons (no kidding!). The car was FULL of trash when I bought it, 2-3 BAGS worth! It took me 3 months to get all of the trash (cig ash and butts and damn beer pull-tabs included) out of the car. The rear glove box was falling apart and has not been replaced (don't think it's going to be, either... I like the idea of sticking something USEFUL in there). The front seat belt covers (between the buckles and the floor on the receivers) were cracked and broken and have been removed. ALL of the seatbelt guides were gone... I still don't have the ones in the headliner and the ones in the headrests won't stay in place. The map pocket hangs open. The pass side door was the worst. The inner lock rod (with the black/red lever on the inside) was stuck behind the door panel. The door wouldn't lock for a month until I decided to get in there and loosen things up. The ignition lock would turn WITHOUT the key. Even after I lubed it, I could still remove the key with the car running (but I couldn't turn it from LOCK without the key). It looked like some dog ate the driver's rear seat, both the upper and lower parts, but especially the lower half, which I removed the cover from it was so bad (have been replaced now). And yes, the dash pad is cracked, and I only have 1 grill because the remaining tabs broke off of the driver's side grill.

Gotta cover the brakes: The rears needed to be redone about 10K before I rebuilt them. The fronts were another fine example of the guy's mechanical ability. The pass side was held on with the guide pins, but WASHERS were used to space the caliper from the wheel. The driver's side was bound up altogether. I wondered why the car pulled when I drove it home. Good news was that the parking brake still worked until the pass side cable bound up on me a couple of years ago.

Most of the above has been fixed, with the exception of the suspension bushings, the weatherstripping, and the body work (short of cash for that right now). I have rigged up some of the electrical work, but it is well covered with tape and not going to move or brush against any other wiring (inside the interior wiring harness which is wrapped with tape, and the important stuff was done right), and I know I still have to fix the IAT sensor harness. I would love to find that SOB and knock him flat before I take $400 of what I paid for the car back! I think he's dead now, though, and I'm sure he was laughing the whole way between the bank and the grave...

Joiner

Oh, I forgot to mention. It wasn't a third gen, but someone out at college made a lift kit out of wood. Haha, it's not just the f body people using wood out there.

transam85dudeman

poor old guy being dead. at least he got a laugh.i think back and wonder, wow im surprised, my car wasnt ghettoish.. But for 400 bucks, good deal. violence is never the answer. except when im ready to kick some a holes. i like that idea with the rear glovebox, and your usable items. hmm i wonder?

Donald87FB

my stereo, someone hooked it up to the running lights. and the hood/hatch is held up with a complementary 2x4!! lets see.... my over spill was a 2ltr pepsi bottle.

Donald87FB

o yea, and the PO also told me about the hitch that was welded on the back so some OLD LADY!!!!!!!, could pull her cow feed to her cows.......... how she got someone to do that...... i have no idea.

by the way its off.....


and the PO had a little trophy when he got the car, a shoe was weged in the driveshaft. it was like glass on top, brown/balck glass. he didint find it untill about 6 months of driving the car. odd.... very odd...

novafirebirdguy

This is cruelty to animals, seriously.

GTA50

So, man oh man oh man....WHY DID WE BUY THESE CARS?

rs89todd

my 89 camaro rs i bought for 250$ no trans rad or serpentine set up. rockers are full of expando foam, PO cut the wiring in the car for the tbi. my return line had a small can half way down the car just after the fuel hung by a cloths hanger not sure what the idea was there

what i have done was take all the emissions and ac components out, i want to make the car a track car so im gonna convert to carb. the hydrolic clutch set up the primary cylinder was gone, and i had another setup but with the slave gone, so i cut them at about the same place and took fuel injection hose and 2 hose clamps, clutch works fine, but its just temporary for now

dontellmymom

the first ghetto thing i noticed was the vise grip pliers on the door when i went to go buy it...

H-town

Jimmy D

In one car the oil pan was used as the lift point for a floor jack and the T-Top overhead console map light was removed and a cheap audio tweeter put in it's place.


In my second Camaro the Bose stereo had been removed and a custom 2 - 12" sub-woofer box was placed in the trunk well area. The ghetto thing in this case was the fact that when they removed the flip-up rear speaker panel deck lid, they just hammered down the 4 bolt studs used to hold it in place instead of taking the time to remove them.

1962willys

I'm working on a 1962 ****** 4x4 p/u apperently in the 60's it was ok to use 2'' of filler with alumnium mesh... and astroturf for a headliner...bucket seats held in with only two drywall screws and scrap pieces of wood but at least they had the presence of mind to make a wooden bed out of old pallets and 8'' lag screws it had 14 leafs in the front ant 12 in the rear milatary tubed tires filled with expanda foam oggga horn and a wooden brake shoe...I think it was a paint stick...well any how I have put a tpi system in and am working of finishing up the frame ...the 86 that the tpi came from had red paint on the gauge bezel ,vents ,intake, red neons every where, exaust held up with bungee cords and coat hangars but then again what else would you expect for a $700 car with a new crate motor

C.M.Jones

well when I got my 84 somebody put a 70s engine in it and cut up the original harness which was ok with me because I like the old skool but they could have done the install better.

when I first bought my car it had a bad tranny so when I got it home I started to replace it, and thats when I found all the bolts we only finger tight!!!, INCLUDING the torque converter bolts!!! I was thankful I could not drive it until I replaced it or the thing would have likely fallin right out. The whole time I was Cursing the guy while I was pulling it out.
I still shudder at riding around in that car when the guy was giving me a test ride in it, he even got on it a few times

wwwyzzerdd

i could name a thousand things ive found done to mine, but ill name the few that irritated me the most

first off, the blinkers didnt work when i got it, turned out to be a bad flasher relay, someone didnt feel like wiring up the fuel pump the right way, so they went the easy way and wired it into the wire for the flasher relay, and since the relay was bad the fuel pump was always on, well when i replaced the relay i started the car to drive it a little and test the signals and stuff, well they worked, but soon the fuel in the carb bowls ran out and it died, i was like WTF?, so i tried to restart the car, just kept turning over, then i realized that i couldnt hear my fuel pump kicking on... i followed the wire from the pump to a purple wire under the dash, so i turned the ignition on and turned on my blinker, and heard the fuel pump kicking on and off with the blinkers, man that pissed me off, i have it hooked up properly now

another thing, my fans are rigged to a manual switch on the inside, i want to wire them correctly, im going to look for a diagram when im done with this post actually

my alternator was rigged to one wire, i dont know how they got the alt to work with it, because once that alt finally went out i had hell trying to figure out what was wrong because hooking my new alt to that 1 wire like they had it would result in a blown alt, i finally found that they had cut off the other 2 wires inside the harness, once i hooked those 2 up to a new 3 wire adaptor, my alt worked fine, cost me a hundred bucks for the new alt and a 5 dollar 3 wire plug for the alt

my transmission crossmember bar only has 2 bolts holding it on, PO stripped the other screw holes

and the transmission didnt even have the dust cover on it, got one from a junkyard so it has one now, lucky a rock didnt get stuck in there by the time i noticed it

my right rear rotor only had 3 screws in it, the other 2 were twisted off, so my tire was held on by 3 nuts

and my front left rotor was the same

i got the car for cheap so i cant complain, but wow

car still has a few other strange things done to it, but im taking care of it one by one, once its all taken care of its gonna get a well deserved paint job

oh! and my drivers seat is supported by CONCRETE!

totalchaos

The PO of the car took a lock from a lockbox maybe or maybe a display case and put it on the gas door apparently people were stealing his gas

sathanous

When I bought mine the previous owner had stopped driving in because she got something a bit better on gas and that there was a pinhole in the brake fluid gasket... She was lucky it was there because it kept pressure off the passenger rear brake line thate her late husband(suicide) had smashed against the wheel well... But he fudged it because it was smashed too much to leak... He did a lot of shitty stuff to this car that I'm still fixing but I think that's the worst...

firebird1992

i once had my whole front-end held to together with zip-ties

i ran without a hood for about a week after a truck backed into me

wwwyzzerdd

lol, wow, i cant believe it stayed

firebird1992

yep i tossed all the nuts and bolts in the trash by accident the day before

THEBEAST84

iTrader: (2)

changed my heater core today and my heater core bypass was a water hose connector !

pic

iroc a 86 berli

thats not ghetto in my book.

ploegi

Bought one dirt cheap, as it had been wrecked a bit..... the guy claimed he couldn't stop, and went off into a farmer field. I trailered the car home. Got it in the garage, up on stands to start fixing the broke stuff, yanked the front wheels to make access a bit easier, and thought something looked a little funny. On closer inspection, the swept part of the rotor had been ground down so far from lack of a brake job, that it had SEPARATED from the hub. The piston was jammed tight in the caliper, which was the ONLY reason the car still had any kind of brakes. Checked the rear brakes, just out of idle curiosity.... and they hadn't received much attention either.... both rotor were so thin, that I could break pieces off with my fingers. When I smacked the hub with a hammer to get the rotors off the axle, the blew into a dozen peices... (swept area)

And that was just the beginning.... the motor ran, but I was absolutely stunned that the crank could even TURN, given that the oil pan was full of this black jello-like substance, that might have once been oil.

The "coolant" literally clanked when it hit the drain pan, it had so much iron (rust) in it.

Three spark plugs had been in the engine for so long, that they came out in pieces.... unfortunately, NOT at the same time.... oh joy..... well, i was tearing it down anyway........

It got to the point where i just stripped what few good parts I could find on the car, and scrapped the rest. I hadn't intended on doing a complete restoration on the car, but, that is what would have been required just to feel 'safe' to drive.....

firebird896

Well Ive been working on my restoration project and just recently after finishing up getting my floor pans situated to be welded in, I moved to taking of the gfx on the qp's and saw that someone use clear silicone caulk to hold them in place because the holes had gotten too big for then to be held in by the nuts........then I realized that I was that idiot

camaro_freek91

I Got a 1991 camaro rs that's all white and it don't look to bad.
I decided to do a little body work on it here and there. So when I took off the rear spoliers and the side skirts guess what there was no paint under it. But it's coming along now if you ask me

THEBEAST84

iTrader: (2)

hey guy too me it is bc i got the car from lived by the fix it right motto!
but hes a ford guy ! wtf ! its all good i gotta get new ones anyway !
i seeing it now just getting these off and the new ons on is gonna take me long than it did to install the heatecore lol !

no worries !

THEBEAST84

iTrader: (2)

hey guy too me it is bc i got the car from a guy who lived by the fix it right motto!
but hes a ford guy ! wtf ! its all good i gotta get new ones anyway !
i seeing it now just getting these off and the new ons on is gonna take me long than it did to install the heatecore lol !

no worries !

DoubleADuster

When I bought my Duster it was a V8 converted from a slant6. When whoever did the swap they decided to undercoating stuff all over the wiring harness that ate through all the insulation right about the time I got a hold of it. It was weeks of wires shorting at random till i had to replace the whole thing.
Another thing along that line thats no so much anyone being ghetto, but I just got my trans am not to long ago and went to put on a different airfilter and inside of the old one was a rat nest. the person before me had been driving it like that for who knows how long.

~
Aaron

Maverick H1L

iTrader: (8)

Actually, I paid $1000 for the car, in 2 payments: 800 down, and 200 when I got my taxes back that year (NEVER should have given him that 200. Heck, that's what replacing the air dam with new GM parts cost!). Don't know for sure if he is dead or not... I don't want anything to do with those people.

Good news is that I found a replacement wheel on eBay. Bad news is that it wasn't as described in the auction. Supposedly, it was a 15x7 with dual 5 lug pattern. I paid $80 for it, and when it got here, I found out it was a 15x8 with a Chevy 6-bolt truck pattern. Only good thing about that is that I got another center cap with it (back to my original number of 3 caps ). It's going to the scrap yard when I can get out there.

Oh, and I've found that where the rear glove box was is a good place for jumper cables, a gallon jug of coolant, a first aid kit, extra brake fluid and oil, and bungee cords (for when I am carrying things in the car that require the hatch held open or stuff that I don't want to be moving around). In the future, I plan on having the main unit of a carputer mounted back there, as I have a perfect case to fit (HP ePC 42).

oldskwl81

1- i found rags in the heater ducts to redirect air
2- bare wire instead of a fuse, thats just dangerous
3- in my firebird they also took the belt off the ac compressor when it died and it f'd up everything over time so when i got it you can just imagine the work involed. some people should just leave it alone

Darkshot

iTrader: (4)

I found a super long bolt with about 2 inches of stacked washers holding my starter on on my daily driver. Actually, I knew about it 4 years ago when I bought the car and I still haven't fixed it.

I found some vice grips under the AC box when I removed it (not ghetto, but whatever).

I'm trying to think of more stuff but I guess I've been pretty lucky, there wasn't that much crazy stuff on my car despite having 170k miles on it plus a 350 swap when I got it.

transam85dudeman

what did taking off the belt do..?

TimeTraveller

Ok here's one that's slightly off topic, but not that much. About 20 years ago, I was driving home from work and passed by this old VW bug that had been sitting in the same place for about 5-6 years. I decided to stop at the house and ask about the car. (I was into air-cooled VW's at the time) The owner of the house said it was his son's car, but he was willing to sell it for $200. I went out and took a close look at the car, and it was in very good shape (for a bug). The guy then tells me that the engine runs, but overheats. (?) I'm standing there thinking....air-cooled....fan...shroud...flaps... "can I give you a $20 down payment until I get paid on friday? He accepts, and I go home to clear a space for it. When I picked up the car I drove it home, and started poking around. I knew that I'd have to pull the engine to check the doghouse and fan, so I was waiting for my dad to get home so he could help. It was at this point that I looked behind the rear seat and found a door cut out of the fire wall. I looked in the hole and found the overheating problem. On an air-cooled, the cooling fan is bolted to the back side of the generator. In this case, the nut the actually attached the fan to the shaft was missing and when the engine was running, the fan would just kinda freewheel on the shaft. So, I went to the JY & bought a proper nut for a buck, and fixed the problem. I then spent a couple of weeks working on the rest of the bug, painted it, and ended up driving it from w. PA all the way to Dallas TX. But before I left, I was driving around the neighborhood, and the guy who sold me the car stopped me and asked if it was the car he sold me. I told him yes, and he says, "should've charged you more for it".

alloy

iTrader: (16)

Just bought an 89 IROC. The arm rests were swollen up and they tried to glue the top of the arm rest to the door panel with some nasty clear glue and ruined the door panels.

And for a broken hatch pull down motor the fix was easy for them. Remove the lift cylinders so the hatch wouldn't be up all the time and make a stick to hold the hatch up. Not to mention both power windows were out.

But overall I got a killer deal for an 89 IROC 350/TPI/auto that only needed a fuel pump to run. Paid $600 for it and $60 more had it running. Now all the little crap needs to be fixed, but still pretty happy for what I paid for it.

Motopsyco

What year was it, cuz in the 82-84 I know that was actually a factory option a little lock in the gas door, my old 83 t/a had one, although it is actually the same lock and lever that in the rear panel lock compartment as well. I had a prob with the gas door not unlocking and simply switched them out and it worked great. On a side note to get back on subject, my 89 I got now currently has part of the vats bypassed with 2 big fat red wires that I have to touch together to get it to start, and since the teen who owned it last busted the front air dam off and it overheated on him, he also ran some wires from the fan to the interior and I have to connect them as well to use the fans. so that's kinda getto. and doesnt even solve the problem he thought it would, It just needs an air damn, and figured by the other rigging he'd have just bolted on some cheap stuff to fix it, but actually went through the trouble of figuring out the wiring to rig the fans to always on. all he needed was anything that could direct air upwards.

donaldw

my trunk pulldown assembly had 2 sticks in it? the wiring is all tore apart and the motor on it is all melted! the po was a goober big time!!!!

Slash

it wasn't my car. it was a car i was looking at to buy but it had it's a/c cut out with a hand-saw

3oh3 Cruiser

While it wasn't my car, this just about tops many.

Summer '09 I was with a buddy of mine whose Jeep died on a trail up by Boulder, CO. After getting a group of rigs to tow the Jeep down the mountain, we had to have a tow truck take the Jeep back to our University in Lakewood, just outside of Denver, CO. While talking with the tow truck driver, he saw my '85 IROC-Z and commented on how he had an '87 TA, that he ended up crashing. The front was totaled and subframe trashed, but he loved the car and didn't want to get rid of it. He ended up building a new subframe out of 2x4's and one result of everything was that the headlights didn't go down anymore. He sold the car as is, without telling the buyer that it now had a wooden subframe under the hood.

Impressive, right?

New2Chevy

iTrader: (11)

I kept hearing this clunking sound toward the front of my car, and I could not figure out what in the world it was. One day, I took the dash pad off, and I discovered that someone put 4" round speakers where the 4 x 6 speakers should go. Whoever did it just threw the speakers in the holes, and they flopped around in there and made all sorts of clunking noises when the car moved. This, along with their terrible wiring philosophies (they cut the factory harness out of the car and ran all sorts of weird wires all over the place--morons), made for a really ghetto situation.

New2Chevy

iTrader: (11)

ha ha ha....that's funny. I can see the instructions now: "Take wood saw and cut at points A and B, then use wood screws to fasten adjoining frame pieces to fender.....etc. etc." ha ha ha

dstack18

a coat stuffed in the corner of the trunk with floor mats over it to cover a large rust hole

RSTurbo2800

And I thought mine was bad with the Starter Button bypass (PO Lost the VATS key, and tried to rig it to start), and the Funky Clear-Coat!

killerbracing

On my 92 RS w/ a L98 someone broke the back bolt on the thermostat housing, chased it with a screw extractor, broke it off and decided to silicone the **** out of it to keep it from leaking.
Then they pimered the passenger side of the engine bay. Butchered the harness (I have it fixed). Cut the radio harness (fixed) and cut the wires on the ALDL plug (Found that out when I plugged my laptop in. The ALDL and fan control switch will be the last of the wiring.

Needless to say, the only options my car will have at the end of it will be a stereo and a Cigarette lighter!

Marty Watson

Well, when I picked up my 86 TA a couple of days ago, I didn't pay much attention to the rear seat being folded down... now that I put it up I noticed that there is duct tape over the upper edges of the seat. The last owner must of been driving everywhere with his dog or maybe he let his pooch use the car as a dog house. Yeah I bet ol' Fido must of had fun using the backseat as a chew toy! Not to mention there is dog hair all over the interior of the car. Hell, when I turned up the heater onto defrost my wife and I got a face full of dog hair! But one plus is that the AC still blows cold... well I got a big job of cleaning the interior. I will also have to fix the droopy headliner. The shmuck used a stapler around the T tops to keep the liner up.

Fun & games...

1986 Trans Am "Gina" -my new baby
1984 F 150 "MaryLynne" -my daily driver
1982 Suzuki GS400 "Kumiko" -my little toy
1976 Pontiac Ventura "Leighanne" -you won't be forgotten

HawkZ28

iTrader: (2)

I'd have to say when I bought my 86 as a parts car, I wished it would have stayed as such.....about 5 years later.....

Keep in mind, this was a 1986 Z28 TPI car.......

'25 footer' uncle's cousin's roommates spray booth paint job....looks good at 25 feet, but you get close and can see the waves of color, and where the color is not as deep so the primer is almost viewable.

TPI was gone. So was the engine. In it's place was an 82-84 'L69'....with the TPI wiring attempted (epic failure #1) to be connected to the Qjet. Wasn't hooked up to the computer anyway.

Mismatched cylinder heads. One was from a plain jane 305, the other was from a 267 or something along those lines.

Engine had an odd firing order. Made no sense. Ran like a top at times.

Found out timing chain had enough slack to wrap around crank sprocket almost a full time. Explained the odd firing order.

AC was literally cut off with bolt cutters. As was the AIR system. Left compressors in place. Used JB weld to fill in any holes in lines left from the open ends.

No air filter.

Body was mostly 91-92, hung half assed.

Axle was a 2.76 from 87 or 88- don't recall which. When I was doing 60 on my speedo, it was closer to 80+.

Steering wheel pulled off the column when backing out of the driveway one day. Bolts where crossthreaded into an aftermarket adapter for an aftermarket steering wheel that must have been replaced with the OEM wheel. Glad it happened then, and not the night before when we were out driving 'spiritedly'.

Found 7 new tools, 2 rolls of masking tape, 2 c clamps, 1.5 unsmoked camel lights, and about $5 change UNDER the carpet AND padding.

If I had the title, I'd tell you the guys name who did all the work, and warn everyone. He should be considered a threat to society with anything more than a teaspoon in his possession.

Since then, I've gone through the interior- twice. Pulled the k- member, engine, rear suspension, and repainted and upgraded everything. Rebuilt the engine and upgraded the transmissions valve body parts. If I could get a socket or wrench on it to remove, inspect, and re-torque I did after the steering wheel incident.

Just replaced the drivers window motor (wiring was all butt connected to the remnants of some cheap *** alarm)- need to finish on putting that back together, and mama says that she wants me to do the interior over again- with NEW carpet and pieces. I love her, but I don't think she realizes how big a check that is. That's after I get the new header panel for the headlights and air tubing for the L69 setup, of course.

ShMaCk2004

how about the good old hose clamps to hold the torque arm to the trans? i've done it lol till i got my spohn stuff in

shelby7099

Found a bunch of stuff behind the panels in the rear, including a Montley Crew casette tape, a screw driver, and part of a wet suit. Previous owner admitted to using bondo to patch a bullet hole in the hood from when his brother shot it! Also, the worn out headliner was being held up with sheet metal screws and white caulking. Oh yea, and instead of replacing the left rear ground effect when it broke or fell off they just filled the holes with bondo and painted the spot to match the rest of the silver gfx. Just remembered a big one. They swapped it to carb but left all of the butchered harness stuffed behind the motor, which I was made aware of when it caught on fire one day while driving. I think that is about it for this car...I hope.

Had another car (67 mustang) where they had used four sockets for a fan spacer, and they mounted a mr. gasket (push style) electric fuel pump in the engine compartment at the same level as the carb.

transam85dudeman

this shop had swapped an engine into somebodies camaro. i heard the mechanic needed a dizzy gear so he grind up a socket for the gears and afterwards let the engine idle for 8 hours. thats ghetto.

PeterFeix

iTrader: (1)

Nice thread

I have something for you, too....

First: My T/A had been converted to Bi-Fuel-mode. (Liquid Propane/Butane Injection). The garage messed up pretty bad with the wiring and grounded my fuel injectors.... some oil pans of drained fuel later, I've found what was going wrong... went to a lawyer and almost two years later now, I got around 2000usd from this idiot-garage for the mostly ruined engine.

Second: My 1992 Bonneville SSei.... I liked the supercharger whining alot as I heard it in several youtube videos, but spending 150usd for a fenderwell intake with open air filter, just for the sound.... nooo.... don't want to spend so much money for "nothing".
So I decided to build my own open air-filter:

- Take the air filter element of my t/a... it slips right over the stock intake piping which was attached to the stock intake box.
- some duct tape around this side.....
- on the other side, I simply sealed the airfilter element with the upper case of a 25's cd-rewritable box, which fitted really nice, then I drilled a hole into the middle of the cdrw-case-piece and could even plug-in the IAT sensor


Hope you can see what I mean

Chevy86 IROC-Z

iTrader: (17)

I found an 8 ball worth of crystal in my heat core box, along with a glass pipe. I was fixing my heater so I changed out a new heater core and after pulling the whole dashboard forward, bling bling, I saw ice. Guess what I did with it .

icefreak

ok i brought my 1989 firebird off some dude he had the wiring for starter going around the car up to battery so when it didnt start u hook up this wire to getting started then i found i had 16 bad ground because of it wires cut under the dash still have no clue where **** goes radio and speakers cut out of the wiring harnessi have two wires were the radio goes have no clue where they go no horn or ebrake doors dont aline missing bolts for alt patch job done to the muffer system a hole the size of a baseball in the a/c lugs for the tires dont come off and its a 1989 firebird with a 2.8 from the year 1986 or lower i have a 3 belt system not the 1 belt system lol going to be fun to fix