Ok guys, gimmie your best stories

[Rent-A-Racer]

(or should I say worst) regarding PO repairs/changes to your past or present cars.

I've heard/seen some good ones in my time. But my best/worst is finding a page from a 1974 newspaper and a cigarette butt in my friends '68 coupes rocker panel!!

 

[66stangmeister]

i was changing the window regulator on the drivers side door. and i found a for sale sign in the inside shell of the door, there was also a stick and some spare parts for the window i guess. lol sounds retarded, but i guess the sign was on the window and it fell down inbetween the window and the door.

i'll try to think of some other ones lol

 

[Snail50]

Not relating to classics, but when I was into Fox body 5.0s, I went to look at a black 93 LX coupe, and the seller fell all over himself telling me what a nice car it was, babied, won't find a nicer one, perfect in every way, etc. This was down in Homestead, so I had to drive a couple hours in traffic through toll plazas to get there, and once I got there I could tell the car had been wrecked before I even got out of the car. also, it had these huge exhaust tips sticking way out the back, and it had lame chrome trim on the fenders at one point, but had been removed, leaving a mess. anyway, the body lines were offset by about an inch, so it was clear it had been hit hard and not fixed right. I looked underneath, and the left front frame was BROKEN apart with claws of rusted metal splayed out. It was such a mess; the front of the car was not even held together up there while driving. Anyway, the seller, who was this fat, mullet-haired redneck who owned an upholstery and restoration shop or something, wouldn't even talk to me once he saw how I was looking the car over. he just disappeared in the back. The guy was a true POS just looking to take advantage of someone.

 

[NorCal66]

Latest PO was a big fan of epoxy, everywhere it could be used, it was, even some of the transmission...yea that had to be fixed...
Then there was the "ziptie clamps" around the fuel line connecting to the tank.
Also had a holley 750cfm mech 2ndaries on an almost completely stock engine. Overkill? maybe.

 

[mr-fixit]

This isn't about a car I owned, but one I worked on in my restoration shop. This happened in 1990. A local gas station owner called and told me he just bought a '66 GT fastback. He told me the car was complete, but the rear fold down seat and surrounding panels needed to be installed. He said he tried for hours, but nothing lined up, and was wondering if I could work on it for him.
Well, he pulled up with the car, and immediately I doubted it was a real GT, it had a repro '69 style hood scoop, and Pep Boys fog lights bolted in the grille. But it got worse, much worse. As I started working on the fold down seat and panels, something in my subconscious, registered something was wrong, but I passed it off, just concentrating on the job at hand. I discovered some of the mounting brackets for the rear seat were missing, and after the fifth or sixth time of climbing in and out of the car I noticed ....IT
Door window seals! The doorjamb had door window seals! ( this was a fastback remember) Yup, a P.O. had taken a 6 cyl. coupe, put in a 302, and welded on a fastback roof and trunk! And nothing lined up. The new owner tried tracking down the seller, and I am not sure what ever happened, but the car sat untouched in my shop yard for almost a year. One day he called and said "strip it for parts" and that is what we did.

 

[66stangmeister]

damn lol, that sounds like a okay idea i guess...in a weird dream.. but to actually try to do that to a coupe lol. thats pretty dumb haha some people...

 

[zookeeper]

I posted this story a while back, but hopefully it'll get a whole new appreciation for how dumb I really am. A few years ago, I was looking for a '67-'68 fastback (as was everyone else I found) and after several months I hadn't found one worth buying. Then I found a cherry '68 fastback for sale that was not only completely stock and original, but was owned by a 93 year old lady! It was at a local craft show, in the parking lot and was being driven that day by her grandson and his family, who had hoped to get the car some exposure for a sale. We talked briefly, I really liked the car but he was in a hurry to go, so my wife wrote the number down and I agreed to call the next day. When I did, I discovered my wife had accidently wrote the number down wrong, and I had no way to find the car! So I gave up on that one and set out looking again. I found one in Oregon that sounded good and after the owner emailed me some pics, we spoke on the phone for nearly an hour while I got every last detail. The car was 100% rust free, no bondo or body damage ever, although it didn't run, it was an original 4 speed car and came with 2 motors, one hot rodded 289, and a stock 302 which was in the car, but just needed to have the hoses and belts hooked up. Not only was did the car sound like a good candidate for the Shelby clone I was planning, but it was over $2,000 cheaper! How could I go wrong? So I had the wife rent a car trailer while I was at work. She took my parents to help hook up the trailer, and they help an elderly friend of the family write out her checks each month (she lives in an upscale rest home) and they needed to stop by there that day. Guess what was parked in the lot? That's right, the same beautiful '68 fastback I'd seen a few weeks before! So my wife called me at work to tell me that we could save a trip to north-eastern Oregon (12 hrs, one way) and simply buy this one. In my infinte wisdom, I explained that the one in Oregon was much cheaper and I'd have to replace all the same stuff anyway, so it was much better. Anyhoo, we drove 12 hrs, the car was sooo bad that I couldn't believe it was the same one in the pics. It had been rear ended and the whole tail of the car was bent down. The interior was shredded, there was rust under the battery, there was a huge dimple in the center of the hood where someone had slammed the hood over a carb with too long of a stud, the wiring was in shambles and hung clear to the floor. I then drove home 12 hrs, plus a few stops at whatever store that Mrs. Zookeeper wanted to keep her happy. Total cost for that fiasco was a bit over $500. I then got home, called the owner of the first fastback's son-in-law (who was handling the transaction) and bought the first car. Yes, I have heard an "I told you so" once or twice, but I am much happier that I bought the nicer of the two, since no amount of money would have ever turned the Oregon pile into a nice car.

 

[Rent-A-Racer]

these are GREAT!! Keep'em coming!!!

 

[Snail50]

Mr. Fixit, I'd say yours is the best so far! That's just insane.

another Fox 5.0 story:

during the same search as before, I found ANOTHER black 93 LX coupe, which was supposedly in very good shape, with performance intake, heads, and full exhaust. I get there, and it's not in good shape; the hood, roof, and trunk are very sun-faded. I pop the hood and there sits a bone-stock 5.0. Stock intake, heads, everything. I ask the guy where the performance stuff is, and he says "right there: that's all HO stuff." I told him "um, this is all stock." he tried to convince me it was special order stuff, or something like that. Then I looked underneath, and there is a BONE STOCK exhaust system, but it's unbolted before the mufflers and hanging by wire. I came out from under the car with a WTF look on my face, and he says "yeah, it was too quiet before...now when you crank it up, you're going to hear some noise!!!"

 

[MustangMatt1966]

here ya guys go, its a weird one..........After i had bought my car, when i was 16, i was working on it one day underneath the dash, trying to figure out some wiring. I had my flashlight and was sprawled out on my back cuz it is tight under there. I was panning the light around and saw something flash when the light hit it. I reached up and grabbed the object, to my astonishment, it was a pocket watch from like 1968 with a picture of (i guess the guy that first purchased the car), the clock had stopped, but it still had the chain and everything. He must have shuved it under there for some reason. Well anyhow, i did some backtracking, with the vin number and so forth, and actually thracked the elderly man down. I told him the story and what i had found, he asked my to send the pocket watch back, so i did. A few weeks later, i had mail, and it was from the elderly man, and inside was a check for 300 bucks. Inside was a letter explaining the significance of the watch and how it had been in his family for years, until one day he couldnt figure out where it went, and he was heartbroken, welll..you never know what you are going to find in the wiring of your car

Matt

 

[Fomocohipo]

I guess this was kinda funny, it happened today when I went to investigate a rattle/thump when I went over slight bumps in the road. I found that my rear sway bar had come lose. Actually the U bolt that it was bolted into the frame riped out of the frame. Tore a 4 inch slit in the bottom of the frame where it was and the u bolt was still firlmy bolted to the mounting bracket.
Not much compaired to the other stories, but i have heard of a flask found inside the door of a mustang dating back to the factory where it was built!

 

[efi66r331]

You know when you were young and dumb (yeah that was me)...

I drove down the road and saw this beautiful red 73 Mustang Mach 1 Convertible, with a white interior. That should already have a few of you scratching your head. I stopped to look at it. 351C, 4bbl, 4 speed, deluxe interior, traction-loc 350 9", fresh paint, great interior, and only $8000.00. I couldn't pass on the deal and took it home.

Not too much later the paint started to grey, the stickers on the hood dulled, and I noticed that I kept getting this black stuff on my pant legs. I blew the motor after a few thousand miles. While I was building a new motor, I started to look at the car much closer than before. First I found out that there was no such thing as a Mach 1 convertible (duh). I realized that the interior panels had been painted (hence the black stuff on the pant legs). I started to tear out the interior panels out to find out the car was originally a white car with black interior. The car was painted with a quick paint job over some heavily bondo'd areas, they through on some stripes, dyed the interior white (the white would actually come off on your clothes from the back seat), and painted the kick panels black to cover all the scratches. I guess they cobbled a motor together to get it to sell. Needless to say I lost my a$$ on this one. I rebuilt the motor, found a guy that was interested, even though I was honest about all the problems I sold it to him for a grand.

I went back to the dealer to yell at him about it. He just claimed that the car was one he picked up, he didn't know the history, and sold it to me.

Now a little bit older and a little less dumb.

 

[65conv50]

I bought my current (2nd) 65 Mustang convertible in 1967 from a Dad, who said it had been his son's car (high schooler). Bought it in the summer. When it first started turning cool, leaving work one day I tried to turn on the heater, but the flap wouldn't close. I reached into the heater to pull the flap by hand, and discovered a pint of whiskey and a pair of panties hidden inside! Good thing my wife wasn't there!!! (Especially since the booze had a Georgia tax stamp and I had just returned from a business trip to Georgia!!)

 

[66stangmeister]

I bought my current (2nd) 65 Mustang convertible in 1967 from a Dad, who said it had been his son's car (high schooler). Bought it in the summer. When it first started turning cool, leaving work one day I tried to turn on the heater, but the flap wouldn't close. I reached into the heater to pull the flap by hand, and discovered a pint of whiskey and a pair of panties hidden inside! Good thing my wife wasn't there!!! (Especially since the booze had a Georgia tax stamp and I had just returned from a business trip to Georgia!!)

LOL, thats a good one The watch one is incredible...sounds like something from a movie or tv show or something

i agree , keep em coming, these are fun to read

 

[69stang351]

here ya guys go, its a weird one..........After i had bought my car, when i was 16, i was working on it one day underneath the dash, trying to figure out some wiring. I had my flashlight and was sprawled out on my back cuz it is tight under there. I was panning the light around and saw something flash when the light hit it. I reached up and grabbed the object, to my astonishment, it was a pocket watch from like 1968 with a picture of (i guess the guy that first purchased the car), the clock had stopped, but it still had the chain and everything. He must have shuved it under there for some reason. Well anyhow, i did some backtracking, with the vin number and so forth, and actually thracked the elderly man down. I told him the story and what i had found, he asked my to send the pocket watch back, so i did. A few weeks later, i had mail, and it was from the elderly man, and inside was a check for 300 bucks. Inside was a letter explaining the significance of the watch and how it had been in his family for years, until one day he couldnt figure out where it went, and he was heartbroken, welll..you never know what you are going to find in the wiring of your car

Matt

How did you do a vin search to find PO?? I would like to find the POs of my 76 cobra II but I have had no luck in doing so! PLZ help!

 

[Hack]

How did you do a vin search to find PO?? I would like to find the POs of my 76 cobra II but I have had no luck in doing so! PLZ help!

You contact your state's department of motor vehicles. The state keeps a record of the past owners of a car. I found the owners of my car back to '76, but the state threw away all the records before that.

 

[allcarfan]

If I could find my PO, I would shoot him. Where do i begin?

lets start with the cowl. The car had a cowl leak...what did he do? Shoved a rag up the cowl vent to get it to stop leaking...along with some fiberglass.

Floor pans: He replaced the floor pans...how many welds did he use? 5 spot welds. The rest of the floor pans he literally glued in. he didnt even bother welding them back to the frame rails...there was a .5-1" gap between them and the floor.

used a marker cap for one of the door latch rod connectors

The "1969 mustang engine with a roller cam" - turned out to be a late model engine. (car is a 66)

The exhaust was made out of plumbing pipe....ID 2.5" - OD 3". Where the headers met the plumbing pipe the ID was 1.75"

NOTHING holding the throttle linkage to the carb. It was just 'on there'

Pop Riveted the drip rail moldings, pop riveted the rocker panel chrome

Ever heard of shelby stripes that are 11" wide with a 4" space between them?

Funny: gt350 emblems, gas cap, side stripes, steering wheel horn cover...on a coupe.
More Funny: brand new horns, wiring, etc.....no horn button on steering wheel

in the glove box: a citation for pulling a gun on someone at some hick bar and carrying a concealed weapon at a place where alcohol was consumed

new leaf springs? nah...just add 7" shackles and you will be good to go.

Man, I get frustrated just thinking about it.

 

[MustangMatt1966]

in the glove box: a citation for pulling a gun on someone at some hick bar and carrying a concealed weapon at a place where alcohol was consumed

new leaf springs? nah...just add 7" shackles and you will be good to go.

lol that is funny..............

 

[Rent-A-Racer]

dang guys, I thought I had bad luck!

 

[sportsroof69]

I have a set of floor pans screwed & glued over the old pans. I had to crawl under the car and hammer a dent through the seatbelt bolt hole so I could put the belts in. They used duct tape to mask the car when they primered it and it left the sticky and some of the fibers on the window trim. The PO's of my first car rearranged the spark plug wires because the cam chain jumped instead of pulling the dizzy, setting #1 to TDC, then dropping the dizzy back in.