The Bane of the Previous Owner

What is it with previous owners. Are all of them idiots or just the ones I deal with. Maybe it's the price point I shop.

Lets start with the 57 Chevy I had. It was wired with wire nuts. The rear driveshaft yoke had been JB welded. No fan shroud, wrong radiator. It was an awesome car full of stupid.

Then we have the 89 Thunderbird SC. Just about every bolt holding the drive line in was loose. Bell housing bolts were barely hand tight. One was backed out 1/4 inch. The same with the rear drive shaft flange bolts. People, those bolts are kind of important. They aren't there for looks.

Next we have a 88 Samurai. I love this little beast so far, but some people shouldn't attempt engine swaps. I knew when I bought it, it had a high idle problem and was surging under acceleration. I figured vacuum leaks. Nope, just about the entire vacuum and IAC system was plumbed wrong. Basically, if two nipples were the same size, they were connected. It didn't matter how it was supposed to be plumbed. If there were three fittings, he plumbed two of them and plugged the other one. What an idiot. It runs much better now.

I'm sure there are a bunch of PO stories. Share, so we can all laugh at them.

I've barely touched the '63 Ranchero yet, but I have a couple of relatively minor (or at least not terrifically entertaining) ones...

Battery tray was a mess, and battery sort of wedged in place with a chunk of 2x4. Got a new battery tray, and that was when it became clear that it has the wrong radiator in it, so I get to replace that, too, just to make room for the battery.

It's got a Fairlane (allegedly) rear axle, which is too wide. I'd complain about the VW bug fender flares, but I figure they're part of why I got it so cheap. Anyhow, what I will complain about is that to do the swap to a narrowed Explorer rear axle becoming common on Falcons, I'll have to source pretty much everything from the leafs out, as it's got I-don't-know-from-what leaf springs on some kind of crazy bodged combination of giant shackles and a mount which appears to be made of the end and eye of another leaf bolted to the body...

Okay, I'll go ahead and complain about the flares, too. Yes, they're ugly. I've got replacement quarter panels. However, there is nothing resembling the outboard half of the inner fender, leaving the inside of the quarter panels as the recipient of road spray. There is going to be a ton of crap in there when I pull the quarter panels off... Hopefully there will still be a fair amount of metal which is still part of the car's structure. And I get to make outer halves for the inner fenders, as those aren't available repro...

And then there was the freshly rebuilt engine that came in the first 2002, with 3/16" of crank endplay...

I'm going to go sulk now.

One merely needs to read the build thread for my 944 turbo:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/sliver-rose-aka-mein-951-affliction/70370/page1/

Vacuum leaks, broken parts that cost almost nothing to fix (sunroof gears, window switches, glove box), yet it has 18" wheels and tires with a bunch of engine mods. Turbo oil seal has failed along with the Air/Oil separator system, turbo coolant pump was leaking, etc.

Most of my cars were relatively unmolested when I bought them. Even my $800 1800ES was in great condition mechanically - not surprising since it was the DD of a Volvo mechanic. However, Frank "doesn't do bodywork..." and when the rust got too bad, he sold it on eBay (to me).

The car had been "restored" sometime in its past... and I use that term loosely. The tin worm had its way with that car... and in an effort to get it presentable, some unscrupulous restorer simply filled in the rust holes with whatever he had around... Great Stuff would have been an improvement over what I found... paper.. air... Brillo pads... yes... Brillo pads... the kind with the embedded soap... one of the rocker sills was full of them. The space between the headlights and front turn signals was simple caked up Bondo. Buckets of the stuff.

In reply to turboswede:

That's the part that gets me. The Chevy was a great looking car.

Good paint, killer custom upholstery, shiny chrome, and wire nuts.

The Suzuki? Lift kit? Yep. 33" tires? Yep. Bed liner interior? Yep. Diamond plate door panels? Yep. But can't be bothered to hook up the plumbing correctly. All that is riding on stock shocks that bottom out constantly. Stupid, half assed crap is irritating.

Edit: Don't forget the really cool winch bumper that was held on by three 7/16 bolts. One of which didn't even have a nut on it. Here's a shot of the Suzuki.

In reply to Toyman01:

"Service manual? I don't need to look at no stinkin' service manual..."

Ian F wrote: In reply to Toyman01: "Service manual? I don't need to look at no stinkin' service manual..."

The damn Samurai came with the service manual, I used it to figure out the plumbing!! It was in the back seat with all the other parts. Like the 5.39 diffs, YJ spring conversion, front shock towers and shocks, missing link shackle kits. How can a person buy all that crap expecting to install it, but can't plumb a throttle body or be bothered to make the engine run right.

One has to imagine that the POs in question tried their hand at working on said cars, achieved varying degrees of failure, then listed their headaches at GRM-friendly price points so they wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. That's where you lot come in.

I am finding them with my Disco. When I bought it, the truck supposed had a top end rebuild already. I know the engine was at least apart due to the idiotic things I am finding not quite done.. or done wrong. One being all the hose clamps being put on so tight they have cut into the hoses and are beginning to cause leaks

My old VW caddy had most of the forward wiring replaced with lamp cords and speaker wire, no connectors of any kind, just twisted wires and electrical tape. The battery was held in with a net made from no less than 100 3" long zip ties but the real head scratcher was the aftermarket turn signal switch.

One of these

was duct taped to the end of the existing turn signal stalk. It stuck out so far it almost hit the door and required over 10 inches of movement since the original switch needed to move then stop before the additional one would move enough to engage it.

There was nothing wrong with the existing switch. I pulled out the extra one and rewired the old one and everything was fine.

The Yugo had a wrong alternator with the right part number on it installed by the PO, with crooked home made brackets to make it fit. This was fun, as I initially assumed the alternator was right, and the PPO just lost the brackets or something, and I bought just a set of brackets. So then the car sat another week while I ordered a X1/9 alternator for the astronomical price of $35 and bolted it on.

admittedly, i temporarily used wire nuts on my 90 c1500 when i swapped to the newer front end and composite headlights. temporary was a year and a half ago and i have not fixed it yet. i did tape the crap out of them so water and stuff couldn't get in, and i do promise one day they will be soldered and heat shrink wrapped.

Both of the blower motors on the 911 were bad. I knew this but figured I could fix them. The first one went great. Some bashing with a hammer and what not and a $5 bearing and its better than new. The second one had an attempted fix from a PO. Well, I assume it was an attempted fix even though they didn't actually replace the bad bushing. They just cracked everything apart and when they couldn't fix it they TIG welded it back together. This turned a serviceable motor into a useless lump of crap that cost $900 to replace. If you can't fix something, that's OK, but don't make it worse than when you started.

I try to approach everything as though I will be a PO. This makes me strive to do the best job I can so I do not get cursed by the new owner

The worst I have is my current S10 has a stretched out axle yoke because the PO couldn't be bothered to put in a new u-joint. Sadly, this also took out the crush sleeve for the pinion, so now that has some play in it.

Maybe he was working on a theme? yellow car + yellow wire nuts......

Armitage wrote: One has to imagine that the POs in question tried their hand at working on said cars, achieved varying degrees of failure, then listed their headaches at GRM-friendly price points so they wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. That's where you lot come in.

Oh... I'm sure blaze86vic said my name in conjuction with some profanity a few times after buying my E30... but sometimes you get to the point where you just don't want to work on that car anymore.

My first car ran VERY rough until I figured out that two spark plug wires were swapped.

Then it ran rough after being parked or driven uphill. I parked it on a hill and got out. I heard a trickle sound. A very ugly moffed fuel line was just pissing everything out of the line.

Then there was the recent donor cab roof for the GMC. I noticed that the outer skin was stuck to the inner skin in a weird place where they were not supposed to be touching. A wire wheel on the outside showed 3/16" bondo. Except for a spot the size of a quarter. It was filling a hole. On the upper surface of the inner panel, the PO had globbed on a racquetball sized blob of hot glue and bondoed onto that. Nice.

I hate people.

Its when those temp fixes become perma fixes.

If wire nuts are good enough for 120 volts in my house, they are surely fine for 12 volts in my car, right?

Told for price it was an excellent deal. PO had twice as much in it and was looking to unload. Was going to make a Thunderbolt clone, but made a Mustang GT350 convertable clone instead and SWIMBO did not know about Fairlane.

Purchased almost site unseen (was off on deployment at the time). Got a look under dash and wiring is pasta. It's there, and functioning, but a total mess. Run both under and over steering colum depending on, I guess, how motivated the PO was at the time. Behind that mess was the missing heater control box I was told WAS there. Modern audio (inluding sizable amp) had wiring run under carpet in foot traffic area, instead of properly behind kicker panels and under rocker boards. The fresh rebuild motor started smoking. Thinking wrong valve guides or misalingned piston rings. Did not know about air shocks in the back. Hate airshocks. Engineers did not design those points to constantly hold the weight of a car. They were plummed together (wholly bodyroll, Batman!). Oh, and front end has mind of it's own despite "new bushings".

In reply to phaze1todd: Did they actually install the new bushings? Perhaps they just saw them online and said "hey, the car needs those"

In reply to mistanfo:

Good question!

I am the fourth owner of my Valiant. A little old lady, my grandfather, and Dad had it before me. I've now owned it for 26 of its 49 years.

I can't really speak badly of the previous owners, because mostly they are me.