Some of my experiences with dimwit repair jobs:
1. 1960 Nash Metropolitan; my first car, and at the
time, in Florida, was required to pass vehicle
inspection to register. All went fine excepting the
brake test, which registered an unregisterably low
amount of braking force on only one of the front
wheels. Pulling it apart later at home showed a leaky
wheel cylinder, but of more concern was that while
trying to bleed this wheel first, hardly any fluid
would come out of the bleeder. Thinking line blockage,
I began pulling things off, working my way back to the
junction. I didn't have to go very far when I came
across the head of a rivet stuffed into the end of a
line at one of the connections. Seems this wheel leaked
so bad, the previous owner had blocked the line to stop
it up !
2. When working at a body shop in Florida, I saw many
cars succumbing to the tin worm, and just as many
styles of rust repair. But by far the cheapest and most
creative was to saturate several sheets of newspaper
with fiberglass resin, then slap it over the offending
spot. When it cured it was usually smooth enough to paint w/o
any additional body work.
3. 1959 Austin-Healey 100-6; One owner last 10yrs, who
claimed to just "treat it like a chevy". This should
have scared us off, but no, my brother & I bought it &
among other things, found: A largish hole had once been
cut in the hood over the carbs (NO, not a hood scoop
!), but the was patched with a 1/8" scrap of aluminum,
much larger than the hole, riveted underneath, and then
smoothed over on the top with *lots* of bondo. Interior
panels were held in with *nails* (yes, nails) in
places. One of the rear bumper brackets had been broken
off, & riveted back in place. There were *three*
different styles of wire wheels on it. And much, much
more, but I must get back to, ah, work now.
just full of automotive horror stories-
dstone
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