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Technical List your favorite goofup by ford and GM. This may cause a war!!!

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by birdman1, Aug 13, 2020.

  1. A Corvair over a 60 Falcon???

    Corvair challenge: Post a cool Corvair.
     
    Nicholas Coe and chryslerfan55 like this.
  2. Speed Gems
    Joined: Jul 17, 2012
    Posts: 6,433

    Speed Gems
    Member

    Chevy. the 307 need i say more? Ford. the Edsel.
     
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  3. Rusty O'Toole
    Joined: Sep 17, 2006
    Posts: 9,657

    Rusty O'Toole
    Member

    Surprised no one mentioned the Edsel. A major goof up, but they had their reasons for thinking such a car was what the public wanted. It turned out the economy went into a recession about the time they introduced it, which they could not have seen coming, and all of a sudden everyone wanted economy cars.
     
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  4. Studebaker merging with Packard. Like two drunks trying to hold each other up...
     
  5. Ford: turning their sports cars into fleet cars - Thunderbird, Comet, tried it with the Mustang but failed.

    GM: ending the Fisher Body Craftsman's guild that guaranteed them millions of life-long customers. Not releasing 50 year anniversary tribute cars for '55 thru '63 Chevys.
     
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  6. Rusty O'Toole
    Joined: Sep 17, 2006
    Posts: 9,657

    Rusty O'Toole
    Member

    GM couldn't seem to get the hang of making decent automatic transmissions. The original Hydramatic was a good durable transmission but overly complicated, needed regular adjustments and prone to jerky shifts. Their various 2 speed glue pots like Powerglide and Dynaflow were at best adequate if inefficient. Then they made some real stinkers like the Turboglide, Slim Jim and Jetaway. They didn't have a decent automatic until they came out with the TurboHydramatic in 1964, and that was a copy of the 1957 Chrysler Torqueflite.
     
  7. I'm a Chevy guy, but I'll never understand why they have a 2-piece rear main seal and an oil pan gasket that leaks like a son-of-a-gun. :confused:

    I do like the distributor in the back of the motor, because I don't like ign. wires running all over the top of the motor. I also like all the interchangeable parts... :)
     
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  8. [​IMG]
     
  9. They went from teetotalers in the early fifties to drunkards, the hangover was the early '60s.... LOL
     
  10. blowby
    Joined: Dec 27, 2012
    Posts: 8,661

    blowby
    Member
    from Nicasio Ca

  11. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,752

    Deuces

    Yet Ford sold millions of those didn't they????...... :rolleyes:
     
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  12. GM liked to experiment on their customers; Vega (hell, most of their early aluminum motors), PDLR shift patterns, vent windows with winders.

    Ford kept reinventing things.

    Mopars inability after '56 to build a car that didn't rot away before it was even close to being worn out.
     
  13. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,752

    Deuces

    Only thing good about the 307 was the crank.... 3.25" stroke like the 327....
     
  14. Ned Ludd
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 5,025

    Ned Ludd
    Member

    And then axeing the '55-'56 Packards instead of developing the concept properly. Apparently an improved prototype '57 was ready, and Bill Allison went on to further elaborations of the Torsion-Level system in 1958.

    If you're on Facebook, check out this page on interconnected suspension: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2570892646574310/
     
  15. MO54Frank
    Joined: Apr 1, 2019
    Posts: 440

    MO54Frank
    Member

    Many reasons the Edsel failed. One was that Robert McNamara did all he could to kill it.

    One over arching mistake GM made was too many models. At one time Chevy had Caprice, Impala, Belair, Biscayne, Corvair, Chevy II/ Nova, Chevelle, Camaro and Corvette.
    Also Too much duplication of same/similar cars across the divisions. It was 2008 before they realized they had too many Marques.
     
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  16. Dennis D
    Joined: May 2, 2009
    Posts: 851

    Dennis D
    Member

    If it wasn't the most ugly car in the world, it was damn sure in the top three!
     
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  17. I knew someone would post an unstreetable drag car. They couldn't get that ass end down?
     
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  18. Last edited: Aug 13, 2020
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  19. Mr48chev
    Joined: Dec 28, 2007
    Posts: 33,861

    Mr48chev
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    I'd say it all depends on if you are looking at them or have to work on them.
    From the late 50's on Ford's penchant of "we made it all different because" with no continuity on simple things was and is a pain in the butt. I don't know how many sets of brake shoes I had to return for the correct ones on 60's Fords because this engine had these brakes and that engine had those brakes and if it was ____ it had those other brakes. I never got into engine swaps with Fords but have had buddies who did and as mentioned before the lack of continuity on simple things always seemed to foul things up.
     
  20. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,752

    Deuces

    You forgot about the Chevy pickups.....
     
  21. Valium:
    1960 Valium.jpg
     
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  22. jimmy six
    Joined: Mar 21, 2006
    Posts: 14,795

    jimmy six
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Just a 283 “stroker” what could be wrong with that! Bore it to 4” and you have a 327. 307 is a great engine to build...
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2020
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  23. alchemy
    Joined: Sep 27, 2002
    Posts: 20,405

    alchemy
    Member

    You're supposed to list goof ups, not good things. Unless you mean they quit building these things too soon.
     
  24. Ford: Three different 351 engines. GM: different bell housing patterns between the makes. Shoot, Ford did the same thing between families. I guess Chrysler did that too.


    Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     
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  25. Every damned small block Ford I've ever owned has had that stupid little puddle of oil that collects on top of the timing cover right there behind the water pump.
     
  26. BamaMav
    Joined: Jun 19, 2011
    Posts: 6,709

    BamaMav
    Member
    from Berry, AL

    A lot of Ford’s problem goes back to old Henry himself. Henry pretty much hated change, if something worked, why change it? That’s why he stuck with the Model T so long and resisted changing to a more modern engine and transmission. Same thing with the flathead V8, it worked well enough, so other than a few improvements over the years, why change? His stubbornness carried on long in the company after he was gone. It probably also explains why each engine family is pretty much unique, the engineers probably worked on one engine family and never shared notes. From what I’ve read, Henry was a hard man to work for, and that carried on as time went by. The folks designing things did as they were told. I remember reading about a new head coming in sometime in the 80’s or 90’s, first thing he did was save Ford a couple of million dollars by making them change to a common hood prop rod.....ever model had it’s own unique prop rod! Nobody in management had ever noticed that!

    As to GM, I agree, they had too many duplicate models in too many brands. Chevy, Buick, Pontiac and Olds all had a version of the Nova at one time or another. They tried to market each brand to a income level, from Chevy at the bottom to Caddy at the top. There were so much overlap though, a top dollar Chevy cost as much as a cheap Pontiac. The rising price ladder probably worked fine for several years, but I think they outgrew it.
     
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  27. I love the Ford FE engine series. I have had everything from a 332 up to and including a 427 Tunnel port. But.......that dang intake manifold where you have to remove everything to swap it out was a pinta.
     
  28. junkman8888
    Joined: Jan 28, 2009
    Posts: 1,035

    junkman8888
    Member

    Ford Duraspark. Years ago I stopped to help an old couple stranded on the side of the road, my wild guess for no spark at the plugs being a defective spark box. When we got to the parts store the guy at the counter asked what was the color of the grommet on the wires coming out of the spark box as there were six different spark boxes used in that model car that year. That's right, six different spark boxes even though there were only three different engines used in that model car.
     
  29. Ericnova72
    Joined: May 1, 2007
    Posts: 595

    Ericnova72
    Member
    from Michigan

    Caprice, Impala, Bel Air, Biscayne were just trim levels of the same model, not seperate styling cars.

    Ford did the same thing...Galaxie, Galaxie 500, Galaxie XL....Fairlane, Fairlane 500, Fairlane XL.

    Take trim levels out of the picture and just use size comparisons as sold head-to-head in the marketplace.....
    Impala, Chevelle, Nova, Camaro, Corvette, Vega
    Galaxie, Fairlane, Falcon, Mustang, T-Bird(but of course, ford screwed that up after 3 years), Pinto

    That makes Corvair the only real "extra" model Chevrolet had that Ford/Chrysler/AMC didn't match
     
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  30. blowby
    Joined: Dec 27, 2012
    Posts: 8,661

    blowby
    Member
    from Nicasio Ca

    Not sure the Chevy X frame (58-64) was a good idea
     

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