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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. lumpy 63
    Joined: Aug 2, 2010
    Posts: 2,603

    lumpy 63
    Member

    I am versed in Corvairs , swapped a bunch of em into bugs and buggys in the day. I also spent time on falcon 144s and 170s on one brothers falcon. My oldest brothers first car was a Dart with a 225 slant six which I installed a new engine in at 15 yrs old. Moral of the story? I would rather work on any one of the above than open the hood of a late model POS!
     
  2. Penetrator
    Joined: Aug 25, 2011
    Posts: 514

    Penetrator
    Member
    from SK CAN

    GM's single largest mistake, was sticking with wood frame construction several years too long. That is a crime against hotrodding and all of humanity, because God knows we have thousands more than the prescribed number of early Fords.
    .
     
    6-bangertim, j-jock, indyjps and 8 others like this.
  3. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 18,828

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    my 61 Dodge and I resemble that remark.
     
    alanp561, safetythird, j-jock and 7 others like this.
  4. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,752

    Deuces

    You left out the Ford LTD..... ;)
     
    OLSKOOL57 likes this.
  5. slim38
    Joined: Dec 27, 2015
    Posts: 619

    slim38
    Member
    from Sudan TX
    1. H.A.M.B. Chapel

    Fords is keeping 32 body style for 1 year only.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2020
  6. For GM

    Dex-Cool and cheap steel brake lines... Mainly in ‘90s to 2000’s trucks...

    the damn brake lines rust out.
     
  7. ...........See post #9.
     
    OLSKOOL57, swervyjoe and chevy57dude like this.
  8. Boom! Excellent answer.

    Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     
    jimmy six and Shutter Speed like this.
  9. GM goofed by getting out of factory supported racing in 1957. Race parts were ''sent out the back door'' until 1962. But during that time, Pontiac's Bunky Knudsen created the Super Duty Group. Chevy and the rest had to play catch up after that.
    Interesting reading - The AMA Racing ban.
     
  10. I imagine that in the fifties the design meeting started with an artist saying "this may sound crazy..."
     
  11. I always thought about the Pinto gas tank fiasco, back in the day when I built the hot rod.
    They must have borrowed the idea from Edsel when he designed the '32.

    I did the best I could to counter that situation.

    IMG_2684.JPG
     
  12. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,752

    Deuces

    Same thing happened to my '96 F-150..... :mad: including the trans cooler lines...:mad::(:rolleyes:
     
    OLSKOOL57 likes this.
  13. rbohm
    Joined: Dec 16, 2006
    Posts: 36

    rbohm
    Member
    from tucson,az

    the corvair was actually a pretty good car, the only real issue with them was the first couple of years they had a poor front suspension design, and swing axles in the rear if i recall correctly. the last corvairs were really good cars as GM had fixed those issues.

    actually parts interchangeability is pretty good with ford. for instance let take the bell housing patterns shall we? from mid model year 65 until the end of production, the 289/302/5.0/351w and 351c ALL used the SAME bell housing bolt pattern, and often times the same bell housing. the small six 250, and the big sixes the 240 and 300 also used the same six bolt bell housing. the 351m/400/429/460 all used the same bell housing bolt pattern, though different than the small block pattern. the FE engines used their own bell housing pattern. so six different engine families, three different bolt patterns. of course the rest of the small six line up used three different bell housing bolt pattern, one was a squished version of the small block bell housing pattern. but even then there is some interchangebility in there with a little work or the right block selection. for instance, my 170 in my 64 falcon can be made to use the larger 67 bell housing pattern by drilling and tapping two new holes. the latest "squished" bell housing pattern can be made to take the small block bell housing by drilling two holes in the bell housing flange.

    and by the way, the distributors from the 351w, the 335 and the 385 engine family all interchange, and if you swap oil pumps in the 289/302/5.0, you can use the 351w distributor without issue. in fact you get a large oil pump drive shaft if you do that.

    these are but two examples of interchangeability between ford engines.

    you want a poor ford design? try the EEClll system. the cars that had those systems were considered "runaway" cars. every time one would go into the shop, the mechanic would runaway to lunch, or home, or where ever else to avoid working on those cars.

    for GM, the original vega engine design was crap. open deck aluminum block, and cast iron head and poor head gaskets were a recipe for disaster. the iron duke engine was a huge improvement.
     
    R A Wrench likes this.
  14. Elcohaulic
    Joined: Dec 27, 2017
    Posts: 2,212

    Elcohaulic

    After driving a Yenko Stinger, I can say they are badass little cars!!! Don Yenko liked them better then the 427 Nova. He was afraid too many young people were going to get killed in the 427 Nova and wanted to pull the plug on that one...
     
  15. Elcohaulic
    Joined: Dec 27, 2017
    Posts: 2,212

    Elcohaulic

    How about the Pinto gas tank!!
     
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  16. mgtstumpy
    Joined: Jul 20, 2006
    Posts: 9,214

    mgtstumpy
    Member

    As above, way TOO much wood in early Chevy bodies, until 1937 when things changed:D
     
    sidevalve8ba likes this.
  17. ...I've always loved 37 Chevies, but they produced it with the hood side louvers upside down.//the design was the last item to be ok'd and the big wheel signed it upside down..true story...bottom pic is how they should've been produced.
    37 cpe gas tank 010.jpg 37 correct louvers.jpg
     
  18. blowby
    Joined: Dec 27, 2012
    Posts: 8,661

    blowby
    Member
    from Nicasio Ca

    Word. Keep up the Pinto, Vega, computer stuff will get this thread locked.
     
  19. blowby
    Joined: Dec 27, 2012
    Posts: 8,661

    blowby
    Member
    from Nicasio Ca

    Been pondering a better way. Having the manifolds atop the engine ala Cadillac of course, but probably resulted in a lot of burnt hands and arms. Were there other flathead Vs that did it other ways?
     
  20. partsdawg
    Joined: Feb 12, 2006
    Posts: 3,503

    partsdawg
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Minnesota

    Keeping within H.A.M.B. parameters,my list is as follows.
    1961-63 Buick/Olds 215 aluminum engine. Too many issues.Rover got it right after numerous design changes.
    1961-63 Pontiac Tempest. The rear transaxle with rope driveshaft experiment. Oooops.
    Fords Teletouch shifter.
    Ford Retractable roof electrical system.Lets take 9 miles of wiring and add in 100 switches.
    Any 1962 Dodge/Plymouth one year only styling.
     
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  21. sunbeam
    Joined: Oct 22, 2010
    Posts: 6,213

    sunbeam
    Member

    Not in the HAMB era but in the mid to late 70s when gas milage was a big deal was the make car smaller. The first thing they did was to make their full size car a mid size they allready had a mid size. In the late 60s I work as a front end mechanic I hated the coil over upper control arm set up. Ford did it alot Chevy only on the chevy II
     
  22. sunbeam
    Joined: Oct 22, 2010
    Posts: 6,213

    sunbeam
    Member

    And the 60 Corvair and 61 Tempest were Motor Trends car of the year.
     
  23. Ford selling the Lincoln Futura to Barris. It should be in the Henry Ford museum. 2129.jpg 2128.jpg
     
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  24. Arkus-Duntov has a better idea for the flathead... ;)
    https://www.torqtalk.com/tech/whats-an-ardun
     
  25. 73RR
    Joined: Jan 29, 2007
    Posts: 7,174

    73RR
    Member

    ...but then it would have been sold at one of the auctions anyway...

    Certainly, none of the manufacturers have a clean record. This is a fun read and a reminder of my youthful confusion back in the 60's...no, not the drug scene, although I wonder if the designers were doing some.:confused:
     
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  26. Rusty O'Toole
    Joined: Sep 17, 2006
    Posts: 9,657

    Rusty O'Toole
    Member

    Lee Iacocca long time Ford executive, didn't like Ford's patchy quality control record. He said the 1957s were particularly bad and so were the 1960s. He said a lot of loyal Ford owners bought 57s that turned out be dogs, then traded them in on 1960 models only to be stuck again which made them so mad they swore off buying Fords forever.
    I question this, I know people who bought Fords and got stuck with a lemon then went right back and traded them in on another Ford. Same thing with GM, quality at GM has been a joke since 1968 but some people keep buying them. On the other hand I know people who had 5 or 6 Chrysler products in a row that gave excellent service and were impossible to kill then they got one bad one and never bought another.
     
  27. Corn Fed
    Joined: May 16, 2002
    Posts: 3,278

    Corn Fed
    Member

    GM:
    50’s Olds Pont LH threaded wheel lugs on one side.
    Ford:
    Banjo rear drum/hub is one unit that requires special puller to remove from tapered axle.
     
  28. abc123
    Joined: Oct 6, 2005
    Posts: 451

    abc123
    Member

    One more against the Edsel: the goofy styling details were the "gift" that kept on giving when grilles, taillights and so on festooned some not-so-attractive custom cars of the late '50s and into the '60s.
     
  29. jimmy six
    Joined: Mar 21, 2006
    Posts: 14,795

    jimmy six
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Didn’t even make a year.... about 8-9 months..
     
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  30. jimmy six
    Joined: Mar 21, 2006
    Posts: 14,795

    jimmy six
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Lincoln Continental’s failure to continue a few years with the Mark II... one of the finest designs ever.
     
    R A Wrench, LAROKE and blowby like this.

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