Some people shouldn't work on cars--

My ex and I got a 74 El Camino for my kid a couple weeks ago--I'll tell you right up front--I wasn't for this thing. First off--guy was a car salesman--slime! But my kid thought it was his "hot rod". So we get it--deal is--ex buys it--I go thru it and make it safe--and teach the kid along the way.Long story short--this piece-of-shit guy fucked up EVERYTHING he touched. I found out who he bought it from and went thru the first guy's repair stuff--he did good work. But I really lost it when I went to put in some seatbelts--pulled back the carpet and couldn't decide to laugh or throw-up!Stacks of plywood as seat mounts! The wood was lag-bolted to hacked-up holes in the floor--THEN--this no-brain WOOD-SCREWS the seats to the plywood! As I'm pulling this mess out,my neighbor sees it and says" you puttin a deck in that thing?" Some pics of before--and after KiwiKev and I built new mounts--THANKS KEV!
Oh yea--sometime I'll tell you how this electrical genius crossed ALL the light wiring!

 

You could sue the guy for selling you an unsafe car I would think.

 

Go back over there and hang the bastard! I would! Some folks are just plain ignorant! I got a car through a trade and from the front bumper to the rear, it was boogered up with that kind of engineering! I feel your pain!

 

You didn't go look at it BEFORE your kid bought it?

 

I would at least bring the peace of shit back to the guy and ask for half the money back or a law suit or a compleat refund

 

GADS AND HELL, id do horrible things to that guy.

 

Oh I dunno, following the lead of famous makers like Bently, and Morgan, and a couple of other, we repaired a buddys VW bug broken floor pan with some well placed 4x4's some carriage bolts, body washers and undercoating. I think there may have been some cabes and turn buckles involved also. Worked fo two years till the engine puked.

I believe I would gather up the offending pieces and return them to the seller along with some stern language. Said wooden pieces could also be used a missles to illustrate and emphasis certain points of discussion.

 

its a pirate ship!! ha ha!

 

I like to play with cardboard boxes!

 

Well, at least your son will learn about doing things the right way and the wrong way...

 

Tie him to the rear of the car and drag him. Really. You need to confront this shithead at his job, at least to let him know what a fucking slime he is in public.

 

Don't return them to him .....

INSERT THEM!

 

Look at it as a chance to teach the kid now not to do crap. It may be a good learning experience for him. Teach him to look stuff over better before buying it.

 

I picked up a car for a friend that bought a 60 bel-air on here from a member, or he was. 3/4" plywood floorpans in the whole car. Sold it as rust free!!! I asked him about that, rather pissed after 4 hour drive to get it. His comment was " It is considering how bad it could be for its age." I was ready to put my foot in his ass.

 

That's nice Good thing somebody didn't buy that thing and just go for a drive, if they got into a car accident them and there seat probably would have gone flying out of the car.

 

the guy should be shot!

 

Well, it was rust free - they cut it all out and replaced it with wood.

Given the X-frame in those cars, I think I would have asked the seller what would happen if the car was hit in the side though.

A VW bug is different, a hard wreck in one of those you're probably not going to survive even if you have a brand new floorpan NOS out of some Mexican warehouse.


This should be a prime example though of why you thoroughly inspect a car before buying it. The seat mounts might not be a deal-breaker, they're just done half-assed to sell the car without any thought to someone driving it that way, but at least you know what you're in for if you see it ahead of time.

 

I bought this Model T and found the same problem.
The whole floor was made out of wood.
These people are ....
Wait, never mind
LOL

 

Check your hands for splinters!

 

I've come across some really scary "repairs" over the years including seats mounted to wood but at least that guy used bolts and thick body washers on each side of the wood..........

Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by Kurt
I picked up a car for a friend that bought a 60 bel-air on here from a member, or he was. 3/4" plywood floorpans in the whole car.



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I've owned ten X frames over the years not counting parts cars, learned to drive in a '60 Impala 4 Dr. with a 348. Growing up on a busy US Highway in the late b50's through early 70's with one wrecker service next door and another a block down the street I have seen many that were T-boned. The floor pans folded up like tin foil and the cars bent in a "U". Between the X frame and the steering box mounted ahead of the K member right behind the bumper I can't think of too many full size cars I'd rather not get hit in and I HAVE been hit in one, fortunately it was the passenger front corner. I was in a rust free '64 Impala I had bought just 3 days earlier. A rusted out '73 Chevy pickup turned in front of me and I T-boned him at about 40 MPH. The frame horn buckled and it shoved the front fender back over the passenger door. I hit the steering wheel and bent it but fortunately all I got was a scrape on my nose. They totalled my '64 but fixed the POS truck! As much as I like the styling of them I will never own another one.

 

BUYER BEWARE!
gotta look stuff over first!
how hard can it be to replace the floor with a couple 'stop' signs they are 'free' if you have a 7/16.

it sounds like it will be ok give it a good hard saturday get the kid on the road.

 

Who the hell steals a stop sign? That's probably more stupid than bolting your car seats to wood.

 

I DO!!!!!!!!!! got about 20 of em from the scrap yard for $4.00 thats like stealing!
it meant get some "cheap" steel & patch the floor! think about it man!

 

I bought a 59 olds that had plywood for the front floors and probably the rear too,I got it for the motor and trans and junked the rest but it was good for a laugh about hillbilly floor repair.

 

It's called "Caveat emptor"...and that translates to "let the buyer beware"...there will be no lawsuit on it...it'll get thrown out.

R-

 

Been there with that kind of crap myself as well and sure most of us on this site have too. Doesn't sound too bad actually and could be a lot worse. Could have just found completely rusted out pans or no bolts/screws at all. But, honestly, since this is a teaching/learning project for your son, this is actually a very good first lesson - probably one of the most important. Know what you are buying and don't worry about some stuff as you can just fix it. Most old cars need fixing obviously and a lot have stuff like this and just part of the deal of getting and fixing up old cars. If it had been fixed right, etc. probably would have been a different price I would guess. I am not defending the person who does that kind of crap work, but craps happens for whatever reason and now you can fix it the proper way and have a fun project with your son. Hope it works out and have a great time with your son.

 

man, i think you and i bought cars from the same guy! heres a link to some terrible airbag mounts i had on my buick before i replaced everything!

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230930

use it as a learning experience, we've all been there, just glad you found it before it became a major issue.

 

I was just sitting here thinking that the plywood floors on the 62 chevy were probably stronger then what was there originally.

As for the plywood seat mounts, was there still a steel floor under the wood? Around here a 74 Elcamino would not have any steel floors left. Next question was how did a 74 anything get sold without seat belts in the first place? Was this car sold through a dealership, or just by a guy that happened to be a dealer?

I've had a guy come in my shop that had the seat belt mount pulled off the floor, actually still had a chunk of the floor attached to the belt. All the structure under the rotted out floorpan was also rotted out. The guy wanted me to screw a piece of sheetmetal over the hole and screw the belt back onto it because he was going to sell the truck anyway and felt bad about trying to sell it with the seat belt detached from the floor. It never occured to him the screws would not work as a seat belt anchor in an accident! He really had no idea until I explained it to him. Some people just don't know. I'll bet there are some new guys on here that still don't understand why the plywood seat brackets would not be safe. The biggest issue here is how the seats were attacjed to the floor, screws will pull through real easy. Had the seats been bolted through the plywood and through a solid steel floor, they could be acceptable, but steel spacers/brackets would be better. Gene

 

Which lesson is better?:

Inspect what you buy BEFORE you buy it and be a man about your mistakes, boy.

Or,

Oh my poor angel, you are a victim, when you fail to act responsibly it's always someone else's fault and the way to learn a lesson is to find someone to sue.

 

well sort some people think they can fix everything. I sent my sons 58 truck out to get a new altranator because the truck wasnt running right well my freind pills the carb apart because he thinks its the proble. Well it wasnt and now the carb is leaking.