Hot Rods Boy! I never seen that before!

I was thinking of some of the crazy stuff I saw growing up with my fellow hotrodders, thought I’d mention a couple and maybe see if some of you have a few. My friend Jim had a wire connected to the rear vacuum controlled throttle shaft on the carburetor and ran it through the fire wall with a loop in the end that he would pull on to make sure they opened. Had another friend that put a 409 in a 30 model Ford P.U. and used wooden 2x4s as engine mounts , then he shorten the drive shaft with a torch and welder in his shop. They also welded two spindles together on a 57 Chevy to raise the front end sky high. Saw another friend tighten his rod bolts on his 301 Chevy with a pair of vise grips. This stuff was fifty years ago, when we were kids, learning. What have you all seen? Bones

 

WTF!!!

 

How about jacking up the rear of the car by the body so that the shocks stretch out. Then place muffler clamps on the shocks so that they won't compress. Cheaper than air shocks!

 

I welded up driveshafts with an old Miller when I was maybe 21, 22? One truck I threw together, put 3/4 ton chevy hubs with the discs on the front of an older drum brake 1/2 ton. Small diameter balljoints, larger diameter taper in the spindle.... same Miller laid some fat ugly beads right on the taper, BFH beat it all together. Hauled a lot of wood down out of the mountains with that truck!

 

Had a kid at my high school that jacked up the car (huge 2 door Pontiac) by the body and jammed 2x4 and 4x4 between the axle and frame rail to jack up his car. Car didn't even have fat tires that needed it!Occasionally you would see him driving down the street, hit a bump and a shower of splinters would come shooting out from under the massive Pontiac and it would take a mean lean to one side. You would find him sitting along the street once and a while with the car jacked up and a wheel off while he jammed more lumber out of his trunk between the axle and frame.

 

Back many, many years ago, I have brazed up some holes in gas tanks and even soldered some holes in brake lines, but now I am an enganeer, nope . . . engeneer, nope . . . enginear, nope . . . . I'm good in math!! And I have that T-shirt!

 

The use of hose clamps as motor mounts. Worked well on drag cars. Made pulling the motor easier.

 

That reminded me of a kid, I knew, that used garden hose for heater hose. Bones

 

I cut more then one drive shaft and gas welded it back together in the driveway. We used to cut it at the yoke and then shorten it and plug the yoke back in. Never had one fail.

I had a friend show up at my place when I was in high school with a bucket T, unboxed original frame, with a 440 setting on 4x4s and chained down. Open manifolds only brakes were the rear emergency brake.

in the '70s I had a friend in SE Kansas that had a '66 Cadillac that the cruise control quit working, he hooked a choke cable up to the carb linkage and used it for a cruise control. Said he didn't shift gears so that was all he really needed.

a guy I worked with in the 90s was building a short track car, and needed to cut the drive shaft. Instead of bringing it to us ( we could have done it right) he borrowed a tubing cutter from work, cut it in the middle and brass welded it back together with a torch. I made it from the trailer to the pits and almost one hot lap. Not hurt thank gawd, we built him a drive shaft from a old chaft that I had.

Most recently (as in this century) I have seen boat tanks tossed in the passenger floor board, also batteries sometimes in the same car. LOL

 

All temporary/ emergency stuff except the drive shaft.
I've shortened driveshafts,
Used garden hose as heater hose to get home.
Put fuel in the windshield reservoir and hooked the line to the carb and pushed the washer button to drive a junker home.
Made an exhaust manifold for a nailhead from black pipe so I could keep driving it while I properly fixed the other.
Welded stripped spindle nuts on,
Hot wired starters in cars with bad ignition switch.
Parked with brick and rope tied to it.
Hose clamped a broken motor mount used 3 though.
Ran vegetable oil in POwer steering with a leak.
Pinched off 3 corners of the brakes and limped home on one wheel brakes.
Drove 2 cars about 3 miles. Drive one 100 yards past the other and walk back to do it again.

Again, just temp stuff to get home.

 

LOL vege oil reminded me.
Put cheap scotch in the master on an old chevy. The kid was going to put branch water in his master, I didn't have any brake fluid (rare occasion) and the scotch smelled (and tasted) about like brake fluid.

Loaned my jumper cables to a guy in Mexico because his batter cable pulled in two out in the jungle. (caused by a broken motor mount). He used the cables for a month.

 

I remember driving over tires to break the beads and using screwdrivers to change tires.

 

A friend of mine made rear radius rods out of black pipe. Worked fine until he tried a burn out and wrapped them up.

 

^^^^^^^ Best use for scotch I've heard of yet.

 

Thank God for my declining memory, I can't seem to remember doing any crazy stupid shit when I was young!

 

That water in the master cylinder reminded me of a Summer in the sixties. My friend Dennis did that, one day he was driving his 54 Ford to school and lost the left front wheel( had nothing to do with the water) and bent up his fender and drivers door. During shop class we decided to fix this problem with the open ended flame wrench. Well... before we were done all that was left of that Ford was the front seat, windshield, frame engine and radiator. We had invented a toy. Frist thing we noticed was a lack of traction, next day the car was sporting duals via long bolts and drilled holes. Our next problem was only three people could have fun. The back seat is installed the next day. Now we could maim six kids instead of just three. Next came a set of y block headers put on upside down and cut off, instant zoomies! Well we were having so much fun another similar car appeared from older class mates. Well you can guess, yep it began. There was beer, racing, guns, night hunting, wrecks. Luckily we all survived, but the fathers of our community got together and our cars got cut up into scrap. Problaly a good thing. Mind you this was done in our school shop class, was a different time. Bones

 

We did several sand buggies out of undesirable cars in Ag shop class in high school. Had an adventure or two some consisted in racing around the 1/4 mile cinder track (which we had to repair before the next track meet). Most ended up so short that the drive shaft was the yokes held together by the U joint.

Note to self be careful when removing the shock absorbers with the hot wrench. LOL

 

1967 GTO with a model T coil hooked up to the twelve volt battery of the car with a switch on it and a ground chain from the rocker to ground. Park in the usual hangout and open the door , reach under the rocker and unhook the chain. Wait for unsuspecting people preferably with shorts on to lean on the fender and tickle them with the switch. Those chrome headlight bezels were perfect for zapping people. At night you could see blue fire dancing from that chain. They would jump off the car and look at it and me. I would ignore them and they would lean back on the car.........Bam, Loads of fun! It wouldn't bother us in the car we weren't grounded! Lippy

 

Broken fan belt? Took a boot lace off a jungle boot once and wrapped it around the crank pulley the water pump pulley and the generator pulley, cinched it down tighter than a bull's ass at fly time, laid on a square knot, trimmed off the ends and drove it 15 miles to a parts store.

 

I had a great story and then forgot what it was.

Ain't getting old fun?

 

yes,I did that.

 

I hope all the Aussies and Kiwis take note.

We all complain about our inspections and modification laws. [which don't restrict our freedoms, but actual respect the freedom of others]
Years ago I've seen many hack-job repairs and mods, but they have now gone the way of the Dodo bird since legislation changed that.
In NZ the number of Hotrods and Modified cars is at an all time high.

Keep the tales coming, it is a "learning curve"

 

Since you have NOT included any such travesties committed by YOU, I guess we can safely assume that you were the brains in your group of friends?

That's our story and we're sticking to it!

 

Now that's not something I'd admit to!

On the other hand, that's brilliant.

Read once about some guys flying small plane and lost critical hydraulics/fluid, pooled their piss and got it landed.

 

Wow,MM2, I have never ever been accused of that until now! (Having brains) lol Naw I was right in with our hot rod, almost got killed.

MM2 Well that’s the frist time I’ve been accused being the brains of the group! Naw I was in the mix of things, while not doing all of the dumber stuff, just some of it. Lol Bones

 

A guy in high school swapped two spark plug wires on his SBC so at idle, it kinda sounded like he had a cam in it. It didn’t improve performance.

 

Several years ago my son and I went to the Englishtown swap meet in New Jersey, driving my Toyota Hi-Lux pickup, towing a trailer with an early funny car rolling chassis on the trailer. It was the early Kosty Ivanoff chassis. On the way home, we stopped for gas. as my son stepped on the trailer tongue to get back to the passenger side, I saw the pickup box tilt to the rear. Yes, the Toyota frame had rotted through the top and 2 sides, but the bottom was still attached.. As we were 3 hours from home, in Connecticut. I just got out my come-a-long, pulled the front and rear as tight as I could get it, and drove home at 40-45 mile per hour. when we got home, I parked the pickup, and later traded it for a Sears 12 horsepower lawn tractor.

 

As I read the tales above, I couldn’t help thinking that this is why we have the rules and regulations here in NZ, it only takes a minority in any hobby/industry to require regulation for those of us with common sense.....

 

That confirms it

 

Years ago I was towing a 1940 Ford 1 1/2 ton flatbed dump home on a rented trailer. The truck barely fit on the trailer but tongue weight, who needs tongue weight?. As soon as I got on the 10 freeway just east of Los Angeles the trailer began to fishtail to beat hell and next thing I knew I was doing a 180 on the freeway. I don't know how all the traffic behind me missed me but I ended up driving off the freeway the wrong way. I cleaned out my shorts and limped home on surface streets which in SoCal is a long long trip.