History Have you ever owned a car you just didn't like? our possibly it didn't like you!

Years back, there was a guy in Calif. had an appropriate name for his Jaguar/engine swap business, called it JTR (Jags that run).

 

70 maverick for sure.I got it for a winter beater had it for about a month and broke the shifter(3 on the tree), put in a hurst Indy shifter. No room in the tunnel so pointed the arms down and shifted it backwards. 2 weeks later broke the clutch fork. the rest of the winter drove it without a clutch, had to shut off at lights put it in gear And run the starter to get it moving. It was as gone as soon as I could get the “ good car” out

 

Not really hamb friendly but a 1968 VW. Auto stickshift. Hated that pos. Wife wanted it. It was so slow that you could NOT pull into traffic from a dead stop unless nothing was coming. You just bump the stick shift and it went into neutral while you were driving. Garbage car. I think we traded it for a hamburger or a hot dog or something....

 

Early Chevy Citation with 4 cylinder Iron Duke engine. Wouldn't accelerate and wouldn't stop quickly. Gas mileage be damned. I got rid of it as quickly as I could.

 

Your comments on the Jags put a big smile on my face, something never seen in those 6 months I had that XK-E.

 

To many to remember, mostly pos winter beaters that where held together with bubble gum, self taping screws and mechanics wire.

I went down the jaguar rabbit hole...... but I did get about 45 minutes each driving season of pure enjoyment when those V12’s would run right !!! The rest of the time they sputtered and farted and acted like cranky old men who need a spot of tea !

Did the low rider thing and bouncing around and hurting your back and kidneys gets old after a while.

I’ve loved all the old cars I’ve had, my 55 Buick not so much, not a bad car but not sad to see it go either . Just a meh kinda car.

 

He's still around, and has branched out into S10, Datsun Z cars, and Volvo swaps too. There's several other vendors that specialize in Jag V8 swaps, even for the newer ones...

 

I know a little about VW's and owned a 66 when you bought the '32 from me; I really like that little car but that's has nothing to do with the car you had.

The 68 VW was a nightmare of a car and the autostick was a POS, parts from earlier bugs didn't work on a '68 nor did the post '69 and latter. HRP

 

I bet you would have liked my Maverick, former unibody pro/stocker, SOHC power, converted to tube chassis and sbc/turbo 400.

 

I own one like that right now...I had a weak moment at a swap meet earlier this year and ended up dragging home a “restored” 63 Corvair convertible for my wife. I knew it needed a few things when I got it, but the further I dig in, the worse it is. I should have known why it (and most other Corvairs) aren’t worth anything.

I mean...anyone want a good deal on a really nice 63 Corvair convertible?

 

Funny you should ask. We got an off topic Chrysler I can’t stand. Wife’s car and she loves it. So it stays for now. Snowman

 

A man!!! Same as my old Pontiac Phoenix... Them cars were a pile of shit!...

 

I traded my '36 Chevrolet p/u for a '56 Bel-Aire 2 dr hardtop. Turquoise/ white,wide whites,diamond tufted velour interior( nice, but not my style) 265 auto,p/s, air. Prettiest car I ever owned, worst driving and handling car I ever owned. Was slower than my '51 Bel-Aire Hardtop with a 6/3 spd.
Love /hate relationship!

 

Thinking back a bit even the bad ones weren't bad but there were a couple that I should have had better sense than to buy. I bought a couple of cheap cars to use as drive to work cars that ended up costing more than if I had gone down to a dealer and bought a cheap new box with wheels for my wife to drive. Between gas and repairs on one of them I could easily have made payments and bought gas and had money left over but having two teenagers at home jacked the insurance rate to three times what the car payment was.

 

I had a car that hated me about as much as I hated it.

 

I had a 67 firebird convertible that had a 400 hood but actually had a 326 engine - that car sounded good and drove nice but had no power and drank gas like crazy. Previous owner installed a hard shifting shift kit in the transmission which I just found annoying. It was red exterior with white top and interior - I felt like Santa Claus driving it around. Christmas was over - got rid of it and never really missed it

 

I bet is was faster than my 200 inline 6 haha

 

Only had two that I think back on as hating. Both were Audi Quattros. I've been through about 300 cars since 1980 and very few were truly disappointing. Some failed to measure up to their reputation, others actually exceeded my expectations. But,only the Audis gave me so much grief that you literally couldn't give me another one.

 

Sure did....56 Olds 98 convertible = fail. Ok, I was only 16 but my dad said he'd co-sign a short loan. I narrowed it down to buying either my bosses' cherry pie 55 Pontiac safari for $350 or a 56 olds rag top off a used car lot for $250. I made the wrong choice. The olds looked nice with a new red and white paint job and a new red vinyl interior..ran great with dual glasspacs. This car weighed in at 5110 with my buddy sacked out in the back seat.
At 16 I drove like a crazy person and that heavy turd blew through brakes and tires! First thing it did was blow the high pressure P.S. hose. Then I found the top bubbled up in the wind so I dropped the top to find I didn't like the wind in my hair.
A wrist-size wiring harness caught on fire while I was in the house one day...burned my hand trying to yank the wiring loose and it took a week to repair all those burned wires...

I put 4 generators and 4 voltage regulators in it and then the motor mount broke at full throttle, putting the gear selector in reverse....BANG! Trans fluid all over the street. Towed it home and pulled the engine/trans to find a hot wire behind the engine to the fuse box, running through the firewall with no rubber grommet....rubbed on the sharp edge of the hole causing all the electrical problems.
Put the engine in a 50 ford 2 door and pushed the Olds carcass into the juniper trees.
When I came home from the Army, I drove out to see the old rag top and found it stripped and shot full of holes....I smiled a little smile of revenge. Fuck that car.

 

I found this 39 Plymouth business coupe I just had to have. I sold a 54 Dodge pickup so I could buy that Plymouth project. Everything I wanted to do on that car fought me. By the time I'd bought that car, I've done several disc brake conversions on these old Mopars with out any problems, but not this one! Nothing I did seemed to improve the poor braking the car possessed. Add the poor brakes on top of all the other challenges that car presented almost made me feel like a failure as a mechanic, and I'd been a professional mechanic for nearly 20 years at the time.
I parked it on my yard with a for sale in it and a guy stopped by the next day and offered me what I had in it, and it was gone! Last I saw the car it was painted and was really pretty, but it still has a brake problem, last I heard it is on the 3rd complete brake system since that guy has owned it! The brakes still suck!
I sure don't miss that car, but sometimes I do miss the 54 Dodge pickup I sold so I could buy it. That Dodge pickup is about the only old ride I ever sold I miss at all, maybe it was because I sold the truck so I could buy that troublesome 39...Gene

 

Back in 2010 I had an O/T 2009 Chevy 4x4 1500 that I bought new. Nothing fancy, just a Work Truck package, but it was built right with the heavy suspension, trailer package and 5.3 V8. Ran great, pulled my trailers great, gosh I loved that truck! Brought my son home from the hospital in it. Eight months later, father in law passes away and leaves his lifted Chevy 1500 to my wife. We have no use for it, and it needed work, she thinks, hey, let’s trade Dads truck and your truck and we can lower the payment. Fine, new son, could use a few extra bucks. Wound up with almost a carbon copy of my 2009 but without the trailer package, heavy suspension and a shitty 3.07 axle instead of my old 3.42. I hated that piece of shit. Drove it for a year and a half and took a bath when I traded it and bought a new Dodge 1500 with a Hemi. I’ve never been so happy to get rid of a truck so much in my life. The only thing better would have been to burn that fucker to the ground or push it into the Mississippi River. I’m still pissed about that deal.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

There probably is a lot of truth to that statement, I also owned a '39 Chevy tudor sedan,the body was perfect and it ran great, when it would run, the car had a wiring gremlin that left me sitting on the side of the road several times during the time I owned it.

A friend of a friend ask me why I quit driving the car and I told him the car hated me and he told me he liked Chevys and made me a generous offer and I let him have it and told him the car needed rewiring.

I talked to the guy several years ago and he said he still owns the car and he had never rewired the car, he also said the car had never let him down.

Yeah, the car disliked me. HRP

 

86 Vette. We bought it in Murfreesboro TN off Craigslist, drove it 200 miles home. Drove it all summer, no problems. Went to Panama City Fl to Emerald Coast show in the fall, ran great. Week after we got back from there, it dropped a valve less than a 1/4 mile from the house. Self aligning rockers were worn out, one jumped sideways, popping the keeper out. Pulled head, piston wasn’t hurt, so took both heads to shop to get built. Put in guide plates and roller rockers when it went back together, ran great for a little while....

Then it got where it wouldn’t start. Turn over but never hit. Replaced distributor, ignition switch, oil pressure senders, bought a module to bypass the anti theft key. Crank and run good one time, next time wouldn’t fire for anything. New injectors, new fuel pump. One time it wouldn’t get fuel, next time, no fire. Got scared to cut it off if I left home in it, it might crank back and it might not. Left it in the back yard 3 months, it cranked and ran fine, next day, wouldn’t hit a lick at a snake. Had it towed to two different shops, neither could duplicate the problem, it would crank and run fine for them.

Saw an ad on Craigslist for a 88 Firebird Formula 350, called the dealer guy to see if he wanted to trade, he said hell yeah, bring it! Done the deal, after we left he called me, said he couldn’t get it to crank! I told him, why do you think I got rid of it? Keep trying, it’ll eventually crank!
Haven’t heard from him since. Loved that car when it ran right, after it started screwing up, I hated it with a passion!

 

Bought a 64 Lincoln from a garage where it had been abandoned by the previous owner...
They were glad to be rid of it, they couldn't get anything to work properly. I noticed a lot of hissing coming from the dash while it was running (poorly at best) and the first thing I did when I got it home was uninstall the aftermarket stereo system, during which the installation process, almost all of the vacuum lines (and there are a BUNCH) under the dash had been disconnected. Thankfully Ford color codes the vacuum lines the same as they do wiring... a couple hours later and everything works again AND it runs like a sewing machine

 

I got a Jaguar XJ6 in exchange for painting the walls in a basement of a house that was going up for sale. Right front tire was flat, and the hood paint was bubbled from the electrical fire SUPPRISE! Lost a year old Snap On floor jack on the planned tire change. NOTE: Always be sure the back door on a 24 ft. Ryder rental truck is closed before loading a Snap On jack in it for the return to Ryder lot. Tried to sell the Jag as is but every Jag guy that came over just reached under it and pulled out a handful of floor pan or the remains of some boxed sheetmetal. I did sell the independent rear to a Street Rodder, but he had to take the rest of the lump attached to it. Still want the shell of an XK 120 Coupe. Bob

 

I think I know the car.... Was it featured in a magazine once many years ago????? The one I'm talking about was piloted by a blond chic and her dad did the wrenching......

 

Early Plymouth Duster. Can't remember the year or ever lifting the hood on that thing. Bought it from a co-worker after I totaled my '77 vette. Needed a daily driver and it got me back on the road for a few hundred dollars. It was near the end of it's run but you know how the slant sixes will go on forever. It had "video arcade" steering. The steering wheel had to be jiggled constantly to keep it going in a straight line. I got a DUI when I forgot that one night. Soon after that, my employer arranged a company car lease for me and the Duster was scrapped.

 

This. Spotted it in Baltimore, in a yard covered in leaves. Eventually saw a guy outside and stopped by. $500 and drove the smoking hulk home. Thought it would be a good first truck for my son who would soon be driving. Threw good money after bad at it. Never got the mouse piss smell out, son wanted a 4x4. He hated it bad enough that he listed it for sale. Broke even money wise, better than I thought he would and I don't miss it!

 

I was in the Army in Germany in 1972 and I went to the Dodge sales rep at the PX and ordered line by line what I thought was my dream ride at the time. A brand new 1973 black Charger RT 440 bucket seat 4 speed with the Magnum wheels and a 3.55 posi.
Paid cash for it and went back to the states on leave. I went to the dealer in Detroit that the car was delivered to and there it was a bench seat automatic on the column , dog dish hubcaps and black rims.
I called Dodge area rep and told him that was not my car. They talked me in to taking the car by giving me $ 800.00 refund o the price. 1st mistake.
It turned out to be a Monday car and every time I turned around it was back at a dealership for warranty work. Hated that car and traded it in with 4,000 miles on it. It had already had a window regulator, starter, fuel pump, both rear axle bearings.

 

Pick up a 1952 Chevy Panel truck with a 216. Excellent body, no rust, something that you don't see in NH very often. The motor had a crack block and was puking a milk shake color fluid out of the draft tube and oil fill tube. Pulled the motor and installed another 216, same issue. Pulled the motor and installed a 348 auto that I obtain from the local junk yard. The motor was very clean but just sitting on a pallet, the price was under 50 bucks (1970 dollars) and the guy said that is has been sitting in the garage for some time and he did not know if there was anything wrong with it. So the deal was, if there was anything wrong with the motor, I would get my 50 bucks back. Well got it in the truck fired it up and it ran like a clock, well a loud clock, shut it down, pulled the pan and then the motor, and then took the whole thing apart only to find that one the connecting rods journals on the crank was never drilled of a oil passage, no wonder the motor look brand new, it was. Once I got it up and running, it was just one thing after another, it spend more time sitting on the side of the road than in my driveway. Sold it and the new owner just drove the crap out of it without any issues. Go fish