Technical Car guy? Could you do this crap and sleep at night?

That bolt is a nice touch!

 

The amount of idiocracy saddens me. Thankfully there's alcohol.

 

Went to look at an old Pontiac sedan and was excited to do so as it had a GTO engine. Closer look found the steering had socket set universal joints welded to reinforcing rod with weld that looked like bubblegum. Every weld you see had little or no penetration. Guy told me when I called it was a running car but there was no oil pan and it was sitting outside in a mud hole. However the guy kept telling me how great the car was and bragging he done every bit of the work himself. I decided it what I couldn’t see that scared me the most and simply told the guy it wasn’t what I was looking for. The guy told me he couldn’t believe I was walking away from such a deal.

 

All of a sudden my car doesn't look so bad anymore.

So that car tipped the scales at what, 5,000 - 6,000lbs?

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What was under all that bog- A Nash Metropolitan?

 

It had been sitting in a garage in Indiana. I doubt that the old guy i got the car from did this. He was older and i think he just wanted out of it. He told me that the steering was completed. But who knows. And no this isn't a show car. Never will be. I'm not the kind of guy that competes for trophies and worries if others approve of what i have. I do this for me and not for anyone else. But rest assured that when it hits the road this spring it will be right. As far as seeing the car, there's a build thread on it currently. Now I've gotta go to the hardware store and get more nails to switch out the rest of the fasteners on the suspension. I'm a fucking bodyman, but even i own a assortment of cotter pins

 

After I purchased the Studebaker in the avatar I started disassembly, I knew I'd have some "issues" with rust but.....Lots of plastic over tack welded "repairs" They had tacked sheet metal over the front fender vents or just tacked the fender vent and bondo'd over it. When I took the rear passenger quarter off I couldn't get it loose, I knew I had all of the fasteners out but something was holding it. I gave it a big jerk and it pulled free. There was a hole in the quarter bigger than your fist that they had jammed full of news paper and bondo'd it over. Good quarters came with the car so that wasn't an issue. The red primer was covering surface rust and I found little original paint other than in the door jams and under the windshield rubber. I wanted a project but I got more than I bargained for.

 

Yes, they are,indeed, Cotter, not carter pins. They were even a patented invention-in 1938:
US2162811A

 

Exactly. Nail V Cotter key (split key?) is really not an issue. No it is not correct but in the whole scheme of things all it really does is keep a nut from backing off and is probably more than strong enough to do that.

Now the lug nut spacer is another issue all together. Yes it will probably get ya home but it is not going to be a viable solution for a part that does not fit properly. The correct piece is going to be the only real solution for that problem. I don't doubt that if it was a properly machined spacer no one would even give it second glance. It still would have been wrong but no one would have noticed.

 

"Coming in on a wing and a prayer" is only for war planes.

I remember Ryan found no castle nut or cotter pin or even nails or lug nuts on one of his Riviera tie rod ends after driving it home. He tapped it with a hammer and it fell out.

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I once seen an idiot make a transmission crossmember out of wraps of bailing wire. Unf&^%$#@ believable. That's why we go over everything with a fine tooth comb. I just took apart clutch linkage that had the return springs, hooked into where cotter pins should be. Makes me lose my mind.

 

Sorry but it's the bushing kit, like stock. Also I tossed in some important safety parts for your death trap!

 

In my best Crocodile Dundee voice.......
Now that's a cotter pin!

 

Speechless. It took my brain a few seconds to comprehend what was actually going on. That car must have weighed an extra 200 lbs.

 

I swear if you put nails in that box I'm gonna kick you in the nuts! i took it all apart today. Cleaned and inspected. Chased threads, bought castle nuts, got all new wheel cylinders and shoes on the way, picked up the front brake hoses and the rear brake hose. Got the trans dipstick in and now I'm gonna go take a much needed shower and join the new year's eve festivities!!! Hell yeah happy new year friends

 

I’ll be wearing my cup!

 

If you're Australian, you would say that's a SPLIT pin. A cotter pin here is the tapered round type with a thread on the end- like what held your bicycle pedals on.

 

Lmao! You ain't right brother getting very excited about June!

 

I apologize Loyd for my comment previously where I stated “ be careful some cars aren’t worth working on”. I wrongly thought it was a customer of yours car that you might be getting stuck between a rock and a hard place with a long list of expensive repairs.

But now I see it’s a car you bought to bring back to a safe and reliable car. It is definitely a car worth working on and again I apologize for my comment.

 

^^^death trap^^^

 

Your on your own scotty t !

 

Saw a street rod that had a Pinto flexible wire joint which is a 5/8 inch joint made with wires wrapped together . The 6 inch long wire joint was welded at both ends to solid metal steering shafts .

 

For years most people just thought those old sedan deliveries were just clapped out old work trucks but the rest of us knew better, many ended up doing duty on the drag strip.

 

I saw a car with the wire rope steering shaft that had been shortened. It was just stuck in a sleeve and a hole was drilled thru and then bolted.

 

That's the Southern pronunciation!

 

You ain't gotta convince me! I'm already a fan it's ok, I'll let you drive it

 

Just to let ya know, I did take it off and put it back on in the correct orientation, at least until the bushings get here so i can still move the car around lol

 

And the issue here is the poor bastard that spent all of that time sanding, proud of what he accomplished lmao!

 

Since we're also talking about poor repairs/etc, I've one to add. Back in the mid-80's my buddy bought his girlfriend a mid to late 60's For car, I don't recall what it was. He'd bought it off of someone who put it on one of those vacant corner lots with several other cars.

He called me up and told me (this is after his girlfriend had been driving it for a few weeks) that the steering was getting a lot of play in the wheel. He brought it over and I popped the hood, told him to turn the wheel back and forth...I'm intently looking at the pitman arm, one hand on the tire, trying to see where the slop is...nothing....arm not even twitching, and as soon as it did, I could feel the tire want to move.

WTF? I look through the windshield and he's moving the wheel near 180 back and forth, I look up off the box, to the rag joint...and there is no rag joint, just wrapped up and around with a coat hanger or two.

I remember my words to him that day "James, we need to go to Raven Auto Parts now".

 

Sure, that work is bad...