Art & Inspiration We have all heard the "What's that noise?" question

Some of the rattles came with the car or truck, like the folk tale about finding a coke bottle behind a inner fender panel on a brand new car or others just came out of the clear blue.

Or like the Ranch Wagon Brenda's grandmother bought new, there never was any strange noise them in the 70's we started hearing a slight bump in the passenger door every now and then , only someone in the passenger seat could hear the noise.

Years later when I was taking the wagon apart to start the restoration and repairs I pulled the rotten door panel off and I found a petrified mass of small rubber washers, I bet there was 3 thousand or more and they weighed almost 3 pounds.

They must have been a line worker that dumped them in the door at the end of a shift is the only explanation I have. HRP

 

Lots of “ Golf ball type noises from the trunk “ when I worked at Jaguar .

remove the golf ball and the noise was gone

 

Neither of these made noise but interesting fines non the less. In 1965 my brother and I were playing with a live mole in the back seat of our '40 Tudor. Somehow he got away and we never found him. Not until about 25 years ago when we tore the '40 apart and did a complete interior. He was in the right rear quarter between the side panel and the body. Well, his remains anyway!

The other was in my '36 Dodge pickup. It is still in original worn out paint. While running a new vacuum hose through the header panel to the wiper motor I found a bottle cap mostly covered in original dark blue paint from when the cab was originally painted. Worker on break having a beverage I assume.

Dave

 

I found all kinds of strange noise makers when I worked at the dealers. All of them O/T cars.

"thumping noise when driving highway speed" Car had a Jack in the Box styrofoam head on the roof mounted antenna hitting the top of the car.

"rattling noise under hood" Found a paint can lid hanging on a wire behind the hood.

"drivers window won't go all the way down" Started pulling door panel off... a 45 automatic fell out. Rental car that had been used in a robbery we later found out.

"thumping noise above 30 mph" someone had added about 3 lbs of wheel weights to the inside of a front wheel.... yes, it thumped!

 

Pretty much every older Ford I've ever had the famous upper control arm squeak. Doesnt take much, just a gentle push on the top of the fender and it'll squeak away. Whats worse is the repair work to remedy it. A cutting torch and blow some holes through the shock tower to install grease nipples.
Looks lovely when you open the hood and see a jagged, molten hole in the tower.

 

My 64 had squeaks and noise and even a rotten smell every once in awhile, hell you'd hear a loud squawk from the rt side of the car. I got very good at not listening to them no matter what she said...

 

My recommendation for most older cars is to get a better (louder) stereo or cheap mufflers.

 

When I worked at a Mobil station back when they still had full service a customer pulled into the far island in the rain. Didn't want gas just wanted to know what "that funny noise" was. Turned out the seat belt on the passenger side was hanging out of the door and just barely hitting the ground. Opened the door and put the belt back inside. Noise gone. He drove away without even a thank you.

 

When I was still bicycle age, I hung out at the Richfield station where the serious rodders went. There was a Rambler up on the rack they'd been servicing for years. Keith said changing oil took an hour to drain, & he's going to find out why. Pulled pan, removed sardine can ....

Many years later, I'm putting new weatherstrip on the doors of a '56 Plymouth. Looked like the only way to do it right would be to remove the doors & do it on the bench. When I got the pass. side off, it had 2 dozen extra hinge bolts laying inside.

 

My '63 Galaxie developed a strange noise after I owned it for about 35 years. Happened at highway speed and sounded like an old oil can (boink boink) if you went over a gentle bump just right. Turned out it was the cross brace behind the rear seat came loose at the factory welds. I guess that brace is needed to keep the body stable when the car is moving.

 

Not a noise but.... Had a customer come in to the dealership I was working at years ago with his AC cobra replica. He said that the car had way less power then it did a few weeks earlier. After checking a few thing we found that his fancy carpet floor mat was bunched up under the gas pedal not allowing much throttle.

 

Back when I had my Roadster, SBC with a mechanical fuel pump, I was playing with it some RPM involved and I hear a clatter, but the engine ran fine, I get to the cruise inn deal and ask a friend, a real mechanic, he instantly diagnosed it, the spring broke on arm that stops the arm from bouncing on cam. I traded the Roadster for a unfinished 32 coupe and I drove it with a rattle/clunk sound for a few years and finally found it when I had it at the upholstery shop we found a short 2x4 in body between trunk liner quarter panel, why ? no clue. My wife's hearing is too good, mine, me being an old racer, car guy, not so much and she gets grumpy with me, my turn up the radio solution to small car noises. LOL

 

Also not a noise but when I removed the head from a 250 Ford six and there was a extra lifter wedged in it where two push rods were wearing it down some,still had the original gaskets so it was in there since day one and no noise.

 

Too bad the lifter wasn't spinning, It would probably be still like new.

 

Years go my future wife’s OT pickup had a noise in the front end while in 4wd. I figured it was beyond my abilities so I took it to a 4wd shop. They called shortly after and said we could pick it up. Someone had dropped an oil filter wrench atop the 1/2 shaft where I couldn’t see it. It wasn’t me, but I don’t think the shop guys believed me.

John

 

Or this...









(May have borrowed this from VANDENPLAS)

 

In our little town in Wisconsin we had a Chevrolet/Cadillac dealership and a jewelry store. The jeweler's wife ordered up a new, loaded top of the line '58 Caddy. When she got it there was an annoying rattle coming from the right rear. The mechanics looked in obvious places and finally started to take things apart. When the door panel came off the right rear door there was an empty beer bottle with a note in it, "here's your Cadillac you rich ass bitch". That went through town like wild fire, lol.

 

The old man finally got the car of his dreams, a brand new '64 Impala convertible. We had it about two weeks when the interior started stinking to high heaven. Took it to the selling dealer who had it a couple days. We went to pick it up and there's a pile of moldy orange peels on the service writer's desk and all the mechanics are standing around grinning. Seems my sister had peeled an orange in the back seat and dropped the rinds down the boot. Sheepishly, the old man grabbed his keys and thanked them, no charge.

 

I found a big ball peen hammer inside my door. I have no reasonable theories on how it got there, or what use one would even have for a BFH inside a door frame. For that matter, why not pull the access panel at the bottom and simply remove the hammer you dropped? Strange things.

 

I had a new Mercury come in with a clunk-clunk noise on a mildly hard stop. Didn't make the noise on easy stops. This is in the day of vacuum door locks. Took the passenger's door panel off and found a second vacuum switch and lines hanging inside the door and dangling by the vacuum lines.

 

There was a story I heard about a guy that had searched for years trying to find what was making the noise in the rear of his early Australian Holden ('63-'64 EH I think it was). While doing some rust repairs on the rear quarters, someone noticed a piece of 'U' shaped wire welded to the inside of the upper quarter panel with a nut welded to the other end, and positioned so the nut was just clear of the sheet metal. Hit a big enough bump, wire flexes, nut hits and makes the noise. Apparently it looked like it was there from new. Some bright spark in the factory having fun...............

 

Similar to stories that flew around high school auto shop, like boxing a short section of the frame, and within it a short piece of tube such that it would roll back and forth when the car stopped or took off. I don’t know if it was really ever done, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Idle hands of youth and all

 

Or the one we were taught by our Tech teacher when I was doing my apprenticeship. A piece of gas welding wire attached to the uni joint with a nut on the other end. When accelerating the nut went to maximum stretch on the wire and hit the trans tunnel but as they slowed down no noise.

 

One of our mates always left his 62 Falcon unlocked, windows down, so we got into the habit of messing with him. leaving Ramset rounds in the little oil baths created from the valve cover leaking onto the log intake manifold gave him about 10 minutes of driving before they started going off. Jump wire from indicator to horn was another one

 

3 - 4 year olds playing with dad’s tools…..
Dad always wondered where his ball peen hammer disappeared too…….

possibly this guy………..
there’s some stuff we still haven’t found 30 years later…….

 

Took a conversion van for a test drive and heard a boing boing right behind the drivers seat, up by your ear, very annoying, don't know why PO put up with it. I bought van but couldn't stand noise. Found out it was where they had installed a window at conversion place. left a coiled up sliver that went boing, boing....

 

In 1978 a buddy of mine bought a brand new Chevy pickup , he had a lift kit installed and giant tires it was a really nice truck . Every time he took it out he would hear a rattling in the truck but because of the tire noise he couldn't pin point it , so one day he tore the truck apart and finally found it , it was a screw driver in the door with a note on it that said Ha Ha you finally found me .Lol

 

I was taking the front of my '59 Ford apart, I needed access to the air vent intakes behind the headlights and grille. My son was taking the screens off the intake ducts. Out pops a loose NOS heater hose clamp, I guess someone threw in as a prank on the assembly line. I doubt it made that much noise.

 

A customer came in the Gulf station I worked at, complaining that there was a loud squeal at start up and now the A/C doesn't work so it must have thrown the belt. Opened the hood - poor kitty.

 

Found a 1970 Chevy Kingswood Estate wagon in a barn. It was factory made with the 402 BB and turbo 400. Seller said it had an odd engine or trans noise he couldn't locate. So it was parked for a few years before I came along. Naturally, the engine trans combo was transplanted into something more desirable. Upon start up, there was a noise. Kinda went, tink tink tap tap dink, continuously. Very faint but noticeable. A bunch of us tried to figure it out, with no luck. Decided to pull it back out. So up on jacks it goes. I remove the starter and just about shit. A snap ring that held the bendix pivot pin in the starter was missing, which allowed the pin to back out. This allowed the starter gear to float forward and tap on the ring gear while it was running. Got many miles of smiles with that car. Should have never sold it. 1970 Chevelle convertible with A/C. Basically a numbers matching car with all factory brackets.