Projects Chassis swap horror. Who builds like this?

Who builds this stuff? This came into my shop for a chassis swap. New owner took over project. The frame is so out of square (you can see it in the crooked trans pic), the motor mounts are a disaster, the twisted wrought iron radiator supports are a nice touch. I think it was a Ford Crown Vic chassis, clipped, or lengthened or something. They managed to re-install the front clip angled down about 5 degrees. The poor unsuspecting Suburban has a Ford straight 6 and auto trans in it. Interesting grille treatment. I'm attempting a save... Stay tuned.

 

Those motor mounts are terrifying!!

 

One word wow

 

Who builds stuff like that? More people than you want to know about.

 

I am with The Dude on this one... way too many!

That is some scary looking shit!

 

Must have been built by an ITT Tech graduate. Rod

 

The think I always ask myself when doing stuff like this "is this safe for my daughter to drive?". If the answer is no, I start over and find a better alternative.

All decent hot rodders are about 90% engineer anyway!

 

Y'all ain't seen a driveshaft that was riveted at the new joint placement, brazed, and bondoed before pretty paint? That's just one point on a big iceberg.

 

i was tech. inspector a the local dirt track. was looking at the roll cage welds scrapeed one it was calking put on over tack welds. put that car right on the trailer. word got out and 2 more went on the trailer before i got to them.

 

Holy shit!

 

way to many of these threads have been popping up lately. it's gotten to the point where we should find all these people who are responsible for this type of shoddy workmanship and take them out and KILL them. hotrodding is not the place to be learning any kind of skills, when there are so many qualified shops out there ready to do the work for them. if they don't have at least 3 friends who are qualified builders, and who are available at a moments notice, the project should be handed over to a professional.

 

proof drugs are dangerous...yep

 

At least the PO gave up... (or at least I hope it never made it to the road)

 

Frame swaps are stupid 99.9% of the time

 

seeing things like that make me glad we hafta go through engineers inspections befor rego, it's gotta be a pain in the ass to jump through the hoops but its peace of mind knowing that something like that pile isn't coming down the road at ya

 

That's amazing that he looked at his work and thought, " I feel ok selling this to someone else".

 

plain ghetto

 

I think hotrodding is the perfect place to learn skills. If its not, then I'm screwed.
We all start out stupid. It's the guy using part of his porch rail for a radiator support that will likely stay that way.

 

The person building this had vision, it was not good vision, but vision none the less.

 

Wrought iron railing? Really?!?!?

 

My wifes Mercury was ridled with shit like this. They built the firewall with bondo and road tar!

 

uhhhhh........ok

 

ok the motor mounts are horrid, the clip being 5 degrees off thats bad, the wrought iron rad support, why not i guess, that would not look out of place on a R%% rod... lol

 

You can see the front clip rewelded pointing down hill. The engine was sitting in with about a 2 degree rear rake, see the front frame stubs pointing down about 5 degrees? Nice feature as well.
Here's the Ford in a chevy pic. I'm thinking a new radiator is in order as well.
1938 LaSalle in the driveway. It has a 70's van sunroof cut into it. It came with the Suburban and the chassis.

 

this thread will prolly get locked like the "how not to mount an engine" thread. i don't know why though. it really presents the buyer beware aspect of old cars as a hobby in a in your face kinda way.

there's plenty of "sob story, wah-wah, i can't believe i'm stuck with this hack job of a project car" threads on here. this crap is out there all over the place & clearly it needs to be made aware of to young guys who don't know better, cuz they're the one's buying up this crap-o-la & getting discouraged from the hobby...in a similar way as in the "fear & loathing" editorial the other day...

 

that wrought iron thing is a store bought shlf bracket upside down.... Scary

 

Ya, I'm with you on that. there probably have been more decent projects
f 'd up with "clips" and "frame swaps" than anything else!

 

It always amazes me how much even shitty welds hold. But caulking over a tack weld on a roll bar?

 

unfortunately there are a lot of these types of projects that actually made it to the road. i dont care how cool the stance on a car is, if its unsafe its just a pile of crap. it will take time to make it right but it will be worth it.

 

Whenever i see a thread like this and there are always some responders expressing thier outrage over what looks like bad work and i can't help but wonder if this is part of the 'who farted' syndrome.
Get real. As we speak there are thousands of wannabe's all over the place doing exactly what yousee in the picture - sometimes it is frames, sometimes carbs, sometimes interiors, sometimes brakes, sometimes dangerous, sometimes just plain stoopid. I see it most every day and just assume it is more common than rare. Unless the car has factory bolt-ons i just assume there are some 'rigs' somewhere and i am rarely disappointed.