A good friend of mine bought a '36 ford for over $20000 and asked me if I would install a new 383 stroker SBC and a TH350 for him. Sure I said, no problem. It has a tired 350 SBC with a powerglide in it right now. But when I got the car to my shop and started tearing into it I could not believe the amount of crappy workmanship that I found. Here are some pictures, the car come from Wyoming and I hope who ever built it never, ever builds another car. First is a picture of the engine, look at the motormounts and how crooked the engine is installed, it has about 6.5 degrees of tilt to the driver side. Next, look at the trans crossmember. The cross member is made out of exhaust tubing.
I guess the upside would be that at least he didn't pay 40,000.00. I think I'm going to use that wood trick
Ya thats too bad!!!! I think its a lot for that car!!!!! He basically bought a roller, if he is putting an engine and trans in the car, I would be looking at the rest of the car with a fine tooth comb after seeing that engine!!!! ie Brakes, suspension!
Some pictures of the no longer existing frame X member, in my opinion the worst part of the car. The frame is pretty much destroyed, well any thing can be fixed and I've fixed worse, but it still pisses me off. They just took a torch and cut the X member out. God I wish I could ask the builder what the hell he was thinking.
hmmm some people just dont know but if it were me i would go and steal the sellers wallet and return it to him empty or get all the money back and shove that car straight up his ass. sorry to see someone got stiffed. it winds me up when i see shit like this!happened to my pops once i nearly drove the thing straight through the guys front door
wow.. your friend got the shaft on that one.. he must really have liked it to pay 20k for a polished turd
How about getting a professional inspection and report before buying? Well worth the money to save getting burned like this.
Pictures of the split wish bones, this is not only sad but dangerous! Look how bad the welding is on the wish bone mounts it, it's not even welded all the way around the top, just about an inch on each side.
Mixed feelings here... Nobody forced your friend to pay $20k, and if the car did infact sell for $20k, then that was it's FMV. From what I'm seeing, the body looks pretty solid... On the other hand, the engineering of the motor transplant looked solid before you "tore into it", so who knows. Exhaust tubing for a tranny crossmember, well,,, that's just plain wrong on a $20k car. Maybe an acceptable solution on a rat-rod. Not incinuating anything, just saying. The grime buildup on the SBC would seem to indicate it has been together for quite a while... So crooked and "duct-tape" engineered as it might be, it has aparently held together pretty well. Do you feel the car was mis-represented by the seller? I'm not trying to defend shoddy workmanship, just sugesting there might be more to the story... Maybe the car was originally assembled in the 60's?????????? ****EDIT**** I started writing that before some of the new pics were posted. I take back about 80% of what I previously said... That's just plain nasty! I'd be calling the seller and having a little talk with him... Maybe even about a refund!
Or did they just pull a dirty, tired motor out of whatever and stick in there as-is? Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that by itself, but like you said, on a $20,000 car it's not right.
dude, it was like...well ummm...see it, ah yeah I was gunna finish that backet mount plate thingy, but that rerun of the "simple life" like er, got in my way so I spray painted the mufflers primer red instead. yeah.
A picture of the steering box and the "custom" mount that only uses two of the four bolt to hold the steering box, once again, great welding. And this is the best, a rag joint used instead of a U-joint. How hard is it to install a U-joint??
i thought this was pretty fucked up on their end, but the more you show the more im thinking your buddy should of looked a little bit closer before buying, because alot of the shit you can just plain see its not hidden or anything.
my thoughts : thank god he has you for a friend . you can make it safe !! .. steve spilt milk , just clean it up !
we have a 49 chevy @ work that some one a 350 in it. the owner of my work thought he could make some money on it. the engine sits back to far and is in crooked,they smashed one the header completly closed so they could jam the stearing shaft threw it. its a complete hack job.
Well I do have to say that when my buddy bought the car it was all together and he actually drove it from Wyoming all the way to San Jose, Ca. and he doesn't know to much about cars. I had offered to fly out with him and look at the the car but he said that he didn't need me to look at the car, It was supposed to be a professionally built car. I'm not posting this because I want any body to fell bad for my friend, as pointed out by some one he could have had the car inspected or had some body he knows look at it. I just can't believe the shit people sell and claim it's professionally built. So I guess the point I'm trying to make is don't buy any car unless you have some body who knows about cars look it over. My friend got lucky, the car held together when he drove it, but some body could get killed or hurt by this kind of shit.
PLEASE put that on a different frame. That frame is hacked up beyond being safe. Stock 35-40 frames are cheap and would save a lot of grief. The body don't look terrible. If he bought the car sight unseen and the PO told him everything was done right... he should be pissed, but if he looked at the car in person and didnt notice the hack job, then caveat emptor!
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