History How to cheat and avoid getting cheated! (Pre1965) The old timer's stories....

Throw a couple of new tires inside the car, roll the windows up and park it in the sun for a few days. Restores that “new car smell”.

 

Some of the ones I saw over the years:

Regrooved tires painted with a black wash made them look new.
Used motor oil rubbed into the paint. Made that old, dead paint shine!
Jump spark - Got a cylinder that oils so bad you can't keep the spark plug from fouling? Cut a notch in the plug wire, through the conductor but not all the way through the insulation. Make the spark jump about an 1/8" across the gap. The added distance the spark has to jump increases the voltage and will keep the spark plug from fouling longer.

The worst one I ever saw was from a notorious tote-the-note lot near the shop. The buyer brought in and old Chevy II with a straight six he had just bought. It had a dead miss so we pulled the plug on the dead cylinder and ran a compression test. It registered zero, nada, nothing, not even a wiggle on the gauge. We pulled the head and there was no piston or rod! It had obviously spun a rod bearing.They had welded a plug in the oil hole of the crank to make it hold oil pressure.

 

I have had my share of old car buying. From the first to now, always a learning experience but I must say, I have been very lucky never a real bad lemon!
I'm not a paint, body man so drive train rebuilds I expect with every car regardless what I've been told by the owner. I give the body a real good going over. I often use a magnet but I have bought many cars just seeing pictures. Again, lucky I guess. I'm pretty good at hearing what I'm being told and back out when I don't like what I hear.

 

A guy I know told about a 55 Merc that had rotted rockers (back in the 60's) and they covered the rockers with masking tape, a little bondo and fresh paint. looked great. I saw him "fix" a leaking wheel cylinder on a truck by taking the brake line loose and sticking brazing rod down the line and melting it and putting the line back on

 

Nice!!

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Damn. Masking Tape and Bondo is a permanent fix right. In rural Arkansas it sure is!

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Keep in mind that if the dealer/seller says something like "I'll make it up on the next guy" you are the next guy.

 

I've seen stuff at auctions that go the other way. Most of the cars show up with very little gas and a buyer will dump stuff in the tank that will make it smoke to get it cheaper.

 

Nice....

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Back in the day, I knew someone who owned a 55 Ford with a completely worn out 365 Cadillac motor that had just about zero oil pressure. The dirt bag filled the crankcase with Motor Honey to raise the oil pressure so he could sell it. It worked, he sold it.

 

In the days before Bars Leak and Iron Tite, I've heard of raw egg or pepper in the coolant to stop small rad leaks and gasket trickles.

 

We used small rivets, to eliminate a leaking wheel cylinder! On the farm! Not a car lot!








Bones

 

Funny thing was, the general public pulled the same shit on the dealers too, but that never really made headlines. Big difference was most dealers just expected and accepted the shit, kept the whining to a minimum, and cut their losses. After all, everybody knows it's only the used car dealers that are crooked, right? Joe Q. Public would never do anything dishonest...

 

My grandmother was the daughter of a livery stable owner, and was one of the first mechanics in Rockvale , Colorado, as the world changed from horses to cars! She told me, many years ago, about dropping the pan on her model T, saving the oil and putting the leather tongue out of her shoe in the rod cap, to take the knock out of the engine. She also told of having many flats, can’t remember exactly how far and how many now, but it was a lot! They would take the tire off, patch, put back on and pump it up by hand! Folks were tough back then!
I guess the tongue was a little more than .003 feeler gauge. Lol








Bones

 

We used to call that a quart of oil pump.


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Your first comment would be more correct if you replaced ‘business men’ with ‘people’.

The second sentence in your quote has it right. It correctly includes all of us.

The ‘public’ is notorious for having scoundrels in it’s ranks. The crap some people try to pull on businesses would make used car salesmen look like model citizens. And the sad part is, the ‘Public ‘ often gets away with it. All that said, there still are a lot of decent people out there, fortunately.

Ray

 

Finally! The other side of the story! My post above was made before I came to this post.

Ray

 

Recall of Studebaker-Ticked-Pink, poured into a 'loose' motor,
@ ~ 3K RPM.
Helped quiet things like the home brews mentioned.

 

was easy for me to be tricked - teenager, had my '55 Chevy totaled by a drunk - but, drive train good - looked for a running car to transfer to some day - for those of you from So Cal might remember a big time car wheeler/ dealer "Cal Worthington", that used elephants, tigers & more in TV ads - I saw a super deal in one of his ads and talked my Dad into driving about 30 miles to go look at it - he was not happy - at car lot front row was nice late model cars - rest of rows looked like abandoned cars - never did find the car in ad or a salesman that knew about it either - Ha! - did buy a '57 Chevy at Night from a distant used car lot when my Dad was out of town - the salesman knew I loved the car - "told me that I needed to decide fast because another kid just left to go home to get his Dad to come back and buy it" - My Mom said to wait for Dad - I bought it and she was following me home - got about 3/4 of the way home and it died - had to go home to get a tow chain for My Mom to tow it home - she had never towed a car before - not a good day (Night) at my house - once I pulled motor found that it was full of sludge - car dealer did not care - sold "as is" - the joys of youth - Ha!

 

A similar trick by dishonest auction bidders is they will pour or rub a little bit of oil on the exhaust manifold while "inspecting" the vehicle so that it will billow some smoke and smell when it's driven onto the auction block.
(I swear to God I've never done this......... only heard about it. Actually I've never been to an auction. So There!)

 

Actually, the bearing shells were 'properly shimmed' with good Bond paper.
Actually done it, with good results. Monitored the cars afterward, as they were customers of my first mentor/boss.
I'm a mechanic. I know everything...

 

One of my bosses, back in the previous century was a little clandestine! They were going to sell one of the cars we maintain at an auction. My boss ordered me to cross two spark plug wires, but remember which two. I did, he bought the car for a song and dance, in crossed the wires, drove like a champ! Being young and needing a job, I did what I was told, back then. Towards the end of my career, I rarely did anything I was told! Lol






Bones

 

I'm not old enough to have been around/driving back them but I have purchased a transmission chock-filled with something like sawdust. When I realized this, I was informed about the old-time trick in diffs and such. Also, I bought a car with the main rear brake line that was pulled from a T and plugged. I found that out when I rebuilt the brakes but the car still didn't stop right.

 

My grand dad talked of taking bacon rind along for use for a rod or main in their model T if they were taking a long trip say 50 miles.

 

The best way to keep from getting cheated is NEVER buy anything sight unseen.

 

Paint hides Bondo. Oil pan hides bacon under main cap. Rear end cover hides saw dust. Tire air freshers mask bad smells. Sure!

 

Actually, the best way to keep from getting cheated is to never buy anything....

 

Back in the day the 'slightly bent' car lots provided a great service. They were schools for teaching gullible teenagers a 'real world' life lesson. You either learned real quick, or you got constantly fucked. At least the tuition you paid there got you something.