What is the dodgiest repair job you have come across?
I'm the king of shortcuts but i've been appaulled recently when I started pulling apart my latest purchase and find some really shoddy workmanship done by the previous owner
Today I found the floor pan under the batter was replaced with an old washing machine/fridge/whitegood.
still a brilliant white like the day it was cleaning ya jocks.
and to make things better it was tack welded.... poorley. a good rust trap.
This was no paddock basher either. It was a daily driver when i got it!!
i used to work for a car dealership here when i started my apprenticeship and we did dodgy stuff like plastic bags in rust holes before we bogged so the bog didnt fall through!!!
not proud of it but it opened my eyes
didnt last there long either
a freind when he was an apprentice pulled apart a diff to rebuild it it was a bit noisey.When he pulled it appart it was full of rotton mince he was not verry happy with the smell,to this day he will still bring it up occasionally he is still troubled by that 1.
OZ Towdster wrote:At least they tried to weld it , the pop riveted patches are always special to see .
me too!! my parcel shelf behind the rear seat was pop riveted in 😠 and all the rust repair sections i found, these have now been fixed with the trusty mig welder
The front and rear bars on my dad's Baja appear to be made from gal fence post. And it's looks like they were bent up by people stomping on them cause it's just kinked in half wherever the bends are. There is no way that a tube bender was used.
If you said I was a Volkswagen man, you'd be right.
Our ghia, which has a "proudly restored by ..." plaque on the dash has a pop riveted and then bogged over patch panel around the head lights. It had aluminium C channel pop rivetted in to the bottom of the heater channel (you can still see through it the the ground though). The rear bumper brackets were welded on because the thread was no good for the bolts. Around the rear wheel well arches, they cut grooves about 40mm long at a 90 degree angle to the arch in to the metal so the bog had something to grip to.
ive seen some dodgy things over the years
this just reminder me tho
the floor in my convertable Lbug i found was part of an aluminium road sign riveted down and covered over with a nice thick coat of black jack....
rear selt belt used to stop battery falling thro the floor was a good one too
I actually paid 2k to get the rear end of my orig 68 beetle repaired they supposedly replaced the rear apron, instead they cut it off banged it out welded it at the top and glued the guards back on. and then sealed everything with a good 1cm of filler. I only found this after a few months where the pain started cracking above the tail pipes. (oh and i saw the glue as it was strewn down the guards, and they refused to remove it, telling me it was there before i brought it in.
My classic was a Falcon ute that had the sill filled with sliced bread before being bogged over,this worked well until I hit a rut where the road had been dug up,there was a hell of a crack and the arse started walking out from under me and the ute was flexing in the middle.It was a very slow trip for the other 20 km's.
My very first bug had rusted floor repaired the way,that patches were welded to the floor and heat channels....to separate the body from the pan took about three days of chisseling....
Craig Torrens6 times Australian, 7 times State Hillclimb Class Champion
cb john ,yes I think I looked at that bug or it;s brother in the Newcastle area hen I was looking for a bug with a good body.The guy said no there is no rust and the floor pan & heater tubes are good,after driving for 3 hours we turned up the thing was an absolute shambles. The floor pan was welded to the body and there was rust everywhere.It took almost 5 minutes to work out that we had been done and wasted our time and petrol.Should have snotted the bugger!
