My PO is dumber than your PO or "Stupid Human Tricks..."

Ok,
I see alot of threads that post some of the dumb things our PO's have done to our rides.
And then the amount of work that is required to repair the "fix"...
I just wanted a place where we could post our pain...

I'll start off:
My '70's PO had decided to rewire his beetle with a CD player - nice concept poorly executed.
He gave up and the car sat for 3 years un startable because of his ineptitiude.
I spent 1.5 hours cleaning out the aftermarket wires and got it running. He had clipped off black hot wires and wire clipped them to grounds, then he plugged the now camoflaged ground's female spades to the FUSE BOX...
needless to say that didn't work out too well.

I know it's a little weak, but my other beetles are pretty stock and unmolested...
Let's hear it, vent out your frustrations...
KC

Oh god where to start. Ok lets see. This is reguarding my 61 baja.


-The front was hacked off, and a piece of aluminum was attached to the front, and had a single headlight in the center (i called it the cyclops).

-the floor of the trunk had a piece of plywood as the floor, screwed down with drywall screws. on top of that there was a piece of house carpet for some reason.

-Then a metal gas tank sat ontop. This tank had a nipple for a gas line, but instead they simply took the cap off, stuck the fuel hose into the cap, so it touched the bottom, and took a bunch of wire to "secure" it there.

-floor pans were rusted away, and replaced with plywood covered in a different house carpet then the trunk, and also about 3-4 layers of throw rugs (for insulation i guess, lol).

-the battery had a throw rug over it for some reason.

-All four fenders were welding onto the body. the front passenger fender appeared to have bee from an old ford or chevy (40's or 50's model) hacked to shit, to make it somewhat similar to a bug fender, and was welded on a few spots

-the front and rear bumpers were just old pieces of galvanized fence post welded to the car. The brackets were just random pieces of metal welded together (VW exhaust clamps, old bolts, a horseshoe, wire for some reason (incase that shit broke apart, it might keep it attached to the car?), and a bunch of other misc pieces of steel.

-Heat riser had a hole and was fixed with several layers of aluminum foil, with wire wrapped around to hold it in place.

-The decklid, was cut almost in half, and was attached with house door hinges from homedepot

-red trailer lights were screwed into the body next to the vents under the rear window

-a piece of water hose was shoved into the little piece of vent hose comming off the oil filler neck, and was was wired together

-DUCT TAPE AND SAFETY WIRE EVERYWHERE!!!

-12V battery, even tho the whole car is still 6 volts (lady said it ran fine like that???)

-2 or the tires dated back to the early 70's. the other two of them looked factory , but were so dryrotted, i coulnd't get any dates, or numbers off them.

-What i origionally thought was graffitti, was actually their piss poor attempt at camoflouge.




The upsides to the car was the wiring seemed 100% intact, with no "fixes" or mods. 36horse ran pretty good, must have been replaced at some point as a 61 would have come with a 40 horse. it was a deluxe model. after i yanked the body off, the entire chassis was caked in mud. after i washed it all off, the paint was perfect. the origional factory paint was protected by the mud, and i don't even have to repaint the rear suspension. just a few scratches. The tranny was replaced at some point, as the bolts that hold the tranny on, are rounded off a little, the tranny was painted black (VW never painted tranny's), and it shifts SOOOOOO smoothe. dash looks perfect. looks like it just rolled off the factory, lol (not really, but its just in such good condition. glass was all good.


Not bad for $125 tho, lol. its gonna make one awsome baja

Here are some pics:




this was after all of the plywood, and throw rugs were removed. that was the rug over the battery


In this pic you can see the tin foil heat riser repair, and the water hose oil vent. also the house door hinge decklid hinge, lol. you can also kind see the random bits of metal used to mount the rear bumper.


The trialer lights screwed into the body:


a better pic showing the lovely water hose vent:


Its definately gonna get the lovin it deserves the front will soon be replaced with this one piece front end i scored for $40, as well as many other things:





this car made me laugh my ass off as i was taking it apart.

Instead of a "Stupid PO" post I think we should have a "I cant believe I paid for this" post.

Let's see...removed the dash pad, filled in the vents on the dash then painted it rather than replacing the pad, did his own body work rather than paying a pro to do it, cheap paint job...oh wait, thats what the next owner is going to say about me!

VW12step wrote:...oh wait, thats what the next owner is going to say about me!

I just realized I can never sell my bus without risking ending up on this thread.

peregrine67 wrote:

VW12step wrote:...oh wait, thats what the next owner is going to say about me!

I just realized I can never sell my bus without risking ending up on this thread.

NO DOUBT

Me too.

adams77 wrote:

peregrine67 wrote:

VW12step wrote:...oh wait, thats what the next owner is going to say about me!

I just realized I can never sell my bus without risking ending up on this thread.

NO DOUBT

Me too.

Oh Crap....... I was about to agree with you guys, on my own behalf- should we just quietly let this thread fade away? (Actually, I hope not- it's a hoot)
If it's too personnal- call it a confession.
Here's mine-

Wiring....WTF was I thinking? Should have changed the harness 18 years ago, instead of making it "work" . This past weekend though, I redeemed myself and regained some self respect. I got some authentic OG colored wires from another harness, and am rebuilding the mess I helped add to years ago. The right colors, minimum splices with soldered connections .
Got the engine compartment and backseat area done, next - tail lights .

I don't think anyone could top my post . hard to believe that rolling shit pile will ever drive again (and it will )

Bugman114 wrote:I don't think anyone could top my post . hard to believe that rolling shit pile will ever drive again (and it will )

Probably will have a turbo!!
I like the responces so far!

I drilled 2 holes in my hood today to mount an "Automatic Stickshift" logo on it....
I almost couldn't do it...
KC

ASBug wrote:
Probably will have a turbo!!

well.....ummmm.....i didn't say it wouldn't........

Bugman114 wrote:

ASBug wrote:
Probably will have a turbo!!

well.....ummmm.....i didn't say it wouldn't........

Hey Mike...turbos are for amateurs...hook up one of these bad boys!

I like the Cyclops look on the baha, pretty original.

Don't think i haven't thought about doing that:






super chargers just take away so much power in the process, thats why turbo's are so much bettter, they don't have nearly as much parasitic loss. upside, is that superchargers are so much sexier then turbo's. I wonder if you can stack two judsons on top of eachother ?

probably could bu you would probably just blow alot of money an pee in the wind

yeah, prolly. lol. if anything, i'd prolly try a twin turbo set-up before i'd try 1 supercharger, let alone 2. but i don't plan on tyring a twin turbo set up, atleast not untill i get a really good job lol

if you want to do somthing crazy put a super and a turbo on it an the super will get you out the hole an help spool up the turbo faster but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

DOODLE BUGG wrote:if you want to do somthing crazy put a super and a turbo on it an the super will get you out the hole an help spool up the turbo faster but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

That set-up would look sweet on an Aztec!!

it would look good on it i guess will just have to wait and see what it roles with

screw that, just get one of these:


Its a supercharger off a freight train.

sweet

the guys says it started, and idled, and when if tapped the throttle, one of the back wheels came off the ground, and it blew both head gaskets.

even tho it broke, its still a win in my book

wow

I've seen that, and always wondered if it was real....now I know- it's just real insaine!

there's a video floating around the internet about that car. it was before the massive blower. he was drag racing, and one side of his wheelie bar broke, and the car popped up, and lended on the drivers side, and slid down the track. I guess he fixed it, and did a little upgrade to the motor, lol. i hope he gets that thing running, that'll be sweet to see racing

Okay I’m up for a little more self deprecation:
My first air-cooled VW was a ’67 beetle I bought right after I turned 16. It was primer grey with some body damage. I did my best to fix the body damage by putting a scissors jack in the spare tire slot and cranking away. When that didn’t work I drilled a few holes in the front apron and hooked about 10’ of chain from there to a tree. Then I just backup up real fast a bunch of times. Proceeded to damage the tree, the yard and barely budge the apron. So having no body work experience at all I left the apron mashed in and just bought new fenders and hood. I don’t remember how exactly I did it but I basically just created something out of fiberglass to fill out the space in front of the apron. Put a $200 Macco paint job on it and instantly realized just how bad the bodywork really was.
My parents took the car to a shop to get some engine work while I was out of the country. They forgot all about it and when I got back the shop had sold it to cover the cost of their repairs. I've always wondered what that next owner thought of my lousey attempts at body work.