Aussie Muscle

The only home mod on my car is a metal bar to hold open the hood, rather than pay a few dollars to replace the hood struts (which was the first job i did when i got it). the po went to the trouble of making the bar quite good, too.

edit: the bar is actually made from the ones that cross the radiator.

cougar7926

ive got a camaro spoiler on my '87 firebird, not completely a bad thing but def out of the ordinary from what ive seen

cougar7926

i had seat covers just like that, threw them out the day after i bought the car.

iggy89

iTrader: (3)

Mine didn't have anything to bad done. The thing that made me mad is that the previous owner jacked up the car on the wrong points on the side of the car and bent up the fender. Not only that but he did the same to the other side. Also I found it interesting that I found a plug for a trailer attached to the wiring harness in the back.

y84pauloflondon

I haven't done anything really to my car, but the previous owner did.......I bought the car back in the summer of 2000(87 GTA t-top 350). He screwed in a brass looking like hook for his god-awfully-big cell phone on the side of the console by the radio. This spring when taking apart the dash and console, I found some EXTRA wires that someone added for something.....All cleaned up now!.....and the hook was gone along time ago!...but the 2 small holes are still there

Caveman305

iTrader: (8)

Mines got a jacked pass side fender, and I had a buddy with a bird where the po actually had a hitch installed and used the car to pull his moving trailer

Crux

Wait..so that hitch on my car isn't stock? O_O

Haha..how many of you wanna transform "PO" to P.O.S.?

Caveman305

iTrader: (8)

Just imagine driving down the road and seeing an lg4 purple firebird pulling a moving trailer

cutmesomeslack

[quote=JHave you ever tried to ride 2 miles on a chopped 3-speed bicycle with a banana seat, sissy bar and Monkey Hangers with two bags of fiberglass insulation tied to the sissy bar?[/quote]

lmao hahaha

NatesZ/28

Okay heres my list:

54 self-tapping screw holes in the doorskin (for the slide hammer to pull the door back out to shape) with bondo squeegee'd through them and another half gallon of bondo ontop of that.

LACQUER covering up the bondo

Someone replaced just 1 shock on the back (because he cut through it with a sawzall accidentally)

STP Brand oil filter

2 mismatched truck tires on the back and 2 mis matched car tires on the front

Stick pins holding the headliner to the backerboard

Hatch Pulldown disconnected

Crossflow muffler with holes punched in it

Hood prop rod from some miscellaneous car added...oh and they dimpled the hood with it when they didnt get it pushed down all the way

Extra wiring for good measure that goes nowhere

GTA50

Well, just was doing some work on my 1988 GTA on the passenger side seat (I have rubber tube coming out from underneath and am looking to make the Ultima seats operational) and behold I find a dried-up joint. Imagine that I crossed the Canada/US boarder twice and drove all the way from Chilliwack, BC to Santa Cruz, CA and back!!!

I should also mention that none of the interior lights were working - might have something to do with that aforementioned joint!!

Other Ghetto fixes? Driver's side seatbelt wouldn't retract, so PO gave me one he had ordered from somewhere - obviously not for anything GM!!!!! Don't know how he planned to fit it - big square box for the roof retractor. On the plus side, I did manage to fix the original seat belt retractor.

Finally, stereo that was installed when I bought the car - cracked/broke all of the screw holes in the pod, so it flops around in the hole.

NatesZ/28

Board with nail? EN GARDE!

302to305

The most ghetto thing I seen is my brother. he had a 97 dodge intrepid. he would put the cheapest motor oil I ever seen. every time he do a oil change is will smell like burned coffee. He will spray paint hub cap and spray paint the car all kind of crazy color. He will use a t-shirt for a cold air intake and drift in the roads.

cuppiecake88

it seems an 8 year old did the wiring, the headliner was made of duct tape, the needle on one of the gauges was a toothpick

z28 TPI

a toothpick? thank god that the guy i got mine from i live with so what ever i find (which is nothing so far) i get to give it back to him lol with style j/k. lol toothpick

Harwood

Toothpick... that made my day.

Well, I started with a rusty 500 dollar car that I bought b/c I couldn't believe that it started more than anything.

It had a hood scoop. My 4 yr old daughter kicked it off for me. Drywall compound was used to smooth it over.

It had brake cooler air induction. The same size and shape as the cheap fiberglass hood scoop.

The stero was very loose. I didn't want to litter, but I was tempted to throw it out the window when it fell out and started to rattle around the accelerator pedal.

And the wing was raised up to look like a REAL hotrod and was attached with 2x4's... yeah. Wood. Nice. Classy. I loved it.

No underwear tho. Or toothpicks, so... *sigh*

cuppiecake88

ive had this car for about a month so i still find new surprises. today i found that the right rearview wouldnt adjust. apparently the mirror was being held in with paper and duct tape.

the toothpick is now gone

julian.mora

i just got my 3rd gen. sunday day and i am now the proud owner of the first car i've ever owned that plays la cucca rotcha on the horn. wow i don't know what to say, i just want to thank every one who believed in me. we did it.

Bmv5

The PO of my 86 iroc had cut 2 holes out in the dash and had door speakers in them when i bought it. So now im looking for a new dash because this is an ugly p.o.s..

Caveman305

iTrader: (8)

Why not get a set of nice quality speakers with bad *** grills to put in its place, atleast until you get a new dash

Caveman305

iTrader: (8)

Also i found on craigslist a really nice convertable rs only problem was it had a firebird dash in it,with an aftermarket speedo in the original location sticking way out, i do like the bird dash but not in a camaro, and it had cool ghost flame paint minus the fire skull grinning with a gold front tooth, sorry if its anyones on here but that was a good paintjob till i saw the tooth

y84pauloflondon

My first love was a 87 Mec Sable. I painted it jet black, limo tinded all windows, red inter lights, Added More red lights under the dash by driver and pass leg area, 2 big moroso stickers on rear window(No Moroso parts on car), had 2 6x9's inside a SHOE box on floor by center console, 2 8" home audio speakers from the early 60's mounted on balsa wood for the rear..........This car was BAD A**............lol
A buddy of mine while camping, set my front speakers (6x9's) on FIRE.....When we were packing up and leaving he spilled some water out of a cup and onto my speakers(i was outside by camp sit/ did not see him spill). So he used his lighter to dry speakers, I came back to the car, he looked up at me and that's when the speaker lit up in flames. He beat the flames ou with his hands and towel......Damn speakers still worked.

Mudskunk

i was towing my boat with my 2003 silverado and while parking the trailer i left the tailgate down and cracked out about 15sq inches of the tailgate. its one of the rare pro-tec boxes the same stuff the avalanche bed was made of when they first came out. so i removed the tailgate disassembled the tailgate to get to the broken bits and epoxied it all back together. i then used a airgun as in a toy model painting type airgun to spray touch up paint without a lot of sanding.

at some point i will go smooth it all out when i feel like getting dirty with it and have the proper grinding/sanding tools. but its good enough for now its not relaly noticable unless i point it out or someone gets up close and is aware the damage is there.

as for my firebird... if i even start thinking about *******ing something taht i havent the ability for i go find someone that actually knows and have done right. my truck is a work truck my firebird is my baby.

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

I bought my car back in 2002 and thought it was bodywork free. I have recently completely stripped it to bare metal to restore it and low and behold, the drivers door leaves me wondering. My side mirror had always wobbled when I hit bumps, and I found that theres about a gallon of bondo at the top of the door! The door is completely smashed. I actually sanded it down back to bare metal just to see the carnage and I have NEVER seen a door that badly dented and smashed. I must say, they did a good job fixing it because I would have never known except for that wobbly mirror!! And it held up the 6 years I've been driving it too!

I also noticed the door was originally red but my car is white, so they replaced the original door on the car with that junk one!!! C'mon guys, all those doors out there and they had to use a completely destroyed one!! I have since bought a REAL dent free original door that will be taking it's place. Other than that, my car was pretty darn clean.

cougar7926

just bought my car for $800, '87 firebird... cars a REAL project. theres a cork in the breather, cooling fan is rigged to the battery and you gotta twist the wires together to turn it on(wires stick out of the passenger front wheel well), the p/o took all the wires in the engine bay and rubber banded them together, then ghetto rigged almost everything to work. he was very creative but did it all wrong...

wferon1974

I just bought my 3rd camaro and this one is a whopper full of bs the po or the owner before that did to this car. First off let me start out by saying that whoever the mechanical guru was that worked on this car had is riggin skills honed like a dull butter knife. I found a complete throttle body under the hood that was'nt attached to anything at all and was burried under a bunch of spaghetti wires. The bad *** Turbo 350 tranny was resting on a 4 x 4 x 1 inch piece of pine on the tranny mount and held toegther with chain tightened by a carriage bolt. I am sure that as I progress in this project car I will find all kinds of stuff to share with you guys.

camarokid89

so im buying my thirdgen and when i go to open the door, the door handle just flops loosely in my hand... i turn back to the owner, to see him running towards the car, he jumps and slides over the hood. as he mounts up to the window he looks straight at me and says (whats wrong? you got your daisy dukes all up in a bunch. jump in through the window),i laughed so hard i was crying. and i still havnt fixed the door handle. and after read some of these i realize im a cheap SOB to, when my door handle broke from the inside i replaced it with a 9/16 wrench.

radar1232

So here is my story, on what the PO left for me. Mind you I paid $600.00 cash for this vehicle, he wanted $1,000.00 but I talked him down told him what I had on me at the time.

1.) PO left all the emission stuff on car but hooked every single vac line to a tee in the back of the carb which of course made it run like crap, the vac ports he was not using had hoses and bolts in them.
2.) PO has taken the entire headliner out of the car and left all the clips there removed dome light as well as all the mechanicals connecting the lock and latch system on the trunk, so I have to use a screwdriver from the inside to open it.
3.) PO put like a ton of bondo on the hood in two spots and did not let it cure (more than likely would have taken 2 months or more) and painted it with a rattle can, of course paint was chipping right off.
4.) PO rattle canned the entire car without bothering to sand any of it at all so the paint just rubs right off (imagine that paint does not stick to shiny surfaces.)
5.) I swear this is at least an inch of grease built up all over the engine I am still trying to get it off of it.
6.) One word "plywood" for the center console lid.
New things to date:
1.) Sunroof that leaks so he took the gasket material out of it and put roofing sealant all over it, instead of fixing it.
2.) Wiring hacked unde the dash never seen anything like it, all the wires are either white green or black makes me think of a/c wiring when i look at it.
And that is what I have found so far. Here is a pic of the Wonderful sunroof sealing:

iroc a 86 berli

in my old 83, the carpet would get soaked when driving thru puddles, i ripped the carpet out, and i found beer cans cut into square sheets, and bondoed to the rusted out floor pans. pretty gehtto floor patching job.

transam85dudeman

thats awesome, David Hasselhoff slides over the t-tops. thats pretty impressive. poor David http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH3JAp7vMuo

Christal_Z28

Hm... my '92 RS was in near mint condition when I bought it from a PO a few years back... nothing was ghetto on it, surprisingly.

But when I bought my '92 Z28 back in '03, I noticed the aftermarket Kenwood HU wasn't working, no radio, wouldn't play CDS, nothing. So, I took it out and low and behold! There was probably 1/2 a roll of duct tape used to connect the wiring and antenna! Oh well, common mistake among younger owners, I guess.

Pie

Mine too... the guy just hacked stuff out of my car, a/c, choke on the carb... and the wiring is a nightmare. Had to hotwire the headlights to make them work for now, the guy took out the computer, or whatever is wired next to the fusebox below the drivers side dash, and the guy wired the fusebox himself.. the radio backwards.. just a bunch of hack jobs in my car.

solaris_vii

iTrader: (3)

my 85 iroc was actually in great shape when i got it.... my 85 vette on the other hand is another story. the timer to turn the interior lights like a minute after you shut the door broke (guess its a common problem on c4s) and the previous owner decided to take out all of the bulbs in the car rather than just change the time and broke damn near every single plastic trim piece in the process. not only did i have to replace the bulbs and the timer but im still hunting down trim on ebay!

Iroc-Z28Man

Well my camaro had a real ghetto moon roof cut into the top. I was gonna weld a sheet over it. but i kind of like now and gonna have i guy i know ( who does really nice sun roofs and such) redo it for me.

battmann

iTrader: (9)

a parts car i bought must have previously been owned by a contractor. where the air dam should have been there was a piece of drywall "installed" in it's place. the car also had a lot of timing issues. turns out there were two drywall screws holding the cap on the distributor. i don't know how or why, but he had the screws going inside the cap and the rotor was arcing on the screws. it was a complete mess.

novafirebirdguy

My 86 wasn't too bad. But whoever did the radio was f'ed up, when I got the car the wiring harness and ANTENNA connector where cut out. NOT cool. And the heater core leaked, so instead of spending $30 on a core, lets just not hook it up and leave coolant in it. Until I fixed it almost every time I stopped I would get coolant on the block. Scared the crap outta me, thought the head gaskets were leaking. The alt was also the wrong kind, they hardwired it in and it was a 60amp alt.

None of this is as bad as my bird, but the hood prop was the best. 1x2 with a big rusty nail in, PO (older hillbillie) said he used it for self defence when it wasn't holding up the hood.

zraffz

Haha, I can't get far enough away from my clutch pedal in my trans am... my knee rubs the bottom of the dash and my foot gets hung up under there.

92purplehaze

iTrader: (8)

lol that is someone on here

GeneralLC

I attached my $50 3" cone K&N Airfilter directly to the MAF with duct tape and what previously attached the MAF to the air dam box.

That and I use a piece of wood to hold up the hatch and hood. The piece of wood also has a nail in it for good measure.

cheveylover

i found my car had the wrong nock sensor and to top it off it was wired to the fan relayand the other half of the wire was just hangin out

yanke1

I have a 91 z28 305. Had to replace the computer and found that the PO had put in a 3.1L memcal with a 5.7L hypertech performance chip, What were they thinking?

Guy In A 90 RS

Lots, and lots of duct tape to cover the holes that were punched or smashed into the vent ducts in the center console. . . bits of 2X4's to keep battery in place. . .And rusted 2 1/2" inch long screws drilled through the headliner to keep it up against the T-top. . .

C-Titan

iTrader: (2)

when i originally bought my car there was bad boy stickers all up the side and speakers drilled into the floor... nuff said... haha

New2Chevy

iTrader: (11)

Hmm..besides needing to set mouse traps up in my car....Someone used tie wires to hold the hood inserts onto the hood of my car. They actually drilled tiny holes through the inserts, put the wire through the holes on one side then back through on the other side, then they ran the wire through two holes on the hood and twisted the wires together with pliers. The inserts would sort of "float" above the hood, as I drove down the highway, the wire being the only thing preventing them from flying away.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...ting-hood.html

z-man92

New2Chevy

iTrader: (11)

ha ha ha....whatever works I guess.

iroc a 86 berli

settle down there "capitan caps lock".
there are people on this site with functional trailer hitches. one guy tows his racing wheels and tires to the autocross track i believe. i dont think its considered ghetto.

Iroc-Z28Man

I've seen nicer cars with trailer hitches. Theres a old guy around SW PA with a real nice First Gen camaro all arbrushed and stuff with a trailer hitch. his trailer is a another first gen cut in half from the back of the doors. It actually is a really nice combo both pieces are painted the same.

z-man92

Quote:

Originally Posted by iroc a 86 berli

settle down there "capitan caps lock".

Capt Caps lock?!?! Where does that come from and what does that mean? I don't know you, you should have some respect before you start calling people names.

I'm not doggin' trailer hitches on cars, but when you put a trailer hitch on a car that is already structurally inferior to a hardtop because the original hardtop was cut off, it's not just ghetto, you are an idiot in my book. That's why GM would only put up to a 5.0 liter in the convertibles, because of the torsional twisting issue already. Plus without the huge back window on the coupes that weighs a ton, I would think the rear end could get squirrely easier. I don't have my owners manual, but I can about bet GM did not recommend towing stuff with a third-gen camaro convertible.

Hard top...fine.

z-man92

Just what I was talking about in previous post.......... Convertible fellas, not coupes...little light trailer, maybe OK, even with a vert .... but double "jet-ski" trailers weighing half of what the car does being backed into the lake on a wet ramp -
I DON'T THINK SO!


Now with that said, everyone sit down, sing a verse of "Kumba-ya" and relax!