Project car horror stories

[Dave]

hmmm where do i begin??

a few years back a mate of mine and his girlfriend and myself attended a car show i had entered in goulbourn (ASMF)nats on the way home , my vl turbo decided it hated fuel so it started running so rich i literally had to refill at every station we came to on the way home. i barely made it up the hills the plugs were that fouled.. we spent 3 months looking for the problem. had it to numerous shops i changed everything. even bought a micro tech because after changing literally everything else thats all that was left. in the end it turned out to be the fuel reg!!!!!!!!!

would you believe that i changed that thing 3 times. borrowed a mates, bought a second hand one and a new one from holden. eventually bought a malpassi which dodnt last long before the diaphram shat itself too.

so with that problem fixed me and my mates get into the racing scene.... pretty soon after we'd all be emptying out our bank balances to replace/ upgrade as soon as we got our weekly pay.

i went through that many heads, gaskets, turbo's, gearbox rebuilds etc it wasnt funny


anyway so 2 years ago i decide to rebuild her, engine, full respray paint etc. an (ex) friend wanted to paint the car as he use to be a painter.. no worries i say, he swears to the gods he'll give me a top 10 finish balh blah blah... so we work out a price and i buy all the materials give him most of the money up front and we're in business

NOT!!

everytime id go to work on the car with him he'd go and smoke bongs (which i didnt really even know he did) made him focus on his painting pro ess... load of shit. because the job sucks some serious ass. than hed tug himself over all these bullshit stories he would have floating in his head. (he actually forgot i was there for some of them)

anyway.. id welded up all the holes etc in the engine bay and smoothed it over myself.. he was to get a beater in to give it the once over, but the rest of the car was straight anyway

bills me for the work.. no beater touches the car
paints it in his garage (not the booth id hired) and slips and his leg rubs the engine bay as he gets out.. one shit paint job ruined.

so 2 weeks past and he needs another $500 dollars worth of materials and another grand.. im thinking sweet ive pretty much paid him the total figure


wrong.. 2 days later and he wants another grand.. says im behind 2 weeks in paying him as he now wants a THOUSAND DOLLARS A WEEK TO PAINT THE CAR..... it only has 4-6 weeks left in it he says!!!

so i say fuck this #&^# and tell him to piss off im taking the car back.. he said if i want the car back it be another grand storage

so in the end i wasted more money than a professional full body respray. got an engine bay painted that a four year old could do better than, and the rest of the car has nothing done to it.

he got all my money and i basically paid him 1 grand a week to smoke pot and B/S throough his arse..

i hope he burns in hell

did you smash the cunt in the face, I would have.

[SirGoat]

none of my stories are that bad, i felt myself falling into the trap i think its about the time you convience yourself anything under $1k at a time is a resnoable mod/fix.

I had a 4 month respray take place that still have wavers on rear pannels and started flaking as it didnt have correct plastic primer. But it looked good enough at a quick glance and for most people it was enough. I sold it and got myself an 05 ford boatcon (falcon) from my employeer and cry myself to sleep as i miss my tx3.

I did spend $1400 on the gearbox that litteraly ate itself on the freeway 2 weeks before handing it over * OUCH *.

A mate from the laser club has spent lots on his, in the time i have known him his car has been off the road more than on, this is over 2 years now ... It is a nice little weapon now but the money is a nasty topic to bring up with him. 2 engines, 1 gear box, GTR engine conversion, 2 exhuast systems, GTR brakes, (which requires new struts which sucks since he had new ones anyway), 2 clutchs ... the list is long. A very sweet car to drive when it works

[LaNcEGT4]

My story

Being new to cars, and wanting something unique and rare (bad move) i decided to buy a Celica GT4. (July 2004)

I found the car on toymods, cheap, and would require a little (heh) bit of work to get upto scratch.

Purchased the car, wacked 4 new tires on it, and drove the thing home (from woolongong to brisbane)

Anyways, Got it home, and the problems which i didn't notice when i picked it up.
-Leaking fuel tank
-buggered gearbox (synchro in 2nd)
-no brake pads in the front (metal on metal)
-bent front right gaurd
-out of shape drivers door
-bogged rear panel
-Mystery alarm cutting fuel pump, ignition wire bypassing mystery fuel pump
-Vacuum leak

Keep in mind, i knew nothing about cars, and learnt to fix most of those one by one.

3 months after owning the car, i blew the headgasket on the motor
Pulled the engine out, clutch was toast, gearbox had seen better days, valves were all outta wack.

Got the head rebuilt, ready to put back on. Pull the bottom end apart to notice that a bearing was close to letting go. Rebuild took 9 months, waiting for parts and the like.

Got the engine back together, took it for a run-in drive. Changed the oil, metal in the oil. Pull the engine down a 2nd time. Clogged oil pickup caused by left over shavings from rebuild (not being cleaned properly).

2nd rebuild, put the engine back in. Within a week of running it in, lost 3 points for speeding. The following week, lost my licence for 6 months.

Which brings me to present time. No licence, car at home with brand new motor, just run in. And still have a bit of panel damage to repair.

Atleast it runs 13.6. otherwise i'd consider selling it.

[itsnotagsr]

A cheap car is never a cheap car (if you know what I mean!)!

Then again, I've bought an expensive car that I thought had everything done to it, and ended up doing lots of things again to my own taste!

[PRO30L]

did you smash the cunt in the face, I would have.

you know it took everything i had not to punch his lights out.. the problem was he's like one of those blokes that would probably end up taking me to the cleaners because of it and id be living out of a shopping trolley

i guess ill have to wait for Karma to bite him on the ass

[carcrazy]

you know it took everything i had not to punch his lights out.. the problem was he's like one of those blokes that would probably end up taking me to the cleaners because of it and id be living out of a shopping trolley

i guess ill have to wait for Karma to bite him on the ass

And it will

[Fatboy]

I decided i wanted a racecar so i payed $3,000 for a clapped out RX-7 because i couldn't believe people were asking anywhere from 15k to 35k for racecars that didn't look too flash... I hit the track with a neat car that owed 9k but struggled to make the top 20 in a 30 car field...

3 or 4 years later i have a very quick very neat car that owes me more than 40k (most stuff was done at mates rates including paint, engine etc) - and i wish i'd have just bought something already done. Maybe if i'm lucky someone will give me 20k for it and enjoy the fruits of my labour...

/story

[Billzilla]

If anyone needs some drinking straws to help them make their engine run better, I have a set that's proven to work.
You understand that now I have to have a suitable markup, from the $0.47 I paid for them, up to US$99.99.

[FAT-DAT]

Why do we put ourselves through all this crap time and time again?

[hatstand]

wanted a rally car, something a bit different and stylish. settled on a peugeot 404.. my brothers then boss announced he had three in his back yard, one a runner with a 2 litre motor in it. floors and boot looked solid, slight rust under the a-pillars and one punched in front guard. i got it for $250 in aug '99 and its still at the panel beaters...owes me 2 grand now, biggest prob is he stops work on it to fix every one elses car but mine...hopefully in the new year(again.. ) i should have a lovely safari rally replica....

[Lobster]

I'd love to add to this , but basically , i dont trust mechanics , even friends who are mechanics.. all my work i do myself


That is pretty cool then...

from this ^^^^ to this vvvvv



smashed the screen almost a year ago now.. havent touched the car since (only started and moved it so the grass would grow)

Is that a TE base with the top bit of a earlier model coupe?

Maybe you should get a new windscreen?