Cowboy jobs

just a random interest in what things have been cowboy'd that you've found on your newly bought car (when you got it)

I've had some ones.

bumper not bolted on just placed on!

that's it thankfully!

Search for Turbofit

When I bought my last car I had:

Brake pads selotaped in place

Steering wheel zip-tied on

Seatbelts had been tied together with some old rope

Passenger airbag replaced with a baloon & footpump

i done some work on a mates car once that he bought. it had recaro sport seats fitted with no runners or framework but were placed on BRICKS f**ck no's how he manged to drive round in it:d

When I bought my last car I had:

 

Brake pads selotaped in place

Steering wheel zip-tied on

Seatbelts had been tied together with some old rope

Passenger airbag replaced with a baloon & footpump

im guessing the footpump was part of the brake pedal setup

behind my dashboard had been attacked by a nutter.. lego blocks everywhere

ali crash bar smashed to bits behind bumper

headlamp/bumper support panel also bent

3 ft scews holding bumper grille on

boot rubbers were basicaly a 13mm bolt head

I had my rear lights duck taped to hold the bulbs in, which had melted the inside.

Speaker wire running uninsulated next to the fuel line

rear offside suspension strut finger tight we found out when I took the lowering springs off it!

Caliper pins seized into the caliper as it was painted with some crap paint

bargain basement silicon hosing and cable ties used wherever possible

that's all I can think of that stuck out as the horrors when I bought my 2nd supra

• Car had a massive sound system fitted by the previous owner, he hadn't bothered re-fitting the boot blind, carpet, spare wheel, tool kit or rear speakers when he PX'd the car, luckily the garage found all necessary parts from another car.
   
  
• Boot light had simply been cut and the wire left bare tucked behind the lense.
   
  
• Induction kit had wrong sized bore for inlet pipe (too small) so previous owner had used small self tapping screws through the connector to the inlet pipe (This setup was binned straight away in favour of my BMC)
   
  
• Wiring behind stereo had been butchered to fit head unit
  
• Rubber sleeve surrounding harness going from engine bay to bulkhead had been sliced (presumably in favour of fitting a power cable for an amp) found this whilst removing charcoal cannister, the gap had been pumped with white sanitary silicone.
   
  
• Front speakers were aftermarket and simply self tapped into the door card, did no take long before they fell out, ripping the door cards as the screws pulled through.
   
  
• The plastic membrane behind the doorcards had been slashed, presumable in favour of fitting said speakers, this allowed damp through to the doorcards.
  

I've now righted all of these fails, hopefully there are no more to find!

I've always thought if a jobs worth doing, it's worth doing right, unfortunately it seems alot of people don't share the same theory

Nothing, as I use Garage786

right first time, every time

he'd blown the clutch and had the rods pushed forward so there was some play in it..... as long as you flicked the pedal up before driving it - which he did just before i got there to test drive it and then before i bought it.

Although not a bought car, but i had aftermarket lights put on my Golf which had no fog light. It failed the MOT so the garage wired a fog light in for me so it'd pass. The following year the same garage failed the MOT on the fog light.

i done some work on a mates car once that he bought. it had recaro sport seats fitted with no runners or framework but were placed on BRICKS f**ck no's how he manged to drive round in it:d

Although not a bought car, but i had aftermarket lights put on my Golf which had no fog light. It failed the MOT so the garage wired a fog light in for me so it'd pass. The following year the same garage failed the MOT on the fog light.

Search for Turbofit

or MAX-GT

My T04R single, purchased with built engine and F Con V, well actually it was stock engine and stock ECU at 1.5 bar !

two wheel nuts on one wheel! three on another and they were all mismatched!

or MAX-GT

Two week after Max GT fitted a new steering rack to my Supra, I was going along the M27 about 90mph when I realised the steering had suddenly become quite sloppy.

I slowed down and limped the car to the wheel refurbishment place I was headed to anyway.

They jacked the car up, took the front wheels off and had look. They found that the steering rack was only held to the chassis with a single bolt - which had become loose while I was on the motorway!

For those that don't know, the Supra rack is only held on with a clamp on the passenger side and two bolts on the drivers side. One of the two bolts is a bit tricky to get at - seems Max-GT had decided the dificult one wasn't really necessary.

forgot about when I had my RP2000 and got some new tires and where I got them put on lost a wheel nut didn't fancy telling me and it ended up in me driving along and my drivers side wheel came off when I was doing about 50 and overtook me and hit a parked car!

never been to a treble B since!

The previous owner of my current car....who I'll not name (but searching will reveal all ) had facelifted the stock J-spec lights himself. He cooked the lamps for too long in the oven and melted the bulb holder section of the lamps. The bulbs were held in by insulation tape

Nothing, as I use Garage786

 

right first time, every time

I thinks it's more the potential "cowboy" who owned a said car previous to yourself, not what cowboy jobs you've done on the car yourself

who was it that had a can of red bull installed by a garage instead of a charcoal canister?

Think that was Turbofit.

Not much here,

However my first red N.A came to me with some monkey installed cd player. Lacking the skill or the simple harness they went at it leaving many wires and only two working speakers in the door.