Funniest thing you found working on your car

[jcsb]

Well since I'm going through a complete tear down I am running into some interesting things, but this really was unusual. After taking the dash off I found a spark plug staring at me. Looking closer I see where the PO used it and a hose clamp to block off the heater hose. Interesting technique. :highly_amused:

John

 

[Healey Nut]

Cardboard box covered over with fibeglass mat and roofing tar to patch the main frame rails ........Needless to say it got fixed ......correctly

 

[judow]

As Agatha was in many pieces we did find a Manila envelope in the boot. You should know she was up to her axle in Miami sludge a/k/a swamp in a junkyard. In the envelope were every bill of sale from her first transfer to the junkyard. Sure saved us a lot of problems when it came to register her in New Mexico. The next to last transfer was from the wife of her deceased husband to their priest in Miami.. It was he who was responsible for her junkyard resting place. That was an interesting and fortuitous find.

 

[oxford]

Interesting but not Healey: in the fuel tank of my MGA I found a coin. My son, who is restoring a 1927 Humber also found a coin in the fuel tank. Coincidence? Or was this considered to be good luck? Or perhaps a way of stopping sludge from settling in the bottom? Or maybe people were clumsy with coins then? Guess I'll never know. I put the coin back in the MGA. I sort of like that. Part of the originality. The Healey has a new fuel tank so I'd better find a coin to put in!
Matthew

 

[pan]

I once removed a door from my wife's Sprite (can't remember why) and when I turned the door on its side a penny fell out of the door pocket. Australia converted to Dollars & Cents in February, 1966 so this penny had been rattling around in there for quite a while!
Once while tinkering with my 100 I dropped a spanner and it landed in the bottom of the front 'guard (fender to you blokes). I was groping around in there to retrieve the wayward Sidchrome and found my oil filler cap! I'd lost it years earlier when I was careless when replacing it in the driveway of a service station. I had heard it land on the ground but try as I might I just couldn't find it! I had to use a temporary cap until I could obtain a proper replacement but, turns out it was in the car all the time!
Speaking of finding little treasures in the door pocket, in 1969 Brian Dermot, while dismantling NOJ 392 in preparation for restoration, found in the door Geoff Healey's note book from LeMans 1953!

 

[HealeyRick]

Never found anything funny in my Healeys, but the story goes a number of TR7 owners plagued with noises from the rear when cornering later found Coke bottles hung on a string inside the fenders, placed by the unhappy workers at Speke. I suppose that wasn't very funny, though.

 

[kkaa]

Not a Healey, but a Ford Mustang. Pulled the carpet in the passenger side foot well, looked close, peeled back a layer of fiberglass and found a perfect Waffle Iron skillet welded in place!!! HA!!

 

[Jerry]

Found a half inch bolt on the front bumper bar. It was 12 inches long. Not attached, just sticking there. We could not figure out why it was used or what it was used for.
Jerry

 

[Randy Forbes]

When I flipped my Healey chassis upside down, a couple of 1/4" drive sockets rolled out of the black hole (LH front chassis leg diagonal support). They were both rusty, maybe a 5/16" and perhaps 7/16" but niether was worth saving; no telling how long they'd been there.

 

[jcsb]

The plug:
John

 

[AH100M]

I had this fantasy as a kid of being able to go into an auto parts store and ask for a set of spark plugs for my car. When the guy behind the counter would ask "four, six or eight?" I would smugly say "Twelve."

I don't think I could ask for "Seven".

 

[Editor_Reid]

I don't know if it's "funny" exactly, but it used to be quite consistent that my friends and I would find the following items under the carpet in used sports cars:

A bottle opener.
A comb.
A penny.

I don't know why we never found a nickel, dime or quarter, but the bottle opener and comb always led me to believe that the car had seen lots of use in someone's dating life.

 

[LarryK]

I bought a 78 1500 Spitfire for a turn around car. Drove it for a couple weeks and then stripped top to replace and remove some dings and to put on new tires. As I was cleaning the car I found 4 reefers crammed between the seats and the tranny tunnel. Surprise!! Glad I had not been pulled over. They were wet and soggy as top had leaked.

 

[bob hughes]

I found a spare set of keys taped to the underside of the square heater duct leading to the flaps just above your feet. One key was a dead fit for the ignition with matching numbers, the other key had a different number but still started the car, neither keys locked the boot ( trunk).

Assorted nuts and bolts from the black holes in the engine compartment

And a friend of mine found a .22 rifle round in his whilst welding it up, the round exploded with the heat but fortunately nobody was hurt.



Bob

 

[mikephillips]

The trip reset gear from the speedo under the drivers seat. Speedo wasn't apart but when opened up to refinish the case, that gear was indeed missing form the end of the shaft.

 

[Griz]

I bought my Bugeye in 1967. From the first that I owned it the gas gauge would never read more than 3/4 full. I just figured that "that's the way it is". While doing a full restoration in 2004 I pulled the gas tank and the sending unit. Wrapped around the sending unit float arm was a woman's scarf! Only thing I can figure is that someone lost the gas cap sometime in the car's dim past and stuffed a scarf in the hole to keep gas from sloshing out.

Griz

 

[pkmh]

When I purchased my first Healey, I was able to start it and let it idle but couldn't drive it at that time for I had no working brakes. As I was going about tuning it up and becoming familiar with it, I noticed how there was a compression tester extension attached between one spark plug and a ignition wire. Obviously, someone was in the process of testing the compression but never removed the extender. Amazing how revving and idling never gave a misfire or clue of something ever running amiss. And because of that, I was worried there was some legitimate purpose for that being there. Gladly, there wasn't but noticed no difference in idling before or after. Guess that fooled the previous owner, too, obviously.

 

[roscoe]

No comedy during my restoration although I did get boxes and boxes of little bits which, being a novice to the Austin Healey, I had to assume were for the BN2. Of course they were British bits to be sure but they don't fit on this car. Oh, the wasted hours. I do have a suggestion for the spark plug that was in the heater hose. Leave it there, attach a wire to it and run the wire into the recesses of the instrument panel, attached to nothing. This is not for you. This is for the person who inherits your Healey to figure out.

 

[pan]

You are a very sick man, Roscoe!

 

[MikeAH100M]

My father-in-law bought an early 80's Chrysler Cordoba (yes, with rich Corinthian leather) that made all kinds of noise in the rear on braking and turning. After checking everything, finally removed the rear quarter panel only to find empty beer cans, wrenches and an air-driven impact hammer. How's that for an homage to the auto workers in the 80's! I think it was same year that Chrysler recalled more of these cars than they made.