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The Best Of PO and CO stories

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A gentleman I know has one of those German sportscars that doesn't belong on this site. But the story fits well here. The car suffered from rust and as the tub sagged, the DPO simply gound the bottom of the door off to allow it to close properly. Wasted an otherwise perfectly good door.
 
Flinky's story reminded me of another story. In a previous life I installed fence. Spring was always a very busy time. We would hire a couple of extra guys to help with the overload.
We hired one guy who was a bit shady. In his younger years he stole cars to chop up and sell. His current automotive endevour was buying wrecked Spitfires, making the cheapest repairs possible, painting and selling them to unsuspecting buyers. Some of his cars were pieced together from several wrecks. He wasn't a good welder. When he spliced frames he would weld, grind the welds then bondo over the welds to create a smooth joint before painting the frame. For rust repairs he would stuff crumpled up aluminum foil into the holes then lay on the bondo. He used to use rags for fillers but changed to aluminum foil. For paint he had a source for Certauri (sp?) whose shelf life had expired long long ago. The only color was a dark copperish brown. I was maybe 20 or 21 at the time and didn't think to do anything about it. This all happened in Southern New Jersey in the early to mid '70s. So watch out for any Spitfires that may come on the market from the area.
 
Although not an LBC, I always found this picture funny....
 

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hehehehe...../ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif
 
I was working on the engine of the project TR250, I was reinstalling the coolant hoses. I had purchased a "complete" set from TRF which had all of the hoses you need. I had installed them all and still did not have enough. I took out my Bentley shop manual and began looking at the cooling system. Something looked very different with the return pipe that goes from the control valve to the water pump. My return pipe had three hoses, and two bends. The hoses were red and black flexible hoses, one came around the the carbs, a second hose in the middle of the pipe where the pipe broke, and a third came back in to the water pump, where the fitting was completely rotted over. Looking at the manual I realized this was supposed to be one long pipe under the exhaust manifold. I had to reorder the pipe and the fittings, which took a month to get all these parts. Of course, I cheated and fit the pipe in from the top without removing the exhaust manifold. It took a lot of bending to get it to fit properly. Each setback on a project car eats away lots of time. I think this was a "lets do this until we order the parts in job". As in a temporary fix that never went away.

My current TR4A has two cuts in the frame rail outriggers, past the trailing arms. The PO had made his own set of sway bars (which I have) and cut through the frame. I will forgive them though, I'm the third owner, and the rest of the frame is completely rust free. I doubt the car was ever driven in bad weather. What I can't quite forgive is the "Nugget Gold" GM color that was sprayed on over the white in 1970. This color looks bad on a Vette, worse on a Triumph. I can live with out, I can drive this car!
 

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My brother bought a Jag XK120 FHC that they found in a barn and when we pulled it out into the light of day, we found that it was equipped with snow tires.
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif well it is Canada....I had an MGA that the PO had equipped with snows
 
That would be the rear only in my case......
 
My best buddy in High School Had a new MGBGT, He put chains on it one winter. It was awesome in the snow and ice. Back then an A or a 3 was a classic to be babied, The lbcs we had then we ran hard. As far as POs How does rubber fuel lines running across the top of the battery and The wiring harness had layers and layers of added wire and tape with splices just twisted together or wire nuts that you would find in houshold wiring. I had to tear it all out and put in a new harness. Phil
 
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