Bodges

[Murrayminor]

I don't mean this to be a list of how to bodge jobs but just a rant at the stupidity of some people.
As some of you will be aware ( I will have probably asked some stupid questions) I'm currently renovating a 1965 Morris Minor 2 door but just on this car I have found some horrible bodges such as:

Denso tape covering rust holes and then undersealed over
Body filler in the corner of panels when a tiny bit of welding would have saved the panel
copious amounts of underseal covering clearly already rusty panels
Repair Panels welded over repair panels
Sill panels left full of crud following a bit of welding, which of course has started to rust again.
Someone even filled the rear most panel (under the boot lid) with filler and used the old wet and dry paper to fill the hole first.
The list goes on, I have started at the rear of the vehicle and working my way forward so who knows what I will find as I go along.

What bodges have you seen on your car?

By the way if anyone knows the previous owner of FBF 161C I would like a word.

[Nickol]

Oh the underseal cover up! Not on my Morris but on the Triumph I saw that the rear chassis had failed a British MOT on a Tuesday and then after a quick underseal cover up, passed it on Thursday. Spent a whole winter underneath the car scraping all the black stuff off , being vicious with the hammer to locate the weak steel and then welding it up . Was going to write "properly" but I had at teh time not really mastered the welding techniques. Even though it is solid enough now and did satisfy the grumpy TüV tester, so it cannot be too bad.

[panky]

How about this lovely spring hanger repair, nicely finished off with a squish of filler





Plenty more where that came from

[SteveClem]

As a student, back in the early ‘70’s, a few friends and I bought a Minor. There were big holes in the floor. We liberated lot of old beer cans from the back of the union bar, flattened them, riveted them together and stuck them to the floor. A bit of carpet and a lick of under seal.
Mot wasn’t a problem and we ran the car for 2 years before selling it on at a small profit!
The things that you do when you are young and daft...

[Myrtles Man]

My favourite bodge story appeared in a car magazine many years ago. A Reliant Regal van offered as a trade-in seemed to be riding a little low on the offside rear corner. Suspecting collapsed suspension, the garage guy had a closer look and it transpired that the thing had had a rear-end shunt at some stage and the bodywork repair had been done, not with fibreglass, but with chicken wire and concrete!

[ianmack]

How about seized and leaking front brakes sorted by crimping the front brake pipe shut? This on a Jaguar of all things!

Not by me I hasten to add!

[Murrayminor]

How about seized and leaking front brakes sorted by crimping the front brake pipe shut? This on a Jaguar of all things!

Not by me I hasten to add!

I actually spoke to a motorcycle rider once who was skidding to a stop at the traffic lights on more than one occasion on his Kawasaki 600.
The reason soon became clear, he had no front brake pads in and the hoses were also crimped off, his excuse was the pads were squealing so he removed them!!

[jagnut66]

How about seized and leaking front brakes sorted by crimping the front brake pipe shut

I actually spoke to a motorcycle rider once who was skidding to a stop at the traffic lights on more than one occasion on his Kawasaki 600.
The reason soon became clear, he had no front brake pads in and the hoses were also crimped off, his excuse was the pads were squealing so he removed them!!

Brings to mind the theme tune from the seventies TV series about the Korean war M*A*S*H, which featured the words: 'Suicide is painless'......
Though I think for these two it would have been anything but..........
The next line goes: 'It brings on many changes'
That would certainly of been relevant to them (and none of them pleasant)...........

Mind you I'm still laughing at the

chicken wire and concrete

solution!

Best wishes,
Mike.

As a postscript, my first car was a Morris Marina, which featured the optional extra of 'in floor ventilation', with which it passed at least two MOTs!
My friends at the time most admired the highly illuminating 'two candlewatt headlamp power' though..........

[cococola]

I bought a Minor 2 door about 8 years ago off ebay and the seller offered to deliver it from London for £100, bargain I thought so at 6.30am the following morning I get a knock at the door with the vehicle on the back of a trailer and in the dark.
Unloaded and gone very quickly I found out why when I got the car into my garage.
The floor was made up of cardboard/wire mesh and filler covered in underseal and one rear spring hanger was covered over with a piece of metal sheet that was pop riveted and undersealed.
The seller told me I had bought the car sold as seen and was not very polite but on a plus side, I learnt my welding skills on the car and kept the car for 4 years until I part exchanged it (in decent condition) for my current Morris Convertible.

[Murrayminor]

I think mine was owned by the same owner!!

[Myrtles Man]

Back in the sixties my mate Sam used to buy a car for next to nothing, run it for weeks or months (the better ones) then, when it conked out irretrievably, take it to the local scrappy who gave him either a fiver or a tenner for the remains. Unsurprisingly, he had some 'interesting' vehicles, several of which I borrowed, one of which comes to mind was an Austin Somerset that had its share of tinworm. While he was driving along, proudly demonstrating this new acquisition to me, I asked him about the tin funnel tied with string to the driver's sun visor. "Oh, that's to direct the rain that leaks in between the windscreen and the frame away from my lap," he said. "Here's another great facility," he went on. He then leaned his shoulder against the B pillar and dropped his fag end on to the road via the gap between the bottom of the pillar and the floor. "Saves winding the window down," he explained.

[Murrayminor]

Back in the sixties my mate Sam used to buy a car for next to nothing, run it for weeks or months (the better ones) then, when it conked out irretrievably, take it to the local scrappy who gave him either a fiver or a tenner for the remains. Unsurprisingly, he had some 'interesting' vehicles, several of which I borrowed, one of which comes to mind was an Austin Somerset that had its share of tinworm. While he was driving along, proudly demonstrating this new acquisition to me, I asked him about the tin funnel tied with string to the driver's sun visor. "Oh, that's to direct the rain that leaks in between the windscreen and the frame away from my lap," he said. "Here's another great facility," he went on. He then leaned his shoulder against the B pillar and dropped his fag end on to the road via the gap between the bottom of the pillar and the floor. "Saves winding the window down," he explained.

Amazing how many cars were on the road like that, but with this MOT exemption more and more are going to be dragged out of the fields and straight into service.

[alawrence10360]

My first car was a C reg Traveller
Whilst driving round a bend slowly the passenger side wheel collapsed / fell off
A common problem I was told
No problem to my girlfriends dad who was a blacksmith
After banging away with an assortment of hammers for two hours underneath the wing it was fixed , no parts required!
His parting words on completion were “ you best sell that at auction son, as soon as you can “
I carried on driving it for six months with his daughter in the passenger seat with no issues
I eventually did what he suggested and sold it for £65
I dread to think what he did ..

[ampwhu]

you could look at this subject in many different ways.

the person who originally did the bodge/cover up may have been unaware of what it was they were doing. I mean, they may have had no money to repair it properly or were trying to sell the car onwards to an unsuspecting punter.

they may have thought that the 'repair' they were doing would actually be sufficient. come on, we aren't all structural engineers are we?

the sight of a rusted panel might have look terrible. a quick bit of foil/cardboard/old cooker would look quite attractive with the right amount of filler and paint. not a colour match but there or thereabouts

all this put filler in structural areas of any car is not a good idea. it's not something I would advise. I would hate to think what would happen if the car rolled or was involved in a fight with a bigger car that it. i'd think that if the person would walk away from something like that, they would learn and pass on the advice. but you'll never know that.

thankfully I've always fixed any serious stuff the right way. not everyone is capable of this and I think that if you don't know what your doing, at least let somebody look at it and give you some free advice.

[ianmack]

Back to the theme of brakes, this time at the rear. A Lambretta owner was off for a camping weekend and stuffed the tent between his knees. This had the effect of pressing the rear brake pedal so it was binding.

His answer to this was to disconnect the brake cable and rely on the front brake only. This worked until he had to brake on a patch of gravel and he then spent most of the weekend in a&e with a broken arm.

[geoberni]

Back in 1975-77, I had a '69 Mk 1 Escort. It had started life as an 1100, the previous owner had put a non cross-flow Ford 1500 in it, from whatever I do not know and I made it a 1300.
The gear/axle ratios were all wrong which meant I could get away from Lights faster than many a boy racer for about the first 5 seconds, then they would zoom off. I also had to remember I had 1100 Drum brakes, not a 1300s.
One MOT, I think in '76 or very early '77, when the brake test was the Swingometer on the passenger floor, it kept failing the handbrake as too weak.
I took it away, tightened the adjusters until the back brakes were binding a bit and took it back to have it Pass. As soon as I got home I eased them back a bit.
Sold the car for, I think, £120 the week I was posted out to Germany in March '77. A new Forces Tax Free motor was calling me....

The car I brought in '77 was a Vauxhall Viva GLS.
Basically a 1275 Viva with al the bodywork and trim of a Magnum as they were phasing out the Magnum.
So 7 dial instruments, 4 headlamps, extra comfy seats etc, etc. The reason I got that was that German car insurance was purely on the PS of the engine and the 1275 was quite cheap to insure by the standards of the day. A true Magmum would have been very spiteful on the pocket.

[les]

Defending the cowboy. I had to read that post twice! It’s a state of mind, you either care or you don’t !