Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

The other day i hear a wrattle in my exhaust. I got home and took a look at it. turns out none of the exhaust hangers are attached. Why didnt it wrattle before? zip ties a giant bundle of them.So i hook them up. working my way twards the headers i see a blob of junk on an exhause connection. so of course i pick at it. one little pick and the blob fell off. upon further inspectioni discoveritssome sort ofsealant. Great someone sealed an exhause leak with sealant not a weld. Thanks to me and my curiosity it leaks again. At this point im a little bothered. but its not over yet.
I went and got a new head unit to replace the empty hole. When picking up the harness a green wire falls down. Fallowing this wire to the end i find its not green its black and has a green wire attached to it. Ive got no clue what it does. Now its time to replace the speakers. well the previouse owner didnt remove the dash pad to put speakers in he simply cut a giant hole in it....... So i ordered a new dash pad and walked away for the day.
All and all the truck runs like a champ so im guessing the guy that owned it before didnt touch the engine and thats a blessing.

Anyone else out there have any funny jerry rigging storys?
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RE: Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

Dont get me started. I could go all day long on ghetto wiring that I have seen. Lets just say, Im amazed more cars dont burst into flames!!

RE: Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

There's a guy in the dorms where I live that uses bungee cords to hold his doors closed, and a tarp to cover the huge hole in his roof.

RE: Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

A freind of mine covered his whole car in duct tape to cover the rust.

RE: Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

I worked at a drag strip for a season and a half and helped out in the Tech Inspection once and you would be surprised how many people take the cheap route with their drag cars. Its almost amazing.

RE: Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

Some of the non-electircal things i have seen:

car in zanesville as I was growing up covered in green carpet
a piece of plywood as a spoiler (painted silver and black of course)
landscape edging (black blastic) used as body kit
Bill might be able to verify this one - a Pontiac Lumina van converted into a pickup truck (ugly creation for sure) running around in Lancaster

RE: Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

With tobacco farmers around here, they will saw the cab off an old scool bus and make itinto a tobacco hauler. I saw one on the road the other day with four lifting blocks on each spring and a big sprayer on the back, they made a highboy sprayer out of it!!!

RE: Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

wow hearing some of this makesmy zip tie exhaust not sound so bad.

RE: Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

found something new to add. I went to install the head unit and couldnt figure out why it wasnt working. refering to my chiltons book i found the old owner removed and changed the factory harnesses wireing. keeping the same plug but changeing the way it was connected. luckely chiltons was able to help me understand the wireing enough to change it back and make it work. thus far the most annoying electrical grimlen ive come acrossed. there will be more im sure. everything i find wrong i am going to redo. that should make things much better.

RE: Why must people jerry rig cars?
 

Sometimes you just have to make do with what you've got...

I've seen old pimping caddies towing a 5th wheel...
I've loaded a quad on to a 1993 Chevy Lumina Z34
Found out that the same Z34 can tow 3 hay bails (the big round ones) and not die...
My friend duct taped the front bumper of his neon, so it wouldn't fall off...