2010's WTF Gallery

admin

Title say's it all.........        Just a few items that came through my doors this year that were less than stellar. Some I did repairs on, others I just wouldn't touch.Grab ya'self a bowl of popcorn, beverage of choice and get ready for some interesting, and in some cases down right scary looking pictures.  This is going to be a lengthy thread, I have many pictures to share this year. It will take me quite a bit of time to post everything and will probably have to upload pics as I find time throughout the day, be patient and bear with me.  Some of these pictures you may have already seen here, some you have not.If this is some of your work feel free to post up and admit to it, I'd like to give credit where credit is due!!!We'll start off with a 1985 Nissan Pick up that I towed in with a bad fuel pump. The fuel pump is mounted to the passenger side frame rail and once removed I found this fine frame repair. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:Next up for your viewing pleasure is a trailer hitch mounted to a three wheeled scooter, not sure who thought that a piece of 11 ga. sheet would be sufficient to mount a trailer ball on, but none the less someone did! This scooter belongs to a Disabled Vet of the Gulf Wars and he uses it to run around the neighborhood looking for small pieces of scrap metal on trash pick up days. This is not used for highway purposes, just a residential area of about 10 square blocks. It costs him too much to run his truck everyday for the small amounts of scrap he picks up daily.Last pic is the new hitch set up, before paint of course. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:This next set is mechanical in nature, no welding on this one.This is a Ford Windstar van that belongs to the wife of one of my customers, it came in with some front end issues that I did the repairs on. I changed out both tie rod ends, sway bar links and left side axle. Two or three weeks after doing this work she had some problems with the transmission and took it to a local tranny shop to have it rebuilt. She brought back to me after only having it back from the shop for a few days because it was, in her description "leaving blobs of gobblygoock" on her garage floor.You'll see in these pictures how the boot on the brand new axle is now torn, the tie rod end grease boots ripped up. the nut on the tie rod end rounded off, the wire for the anti lock brakes rubbing on the axle, the sway bar link boots torn up, Tie rod ends hammered on, incorrect bolts to mount the brake caliper, threads on caliper both worn down from being left loose,brake pad clips hitting the rotor, a broken sensor for the anti lock brake system. She paid $2800 for this kind of quality work. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:more Windstar pics Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:Parts for a job just arrived so time to go to work for now, will upload more as the day goes on and time permits.I am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:Holy cow!  She offroading with that thing?  I would have someone's butt hanging off the end of my boot if that were my vehicle.Lincoln AC225 and CartLincoln WeldPak HD and CartOne hand
Reply:Some more that are mechanical in nature...a 1988 Isuzu Trooper  Someone thought it would be a good idea to use the expanding insulating spray foam to stop a leaking water pump, needless to say it was quite the mess to deal with. What was also found in this mess was rounded off bolts on the clutch fan assembly, wrong upper radiator hose with a kink in it restricting water flow, several stripped threads where the power steering pump mounts to the block (They had to be drilled and Heli-coiled) , a torn up timing belt (caused from the water pump bearings allowing it to walk off of the other timing gears),  the lower wiring harness tied up to the front drive shaft with tie wire, and a harmonic balancer that was beaten off of the motor at some point in time with a hammer, the lower serpentine belt pulley was also free wheeling around the balancer as well. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:more Trooper pics Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:Here's a 2001 Cadillac that was brought to a local Tire store, the complaint was a growling noise coming from the front end. They were nice enough to charge this guy over $200 to change his brake pads that it probably didn't need to begin with. It was still making the same noises as when he took it to the tire store, he brought it back to them, they checked the car twice more and couldn't find a problem, so he brought it for me to look at.Upon taking off the wheel The first thing I noticed was the tie rod end nut only half  threaded on (apparently this was not obvious enough for them to see) , an attempt to tighten it was found to be useless as the stud just spun in the socket. Cut it off and replaced it as well as the front hub assembly with bad bearings that the tire store couldn't diagnose. New hub, no more noise. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:That's why I don't work on other people's junkboxes.  I only work on a car if I personally know the owner or I can take a good look at it beforehand.  Most of that stuff isn't worth the money for the headache it causes.  Those pics are pretty good though...
Reply:Here is a small railing job that I turned down, this concrete work is supposedly finished and just needs to be painted, at least that is what I was told.Just a couple things I noticed right away, were that according to the plans, there is now one extra post hole on the flat part of the ramp, none of the holes are evenly spaced, none of the holes are in line with each other, one hole protrudes from the side of the ramp, and just for good measure, how about that cover protruding up from the middle of the walkway.I'm sure someone was drunk when they formed this site out and it will never in a million years pass inspection by the building department. I find it hard to believe that the GC, the forming crew, the cement guys, and who knows how many others over looked these problems. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:HOLY HELL! I have seen some shotty concrete jobs before but DANG! This takes the cake. WOWYou have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else. Albert Einstein
Reply:I can probably add another 1/2 dozen issues with that "sidewalk" from the picts. They poured over the block  and finished exactly to the top of the blocks, so it will crack 6-8" in on the block line, then at every cell that was filled. Usually they form over the block so there's at least 4" of crete above the block minimum. The reason for the uneven spacing is to make the holes conform to the block cells.  When I used to do crete, I could have left the boss's 15 year old nephew alone to form and pour this his 1st week of work and he'd still have done a better job!Great idea on the picts! I'll have to do this next year with all the F'd up stuff I get some times..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:I have often said that vehicles should come with the hood locked, and only those that can pass a basic mechanical aptitude test should have the key!Miller Thunderbolt AC/DC (Sold)Miller Dialarc 250HFMiller MM251Miller MM200 (Sold)Miller MM130Miller Spot WelderVictor O/A rigMiller Spoolmatic 1 (Sold)
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWGreat idea on the picts! I'll have to do this next year with all the F'd up stuff I get some times.
Reply:Man I have seen my share of cobbled up messes but these pictures take the cake.  I really enjoyed you sharing the new use for spray foam. Never thought about it being used for water leaks or  water pump repair. I have seen it use a few times for Body work .  The persons filled the quaters and rocker panels with  the foam shaved it down a bit then buttered up the areas with a goodly amount of bondo  and Voila a perfect rust repair.
Reply:The trooper is a real gem... thanks for sharing it, great fun .. for usLincoln Power MIG 215Lincoln WeldPak 3200HDLincon ProCut 25Lincoln WeldanPower 225 AC/DCIf all else fails... buy more tools
Reply:Back to some mechanical repairs... This time it's an 85 Vette with some fuel delivery problems. The problem was that every so often the car would shut down and not restart, off to the local repair shop where they changed the fuel filter and sent him on his way to get stuck again. Towed back to the repair shop, they changed out the fuel pump and sent him back on his way to get stuck again. Tired of the problem, the car was then taken to another mechanic who did the same as the other place, new fuel pump and new filter. Same story once again, taken down the street and stuck again.When the car was towed in to me it would not start, no fuel pressure and you could not hear the pump come on when you turned the key. First thing was to check the fuel pump relay, fuel lines, injectors etc...that being good it was time to check what was going on in the fuel tank. What I found was that the boot that surrounds the fuel fill was torn up by one or both of the other shops, the gasket that goes between the tank and the sending unit assembly was torn and a chunk of it was missing. One good rain would have filled the tank with water.The actual problem was in the wiring that goes into the tank, spliced in some new wiring and all is good, no more problems. I can't understand why the other shops could not see the wires that were obviously burnt and damaged. Once again a customer spent way too much money for his car not to be fixed properly by these other places and then had to pay me on top of it all.. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:That sidewalk is unbelievable. No doubt there is some sorry  bastard that would jump on the opportunity to build a railing on it though Not me,  I'd rather go hungry and eat dog food than deal with that mess.ars sine scientia nihil est
Reply:This next set of pictures were from just a couple of weeks ago, My buddy bought a 94 Honda Accord with some minor body damage. He brought it to me for the body repairs to be done and what I found under the car was a big surprise... I had to remove and replace the left fender, hood, head light, marker light and bumper assembly. I jack the front of the car up a little so I can fit under it to get to the bumper bolts. I lay my fatass down on the ground and get to removing bolts when I feel something touching my shoulder, when I was able to get turned around this little guy was right in my face. Trust me when I tell you I was a little more than startled and probably said more than What The F&^k as I was trying to get out from under the car. After I realized it was just a turtle, I looked at his back to see if it was the same one that comes here around twice a year. We put a dot of nail polish on his back a few years ago, sure enough, it's him/her, it comes to visit me a couple of times a year and I always bring him back down the street to the pond he calls home. I can laugh about it now but at the time, he had scared the Hell out of me! Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:Be glad it was only a turtle.  I've rolled over and been eye-to-eye with a snake before.Dynasty200DX w/coolmate1MM210MM VintageESAB miniarc161ltsLincoln AC225Victor O/A, Smith AW1ACutmaster 81IR 2475N7.5FPRage3Jancy USA1019" SBAEAD-200LE
Reply:You get all the fun jobs.....zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:Originally Posted by dabar39I take pictures of everything.....before, during, and after, so that everything is documented and nobody can dispute the facts when presented to them. I suggest anybody that makes their living as a skilled craftsman do the same. It can save a lot of grief in the end.
Reply:dave, you get some crazy projects brought to you!  i'mgonna have to drive by chuck's news stand to see how the railing came out.  Do you know who ended up taking on the railing job?
Reply:That turtle gave me chuckle! It looks like the desert tortoises that were a common pet in the old days around these parts. These days they are protected and not seen as pets much anymore.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_TortoiseCity of L.A. Structural; Manual & Semi-Automatic;"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."Job 28:1,2Lincoln, Miller, Victor & ISV BibleDannyOriginally Posted by BurningMetaldave, you get some crazy projects brought to you!  i'mgonna have to drive by chuck's news stand to see how the railing came out.  Do you know who ended up taking on the railing job?
Reply:Originally Posted by BurningMetaldave, you get some crazy projects brought to you!
Reply:Originally Posted by tanglediverThat turtle gave me chuckle! It looks like the desert tortoises that were a common pet in the old days around these parts. These days they are protected and not seen as pets much anymore.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Tortoise
Reply:Turtle knows where to go for a free lift home after an evening of cruising for chic's!! Definitely like that concrete work.  Could have had some fun making the railing all wonky to match.200amp Air Liquide MIG, Hypertherm Plasma, Harris torches, Optrel helmet, Makita angle grinders, Pre-China Delta chop saw and belt sander, Miller leathers, shop made jigs etc, North- welders backpack.
Reply:Dabar,You need to post the one about that motorcycle side car got and had to repair! That was a good one.Ya gotta spend money to make money!
Reply:http://weldingweb.com/picture.php?al...&pictureid=789
Reply:Had a guy call me up and ask about welding the cracks in the frame of a horse trailer, I give him directions and 20 minutes later this little gem is before my eyes. This horse trailer was towed from Kentucky to Florida in this condition with 2 horses inside of it. I still can't figure out 1. how lucky those horses were and 2. how incredibly stupid some people are. This trailer, after a brief discussion with the owner was cut up into little pieces of scrap and disposed of properly. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:Just stumbled upon these photo's, almost forgot about this one. Woman broke down with her 96 Nissan Sentra and has it towed to a local garage to have the car repaired. They diagnose the problem as a bad fuel pump and get her approval to replace it. Four days later it still won't start and they can't figure it out. They replaced her crankshaft positioning sensor, distributor, coil, mass air flow sensor, and basically anything else electronic under the hood. When they told her it was probably the ignition switch, she decided she had enough of these guys. One of her friends recommended she have me look at it and that's where I come into the picture.I do a few simple tests and find that the car does indeed have spark, so it must be fuel. I trace the problem back to the fuel pump and what I find is that the fuel pump was replaced with a used one from a junk yard and it had apparently sat in an open space for a while. When I took the "new" fuel pump out of the tank, I noticed the problem almost immediately. The  fuel pick up tubes are clogged up with mud dawbers. Clean out the fuel pick up tube and the return line, put it back together and all of a sudden the car is running like a champ again. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:peskie mud dawbersidealarc 250/250 ac-dc tigidealarc 250/250 ac-dc tig #2 used for sticklincoln sp100hh125dual arbor grinder polisher30 yrs of hand tools52 pitch blocks 6p-26prake gauge -pitch gaugeG&D prop repair 918-207-6938Hulbert,okla 74441
Reply:I had this  87 Cadillac come to me with some electrical issues.Guy bought this car and after a couple of days he was experiencing a problem with the car not getting any power from the battery and when it did run the battery wasn't charging properly. A local shop changed his alternator and sent him on his way to being stuck again. Once again a recommendation from one of his friends drops this in my lap. I do the normal checks, battery is good after doing a load test, starter checks out O.K., alternator is putting out about 14 volts, so I decided the problem  has to be somewhere in between these three points. I removed the battery to gain access to the wiring harness and found this mess under the battery tray. In case you are wondering, this is not the recommended way to make splices in battery cables. After changing the battery cables out with new, the problem is now solved, battery is charging, car is starting, and alternator is putting out 14.08 volts. Attached ImagesLast edited by dabar39; 12-15-2010 at 09:11 PM.I am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:Originally Posted by welderShaneDabar,You need to post the one about that motorcycle side car got and had to repair! That was a good one.
Reply:Things like this are the reason I wouldn't trust another soul to touch my rusty *** truck with 290xxx miles on it.  And for a couple years there, I was a pro mechanic!  I've got some nasty stories of customers getting screwed too.  My fav, had a customer tow me a 95 Toyota Landcruiser, horrible rod knock I could hear a mile away, she had taken it to a local quickie oil change place, well they forgot to fill it up with oil and when it started making some pretty awful racket they told her they wanted $800 to pull the head "to see if it had a bad head gasket"
Reply:This is one of the best threads I have seen on this website yet.  It goes to prove what a buddy say's. You can't idiot proof anything. They just build a better idiot!  That horse trailer was  an eye opener !  It scares the heck out of me to see what is on the road. Especially some of the home built trailers I see.
Reply:Here is another older one I just dug up from the archives, some of you might remember this one too.I was approached about doing some welding on this guys exhaust system, but I saw a bigger problem than his exhaust.Here's the link to the original thread http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=29444This link also has a dog stuck in a culvert pipe and an aluminum oil cooler that someone tried to fix with some flux core wire, this is a must see as well. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:Originally Posted by dabar39Here is another older one I just dug up from the archives, some of you might remember this one too.I was approached about doing some welding on this guys exhaust system, but I saw a bigger problem than his exhaust.Here's the link to the original thread http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=29444This link also has a dog stuck in a culvert pipe and an aluminum oil cooler that someone tried to fix with some flux core wire, this is a must see as well.
Reply:This one here was a fun little project on a 94 Honda Civic.Apparently whoever the tire shop was that put the wheels on this car last did not have the proper wheel "key" and stripped out not one, not two, but every single lug nut on this car, all sixteen of them. The owner of the car had gone to all of the tire shops in the area for new tires and was turned away by all of them because they had no way to remove his wheels. I still can't figure out why  someone would knowingly continue on after messing up the first one or two lug nuts when they put the tires on the car.I took a large easy out and had to cut the end off of it so it would fit into the lug nuts, half assed welded an old socket to it, tapped it into the lug nut with a hammer and 30 minutes later all the lug nuts are changed out. Attached ImagesI am what I am, Deal with it!If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!
Reply:Originally Posted by dabar39I'll just post up a before and after picture and a link to the thread if anyone here hasn't seen it already and would like to.http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=32456
Reply:Spray foam for a leaking water pump?!? I would like to sit down with the person who did that and ask them a few questions.. To think they share the road with us.Everlast 250EX (I'm a dealer.. )Lincoln 180HDLincoln Plasma Pro-Cut 25Victor Oxy/Acet OutfitLincoln(Harris) Oxy/Acet Outfit
Reply:Wow, you deal with stuff that just pushes the boundaries. Keep em coming. I just got off a quick job with the USNS and surprisingly some of the WTF's that you're posting beat the Navy's WTF moments.I can remember in the 7th grade my mom said "people will offer you drugs" by the 10th grade I was like, "where the hell are these people?"
Reply:I remember that Dodge, I wonder if it's still running like that.Man that's some s**t right there.However, as a card carrying member of the red neck nation even I know better than that! Not all rednecks are hacks, and not all hacks are rednecks.Brian LeonardAppalachian Ironworks L.L.C.434 Long Branch Rd, Marshall, NC 28753828 649 9966828 702 [email protected]
Reply:When I saw the lugnuts, I thought "internal pipe wrench".  It's basically a store bought version of what you made.My name's not Jim....
Reply:dabar, I thought the shop next door got all the strange "hack" stuff in the world. After further review I think they are now a close number two! Good work!I often wonder if it's that they are so good at unscrewing someones insane work that get's them that "take to Lee Bros, they'll do it".  Matt
Reply:Your "visitor" looks like a gopher tortoise.Very common in Fla.
Reply:in my 40 years in the repair business i dont think i have ever seen such stuff. makes me happy that i am now out of it. i look at some of the stuff going on out there and it is scary unsafe
Reply:here is a recent one i seen.. this is a intake on chevy silverado... the guy called me and said that he had seen a intake that i had done and he wanted to see if i could make him something a little better then what he had made... he came over the next day and this is what he was running SIN CITY METAL WORKSvisit my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/devvon