What's the worst bodge you've ever found?

Metalhead · Post by **Metalhead** » Tue Jan 17, 2017 7:53 pm

So, I'm stripping my 3G down as it's having a full resto and whilst removing the rear calipers, discs and hoses I decide to give the rear of the sills a tap to see how sturdy they are....

Seems like a previous owner has used badly rusted metal to apply 1cm thick filler and even left two golf ball sized pieces of body filler (that hadn't been mixed with hardener) inside the sill cavity. WHY??

Just as worrying was one of the rear calipers had a non-standard (and non fitting!) bolt in there. Who thinks it's a good idea to use the wrong bolt on your brakes??? It's not like they're important or anything!

I'm now wondering what everyone else's worst discovery was???

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:51 pm

Superglued patch on an aluminium sump on one of my CX's counts pretty high

That a massive

when I found it...

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 12:55 am

The transmission tunnel in a Morris Traveller I once owned had been fixed with filler and cut-up bits of credit card. The finish in the car was immaculate, though.

And a bloke I knew bought a Cresta at an auction, knowing that it was running on only 5 cylinders. He got it home to find one of the pistons was missing. We dropped the sump. There was a hose clip blocking the oilway on the crank journal, helping to keep just enough oil pressure. Why go to all that trouble and not just do the job properly?

Free Ranj Egg · Post by **Free Ranj Egg** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 9:05 am

Well I can list a few...

When my car recently went into Red R @Cutz - Matt found the following

1.) My Rocker cover had sealant on it instead of a gasket.
2.) There were some bolts missing from the gearbox I had recently changed.
3.) None of the bolts on the gearbox were greased
4.) My recent springs changed resulted in the suspension not being put back on properly.
5.) I think when my car when in for the gearbox change the first time, the mechanics somehow popped my CV boot and decided to put it back together using a cable tie.

Needless to say I was not a happy bunny. The lesson I learnt it is that don't go to a cowboy mechanic because they are cheap and take shortcuts. I lost a lot of money (£200) and my time was wasted.

Ranj

Cutz · Post by **Cutz** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 9:08 am

These things happen

Metalhead · Post by **Metalhead** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 10:11 am

Sailor wrote:The transmission tunnel in a Morris Traveller I once owned had been fixed with filler and cut-up bits of credit card. The finish in the car was immaculate, though.

And a bloke I knew bought a Cresta at an auction, knowing that it was running on only 5 cylinders. He got it home to find one of the pistons was missing. We dropped the sump. There was a hose clip blocking the oilway on the crank journal, helping to keep just enough oil pressure. Why go to all that trouble and not just do the job properly?

That's the thing, it seems more trouble to do a big bodge that actually fix the problem - it's unfathomable!

Tusker · Post by **Tusker** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 9:53 pm

Plasticine covering major rust holes in Merc S class bulkhead. Sprayed to match.

AA failed to spot in car check. Car written off, AA recompensed me.

Shiny · Post by **Shiny** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 9:32 am

When Sam was fixing the knackered rear shocks on my Odybus, we came across this. An attempt to stop the damper movement due to a completely knackered bush by drilling a hole and sticking a screw in it...

106pete · Post by **106pete** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 12:05 pm

Found this hole in my saxo gearbox a week before we left for Germany. I can only guess the inner cv joint blew and punched a hole into the box. The plate was badly riveted on and chemical metal sealing it (not very well).

I only found it while doin a service and the old oil came out looking like silver paint! The gearbox drove perfectly tho

Post by **NafemanNathan** » Fri Jan 20, 2017 4:12 pm

I've sorted a number of bodges on the 5th gen since owning it. Two that come to mind though was the lack of support under the battery tray. What was under there was this...

A flexible strip of metal that wasn't even connected to the underside of the battery tray.

Compared to what should be there...

The other thing that comes to mind was the leaky injector, which somebody defintely knew about as they'd wrapped a bit of electrical tape around it

Needless to say it continued to leak