Bad Interior -- Focus Wagon Detail

L

Langley Interior Car Kare

New member
today was a day......i wake up to go to work and see i have a series of scratches...like someone behind me scraped my bumper trying to get out of the spot.(even though i was parked with the hydrant spot behind me)...both on the driver's and passengers sides....the scrapes vary in depth from down to clear to just below it/above it? where i can see like whiteness......so i say...alright i can fix this with alot of work.......then i notice that i have a flat ...

to the local tire guy and he says its not repairable...need a new tire.....but he dosnt carry Toyo's....so i have to call around and i get a local guy in queens who says to come in about 1p.....so i do and he got the wrong model.....close but not the right kind....i have to wait til 4p....so back home.......



ps....the best part.....when i was looking at the flat i noticed my chrome valve cap was missing.............you guessed it.....they were all missing ....somebody swiped them..................funny that i was just reading a thread last wk about that topic...it never happened to me before..............sorry had to vent.........the thing is i had planned to do alot of stuff on the interior today but now with the back and forth.......well there's the w/e.............anyway..anybody got some horror storis to make me feel better while i read about your own miseries!!:( :D
 
Not my car, but way back in the 80's a friend had a mint 84 Camaro Z28. We came outside after being inside an hour. Someone threw an egg at it. We rinsed it off and the egg had eaten through the paint in only 2 hours. He was going to cry. I do not think this car had a clear coat on it. He was so depressed he sold it and bought a new one.
 
In 1983, I had gotten a 1979 VW Super Beetle Convertible.



If you are not familiar with bugs, this was the last year they were manufactured by VW (before the new one). It was as loaded as they come with A/C and fuel injection. It was a collector's item. I was thrilled. It was in perfect shape. I was so happy with it, I slept in it the first night I had it.



It was silver with a black top and black interior. I worked and worked to keep it clean and detailed. I spent every cent I had on getting the car. It was my pride.



The following fall I started college and moved into a dorm at LSU. I was careful to park in a front spot under lights. The morning after my first night there, I went to the parking lot to find the top was shredded. Nothing was stolen out of it, so it looked like vandalism. I was crushed.



Since I was a broke college kit, I did not have the 300 dollars to get a cheap replacement top, so I went and got duct tape and taped it up as best I could. It looked horrible. It leaked badly, there were many times I had to get a bunch of towels and bail out the massive amount of water that sat on the floorboard after rains.



The top finally got replaced about two years later by my grandmother who felt sorry for me. In those two years the car steadily degraded to where it was a piece of crap. It was depressing to watch it slowly fall apart piece by piece.



Needless to say, I have much disdain for vandals and thiefs. God help them if I ever catch them in the act in the future.



They may have thought they were sticking it to a rich little college kid, but in fact their one little act ruined the only prized possession of a struggling student.



Brian
 
But a story. It was 1977 when I bought my first car. It was a '66 Pontiac Star Chief Executive. This thing was one foot shorter than the Titanic. It had a 389 V8 with a 4 barrel and was pretty peppy. Had about 100k miles on it.



I painted the car myself (a horrible paint job, let me tell you!) I didn't mind though. I had an awesome stereo and the car was virtually indestructible. I could fit 5 people in the trunk when I went to the drive-in.



Anyway, my radiator had a leak. I pulled it out and had it fixed while I was working at my carwash attendant job. The shop dropped it off and I decided to clean it with the high-pressure wand before reinstalling it. I had left it to dry for about 5 minutes and heard a pickup peeling out of the carwash. They had stole my freakin' radiator! Those ba$tards!



So, I came across a Ford radiator for free (long story) and it fit in my car. Except the inlets and outlets were on the wrong sides. So, with a bit of ingenuity I got it all plumbed up. There was a steel pipe under my car - part of my plumbing job!



One day I was about 20 miles from home on a gravel road and I must have knocked that pipe loose. No idea it happened - but MAN my car started running good. I was with a friend with the stereo rockin' doing about 65 mph. Was almost home, and my friend says "What's all that smoke?" I looked in the rearview - it was incredible! So I pulled over and open my hood. My engine is on fire. So I close the hood really hard, and it puts the fire out.



Engine was fried. Every piston had a hole melted in it. Car was junked.



If only that loser hadn't stolen my radiator, I may have had that car all through high school. As it was, I didn't get another car until I graduated college (rode a bike instead - they are air-cooled!)
 
Winter of 96, nor eastern hit nyc.



Lots of snow, on top of a 93 black Mustang hatchback.



The car just sits there for a few weeks until everything clears and someone decides to clean it up, snow brush, shovel!!!, and ice pick.



Two hours later I walk out and see the car, oh my goodness big scrapes all across the top of the car, Down to the bear metal. Scratches all over. It was a big mess.



Dents else where due to the shovel hitting the ice on the car.





Thank goodness the car was NOT mine. I tried my best with Meguiars #7, Gold Class Wax, and Meguiars #26 to bring the car presentable. It was then sold.



Jason
 
i remember that storm...i lived in staten island then....the snow drift went half way up my front door to my house....i also remember trying to get ice off one of my side mirrors only to see the start of some spider cracks near one corner of the mirror....i hate winter over here....



ps....i feel a little better...my weather-tech matts came just now from AutoBarn....they are so beautiful...smell great...i cant wait to get some 303 on them and get them into my poor banged up baby!!!



pps...my mom gave me some comic relief when i told her about the chrome caps...she said"well...you have insuarnce..let them pay for it"......moms are the best theyalways know how to make you laugh your butt off.....i wish i could see the claims agents face as i was telling him i want to put in a claim for the valves.........priceless!!!!
 
#1



I had just gotten my 1986 S-10 Blazer 4WD 2 weeks prior to this incident. One morning, I was on my way to work. After making a left turn onto Ashland Ave., I saw a car in the right hand lane. Right when I got pretty close to it, it decided to make a left turn in front of my truck, causing me to collide with it.



After going through the rigamarole of exchanging info and getting down to the police station, we filed the report and I called my insurance agent. At first, the guy thought he was going to get off scott free. WRONG! Right before he got to the door, everyone (including the desk sergeant) motioned for him to come back so that he could get a ticket for improper left turn.





#2

I was a "greenhorn" behind the wheel. My father would let me use his Seville at times to go out. Well, one Friday night, my best friend and I hung at the movies. After we got out of the show, I notice that the Security system indicator is steadily glowing, then blinking as if a door is open. The next day, I mention this to my father. He goes and looks at the car and asks me to come to him. I go and see that the passenger door lock had been popped on this car. Both of us knew that someone was trying to get the car. On top of that, the paint on this particular Seville was hard to find and even more difficult to match.



#3

One frigid December day in 1998, I parked my car at the train station so I could go to work. When I got back to where my car was, it was gone. I initially thought it was my parents (they had an extra set of keys to this car). I called them and asked had they borrowed my car. They told me no. I called the Police. Well, the car was found on New Year's Day in Indiana. That Monday, I had to go out there, shell out $85 for towing fees, and drive the car back. Did I mention the part where it was extremely cold (Like around -10 air temperature)? I had to drive this car back home with no heat (because the morons ran all my coolant out). Even more upsetting was the fact that my tackle box, fishing poles, tape collection, and 165 disks were all gone. :mad:



Want more? Believe me, I have more. :D
 
Floni, I feel your pain (well...a little). I cant tell you how many chrome caps I have gone through. I've had to buy so many sets that I have at least a dozen extras (sometimes the morons only steal one or two)...... I could send you some !! :) If any of you go to those quick lube places, beware! Check your caps before you leave....trust me on that one! :mad:
 
Ooh Ooh I've got one! Story about my first car.

My dad had purchased it new in 1972, it was a 1973 Porsche 914 1.7. He always promised me I could have it when I was 15.5 so I could fix it up and get it in perfect running order. As soon as he gave me the keys to the car and I had my learner's permit, I went in his backyard to get the car, as it had been parked w/ a tarp on it for quite a while. Anyhow, I'm beginning to assess the damage and what kind of parts it requires when it occurred to me that there was a bra on the front of the car. This was before bra's covered a small nose area, this was a full hood bra. Of course, I knew there was going to be some pretty bad damage under it and boy was I right. Upon removing the bra, the hood was completely rusted and was super thin. I took it to a local bodyshop guy and he laughed at first and said it would take a real magic act to make it look decent without buying a new hood. He offered to make it "as good as I can get it in my spare time" and to be honest, it looked pretty great when he was done. I always had to be real careful though, because while it didn't rust through completely, it always did feel a bit weak.

Anyhow, the whole car was painted and finally I decided to tackle the interior. I had the seats re-upholstered and installed a nice little stereo in it. Of course, there's no room for speakers so I had a very very small box built to sit in the floorboard on the passenger side. While the numbskull was installing the damn thing, smarty drilled a hole into my gas tank (which is in the front). Of course you could smell gasoline but it had very little fuel in it (thank god!). I took it out and siphoned all the gas out of it and finally it was dry. I removed the gastank (alone!!) and had it repaired... finally the car was nearly done and it was about a month before my birthday.

I started getting the car all detailed and in good shape the weekend before my birthday because I had plans with my buddy Chris. Anyhow, we head out for the first ride as a legal driver and of course I'm showing off my car a bit... then we smell gas. Being a dumb 16 year old kid, we drove back to his house and discovered that I had blown all the fuel lines (which were clear plastic and almost 25 years old!). We got to checker auto 10 min. before they closed, bought 10ft of fuel line and replaced all the fuel lines before it was time to go out!

After about 6 months of happy ownership, the engine took a nosedive. It was in real bad shape, leaking seals... you name it. Basically the moral of the story was that my dad didn't maintain the car as he should have and I pretty much assumed he had. Needless to say I'm very very particular about my cars in both the areas of appearance and operation because I loved that little 914 so much, and I put so much work into it... all for naught. :sniff:

Here she is, one of the last photos I have.

porsche.jpg


I did find out that after I sold the car, the guy completely restored it and he's put quite a bit of $$$ into it... now it's a reliable daily driver for him! :)
 
1969 Black Plymouth Belvedere with push button tranny, 351 ci and tail fins! It was 15 years old back in 1974 when I was in college in Geneva, NY. Temp was minus 5 deg or something like that and I was in a hurry to get to class, so instead of letting it warm up, I goosed the gas for a few minutes and cracked the crankshaft! Well, they found an old engine to replace the now dead one and it was running pretty good for about 2 days, until the hood (which was obviously not re-installed correctly) flew up at about 60 mph. Really freaked me out!! They didn't have safety catches back then. Again, they found me an old hood and painted it fairly well to match and two weeks later when I was home for a visit, my sister took it out and got the rear end sandwiched between two trucks...totaled!! %$@!#$% Didn't get another car till my '74 Vega, but that is a whole 'nother story...



H
 
My horror story happened just a couple of weeks ago. We were in my wife's 2 month old Saab 9-3 when some jerk kid in the parking lot backed up into us, and then ran off. We got the license plate number, but the police can not find a match for the number and car (It was a mid-90's ford mustang). What a bummer.



The damage doesn't look like much, but it will cost over $1000 to repair, and our deductable is $500. Plus, since they need a week to repair the car, we're going to have to pay for a rental.



The fact that ours was a basically new car really pissed me off. The car will never be the same.



I am still pissed about it. I keep telling my wife I want to go back to where it happened (The Block at Orange in California) and search for this car again, and if I find it...



Bummed,

Dom

1991 Alfa 164S
 
Bought a 1983 Toyota 4WD long bed pick-up brand new in 83. About 2 weeks after I had it, I went to an out of town store to make a purchase.

When I came out, I found that someone had keyed the right side of the truck, from the headlight to the taillight. Right through the decals into the metal.

I took it back to the dealer and $528.00 later it looked like brand new. The decal package alone was $160.00 I kept the truck for 13 years, and the day I got rid of it, I still could not tell where it had been damaged. That's what I call a professional repair.

The moral of the story is, if you have something really nice, (like a VW bug,) some ignorant jerk will get jealous enough to damage your car. It's just part of life. To this day I can't stand to see someone damage someone elses car.



Footnote: The store chain where this happened went out of business a few years later. The store was never rented.
 
once you find a place like that one....it's sad to have it go out of business....i have a mechanic that my family has used for years....he passed the place down to his kids and we all still go there.....it's such a load off your mind when you know the job is going to be done right and you won't get screwed......



all the tales you guys have told....doesnt make me feel better...lol.....it kinda of makes me dissapointed with people...not to the point where i blame everybody...of course not....but just the fact that these...often malicious things can be done...some in broad daylight....makes me a little sad ...not too be over melodramatic.....you know what i mean....like i picture the people that did this....bending down...looking around and unscrewing cap by cap...or scraping the key along Bills Toyota...or egging cars....what the hell goes thru peoples heads.....



but most people are really nice i think..and would help a guy out if needed....
 
I think there might be a way to over come this problem of car vandalism. Park it in a garage and when you drive it, go with a friend and have this friend stay with the car and protect it.



Or just have a really dirty car that no one would care for.



But in Autopia, there are no dirty cars.



All these horror stories almost brings a tear to my eye and makes me want to take down a person vandalizing cars. Nothing major, just make the person kiss pavement.
 
I once had a camaro in the middle 80's. It was about 10 at night as I was driving through our little town and thought I would stop and get something to eat. So I pull on over to the local greasy spoon for a bite. I'm in there ohhh 20 minutes or so and I hear, "who owns the camaro?". I say why? They say "it's totalled". I say yeah whatever as I had just gotten out of it and kept eating. A few minutes later I finished eating and paid my bill, walked outside and nearly crapped my pants. My car WAS totalled. It now had a Lincoln Continental in the backseat and a Maple tree plowed into the engine compartment and passenger side door. So I start looking around asking who just totalled my car?, nobody replies (insert cricket sound here). Until...... I notice this guy holding a bandage on his head to stop his bleading and mumbling something or other to this woman who also looked pretty disoriented to say the least. Come to find out they had both left the local watering hole and although they had a few too many Gin and Tonics, that didn't cause the accident. Their friend fellacio did. Anyhoo my problems weren't near as bad as his because I had insurance, and he had a wife (at home).

There's a few moral to the stories in there so you can each take your pick of one's you might want to learn from!



:bounce
 
I was detailing.......well i was using a SHARP knife to cut the old window rubber from the front of my window last week and WOOOOPS I slipped and did a 4 inch cut into my roof paint :eek:



Now how do i get that Canyon.....err Scratch out of my roof? Its HORROR!
 
I grew up in Jersey outside of Philly. Some of my fellow car buffs would drag down at Front Street on Friday nights. Some nights they carted in pro cars for the fun of it. Somehow the cops never really broke it up for long.



Anyway, one of my buddies from Philly had just detailed his '70 Goat, dark green, and it was perfect. He stopped at the video store and before he could even get out, some clown pulls up next to him and opens his door right into my pal's gorgeous car and runs into the store. No apologies, no sensibilities, no awareness.



So, without hesitating, and without chasing the guy down to confront him, my pal pops his trunk, pulls out a pair of wire cutters and cuts the four valve stems off the offender's ride! Not as bad as a slash, mind you, but it certainly required a flat-bed and four dismounts to roll again.



It's the rhythm of the city - with a touch of Brotherly Love.
 
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