[keith h]

Paying someone $3500 to start off on the restoration and after 3 years having nothing to show for it...

[70&71 TRANSAM OWNER]

Keith
You must hang around the same people I do
at least I was Scrwed by a freind

[1967Tempest]

This is happening right now!!!!

Doing a 4 speed swap the hard way.....

Finding out that I do not have to put the entire car together before realizing that I might not have enough travel on the TO bearing.

Then removing...
linkage
tranny
shifter
crossmember
speedo cable
shifter linkage
and on and on..........



Again....

[goatman65]

Not my car but my brothers 70 roadrunner.I'm the 'mechanic'? in the family so i told my brother i would help put a new windshield in his car.After getting it in with a new rubber gasket i decided it needed to seat a little better in the lower corner on the right side.So while he's all smiles about his new w'shield i walk over and give the corner one last 'love tap'.Guess what happened...CRACK...he wasn't smiling any longer.I felt really bad too.

[Earl74GP]

Well...
Replacing front floor panels outside-No garage.
Was using mirror to look underneath to check rust etc.
Placed mirror on seat at the end of the day. It is one of those
mirrors which has one side that "magnafies". Women use it for makeup.
It also does a geat job focusing the sun rays to a small spot which tends to get
real hot. Just like a magnifying glass. At least the whole interior didn't go up in flames!
Hole in seat is the size of a quarter.

[Earl74GP]

Originally Posted by goatman65

Not my car but my brothers 70 roadrunner.I'm the 'mechanic'? in the family so i told my brother i would help put a new windshield in his car.After getting it in with a new rubber gasket i decided it needed to seat a little better in the lower corner on the right side.So while he's all smiles about his new w'shield i walk over and give the corner one last 'love tap'.Guess what happened...CRACK...he wasn't smiling any longer.I felt really bad too.

This may help me to avoid a blunder. Back window needs a new seal. Will call local glass shop for estimate instead of buying suction cups etc..

[keith h]

Originally Posted by 70&71 TRANSAM OWNER

Keith
You must hang around the same people I do
at least I was Scrwed by a freind

We must have the same friend's ....

[Birdguy]

Thinking it would be easier to mount the transmission to the bellhousing after engine is installed. The car is on jackstands, leaving not a whole lot of room for either my fat a** or the tranny under the car.

After 2 weeks of back pain I realized I was wrong.

[Coach]

Starting a resto without the time to work on it

Getting frustrated when it takes too long to do it yourself

Allowing another shop to work on your car without an estimate first

Not pulling your car from said shop the second you see questionable work

Allowing the owner of said shop to blow smoke up your azz

[NeighborsComplaint]

Originally Posted by NeighborsComplaint

Just tonight I decided I should remove the neon blue pinstripe and multiple hotpink chevy heartbeat "squiggles" the former owner had painted down the sides of my GTO and across the top of the Judge wing. The 80's were over 20 years ago so I figured it was about time. My plan was to remove the "kid stuff" and put on repro GTO stickers for a more original look.

I started with a buffer and compound and proceeded to buff through the paint along the body line necessitating a touch up. The car was painted in black urethane in the 80's that was hard as a rock. I never thought I could buff right through it. I could sand in 1 spot for 10 minutes wth 400 grit and not cut through the paint! I regrouped and figured laquer thinner would take the stripes off without harming the underlying
paint. I figured a quick wipe down, a light wet sand with 3200 and a buff would remove any etching the "one shot" used for the striping had done to the paint.

I spot tested and then did the Judge wing first and it worked great with a lot of elbow grease to get the striping off. I did the whole passenger side in about 4 hours, followed by the driver's side rear quarter and then the door. With the finish line in sight, I got to the front fender and found out the hard way the it had been spot painted and clear coated over part of the striping somewhere in time.

No turning back, so I wet sanded the clear along the stripe and then lacquer thinnered off the striping and the "squiggle". Now I have the feathered edge of the clear showing against the black in the outline of the stripe and "squiggle" and it looks like ass.

A local body shop said "Don't even start messing with it, we'll block, prime, basecoat and clearcoat, wet sand and buff the whole car for $1200 if we can tape off the jambs. That's sounding really good right about now.

Probably for the best. Here is the end result after I wasted all that time:


Before:

After:

[6x400gmc]

In 2005 I bought a pretty clean 79 Formula sans title for 500 bucks. After an engine transplant and a title on the way, I finally had a nice car to drive around with an immaculate interior. One day I noticed that the front body bushings were wore completely out, so I decided to replace all of them. That one project lead to me pulling the entire front clip off of the car for no good reason except, "well I've come this far, I can take THAT off and clean and paint it.." All this with no money, no garage, no experience in what I was doing etc.. After 18 months I put it all back together and sold it - sick to death of working on it.

regrets.

Britt

[Ken Mac]

Putting screws into the windshield washer nozzles on the underside of the hood (car just back from paint). Wasn't smart enough to realize the screws weren't correct length (too long). Almost put one through the new hood - a nice ding in it. Felt like Homer Simpson when I realized what I'd done.

[Formulabruce]

Years ago Welding floor pans in my buddies 73 Dodge charger, put him on fire patrol, spray bottle etc..Im welding and stop, still see light, he has a helmet on to watch my weld quality, NOT looking around at buring rags with wax and grease remover on them., ok fire out, reminder WHO is fireman.. Damn, it happens AGAIN, more rags, from where?>? hehe not sure but he had that helmet on again watching my welding lol. ended up fine in the end..

[JeffersonMo]

Attempting to drive the car without the brakes done

dumbass


dumbass

dumbass

head-on into the bench


well at least the damage wasn't bad

lucky

lucky

lucky


I can see it still but unless you inspect it close you can't tell





it's the wife's car by the way


was a ground up total resto

[JeffersonMo]

BTW

Starting the 79 TA, trying real hard not to have any

[greg4161]

listening to my "good bodyman" buddy saying a long sanding block not needed to prep sand primer before paint. I'm not even a body guy but could have made the surface straighter using long block and using white spray can paint against black primer to pick up lowspots.

[lintmann]

Oh that sucks! My buddy just had his car done by a "pro" and it looks like hell(it's black too). About all he can do now is let the paint and clear fully cure and then block sand it properly, seal and re-shoot it.....

[greg4161]

teah, that's what I'm going to have to do. Sometimes you to take matters into your own hands. Any other color paint you could probably get away with some imperfections, but as you know black shows everything so you need to take your time and block it once and block it right the first time.

[Nikwho]

Working on more than one project at one time and thinking that you can make good progress on either of them.

[Matt T]

Rebuilding the 400 in my 70 Formula at age 16 (no experience). Everything went OK, lots of calls to the machine shop for advice. Back in car and it just won't run. We got it to run--briefly and poorly--finally realized the cam must be off (gas sometimes blowing back up through carb.

Take apart the front of the motor to figure out that when I lined up the cam and crank gear marks I had used the Rockwell testing mark on the cam gear--had to be off at least 20 degrees. (Amazed that it ran at all)

Put it in the right spot and all was well. Thank God for these nice old non-interfereence motors. Make that same mistake on most new cars and it gets expensive fast. All this cost me was time and some new gaskets.