How can you do this to your car

[andys]

I had a customer with a vehicle like that. After that was wrecked, they acquired a used Hyundai and within weeks it was full to the windows with ****.

Down the line the SRS light came on and the code related to the driver's seatbelt pretensioner. I could not see the base of the B pillar trim, let alone move things to test it. I explained that the car needed to be emptied out and the customer said ok and picked it up for the day. It continued to come in regularly but he never mentioned the air bag light again. I didn't bring it up, either.

 

[T_R]

The only one I ever refused to test drive is the one I called the dope car. Ford edge, plain looking, no trash. But there was pot everywhere inside it. Just loose not in bags or or joints. It was all over the console, the seats, the dash, the carpet. As soon as you open the door, the smell just hit you. I can't see how you could ever get pulled over in this thing and not go to jail. Female owner, probably 30 or so. The registration was expired, inspection sticker was expired and it had a broken headlight. How she avoided the cops I don't know. My boss tried to tell her nicely to clean it out, I think he said we have an issue with the smell in your car. Next time it came back, dope everywhere and a pack of rolling papers sitting on the dash visible in the windshield. At least she got it registered, still no inspection sticker.

I didn't have an issue with fixing it, but refused to drive it on the road, no way I'm taking that sort of risk.

 

[IBuiltWhat]

And I get all ocd about it if a little bit of dirt gets on my vehicles carpet. I would flip a pancake seeing any cars with trash build up like that.

 

[Gear Wolf]

Thanks for the compliments. It took 10 years to build this car but worth every minute. Except for the value it is so much nicer then the originals. More HP, better brakes, 5 spd, better ride and handling. So many other improvements.
As far as the distributor comment, that could start a multi page debate LOL. I'm not a big Ford guy but the chassis would of rejected a Chevy.

Back to my OP with the **** filled car. I shoveled the front and back seats out and put the garbage in the trunk where it will stay.
It was blowing 30 amp blower fuses under the back seat. Easy fix, the blower processor(resistor) by the motor was shorted inside. Also not many lights worked, it took 8 bulbs.

I didn't look at this job as needing to man up and get after it like some said. It was more about how in peoples minds is it OK to leave something like this to be worked on.
If I was invited to their home I would kindly refuse the invitation.

Well put! I too have a Cobra clone, and I did it for the same reasons you did. I put what I wanted into it and I'm happy. I hope you are too!

80% of the people that I work with that have slick rides can't identify a wrench let alone dream of building a vehicle themselves.

MD/Ph.D means you are very good at one thing. We had a Ph.D microwave a wool blanket here because she wanted it to be warm. When she burned half of our break room down, well...I hope it was hot enough for her. Pure genius apparently.

Why do people have to knock people's cars that are well done? If it was a Chevy Corsica with an eBay electric "supercharger" with stick on body kit then ok...

 

[Gear Wolf]

Guy drove an old beater dodge to a farm he worked at. Got a calf in the spring from the farmer, took it home in the dodge. When it died, he put it back in the dodge to dispose of it? When I put the car on the rollback 2 years later, the mcdonalds garbage covered the dead calf! Normally we would search cars for treasure (tools, money, equipment) but in this case, we dropped the gas tank, popped the radiator and battery then set the car in the crusher!

Yikes!

When I was in graduate school, we had a foreign student that bought a large portion of a cow from a butcher shop and stored it in the back seat of his car. The campus security got enough complaints that they forced him to take care of what eventually became a rotting carcass.

You can get away with that for a little while where I live in the north, I guess, but not for long hahaha!

 

[PugetDude]

Disgusting wife the dude has. Ick.

People are nasty. My friend has a couple rental properties. A piece of garbage woman with bad credit and bad rental history begged him to rent her a nice 2 bedroom Cape Cod house (new roof, fresh paint, new hardwoood floors). He let her move in. She didn't even pay the full $500 deposit. Was going to make payments on it. lol. She never paid another month's rent. And it took a couple of months to get her out. Her boyfriend put holes in the walls, and they never bothered taking out the garbage. Even though the large can is just right outside the kitchen door.

Similar thing happened to my family. We also own a lot kf apartments. One of them in Montebello we had a tenent who was approved by the gm( a stupid one) who paid the sown paymen . Lied on almost every aspect of the application. Paid only 1/8 months she was there. Took advantage of a death in the family to cause more ****. And to evict her would've taken another 6 months probably and a good amount of money. We told her to pay 1/5 and leave. She did and we got rid of her. We had to refurbished the entire apartment.

I had an old family friend who owned several rental houses. Her entire background check was a quick interview, then a walk out to look at the prospective renter's car. If it was filthy, full of trash, etc. it was her indication of how they would maintain her property and she refused to rent to them. And she wasn't shy about telling them why.

 

[Throbbin Rods]

Around 1972 I was working in a garage, customer (old guy) brings his car in for heater core replacement. I was laying under the dash on the passenger side and smelled something really bad. Turned my head and there was a small coffee can with some speedd dry in it and it was full of hawked up loogies and I don't know, maybe pieces of lung? This guy had the real bad old guy cough, 15 minutes to cough once. Grabbed a shop rag and a rubber band and covered that mess until I was done. I about gagged when I pulled the rag back off!

 

[fatgirlbg11]

That's so sick

Sent from my XT1028 using Tapatalk

 

[Kellyblues]

Boy have I got some stories I can post to this one having over 20 years in the automotive repair field. Ive always been amazed what some people leave in their car for all to see. Personally I draw the line at un-packaged *** toys. I have called customers and respectfully asked them to clear the vehicle of personal items and or other debris so repair / diagnose could begin and wont before its done. Only had a problem with it once.

 

[PCMusicGuy]

When I worked at Pepboys during college, we used to get all kinds of junkers coming through buying the 4 for $99 tire specials. People that aren't into cars just don't care. I always thought "if this is how their car looks, I never want to visit their home."

Originally Posted by SILVERPLATE
First off it's a fake Cobra so who cares I guess.

I shoveled out the fake Cobra and while I was at it
I cleaned under the hood. Now I can continue on.

I love it when people call my car a fake Cobra, It's like THEY have a real one.

Off topic, but which kit is that? Superformance? FF?

 

[WhiffySpark]

Here's a different take on it...spend 15 minutes doing a quick clean (gloves, etc. as necessary), fix the mechanicals, return to 20 year customer and get kudos for such great service.

Or attempt to clean up, get stuck with a needle or something similar, and have issues for 20 years

 

[Cairo94507]

Sign of mental illness rearing its head.....

 

[BDT/NWMN]

More weight=better traction
Theft deterrent
Nobody asking to bum a ride
Mobile trash disposal
Expedient visits by Law Officers if stopped for traffic violation
Interior will never wear out.
Doors, outer than the drivers door, will still have the new car feel at trade in time

 

[TonkaJoe]

That would actually be a pretty welcome sight compared to some cars. Seriously, I would classify that as average. People are disgusting.

You're kidding me right???? Wow

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

 

[itb76]

That's worse than my kid's car! By a lot actually. He can work on it but never got the knack of keeping it clean.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mjoekingz28]

I have done the same - put on gloves and put the trash back when done in some cases.
Seen the hairy Evaps before, too...you have the right idea. Put the gloves on and clean yourself up when done.

Some of you must really have it well, being able to dismiss jobs at will, because the vehicle is used as a rolling trash can. Some of the people driving those cars don't really realize the condition they are in, some are just lazy slobs, but...

You know what? They are still paying customers. You cannot control anyone's cleanliness, unless it's under your own roof. **** it up, put on your big boy pants and do the job. Yeah, it's disgusting, and I once felt the way many of you do - especially when asked to do a heater core on van that had cow sh!t INSIDE of it, on the dash, carpet, everything. I didn't take that job, but you know? Someone did, and made quite a bit of money on that job, and probably gained a long term customer. I later found out the people that owned that van were busy farmers, running a VERY successful business, this was one of the vehicles for the "hired hands" to run in the fields with. Their own, private vehicles were well kept and none too cheap, nor did they flinch at spending "whatever it took" to keep their vehicles going. Be careful who you decide to alienate, because (sometimes) you just never know who you're really dealing with; and there may be a time when the shop isn't generating the kind of money it used to. That's when you'll learn to appreciate a customer for being a customer.

Maybe a dust mask, or if bad enough, a respirator!

 

[BDT/NWMN]

But why are you driving your moped today? More room, silly...

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Originally Posted by SILVERPLATE
First off it's a fake Cobra so who cares I guess.

I shoveled out the fake Cobra and while I was at it
I cleaned under the hood. Now I can continue on.

I love it when people call my car a fake Cobra, It's like THEY have a real one.

How true! There are something like 150 times more replicas than original Cobras were ever made. Funny is, I've never met a replica owner that claimed it was real and there are many, many more claimed "real" Z/28s on the road than GM ever built.

Tommy

 

[Lassen Forge]

Here's a different take on it...spend 15 minutes doing a quick clean (gloves, etc. as necessary), fix the mechanicals, return to 20 year customer and get kudos for such great service.

Or attempt to clean up, get stuck with a needle or something similar, and have issues for 20 years

DING DING DING DING DING!!! Winner winner chicken dinner! Uness you really want to come to their AIDS...

I won't work inside of a car that looks like the owner is a student at Meth U. I've cleaned up too many homeless encampments (in the early days of my present job at DOT) where those futsbucks will not only leave hypos around, but set them up as booby traps. Part of the reason I promoted away from that ****. Imagine doing wiring troubleshooting under someone's dash and getting stuck in the back of your neck...

Sorry, but I'll turn that kind of work away - I kinda like living and not having to get tested every so often just incase you got stuck and didn't notice it. If you want to take the risk, fine. Me? You clean out this s***hole and I'll work on it, otherwise you can try one of the other local shops (who have, surprisingly, the same policy)...

 

[jd_1138]

A local whack job lady who frequents McDonald's has an older Ford Taurus that heavily lists to the rear and to the right due to the car being filled from top to bottom with junk/detritus.

It's simple to keep a car clean. Remove the trash and throw it all away and then take the useful stuff inside the house.

 

[danscobra6]

When I worked at Pepboys during college, we used to get all kinds of junkers coming through buying the 4 for $99 tire specials. People that aren't into cars just don't care. I always thought "if this is how their car looks, I never want to visit their home."






Off topic, but which kit is that? Superformance? FF?

Frame, body and a few parts I couldn't reproduce are from Hurricane Motorsports. Other parts are either made or resourced from all over the place.

 

[danscobra6]

Originally Posted by SILVERPLATE
First off it's a fake Cobra so who cares I guess.

I shoveled out the fake Cobra and while I was at it
I cleaned under the hood. Now I can continue on.

I love it when people call my car a fake Cobra, It's like THEY have a real one.

Just to be clear It was not the Cobra that needed shoveling, it was the car in the original post.

The messy car is was picked up by the messy kids dad. I nicely said if your daughter's missing any of the junk that was piled up in the car, It's in the trunk.
He didn't say anything except did you get the radio to work, that's her only concern.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Your Cobra is badass! As stated above, I'll take a repro Cobra over an original any day for a driver. One of these days I'd like to build one of those extended wheelbase Factory 5 cars for a track toy. I'm not one for polishing my cars, so a more race orientated build is what I would shoot for.

 

[danscobra6]

How true! There are something like 150 times more replicas than original Cobras were ever made. Funny is, I've never met a replica owner that claimed it was real and there are many, many more claimed "real" Z/28s on the road than GM ever built.

Tommy

I'm certainly not new to the build process taking 10 years to do it but I am real new to the peoples comments. It's always is it real or who's kit is it.
Then you get the ones that say, it's just a fake or just a kit car. Then the other day I was driving home and traffic was slow. A guy coming from the other direction got real close and flipped me off.
Then there are the compliments. Several people at a 260 car car show said that is the nicest car I've ever seen. That makes up for the others.
More to your point Tommy, whether you have a clone, copy, replica, whatever. If it's a nice car and your proud of it there really is no need to misrepresent it. But you're right it does happen a lot.

 

[danscobra6]

Your Cobra is badass! As stated above, I'll take a repro Cobra over an original any day for a driver. One of these days I'd like to build one of those extended wheelbase Factory 5 cars for a track toy. I'm not one for polishing my cars, so a more race orientated build is what I would shoot for.

One of their spec racers would be a really fun car. Not sure of the wheel base, mine is 90". Except for the pretty paint and stuff this car is ready for the track.
4 wheel disc, Q1A coil overs, road race pan on a 563 HP 427, Tremec 5 spd. Ford 9" and 370 gear. That should get er done.
I'd love to do the road coarse just out of curiosity.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

4 wheel disc, Q1A coil overs, road race pan on a 563 HP 427, Tremec 5 spd. Ford 9" and 370 gear. That should get er done.
I'd love to do the road coarse just out of curiosity.

At least you used the "proper" engine. I'm REALLY tired of 200~ HP 5.0s in those cars...

Tommy

 

[Adriel]

Getting rid of dog smell...

For some reason I read through this, and perceived an undercurrent that all dog owners have vehicles that stink and don't care. First off, stereotypes like this are flawed. I have a Golden Retriever Service Dog and have to have her with me. I have vacuumed best I can, but dog hair gets everywhere (even found behind trip from P.O.'s long gone dog). I wish I could make it not smell like dog as only my occasional guest can smell it, as what is familiar we can't smell.

I really like y'alls idea of clearing out at the station. I am forgetful after the concussion and since only a piece or two, not noticeable, unlike all the mess shown here.