Goofy things done by PO?

[steve911]

Other than selling their car to each of us, that is.

After spending a few hours this past weekend 'playing with the Porsche' (as my wife puts it), got to thinking there must be some very good stories out there of things found done to the car by the PO.

My latest two:

Battery was swapped out some time in it life, replaced by a DieHard. Found that the battery not held down by anything - though there was a 2x4 wooden block stuffed in front of it to keep the battery from sliding forward.

Foglights were turned 180 degrees, so that the light was reflected UPWARD into the fog.

Others?

[pohsche]

Just spent the last 2 1/2 years fixing po's "repairs".
1. Used extension cord piece to rewire taillights.
2. Traded original 16" Fuchs for 15" aftermarkets
3. Traded the rear Bilsteins for Boges
4. Used garden hose for oil breather lines.
5. Had the interior redone at a pretty hefty price with a vinyl soooo cheap, it looks like what you buy at K-Mart.
6. Put in all red guages that must have cost at least $1.25
Many more things, but it is all perfect know. Well almost, if I can get the clutch helper spring back on!

Alan Poh
'77 Carrera 3.0

[oldE]

POs have been charged and found guilty of:
Installing "tea tray" rear wing on a '69 E
Losing the seat belt latches when replacing the seats with Recaros
Raising the car with a jack under the floor in the area of the driver's seat.
Setting the rear ride-height sooo low (how low was it?) the heat exchangers scraped ... a lot.
Installing a split-ring on a fuel line in the engine compartment in the vain attempt to prevent fuel from escaping into the afore mentioned compartment.
Losing the horn-actuating pin behind the steering wheel pad.
CO (current owner) guilty of:
Buying the poor old abused thing.
Spending most of the first winter making things better.
Knowing there's a long list of things which still need to be put right but being OK with this.
Long Live The Long Hoods!
Les

[Early_S_Man]

Here's one for the record books ... twin lawnmower/motorcycle battery installation! Must have had about 25-30 Ah total capacity! There were scrap 2 x 4's on both sides of each battery to keep them from rattling around and shorting out! The OEM bronze battery post connectors were gone, replaced by welding cable lugs. The 'factory' battery positive connectors were over $10 each ... in 1978 ... to install a 'proper' factory set of twins!

[wckrause]

One of my previous owners installed cheap speakers into the rear side panels. He just cut a X in the vinyl through the padding and wedged the speakers in there. Nothing was holding them in except for the padding.

[s2per]

My first Targa, a '75 Silver Anniversary edition, must have been too plain for one of the POs. He installed lace decals at each hood and rear deck corner, and THEN had the whole car clear-coated.

Nothing that an all-over strip and paint wouldn't cure, but.....

He also had a top-of-the-line (I'm told) remote mount CB radio and screwed the mike clip directly onto the ashtray. Even worse, he drilled a 3/8" hole through the s/s Targa band to mount a big goofy CB antenna.

[David McLaughlin]

1. PO sprayed non-curring undercoating (tar) to floors inside and out, both trunks (NARP 914), engine bay, rockers and valances. Every time you touch this stuff, you get blackened.

2. 3 bolts holding outside point of trailing arm on left but only two bolts on right. PO tried to drill out the snapped bolt, but gave up. And I tried to autocross like this?

3. One 7' sealed beam HL and one beat H4.

I'm expecting more to come as the restoration continues.

[turbo dave]

Several loose and missing/broken bolts for the seats (which I found after I did two DE's, using the seatbelts that attach to the stock seats-yikes!); sprayed yellow paint in the interior without removing or properly masking the vinyl; put the roll bar in with different bolt/nut combo's in some places (like, english bolt/metric nut); put on 7" wheels/205 tires with 0 to slightly positive camber in the back (didn't find out till I got it home, 200 mile drive- tires are cut on the sidewalls); put strange, non-automotive fuel line fittings...

It's like when you buy a house- the previous owner hating experience starts soon, lasts long.

[racemor]

There were a few stupid things, the single battery with 2x4 holding it in souds too familiar. But the best has to be the 1984 Chevy Monte Carlo door pull added to the door panel.

tm

[Chuck Moreland]

He left his "stash" under the dash.

I found it after several years of ownership while doing some wiring work back there. A small vial, nearly empty.

It was the eighties.

[Doug E]

Tom (racemor) - that now explains why you all were pulled over on your way to Hershey!

[Milu]

On one car the po diligently wrote what work he'd done and useful notes on luggage labels and then attached it with a twist of wire to the general area. Very helpful, except he removed nearly all the labels but NOT the twists of wire! I am still finding twists of wire three years later.

[70flatsix]

1) Upgraded Blaupunkt radio by installing a "yard-sale quality" cassette deck and speakers.

2) Lost the master key.

3) Let the car sit for years unused.

[911nut]

I guess I'm fortunate that the PO of my SC wasn't mechanically inclined so my car was relatively unmolested. However, the PO of my 1970 big block Corvette was a real genius. While I was working in the engine compartment I found out how he kept the wiring straight when he swapped engines; he cut the wires instead of unhooking them. Better yet, he re-connected them by twisting them together. I was tipped off when I noticed that every connection was insulated with masking tape. Then there was the windshield washer pump and reservoir from a Chrysler that he grafted in but that's another story....

[pwm74]

porsche key pouch under the seat filled with not drugs but condoms,

a in dash radar detector with every color led in the spectrum,

a 70's alarm with a fire alarm bell and about dozen toggle switches around the car.

[MonkeyBoy]

Mine had a trailer hitch attached to the back. Easy enough to remove, but wtf was he pulling?

[tummi]

Mine didn't want to spring the bucks for a new warmup regulator so he rigged a little button to the dash that manually activated the cold start valve. Whe he started it up on the weekends he would pump that little button furiously for a minute or two along with the gas pedal until the engine got warm enough to run on its own. Made me wonder if this non-conventional procedure was a little abusive to a cold engine, but everything checked out ok.

[rvanderpyl]

"Piece of 2x4 holding the battery in", hey, me to, did someone make a living stealing the original hold downs??

As for the rest it was the basic lets update the car so it doesn't look like a 68, so... blacked out all trim, flag mirrors, some American Racing mags with lugs nuts that you JUST cannot buy anymore. A 2.2 T motor with K&N Air filters, various sundry wires cut in the back and just left hanging.

At least it was cheap.

[Superman]

FWIW, those battery hold-downs, the ones that are an angled piece of steel with a hole for a bolt, are the same as in VW Rabbits. If you need one and you're as cheap as I am, you'd get it at a junk yard.

The POs of my car were nice enough to generally leave it alone and replace stock parts with stock parts, so I have no ugly stories to tell. But I will disclose that I say a M/C, lawnmower battery in Randy Wells' white autocross SCCA bully. You may be aware he has built that car specifically to be competitive in a particular SCCA stock class. When I asked him about it, he grinned and said two batteries are required in his car, since it was sold new with two batteries....but that there are no rules about what kind of battery is required, or even whether or not it is connected with the car's electrical system. I grinned too.

[KTL]

PO cranked up the front t-bar adjusters to maximum so the precious 993 replicas (Cup 2?) and RE-71's would stop rubbing and cutting. Headlights pointed to the sky at night! Other night drivers must have hated me.

The alarm system remote would not work unless you twisted it as you pushed the button. I had yet to master "the technique" while at a friend's house (same day we bought it), so he literally ripped the brain out of the trunk when we couldn't shut off the alarm.

Neither of the above two nitpicks are outrageous, but they were irritating nonetheless. "It's like a brand new car", said the PO. Fair car when I bought it, but hardly new. Should have walked just on principle for a stupid comment like that one. Mechanically, the car was pretty good and the price was decent, so I rolled the dice. Wouldn't mind seeing the buckethead today so I could show him how mistaken he was regarding the condition of the car.