"strange" Automobile intruder/break-in

[willshak]

Way back when in the early 1970s, I bought a used 1961 Lincoln Continental off a Ford dealers lot (this was the same year Continental as the Kennedy assassination car, except mine was a 4 door sedan). I think I paid $700 for it and the dealer was selling it as junk. There were a number of things wrong with it. The power door locks did not work, neither did the wipers, and some other stuff that I have forgotten, maybe even the AC. Also there was a banging noise in the front end suspension somewhere. When I got it towed home, I set out to find the troubles. In my inspection, behind the driver's side wheel well, hidden behind the splash shield, I found a box with about 8 vacuum tubes coming out of it. I pulled the tubes one at a time and found that the ends of the tubes were split. I cut off the split ends and plugged them back in. Voila, everything worked. I then went looking for the noise in the front. it turned out to a missing bushing in a shock absorber end. A new set of shocks fixed that. I then had it inspected and got it registered. I drove it for a couple of years and then traded it in on a used 68 Lincoln.

[willshak]

Ooops, late 60s

I bought a used 1961 Lincoln

[Ed Pawlowski]

If you still had it, there is a place in my town that can supply parts for you. Or do a complete restoration

These guys have been selling old Lincolns around the world for years.

[Robert Green]

(-:

[Robert Green]

Ah, yes. There's nothing better than buying something broken and finding it's really a quick fix. The electric wheelchair I got dirt cheap and almost new for my Dad had the motor wires connected to the battery by masking tape!!!! They made me sign a receipt that says "runs smoothly" so I thought it was a bad motor or worse. Imagine my surprise seeing wires not even twisted together, but just lying against each other and then wrapped in masking tape. "You mean *that's* all that's wrong with it!?" is a great thing to get to say. The converse feeling is when you discover a cracked engine block or worse. )-:

As for split ends. That was the problem with the 67 Cougar's headlight cover flippers. Dad even got these tiny pinch-type hose clamps but they actual worsened the problem as they would bite into the rubber and the heat and vibration would make them saw through the hose end in no time. I would have used adhesive lined heat shrink tubing if I had to fix it today. Hmm, both were fine Lincoln-Mercury products! Actually, IIRC, the Cougar was a Mustang with a different body shell. As I recall he mostly fixed the problem with heavy-duty surgical tubing that looked weird until road gunk turned it black.

[Nate Nagel]

Hah... somewhere out there there is an old VW Scirocco that I bought ages ago... wouldn't pass inspection because the windshield washers didn't work. Everything was a mess from the reservoir to the nozzles, and every bit of plastic broke when I tried to remove it.

I got new nozzles, pump, and pump grommet from the VW dealer... everything else was replaced with silicone "lifetime" fish tank air hose and brass fittings for same from Petco, at a much more reasonable price. I'm ASSuming that that setup will outlast the car :)

nate

[Ed Pawlowski]

Over the many years, I've had many cars inspected. None have ever checked if the washers worked. Good thing, some did not.

[Robert Green]

Too bad my Dad's not still here to read this. I am sure he would have gotten a kick out of discovering that you, too, had to work around the relatively crappy rubber vacuum hoses that were found on cars of that era. As I recall, the tubing was particularly susceptible to heat and one of the early attempts to keep them from failing involved trying to shield them from heat with heavy duty aluminum foil. I think that only made them decay faster. (-: