Modding Mishaps: post your blunders

[07nhbpsi]

I bought a 2001 MonteCarloSS at a dealer in the year 2017 for $6000. Preceded to spend another $2000-3000 keeping it running for a year. Then spun a bearing, sat for a couple of years, put a junkyard motor in it, so probably close to another $1000 in parts. It had been sitting too long and now needed new brakes and an exhaust, another $1000. So now I'm at least $10,000 into this thing, so I give it to my brother. Now he is probably got $1000 into it trying to keep it running.

We joke that all the money and labor we have into that thing we could have just bought a new mustang.

That’s the perfect reason not to buy a GM product right there!

 

[scotts90ranger]

I guess my biggest blunder was with the ignition module mounting when I first turbo swapped my Ranger... I had just mounted it to a big aluminum plate for a heat sink and tied it up to something or other. As luck might have it, they need to be grounded but the symptoms ARE NOT consistent, turns out they work just fine for an unknown amount of time then turn off spark unexpectedly, sit for about 10 seconds and it'll start right back up and run fine for another unknown amount of time... Wanna know about the most inconvenient place for the ignition to die randomly? Halfway through rounding a sand dune sidehilling... rolled I think 1.25 times sideways down hill about 300 miles from home, luckily had friends there, got the 3 flat tires aired back up and I drove it back home with a cracked windshield and a cut drivers side seatbelt...

All because I didn't have a ground wire, I ran with an aligator clip ground jumper for a while before I fixed it better...

 

[ZMan]

I bought a 2001 MonteCarloSS at a dealer in the year 2017 for $6000. Preceded to spend another $2000-3000 keeping it running for a year. Then spun a bearing, sat for a couple of years, put a junkyard motor in it, so probably close to another $1000 in parts. It had been sitting too long and now needed new brakes and an exhaust, another $1000. So now I'm at least $10,000 into this thing, so I give it to my brother. Now he is probably got $1000 into it trying to keep it running.

We joke that all the money and labor we have into that thing we could have just bought a new mustang.

How is a 2001 Monte Carlo still worth $6k? I bought a 1999 Park Avenue Ultra in 2007 for a little less than that, and after I had a similar experience to you with it, sold it in early 2012 for $2600.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Just a note on my roll, this was a 4 or 5 day camping trip, rolled on like the 3rd day (I think Saturday morning), got back to camp, cleaned up, parked for the rest of the trip and rode with buddies on the rest of the trips out and drove home on Sunday...

I'm sure I have more, just can't think of them right now... and none that were quite that impactful... buddy in the passenger seat broke his collar bone (more of a fracture, it healed without resetting).

Running a tractor pull in the Ranger without traction bars was kinda expensive, twisted an axle tube (broke the plug weld), bent AND twisted the rear drive shaft, broke the snap ring groove for the output bearing on the transfer case, bent a leaf spring (only one, opposite the twisted tube) and pierced the radiator with the clutch fan spring... That doesn't really fit into this discussion but does add into the expensive stupid things done thing

 

[rick.nelson]

An expensive mistake I have made a few times...I park my cars for too long. I have had two MGs and a Morris that were parked while waiting for upgrades and/or repairs. All developed lower body rust during the year or so of waiting. I currently have a really nice 1987 El Camino SS that was parked while I collected parts for an LS engine upgrade. It now has rust in the bed, and I'll bet it has rust underneath as well. I sold the British cars as projects and lost quite a bit on each one. I'm too emotionally attached to the El Camino, so I'll have to bit the bullet and pay for body repairs before the engine swap. I think that brings up another blunder I seem to encounter pretty often. I become emotionally attached to my vehicles and spend too much on them. My 1999 Ranger is another example. I bought it for $500, then put over $4000 into repairing what I thought would be a $1000 repair. The good news is that I can expect to get another 200k miles from it now.

 

[Uncle Gump]

My biggest blunder was selling all three of my early Broncos.

 

[gw33gp]

I don't recall making any blunders. I really research everything (probably over do it) before I make changes.

The closest I came to making a blunder was trying to install rock sliders several years ago. I found some that were pretty much bolt on and had great reviews. They were made by Rocky Road Outfitters. I talked to them and thought they had exactly what I needed. I think only one or two holes needed to be drill on each side for install. Otherwise, existing holes were used. I ordered them and was excited to get them installed.

Instead of just trying to slap them on, I jacked them in place to make sure they fit before I started drilling. I was having trouble getting them to fit. I tried several things to make sure I was not doing something wrong. I finally realized I would have to do a body lift to make them work.

I did not want to do a body lift and called them about it. They could not understand why they would not fit because they used a Ranger near my year for mock up and fabrication. They actually installed them on it. I sent pictures to them showing why they would not fit. We came to the conclusion the Ranger they used had a body lift and apparently they did not realize it. They told me to ship them back and they would refund the money. I think I was just out the shipping cost to return them.

I just looked at their website and the rock slider is no longer listed for the Ranger.

 

[4x4junkie]

Buying a Rancho long-arm suspension lift for my Ranger. The one & only part of that suspension lift that didn't crack, bend, break, or otherwise have a premature problem after a mere two years (besides the nuts & bolts themselves) was the rear (long-style) add-a-leafs (ok, I guess that's two parts lol).

Another: Narrowing a Dana44 to swap in place of the D35. Prompting the swap was breaking an axle u-joint (along with a couple friends mistakenly telling me the D35 joints were small & weak), which the D44 did nothing to address (mid-swap, I find the u-joints are exactly the same... this was 1996 before TRS and wide popularity of the internet).


Since then, bigger mistakes such as the above have been less frequent. The last one of real consequence that I can think of was buying Goodyear MT-R tires some years ago.