They paid Stevie Wonder to paint the car.

 

oh dear....this is not a pleasant subject for me....so lets see...

when i bought the car, it was not running, but the owner said basically everything was fine. He said his mechanic had checked it out a couple months before (more on that later) but the hood latch cable had broken, so we couldn't open the hood to jump the battery. Well, I bought the car (maybe not the brightest move, but oh well), and lo and behold, when I paid his mechanic to undo the hood and jump the car (PO then re-charged the battery) he found that one cylinder was misfiring and the battery died because of bad ignition wires. Fair enough I say, but it sounded like I could still drive it home. Then this mechanic dropped (what seemed like) the bomb...the rear brakes were toast, and so the brake pedal had no real feel or action (ie the car effectively had no brakes...turns out the rear brake lines were both bleeding fluid, so pumping the pedal was just spraying brake fluid out the back). So I had the car towed to my shop. Now, this mechanic the PO used was a "roving tech" who didn't really own a shop (and couldn't do things like change a tire), and based on my limited experience with him, was basically an idiot. Now, however, I took the car to a reputable Euro/classic shop (Northern Motorsports in Wilder, VT...highly recommended if anyone's in the area), and they do a much better job.
Turns out the engine problem wasn't just one cylinder, but 2. And it wasn't just the wires, it was the distributor, wires, AND plugs that needed replacing. And the lifters were collapsing and injectors clogged up. After all that was fixed, then Northern MS found that the waterpump was not long for this world....so I got to do my timing belt service early! Hooray! Based on the condition of most of the rollers and seals, it looked like my PO had basically avoided any front of the engine work except for the timing belt and (maybe) waterpump. And while they were under there, they found that the PO (probably the first owner, I bought from the second) had hollowed out the cat and that most of the gaskets in the exhaust were on their last legs.
And that's not even the clincher. The PO also apparently was not a fan of body shops. Now, I knew this going in to the purchase, as the need for body work on the drivers side front fender and passenger door was obvious. I just wasn't expecting the $3500 repair bill that I paid before I got a shot at the body work. The car had been in two (possibly more...looks like some evidence of a slight fender bender on the front) minor collisions. The first involved the drivers side fender. It had been repaired decently - the body work is straight and the lines are true - except for one detail: the PO had let his friend do the work and this friend decided to do the painting with spray paint. So now, about 5 years later, the white spray paint (which has some over spray on the rubber trim and is just a little off in color) is peeling, revealing a lovely dark red primer layer. It looks like my car has the measles. The other body issue is the passenger side door. Apparently it got hit (or maybe broken into...the PO did say that he had a radio stolen), and so the passenger side window had broken. The PO replaced the window, but what he didn't fix was the door frame, so now there are small gaps at the edges of the window which let in air. Its not a major issue practically speaking - the car's heater is phenomenal and keeps the interior toasty even in the dead of winter - its more of an aesthetic one...when I'm cruising on the highway with the windows up, I hear a whistle of air coming in that just makes the car feel....cheap. I mean, granted, this is no luxury car, but still...it drives me nuts and I can't wait to get it in to the body shop to fix.

Ah OK, so that's my rant about the PO...I don't mean to completely demonize the man, he was very nice to me and even helped load the car onto the flatbed at 11pm several nights after I bought it. But he just didn't quite give the car the standard of care I would hope for. On the plus side though, its been a lot of fun to see the car come back to life, and I'm really looking forward to the next couple stages of the process because I can see the potential in this car

 

A spray painted rear fender. The stuff has been flaking off like dadruff... so ugly.

 

I know...honestly, who paints cars with spray cans?

 

.....rednecks....

My favorite so far has been using stop leak to cure a leaking/dying waterpump. Nice. My second favorite has been the CV joints which appear to have been serviced by a team of monkeys, and not grease monkeys mind you, really clean ones who didn't even grease the joints. On top of that they used zip ties to hold the boots on the half axles.

 

Did a clutch job and didn't replace the throw out bearing. Did the 2nd clutch job 3 weeks later

 

My car's PO:

- Didn't tell me about the accident the car was in long ago
- Blew the timing belt twice (I bought it that way)
- Solved wiring problems with wire cutters. Missing lots of wiring when I got it
- Rarely put electrical tape on the ends of said wires
- Had 3 kinds of tires on the car when I got it, only two were the correct size
- Abandoned the car for nearly 3 years
- Took the old radio with him, tossed the stock one. I wound up with a cut radio / speaker harness

Not even getting into all the engine and electrical work that had been neglected. I've done a lot of work to make up for it, but there's a great sense of accomplishment now that everything is fixed.

 

Holy Cow, That takes the cake right there kids...

IPSC

 

Hey! I used zipties on my CV boots. Been holding for almost three years like that.

At least I did trim the excess, instead of driving down the street sounding like a kid with a playing card in his bicycle spokes.

 

My PO gave me a receipt for a new clutch and even showed me pictures of when he was installing the "new" clutch, which is why I found it strange when the clutch went the first day I had the car insured and registered in my name. Turns out the 3 pieces of metal which come from the hub of the clutch disc had snapped so he took it all apart, welded the 3 pieces and then put it all back into the damn car.(the receipt he gave me was for the clutch in his other 944)
Others things this genius did include:
-more bondo and epoxy than plastic on the front valence
-used silicone adhesive to mount fog lights
-broke off door stop on driver side so the door swung open and hit the fender causing a big crease
-right side rear bumper shock mount cracked so it was ghetto rigged up somehow with a big f'n bolt attached to nothing and held on by the bumper pad
-misplaced radio, carpet and timing belt covers

 

Yeah, but I'm guessing you at least tried to get them tight enough to stop the grease from escaping. No such luck on my car.

 

owners liek these are why our car's prices are so low...

 

Let's see, I didnt get a PPI so I cant complain. But I bought a new engine a week after buying the car.

 

i had a good feeling about my car, dispite a small lack of power and almost no receipts. The one receipt i did get was hand written and said new clutch, new wp, belts, seals yadda yadda. Before we drove it home we found a vac. line off and once we put that back on it ran great! The PO didnt have the car long so i couldnt complain much about him. Really, the car wasnt bad, and when i rebuilt the motor after spinning a bearing, ends up it really did have a clutch, ref sensor, and wp installed. Always a good surprise.

 

I can't complain too much either.

Yea, sure there were a few minor problems that I had to get to right away, but it's a 15 year old car so you have to expect some of that. Provided readords indicate that all the majors were addressed on time. Now we are on to up-fixin' things, brand new Koni coil over setup in progress as we speak.

At least I've been spared the extreemes that have been mentioned in this thread, and I thank my lucky stars.