the worst mod you ever did to a car

[OffRoadFalcon]

In my short car ownership career... I can really only think of one proper regret..... so far! And it's another exhaust one.

After two months of having my Wagon, and having my licence, I went to the QUIT Forest Rally in Nannup, and the backward end of the tailpipe, coming out of the resonator, had rusted out, and came loose on the corrugated dirt roads! Rattled around all day, and sounded awful!

So I took it in to a exhaust shop in Busso, where they said they could sell me a whole new tailpipe with resonator for $170ish, or one the same, but without the resonator, for $145. Being a bit low on cash back then, I went for the cheaper option.
For the next 9 months, I had to put up with a disgusting exhaust note, most notable around 2000rpm. It was basically a quiet farty drone.

Then I replaced it with a Redback 2.5" catback, with extra resonator installed into the tailpipe...... one of the best mods I've done yet. Sounds great, nice low burble at low revs, great roar at higher revs, no drone at all, and quiet when cruising!

I put a Supercheap twin tip on it though, with the rolled lip. I think this slightly affects the sound, so I've got a better one waiting without the rolled lip, so hopefully that'll sound a little better!?

[Evgeni]

Fitted genie headers and exhaust system to a XE crossflow. Back in those days, the air conditioner lines ran down the drivers side and I didn't insulate the lines.
High pressure line blew spraying R12 everywhere, scaring the crap out of me and everyone else in the car.

[Ben73]

Slight spring lift on a Jeep Patriot. Didn't put bigger shocks on it so they would top out over big bumps. First gen Patriots were so low to the ground when stock, I had people asking me if I lowered it.
Never should of bought that car.

[DBourne]

Lowered my BF XR8 too low.. looked great when standing still, but would scrape on a baby ant.. made for embarrassing times in car parks with speed bumps..

[Fast Eddie]

Fitted Water Injection to my TF Gem Gem Gemini in the belief it would triple my horsepower.

[LoudPipes]

Black anodised valve covers for my tyres.

They faded to grey after about a week.

Now I know why they're called Supercheap.

[ebv8]

Originally Posted by LoudPipes

Black anodised valve covers for my tyres.

They faded to grey after about a week.

Now I know why they're called Supercheap.

ha, i got red they went pink, the lady who bought the car ask why i would put pink valve covers on
i have little alloy pistons now no the other cars, they look the biz!

[Cashie]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

I decided to add a 'kill switch' to my 180B....

Not knowing anything about car electrics I just stripped one of the wires out of a piece of 3 core house wire and extended one of the cables running to the starter.

Looped it through the firewall and into a nook between the transmission tunnel and the centre console.

Didn't work the first time. Switch got real hot.

Oh, the switch was a regular house light switch, just popped out of the plastic housing.

Hmm I think I went through a few hours of trial and error - mostly error.

Ended up going to Jaycar and buying a much heavier gauge wire. Worked a treat.

My anti-theft device for my 180B back in '87 was to remove the rotor, worked pretty good.

[GT2]

Chrome plated everything in the engine bay of my XW GT.
All back to standard now.

[BPXR6T]

Fitted a glass FPV pursuit ute body kit to a perfectly good XR8. Looked good from a distance but up close mismatched metallic paint, cracks everywhere after a few hunfred kays. Cost a small fortune too. Traded in the car to get away from my mistake. Never again...

[thehammer]

throttle cable was ****** on my ED and had to wrap it around the shock tower to get full throttle, made the throttle VERY touchy and nearly impossible to drive, but at least it got full power, took me 6 months to bother to get a new cable

[JustBlown]

Put a 283 Chevy V8 in an short WB FJ40 Landcruiser in Meb. 40 years ago and the clutch throw was too short-boy I learnt about double clutching as we went up the Birdsville track-TOWING A BEFRIENDED KOMBI ! Yes, at Christmas,40C.What were we thinking-towed them to BRIS. !!
The other overlooked engine swap detail was that the fan blades ended up about a foot from the radiator-so lots of stubby stops on the way !

[JustBlown]

Originally Posted by OffRoadFalcon

In my short car ownership career... I can really only think of one proper regret..... so far! And it's another exhaust one.

After two months of having my Wagon, and having my licence, I went to the QUIT Forest Rally in Nannup, and the backward end of the tailpipe, coming out of the resonator, had rusted out, and came loose on the corrugated dirt roads! Rattled around all day, and sounded awful!

So I took it in to a exhaust shop in Busso, where they said they could sell me a whole new tailpipe with resonator for $170ish, or one the same, but without the resonator, for $145. Being a bit low on cash back then, I went for the cheaper option.
For the next 9 months, I had to put up with a disgusting exhaust note, most notable around 2000rpm. It was basically a quiet farty drone.

Then I replaced it with a Redback 2.5" catback, with extra resonator installed into the tailpipe...... one of the best mods I've done yet. Sounds great, nice low burble at low revs, great roar at higher revs, no drone at all, and quiet when cruising!

I put a Supercheap twin tip on it though, with the rolled lip. I think this slightly affects the sound, so I've got a better one waiting without the rolled lip, so hopefully that'll sound a little better!?

Great outback rig !! Good work

[CyberWasp]

I didn't do the mod but bought the car with it like that back in the day.
It was a 1971 Charger that originally had a beige coloured interior / roof lining painted black.....with a paint brush and you could see the brush strokes / fade through.......nice !!!!

[KurtisEBear]

I'm on the exhaust band wagon as well, had the middle muffler removed from my G6E Turbo just to get a note out of it sounded awesome until a few weeks ago when i realized i couldn't have a decent conversation with the windows down. It went to the exhaust shop and a aftermarket muffler was put on, decent note just quieter. Its all temporary until go nuts with the power mods though.

[OffRoadFalcon]

Originally Posted by JustBlown

Great outback rig !! Good work

Thanks! It's getting there!

[MrXR8]

Putting racing brakes on a road car so you always hear the loud squeak of cold pads and rotors as they would very rarely get up to temp.


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[MrXR8]

Looked good though


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[brennan.]

Cut the guard liners so i could fit fat wheels and tyres and ended up with a nice coating of whatever i drove through inside the front door jambs. Also if i hit a sharp bump the wheel would rub a part of the body loom which ran along the top of the drivers side front wheel arch nearly going through a number of different wires. Covered that part with silver tape then stood back and admired the fully sick stance.

[Shonky.]

http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11430738

[Lunch]

Originally Posted by Shonky.

http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11430738

I agree, i wanna like it just so i can unlike it

[John G]

Thought that if I put the biggest high lift cam, the biggest double pumper carby and dual point dist that my 341 4V would be the quickest thing going. Later I changed to a milder cam, vac secondaries carb and electronic ignition. Car was quicker, better power band, easier to drive and cut the tune ups in half. lesson learnt= biggest isn't always the best, design your modifications to best suit your requirements.

[Tobe404]

I'd have to say... Extractors and Upgraded Cats.
Should of just settled for a Catback.
So much less ********** around (for not much gain) and saves a heap of money.

[zilo]

Supercharged LPG, constantly burning headers out.

[razbarb]

I lowered a Fiat 124 coupe way too much, against my mechanic's advice. Got stuck on driveways, dangerous bump steer and cracked the chassis rails. Looked good though😄.

[HULK EF]

Dropping $9500 on a fully built replacement engine 175rwkw ef engine. For 14.1 second quaters in my ef fairmont only to sell the car 2 years later for a stock bf xr6 turbo that ran 13.3 quater miles.

Used cheap rubber intake tube that when the engine bay was up to temperature apon putting the foot down the tube would collapse starving the engine of oxygen. Lol.

[CQB-241]

Can't claim creation but bought car as rolling shell with this **** and was too tight-wadded to remove glass sunroof and tow bar left on an immaculate 2door airflow '65 Mk 1 Cortina 2 door shell that I built up into a hot 2-door GT replica. Went to all the trouble of correct dash, radius arm rear, correct front bar and struts, boosted front discs and bigger rear drums and gauges. Hot 711M block with 116E GT head, extractors, GT Webber, alternator positive earth electrics, 5-speed 180B SSS gearbox, Minilites, big exhaust, fresh paint, fresh carpets with immaculate interior, battery in boot and was air conditioned with Mk IV underdash fascia and Nippendenso system. But still had a sunroof and tow bar....

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Three mods I can think of of the top of my head I regretted almost instantly.'

Mk2 GT Cortina, took it in to Pedders to have the full Pedders suspension fitted up, got the car back and it rode terrible, skipped over corrugations, handled horribly, ended up ripping it all out a few months later and replacing it with springs from the local wrecker. Later learned that Pedders is just cheap chinese rubbish sold at premium prices.

BF FPV GT, fitted BPR airbox, car immediately felt doughy, and sounded like there was something wrong under the bonnet, resonated and looked like it was made my a year 8 metal work drop out I regretted this mod the minute I drove the car after fitting, lasted about 3-4 days before it was ripped out of the car and sold on at a substantial loss.

XB GS 351 Coupe, fitted Mallory electronic ignition, ran fine for a few days, then left me stranded about 350km from home in a county town on a long week end, after considering towing fees I got my misses to deliver another dizzy to me I had in the garage, needless to say she was not too happy and neither was I. Been running ICE ignition since then and no issues ever.

On the other hand some of the best mods ever that I would do over again are BF FPV GT, Herrod Exhaust, sounds absolutely awesome and Billet products shifter.

[Hitman]

TQ30 Cam into a bone stock 302, got 450ks out of it before a stock valve spring broke and lunched the motor.

[XR6WGN]

Originally Posted by Hitman

TQ30 Cam into a bone stock 302, got 450ks out of it before a stock valve spring broke and lunched the motor.

I can remember considering the same cam (or it might have been the TQ20) into my stock 302 (XC) as well but I had a 600 holley fitted so mine was worked

How naive were we back then???