"Custom" Mods

[hoopty5.0]

After seeing how much they want for the MLS head gaskets I need for the 408, a tin foil prototype momentarily crossed my mind . 3 layers and done, right?

Anyway, it reminded me of the time I made a CAI out of dryer ducting when I was in high school with my first car, a '90 GT. It got several laughs but it worked.

What all have y'all improvised on to "make it work on a $0 budget"? PICS!!!

 

[VibrantRedGT]

Took my car to the dyno. We found out rerouting air with bends doesn't make as much power as a short straight shot. This made more HP than the BBK / MAC fender kits with 90 degree bend (filter in the fender).

Here was my 1998 Straight Shot homemade CAI. Total cost $15.

 

[Boosted92LX]

Oh, the stories I could tell...too bad it all happened before digital cameras..

 

[Vanessa91]

View attachment 153438

 

[hoopty5.0]

I used to have a Bud Lite can and 2 hose clamps connecting my smog line to the H pipe on that first car too. AHHH youth, didn't know any better...

 

[Boosted92LX]

One of my ol' buds from high school wanted to lower his Nissan pick up. This was during the height of the lowered minitruck craze.. which I lived through but still don't get. Anyhoo, My buddy Mike just HAD to lower his Nissan but didn't have fifty bucks for the drop kit that came with the standard two blocks an U- bolts. So, boy wonder digs into his dad's garage, finds a two by four and some sticks of allthread. See where this is going?
He shows up at my house with "The yellow chit stain"- the name his cousin gave this truck- I couldn't make this up... All lowered into the weeds.

Mike-"Hey man I got my truck lowered, check it out!"

Allen- "OK, cool. So you finally got the blocks you wanted to buy, huh?"

Mike- "Yup. Let's go cruise Sonic."

So we ride into town, me not knowing the death trap I was in, and Mike as usual, dogging the little Nissan for all it was worth. Which wasn't very much.
What finally happened, was right in the middle of town on the main drag these high end pine drop blocks and cold rolled bent all thread gave in to Mike's relentless dogging, and splinterd into a million pieces. The third member rolled 90 degrees down diggin a 4 inch deep rut in the pavement, and plastered our faces into the windsheild... Dead stop immediately.

Just as it happened some other guys from school came driving by, and made a u-turn to stop and laugh. I got out of the truck, looked uderneath it bewildered at my friend's bone head stunt and went to talk to the two hyenas on the side of the road laughing. My friend was livid that I didn't help him, But I informed him later that I did. I'm the one that called the tow truck for him!

 

[hoopty5.0]

That's hilarious!!!

We (my 3 buddies and I) in high school built a '56 Caddillac Fleetwood. (Blaine's dad owns a restoration shop specializing in classic caddies so parts were bountiful). Us being the impatient little chits we were/are Got the engine in, slapped a coat of flat black primer on and put the chrome over it. It looked killer and still does to this day. All was going well until we ran out of what little money we had. We needed a new gas tank but were too broke. Of course, this was the last piece of the puzzle and we weren't going to let this stop us.

...10 minutes and a coat hanger later, a 5 gallon container is lodged between the core support and the grill with a rubber hose.

Problem #2 was the hood latch. This car was manufactured before the safety latch and we hadn't adjusted the one and only latch correctly. With the addition of the improv tank, it made closing the hood that much harder. I'm sure you see where this is going....


SO - we've been wrenching on this for a week straight during summer break and its finally running!!! Being the teens in summer we were, we passed around a "left - handed cigarette" and loaded in for the maiden voyage of "Black Betty" as it was dubbed. There were 8 of us in there - 4 dudes and our respective, uhh, ladies of the summer we'll say.

30 mph, all good. 45 mph, something's rattling. 50 mph WHAP! Hello, hood. Blaine, after getting the brake pedal off the floor board hangs his head out the window and putts over to the shoulder.

There were 2 black marks in the road for a while where the back tires locked up. If you looked closely for a week after though, there were several brown ones, too


Here's our baby...

By hoopty50 at 2012-03-15

 

[StreetsideStig]

One of my seat posts is held together with about a dozen zip-ties and a pair of hose clamps. I keep forgetting to actually repair it, but I never move my seat back and forth...

 

[RacEoHolic330]

I ported my stock upper and lower intake a very long time ago. Some carbide bits and a bunch of free time got me one butchered intake. I thought it was awesome at the time, but looking back, it did a horrific job. I opened the runners so much where the upper and lower meet that I don't think there was any point of having a gasket between the two anymore. I also over ported some runners. The answer to fix it... JB weld...naturally. I have pictures somewhere.

 

[1991notchbackLX]

When I was 16 I had a 1993 Dodge Intrepid SE with the 3.5L V6, all tan leather interior, power everything, ABS, cruise control, alloy wheels, dual zone climate control, CD player, the works. It had 60k miles on it when I got it from a 78 year old man who drove it back and forth to bingo. The car was awesome, and still my favorite daily driver I've had to this day. It goes witohut saying that I beat the living s hit out of the car every single day, without fail. I did neutral drops from every stop sign, poured bleach on the front tires and did rolling burnouts, I even rammed a Ford Taurus at 85 MPH on the Long Island Expressway after the kids in the car egged me (long story). In retrospect, the car was really, really, nice, and didn't deserve that kind of treatment.

What I did to it that was CUSTOM was make some kind of cold air intake from the "Spectre Performance" crap in the ricer aisle at AutoZone. It lasted about two days before I learned my lesson and put the stock airbox back on.

 

[hoopty5.0]

Hahah awesome.

 

[Boosted92LX]

That's hilarious!!!

We (my 3 buddies and I) in high school built a '56 Caddillac Fleetwood. (Blaine's dad owns a restoration shop specializing in classic caddies so parts were bountiful). Us being the impatient little chits we were/are Got the engine in, slapped a coat of flat black primer on and put the chrome over it. It looked killer and still does to this day. All was going well until we ran out of what little money we had. We needed a new gas tank but were too broke. Of course, this was the last piece of the puzzle and we weren't going to let this stop us.

...10 minutes and a coat hanger later, a 5 gallon container is lodged between the core support and the grill with a rubber hose.

Problem #2 was the hood latch. This car was manufactured before the safety latch and we hadn't adjusted the one and only latch correctly. With the addition of the improv tank, it made closing the hood that much harder. I'm sure you see where this is going....


SO - we've been wrenching on this for a week straight during summer break and its finally running!!! Being the teens in summer we were, we passed around a "left - handed cigarette" and loaded in for the maiden voyage of "Black Betty" as it was dubbed. There were 8 of us in there - 4 dudes and our respective, uhh, ladies of the summer we'll say.

30 mph, all good. 45 mph, something's rattling. 50 mph WHAP! Hello, hood. Blaine, after getting the brake pedal off the floor board hangs his head out the window and putts over to the shoulder.

There were 2 black marks in the road for a while where the back tires locked up. If you looked closely for a week after though, there were several brown ones, too


Here's our baby...

By hoopty50 at 2012-03-15

That's great. I was expecting the gas can to play into a giant fireball as the hood flew up, though.Cool car, good story!

 

[95BlueStallion]

Ive run a couple PVC cold air intakes. Cant find any pics, but I honestly never had a problem with any of them. My buddy wanted to lower his Grand Am in high school, so we used bolts, nuts and some metal plates that we drilled our own holes through. It actually worked and never came apart, so we were pretty lucky.