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Came home yesterday and found the pocket door to a bathroom hanging like this. No idea what happened.
https://i.imgur.com/0mNuS8m.jpg
Managed to get the door out and saved all the trim:
https://i.imgur.com/7kxU17y.jpg
Previous owner's "fix" to bad wheel kit:
https://i.imgur.com/k6BmHmZ.jpg
Yes, that's putty. Hard as a fuckin' rock. Naturally, no one in the area has a replacement kit in stock.
This isn't the worst thing I've ever found. Just the latest.
Damn an entire track and wheel set at depot is under $20.....freaking lazy people man.
I used to work for a property of hundreds of high end town homes and apartments. One of the previous guys was fixing everything possible with a product called GOOP. Basically silicone in a squeeze tube. Disposals, doors, drywall, domestic water supplies, sinks, at least one toilet tank.
The one that stands out in my memory is I worked a flood in a high rise historic building in downtown that started on the 6th floor and ended in the sub basement. They had replaced a kitchen faucet and used hard lines. One side lacked a farrel so they made it out of teflon tape. It held for 7 years before letting loose one evening.
That steel putty crap on a AC condenser on someone's Silverado was great. Didnt really hold the refrigerant in very well.
So, the screw holes for the plate that mounts to the top of the door are stripped out. The guy tried using the putty to attach the wheel kit to the top of the door. To his credit we've lived here 4 years so it lasted at least that long. Then again, we probably use that door less than once per month. My guess is that was a quick "fix" to make it work long enough to get thru the sale of the home.
I have too many to count. I bought a first gen Tundra earlier this year and knew there was few things I had to fix but this one literally blew me away. For one, it had the wrong battery in it so I replaced it and it ran great. Two months later, no start. Check all the easy stuff and still no start. Well upon further investigation, the jackass PO cut the negative cable, duct taped a piece of wire in there to extend it to make the wrong battery fit when I bought it. LITERALLY duct taped the wires together. I am actually shocked it held together for so long.
https://i.postimg.cc/fy8Q6DJn/tundra.jpg
This was another one that drove me crazy for quite some time: https://www.ar-15.co/threads/171907-...atisfying-then
I've used wood putty before and it worked really well. You fill the stripped hole, let it cure, then cut new threads with the screw. You don't glop it on like JB Weld.
I have a lot of tales of people working on their own cars, motorcycles, homes etc. that I have had to re-fix. I never talk down to them- I used to know nothing but have great enthusiasm as well.
I worked on watercraft for years. Two or three time a year someone would bring in one of the old Kawasaki 440 or 550 stand up Jet-Skis and say it won't start. One look in the hull would tell the tale. A smoked electrical box. I'd ask if they had hooked up the battery backwards. Um... yeah, but only for a second! Have to explain that electricity moves at THE SPEED OF LIGHT and no way are you going to quick enough to pull that cable off before damage is done.
My best tale about myself was when Dad's dishwasher needed the door slammed several time to operate. I took the front apart, pulled out the largest component, the timer, and figured I'd take a look inside for loose wires. Upon removing the back of the box, every component inside leapt out with and audible "sproing!" and scattered about the garage. Oops. Dad and I went to the appliance store and told the guy I needed a timer. He asked why, since the timer was very expensive and rarely needed to be replaced. I said we have to slam the door to get it to work. He laughed and said we don't need the timer, we need this, and pulled out a two dollar switch. I said, "Bro, we need the timer too." I don't think I ever told Dad about that one.
15 liter Cummins diesel under warranty Seized won’t bar over even with a cheater pipe.
check the oil perfectly full and brand new. Check the engine abuse 6 minutes at 0 oil pressure before she locked up.
One of my favorite sayings is if you tighten it up and hear a crack back it off a quarter turn and call over the nearest apprentice
I know I've encountered more than a few steaming turds mickey-moused together in my life, but thankfully I seem to have flushed them from my memory.....perhaps one will surface.....
It?s cute when small engines like that seize up. Our 423 liter units never seize. The inertia of all of the rotating mass usually just breaks something major.Quote:
Originally Posted by DFBrews
Many over the years. One that comes to mind:
Fought and fought and fought trailer wiring on my truck, trying to sort out wtf was going on, trace down a short and several intermittent connections. Then I discovered that tucked up in the bottom of the dash was the FACTORY ORIGINAL wiring harness. Dumbass had wired his own entire harness into the cab and then spliced it back into the factory wiring - using those crappy clamping things - halfway down the under-body. (And nothing was wrong with the original). It had a factory receiver and connection on it.... are you really that dumb not to fully look for the harness before wiring a whole one in, much less a crap job of it? LOL.
Scotchlocks are the devils invention.
Thank you! I always forget what they are called. Every time I see them it's like https://thefinanser.com/wp-content/u...tf-serious.pngQuote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
Commercial Christmas lights use giant scotch locks. Makes sense in that application.
Hmm. I didn?t know the devil cared anything about Christmas.
I found a three foot irrigation line repair that was duct tape & garden hose in between two pieces of poly pipe. No couplers or anything. I was pretty amazed it even ever functioned once.
Shocking.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irving
LOL, wait until you Gunsmith for a living.
I used to think the most terrifying words out of a customer was: "Oh, I just cleaned it up with my Dremel."
Nope- Now it is: "Well, I saw this video on YouTube........"
But one that really sticks in my mind- A guy brought an AK by for me to look at, he had just bought it from a co-worker and wanted me to give it the once over. His co-worker had built it.
With aluminum pop rivets.
Yeah, but did it work? I hear AKs always work. [Coffee]Quote:
Originally Posted by BPTactical
Helping my father in law do some work for a homeowner after the previous contractor did remodel.
New outlets were installed without stripping wires, obviously wrapped on sides, not stabbed in back.
I didn’t think anyone could be that stupid and be hired to do anything.
You can try to drill out the stripped hole and insert and glue a dowel of same size. Then re-drill a proper size hole for the wood screw.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey Guns
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Remember- SOMEBODY hired you.......Quote:
Originally Posted by crashdown
Already done. Just for fun, though, I covered everything in putty.Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnhigh
Let the next owner try to figure out what the hell happened. [Coffee]
My days are haunted by people with old motorcycles that have been bodged together and bandaided for decades, right up to the point they don't run. Then some Youtube certified mechanic tears it all apart, only to realize as they sober up that they have no idea how it works, how they got it apart, or how to get it back together. I keep telling myself I'm never gonna put together someone else's 3d jigsaw puzzle again, and every damn time I cave. I'm an idiot.
Originally Posted by Irving
Commercial Christmas lights use giant scotch locks. Makes sense in that application.
OUch! [facepalm]Quote:
Originally Posted by Gman
I've got this FXR in need of some work.....Quote:
Originally Posted by TFOGGER
I'm glad someone got that callback.
***sound of timbers creaking, pre-cave in***Quote:
Originally Posted by Duman
Gimme a call...
Years ago had a guy bring a brand new Duramax into the dealer with rear end noise. Put it on the rack to tear into it to,see what was wrong. Started draining the rear diff and it smelled like diesel. Not only did it smell wrong, but it kept coming out long after it should have been drained. It just kept coming out. Further investigation found the truck had an auxiliary fuel tank in the bed. GM was good about running the rear differential vent hose up along the fuel filler hose and when they tied in the tank they assumed that piec of hose went to the fuel tank. Basically they had about a fifty gallon fuel tank feeding diesel to the rear differential. Once we showed him what was going on and explained it he started making phone calls. Apparently they had a fleet of these trucks and all of them had these tanks installed at the same place and he was urging everyone to to pull over before they all trashed their rear diffs.
Another funny one was a Mitsubishi Eclipse with a dead cylinder. It was running fine so I told them I didn't see anything wrong and shipped it out. It came back the next day with the same complaint. Anyhow, long story short, the customer had installed an aftermarket radio themselves and however they manage to wire it up it would kill the #3 injector any time the radio was turned on. When I first looked at it the radio was off and it ran just fine. It was funny. Radio off... normal. Turn the radio on and dead hole on #3. Radio off... fine.
I also burned the interior out of a Ford Probe once on the alignment rack. Car came in for an alignment, I pulled it on the rack, got out, closed the driver's door, and interior started filling up with smoke and flame.
Turns out someone had installed some stereo garbage and ran the main power wire for the amp straight off the battery and to the back of the car with no circuit protection and when I shut the door the wire had been run poorly through the door jamb area and got pinched and shorted out.
And that wasn't the first customers car that burned in my stall. I'm fuzzy on the details but I had to put out a Cadillac that was on fire once. Before I could get it out the trim on the outside of the car was melting off the sides.
Several yeas ago, had a tech rewire a traffic signal after standing a replacement pole & arm. I was the on call that day and about 1730 hrs. I got a call from dispatch that Federal Heights PD complained that the WB signals at that intersection would only turn green intermittently and when it did it would malfunction.
After I fought traffic to get up there from Aurora and troubleshot the problem,.
Come to find out that the tech wired the WB green vehicle signal to the WB pedestrian walk and the red WB vehicle signal to the WB don?t walk signal.
When someone pushed the WB pedestrian call button the WB vehicle green would turn on for the programmed walk signal time then go out and the WB red vehicle signal would flash red for the programmed flashing don't walk time then go solid red until someone would push the pedestrian call button again.
Always check your work before leaving a job site.
This reminds me of a time i was driving a hand me down beater mustang my brother had driven. He wired an aftermarket stereo in the same manner. No fuse, and ran the wire direct from the battery along the edge of the hood. At practice, one afternoon, a buddy sat on the hood. Huge amounts of smoke began pouring out. WTF!!?? We lift the hood, and find a burned trail of wire. It melted through a 1/3rd of the battery. Probably lucky it didn't go up in flames. That was an expensive lesson!Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
Wow. Impressive/Expensive level of stupid there.Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
Oh dear God... and I thought fixing the previous owners wiring job title my house was bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970