Worst bodge you've seen

[Rocket88]

On 15/01/2018 at 14:51, DeeJay said:

Fed up with wind and water whistling up my trouser legs when driving and knowing it was getting crushed when the "Legit" mot ran out.

Not having a welder but having a saw.

Tongue and groove floorboards in my old Anglia.

Mate had a Mk3 Escort estate with “ structural “ carpets glued to what remained of the floor….

[Mally]

14 hours ago, mat777 said:

I'm intrigued to know how that passed ... I thought cut n shuts were massively illegal? 

Dunno but it was around 50 years ago.

[Mally]

I once had a Minor van with plywood floors in the front. Was under sealed underneath and had passed MOT.

Made access to the brake master cylinder dead easy.

[mk2_craig]

On 11/01/2018 at 18:28, sierraman said:

What's the worst bodge you've seen on a car? Ideally by a previous owner

Check this out for a very contemporary bodge, which lasted long enough for someone to offload their R56-series BINI 🤪

[sierraman]

2 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

Check this out for a very contemporary bodge, which lasted long enough for someone to offload their R56-series BINI 🤪

It’s quite a good one that. 

[SunnySouth]

15 hours ago, mat777 said:

I'm intrigued to know how that passed ... I thought cut n shuts were massively illegal? 

Only illegal if you sell one without telling the buyer, ISTR?

Not great in a hefty smash, I wouldn’t knowingly put my kids in one!

[mat777]

3 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

I've often wondered about cut n shuts, they're welded together (usually)

Cars in general are welded together.

I'm not talking invacars or scimitars here obvs😁

If it's done properly, and aligned right, what is the issue?

Excepting the fact that there were a fair number of nicked/written off cars involved.

Surely though for starters it's now a car with technically more than one ID? Different to a crash repair as you're adding parts not entirely bits of shell....

[Tenmil Socket]

I had a car fail an MOT years ago on an ABS light... he suggested I took the car away and removed the bulb before a re-test.

[hennabm]

I had an appeal test on an MG Metro many moons ago now. When it was inspected it was found to be at least 3 cars as the front was orange under the wings, the rear was black and one of the doors was white behind the rubbers. The female owner was quite shocked. 
 

It had been seam welded across the cut around the B pillar and looked OK. Having found the issue though she was not keen on keeping it much longer.

[Tenmil Socket]

[comfortablynumb]

1 hour ago, mat777 said:

Surely though for starters it's now a car with technically more than one ID? Different to a crash repair as you're adding parts not entirely bits of shell....

Probably best not to look too closely at my cars then, there's so many secondhand parts in them I've lost count of how many vehicles have been involved 🤣

[LightBulbFun]

6 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

I've often wondered about cut n shuts, they're welded together (usually)

Cars in general are welded together.

I'm not talking invacars or scimitars here obvs😁

[andy18s]

21 hours ago, mat777 said:

I'm intrigued to know how that passed ... I thought cut n shuts were massively illegal? 

I had a white Manta Gte Hatch that had the rear quarter panel,half the boot floor and the rear panel all cut and welded in from another car.

Whoever did it done a tidy job,all seam welded and properly seam sealed after.

Just looked a bit odd when you lifted the various carpets and saw the welds running across the rear passenger footwell. 

Passed a few Mot's before I had it but that was in the mid 90s..

[comfortablynumb]

Near where I used to live, there was a huge breakers (Universal Salvage?) and it was really common to walk round their yard (remember that?) and see lots of stuff with major body cuts taken from them.

Probably more than you'd think. Cheaper supply of body panels I guess

[grogee]

7 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

That's not a bodge, it's modern art

[Rustybullethole]

7 hours ago, mat777 said:

Surely though for starters it's now a car with technically more than one ID? Different to a crash repair as you're adding parts not entirely bits of shell....

The key thing is to remember to swap the number plates too. 

[IronStar]

7 hours ago, mat777 said:

Surely though for starters it's now a car with technically more than one ID? Different to a crash repair as you're adding parts not entirely bits of shell....

It’s a Trigger’s broom paradox - if you take a very rusty car and replace all the rusty bits, but keep the welds to factory locations, when does it stop being a same car? What if you do it in multiple goes, changing bits over the years?
What if it’s structural but you cut at the factory welds?

There’s really not much original metal left on my Yugo Cabrio as it was utterly rotten. It has new sheet metal, new panels, panels from other cars, interior from multiple cars, but it could’ve left the factory with those same panels bolted on as they’re all factory. Is it the same car?

[Homersimpson]

On 13/01/2025 at 19:44, mat777 said:

I'm intrigued to know how that passed ... I thought cut n shuts were massively illegal? 

As far as I'm aware its never been illegal to weld two half's of a car together provided its done safely.

The issue is I think that you should then tell the DVLA, the car may then need to be inspected and it would get a Q plate.

If you only use a small section from another car then its probably a grey area without any clear legislation/guidance, i.e. second hand rear quarter would probably be fine but both rear quarters, boot floor, rear panel and roof probably wouldn't be as far as notifying the DVLA.

Depending on what is done and how well would determine whether its a good idea to drive one.  If you look at some of the cars being restored a lot of them have more panels changed than are left original but as the panels are normally new that's considered ok.

[Homersimpson]

Worst bodge I ever saw was a KA which had been sold by a local car dealers to an old boy, the car was around 5 years old at the time.

It went in for its MOT at a mate of mines garage and from underneath the car had obviously had a heavy shunt on one side and the damage had been roughly pulled out and new panels slapped on the top.

The suspension strut on one side had been changed for a second hand unit from an older/different KA that didn't have ABS and so to prevent the warning light from giving the game away the geniuses* who had fixed it came up with the idea of wiring the warning light to the oil pressure input and so had lashed the wiring up behind the dash.

The air bag in the steering wheel had been replaced but not connected and the same trick with the ABS light had also been applied to the airbag warning light.

All warning lights came on with the ignition and went off when the engine was started, not quite how it should work but effective to fool a tester in a rush.

Finally the seat belts had had parts replaced to make them worked but they no longer locked when you pulled on them.

Apparently when he took it back to the dealer he bought it from a few months before (not franchise but a big pitch with lots of new/nearly new cars and still trading nearly 20 years later under the same name) who said it wasn't like that when they sold it and he must have done something to it.

Not sure what the end resolution was or if there was one but looking at the car on the garages inspection pit it was unbelievable.