Driving a partially disasembled vehicle

[Nathane]

Allright, I hope I'm not the only one who's done it before... Who's all driven a vehicle that's not exactly all there? Right now, I've got my dash, and radio bezel off chasing down electrical issues... Still driving it... I know it's not exactly safe, but I need to get going to work with it... Who's all driven with a disasembled vehicle, and have you had any (cop of otherwise) issues with it? ~Nate

[bf250]

it depends on how disassembled you mean?

i driven without anything in the interiour before, just a seat and dash structor with a tac still working when i was redoing my mach 1.

i think while all the safety devices are in place, it should be no problem.

i think i heard somewhere in some places its illegal to drive without a bed on a truck, i don't see why if you have lights installed, but thats just what i heard. and same with a hood also.

[captain p4]

I drove my bronco with only one seat in it and i drove one of our truckw with the bed off once.. Sometimes you need a part and its just easier to drive it like it is to the store or whatever, I don't think its too big of a deal as long as its not a danger to you or anyone else..

[handyman43358]

My buddy has a 90 Cadillac Seville that we have put a lot of time into. She sounds better than my F-150. Anywho...

For about 6 months the digital instrument cluster didn't work, and niether did the information center display down in front of the shifter.

It worked at one time, but the car was posessed when it did work. Like the lights would turn on by themselves, turn signals would flash for no reason. So my buddy took a ballbat and smacked the top of the dash and EVERYTHING went dead.

So for about 6 months or more, he drove not knowing how much gas he had, how warm the car was, how fast he was going, nothing. He got pulled over a time or two and they never said anything about it.

[jake00]

I know it's not exactly safe,

how is it not safe?


I've drven without grills, lights, tails, dash boards, complete interiors

[RangerPilot]

I've driven with no hood for a couple of weeks. Truck ran really cool.

When we bought or Corvette it had no interior, no dash, no gauges, nothing but seats. It was missing the hood as well. We drove it home like that, and that was a good thirty mile trip. Just matched speed with everyone else.

RP
Zach

[Cuda444]

The issue with driving without a truck bed is the exposed wheels. We did a dump body conversion on a 250 once, drove it downtown and the cops had an issue with it. As long as the truck has "fenders" it's fine, but exposed wheels like that is a no-no.

Tom

[Boss50]

I've driven my truck with no grille, hood, passenger side door, rear fenders(stepside). All these parts were off at seperate times, so it wasn't too too bad. I really didn't like not having a door, thing liked to blow out of the truck. Got alot of looks without the hood though.

[RangerPilot]

Wheels stick to stuff, like rocks and mud, and they can fling it a good way if it's exposed. You can get away with open wheels in the bed if just the plastic liner is over them, but not with them completly exposed.

[dcf4x4]

I've driven without a hood and the drivers side door. Like captain said, sometimes it's easier to just go get the part with what you have. Not ever having had a jeep, it's kind of disconcerting to look out and see the pavement RIGHT THERE.

spent 2 days without any glass but the windshield and one side mirror (rest smashed by idiot co-worker dragging the lawnmower blades across the gravel driveway) in my F100 and a huge hole in the roof where the sunroof was going that evening. All the junk in the bed wanted to ride up front with me.

Took a 2 hour road trip with nothing but headers, and hollowed out cats on the same truck with a 351W. It was insanely loud but I never got pulled over... I was wearing ear plugs most of the way and never got on it in the towns.

[john112deere]

My buddy has a Model A pickup.

I've driven it short distances with the whole body off. Milk-crate lashed to the frame to sit on, and nothing to hang onto but the steering wheel. Not real smart.

We drove that vehicle a lot before the windshield went in, including a few times that it was snowing. He never got around to putting the whole interior in, but there isn't much to it in a Model A (just inside door panels, really), nor did he bother to put a windshield wiper in for several months. He couldn't get a speedometer, either, so we just guessed how fast we were going, or clocked it with another vehicle. (For the record, 50 mph in a 35 with no windshield in a vehicle with lousy brakes is fairly exciting.)

For some portion of the above time, the vehicle was also missing it's license plates and insurance, and it's inspection sticker for most of the time he drove it.

He's redoing it again now, so I suspect we'll be getting back into the phase of driving half a car fairly soon...

EDIT: Just saw the bit about problems with cops. Ironically, the only thing the cops have ever pulled him over for (twice) was the missing right taillight, which the car wasn't orignally equipped with and therefor doesn't really need to have.

[downhillpat]

I drove my truck about 10-12 miles with the bed being held on with 2 10 inch carriage bolts. Every time you took a corner....BOOM...

If any of you guys have been to hampton beach in NH, you know the traffic that builds up on the drawbridge between hampton and salisbury, I sat in traffic for 2 hours re-wiring the head unit, watching traffic, all the while being unaware that my truck was starting to overheat... just as soon as the cd player started working...I looked at the temp gauge...not fun (the wiring was though!!!)