Author Topic: How many of you....? (Read 1057 times)

daveSanborn · « **Reply #25 on:** April, 19, 2010, 12:31:15 PM »

I've got a couple.... hundred, but the one I am constantly reminded of when washing the car is when I was installing my Mustang Steve cable clutch adjuster onto the firewall/cowl pinchweld. A couple mounting holes had to be drilled onto the pinchwled and while drilling the second hole the bit sunk all of the way through the metal and the spinning drill chuck slammed into the top forward corner of the cowl's edge. It only scratched through the clear, but it's in one of those spots that you can't help but notice.

My local Mustang buddy John has one for the ages....

Sitting around at his house drinking beer he decided to start up his race car and do a burnout in his driveway. This is an open header 550HP/32" MT slicks 1/4 mile strip car. He proceeds to do a massive burnout in his driveway heading out towards the street. Mission accomplished, he nails it out on the street and the car gets up some speed..... and then his un-pinned FG hood lifts off of and sails over the car.... hitting the leading edge of the roof line and the rear of the car before shattering onto the pavement. What was once a nice paint job instantly turned into a whole buttload of scratches and a hood with 4 broken corners and a banged up/scratched/chipped/cracked cowl scoop.

KBMWRS · « **Reply #26 on:** April, 19, 2010, 12:59:28 PM »

well there's this green '68 fastback that I put a big scratch in. But Craig hasn't noticed it yet. So it hasn't happened yet. :vic

AzPete · « **Reply #27 on:** April, 19, 2010, 01:55:56 PM »

I hate this....

Working on getting the blue '66 running prior to the restoration (Spring of '99) we did in Az. Nothing had been removed from the body yet but I was tuning the 289 so the shop would have an easier time moving it around based on their layout.

Parked outside my garage on a slight downhill slope, drivers door open, hood up, me adjusting things. Got the points, idle, timing and carb just perfect. Had stopped and started the car numerous times with no incidents. On the last tweaking of the tune, I blipped the throttle as one does to be sure it returns to an idle correctly........

The next thing know, the car is backing away from me.....not just rolling but driving backwards. It is headed for our pump house (30 feet away) which just had a new tank and electrics installed. Well, I ran like hell (had a short thought to pull the coil wire but...) to get around the door and regain control....ya, right.

I manged to get around the door and get my right hand on the right side of the wheel and turn it to miss the pump. My left hand was on the top of the rolled up window. As the steering wheel turned, my body went to the ground....my ass is now dragging with one hand on the wheel, one hand on the top of the window and the left front tire threatening my family jewels.

The car misses the pump house, but the bottom of the door catches a LARGE boulder and folds over to the front fender. The top corner of the window tears a hole in the corrugated tin on the pump house as my tail bone bounces over 8 foot of bowling ball size rocks bordering the flower bed around the pump house.

The car continues backwards for another two car lengths and stops as the rear axle high centers on a large bush and cactus, purring with a perfect idle.

I slowly reach for the key and stop all the fun. As I am rolling from under the car, my Dad steps out of the shop where he was working and asked me if the car got away from me, and stepped back into the shop. I was so pissed over the entire ordeal that I launched a 6" Craftsman phillips screwdriver over the garage to the south and it was never seen again. I actually never dropped the screwdriver thru all this.

The damage to me.....

My ass was sore as hell, both arms felt like they had been pulled from my body, I was emotionally scared for life, or at least until a few beers were consumed, and I think it took a week for the manly parts to reveal themselves again.

The damage to the car....

One new drivers door, one new left front fender, one set of door hinges, repair work to the hinge mounting area, one set of interior handles. The fender and door were in great shape prior to this......

The damage to tools.....

One lost screwdriver, one damaged (by the fan) remote starter.

Now, WTF happened. I sat in the car the next day and reved the engine as I did when tuning. After 5-6 revs, the car started backing up. What I found was the shifter bushings in the auto shifter were real bad and allowed enough play in the shifter for it to engage reverse from the vibrations of reving the engine. I parked the car, blocked the wheels, and ordered parts. It took me a good year before I would trust that transmission again.

Now, this is the only place I have told this other than to a good friend here and there so keep it quiet please.......

johnpro · « **Reply #28 on:** April, 19, 2010, 07:13:58 PM »

AzPete wins. No one can top that story! Not even my 2 am engine fire where I had no fire extinguisher.

daveSanborn · « **Reply #29 on:** April, 20, 2010, 04:49:35 AM »

Quote

AzPete wins.

Motion seconded.

blue65coupe · « **Reply #30 on:** April, 20, 2010, 05:03:33 AM »

All in favor......................Aye. That SUCKS Pete. I can almost feel your pain though. I had mine in the driveway at the other house and the same thing happened. I used to back it in the garage and it was idling in the drive one day while I was in the garage talking on the phone. Out of nowhere the thing starts to backup. In the garage she comes heading for the workshop wall. Door was closed but the window was down. Headfirst in I went and slammed it in park as I had worn out bushings also. Took a few to calm the nerves.

silverblueBP · « **Reply #31 on:** April, 20, 2010, 05:24:19 AM »

Pete wins, hands down (or arms out). I have to admit that I was :lol though.

AzPete · « **Reply #32 on:** April, 20, 2010, 06:47:39 AM »

Just the contest I wanted to win..... :wm?

apollard · « **Reply #33 on:** April, 20, 2010, 07:19:48 AM »

Oh, you won it, you won it by a mile. I've often had visions of the car deciding to back up on it's own, but never, uh, witnessed it first hand :lol

blue65coupe · « **Reply #34 on:** April, 20, 2010, 07:46:41 AM »

Quote from: AzPete on April, 20, 2010, 06:47:39 AM

Just the contest I wanted to win..... :wm?

My crystal ball sees a new title in your future. It's gonna be hard for someone to top that.

gwstang · « **Reply #35 on:** April, 20, 2010, 07:57:36 AM »

I agree, you win the "Skin't Arse" award! :lol

johnpro · « **Reply #36 on:** April, 20, 2010, 11:50:04 PM »

Quote from: 66gt350 on April, 19, 2010, 06:50:24 AM

+1 to that!!! I really don't care about my current paint. But the worst thing that I've done is not pull the car far enough into the garage when I closed the door. It was just far enough back to take the paint off the rear quarter extensions, but nothing else.

Oh, come on now, Rob. I remember the time when you dropped the bolt into the intake and it rolled past the open valve into the cylinder head. This was on your 351w in the '66, and you had to pull the engine to get the head off. Then you did it again.

I think that's how the story went, at least that I recall!!

Dne' · « **Reply #37 on:** April, 21, 2010, 04:58:39 AM »

Pete tells his story so well! I definitely don't beat his dramatic story, but;
We were fixing to leave for a week to "somewhere" vacation I think, so I just wanted to put a coat of paint on my '67, you know, a sense of accomplishment~ thinking that I'm going to finish my stang sooner than expected? ha ha! I had my fenders leaning against the wall, and as I drug my air hose around, also wearing my full supplied fresh air system, my air hose caught the bottom of one of my front fenders, and I look back and see the fender had banged into the fresh paint and dented the newly painted rear quarter panel! It's not that noticable, but I sure as hell notice it! but a lot of work went into getting that quarter panel straight, and a few pounds of filler! lesson learned~ don't get in a hurry on long term projects and keep the area free of front fenders!
dne'