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And here I thought I was the only one who ever did that........ I, too, had an old Ford, late '60's, and the muffler fell off and I reinstalled it on the side of the road and hung it w/a wire coat hanger, around the drive shaft. Made a nice sounding rattling whine sound going down the highway.
I hate to say this, but I did something even dumber. I welded a set of scavenger pipes solid with a metal hanger to the rear end on a 57 Chevy hardtop. It lasted til I hit the first dip.
going from Dallas to Lubbock, toTexas Tech, in 1959 in a 55 chev. broke a valve spring, bent a push rod, broke a rocker arm, lost the keepers, do not know which came first, took the valve cover off, took a hammer and nail punched a hole in the cover ,took a piece of baling wire, tied it around the valve stem, stuck the wire thur the hole, put the cover back on, tied the wire tight to hold the valve closed, took the spark plug wire off and drove the rest of the way on 7 cylinders.
going from Dallas to Lubbock, toTexas Tech, in 1959 in a 55 chev. broke a valve spring, bent a push rod, broke a rocker arm, lost the keepers, do not know which came first, took the valve cover off, took a hammer and nail punched a hole in the cover ,took a piece of baling wire, tied it around the valve stem, stuck the wire thur the hole, put the cover back on, tied the wire tight to hold the valve closed, took the spark plug wire off and drove the rest of the way on 7 cylinders.
In High School I was pulling the trans in my 64' Comet, and while wrestling it down out of the bellhousing I unknowingly kicked the driveshaft and knocked the caps off the rear u-joint. I found the u-joint and cap, and needle bearings, in the dirt, when I put the rebuilt trans back into the car a few days later. I was missing two needle bearings. I searched the area with a flashlight that night, and the next day with a magnet, with no luck. I ended up in the shed looking for old u-joints and through jars of old parts to rob a bearing, and found a jar of 8 penny finish nails that were roughly the same diameter. I cut nails to length to replace the two missing needle bearings, spaced them 180 degrees apart in the cap, and bolted up the u-joint. I drove the car for the next year, and eventually traded it for a motorcycle, and never touched the u-joint.
Love these stories. My best was my senior high school year (1991) me and a couple of buddies pitched in to buy a mid 80''s P.O.S. 4 door delta 88 for $50. We cut the roof off with a sawsall so we could have a convertible. Needless to say, it bent in half pretty quickly, so we welded 2x2 to the underbody, which worked for a week or two, then came loose again, upon our second welding attempt, we caught the car on fire, and nearly burnt down my buddy's dads garage.
I was working on my 59 years ago. I jacked up the front and set both wheels on portable ramps. Went to the back--jacked the rear up using the differential and rolling jack. It tough to continue this story but yeah--the jack acted as a third wheel and I watched my car roll back off of the front ramps--hit my wheel barrel and Van. Not too much damage but rough on the ego. 59 navy
I did something similar. I was starting a transmission swap on a 3/4 Dodge diesel. Drove the front wheels up on ramps and put it in park (automatic). I then proceeded to remove the straps from the rear u-joint to pull the driveshaft. Once the straps were off, the shaft seemed to be stuck (you would think I would have figured out what was going to happen next but I'm on a mission here) so I found a prybar. I crawled under this 5,800 lb truck and popped the driveshaft loose and it starts rolling back with some serious momentum. In a panic I grabbed the frame rail with one hand and the running board with the other and it drug me about 20 ft before coming to a stop in the back yard. Sometimes I really wonder how I've made it this long.
Bubba fix story: Last year, I was driving with a friend to check out a craigslist find. Stopped to get a snack and the truck wouldn't start again. I couldn't hear the fuel pump and concluded that it must have died. We walked about 3 miles to the closest parts store and picked up a pump. My truck has a wood floored bed so accessing from the top is quite easy by removing a couple of slats. Swapped the pump and still had nothing. I had already checked the fuses and swapped around some relays and they seemed good. In one last ditch effort, I yanked the back up camera wire loose from the rear of the truck, spliced it to the positive side of the pump and went to the front of the truck and hooked the other end directly to the battery. Low and behold it starts pumping and we drive back home. I later found the factory harness was pinched under the bed and broke the power wire inside the insulation.
Last edited by whitesmokels1; 12-03-2019 at 08:56 PM.
In early 1970s. My 63 corvette convert required a cage for running 11 second times at the drag strip. I made it out of black abs plastic piping covered with foam . It was just laid on the floor. It looked pretty good and I got away with it . Was running 355 cubic inch motor with a 175 shot of nitros.
busted my camaros fan shroud car would overheat a lot. Always changing HG at work
Was pretty young, had a few in me so said what the hell. Stacked 2 fan spacers together got some long bolts and on went that flex fan.
My buddies never laughed so hard. It made it to work but killed the water pump. Looking back it was pretty funny...and unsafe.
I would break the internet if I posted all the dumb azz stunts I pulled over the years, but I'll share a particularly memorable one...
As a brand new driver I was adding air the left front tire on my 61 Impala; the gas station air gauge was broken so I figured I could just tell the pressure was close pushing on the sidewall with my thumb (like a bicycle tire). I juiced up the tire and as I pulled out of the gas station it exploded creating a watermelons size bulge in the fender. I was lucky it hadn't blown my head off while doing this stunt.
My Dad was less than understanding and I mowed a lot of neighbor lawns for no pay as my 'ole man collected "damages" to fix the car. It was so moronic if there had been DNA testing back then I think my Dad would have wanted proof I was actually his real son.
I haven't posted on here for a long time and under a different name, but I have always been able to laugh at myself. Quite frequently, by the way. Way back in the early 60's I purchased an A/Altered with a 484 cu.in. Olds engine and 6 Stromberg carbs on a log manifold, zoomy headers, real mag. rims frt.&rr. Man, I was set to roll. That thing sounded like a AA/Fueler when fired up. The neighbors did not like me. Took it to the strip the first time and I tell you, I was hot sh''. I had only been down the strip one time in my daily driver, prior to this. It had the pressure fuel tank out front, in front of the radiator shell and the hand pressure pump located beside the driver seat inside the cab. 32 Ply. cpe. body. Well being a tad over anxious, I fired it up and started pumping that pressure pump as hard and as fast as I could. I sure didn't want to embarrass myself by running out of gas half way down the strip. As I was pulling up to the line, the starters came running over waving their arms yelling at me to get out of the car and spraying my engine down with fire extinquishers. Hey, come on, how was I supposed to know that those carbs would only hold 6 to 7 pounds of pressure? I don't know how much pressure I had in the tank, but I am probably lucky it didn't blow off the front of the car. By the way, this is not my only drag strip story. Hope I didn't bore you.
I was married with a kid when I was 20 years old and my old car died and I needed a new one. A guy at work told me he had a car I could have for $100 but it had a ton of stuff wrong with it and the ignition would only start the car intermittently. The car had a ton of options that I could never afford, so that to me was a terrific deal. I brought the car home and fixed the power windows by cleaning the switches on the door. Replaced some fuses and fixed a half dozen things that were simple and cheap to fix and then went to find an ignition switch. The cost was too high for me at the time so I decided to bubba fix it . I got 2 light switches and screwed them to the dash and hooked them up so that you would flip one switch up to turn on the power and then the other one to activate the starter motor and then flip that one off once the car started. It took several years to be able to afford a car that had as many features as this $100 car had. I drove that car like that for over a year and would joke about no one being able to steal my car because they wouldn't know how to start it.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C1 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2017 Corvette of the Year Finalist
2016 C2 of Year
2015 C3 of Year Finalist
Well, I was only 18 when I bought my 65, so I should get some slack. I mounted a KP-500 Pioneer stereo under my glove box. I then cut holes in my original jack tray and mounted speakers in it. I cut right through the original jacking instructions Both the Pioneer stereo and speakers are still in the car.
I was 22 in 1971 when I bought my 67. The engine was bad and I wanted more hp, so I took out the L79 , threw it away for scrap, and replaced it with a crate engine from GM parts - a 1970 LT1 350/370 hp.
It was great at the time.... No collectability, no matching numbers, no NCRS back then Who knew?
In early 1970s. My 63 corvette convert required a cage for running 11 second times at the drag strip. I made it out of black abs plastic piping covered with foam . It was just laid on the floor. It looked pretty good and I got away with it . Was running 355 cubic inch motor with a 175 shot of nitros.
i know it was stupid to do so
This is great! Unbelievable! A fake roll cage! It's as good as the old World's Fastest Indian Kiwi guy who used shoe polish on his 40 -year old motorcycle tires to fill in the age cracks on his tires to qualify at Bonneville before he set the speed record that stood for years and years. You can't make this stuff up!
In college I decided to adjust the idle speed on my 64 Plymouth with auto. Read somewhere idle should be at a certain speed in drive. No problem, lightly set parking brake, started car, put it in gear and got out to stand by the fender and adjust the Carter AFB idle speed screw. Got it where it looked OK on the tach and just for good measure while standing at the fender with both feet straddling either side of the front tire, yanked the throttle rod, to goose the motor and clear it. Yanked on the throttle - engine reved up - front of car rose - and drove right over my left foot and stopped against the curb. Hardly felt it due to the nose rising. Stood there and looked all around to see if any witnesses were around. Fortunately not.
Just to show that lessons learned have a finite life, a few years ago I was getting ready to start my ERA Cobra after sitting up awhile. It was still sitting on my crank up wheel dollies. I have a habit of usually parking my cars in the garage out of gear - sometimes I roll them a short ways to position them on my lift or on the floor due to tight space. I primed the carb, leaned into the cockpit, looked at the gear shift (seemed in neutral), turned the key and the motor immediately fired and went into fast idle. Then I realized over the sound of the exhaust a strange rumbling, whining sound - sort of hard to describe but caused me to worry that something wasn't right with something. Reached inside and turned the key off and as I did my eye caught the rear tire/wheel spinning to a stop - on my wheel dollies. The transmission had been in first and the car was fast idling in gear on the rollers of the wheel dollies like it was on some sort of dyno.
Now I do always check to make sure it's really in neutral.
[QUOTE=whitesmokels1;1600592574]I did something similar. I was starting a transmission swap on a 3/4 Dodge diesel. Drove the front wheels up on ramps and put it in park (automatic). I then proceeded to remove the straps from the rear u-joint to pull the driveshaft. Once the straps were off, the shaft seemed to be stuck (you would think I would have figured out what was going to happen next but I'm on a mission here) so I found a prybar. I crawled under this 5,800 lb truck and popped the driveshaft loose and it starts rolling back with some serious momentum. In a panic I grabbed the frame rail with one hand and the running board with the other and it drug me about 20 ft before coming to a stop in the back yard. Sometimes I really wonder how I've made it this long.
OK, I can top that; On my first 1960 Vette it had a Powerglide. In the first cold snap we had I noticed the seat cushions must have been damp because they were frozen like a rock. I pulled the driver's side out then went to the passenger side. I was laying on the door sill struggling to get the seat out when it popped loose. It (or me) hit the gear lever and knocked it out of park and the brake wasn't on. It rolled down the slight incline of the driveway dragging me with it. I felt my back brush past a heavy car trailer (just missed almost ripping me in half) but the trailer caught the door and it literally exploded. We continued to roll until the left rear bumper buried itself into the side of my '64 Chevy panel truck.
12-02-2019, 05:03 PM
McGuyver would be proud!
Both the Pioneer stereo and speakers are still in the car.
