[KJL]

Back in the younger days I was helping a friend r&r a flywheel on his Opel - teeth were ground off. He drops by my house in his mom's 70 Lemans convertible so we can go to the library to get a manual for his car. I walk by the car and it reeks of gas. Pop the hood and the thread going into the q'jet are stripped. I remember using teflon tape and ??? to temporarily fix it. I told him no guarantees and this really needed to be fixed properly. It held to the library and back to my house. So we proceed to his house. We are stopped at a red light two blocks away and the car stalls. He starts it up immediately. Next thing you see is flames coming up from the hood. The car was totaled. Felt like a pile of crap.

[ta6point6]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

the hood flys up. Apparently I never latched it after all those hood up/hood down iterations.

It was a very low speed manuever, hood pops up real lazily, so I nonchalantly look under the hood through the windshield and pull over into a parking lot. There was so little drama I don't think the kids even realized what happened -

- but -

it tweaked the rear edge of the hood at the hinges/attaching points.

So, now I've got this nice Suburban with a bent up hood. And - now I can't install the cowl panel because the bent hood does not allow enough room to fit the piece.

I am glad I am not the only one to have a Tommy Boy momment. In fact it happened just last week. I wanted to save money on my 2000 Sonoma by changing the intake gaskets myself( stupid dexcool). Well I finally get it done and pull the truck out of the garage and our driveway slops down so the truck is pointing nose first. I left the hood popped to check the antifreeze before test drive but forgot all about it. So I am heading down the road feeling proud of myself and then the hood flies up smaks the windshield and scares the crap out of me. I am doing about 30 when it happens slam on the brakes ease to the left and run over the curb. Well now I have two new creases in the hood from it folding back and the window was already cracked. I figure the intake gasket probably would have cost 400.00 by a mecahnic so 100.00 for a hood, 150.00 for a windshield and 15.00 for a new pack of underwear and I am still come out ahead. Wife did not see the bright side like I did, boy am I going senial in my old age.

[bird72]

25 years later and 4 states away I have finally outlived the legend of wrecking my 65 El Camino. And I am supposed to tell it here? Let's just say I found out driving really fast and a Gonzo state of mind Hunter S Thompson would have been proud of led to much misjudgement. 100mph, stop signs, intersections that jog, fields, clouds of dirt, sudden stop, immovable structure, billyclubs pounding on my house door later, it was just great. The best part was my 3 hue blue color custum paint and striped stand out car sat in that field for 3 days before towed, totalled, impaled, while I was in the hospital, and everyone in town got to marvel at it. Isn't that Tony's El Camino? wow! Is he alive? It was just great, thanks for asking.

[keith k]

Originally Posted by Region Warrior

Oh god...where to start....

No kidding.

[stimpy]

Originally Posted by Region Warrior

Oh god...where to start....

aint that the truth ,

and the worse part is RW knows some of the places I have been to and how they are in NW indiana ....

the hill on 109th st , didn't know you could get a ford fiesta airbourne and blow the struts thru the floor boards in the back ..( dad wasn't to happy about that as it was his work car but he did have a nice partial rollcage , muffler and rear bumper when I was done .. )

racing down Broadway , then down I-65 only to find a state trooper waiting for you ..

when a curve is labeled 15 mph for a car theres a reason not to do it at 45 on a motorcycle ( damn marl on 117th ave )

if a one cylinder 2 stroke bike is a handfull then why not add 2 more cylinders and 500 cc's ( H2), then learn to walk at 45 mph in 100 foot strides ,at this point realizing wheelies aren't as fun as they used to be ..

telling someone why they shouldn't look down a carburator while a motor is running , then do it , only to loose your eyebrows and all the hair not under your hat and around your glasses and get a nice sunburn .... and find out that a piston feels like and the flame is blue ..

I have been told I should be wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in a round closet somewhere .. Tim taylor don't have a chance around me . I am a trained professional amatuer ..

[Region Warrior]

109th hill.
My bud's 68 Catalina made that jump many times.
Needless to say, went through chassis parts, wheels, tires.

Had a rear brake line go out on 68 FB while t&t at west bound stop sign on 69th & Colorado.
Girl in my h.s. class(what are the odds?) drive'n a Caprice broadsided r/r qtr at 50 mph. Spun me round 360.
When cop got there, she started bit'p all ovr.
Told her to wait in her car and me in his.
Ask "what happened?"
Told'm "lost brakes". Didnt mention was do'n 70 in a 30...
So he gets out, see's my skid marks from standing on the pedal, brake fluild before that, and(thankfully no called about the 60' tire marks east of there on other side of rr tracks)go's over to see she had no skid marks and stopped 50' past hit.
Told her be quit unless she wanted a ticket for speeding
I got a "sorry to see a nice car get hammered like that"

[JLHarper]

I was driving a female friends Dads 69 Charger Red / Black interior auto coming out of DC into MD on a heavily traveled highway while in my late teens around 1976 or so.

I power braked at a traffic light, the motor mount broke and the car TOOK OFF.

I got it into N and shut it off but when the motor torqued, the accelator linkage kinked, it messed the hood up, radiator got a fan through it and probably more...thats all I can remember.

[Region Warrior]

So my FB is sit'n in folks back yard get'n ready to replace qtr pnl, wheel hse, and wheel, when find a 70 chevelle week later.
$600 later, tagged, insured, ready to go.

Remember 109th?
Well 3rd nite out, was do'n 120 east bound down 101st???
The one that ends at Randolph st. with farm house dead ahead.
12:30 am and beer. In fact just reloaded at L-store.
Air born over the hill and realized on wrong road!
4 whl drums locked up, started to skid sideways with that BIG tree 10' other side of T intersection.
Let up, got'r straightened, and went down farmers "mogul" tree lined gravel drive".
Started to skid again and qtr caught 2nd-3rd tree in.
Spun car around slam'n into 2 trees head on, then around again backwards into 2 more before stopping.
Bumper and grill into engine. R/R qtr, and whole rear end smashed.
Only injury was my bud's thumb and finger jambed from bracing dash board.
We jumped out, thru the beer into corn feed 10' behind us and noticed a 8 wheel tracter 30'-40' away if hadnt stopped.

Get out of this one???
Cops looked at SEVERAL sets of skid marks, noted we didnt act impaired(we wernt by then!), and mentioned 2-3 weeks before someone had run down the "stop ahead" and "stop" sign and hit that BIG tree head on. They didnt make it.
The signs hadnt been replaced yet.

Father told me to pack up and leave next morning when he got up and saw the chevelle in front yard.
Was spring between junior and senior yrs.
Stayed at same bud's house. They had an extra room, and his mom loved me like a step son.

[Region Warrior]

So...about July, after burn'n up the th400 in same bud's 68 Catalina from run'n the 4x4 trails, we took our old 10 speeds out and proceeded to race each other round the sub's.
Buddy went to wide and hit the front of a parked car.
Knocked out both front upper teeth.
Had to stuff his t-shirt in to keep blood from pour'n out.
Woke his mom at 2am to take'm to E-room cause we couldnt find keys to her car.
Once she was awake, looked like like this

[PMDRACER]

I was an EMT for 11 years. My rig was in the shop for something, so we were driving a backup rig on a 90°+ day and 1/2 way through the day the radiator starts to leak. Wonderful. We're 45 miles from base and have to stop every 10 miles or so to top off the water.

Get to a gas station, pop the lever on the cap, let it blow off pressure, take off the cap, fill, and drive. Third time around I pop the lever and nothing comes out. Tapped it a few times, nothing. I know there's pressure because the top hose is hard. My partner (not a car guy at all) goes to take off the cap, I try to stop him and all I manage to do is push him aside as the radiator empties it's contents all over my left side, arm, neck and face. Luckilly I'm wearing sunglasses at the time because the water was hot enough to melt the lenses.

Tore off my shirt so fast you'd have thought I was auditioning for Chippendales. First and second degree burns all over my left side. Two weeks I won't forget.

[Evil Stu]

Originally Posted by PMDRACER

I was an EMT for 11 years. My rig was in the shop for something, so we were driving a backup rig on a 90°+ day and 1/2 way through the day the radiator starts to leak. Wonderful. We're 45 miles from base and have to stop every 10 miles or so to top off the water.

Get to a gas station, pop the lever on the cap, let it blow off pressure, take off the cap, fill, and drive. Third time around I pop the lever and nothing comes out. Tapped it a few times, nothing. I know there's pressure because the top hose is hard. My partner (not a car guy at all) goes to take off the cap, I try to stop him and all I manage to do is push him aside as the radiator empties it's contents all over my left side, arm, neck and face. Luckilly I'm wearing sunglasses at the time because the water was hot enough to melt the lenses.

Tore off my shirt so fast you'd have thought I was auditioning for Chippendales. First and second degree burns all over my left side. Two weeks I won't forget.

At least medical help was close to hand

[stimpy]

RW I have a family member who owns part of the treee you talk about on 101 , hit it with his elcamino ,too the whole right side off tothe frame rail .