[Kern Dog]

Anyone that has tinkered with cars has at least one, right?
The car you wanted that was sold before you got there, the one that was stolen, the one that broke down all the time....
I have a few.
This one guy I used to know built a '71 Challenger. He was in his late 40s before he could afford to buy the car that he had wanted since High School. He still didn't have much money but he really had ambition.
He made a lot of short cuts along the way with the car. In California, we often migrate to the south for the annual Spring Fling show in Van Nuys. This is about a 400 mile trip for me, the Challenger guy was 180 miles further North. On the way to my place, his car spit the crank pulley, the automatic floor shifter linkage rattled loose and he lost the power steering when the crank pulley sliced the pressure hose.
WHY all the carnage?
He assembled the 340/416 without getting it balanced and it shook like 4 plug wires weren't connected. The crank pulley was spaced off the balancer using washers as shims...he had some generic balancer that was too thin and his pulleys didn't align.
On the way south, his Gear Vendors crapped out. It would later be discovered that he bought it used and never checked the oil in it. Yeah, it was shipped without oil. Having no overdrive really matters when you have a 4.56 axle gear!

 

[P10CREW]

Was heavily involved with several dirt modified cars over the years. The class always had a $500 motor claim rule so you couldn’t stick much money in the motors. Needless to say we gave last rights to many a 377’s and 406’s over the years after they scattered their guts all over the track.

 

[Kern Dog]

I guess if you're not breaking stuff, you're not trying hard enough to win.

 

[Kern Dog]

A plumber on a job I worked said he flew from California to Montana to get a truck he owned and was storing there. Short on cash, he slept in the truck on the way back. One morning he woke up and proceeded to resume the drive back to the interstate when he encountered a sharp turn on a slightly elevated road surface. He skidded off the road into a field and made a full roll but landed back on the tires. The windshield was smashed so he kicked it out and drove the rest of the way home.
I called bullshit but he wasn't the lying type so maybe it did happen as he said.

 

[DeepBrainThrombosis]

You don’t want me to post in this thread.. oh no.. it’ll be like Chunk in the Goonies when he confesses everything to the Fratellis!

That said, I think all my automotive hard luck stories involve Fords. Yeah, let’s just go with that, they all involve Fords.

 

[Thirdyfivepickup]

I was young and stupid and in a hurry... I was rushing to get my El Camino back together for the Street Machine Nationals way back in 1998. I sent it off for a paint job. I also took the entire suspension out and blasted and painted it. It looked good... black paint with new red poly bushings all the way around... detail painted everything BEFORE going to paint: suspension, brakes, driveshaft etc. Of course even though I showed the painter and told him about the chassis numerous times, it came back from paint with a large amount of yellow overspray from the paintjob. Sooo I took it all apart again... scuffed and repainted everything... cleaned off the bushings the best I could. This put me way behind and I was still putting the car together when it was time to leave. Turns out I rebuilt the double pumper wrong and it was dumping fuel so much it hydro-locked the motor. I pulled the wires... pulled the plugs and reached in through the window to spin it over...

I hit the key and WHOOOOOMP a big fireball rises from the engine compartment and lovingly wraps itself around my new, freshly painted, cowl hood.

Yeah I knew better... but was working on limited sleep and under pressure and rushing around like... well, like an idiot. Thankfully there was no damage and I borrowed a carb and made it to the show (5 hours away) with no issues other than cutting a brand new 17" tire

It was all worth is as Truckin' Magazine shot a feature on it and the following December I was able to buy a magazine with my truck in it...

It was my first real build and I did a lot in that truck. I put thousands of miles on it... have a stack of timeslips from the track... blew up a trans... a rear end... another rear end... and engine... another engine... a third engine... and another rear end... and once upon a time I even scored a photo shoot with a beautiful young lady.

 

[Busted Knuckles]

Bought a Dodge pickup once.

 

[rustang]

I like Fords.

 

[edcmat-l1]

After 40 years in the industry where do you start?

I've blown up my share. Wrecked a few. Had a hood blow open on me once. Ran into my giant Snap On tool box with a vintage Porche because it had no brakes and I didn't know.

Lots of fuk ups that weren't that bad and lots that are cringe worthy.

Here's a good one. In the early 90s I'm working at a general repair shop. I have a C2 Corvette hooked up to the Sun machine. About 1 car length in front of it is a Cadillac Seville on the lift. The Vette is a convertible, top is down. It's a stick shift car, 327, yada yada. I lean in the car, hit the key to crank it. It's in gear. In half a revolution the thing starts up and slowly lurches across the shop floor as I'm being dragged trying to turn the damn thing off or get it out of gear, something. Couple seconds later BOOM! It runs into the Caddy. I'm fukin sweatin it! All I see are dollar signs!!!! Luckily it did virtually no damage to either car. The DS bumperette on the Vette got tweaked just a little. There was a scuff on the Caddy we buffed out.

On a dyno in Pittsburgh 15 years ago at least, running an LS swapped 3rd gen Camaro. Pretty nice car. I believe it was an IROC. On the decel after a pull, clutch in and dyno brake applied, about half way down the RPM band a huge BANG!!! As in mechanical bang. Something in the transmission (manual) let go and seized the shafts, broke the case and bellhousing and flipped the trans nearly 90 degrees in the car.

I got more LOL

 

[hemicop]

Actually I have several. The '67 Tri-power 'Vette I should've kept. The C/G Pinto I'm looking for, the '88 Caprice I built for my Dept. The new owner told me he'd let me know when he was ready to sell, the S/C RJ Race Cars S/C Lumina a city employee stole from the city, my '27 "T" S/C Altered my wife insisted I sell or my first Hemi Dart clone that even some Chrysler Reps saw and thought it was a genuine car. All these cars were great cars but had to go for a variety of reasons----- wish I could get at least one back. Which one? If only one, I'd have to say my '71 Pinto

 

[edcmat-l1]

I've owned several over the decades that are gone now for one reason or another. My 72 Chevelle big block I sold in the late 90s, more than any of them, I should have kept.

I always seem to miss out on those killer deals. I always hear about them after the fact. Don't know if it's fate, karma, bad luck, wrong place wrong time, whatever.

 

[edcmat-l1]

My buddy Pete (screen name C5 Pete on here) has one of the best stories.

On his way to Atlanta I believe, towing his C5 (open trailer), the trailer unhooked from the truck, on the interstate, and passed him LOL. The trailer ended up going off the road, car came off the trailer but did minimal damage to both. Somehow he managed to get the trailer hooked back up, the car on the trailer, actually made it to the track and ended up winning his class!! Doesn't get much more epic than that LOL!

 

[edcmat-l1]

This place has gone to shit. 10 years ago this would have been 20 pages of YB hilarity by now.

 

[Infomaniac]

Was heavily involved with several dirt modified cars over the years. The class always had a $500 motor claim rule so you couldn’t stick much money in the motors. Needless to say we gave last rights to many a 377’s and 406’s over the years after they scattered their guts all over the track.

And when you claim someone's engine and they deliver it with every external bolt twisted off in the block. They had to make a rule at Tulsa Speedway about doing this.
Did you know that have a claimer rule in some horse racing?

 

[Infomaniac]

My first car in 1978 a green 1971 Maverick 6 cyl 3 on the tree. It used so much oil I had to carry it with me everywhere. It was a jackpot when I discovered recycled oil. Had an oil burner adapter in every hole.

I was only 16. Gave a chick a ride to school trying to impress her. When she got out I thought I would pop the clutch and squeel the tire. When I looked back in the rear view mirror, I saw her standing in a thick blue cloud. Fail LOL

 

[edcmat-l1]

In the early 90s a buddy of mine told me about an early 80s Mustang sitting in the corner of a shop they were trying to get rid of. He told me it was a 351 swap that ran rough and they wanted to sell it cheap.

I went to look at it, and the whole car was a little rough but it had potential. We got it started and my buddy wasn't kidding. The thing would shake your teeth out at idle! I was pretty sure I knew what was wrong with it and I gave them the 200 bucks or whatever it was they wanted for it.

Took it back to my shop and pulled the trans out. Sure enough they had put the 351 in with the 302 clutch and flywheel. The offset weight was the wrong weight and if I remember correctly it was in the wrong position. New 351 flywheel and she ran like buttah!! Ended up putting a small cam, aluminum intake, Holley, headers on it and that little junker ran its ass off!

 

[RK1968]

I just leased another Ford. Didn't even get it out of the dealership and there's a recall. Now I might get it next year sometime. In an abusive relationship, I need help

 

[DeepBrainThrombosis]

I just leased another Ford. Didn't even get it out of the dealership and there's a recall. Now I might get it next year sometime. In an abusive relationship, I need help

Lease, and Ford? Yeah, it sounds like you have daddy issues alright.

 

[P10CREW]

And when you claim someone's engine and they deliver it with every external bolt twisted off in the block. They had to make a rule at Tulsa Speedway about doing this.
Did you know that have a claimer rule in some horse racing?

We only had 1 claimed. I’m not positive on this but I think you kept your carb and distributor. Nonetheless we followed that prick to his home track and whipped his ass with his own shit and won that show as well. Didn’t find out till that following winter when the motor went in to get freshened up but the dumb ass had a set of superized pink rods in it. Same ole shit when you can’t drive nor set up a car then everyone around you is cheating.

 

[hellbents-10]

My own S10 on the chassis dyno was a rough one. 2003 Ext cab, 5.3 cam, MP112 on E85. Made 505rwhp and at the end of the pull on decell the center section of the stock 7.5 rear broke the plug welds and rolled around the axle tubes. It broke the drive shaft in dramatic fashion and cut the gas tank open from top to bottom letting 15 gallons hit the floor. I was so lucky it didn't light up! The floor in that room still has flaking paint to this day.
I have been at this crap for 24yrs now so that was just one that I remember well.