Haunted cars ......from the grave to life.

[Midnight 50]

2008: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=298030

2007: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=176221

2009: It's that time again! Happy October........

True story...........

I will begin by telling you of my uncle's 61 Impala. My great grandfather purchased a blue 61 impala new and drove it until 1979 when he died. The family tucked it away in the basement and a decade went by until my uncle Aaron decided he wanted to use it as a classic restore ride. He dug it out of the piles of boxes in the basement and cleared 2 feet of space around it to work.

About a month after he started to work he'd given it a bath inside and out, changed all the maintenance items such as all rubber bits, belts, hoses, tires... lubed everything up.... changed the plugs, drained the tank and refilled it........ just about ready to go. Only thing he didn't have was a battery and the keys, which we couldn't find.

We were eating dinner around 8pm on Saturday night and we swore we heard the car start downstairs. Me and Aaron ran down the stairs to the basement and it was quiet as a mouse, no smell of car fumes or anything. We just figured we were so excited to get this thing running tomorrow that we were freaking out and hearing things. Well Saturday was the night Grampa and his buddies got together for poker and he'd eat dinner and leave about 8pm, then come back around 2am or so. While coincidental, we decided we were just happy to have the car almost running and it was getting the best of us.

We finished eating and went down to tidy up some loose ends with the car and go through some boxes to see if we had overlooked seeing the keys before we went through the trouble to tear the doors down and ignition out. After a few hours searching we gave up and decided to finish up tomorrow as it was getting past midnight.

We were both in the living room half crashed out after falling asleep watching tv when we were both SHAKEN from our sleep by the sound of a huge SLAM sound coming from downstairs. We thought someone was breaking in so we grabbed baseball bats and hauled ass downstairs. Everything looked normal except we noticed the chain on the door was swinging back and forth like someone had just closed the door and chained it up from the inside. After inspecting the door to make sure it was secure and nobody had gotten in we decided an animal or something had ran past the house and smacked into the door as it went by.

As we went back upstairs a reflection caught my uncle's eye and he said hold on what's this...... he walked over and the missing keys were hanging from the ignition!! He said what time is it? I said 2:13am why? He said well, .........it looks like grampa just got home from playing poker.

This happened on June 14th 1991 at 2:00am just after finishing the maintenance and a day away from starting the 61 Impala for the first time since great grampa died.

Got any creepy stories? Let's hear it.

[frankenstein1948]

Cool story.

[Herdez]

We had this one car at our shop that gave similar results to your story. Anyway, this car wouldnt let anybody fix it.

Like the first time they tried to reassemble the 396 somehow a hose clamp found its way into the motor and screwed up the cylinder.

We borrowed the front runners (Superlites)for another car and the guy that used them had an accident -tire came off on a very slow turn also the car wouldnt run worth a crap???? Wheels replaced and the car ran a whole sec. faster????? no other changes????

Sec. 396 went in and blew up before it even made its way down the street???

Another 396 build up -water got in the cylinders and bent rods. What gives?

I borrowed the front runners for my car and and all the sudden my own car caught me on fire while I was removing my own carb. Oh yeah!, and my 8.8 spark plug wires kept flinging off on the highway. Ever heard a 12.5:1 bigblock missfire? scary shit!

Any motor that was dropped in that car would just run like crap. The car itself never went faster than 55mph or stayed together for more than one month.

The story behind the car was that the owner who raced/owned it before it landed in our hands was murdered (Zoinks!)(Gulp!) while trying to shoot some guys breaking into his home late at night protecting his family. He shot one but the other shot him or something like that. I think they even said they had the wrong address breaking into the wrong house to boot. The car had been found in a storage facility and sold at auction. The story always gave me chills when it was told outside the garage and the car parked across from us like it was staring at us.

I dont even want to name or describe that car it still scares me......

[bobss396]

I worked with this guy who bought this OT car from another guy we worked with. He even gave him a 3-month warranty and said he'd buy the car back if anything major went on it.

He also told him that some woman put a curse on the car and his wife too, she owned the car. His wife was plagued with odd health problems soon after the "curse" was put on her.

Back to the car. One day as he drove it to work, the drivers door just fell off, good thing he was going slow at the time. No warning up until then. I saw the door afterwards in his trunk and it looked like all the screws just fell out.

Then after the warranty was up, the engine went, it developed a knock and something broke inside. He gets a used engine put in then the transmission goes a few weeks later. That he had rebuilt.

Lastly, he was driving one night in the rain on a winding road when he swears that it felt like someone took the steering wheel, hit the gas, drove across the other lanes and sent the car into a tree. He woke up in the hospital a day later as a John Doe, his wallet was lost at the accident scene. He was banged up quite a bit othewise no lasting injuries.

We used to joke about the cursed car after the door fell off and as the other things happened to it. He did tell us that he was glad to get rid of the car, as he always felt creepy driving it.

Bob

[Diana The Doc]

I must admit, after reading Midnight 50's story I was spooked... That's quite an eerie experience you had with your great grandfather's 1961 Chevrolet Impala... Tales of cars being involved in "paranormal" activity are not that common, especially on the internet, however, since some of us do have such a strong bond with our automobiles, maybe it is possible that accounts such as Midnight 50's do have some validation to them... If anybody else has any chilling tales of the automotive paranormal, we'd sure like to read 'em, I know that I sure would... Ghostly gas guzzlers from days gone bye, please show yourselves to us and offer us some genuine Halloween enchantment... This is definitely the perfect season for these sort of stories... "The Doc" (Celebrity Drag Racing Authority & Visionary)...

[Herdez]

bump!

[MotoVintage]

I would never call my ride "haunted", but when I got it going back in '86 it seemed to have a mind of it's own, the first night out I cruised up and down the main strip, I didn't have the hood on yet, I didn't notice the '66 corvette next to me, he was riding along side of me checking me out, my car reved up by it'self and piped him pretty good, it was funny and embarasing, but he backed off and didn't get close to me again, then after the hood was on it was a bit crooked, it poped open at 50 to 60 mph when I shut it back it was perfectly aligned??? also the radio only wanted to play classic rock music. my car has a heart... yes, a soul I think so, haunted ...definatly not

[Mark H]

Great story Midnight 50.I think Granpa's trying to tell you it's still his car!

[sixfink]

repeat after me:

there are no ghosts!

there are just spirits... mineral spirits, mostly.

[dannyego]

not exactly a ghost story but weird. Back in high school I had an 81 camaro that the trans was starting to slip on. I was living in Chicago and my dad had a farm out in a small town called Amboy about 3 hours away. He had an old out building he converted into a shop and he had a spare trans there. So one Saturday morning me and a buddy decided to limp the camaro out there to swap out the trans. We got there around 5 oclock and the since it was winter it was already dark. We pulled it into the shop and started to get to work. We got the car up on jack stands and I started to unbolt the cross member. Just then my buddy says do yo hear that?? I listen and say what the humming? He said "yeah what is that?" I thought it was probably the lights in the shop and ignored it. It started to get louder and we were both getting curios. I told him to kill the lights and see if thats stops it. He killed the lights and it was still there. I stepped outside the shop and it seemed like it was coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. keep in mind we are on a farm in the middle of nowhere with the next closest farm fifteen miles away. I shrug it off and get back under the car. My buddy then asks me what time my watch says. I look and it says 4:00am keep in mind we started working on the car around 6:00pm. He said "mine too, I thought it was broken". I look at what I have done and realize I have only unbolted half of the trans crossmember in ten hours. Needless to say we were both a little weirded out and called it a night. The next day we spent 3 hours and put the new trans in. We didnt talk about it on the way home and have only brought it up once since then. Alchohol was not involved. As long as I dont start building mountains out of mashed potatos I think I will be alright

[lentz automotive]

i have a good one and its absolutely true-
a friend asked me to help his brother out by finishing his 33 vicky kit car he had purchased new. all that had been done was the frame was painted and the engine bolted in and body set in place. now his brother was pretty sick and was affraid he would not get the car driving before he was to sick to drive.
so i decided to help by getting this car at least drivable for him. finally got to the point of starting the car--- engine knocked, no oil pressure. my buddy bought another engine for his brother, i installed eng when switching the distributer found the oil pump shaft missing.now mind you the first engine came out of his daily driver. the car was now driving.
he drove the car all that summer and got sicker that winter and died. a few years had past when i got a visit from the wife of the guy who passed away. she needed money and wanted me to buy the vicky. we agreed on a price and i bought the car.
towed the car home, it had been sitting under a tree since shortly after he had passed.
i figured something was wrong with it but the price was right so it didnt matter.
well i started the car and the engine knocked - so i bought a junk yard engine and put in it - drove it that weekend to a car show and parade - the trans went out. towed to my shop - replaced trans w/rebuilt. next time i drove car - engine started knocking.
by now i'm done with this car. i put the car for sale - as is - a friend bought car from me if i would replace engine - i told him to supply eng because this car is haunted and dont like me. so i installed engine for him and he took the car on about a 75 to 100 mile cruise. brought car back and said engine started knocking. i told him he bought the engine and not my fault - but being the nice guy i am - if he brought another engine i would install for free. he did and i did. as he was shipping to his hawaii home following week. needless to say - he drove the car about 75 miles to port for shipping and called me it started knocking when he got to the port.
he shipped the car and repaired over there and drove to a car show on the island about 5 miles from his house - he called and said the trans went out and dumped all the fluid out at the run.
now if you have been keeping count -- i think it was 5 engines - 3 trannys - 4 owners - and if i were to make an honest guess - i would say this car did not get a total of 500 miles since my buddys brother passed- i really dont think he wants anyone else driving his car.
now to let you know - i repair cars for a living in a commercial shop. there was nothing wrong with any of those engines or trannys when they left my shop.
i stayed awake a few nights over that car.

[captainjunk#2]

hmmm this thread was an interesting read , all it needs is some Big Foot , Elvis , an space aliens tales from the haunted garage ,

[jimi'shemi291]

My '38 Plymouth originally belonged to a family in a small neighboring town. As the three boys grew up, the oldest got the car. When he got a "better" car, he signed it over to the second brother, and THENCE to the youngest. At some point, the boys had ditched the 0riginal flatty for a '54 Chrysler 265 Spitfire flatty, making it technically a "hotrod."

Well, when the youngest brother grew out of the car (last driven '63), it remained at the homeplace, and he moved into our bigger town with his new wife. Some time during the '60s, the marriage went so sour that the final owner committed suicide with a shotgun, smack on his wife's new, white carpet.

I'd had my eyes on the car for years, and in the early '70s I and my own new wife went to see the parents, both still living. They had previously not been able to part with the car, since all three sons had owned it and there were GOOD memories associated with that. BUT, they we getting old, and my wife & I bought it for $25.

Then I heard the story. I have never been able to look at the car without thinking of the three brothers' GOOD times and, of course, the tragedy, too.

[Zettle Bros.]

Originally Posted by dannyego

not exactly a ghost story but weird. Back in high school I had an 81 camaro that the trans was starting to slip on. I was living in Chicago and my dad had a fram out in a small town called Amboy about 3 hours away. He had an old out building he converted into a shop and he had a spare trans there. So one Saturday morning me and a buddy decided to limp the camaro out there to swap out the trans. We got there around 5 oclock and the since it was winter it was already dark. We pulled it into the shop and started to get to work. We got the car up on jack stands and I strated to unbolt the cross member. Just then my buddy says do yo hear that?? I listen and say what the humming? He said "yeah what is that?" I thought it was probably the lights in the shop and ignored it. It started to get louder and we were both getting curios. I told him to kill the lights and see if that does it. He killed the lights and it was still there. I stepped outside the shop and it seemed like it was coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. keep in mind we are on a farm in the middle of nowhere with the next closest farm fifteen miles away. I shrug it off and get back under the car. My buddy then asks me what time my watch says. I look and it says 4:00am keep in mind we started working on the car around 6:00pm. He said "mine too, I thought it was broken". I look at what I have done and realize I have only unbolted half of the trans crossmember in ten hours. Needless to say we were both a little weirded out and called it a night. The next day we spent 3 hours and put the new trans in. We didnt talk about it on the way home and have only brought it up once since then. Alchohol was not involved. As long as I dont start building mountains out of mashed potatos I think I will be alright

The town of Amboy itself can be scary at times!!!LOL

[32Auburn]

I've seen a few of these threads but don't think I've seen a pic of the offending car in any. Here's mine, I still own it and yes it's haunted. I like driving old cars much better than new. Luckily I only have a few miles and 3 stop sign between my house and my store. Several years ago I decided to find a 62 Impala SS for my daily driver, great cars and very comfortable. I looked all over including feebay.
I ran across this 62 Starfire about 20 miles from my house, the auction stated she'd take the first $2500. I dropped everything and drove over and bought the car on the spot. I guess there was a lot of upset bidders when she closed the auction.
The car had belonged to her father. He bought it new in Portland OR in early 62. I received a stack of paperwork with the car including the POP and warranty book as well as every receipt. He loved the car and only logged 35,000 miles in 1970 when he put it away. It seemed the power window quit working on the driver's side, he removed the door panel (still off) and started pulling the motor. He got it unbolted but couldn't get it out. The daughter told me he cut his hand rather badly, there's still a stain on the metal, and got so pissed off he shoved it in the back of the garage and never touched it again. He died a few years later.
I was very excited to get the car, the interior is near perfect although it's dirty now. 2 tone leather buckets, factory tach, beautiful dash and running a 345 horse 394. I had about 20 cars at the time but was going to get this one going right away. I brought it home and before I took it to the shop I parked it in front of the house to stare at it for a while and let it air out. I sat down inside it and the electric clock came on. I didn't think much of it and when I got out it stopped. I repeated this several times, always the same, as soon as my ass was in the seat, clock on, out, clock off. Thinking this was retty cool and yell for my wife to come out and see. She watched with very little interest and said "so there's something wrong with the clock, so what". Typical.
I got out and opened the hood and immeaditely saw that there was no battery. I pointed that out to her and we both just kind of stared at the car. I repeated the sitting thing several more times, showed the kids, everyone had a good laugh and said I bought a haunted car. I went and got a battery put it in and the clock came on and worked perfectly. I took it out and r the same thing happened.
While I was moving stuff around in the shop I put it in my wife's barn about an 1/8 mile form the house. She goes down every night to feed the animals. She started getting freaked by the car and told me I had to walk down with here. It was pitch black out and we were walikng along the road. We approach her barn from the side and could see a dull light from inside, apart from the overheads there's no light in the barn. Just as we got to where we could see the front of the car the light went out. I swear it was the dome light in the Starfire but I had removed the battery. At this point I was called every name in the book and got told to get that f'ing thing out of her barn. feeling that I had nothing to lose I opened the door, screamed and acted like I was getting dragged inside. This topped it and I went celebate for a month, definately worth it though.
So I moved the car to the back of my shop and there it sits, she said she wouldn't ride in it if her life depended on it, some people have no sense of humor. She did however, name it Casper.

[sixfink]

Originally Posted by lentz automotive

i repair cars for a living in a commercial shop. there was nothing wrong with any of those engines or trannys when they left my shop.
i stayed awake a few nights over that car.

have you checked for blowholes?

repeat after me: there are no ghosts...

[Midnight 50]

Originally Posted by lentz automotive

i have a good one and its absolutely true-
a friend asked me to help his brother out by finishing his 33 vicky kit car he had purchased new. all that had been done was the frame was painted and the engine bolted in and body set in place. now his brother was pretty sick and was affraid he would not get the car driving before he was to sick to drive.
so i decided to help by getting this car at least drivable for him. finally got to the point of starting the car--- engine knocked, no oil pressure. my buddy bought another engine for his brother, i installed eng when switching the distributer found the oil pump shaft missing.now mind you the first engine came out of his daily driver. the car was now driving.
he drove the car all that summer and got sicker that winter and died. a few years had past when i got a visit from the wife of the guy who passed away. she needed money and wanted me to buy the vicky. we agreed on a price and i bought the car.
towed the car home, it had been sitting under a tree since shortly after he had passed.
i figured something was wrong with it but the price was right so it didnt matter.
well i started the car and the engine knocked - so i bought a junk yard engine and put in it - drove it that weekend to a car show and parade - the trans went out. towed to my shop - replaced trans w/rebuilt. next time i drove car - engine started knocking.
by now i'm done with this car. i put the car for sale - as is - a friend bought car from me if i would replace engine - i told him to supply eng because this car is haunted and dont like me. so i installed engine for him and he took the car on about a 75 to 100 mile cruise. brought car back and said engine started knocking. i told him he bought the engine and not my fault - but being the nice guy i am - if he brought another engine i would install for free. he did and i did. as he was shipping to his hawaii home following week. needless to say - he drove the car about 75 miles to port for shipping and called me it started knocking when he got to the port.
he shipped the car and repaired over there and drove to a car show on the island about 5 miles from his house - he called and said the trans went out and dumped all the fluid out at the run.
now if you have been keeping count -- i think it was 5 engines - 3 trannys - 4 owners - and if i were to make an honest guess - i would say this car did not get a total of 500 miles since my buddys brother passed- i really dont think he wants anyone else driving his car.
now to let you know - i repair cars for a living in a commercial shop. there was nothing wrong with any of those engines or trannys when they left my shop.
i stayed awake a few nights over that car.

I've certainly had a few cars that seemed like something alway happened and it didn't want to be driven. Never killed off so many large ticket items though. Had a few brake lines blow that were in good shape and shouldn't have.

[EXK]

32 Auburn I would not belive your storie but I had a car do something very simulare. We built a wild custom wagon from a 41 stud coupe front graphed to a chopped and narrowed 55 pontiac hurst. It was turning out kind of real cool and we had big plans for it. We had just Finished the base paint and art work. Later that night I heard loud music coming from my paint booth playing the song bad to the bone. I ran to the booth expecting to find someone f#&king with the car but the booth was shut and dark so I turned on the lights and open it up. There was no one around but it had a scool shift knob with the eyes that light up red when you push a button and they where glowing red. Ok I thought one of my guys are playing a trick on me so I opened the door to turn off the ignition key. To my surprise here was no key in it and as I when to turn off the scool shift knob the eyes stoped glowing and the music stopped. Ok this is wierd I thought so I whent to where the keys to this car belong expecting them to be missing but there they were. About 1hr later it happens again so this time I removed the battier and told myself it must have a strange short. Well it did it again and this time it was running. Now this realy freaked me out but at the same time I was careous so I opened the door and sat in the drivers seat. As I grabed the steering wheel I heard a voice say nice ride or something like that as it stopped running and the radio went silent. Well I decided to sell this wagon asap and this is where it realy gets scarry. I sold it to an 28 year old girl who die's just 2 week after she bought it. Her family sold it real cheap to a friend of mine who then die's right away. My friends family wants to just give it to me but I do not want anything to do with it.

[Herdez]

Originally Posted by dannyego

not exactly a ghost story but weird. Back in high school I had an 81 camaro that the trans was starting to slip on. I was living in Chicago and my dad had a fram out in a small town called Amboy about 3 hours away. He had an old out building he converted into a shop and he had a spare trans there. So one Saturday morning me and a buddy decided to limp the camaro out there to swap out the trans. We got there around 5 oclock and the since it was winter it was already dark. We pulled it into the shop and started to get to work. We got the car up on jack stands and I strated to unbolt the cross member. Just then my buddy says do yo hear that?? I listen and say what the humming? He said "yeah what is that?" I thought it was probably the lights in the shop and ignored it. It started to get louder and we were both getting curios. I told him to kill the lights and see if that does it. He killed the lights and it was still there. I stepped outside the shop and it seemed like it was coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. keep in mind we are on a farm in the middle of nowhere with the next closest farm fifteen miles away. I shrug it off and get back under the car. My buddy then asks me what time my watch says. I look and it says 4:00am keep in mind we started working on the car around 6:00pm. He said "mine too, I thought it was broken". I look at what I have done and realize I have only unbolted half of the trans crossmember in ten hours. Needless to say we were both a little weirded out and called it a night. The next day we spent 3 hours and put the new trans in. We didnt talk about it on the way home and have only brought it up once since then. Alchohol was not involved. As long as I dont start building mountains out of mashed potatos I think I will be alright

That happened to me once. Whoa!! still think about it to this day but yes it does feel very weird. lol!

[four-thirteen]

Originally Posted by 32Auburn

I brought it home and before I took it to the shop I parked it in front of the house to stare at it for a while and let it air out. I sat down inside it and the electric clock came on. I didn't think much of it and when I got out it stopped. I repeated this several times, always the same, as soon as my ass was in the seat, clock on, out, clock off. Thinking this was retty cool and yell for my wife to come out and see. She watched with very little interest and said "so there's something wrong with the clock, so what". Typical.
I got out and opened the hood and immeaditely saw that there was no battery. I pointed that out to her and we both just kind of stared at the car. I repeated the sitting thing several more times, showed the kids, everyone had a good laugh and said I bought a haunted car. I went and got a battery put it in and the clock came on and worked perfectly. I took it out and r the same thing happened.

A typical automotive clock from the 60s uses the equivalent of a watch movement mechanism, with a mainspring (power spring), escapement and balance wheel. The escapement and balance wheel regulate the speed at which the mainspring unwinds, which is what makes the clock keep time.

As the mainspring gets unwound, it trips a switch which powers a motor to rewind the spring, which might be every hour or so, meaning that the clock does not require battery power to work. As the spring winds down, it stops when the force is no longer sufficient to overcome the friction in the balance wheel and escapement. A slight change in position or a slight bump could set the clock running again, on the stored residual energy in the mainspring.

It is not uncommon for old mechanical watches to only run when set in certain positions, and at would be perfectly reasonable that the angle change of sitting in the seat would allow this.