Features How far have you walked after breaking down?

When I was driving beaters, I carried enough crap, tools and hardware to build another car... on the days I was thinking it was iffy (started slow the day before, brakes felt low), I threw a bike in the back. Never walked.

Now, when I smacked my Scirrocco into the back of an AMC Concord just right and I killed it, I rode my bike to BOTH my jobs, first one (8-4:30) was 10 miles away, the second (5:30-11:00) was on the way home, about 7 miles away. I did it for 9 months... It sometimes gets down to the low 40's in February here.

I quit the second job when I had enough money for a better beater.

 

My favorite stranded/ingenuity story is Don Garlits and TC Lemons coming back from the Gator Nationals in Don's custom Merc, with 2x4 intake and vintage Edmonds air cleaners--the big bathtub lookin' ones.
The fuel pump died, so they searched around in the ditch and found an empty 20-oz plastic Mountain Dew bottle, siphoned gas out of the fuel line and filled the bottle, poked a hole in the bottom of the bottle with a pocket knife, set it in the air cleaner and dripped fuel into the carb, adjusting the flow rate by cracking the screw-on cap. They drove most of the way from Gainesville to his place in Ocala.
I was there shooting stuff for a story, and he gave me the grand tour of his shop--I was really digging on the excellent craftsmanship of Merc, and he was impressed that I noticed a few things, and started showing me more and more of the car. When he popped the hood to show me the engine, the Mountain Dew bottle was sitting there in the air cleaner.

-Brad

 

Not quite the same but i was in the desert up in Ely Nevada shooting the silver state car race for a job, it was well over a 100 by around noon i had safely returned to my car only to find that in my enthusiasm a camera and a bunch of film had gone missing, only thing for it was to try and find it, i tried retracing my steps for about 4 hrs until i eventually found my camera and the film(which actually developed good enough to print)
If you walk around the desert up there and listen carefully you can still hear me screaming..........

 

About a month ago I was driving my '64 Chev pickup to the L.A.Roadster show. I noticed that the gas gauge wasn't moving so I figured I must have a bad gauge but I thought I had enough gas to make it to Barstow. About 20 milies before Barstow, she pops, coughs and begins to slow down. I slipped her into neutral and coasted up next to the call box. It took an hour to get gas but I didn't have to walk in the hot sun. Guess what my next repair will be!

 

Walked 20+ miles home from jail - wearing cowboy boots - because I had spent every last dime on alcohol and didn't have anything left to call a friend for a ride.

A few months later, I get dumped by a girlfriend while at a friend's New Years party. So depressed, I just head out the door, walking for home, in the rain - again in the damn cowboy boots. Ended up being more than 24 miles. Walked the last several miles barefoot in freezing rain.

Ahhh, good times!

 

Dude, you should either change your ways or start wearing different shoes.

 

Those boots were retired the very next day. I think they had a jinx on 'em

 

I have never (and will never) thought of a skateboard as my second, or emergency vehicle. What is the youth of America coming to?

 

One night in 1969 I was driving home from college for a weekend visit when a radiator hose blew off my Mustang and put me on foot on a two-lane highway in very rural West Texas.

As I walked five miles to Aspermont, I kept looking at the moon and thinking that, at that moment, Buzz Aldrin and Neal Armstrong were driving around on its glowing surface.

I had slipped a loaded revolver in my pocket when I left the car, since Stonewall County was populated with plenty of varmints, some human, capable of making the night far more unpleasant, and I did have to fire a single shot to convince Stanley Dieckmeier's dog that I wasn't some critter headed for the henhouse.

A carload of drunks, all my former classmates, picked me up when I had about a quarter-mile to go....

That one-owner, low-miles, two-seater NASA left there on the moon surely must be the most valuable and, certainly, unobtainable car in history.

 

I ran out of gas in a '57 wagon and had to walk a block home once. Is that far?

 

Construction of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) that made it to the moon commenced in October 1969, but it was the end product of a design program that began in 1961 and evolved throughout the decade.

I think you could consider it a traditional rod....it was purpose-built, by hand in many aspects, as a full custom - not another like it.

Plus...it was driven without regard for any traffic laws...

 

3 miles.... Got stuck on I-5 after a POS '83 IROC decided to overheat. 3 miles on I-5 in the middle of summer feels like 10 miles anywhere else. To this day I can't believe that not a single CHP was on the road that whole time and no-one stopped. Maybe being 6'4" 290lbs had something to do with it, but still....

 

About 1972 I put together a pretty nice fat bob panhead. Until I figured out that the shut-off valve was vibrating closed I must have pushed that SOB 10 miles. It would get about a mile from home and die! No way was I gonna leave it beside the road.

 

pushed my motorcycle home once... 4 hour effort in the middle of a 40 degree day wearing motorcycle gear. Another time I pushed it home in the middle of a hail storm. Completely soaked through, water had filled my boots. Last insult was when I had to push it up a hill to my house and the water was so deep across the road that the tyres on the bike couldnt get any grip and it fell on top of me.
can't help but laugh now. Should have just pushed it to the nearest bar and waited it out.

 

The last time I had to take my car to a garage for something I couldn't handle, I had to walk back home after I dropped it off. Wasn't bad, maybe a mile and a half tops.

My buddy's old rollback overheated on us one day going to pick up a '40 Nash coupe I bought off these old country boys, so we walked to a phone and a State Trooper saw us and gave us a ride down to this country restaurant where the phone was. While we were there someone he knew came in and talked with him, and gave him a 31 A body that wasn't in bad shape (just come on up and get it). The lady who ran the place gave us a ride back up to the truck when we couldn't raise anyone to come get us. And we fished enough tools out of the truck to pull the thermostat out and ran it that way the rest of the day. Sometimes breaking down ain't all bad, I guess.

 

A friend and I were 18 and driving to San Felipe in Mexico. He had a 63 VW bus, which was fitting, as we had windsurf boards, surfboards, etc in it and on it.

Somewhere along the way on HWY 1 (in Mexico) we passed a gov't impound lot full of cars. Lots of cool stuff in there.

Probably the next 15 minutes or so, the van shut off. The generator pulley fell off, and was long gone.

We grabbed what tools we had and water, since it was 120 degrees or better, and hoofed it back to the impound yard.

We went in there (yes we climbed the fence) and found a VW with the right pulley.

So we took it.

I don't steal, but that was necessity. And we were kinda fucked up from the beating we got from the Federales earlier in the day. An M16 butt to the jaw hurts a little.

We got that for turning the wrong way at a checkpoint.

Anyway, we walked back, and thankfully the van and the stuff was all still there. this ordeal took almost all day.
Put on the pulley, push start and away we went for a few fun months of living in Mexico.
Until we got deported for working.

 

I don't think I have ever walked away from a broken car.... but I have pushed plenty of busted motorcycles home.... probbaly about two miles being the furthest.

Now I always got a cell phone.

 

1995 my buddie and i were out patying we headed home and his 89 honda civic broke down on the freeway offramp. it was so foggy that night that we were reading street signs with my pager (it was 95 and i thought i was cool). we walked a good 4 miles and then two car headed towards us. so i decided to flag them down. they kept going and then stopped about a football field past us. i started running over and then the shots rang out. yeah they shot at us. i don't know if you have actualy heard a bullet wizz pass your head but is is something you won't ever forget. funny thing is i can actualy still to this day picture the car. 65 impala pinner whites yellow primer. needless to say i ran like a bitch. laugh all you want i can't stop bullets. and then every car that past we hid in the ditch. we did not get home until like 4 a.m.. good times.

 

I have lost count of the times I have had to walk. Some that I recall include 3mi. at 40 degree temp in pouring rain, and waiting (not walking)8 hours for a tow truck in cold weather with only a light jacket. Love cell phones.

 

I was 18 and was driving a 70 nova 350 and a 3sp manuel back in 85.2 buddies and myself decided to go out one nite and stopped around the corner from my moms house to pick up supplies(beer).Well the car crapped out and being three of us and my house so close we decided to push it home so we could fix it.Well i was outside steering and heard a click,click click.I tried to hold on to the door handle to look under while it was being pushed,Quite fast i may add.So being a clumsy kid i tripped and continued to hold on to the door handle and before i knew it the left rear tire went up my arm and over my shoulder just missing my head.Yea, i ran my self over with my own car.NOBODY stopped pushing!! I had to run to catch them.No injuries just embarresment.I guess they were focused on the beer.

 

This doesn't really count as "breaking down", but here you go. I almost hate to tell this story, because it makes me sound like an idiot, but eh... I guess I can be sometimes.

A few years ago, shortly after we purchased our 65' Riviera, I took it to a show at the Orange County Fairgrounds. I brought my girlfriend with me on her birthday, she was a good sport and got up with me at 4am to drive the car down there!! To make a long story short the fuel guage was showing a 1/4, but was really empty and we ran out of gas on the freeway!! I ended up running about a mile to the nearest gas station and a mile back to the car at 4:30am. That wasn't quite what she had in mind for her birthday, but she got a good laugh out of it...

 

Even my walking 11 miles home to get the truck to tow my wife's daily home (I left her sitting in it) can't top that story.

 

had an old pontiac in my T, and gettin poor gas milage. my buddy Howard and i head to bakersfield[REUNION] from phx., and run outta gas 30 miles from Quartzite. a guy goin there, towin a pontiac drag car, stops and gives us 3 gallons [thanks]. we run out about 2 miles from Quartzite. damn. i jump on my board and head that way with my thumb out and get picked up by a cool lesbian trucker. skated uphill back [super short ride in a bitchin camero], filled up, awesome trip, great show , drive, everything. on the way back, howard was pissed and bought a 5 gallon gas jug and some straps, and attatched it to my runnin board. seemed kinda fittin for a model T. no shit, i saw a sign that said 90 miles to some town, then a little while later sayin 'i bet we're gonna run outta gas any minute', and right about then, we ran out. unstrapped the jug, and viola', on our way. one of my favorite trips in a hot rod.

 

Back about 1991 I was "road testing" an employee's newly built street racer for him and on it's maiden voyage the transmission let loose and I drove over the now twisted & broken driveshaft at a little over 100mph as he turned white as a ghost.

We had to hoof it a little over 5 miles back to the shop to pick up the wrecker and go retrieve the car, after coasting as far as we could.......

Al in CT

 

Kurt, ya should've called me, I would've rescued ya!!!!

Last year my wife and I went with our son & his wife to a local bar for a couple cool ones.........one thing led to another and pretty soon it was midnight and I wanted to go home. The kids were still party-ing so we tried to get a taxi.........well in our little area, there isn't too many cabs to be found and the lady on the phone said it might be an hour or so. At that point we decided to hoof it, after all, Simi Valley isn't THAT BIG of a place. We finally arrived home at about 4 am........my feet were killin' me!! I checked the distance the next day....6 miles. I won't do that again.

 

1986 and I just got the 53 F100 back together. I ask this blonde chick if she wants to go to the Great Labor Day Cruise (first date!) and she say OK. Leave at 6:00am and run out of gas about a mile from the fairgrounds. Gauge says 1/4 tank. Leave the blonde on off ramp with the truck, walk to the gas station, buy a damn can ,walk back and off to the cruise. Kinda pissed off so i put a For Sale sign in it and some lady from Palm Springs buys it, says she's gonna use it to advertise her pool cleaning company!
The blonde? we've been married 21 years now!

 

One more. Shit, I've got too many of these. Running down the 405 at about 80+ when a rear Aldan on the corvette rear suspension in my truck breaks. Whoa, Mr. Toads wild ride as that corner drops and the tire locks up in the wheel well. Get it stopped in the center divider and do the thrill seeker run across the fwy. After walking about a mile a CHP pulls up and asks what the hell I'm doing. Tell him the story, he looks at me with a stupid look and says, "well, get the hell off my fwy".
Thanks pal, coulda gave me a ride to the next phone or something!

 

I had a 650 Triumph that broke down on me once. The nut on the clutch came off. Forgot to bend the lock tab on it. I pushed it about 8 miles in Miami. At least it was pretty flat.

Bill

 

A couple miles at around 4-5AM. Circa 1978(?) my street race car ran out of gas on the way home. I get within a couple blocks of my house and I flag down a passing cop (mondo mistake). He flipped a u-turn, got out and slammed my face onto the blazing hot hood of the car. I said, if I was doing something illegal, did you really think I'd FLAG YOU DOWN? Anyway, they kept my face down on the hot hood, where I could read the words "to protect and serve" out of the corner of my eye painted on their car. Needless to say, they refused to give me a ride and expedite the car's recovery before it succumbed to some sort of theft or vandalism.

 

Fortunately only one mile after my Triumph quit. But it wa the longest mile I ever walked. I stopped about fifteen times to try and kick start it while walking directly into the sun in 90 degree weather. Then I almost tipped it over pushing it up the approach in my driveway out of pure exhaustion. Fuckin' Lucas electrics!