stupid stuff we have done, and survived...

This is not car related but it had wheels. I was maybe 12-13 at the time, and was at shopping center with my friend Butch. A shopping cart was sitting far from the market. I said hey Butch hop in the cart and I'll push you to the market since we're going that way. (Butchie ran a few degrees late) He hops in, I push him a little way and then make a left turn that went down hill. He is sitting in the basket like a squirrel. He turns and looks at me and then I let him go. I figure to let him free wheel just to shake him up and then catch the cart and continue home. As the cart was picking up speed, the more he yelled, the harder I laughed. Well there was about 15 ft between us when I went to catch him. I was laughing so hard I couldn't catch him. So while he gaining speed and an audiance, he finally hit the curb. He looked like he got dumped out from a wheel barrow and rolled a couple times. He gets up, runs back to me and pounds me any where he can. We walked home, I'm laughing and he's calling me every name and saying wait til I get you back.

Also, we were soldering wires to D battery, burned him 3 times same finger, same place.

 

Took my newly built A altered to the strip for a test run. I discovered after the first run that the front lug nuts were never tightened...cost me a set of wheels......dumb.
Phil

 

Damn, guy. don't believe I'd told that

 

All day yesterday, I’m welding and grinding on the frame I’m working on. The day before, I had my patiwan learner in the shop with me helping out. I pick up my safety glasses and tell him to always wear them when working in the shop as I have had to get metal ground out of my eye twice.
So back to yesterday, I’m just finishing up the grinding and I’m wearing my safety glasses. The last grind to do, I (stupidly) decided not to put them back on. I hear a voice inside my head tell me that I should wear my safety glasses, naw, it’s just one more little grind.
Sure enough, just as I’m finishing it, a little speck finds it’s way into my eye.
Done for the day.
After washing it out several times and a night’s rest, it’s much better and no sign of it embedding it’s self into my eye.
Dodged a bullet there, but will try not to do that same stupid mistake again (or again)...
r


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Hello,
There were two things from our early hot rod history that would be considered stupid. I was a happy go lucky teenager with his first real car, a 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery with a stock Flathead motor. It was the most reliable motor ever, with the reliability of starting every time. No worries for that car. (once in 1961 someone jiggled the wires and we had to roll it down the on ramp of a freeway to get it started)

We had been driving the sedan delivery all over So Cal to go surfing at different surf spots from our local places. It was reliable and when the rains came during the winter time, it was time for some different driving. We were unknowing, but inquisitive teenagers and wanted to test some driving antics out in a muddy, rainy field.

Just over the Terminal Island Freeway on PCH, lie several Wilmington oil production facilities. The off ramp leads to a road going to several back entrances of the refineries. The space just below and to the South of the overpass was a huge empty field. It had a concrete drainage channel on one side and a standard curb running along the street to the back entrances.

It was always empty and no one used this off ramp, except for an odd truck or two for resting before the long haul somewhere. We used this lot for a lot of things in the 40 Sedan Delivery. We tried to perfect the sideways slide into a complete “u” turn and finally after many tries, it worked. Then after some fun summer escapades, the rains came and that increased the fun ten fold. Now, the slides were able to be done anytime on any portion of the field.

But, we did set up a jalopy derby course and invited other old cars to participate. Not many wanted to damage their cars, so only another Ford sedan took part in the slipping and sliding. I thought I was getting good at accelerating and then sliding around a sweeping turn, keeping the wheels turned in the correct way to keep going straight. One day, the mud was a little deep and my slides kept me going too fast toward the concrete drainage ditch and short wall.

I thought I was finished, as I kept sliding toward the wall and ditch. Then I realized to let off of the gas pedal from the panic mode and slide to a finish, just inches from the wall and curb. My mom would have had a field day with the headlines reading: “teenager found upside down in his old hot rod, in a drainage ditch, trapped in flowing water, in the Wilmington oil refinery fields.” That would have put an end to all driving for the whole high school years… YUK…

Jnaki

There must be something about a powerful car, racing motor sounds and teenage bravado. The only other incident was two years later in the 58 Impala. We had driven all over our local cruising grounds, from drive-in restaurant to another one in another neighborhood. It was a night of exciting acceleration and lots of blood pumping fun. The Bruce slicks worked wonders getting us off of the line, the C&O Stick Hydro allowed me to jump out to a tremendous lead at the drop of the arms. Nothing was holding us back from a night of fun driving and racing.

So, after dropping off my friend at his Bixby Knolls house, he wanted to hear one last rumble of my 58 Impala from a standing start. Around the corner of course, so I would not awaken his parents by doing the acceleration on his street. By this time a slight mist was floating around and the Bruce Slicks still grabbed enough to send me off in a roar. By the time it shifted to 3rd, I let off to coast to the oncoming “T” intersection. (Long Beach Blvd was the crossing street.)

The throttle stuck and I was going full blast toward the crossing street and traffic. Slamming on the brakes made a slight skid going closer to the cross street. Finally after a heart dropping moment, I shut off the motor and skidded into the first lane of the cross street. Luckily, there was only one car in the fast lane and he was scared sh!$$$less. So was I.

My friend heard the sounds and came running. All was well, with me panting in deep breaths by the side of the road. From that point on to my house several miles away, I was chugging along the slightly moist streets laden with the midnight mist. But, despite the slowness of the 58 Impala in the mist, at one stop light, a light push on the brake pedal sent me in a 360 degree turn on an empty street corner. That was enough to last a lifetime.

 

my brother used to pack a used CO2 cartridges will match stick ends and pack them in real tight, then put them in a pipe and light them off. We never knew where they landed but it had lots of power. My friend and I decided to do a smaller version with 30/30 shells. One failed to light so being the geniuses we were he decided to saw it open with a hack saw in a vice to see when went wrong. A few seconds later there was a loud bang and his dad ran out to the garage to see what we did. Needless to say, that ended our rocket careers...

 

Buddy had a 69 mustang with a 390. Header gaskets blew so we decided to change them, of course it was about 11 pm and we had had a few beers. Decided to pull it in my parents garage, the house was a ranch and the garage was under my sisters bedrooms. We managed to change the gaskets before my father came down and threw us out. In the rush to get it out of there we forgot we had jacket up the side of the motor with a bottle jack to be able to reach the bolts as the clearance to the shock towers was
minimal. He drove the car that way for 3 days till he spotted it.

And yes I have been married twice also.....

 

Was racing someone in my mid-twenties in my 85 Shelby Dodge Charger, and lost control, hitting a hydro pole head on going around a sharp bend in November with a donut on one of my rear tires. Busted up my knee pretty bad on the dash, but they put me back together.

 

When building the early Bronco "gasser," we put extended shackles on BOTH the front and rear ends of the front leaf springs to get the nose up and the air. Lost the drive shaft, brakes, and nearly our lives on the first test drive . . . God must have been looking after children AND idiots that day.

 

Gee, my first post is about how stupid I can be!

I was grinding the weld on a patch panel and did not realize that when I had jacked the rear of the car up that fuel was spilling on the floor at the front from an unplugged fuel line..... and POOF! I could not smell the gas spilling because of the fans I had set up and the fact that my smeller is defective.

To make matters worse, I had a full 5 gallon fuel jug sitting at the front of the car from earlier work on a mower and it was now sitting in the middle of a 10' wide pool of flaming gas. I knew the garage and cars would be gone if I didn't act, so I ran through the flaming pool, grabbed the gas can handle, and lobbed the flaming can out the back door with my best bowling action. It went through the back man-door and exploded on impact, burning down my covered patio attached to the back of the garage. I suffered 2nd degree burns on most of my left arm and a few patches on my face. I never felt my body burning that day even when they were peeling off my arm in the ER, but I sure felt it the following weeks.

Upon reflection that 5-gallon plastic can could have blown up in my face, but I was acting on instinct. My wife only remembers me running in and out of the smoke and flames and thought I was going to die saving my cars. The patio was lost and some smoke got in the house due to open windows. My welder is now pretty crispy (but still works) and reminds me why to be careful. I'm usually am pretty deliberate and think things through. I never keep combustibles in the house or garage - this was an exception. I should have put the gas can away when the mower was filled. I should have made sure the fuel line was plugged.

As they say.... Lessons learned the hard way.