Event Coverage Funniest, sorriest, worst thing ever happen while going and picking up a car?

Another story, long long ago. I was 18 or 19, my girlfriend was 17. She had a 64 Dart, and found a parts car cheap she wanted. My dad had a car trailer, her mom had an 80's 3/4 ton chevy pickup that was there dump runner. Her brother had already had their boat blow into the back of the truck because he didn't strap it down, so the tailgate was wasted.

I load this shit dart up and I don't remember how I strapped it down. Young and dumb, probably a loose chain on each end? We take off and get a block down the road to a stop sign. Dart rolls forward off the end of the trailer, front suspension on the tongue and bumper of dart snug against the tailgate of her moms truck. Luckily tailgate was already wasted. By luck I had a jack and a come a long, jacked the front of the car up a little and pulled it back on the trailer. Made sure it was secure this time and made it back to her place no more accidents.

 

Years ago my neighbor was taking his 62 Vette to a consignment place to sell it. It was dark and we loaded it on his trailer--it has an aluminum deck. We put the ramps away and I got out the tie downs. For some reason he jumps in the Yukon with the trailer in tow and takes off quite fast to turn around I guess. The Vette is now airborne and he is down the street. It bounces and he comes back with no Vette! Our wives were out here and we looked it over good-surprisingly no damage!! Reloaded and tied it down and away it went.

 

That look like a good buy! My friends Dad had a truck just like that, color and all, back when we were in school. He was at another friends house and started to leave, the truck wouldn’t start, flooded. So our mutual friend tells John to “ hold it on the floor” well, he does, the old 292 fires up and John keeps his foot ON THE FLOOR! With the clutch down. That old 292 when to winding up and all of a sudden there was an explosion!!! The clutch exploded sending chunks of steel in all directions! One piece went through the wall and roof of the garage another piece traveled several hundred feet and went into the back porch of my friends parents house! Luckily no person was hit! Whew! My friend, John, was one of a kind.... he then told us he knew that clutch was fixing to blow, because he felt it building pressure when he was coming off the hill come to our mutual friends house! Really!! But he was fun to be around! I’ve got tons of stories with him!








Bones

 

I was in high school when the local car hoarder passed away. A few cars were sold by a family member before the other family jumped in and made a stink out of the deal and had a broker handle the rest of it. I was lucky and got there in the beginning. But in order to get some cars out we had to move up to 4 cars out of the way. Everything was missing something (or full of something) (2 station wagons loaded to the roof with empty cat food cans)
In the process of getting a 55 chevy out we had to move 2 other cars. Both missing tires on diferent sides. Im skinny, so I was the only one who could fit between to run a jack and put on spares. Putting front tire on I get stung by an angry wasp in the forearm. Arm swells up like popeye but I want this 55 so I keep going. Putting on the rear the wasps buddy comes and hits my other arm. Now both arms swollen, pain, fire etc, misery. Got the car out of the way and pull the 55 on the trailer with the come-a-long. Pushed the wasp nest car back into place.
Havent been stung like that in a long time. I'll probably never forget that feeling!

 

Yikes!!!

That 58 I got was a WA state forest service rig. Had a propane tank mounted in all 4 corners of the bed, behind those little doors on the bedside. The truck also had an underdive box behind the trans. 223 and a 4 speed. I assumed they could put it in 1st (granny gear) with the underdrive engaged and the truck would idle along at 1 mph and they could walk beside it and burn weeds with it?

 

I had to return a cat after purchasing a 1939 Oldsmobile - not sure if the cat was a stowaway or if the owner did it on purpose...

 

Some of those aux transmission could be mounted one way for underdrive and turned around for overdrive. If it’s a deep reduction box that won’t work, but some were just .75 or so for splitting gears.
Nice find!






Bones

 

Many years ago when my Dad still had his shop he took me along to NY from Pennsylvania to tow a '48 coupe back to the shop. It was supposed to be decent when he bought it but as many of us have found out, condition is in the eye of the beholder. When we arrived the car had no brakes and no steering wheel and also no front bumper so the tow bar we had was out of the question.

Pop hooked up a chain about 10 feet long and had me pilot the '48. A pair of vise grips took the place of the missing steering wheel. At the time I didn't even have a drivers license. Pop was the ultimate lover of all things '46-'48 Ford coupe and wasn't letting this one get away. I was in back all the way beck to Pa, about 5 hrs., using the hand brake as necessary. The white knuckle ride of a lifetime. One great adventure I still have fond memories of. You'd never get away with that today!

 

Sent 1500 miles to pick up a 57 Imperial from estate sale. 100 degree day. Lawyer meets me, shows me where the car's parked, puts keys and title on the hood and hops in his air-conditioned Caddy and takes off. Car is resting in a carriage house on wooden floors, completely laying frame. Figured tires were flat, but NOOOOO, tires had held air. The fuckin' car had WARPED the floor and SUNK down to the frame. No place to get a jack under, no help around anywhere, and i'm gettin' really pissed. Had been told car was a runner. Might have been when it got parked there, 35 yrs ago, but it sure the fuck wasn't now. Ever try to move 6300lbs of beached Imperial? Get a chain hooked to the frame, barely, unhook my trailer, and hook other end to my 70 BB 4x4 Suburban and begin the tug of war. After burning about an inch off my tires, I back up, touch bumpers and floor the Suburban. Figure somethings gonna give (didn't care what by this time). Luckily, the beached Imperial waddled out of it's resting place like a pregnant sea lion. My 15ft chain got about 4" longer and Imperials new owner had enough sense to never mention the kink in the front bumper.

 

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from 11143 hwy 90 west pocahontas ark. 72455

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I use to go get trucks for a big dealer. One time he bought a large number of fleet trucks in Columbus Ohio. I Went and picked out a truck I thought would be a mechanically sound truck for a driver. got paid $250 per truck, So I pulled the air foils from the cabs and stacked 4 behind that first truck. My pickup on a tow bar at the rear. Single axle trucks with smooth tread tires. Winter time the two other guys only stacked three. hadn't slept weather getting worse. We left made it thru Indianapolis and down into Ill. stopped at a rest area and went to sleep in the seat. No sleeper in the day cab freightliner. Had pulled the axles on the stacks and released the brakes the only brakes where on the lead truck. I woke up a couple hours later. And it was really snowing. Went and woke the other guys up. And left headed south. Had a hard time taking off couldn't get traction. Certainly wasn't gonna be able to stop on a dime.Turned off at Benton Ill to go west and south to avoid the scales on 57. Went thru Murphysboro and on down to ill 3. Weather getting worse. Crossed at cape Giradeau and made it to popular bluff. turned on 142 to avoid the state line scales at Neelyville and crossed current river at Doniphan. made it all the way in. That was the most nerve wracking haul I ever did. and on about three hours of sleep. The two other guys decided to go back to sleep. The got held up because they didn't have chains. It took them a week to finally get home.

 

1968 I had a call to give a guy an estimate to redo his septic system. I drove there in a stock 37 chevy sedan that I had. Talking to the customer and here comes the neighbor asking if I would be interested in an old car that he had? What is it I asked and he says its a 48 olds convertible and its in the garage in his back yard. Ok so when we finish here can I see it ? Sure so I go over and we walk out to the garage and he opens the doors this car is nice. It has a 1960 license plate so I ask if it has been sitting ball that time ? He says yes that it was his mothers car and when she passed he never drove it. I have an olds v8 that I got from a friend that wrecked his 54 olds. The old guy says that he will get the car running for me and I say that's not necessary that I will work on it. We reach a deal on the olds and I get the septic job. The next morning I take a backhoe to the job and the old guy says he is going to get the olds running today. I tell him not to bother but he insist that he will get it running. So he is out there all morning and the car isn't running. I go to lunch and while I`m eating the fire sirens are going off. I just get the feeling that somehow this involves the olds. I go back to the jobsite turn the corner and here are the fire engines in front of his house. The old guy left a trouble light lay on the front seat and it caught the car on fire. What really got me was that he told the fire marshal that he was only working on the car because I insisted that he get it running.

 

Pales in comparison to many of these posts, but here's mine....

Back in the early 80s (pre-internet, pre AutoTrader, at least in Iowa) I read a newspaper ad for a mid-60s Fairlane. I needed a SBF for a project I was working on, so I made the call. Great runner, should have no problem driving it the 80 miles home. I'm young and dumb. So I talk my father into going with me. Get there around dark, car actually starts and runs. No brakes, though. Go to the one place in town that has brake fluid, dump it in, hey, got pedal. Pay the guy, coax it out of the sunk-in spot it is in, and hit the road. BTW, no plates, so we had to pull the rear plate off of dad's Impala, and put it on the rear of the Fairlane and convoy it. About a mile into the trip, I hear something dragging. pull over, it's the steel portion of the fuel line (has a long piece of hose at the front). Dig around in the car, find some wire. Wire it up by wiring around the rocker...yep, major floor holes. OK, back on the road. At the first stop sign, make the turn, and the seat rolls back and backrest hits the rear seat...yep, floor gone at the seat mounts. Dig out the Impala bumper jack and rig it to support the seat from rocker to trans tunnel. About 5 miles in, the black plastic that is covering the busted-out rear window ceases flapping like a demented sail and parts company with us. Blissful silence! Winter in Iowa, big holes in floor, giant hole behind rear seat where glass USED to be makes for a brisk ride. Everything goes along pretty well for the next 20 miles or so until the muffler falls off.. So, I endure the incredible wind, cold and noise for our trip through a half-dozen small towns trying to keep it as quiet as possible. About 20 miles from home, here comes trouble....I see a car with a bar light coming right at us from ahead. I tuck the Fairlane up close behind the Impala so you can't see that there isn't a plate on the front of it, nor the rear of the Impala, bump it up to neutral when he's about 100 feet away, and hold my breath. Crap! it's a State Trooper. Now this is gonna be dicey, because my father works for the State Patrol as a dispatcher, and I know who it's likely to be because there's one that lives in this town. Annnd, he's a hard-line, no-nonsense-tolerated kind of guy. Our ploy appears to work, and we roll on home without further incident, other than no tag, no window, no floor, no muffler.

I wound up using the drivetrain out of the Fairlane, sell the mint grille and left (replaced) fender for a few bucks more than i paid for the car.

Nothing was ever said to my father about this escapade by the trooper in question, so I'm not sure if he recognized the Impala and gave us a pass, or just didn't think it was worth it on a cold night, or was just occupied with other business.

Lesson learned, I never again went unprepared, believed what a seller told me, or asked my dad (who probably qualified for sainthood) to engage in sketchy goings-on.

Shoulda walked, and have many times since, but like I said, young and dumb. Not so young anymore.

 

This was around 1975 and involved dropping off a car to someone. I believe it was a 1965 Belair that we picked the engine out of. The guy was supposed to call me and set up a time that day. No call so we sit and wait... find out a few hours later that the guy was out on his bike and gets creamed by a car, DOA at the local hospital at age 19.

 

My '65 Belair wagon crapped out on the parkway one morning when I was headed for work back around '83. I hitched a ride back home and got my wife to take me to work, said I'd scare up a rope and we'd tow it home later. Normally I would borrow a tow truck, but forget why that plan was nixed. So she comes to work and gets me, one guy had some 1/2" nylon rope 50' of it. The car was on the grass of the Wantagh Parkway, we had to tow it up to Old Country Road in Westbury so we could turn it around and take the back streets home. It was getting dark and some idiot tried to get in between us on the on-ramp heading south. After a lot of cursing and horn blowing, I get the guy to back off. Finally home, my wife is fried... tells me never to ask her to do something like that again. Turns out the fuel hose from the top of the gas tank was rotted out and sucking air.

 

I don't know how I forgot this.. Back in '68 I went to get my Shoebox, about 35 miles from home, not too far..Drove my trusty '65 Comet 202 with 6cyl and 4spd Dagenham trans with my friend John in the passenger seat to the U-haul rental place to rent a car trailer.. The guy comes out with a clamp on bumper hitch and puts it on rear bumper; I says is that enough? He says you got a strong bumper no problem.. He goes and gets the trailer, pushing it over with a small fork lift.. Trailer looked well used, towed a lot. Forwards, backwards, sideways and probably up side down.. Well the drive up to car was ok and we loaded it with no problems except in my wisdom [lack of] we put it on backwards; I was afraid of the clamp on hitch but didn't think about the 10% rule.. Well I drive the roads on out to the highway and accelerate up the entrance ramp.. Just got into 3rd gear and started to feel a little comfortable at about 35mph, by the time I got to 40 mph we was swapping lanes with cars passing us on both sides. Classic tail wagging the dog! I jumped on the brakes [car only!] and those 9" Comet brakes said Oh shit just after I did.. Got down to 30mph and we were safe and took the next exit and stopped at a gas station and pumped the trailer tires up. That was only good for a speed of 35mph so rest of the way in 3rd gear, down the highway go me and john trying to look cool, in control and at the same time not shit ourselfs..

 

I’m 17 and my Buddy is 19. We work at the local school bus garage. He is the only mechanic and I’m the apprentice. His daily was a 1987 Ford Ranger. We find a 1949 Chevy 3600 with no motor or transmission in one town over. We go to buy it and then he produces a tow bar from the Ranger. He lives 40 miles north. We hook up the Chevy and within about 3 blocks find out that with no motor, the Chev would not follow the Ranger. This was back in 1991. He hops in the Chev and I drive the Ranger. It went relatively well until we noticed the Illinois State Trooper parked in the median of I-255. My Buddy ducked down as far as possible and the Trooper either didn’t notice or more likely decided not to bother with us.


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Same Buddy, 4 years later, still both school bus mechanics. He works in his town and I in mine. He needs a 6.2 Chevy boat anchor for a Suburban project. Within our company he located an old GMC one ton van bus about 30 miles from his town. We gotta go buy this he tells me. I kinda think the transmission was out in it, neither of us had a trailer big enough for this and sure weren’t going to pay a tow truck. Same tow bar, different tow vehicle. Mid 1980’s Chevy 4x4 Blazer with another 6.2 boat anchor diesel. This bus was to heavy and didn’t want to follow the Blazer. My turn to be towed. Another Trooper, more luck, did not get pulled over. Used up lots of luck with those two.
Just remember what the policeman’s job in this scheme is: to tell you what you are doing is unsafe.


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Some years back I had my 1940 Ford coupe(primered, starts & runs, but not finished) up for sale at the Nationals in Louisville, Ky. Had it setting on a trailer I had borrowed from a friend. Said trailer had a wooden floor, and my son had winched it down. Since he had been a wrecker driver for 10 years, I didn't check his work as he had never lost a vehicle while towing them. I sold the 40 at the Nationals the last day, but the guy lived in Michigan and said he would pick the car up in about 2 weeks, and gave me a $1000 deposit. My son had towed the trailer with a work truck, that was a full ton truck. I couldn't get hold of him so I just backed up my Chevy S-10 to the trailer and headed home. Only living about 10 miles from the Fairgrounds, I was going to drive home the streets, but traffic was backed up all the way to the exit gate on Phillips Ln. (If you know where that is) Well I decided to just take it slow on the expressway via I-65 South. I was driving 50 miles per hour and cars were flying by me honking their horns like crazy, so dumbass me decides to speed up a bit. I'm doing 60 now and I hit a dip in the road and one of the chain straps breaks the board it is fastened to and my 40 is sliding around on the trailer. I start to go into a panic stop, and the bump has caused the trailer to jump up & down slinging my truck all over the place. I see an exit coming up so I start to steer toward it. There right at the top of the exit is a cop pulled over behind a car he was writing out a ticket to. I'm fighting the wheel trying to control everything, and I see my truck getting closer & closer to the cop car. I come to a stop about a foot from the cop car, and the cop walks up to me real cool like and says nice driving there, What happened. I tell him I'm not too sure, but felt like I was in a position to cause a wreck, so I was going to go on down the ramp before I check everything out. He says good bye, and I pull to the bottom of the ramp then pull over and check the damage and see what caused the problem. Now I limp home on the back city streets, and pull into my driveway. The front fender & new headlight ring were both damaged, so I had to get the fender repaired, and a pair of new headlight rings shipped to me. To add insult to injury, when I took the trailer back to my buddy I had borrowed it from, he took one look at the busted board and says, Your going to buy a new board and install it right? I said, what the hell are you talking about, your old board rotted and broke off. He said, it was in good condition, when it left here, you need to replace it if you ever want to borrow it again. So I replace the board. Never did use that trailer again, and sold the 40 two weeks later.

 

When I was about 19 about 1988 I noticed a ratty 56 Chevy truck layed up in a yard a couple of miles from my house. Went and knocked on the door and the old guy said 700.00 bucks and it was mine.
I returned with my mom to trade the money for paperwork. The creepy old bastard says “come into the kitchen and sign the papers”.
Well this crazy old coot has a naked picture of a woman everywhere you turn your head to look... and not the tasteful kind ..no sir the most untasteful kind if you get my drift.
So my mom bless her heart knows how much I want this truck and she just keeps her eyes down and doesn’t say a word.
We gave the old pervert the money - signed the papers and got the hell out of there!
It was worth it -it was the big back window model.

 

1968 My friend wants to buy a 55 chevy gasser that a guy has for sale at a gas station about thirty miles from our town. He has already looked at it and is ok with the price so I am going to haul it for him. We get there and my friend is going to pay the guy and he says come in the office. As we walk up to the office there is a monkey jumping around in there. I am looking at this monkey and he is showing his teeth and it doesn't look like he is smiling. I say that the monkey looks mean the station owner says he wont hurt you come in. My friend needs to pay the guy so I say that there is nothing in there that I need and I don't want to meet the monkey I`ll wait here. My friend goes in and is reaching in his pocket for the money and the monkey grabs his arm and bites him. At this point I`m thinking that this is the end of this deal and we are out of there but my friend pays the guy gets the title and we are loading up the car. When I see the bite that he has I say we have to go to the emergency room. The station owner says he will be fine just put some antiseptic on it. I say we will let the emergency room put some antiseptic on it. Even going to the emergency room he got an infection so bad that for a while the doctor said that he might lose his arm.

 

About a week ago me and some friends decided to drive out to go look at some cars for sale since I sold my 56 cadillac a few months ago. Dealt with a bunch of people not responding but finaly decided to go look at a 65 buick wildcat, I wanted a 2 door but it had a 401 nailhead with a limited slip rear and only 54 thousand miles plus it was cheap. Plan is if it's what we want give the guy cash call the insurance company and then head to the dmv for temp plates to drive it the 130 miles home. Problem was the test drive went much longer than expected and by them time we agreed on a price the dmv was shut worse still so was the insurance but none of us being over 20 we figured we could make it 130 miles in a car with no plates and an inspection sticker from 2001. The car was driving perfect except for a few stalls pulling away (I think the carb is junked up) and when it didnt stall it would light up the rear tires. As it's just getting dark we pass a state trooper on the side of the road and watch in horror as he pulls out only to have him turn the other way after that we switched to back roads. We made it to my parents around 10pm what was supposed to be a 130 mile trip too 6 hours and I got to see my parents suprised faces when I showed up in the snow with a car I hadn't told them about buying with no plates or inspection sticker.

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One time I needed to move my 66 ford F600 from or other place to this corner. No brakes no radiator. no drivers door. The engine would run but had cracked heads. So I had Debbie pull me with her 66 3/4 ton chevy truck. She didn't want to but did anyhow. Well she want too fast and when she got to the drive way on Hwy 90 she never slowed just suddenly braked. with the F600 truck in gear ignition off and emergency brake I still couldn't stop. So I went past her. long chain drug her truck around crossways and the chain wrapped around my drivers side duals. There we where tangled up in the road. And a County Deputy comes down Hwy 93 looks our direction waves and turns toward Pocahontas.

 

One of the ways I used to tow some vehicles that had tuff bumpers , back in the day , was to take ten foot piece of four inch pipe with me. I would run the chain through the pipe and around the bumpers or something solid on the vehicles and then clamp it tight with a binder. Later I got fancy and cut the ends of the pipe in a u shape and then cut slots about three feet up on both ends of the pipe for the binders! That kept the chain tight and you could use the front vehile to help stop the rear vehicle and the chain was alway tight! I didn’t always have a good driver in the back vehile!








Bones

 

This is not scary,or a car..but this is how a desert rat unloads an engine from a truck.

 

Up here we call that a stiff hitch.


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Kinda when I walk into work, they have pics for the pallets.

Good Wood

Bad Wood

I think at my age any wood is good....

Back at it...

 

My B F Avery tractor has one of those 4 cyl Hercules Engines. My Lincoln Pipeline Special welder has a 6 cyl Hercules that has 350 cubes.

 

My brother just brought this one up the other day. It took place sometime in 1974, he was just 16 and had just got his licence to drive. I bought a 63 Impala body and had to get it about 15 miles over a hilly curvy road home. The emergency brakes worked but that was it. I had him pull me with my sbc powered 55 F-100. I told him to take it easy and I would try to keep the chain tight with the little bit of rear brakes I had on the Impala. He had never pulled anything before so his "easy" was like there was nothing behind him. I had shit in my neck a couple times and ran into the back bumper on my truck a few times. He must have never looked behind him to see my flapping arms to slow it down! Some how we got home without a major crash. We got in the driveway and he jumped out of the truck and told me "That went pretty good ,huh?"

 

BuckeyeBuicks, I have been there several times in my life.... it was fun at the time,,,,,,, as I get older, and I hope that continues...... I tend to call a buddy that has a rollback! It’s good to have connections!





Bones

 

Yea, these days a trailer, wrecker or rollback does my hauling. I had enough "fun" pulling junk cars and trucks around with chains, cables and ropes back in the good old days to last me for a while.