Hi Hamb folks... I was reading a post on another website recently and there was a picture of the builders hot rod and then another showing his two really young kids sitting inside the vehicle on the stock bench seat smiling happily...no seat beats noted in the picture at all... So it got me to thinking...how many of you guys have wrecked your hot rods??... How did your old hot rod hold up and how did you physically survive the wreck??? Just wondering out loud Thanks in advance. MikeC
Lost my channeled 59AB '30 Coupe in a sharp corner, wet from someone watering the lawn with sprinkler on 'high'...Spun the Coupe, put my foot in it (second gear) but it was too far around...When I got it corrected, 'BINGO! Curb at right front, then the tree. "Ba-BUMP!" Two contacts... Girlfriend hit her head on the windshield, (still wasn't any smarter) but I was 'saved' by the '57 Ford 'Lifeguard Steering Wheel!' The ads were right. '32 Mor-Drop Axle was bent back 30 degrees, Coupe wouldn't turn right, (only left) I was able to drive 6 miles home (city streets) if I had to make a right, I went across the intersection, made a 'U' turn, then one more left, constituting a right turn. "Two wrongs don't make it right, but three lefts make a right..." Another Mor-Drop axle from American Auto, $10.95. Straightened the bent tie rod, too. San Jose, CA. 1962
30 Model A, Y-Block, drove it 7 miles and rolled it 2-1/2 times, bump steer, 1963. Wasn't hurt too bad.
I thought we are all dead because we road in cars with a single master cylinder, no seat belts, and smoking parents... we are all ghosts....
I drove my 39 Ford truck thru 4 states for 17 years often pulling a trailer with another antique car on it. 350/350/ 3 deuces, 9". I parked it on a slope while loading a small building and the parking pawl in the 350 let go. I jumped off of the trailer and watched my truck and trailer take off down the hill. It got up to speed and crashed into a tree. It trapezoided the 39 frame and wadded up the right front fender, kinked the running board, broke the radius rod mount and cracked the transmission case and the transmission fluid began leaking out but it missed the radiator so I drove it about 6 miles home. Slowly. I havent installed the new frame so I've never driven it again.
In the fall of 1959, I scored an original '36 Ford touring sedan with '39,000 original miles for (wait for it) $100. About a week later, for reasons that are too complicated to explain here, I was convinced by a good friend that I should take my girlfriend and him and a gal he was interested in to a basketball game at the conference school where my (ahem) previous indiscretion had started. About three miles out of town, on the main road to our destination, a guy had his dead '55 Oldsmobile in the right hand traffic lane with the lights off (it was after dark) trying to get it started. I didn't see him until the last minute, and hit him square in the rear end. (I left 10 feet of skid-marks on the pavement, even with those mechanical brakes). My old man, as usual was not helpful in the situation, and I got a $35 ticket, and was not even allowed to plead my case.. I later sold the wrecked car for $300 (at the old man's insistence), that's how nice it was. He is single-handedly responsible for my life-long addiction to old cars.
1959 on the way to school with my friend in his 58 Ford in the fog. Hit a large hog dead center. destroyed the car! Like hitting a rock . Shoved the engine back hard into the firewall--totaled. We were beat up and had a few cuts but that was it.
Had some intenerate individual in a station wagon turn into my right front fender when his wife pointed across his nose to a restaurant on the other side of the 4 lane divided street we were on in Waco and he cranked the wheel without looking to the side. Wiped out my fender, tweaked the cowl and bent the axle around about 45 degrees and broke the right spring. That sent me into a slide and I thought I was going to roll it. Tow truck hauled the truck and me to the shop where I worked and as the driver was friends with my boss and his son in law he gave me a big discount on the tow. JD Fikes called in a couple of favors and found me a fender and an axle for cheap and we fixed it over a couple of nights and a weekend.
This was 2004. Dude behind me dropped his cigarette and ass-packed my poor defenseless little Model A. Years later, this same car got the entire passengers side caved in by a tractor trailer on the way to the HAMB Drags. Still kicking though. I was at a red light and saw this one happening in my rear view mirror. A chick in a mini van turned completely around to yell at her kids and slammed into my passengers quarter. The little car is alive and well and living in Sweden. -Abone.
I took my new straight axle coupe to the strip Douglas, Ga. Did my burnout and when I backed up one of the track workers didn't notice some fluid on the track. He got my right wheel in whatever it was and when I let go of the transbrake button The front end came up off the ground and it dead hooked right. The car went up on top off the guard rail and when it hopped back off the guard rail. It was headed straight across the track. I had enough sense to reach up and kill the power to the motor and fuel pump. I told my self this won't be so bad if I can just get it stopped just before it hit the rail on the other side of the track. That's when the fiberglass nose exploded into many pieces . I sent my buddy to get the truck and trailer and we loaded it up in the middle of the track. Fortunately no frame damage. Just a lot of gluing the front back together and building a new right rear fender. Got it back together with a color change and never looked back.
on highway off ramp at a traffic signal in my High School '55 Chevy about 10PM - saw headlights through the lite fog coming at us so fast did not have time to warn my buddy - lucky that the light had just turned green and the cars in front of us started to move - the drunk at the wheel of the Caddy told Cops that she never saw us - pushed in the back of '55 enough for insurance to total it - the '55 seat bolts busted loose and we were tumbled around enough to put shoe marks on headliner - lucky to not have any serious injuries - bought back '55, and put drive train into a '57 Chevy - Wife totaled out her Mom's new '65 Iris Mist GTO after spinning off Freeway in the rain - her Brother had just installed cheater slicks that day - she was knocked unconscious and a ride to Hospital
Sorry fellas my likes are merely an acknowledgement that I have read your posts...glad you all made it thru the hell...
It was a beautiful sunny Oct morning at about 8:30 in 2011. I'd just made a trip to the post office and was on my way back home in my 50 Dodge pickup that was on a 1980 Dodge 4x4 frame. The truck had served me well for 12 years, and a few months before I'd just finished up a rebuild with new tires, paint, glass, you get the picture. The street is a non-divided 4 lane, I'm west bound in the center most lane. There is a 45 degree bend in the road towards my left, with a side street at the bend, going towards my right. I'm doing the speed limit, 30 mph. Coming at me is a line of 5 or 6 cars, also in their center most lane, also doing the speed limit. As I approach the bend and the side street, one of the cars in the middle of the line of cars, turns left in front of me, literately 30 feet away. I'm sure my foot didn't even get to the brake pedal before we hit each other, head on. I saw a red fender start coming across my lane, and the next thing is feeling the impact. The impact was dead center on my front bumper. My truck weighed 4850 lbs, and was stopped dead in its tracks. The little red 80s Chrysler Lebaron was pushed back nearly 20' from the point of impact. My truck had a Meyers 7 1/2' snow plow on the front, but the plow itself wasn't on the truck yet. The plow brackets were, they were built from 1/4" thick 2 1/2" angle iron. The plow brackets were all bent, and the steel on the pump mount was broken in 3 places, the bracket the the blade attached to was bowed in the middle 6". The truck frame was diamond shaped, and buckled enough the frame smashed the small block Mopar oil filter on the side of the motor, and the right front leaf spring was folded back under itself. The impact busted a chunk out of the transfer case, and the motor was pushed back into the firewall. It even bent the rear driveshaft! Of course the front clip was pulverized and the radiator was wrapped around the motor fan. The steering column was collapsed (from bending when the frame moved under the cab) and the steering wheel was distorted from me holding it. The truck had lap seat belts, but I didn't use them, I was concerned they would just fold me into the windshield. As it happened, my head hit the sunviser above the windshield. I got a sprained thumb (holding onto the steering wheel) and 11 stitches in my forehead. The little red Lebaron had the passenger side front bumper pushed up to the firewall. Her car was equipped with driver side air bags, which probably saved her life. She did get a bruised leg from when it hit under the dash, we both shared a ride to the ER. They totaled the truck and I bought it back. The cab was saveable, and the box was still good. I could have found a different front clip, but would have had to change the frame and probably the entire drive train. Her insurance paid me nearly $6,000 for the truck, with me keeping it, plus the hospital bill and a small settlement. 6 months later I sold the truck to someone in northern WI that needed the doors and a few other parts. I bought a cheap 4x4 truck, and spent the rest of the money building my 48 Plymouth coupe. I have a few pictures of the truck before the crash, but the after crash pictures got lost in a computer crash a couple years ago. I lost a lot of pictures in the computer crash, but I didn't get hurt. Gene
1964, hit by a kid driving 55 in a 25 zone. He came around a bend in the road at an intersection and hit my ‘51 Merc. woodie in the passenger side, as we were turning. Lot of splinters and yellow paint - totaled. 1967, hit head on by another teenager, the driver had dropped her cigarette and all four girls in the the car were looking for it when they came over the center line. The ‘37 Chevy suffered a mangled fender and grill. I was able to get a NOS grill and fender at the Harrah swap meet the next weekend for $25 each!
My pal Ken and his wife were in a accident and totaled his 1932 Ford sedan. Ken suffered a broken wrist and his wife broke her arm other than scratches and bruises they were able to walk away, the car did have seat belts. Ken liked this car so much he built a clone and is still driving this around Florida. HRP
Coming down the mountain to my house, the front axle snapped in two. Lost control and broke 3 ribs, but happy to still be alive after kissing the guard rail and doing a 360. If you use anything on a build other than a drop forged axle, you are a fool.
Not really wadded up, but I had an oncoming car make a left turn in front of me and I clipped the rear of it with my right tire. I had to replace the wheel, tire, axle, spindle, steering arm and steering box. The cast Super Bell axle bent but didn't break. Gary
dad did a number on his '34 ford back in the '30s after a night of bar hopping. he said a tree ran out in front of him!
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