Technical Do parts ever fall off your hot rod?

Saw a post on Reddit this morning that got me thinking? We all joke about cars leaving a wake of parts in their path, but this one kinda takes the cake.

This poor sap was just driving down the road when the wind got under his rusty roof panel and BOOM!!! Spontaneous convertible!!!



I'm sure as shit glad I wasn't behind him when it happened!

Granted, the owner should have been more diligent and tried to fix this before it became the problem it did.

But, some stuff doesn't rear its ugly until it's too late. I mean, this truck looks pretty clean otherwise. All I can say is that he had to have heard that thing flapping around long before the wind ripped it off.

About the only thing I've lost was a muffler off my old Jeep many years ago, but only because I was going a little too fast over a washboard that caused it to vibrate off. Still my fault for the way I clamped that cobbled thing together but...

I laugh now, but when it happened it scared the bejesus right outta me.

So... please share with us your stories of parts lost out on the road.

 

Drive any of the expressways in and around Detroit and you see all kinds of car and truck parts on the shoulder. I'm sure some fall off of wrecks being towed. But I'm sure plenty fall off daily drivers. Driving in Detroit can be a contact sport.

 

If something falls off my hot rod, and it's still running and driving, I just keep on going.
I did have a front wheel come off my old '48 Ford pickup...snapped the spindle off on a pothole...I did stop for that one

 

Nope. HRP

 

Thats a first, it’s been a long time since I’ve had something fall of but it was always exhaust related….

 

Had the same thing happen on my Austin Healey 100-6 back in the mid-60s. My rag tag, rag top's entire back window blew out (rotten threads in the seams that held the window to the back panel) and what remained of the top started to shread like an old flag. My buddy and I were on the interstate headed north out of Indy and after we got adjusted to the new cabin pressure, we had a good laugh about it and turned up the heater. However, comma, within just a few miles what was left of the top started beating the crap out of us and we pulled over and ripped the rest off at the header. Drove up to Chicago with just the roof bows and side windows in place in nearly freezing weather. Burr-ski.

 

I have a 33 Plymouth sedan that has been chop and channel, but probably never get finish. I move the rear fenders up in the same relationship as the channel. I only screw on the rear finders to see how they look. When I move down to VA from NH, one of the rear fenders blew off, never to be found, while it was on the car trailer.

 

I had a fiberglass hood fly out of my truck on the way to a swap meet once, it flew out to the left side just seconds after 2 guys in a roadster passed me. it was tied down but the force of the wind actually cracked it, I even ran the rope through 2 scoops on the hood. a steel hood would have stayed in the truck.

those 2 guys had no idea they were seconds away from possibly losing their heads.

 

Back about 1979, I was racing with an 18 wheeler out on Interstate 81, maxing out the flathead in my ‘38 pickup. All of a sudden, cranking about 85, I hear a huge boom! Looking in my rear view mirror… I see one of my connecting rod caps and about half a piston bouncing back the road…Those flattys always seem to be running their best, right before they blow!

 

Hahahaha......when do they not!

 

Back around 1980 my Vette had side pipes. I was living in a trailer park with about a dozen speed bumps before my trailer. I'd come home after a night on the town, forget about the speed bumps and be open header on at least one side by the time I pulled in. Walk back, pick up the side pipe and carry it back home.

 

Well, I can’t think of any parts I have lost off my cars, but do know of some parts that fell off my old shovelhead...

 

Never lost parts off a car but used to tow my ski boat with my 427 Ford. Naturally, I towed it fast. One time I looked in my rear view mirror just in time to see the guy behind me swerving all over the road to avoid flying water skis.

 

No

 

A few years ago, I was driving home on the old two lane highway in my "55 Chevy pickup, I drove over the rail road tracks (maybe a bit too fast) I hear this scraping sound, look out the rear view window, and see part of my right side tail pipe in the middle of the road. The rest of the tail pipe was dragging on the road. Nothing to repair it with, I spot a wire clothes hanger on the side of the road. Worked just fine to make it the 50 miles home!

 

I was overtaken by my gas tank once. This was in my Morris Minor pickup truck in about 1979. I'd been working on repairing rust in the chassis at the rear and had removed the tank. This was my only vehicle and I couldn't be without it so I'd temporarily fixed the tank back in, clearly inadequately. I was less than 1/2 a mile from home and was slowing for a junction when, without any sound or drama, the tank went slithering down the road past me. The funny thing is, in the initial moment that I saw it, I thought 'I've got a tank just like that!', and then the reality dawned!

Chris

 

Lost a small combination wrench either through a lower door gap or the engine area...not really sure...but I heard it drop ping and bounce...I turned around and backtracked and saw it just to verify what I thought might be a mechanical anomaly but I was actually relieved it was a wrench...

One close call actually 2 were separate with 1 being an aft rear exhaust hanger weld breaking and six feet of muffler and pipe suspended and bouncing up and down supported by the lakes pipe collector...A motorcyclist pointed it out to me...I had no idea...noise was masking any knowledge...took it easy and made it home as is...drilled, tapped the bracket to the frame, been fine since...

The other was a front shock mount breaking off...noted it at a gas station and was able to unbolt some and continued to the event short a front shock functioning...

Had those foam filters for the 94s pop out with a sputter making a left hand turn when it was running a little off...embarrassing really and actually a bit funny......never found it either...

 

Some eight years back, something dropped off en route to a cruise-in. When I got to the cruise-in, I walked around the front of Deerslayer and was crestfallen to find that my front tag was gone. In all likelyhood, it was the "debris" I had run over. The loss of the "one of fifty" Stovebolt tag toppers cast by Whizzerick is depressing in its own right but the loss of my Dad's WWII CBI Veteran plate had me in a melancholy funk. I went back to look for it but it was long gone.

 

...that could have been pretty nasty...glad roadrash and shock perhaps with a tad bit of embarrassment all at once was the worst that evolved out of it...

A late buddy of mine always walked around his car to look for issues before driving on...not a bad idea really...

 

Heading out to a cruise-in with about 8to 10 cars my buddy jokingly said that he would bring up the rear and pick up the parts that fall off our cars……About 3 miles or so into our cruise we looked in our rear view mirrors and notice that he was slowing down and pulling over. Just then somebody that was behind him in their daily driver said that something big and shiny fell off his car about a mile back.Thinking it was a muffler he got down to check out the rear of his car. Muffler ….no,but yes his straps came loose and he lost his gas tank. It was full of gas and had bluish marks on it as we went back a mile or so to pick up his tank up along the shoulder against a guard rail. Luckily no one got hurt. It was just how long he drove without the tank.

 

Was driving a '52 Kenworth (period correct?) with a highway patrolman right behind me. Heard a crash and saw the cop zig zagging behind me to avoid hitting my driveshaft. He gave me and the driveshaft a ride back to the yard. No ticket.

 

Lost the driveshaft out of my Pontiac Lemans in Tennessee the day after I got out of the military back in 1989. Was fortunate that the town I was passing through had a driveshaft shop, was back on the road a little over a day later.

Another time while driving through Connecticut I started seeing various objects on the highway with increasing frequency. At first it was small items like clothing and toys, but quickly became chairs, a recliner, a sofa, bed mattresses and other large household items. Turned out someone forgot to latch the doors on the back of a moving van, but it was several miles before anybody got them to pull over.

 

Not yet……

 

With the way I use Loctite, nothing not only falls off, it's a bitch to get off.

 

Lost a Halibrand fake knockoff off my rear wheel once going around a corner. They were dam expensive and almost unobtainable at the time so I spent over an hour searching the ditch for the hat. Went home and drilled each knockoff for a 1/4 inch socket head stainless allen. Stopped that problem.

 

I had a radiator cap (think V8 hood ornaments) come off and come through the windshield at roughly 100 mph. I was street racing back in the 80’s and unknown to me someone had the irresistible urge to try and turn it. I had a washer on the bottom, but it wasn’t quite big enough to keep the morons from dicking with it.

 

Driving back from the paint shop in my then girlfriend's OT VW the metal sunroof was just sitting in the roof. Driving down the freeway at 65 I heard a strange noise and the sunroof blew off and landed in the slow lane. Pulled over and ran back and got it before anyone ran over it. Only a few minor scratches on the bottom side. The girlfriend didn't last much longer.

 

Did a lot of topo surveys back in the 80’s, we’d shoot elevations along the gutter line of the road. It’s amazing the amount of hardware you’d find along the curb on a road.

 

Sort of.
When I sold my '39 Studebaker Coupe Express project,part of the deal was all the extra parts including a pair of fibreglass rear fenders. Cost me quite a few bucks and they were limited run item.
Watched the guy load the trailer...I never kibitz on loading... and he took off back to Indiana or there abouts.
Sure enough get a call that one $500 fender didn't make it home.
Knew it would become a sail at some point by the way it was loaded but hey....they were his parts now.

 

Back when I was in trade school I was on my way from my apartment to school one morning and lost the left front wheel off my 55 Buick while doing about 70. the brake drum and backing plate left a several hundred foot long groove in the pavement that was there until they repaved the road. I never did find the wheel and tire. We had just done a brake job on the car in the school shop a day or two before and one of us didn't torque that wheel. Lesson learned, no matter what, I still go around and check every lug nut on rigs that have had the wheels off ever since.
In the early 80's I had a sheet of plywood for the bed floor in my 48 and one night during a bit of a contest of speed the plywood blew out of the back and I never did find it or what ever was sitting on top of it even though I drove every bit of the route I had been on several times.
In the 70's for some stupid reason I decided I wanted to take the 61 Chevy car rear axle out of my 48 and put in a 68 Camaro 10 bolt, I had bought two 67/68 Camaros from a friend with no engines in them and flat towed them both home 15 miles. I ended up parting them out and selling the body skin off one to some guys building dirt track car. I carried the rear end over to the shop I worked at on a Saturday and swapped rears and drove it home, Turned the corner about 3/4 of a mile from the house and the left axle walked out of the housing and when I got over on the shoulder the whole wheel and tire was outside of the fender. Jacked the axle housing up, pushed the axle in and drove it home and into the garage. The C clip was laying in the bottom of the case from someone else having it apart.