Technical Do parts ever fall off your hot rod?

I did lose a whole car once. 1960 just out of high school I'm driving a beat out old International tow truck for a wrecking yard. No hydraulics, just a hand cranked winch with a dog that dropped into the main gear. Flying down the highway, the dog jumped out and the old Pontiac with no front drums hit the pavement. The backing plates left 2 beautiful grooves for a couple hundred feet before I could get off the road. Fortunately I got it lifted back up and fled the scene before anyone showed up.

 

I had the exhaust overtake me while I slowed down to hear what that scraping noise was in my '63 Belair. Good thing it was 2 in the morning, the road was big, and no other cars for miles. I picked it back up and stuck it through the back door windows and drove home.
After having a '60 Caddy for a few years, it was time to sell it, so I put the wheel covers back on, which had hung in the shed for many years. I had since fitted radial tyres, and I found out the hard way that the rims flex when fitted with radials, and the wheel cover comes off when cornering, not even really hard cornering. This happened on the busiest road here, at the busiest time. I pulled into the next side street, ran around the corner fully expecting to find a nice flat 1960 Cadillac moon disc, kindly made by a few 18 wheelers which had run over it. I looked around the intersection, and it was leaning against a fence. like someone had put it there. A few minutes on the buff and it was like new, no dents, so I sold the car with the covers in the trunk. I warned the new owner about that!

 

This is why I overuse Loctite.

 

I dropped a valve once. I guess that "fell in" not off...

 

No. But many times I wished something would just to nail the AssHat following too close.

 

YEP Blew the windshield out of my 26 Ford coupe that was glued in the frame. It wouldn't hold at 120+ mph so it landed in my lap!! It didn't break so I just glued it back in. That was 20plus years ago, It's still holding............

 

I lost a beautiful and perfectly chromed original ‘46 Mercury hubcap from my ‘24 T one day on the way home from a cruise night. Retraced my path but never found it. I had added the ‘40 “inner beauty rings”, and that’s how I found out the caps needed a little more work to stay on.

Another time I shot an exhaust baffle out of the lakes style header. When I put the baffles in originally they fit so tight that I couldn’t get them back out and decided not to worry about it. Took off from a light and the car got really loud! I circled back around and reached over the side of the car and grabbed it real quick…that thing was hot too. Put it back in at home and ran a screw through the bottom of each one.

On my ‘64 Olds I almost lost the right rear wheel. Never found an explanation except that the studs were the originals, but all but one of then had broken off. I robbed two studs out of the other side to make it home, then replaced them all. Same car, one of the gas tank straps broke and I was dragging the tank down the highway at about 65, held on by the fuel hose and sending unit wiring. I got it shoved back into place with the one good strap I still had, then used a bungee cord for the other side and again, made it home. The ancient undercoating and grime on the bottom of the tank was just enough to keep it from grinding through or sparking before I got the car pulled over. Made a new strap and that tank stayed in the car until I replaced the whole thing a couple years ago and put reproduction straps on.

Oh yeah, the exhaust fell off of that one too. It was my daily for a while and I had it lowered pretty good with cut coils. The lowest part was the exhaust of course. Had the pipes turned down in front of the rear end. One day when it was pouring rain I nailed a big puddle a little too hard I guess. The pipes had one of those wide band clamp things connecting them…the force of the water shoved the muffler hard enough that it pulled one side out of that joint. I was just able to get it shoved back in place in the rain, in a wet parking lot, but at least I had a floor jack in the trunk.

 

Love the '38 Ford pickup. I recently sold a '38 Ford pickup that I'd owned since I was 14 years old in 1966.

 

About ten years ago I went to visit my cousin, he's always building some thing, usually a psuedo race/drag car. This one was called the Hodge Podge Dodge, SBC etc, "ya gotta take a ride in this thing" OK.....he lives in a small town, so we hop in it, go about a mile south of town, he turns around and drops the hammer, we are cooking when "woosh" or??? the hood flys about 30 feet in the air as we are meeting someone. He had a latch on the front but no pins or hinges on the back. Drug the hood out of the ditch and drove slower back to town.

 

Yes, tools that flew off the running boards…

 

original 39 ford wheelcovers, never to be seen again, and panhead parts... lots and lots of panhead parts..... In my opinion, 70's Loctite was extremely over rated.

 

A couple of years ago I was driving my 57 home from storage. I heard a bang, and blew a rear tire. I watched my rear mag wheel go Bye Bye in my rearview mirror. Mag wheel disappeared. I found a few scraps. I snapped the axel off at the backing plate. A Truck driver ran over a piece of the mag and stopped. It didn't do any damage to his truck. What surprised me is no damage to quarter panel. The tow truck driver had fun getting the car up on roll off. Girlfriend following me running interference. I saw a small fire underneath the car. I put it out very quickly. Quite an experience to say the least.

 

On the way to Oklahoma Nats in 80 let my parents drive my coupe for awhile. Get up beside them in my sedan on interstate 35 and see the blower belt isn't moving, balancer broke off. Don't use the stock balancer...
On the way home from Columbus Nats in 86, right rear tire of coupe decided to pull out and pass just east of Danville IL., axle flange broke off. Thankfully it dropped to the slapper bar, virtually no body damage. No more unknown free narrowed rear ends for me
Had the wifes 46 Chevy stocker on the trailer headed to Kansas City for daughters wedding. Stop to top off fuel in the truck just north of KC and see the front plate on 46 is broke off. Air movement must of been just right to flop it back and forth until it tore off, there were still pieces of it bolted to bumper. Strange part was it was laying on trailer deck right under the bumper

 

Back in the late 80's we took my '57 Chev to go look at a OT musclecar a friend wanted. Guy musta thought he had a road racer 'cause it had these wide by huge tires on all 4 corners.
Well my friend buys it and insists on driving it home and about 10 miles in I see both front tires take off in opposite directions as the front end slams into the pavement. Luckily it happened right in front of a garage( one of the tires landed in back of their wrecker) and they drug it off the road and replaced the lug studs for him. He made it home and promptly ditched those tires for a more reasonable set.

 

I live on the corner of the highway on the edge of town. In the last 20 years, I've found 4 wheel covers (all new OT) and three wheel/tires (one rolled into the side of the house, almost took out the a/c unit).
Never lost parts, but I did lose a trailer from behind the 64 F100 I drove years ago.

 

My best buddy Bob and I left the nightclub after last call in my El Camino. Right at the county line it spit the driveshaft out at 65mph for some unknown reason. Couldn't find it in the dark. There was a call box nearby (way before cell phones) so I called for a tow, and we waited. He got antsy, in his inebriated state, we argued, and Bob declared "I'm walking!". About a 15 mile trip, at 3am, in cowboy boots! The tow truck came a bit later, and the image of poor Bob staggering along in the weeds down the side of the highway is burned in my memory. He got home at daylight. Luckily it was Sunday and he had the day for him and his feet to recover.

 

Over the years, I've probably lost lots of nuts and bolts. I come up missing a few things that used to be tied down in the back of a truck, tarps disappear pretty quickly some times too.
I've been riding with people that have lost parts off their cars, trucks, and trailers. The funniest one was a dirt track racing chassis. I as riding with a guy that was taking the chassis to someone. He never even put a ratchet strap on the frame, just slid it onto the trailer and was ready to go. I asked him about tying it on, but he told me he never lost anything off of his trailer before. About a mile from his house, at the very first traffic light we came to turned red. Upon leaving the traffic light, the chassis just slid right off the trailer and onto the ground. I was laughing at him as we slid it back on the trailer. He tied it down before we left the light. I rode with him a few months later, he strapped whatever we were hauling down before we left his shop.

Another fun one. I had a old rust bucket station wagon. One day my 5 or 6 year old son was riding in the back seat. A few miles down the road, and I started seeing all kinds of strange stuff bouncing off the highway behind me. It seemed that my son found a rust hole in the floor pan, and was excited that he could push stuff through that hole, then watch it bounce down the highway after us. He was busy shoving about anything he could find through that hole and was having a grand old time!
He wasn't too happy when I made him stop. Gene

 

Was that Drive Shaft a fiberglass mix separated......or a u joint anomaly?

 

'Eat my Dust' comes to mind, a non stop supply of looseness for the goofness...

 

'Aloha Air' not a good scene......It was the early infancy of adhesives in auto production......it is in good shape heat may have played a part...and perhaps even 4 spot welds that didn't happen...
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Well not a car part, and I was just a witness. Back in HS I had a pretty worn ‘62 VW Bug (this is relevant).
About 1/2 way between Oakdale and Turlock I was behind a guy pulling a small stock trailer with some pigs in it.
He took off from a stop sign and went to pass the car ahead of him.
Now where were were was about in the middle of the Oakdale sale yard and Turlock sale yard.
He had bars/pipes- something he was using to keep his animals in.

As his took off this big sow slid out from under the lower pipe/bar/whatever and headed off to the right into an orchard.
I tried my best beating on that Bug to catch him but lost sight.
Always wondered if he was heading to a sale yard or coming back home from one.
Only thing I know for sure is whenever he got to where he was going, he has to be thinking “WTF”?

 

64 Buick first test drive. Gas tank falls off, rubber hose stays connected so I'm dragging it down the road. Guy behind stops and helps but it back in and home I went.

 

I lost part of the exhaust off my '64 Olds when I was 18, the roads were torn up for sewer construction, I was lucky to go back and find it. This is back when we "fixed" our exhaust using beer cans (all steel then) as splices.

Stock cars, it was common to see a screwdriver fall out on the track. I had to exit the car after a red-flag event, I was done for the night. On the inside dirt off the pavement, there was a good array of nuts, bolts, small rusty wrenches and hood pins to select from.

My brother cleans out my dad's garage one day and stacks his GMC with all sorts of crap. The truck had sides on the bed, so it was loaded. The plan was to hit the dump the next day. Right inside the tailgate was a huge old dresser painted gray.

So he cleans up and goes to a local Steak and Brew place. he arrives, gets out and the old dresser is GONE. He shrugs and goes in to eat and drink. Some of us met him later at the bar and he tells us the dresser story. What else to do? Follow him home to see where he lost the dresser. Not too far from home, on a 2-lane each way road, there is the dresser. Most of it was kindling or tooth pick material. We could only speculate on who ran into it.

 

I am always consciously thinking about the condition of my cars. Both old, & new. I'm listening for "different" noises, & it always makes me crazy when i hear one. The city i work in, seems like people could care less about vehicle maintenance. I hear five year old cars go by, with clangs, bangs, rattles, engine knocks, grinding brakes/bearings, not to mention loud exhaust. They just keep on motoring along, then blame the repair shop when they break down & give an estimate on repairs

 

I have learned that the safety chains on the trailer hitch really work as intended.

 

thought of another one, the car I was driving was OT but I was trying to catch my buddy in his 1940 Ford Coupe while going to a swap meet so that makes it on topic. I missed the light that was right before the freeway, so my buddy was a good distance ahead by the time the light turned green for me so being 19 or 20 and stupid it was pedal to the metal taching it up banging gears up to about 90 MPH when I felt a vibration and a BIG THUNK under the car.

I look in my rear view mirror and see my driveshaft about 10 feet in the air with a big nasty bend it it. with no driveshaft at 90 MPH I bet I coasted 1/2 mile before I pulled over at the next exit. the input shaft was still in the transmission and one or both of the U-Joints were still there.

I found out later it also cracked all 4 mounting ears on the Muncie 4 speed and all the lube drained out and a month or so after the trans went BOOM! too. I did not even have to unbolt the trans from the bellhousing to remove it.

that was the good old days when you went to the junk yard for a new Muncie 4 speed.

 

I was behind a guy hauling a mid 70's Bronco on a trailer once. He hit an expansion joint and the whole fiberglass top of the Bronco came somersaulting up off the Bronco and crashed to the ground shattering all over the place in front of me! Good thing I was maintaining a respectable distance behind him! Guy had strapped everything down but the roof was just sitting on the body not bolted down.

 

I don't know if it counts as "Falling off," but when I was in high school driving my '55 to work one day, the shifter came apart in my hand. Thankfully I had enough of a stub sticking up through the floor and a pair of vise grips in the back... but it was an awkward embarrassing drive home.

 

I worked with a guy who took the parkway when he worked at JFK airport. He worked nights and was headed home in the early AM hours. He sees something odd in his rear view mirror, a car a safe distance back must have broken a front u-joint and catapulted itself. He pulls over, he helped the couple out of the car which had landed on the roof. They were shaken up but not badly hurt.

 

Let me check.......nope.