Hot Rods Really screwed up yesterday

They're not putting anyone in jail for driving with no insurance. Sadly. A few years ago a woman with a suspended license and no insurance ran a stop sign and hit my buddy on his bicycle. Destroyed the bike and broke several of his bones. She literally got not even a ticket. Cop said the courts didn't have time and the jail no room to deal with stuff like that. Didn't even impound her car.

 

leave it alone and drive it-tell everyone its an old "as found" hot rod and you don't want to change it from its original condition.

 

Pay out of pocket. Now the phone deal, a local was run over (Harley) at a stop light a few year's ago in a city near by. He died & the driver was talking on the phone. My brother was broadsided at another bigger nearby city w/the other driver talking on the phone. Knocked his F150 on it's side! Your deal is a boo-boo. Ya feel it?

 

We've all been there... the primer spots on my car's passenger side door are the result of a really stupid thing I did in a crowded garage several years ago. I've put that memory to rest and left the primer spots there to remind myself to be more careful next time.
The '39 Ford sedan we had a long time ago got clobbered by a big mama deer on a full run. Broke the 'glass front fender in half and pushed the bottom of the cowl in about an inch. I could have fixed it without the insurance claim, but after talking to my agent they sent an adjuster out to look at it. He just happened to be a rodder too, former body shop guy. We figured out what it would take to fix, I did the job myself and the insurance company paid me just like they would have if a body shop had done it. So if you haven't already figured it out I'd suggest at least talking to your agent and explore your options. You might be pleasantly surprised.

 

When I was a young guy I was working on one of my junks in the driveway and to expedite things asked my then girlfriend to jump in my Mom's van and move it out of the way. The girl who said she could drive a stick shift proceeded to somehow sidestep the clutch and drive the van through the front of my Mom's house. Yea, good times. To the op, it coulda been much worse.

 

Pulled my Vette into the garage after a night on the town, ran into my Harley. Went to bed. Came out the next morning to inspect. Cracked the Vette's nose, knocked the Harley over into a wall of shelving dumping the contents onto the bike. A triple play!

 

Your Mopar was just rejecting that sbc

 

3 pages and no pics?!?!?!

 

We’re offering comforting thoughts.

 

O.K. Tman, here is my '40 Plymouth that rejected my SBC, as mentioned by Fitty Toomuch...ha ha...

 

So, I'm guessing all you "TALKING ON THE PHONE?!?" types demand full silence and muzzling when passengers are along? Can't listen to the radio or a CD either right? Oh fuck no, Gunny Driver has you "EYES FRONT YOU SACK O SHIT! SHUT UP! NO TALKING! DRIVE YOU SORRY MAGGOT!" Hah, not me. Been talking on the phone, hands free mostly, since the 90s. I really terrify folks when I walk in somewhere sipping a coffee as I step along. Good thing I don't chew gum too. This is my snarky way of saying lighten up. Just because you're on a call doesn't mean stop everything, even driving.

 

3 pages of talking about a custom painted dented car with no photo….Didn’t happen. Has a hands free phone… with camera…. No photo…..Didn’t happen..

 

Luckily for me I don't like talking on a phone in or out of a car and don't need to being retired. Tend to turn mine off when in a car, I've other things to do then, your results may vary...

 

Man, this is a tuff crowd, no pictures?

I distinctively remember our twin girls being born but I don't have any pictures to prove.

I believe if the op says it happened ,it happened. HRP

 

Your girls are not a hamb friendly car.
I’m surprised it took into the 3rd page and no one asked for a photo so I did…normally it’s in the 1st response . . . . hotrodrhp is getting off ez.

 

Post #68, I brought it up

 

Backing incidents are the number 1 cause of vehicle accidents in the workplace. My employer only allows Backing of equipment or vehicles as a last option and only if a spotter is used. I'm actually a horrible driver but I'm also a driving instructor at my work. Hence I try really hard to be safe because I would never hear the end of it if I caused a accident. It happens but I bet it won't ever happen to you again.

 

Hello,

During our teenage years, because we live in a trough near a river and the ocean at the end of the river, there is a wide space next to the San Pedro hilltop that funnels wind with some ferocity. But, on the whole, the area called Long Beach is well known for its strong daily dose of West winds. Along with the onshore direction of the west winds, there is always coastal fog that hovers out in the Catalina channel and waits for the land to cool and rushes toward Los Angeles areas.

Over the years, my wife and I have driven in thick fog in the California inland regions and along the mid coastal areas leading to the famous fog banks in the San Francisco Bay area. But, living anywhere along the coast is a destination of thick fog most any nights. The heat of the land fights the cold of the ocean and it is a back and forth battle.

It could be sunny along the coast and within 15-20 miles out in the deep ocean, the fog awaits the signal to head for shore and inland areas. Usually the signal is the land cooling and slowly, the fog starts its creep as the land cools heading toward night time.

Jnaki

Back then, the only street lights were at the major corners of the community and how important the actual street was because of the amount of traffic. The main normal use road was filled with cars and busses. It ran in the same direction of north-south and for us, we learned to drive on those parallel streets, due to less traffic and hinderances.

During the thick coastal fog nights, I learned to drive on the left side of the smaller neighborhood streets because if I stayed in the right lane, I could not see the parked cars or how close I was to hitting them. So, because there were no cars coming from the other direction, I moved over to the left and knew the distance to the parked cars on that side.

If and when the cars did approach, a huge bright glow emanated from down the street and I moved over to the correct lane or found a place to park for a passing moment. Then the left side of the road started again all the way to our driveway.
In front of our old Westside of Long Beach house, this photo shows our dad backing up in the normal manner in his big Buick Roadmaster, that we all learned to do with our hot rods and sedans. But, if there was a thick fog, so thick you could not see the house and cars across the street, then that is trouble lurking.


A story from a long time ago:

“One night, we had the California coastal fog that came all the way back to our house, several miles from the ocean. It was so thick, it was hard to see the neighbor’s house across the street. I did not know it at the time, but the older guy bought a 6 wheel military vehicle and it was for his newly found business of surplus stuff and importing/exporting.
14000 pounds of a hunk of metal…

I had to get to a meeting in Bixby Knolls and carefully planned out my foggy route with plenty of time to get there. So, I carefully backed up out to the front yard and looked all around in the dense fog. I could not see across the street, but earlier during dinner, the street side curbs were empty as usual, since all of the homeowners parked in their driveways. But, for some reason, the truck obviously could not fit in the driveway, so it remained on the street, without anyone seeing such a big item.

Backing up as I did, the fog was thick and I gently backed up in the normal speed and angle. As soon as I got to the stopping place, something shook the whole Impala and I came to a halt. I got out and checked out what the H@## and saw my predicament.

The driver’s side rear fender curve had wedged into the bumper of the huge truck that came out of nowhere. I was totally amazed at that truck being parked on the street. The heavy fog made the surprise more clearly. I got the Impala clear of the truck’s bumper and was totally irritated at my neighbor.

But, I had to make my appointment, so I drove off gently, calming down while looking out of the window through the fog. There was nothing on the big army truck. Not even flaking paint on the ground. It just sat there...thinking it was the king and unmovable...which it was at the moment.

The next day, the Impala was in Los Angeles at my dad’s friend’s place. It was getting a body work fix of “real lead.” The guy doing the work was one of the mechanics and was knowledgeable about any kind of tuning, but surprised me with his body work knowledge. By the night when my Impala was back at home, it was completely finished and painted a glossy black.

No one would know that it was damaged and fixed with “real lead.” (One thing the heavy, thick fog did was to hide the damage to the 58 Impala. Only my close friend, the owner of the 57 Bel Air Hardtop was the only one that saw the actual damage, until 1964.)

When I sold the Impala to a younger friend, in 1964, I told him of the story and the lead body work. He was impressed at the shiny black paint and said it looked as if it just rolled off of the custom car show floor. Then he rolled away in my old 1958 Impala to start a new chapter in teenage cruising and racing.”


At least, he was driving a “lead” appropriate sled as some are known back then. As far as insurance, it was not worth the effort to contact our agent. The "Lead" repair and paint was minimal. I had my pristine 58 impala back in town before anyone, except for my friend on that cold foggy night, notice the damage.

Insurance is something necessary when things are a little out of reach and someone needs help. We were not happy with the dent in the rear fender area and I was not going to ask the idiot neighbor pay for it, as I hit the truck backing up. The truck was illegally parked in the neighborhood as it was not a standard truck or car in a residential zone. Several blocks South in the commercial zone, it would have been ok.

The highlight of the incident was that a few days later, a B&W was across the street telling the owner to move the huge truck. It was never to be seen on our residential street again. YRMV

 

My poor elderly Dad a few years ago called me and said “I’ve got some bad news”. Me thinking the worst, then he says my foot slipped off the clutch pulling in the garage and he hit his ‘38 coupe with his 22, 000 original miles ‘64 Galaxy. Doing damage to both. I was so relieved it’s wasn’t something else I said no biggie we can fix that easy!

 

Shit happens....these smart phones are making society really dumb....

 

Yet some of us LEARN on these things...

 

Yeah…because no one ever made a mistake driving before smart phones….

 

Reminds me of when my wife drove my 85 k5 to the store in the winter and we only lived a block away so it was in high idle when she got there still. She knew enough that if you shut it off cold and tried to restart it it didn't like to start so she left it running. As she's is walking towards the store she hears something and turns around and watches the truck as it is trotted across the lot on its own in reverse. She chased it down and tried to jump in it to stop it. Keep in mind this truck is lifted 4" on 35" tires. Before she got in the truck found a Pontiac G6 after it ran over a cart corral. The g6 stopped it enough that she was able to shut it off. The Pontiac G6 was in real bad shape, the k5 had a bent bumper and busted tail light. And I told her never to chase a truck down again... It'll stop eventually. But she was so mad that she did it and it was avoidable but all can be fixed.

 

We had two crazy wind storms this past winter both times 60+mph winds all night and into the next day but yet my portable garage somehow didn't move. The following Sunday we had a day of 40mph winds that picked up the damn garage and flung it across the yard along with the spray bombed fender sitting on top of the car. I'm just thankful that the old maple tree caught it, and none of my other trees fell on anything.

 

Could have been worse; you could have backed in to the front of your 34, wasting the grille (price a 34 grille lately!?), radiator, maybe the fenders and hood.

 

I backed my 63 Falcon into my 1960 Pontiac. Knocked the door off the Falcon.

 

We've all done some stupid stuff and I'm no exception. If misery loves company the OP has tons of that. If your best buddy backed one of his cars into another what would you say to him?
It's amazing that we will be so hard on ourselves when if anyone else did the exact same thing we'd say, "Hey man, we are all human. Shit happens, coulda been worse. Be thankful you own a 34 and best of all, nobody got hurt."

 

How about a picture of you on your phone at least !!!!

 

All this talk of reversing difficulty. I've been helping a local contractor refurbish a local airstrip (retired from this shit 5 years ago but it's drag racing money). Boss asked me not to turn the articulated water truck around on the freshly graded airstrip as it would chew the new surface up. Bugger the hassle of driving across the soggy grass to turn, shoved it into high range reverse and backed it up the full 1.6 kilometres (about 1 mile) while spraying water. Impressed the boss and I realised I can still do this sort of shit.

 

I can remember in the late 70s driving my Hugger Orange OT Chevy hot rod down to the Wendys cause the munchies told me that fresh hot fries would be the best thing in the world at that moment. Standing in line everyone hears a pretty good building impact and someone walks in and says "Damn some one's orange Chevy just ran into the building".
Apparently you are really too stoned if you walk outside and say "Wow. Somebody has a car just like mine."