near death experience in your hotrod?

if i buy one more car i will have a real death experience----from my wife

 

2 bean burritos and 2 tacos caused my buddy a near death experience until I unlocked the power windows so he could put the windows down.That guy to this day still has no sense of humor!LOL.

 

ok if you want to bring up those kinds of stories, try working for a day labor place and having to travel 30 miles in a van with about 20 mexicans crammed in after they had eaten lunch. was hanging my head out the window, every time one of them would rip one, they would start laughing at point at me. something about the "gringo" turning from white to green was hysterical.

 

In my 53 ford f100 is a motor that a friend of mine (who has a wheelie truck) helped me rebuild. After going 2 blocks with me, he said he would never get in my truck again. I guess thats his near death experience. Mine came at the ripe 'ol age of 16 after dad worked on the brakes of the '63 comet. we were headed north into the heart of salt lake city for a family re-onion at the park off the 9th south area. I had just hit the split in the freeway when I noticed I needed to start slowing down and the brake pedal went to the floor with no effort. There was a car about two lengths ahead of me and there is nowhere to pull over and the road was narrowed down to one lane and then we would make a turn to the right at the yield sign before hitting three lanes from the west. I tried to shift the 6cyl. 4 speed down, no dice, I tried pulling the ebrake, it was frozen, I put it back in gear and turned it off, yeah like that helped much. I told my mom and dad to hang on, I almost considered rear ending the guy ahead of me to slow me down, but I didnt want to hurt the car and we had the top down, so went around him, concrete barriers on both sides, and knowing we were going to crash into whatever traffic was around the corner, I hit the big grating manhole cover and bent the wheel, cleared the car and as luck would have it the light before must have been red cause there was no traffic coming, I white knuckled it around the car and came to rest in a fast food joint parking lot with the key still off. and I popped the back portion of the seat right off into the back. We all got out of the car thanks the good lord for our safety, dad got his tools out to find the wheel cylinder had popped, he put it back on, I put the seat back together, we went to the re-onion, and then I shook for about an hour. Dad never doubted my driving abilities after that, but I dont ever want that feeling again. I currently have my truck parked untill I can find a 2500 stall convertor for my fmx, my fruit jar cant take it.

 

Couple times..

February 2 years ago.. I commute about 15 miles every day to school and back home, and during that week, it had snowed pretty bad. So, I put a couple of 150 pound (?) parts that are associated with the wheels or brakes of a Caterpillar tractor in the bed of my '68. I figured to put it in the bed near the cab (headboard, right?) so that the weight got distributed evenly. Well.. coming off the bridge that connects to I-27 North, my truck started sliding over to the left a little and so I let off the gas, and then all of the weight in the back slid to the tailgate and it acted as a pendulum and threw my back end around the right side into a 270 degree spin (3/4th of a full circle). I slid clear across the 2-lane highway backwards (thank god there weren't that many people on the I-27 at the time..) and through the median into the next lane. I took my truck out of drive into neutral as a precaution while sliding around.. then when i came to a rest on the opposing lane (again, no one was on that side either.. it's definitely a miracle), I popped it back into drive and continued onto my dad's work 5 miles up the road at the Ford dealership and I pulled in there and got out to check my truck. My wheels were full of snow from going side-ways through the median, but thankfully, nothing broke or jammed.

Then another one the next month, in March the same year.. it rained pretty hard, I think it was a flash flood. Well, it was also cold and it takes my defroster forever to heat up, so I was peeking through a little hole in the windshield and driving up I-27 North. What I didn't see was that a lot of the rain had accumulated at the bottom of the bridge and the drain vents weren't big enough to take this amount of rain so it was draining out slow. I didn't see the puddle until I hit it and I was hydroplaning along the barrier on the bridge, going from 65mph to about 40 in no time at all wasn't fun either. I had the wheel turned fully to the left in hopes that my truck would straighten out. The front end of my truck was literally inches away from the barrier on the bridge and in my mind, I was already thinking about how I was going to explain to my dad why my truck had a big dent in the front.. and water was flowing into my cab through the passenger side, which must've been how deep the puddle was. I was so convinced that I was going to hit that barrier, but somehow my back end came around and I was heading perfectly straight up the bridge again.

I've learned a lot through all of these, and I'm thankful that I got put through these. They're real eye-openers and God knows we could all use some! I'm also thankful that my truck's still my daily driver!

Then several incidents where people pull out in front of me or cut me off, as usual. I remember my dad getting cut off by a crotch rocket while trying to get into the left lane.. gay japanese bikes.. he was swearing at the guy and even made a quick stab of the wheel just to scare him. That guy was freaking out. Haha.

 

Years ago when I was first dating my wife, we were out in my 36 chevy truck. I had to hit the binders pretty hard , cant remember for what , but she was leaning against the door . when she slid forward , her sleeve caught on the knob to open the door and open it did ! She flew right out onto the pavement , good thing we werent moving that fast in the first place. Needless to say, SHE was not impressed. It was a while before she talked to me, but she married me anyway. Sometimes i think back to those days of silence , how sweet it was !!! Mitch.

 

Oh about the near death part. She nearly KILLED me that day because of it. Mitch.

 

No safety belts, no roll bar and 330 hp and over 400 ft lbs of torque. Wet track and the driver was first timer behind the wheel of our homebuilt hot rod. If that would have flipped over to the grass, we sure would have been dead Luckily we only spun to the grass bank...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJd04D9AnUw

 

I almost hit a deer a year ago with the Merc. I did hit his partner. The big ol round fender just kinda deflected the deer. The near death part was mostly the deer. it was gone when went back. Could have been bad if I hit the first one. I was doing about 55. Just got a couple of concave dents. TG for round heavy guage fenders.
I've had two or three close call on two wheels.

 

I blew a rear u-joint around 110mph the other week...

 

Once my father and I were in his '56 f-100 and the hood came up, tommy boy style while we were driving down the road. When we came to a stop we were about 20' from the car in front of us. It was stopped at a red light. Needed new windshiled and pants after that.

Was coming home on the harley one day down a good twisty road near my house. Headed into a sharp corner and, once commited, I noticed a load of sand and gravel had been spilled all over the road. Grabbed a fist full of throttle and powered though it, dirt trck style, just narrowly missing a full size chevy truck. Pulled over just up the street and threw up.

 

Everytime I drive my A I almost get run off the road by looky-loos or soccer mom's trying to change lanes over the top of me. The only real crap-dropper happened in my former non-HAMB approved RX8 when I accidentally downshifted into third gear from sixth gear while meaning to go into fifth gear, as soon as I let the clutch out the ass end did about a 45 at 90 mph, everyones eyes were about as big as silver dollars but we all lived to tell the tale. It was real hard to crash that car and it wasn't for lack of trying.

 

leaving a batchelor party got sick on moonshine ask my buddy Jim to pull over. got out of the car to puke, then walked home. My friend Dave Gentile took my seat [ shotgun] that night during a street race episode the car lost control and struck an oak tree at 100 mph. We all ended up graduating from high school . Dave went to meet Jesus

 

Most recently: missed a tornado on I-95 in NC by about 20 minutes last month. It crossed onto the highway after snapping 10 or 12 trees off at the 10 foot level. It continued north for two miles shredding trees.

In my first year of driving (1967) I lost the brakes on two different cars. One was crossing Times Square in NYC during rush hour. I drove the ten miles home with the hand brake and downshifting.

Really close one was losing left rear knockoff wheel on my roadster at 75mph on I-80 in NJ on a pitch black night in the 80s. I couldn't find the knockoff spinner until someone knicked it in the fast lane. I was lucky that the Model A fender captured the tire under the car. The shower of sparks from the rear link was bright!
I drove home on the inflatable spare tire. I don't think my knuckles went back to pink until the next day.
I pinned the spinners before I drove it again!

 

I was working on my car at tech school. There was a car behind me on jackstands with someone working under it. I reached in the window to start my car thinking it was in neutral, well it was in reverse and it hit the car behind me before I could get it shut off. It knocked the car off the stands, luckily the guy working on it was on a pottie break! Got lucky on that one. And I got to make a new shop rule. Always start a car from the drivers seat!

 

I'm not going tell you all about any crazy near death experience. I am going to ask you all to support this project that centers around courage and love for our lost buddy.

 

A couple years ago when I was a senior in high school I had just picked up an '89 mustang that had been modified for drag racing. I got it mid afternoon on a saturday, and after replacing the battery (it had been sitting awhile) and making sure everything was working, I decided to take it instead of my taurus when I went out for the night. At about 3 am I am driving home on the freeway doing 70 or 75 and it's raining pretty hard. I'm coming up a pretty steep hill, almost at my exit, when I give it a little more throttle to keep it going up the hill. I guess I had just hit a puddle or an oil slick or something, because the car instantly did a 180 on me and went straight for the guardrail at the side of the freeway, sideways. I got lucky and the car slid right between the guardrail and a little cement wall into a small gravelly area with a grassy slope next to it. No one else was around, so I just went home and didn't drive the thing again until I had it registered and insured. This was on highway 101 going south right before the Lincoln avenue exit in San Rafael, CA if any of you know where that is.

 

After talking a friends brotherinlaw into letting me drive his 55 chevy, 409
powered circle track car I was all ready for my big day at the track! When
I was ready for the first heat race, my buddy helped me stap in. He or we
did not get the latch properly secured and I thought every thing was cool.
When I went into the fist turn at 80 or so mph in the middle of a pack of 15 wild ass saturday night maniacs I found myself holding the wheel just to stay on the drivers side of the car and not out the passenger side window! I knew if I pulled into the pits to hook up my belts everyone would think I ran out of balls. After waiting years for a shot at the wheel
I was not about to let a set of belts get in the way. After a lap or so I was able to jam my self in with my left leg and drove the whole 20 lap
race like that! My friend and the cars owner said they could see somthing
different in my posture behind the wheel, and after a couple of laps the flagman noticed the belts were not on properly but in 1969 this was just something to chuckle about over a beer. I was realy lucky that nothing
wlid happened during those 20 laps as it could have got rough in there with no belts and all those rollbars. I don't think I would be so brazen today but thats the difference between 19 and 59 years old. Still its a fond remember for me and the guys.

 

dad had a 32 three window 327 4 speed had it sitting in the shop i was 16 at the time he ask me to back it out of the shop i said sure ...hopped in thougt i had it in reverse foot slipped off the clutch was in first gear lunged forward smashed my dads brand new craftsmen toolbox if you could have seen the look on my dads face you would prettymuch call that a near death experiance

 

Several years ago, my wife and I were renting a little house that sat on an acre. Since I had a giant backyard, it was natural for my friends to store their vehicular turds behind the house. A buddy of mine had brought over a shitty old '67 Ford half ton with the straight 6, got tired of working on it, and left it. Anyway, the in-laws are coming up, so I want to get this piece out of the yard. Said friend could not be found, so I got home from work the night before and started putting parts back on this P.O.S. so I could drive it to the guy he had planned to give it to. I get the I-beams back in and fire the bastard up, and my wife follows in the chase car. Finally get the thing up to speed after skip shifting because the column shift bushings had "just been replaced". I'm givin' her hell, wanting to be done with this event, and I see my wife's car trying to come around me. Just as she is about even with the cab, she drops back. This happens several times, and I find out why as I come to a lazy stop in front of the new owner's house. The truck had pretty much blown all of the oil out of the motor and had caught fire under the hood. I tossed the keys to dude and hopped in the car, watching him trying to put it out. I felt like a dick later for not helping, but I was in a rare mood at the time. My wife told me that the bottom of the truck kept catching on fire as I was driving. The man upstairs was watching out for me, can't believe that nothing happened with that fuel tank right behind the seat.

 

While at a car show somebody was nice enough to take the castle nut off of my steering arm in my 27 T. Figured it out at 70 mph. Now I always reach down and check the cotter pin before I leave with it.

Apparently somebody thought it was my little brothers car...... he has been known to steal a girlfriend/wife or two.

 

The same thing happenning in a 56 Olds automatically puts the shift linkage into reverse...[slim-jim tranny] and makes a big BANG!......car coasts to a stop with huge puddle of ATF under it....trashed tranny.

 

Ok...I'll go.
I got about a hunnert of those stories [hey, I'm 61 and been messin with hotrods my entire adult life]....
I was blasting down the freeway in my ratty-assed 33 ford pickup, following Ryan in his '38 ford. We were late to rendevous with the other guys at a drive-in theatre across town for a little photo shoot. I had my brother, ["Jangleguy" on the HAMB] and T-man with me in this teeny little cab.
Now, I'd just mocked-up the pickup enough to push it outta the garage to take a long look at....fired the motor for grins and never planned to actually drive it until I'd had a look at the brakes, set the toe-in, etc etc... but Ryan's invitation was just too good to pass up. We had flat-towed the truck from Omaha to KC the previous night to find the rear axle [46 ford pickup piece] pumped gear lube out as fast as I could put it in...but the old 41 ford pickup flatmotor ran good, even if I had a piece of elecrical wire for throttle linkage and floors made from cardboard and duct tape.
So, I'm in the center lane, following an impatient Ryan when he begins pulling away and I'm not familiar with KC at all..We're already doing about 65 and I've got the T-5 in 5th gear for the very first time and the flathead is blasting outta 2 long straight pipes. It's 38 degrees out and we have a windshield and a back glass...no door glass and we're cramped in so tight I gotta warn both my passengers when I need to shift so they can exhale and scoot over a little to make room.
I begin to catch Ryan when we head down this hill and there's a big curve at the bottom...I'm beatin feet about 75 by now and as we go into the corner, two idiots in big rigs blast up on either side of us. I didn't know if those stock 35 ford wire wheels were gonna rupture or if the rear spring shackles [no shackle bushings at that time!] were gonna snap but we shook, vibrated and prayed our way around the curve.
Man, it got REAL quiet in that little 33 right then..