Let's start something.

Ok, who remembers the back page of some 60s magazine (maybe Argosy) that always had "This happened to me" It was usually a bear attack or something but what if we did the car guy version. Some weird, unique, humorous or dangerous experience you have had or witnessed while working on or driving a vehicle.
No Ukrainian dashcam stuff, you had to be there.
Anyone want to start? I'll jump in if it gets rolling.

On the way home from work back in the 90s. 20 mile trip one way everyday. For 30+ years things get kinda same old same old...On the way home one evening and just about to cross the bridge going across the Wekiva River and into my home county for the rest of the day. Ya'll probably have some kind of imaginary boundary or line you hit on the way home that drives home the fact that you are now off the rest of the day and can relax. Well, that bridge was my line. I'm approaching it, everything is fine as wine. I'm watching a large truck coming on in the other lane towing a house trailer and balling the jack as he hit the apron of the bridge. I'm familiar with the hump on the oncoming side and was watching when he hit it. Glad I was paying attention or I would have been into the bridge with him when the excitement commenced. I saw the front of his rig dip and then buck, a tire and wheel left the trailer and went bouncing across my oncoming lane barely missing my CJ7 as I was about to enter the bridge. I thought, wow, that was close. Just about the time that thought got thru my mind, here comes the whole trailer that had discoed itself from the truck when it hit the bump. Don't know how we do it sometimes but the Big Man probly helped. I got on the binders good enough to miss the thing as it crossed my lane and I got to watch as this trailer veered off on my side, left the road, hit the ditch, went airborn for about 100 feet and landed off out in the woods....some good karma for a change...I went back the next day thinking they might not have seen how far the tire went. It was still there and I got a real new rim and tire from my experience.

I

That happened on the Knik river bridge when I lived In Anchorage. Both times, a year to the day apart, the trailer head-on another car on the bridge and killed people. Another travel trailer went over the side into the inlet.

Saw a guy pulling a boat down the hiway and it come loose, it went skidding down the road dragging the tongue until it hit the grass and dug in, stood straight up and down and pile drived the motor into the ground flat on it's back.Guess he didn't use his safety chains.

I took a hot rodded chevy c1500 truck to a car show and on the way back home I hit 125 mph easy. Next morning I backed out of the driveway and the aftermarket lowered front spindle sheared clean off...

Not more than 15 minutes ago, I had 3 deer run into my Caddy as I was coming up to a stop sign. The first one ran in front of me and left turned right into the front as I was locking the brakes, the second hit the front fender and almost vaulted onto the hood, and the third just bounced off the door. None of them were real big. No damage to the Cad.

Was running my 40 Pontiac really hard down a country road one evening. The next day I was pulling the car out of the garage to do it again ( fancy that) and the steering wheel just spun and the car didn't turn.
There was only one tack weld on the steering joint to the steering shaft, I had forgotten to weld it and the tack broke loose.

Old Iron said:

Was running my 40 Pontiac really hard down a country road one evening. The next day I was pulling the car out of the garage to do it again ( fancy that) and the steering wheel just spun and the car didn't turn.
There was only one tack weld on the steering joint to the steering shaft, I had forgotten to weld it and the tack broke loose.

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I'm glad I'm not the only one who did that. After the shake down, first full day of cruising the 29, stopped and took an old disable Nam vet for a ride and ran through the gears, near as I figure maybe a buck 20. Later that day I hit a slanted bridge seam doing about 30, violent death wobble set in and broke my tack weld. I coasted off the shoulder with no steering.

yup...

spent about 2 weeks rewiring my old 52 Desoto ( first time id done anything like that ) rebuilt the entire loom myself and I have to say I did a mighty fine job... I thought ....

fired her up -first time with new wiring .. had the old bag burbling quietly away while I checked for smoke (wiring) , took around 5 minutes before the horns exploded in to life (adrenalin is brown !!) the noise seemed to funnel out the open hood, amplified by the workshop being under the house, and of course living in a small valley the volume again tripled ....

oh my ( I could barely think) whats happened here .. I left her running with all this racket , as panic set in trying to see what the cause was,, finding totally nothing I pulled the battery lead ,,

then I had another look still nothing - no hot wires nothing ?!

so I decided it was time for a coffee ( to early for beer) .. bought my cup back down to have another look,, a while later ,, I found the horn wire from the bottom of the steering colum had warmed beside the exhaust manifold.. the wind blowing back from the fan , had blown the wire on to the pipe melting - gluing- the wire causing an earth.....

here in nz, our steering wheel are on your passengers side....

true story...

Sam_Fear said:

Not more than 15 minutes ago, I had 3 deer run into my Caddy as I was coming up to a stop sign. The first one ran in front of me and left turned right into the front as I was locking the brakes, the second hit the front fender and almost vaulted onto the hood, and the third just bounced off the door. None of them were real big. No damage to the Cad.

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Something in the air Sam. My buddy Junior, the same one that submarined his Toyota a while back got took out by a deer on the way to work yesterday...we're up to about 1200 bucks for the doe damage so far...

First off... my dad had heart trouble. Anyway, we went up to see my 1/2 sister & were coming back to Houston & were driving along on a 4-lane highway (2 on each side) with a big open grassy area in between lanes when I noticed a car fishtailing on the other side. It kept fishtailing, lost control & started coming right at us. I pulled down to the left & the car flew by us at 60-70 mph & I swear I missed it by 3-4 inches. The car was going sideways when it hit the pavement on our side... flipped & rolled over about 4-5 times in front of an 18 wheeler that came to a stop about 5 feet from it. Our hearts were going like 90 to nothing & I remember thinking... if this doesn't kill the old man... nothing will! Just glad I was paying attention!!! [ddd

BoB

23crate said:

(adrenalin is brown !!)
true story...

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Damn, that's funny, crate!



Summer of '93. (24 years ago, already. )

My buddy Charlie and I decided to "take the back seat" on a 7 hour trip from here to Edmonton AB. When I say back seat, I mean, we gave the wheel to a third party... I don't remember who that was, but it doesn't matter...

...anyhow, Charlie and myself piled into the enclosed trailer, freshly fitted with a stomp-ass stereo, two folding "lounge" chairs and a cooler full of fun. (There was a Camaro bracket car in the trailer as well, but that doesn't matter, either.)

Travelling behind us, was our friend Rich and his truck/trailer/racecar. An hour down the road, some clown in a Firechicken felt the need to wedge himself between Richie's outfit and ours... we guess, in an effort to "draft" us.

So, Charlie and I are busy drinkin' the cooler dry and bleedin' the stereo. The Firechicken guy hangs in there, mile after mile. Rich notices the Firechicken's wipers running and thinks nothing of it, but sees the wipers running again... and again... funny, Rich hasn't needed his wipers once... Rich looks at the sky, not a cloud... then he figured it out and backed off some.

Shortly before this voyage, I had the trailer in my shop for a number of fittings, including the stereo and a winch I mounted below the floor. To use the "hidden" winch, you had to open a trap door... which we soon discovered, served well to answer the call of nature.

Is that rain? Sort of.

.

Sam_Fear said:

Not more than 15 minutes ago, I had 3 deer run into my Caddy as I was coming up to a stop sign. The first one ran in front of me and left turned right into the front as I was locking the brakes, the second hit the front fender and almost vaulted onto the hood, and the third just bounced off the door. None of them were real big. No damage to the Cad.

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New nickname- Deer Juggler

Several years ago, I was sitting at a red light waiting to turn left. The road to the left immediately goes over a bridge over the TN river, then crosses an man made island between two backwater pools, then about a 1/4 of a mile past that it forks, one fork goes out to the interstate about 3 miles away, the other way is old US 31 which was the main route north and south before the interstate was built. While waiting for the light to change, a big orange Schneider truck comes from my left across the bridge. When he gets almost to the light, his trailer comes off the 5th wheel, drops to the highway and slides along on the dollies behind him. Now, the 5th wheel couldn't have been locked properly, but it was close to 5 miles to the interstate, and at least that far up US 31 or farther where he might have hooked to that trailer. No telling how far it stayed attached to the truck before it came loose. Kinda funny and scary at the same time, if I had of met him on the island, the trailer could have taken me out.

Many years ago, the mid 60's in fact, I was going to college in a small Wisconsin town majoring in Industrial Arts education. One of my roomates, we called him Lumberjack, was from Virginia and was attending on a wrestling scholarship. Among his many quirks was he was always naked in our apartment and slept on the top of the covers with the windows open, even in winter. Needless to say, he had a room to himself and the other three of us shared the other bedroom.
Lumberjack had a chopped '50 Ford that he wanted to work on in the school auto shop. He asked me to drive it to the shop from the other side of town. I'll admit I was under the influence of malt beverages when I hopped in the Ford. It had no plates, exhaust system, windows, bumpers nor lights. Probably some other junk was missing too. It was winter and I was freezing so I went a bit fast through town. The old flathead was making a lot of noise which echoed between the downtown buildings and I raced to the auto shop. I made it however.
A couple days later a friend told me the cops were looking for me. Not having a clue what trouble I was in I stopped in the cop shop. Apparently an officer was on the street when I went by in Lumberjack's Ford. They had a list of infractions that was sure to earn me the gas chamber or whatever method of capital punishment was in vogue at the time. They were ready to deal however, and said if I pleaded guilty to half the infractions they'd forget the rest.
Being the smartazz I was at that age (I've since reformed), and being so poor I was making soda cracker and ketchup sandwiches in the local cafe that set out the crackers on the tables, I asked how much time I would have to spend in jail.
The officer thought it would be about 90 days, which just about took me to summer break. I asked if I would get out for classes and after some hemming and hawing he said yes.
I said I would take the jail time of the judge found me guilty. Free rent, I was charging my share of the apartment anyway, free food, no naked roommate, plenty of time to study. Why I might improve my GPA and sober up living in Jail.
The nice police officer left me alone for a while. When he came back he said, "Get out of here".

In high school I drove a white '57 Lincoln 2-door hardtop. The chicks really loved it... white & red leather interior, elec seats, A/C etc. It had a big 390! Anyway... my buddy said we should take it up on the interstate & see how fast it would go... so we did! We pegged the speedo at 125 but it kept winding so we kept going. We turned around & did the same thing on our way back into town. When we pulled up to a red light at the city limits... I noticed the right rear seemed a lil low. I pulled over, got out & lo & behold... it had a flat tire! I had that sinking feeling!

BoB

So i had this '63 Ford, fastback they called it when i was about 20. Me and a couple of buddies were crusin' around, not even drinking yet....and i was telling them the engine had a miss at about 100. We were on 4 lane divided hiway 50 and as i was born absentminded i was thinking we were on I-70 when i wanted to demonstrate. You can probably see what is coming here. Popped over a hill into traffic in an intersection at 105. Brake pedal went right to the floor from the heat.

I would like to read your autobiography Bob. [cl

smallfoot said:

Something in the air Sam. My buddy Junior, the same one that submarined his Toyota a while back got took out by a deer on the way to work yesterday...we're up to about 1200 bucks for the doe damage so far...

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Hope she is resting comfortably in the freezer.

Skip said:

Hope she is resting comfortably in the freezer.

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Ha! I didn't get the call when it happened. Cell signal back here is sketchy. By the time I did. Our sun would have spoiled it. I don't know whether you've tried that Skip, but usually anything that made contact with the vehicle would be so bloodshot it wouldn't be fit to fry. By the looks of the brain matter we kept running into as we dis-mantled the front end, I don't think much would have been saved.