Draggin' a 60 out of a field.......

[JohnG]

I live in MA. In 1973 I was given a 1961 Ford Falcon. It was my first car. I was driving in heavy rain near Albany, NY and went through a big area of water. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a geyser come up from the rear of the car, bounce off the ceiling and go down my back! The next day I pulled up the carpetting to find a hole I could have lost a basketball out of. The front under my feet was more interesting...had a nice collection of vintage license plates keeping it from being a true Flintstonemobile.

Second car I had did not look bad...then I was driving along, hit a bump and saw the rear bumper simply fall off the car and go skidding down the road....kinda spun around and around like a helicopter blade with no helicopter...

Third car was a Subaru. not bad until one day I dropped my keys in front of it and while picking them up noticed the front wheels no longer parallel. The area of the body where the strut mounts had disintegrated...

Bought a van. Put my foot in the gas one day to accelarate fast (well...as fast as vans do that) only to have the drivers seat do a wheelie of sorts and I almost went over backwards since it only had a couple of places in the rear still hooked to anything. That's why they brought in seat belt laws...

FYI: "Northeast" is Latin for Sheet Metal and Pop Rivets.

.. and you guys out West think you know about rust.... ha!

John

[Coral]

I live in MA. In 1973 I was given a 1961 Ford Falcon. It was my first car. I was driving in heavy rain near Albany, NY and went through a big area of water. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a geyser come up from the rear of the car, bounce off the ceiling and go down my back! The next day I pulled up the carpetting to find a hole I could have lost a basketball out of. The front under my feet was more interesting...had a nice collection of vintage license plates keeping it from being a true Flintstonemobile.

Second car I had did not look bad...then I was driving along, hit a bump and saw the rear bumper simply fall off the car and go skidding down the road....

Third car was a Subaru. not bad until one day I dropped my keys in front of it and while picking them up noticed the front wheels no longer parallel. The area of the body where the strut mounts had disintegrated...

Bought a van. Put my foot in the gas one day to accelarate fast (well...as fast as vans do that) only to have the drivers seat do a wheelie of sorts and I almost went over backwards since it only had a couple of places in the rear still hooked to anything. That's why they brought in seat belt laws...

FYI: "Northeast" is Latin for Sheet Metal and Pop Rivets.

.. and you guys out West think you know about rust.... ha!

John

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/astikennels/****2.gif[/IMG]

...hope you don't mind Im laughing hysterically over this....

[dgs]

... Third car was a Subaru. not bad until one day I dropped my keys in front of it and while picking them up noticed the front wheels no longer parallel. The area of the body where the strut mounts had disintegrated...

Back in HS in the mid 80's my sister decided a Subaru Brat would be cool. She found an older (at the time, ancient now) one for $800 so we went to look. It was a little rough, but when we popped the hood, there, where the spare tire should be (yes, under the hood, over top the engine is where Subaru used to put the spare) was a 2" x 12" with a notch at each end wedged between the shock towers keeping them from collapsing in on themselves.

We passed.

[JohnG]

perhaps the installer used Pressure Treated lumber...

[LuckyJay]

Iowa winter are tough too. Back in 1970, I was headed for work in a '60 Starliner. While going over a set of railroad tracks, the gas tank fell out and was skidding down the street behind me. I retrieved it, threw it in the trunk, fed a chunk of 3/8 hose down the filler neck, connected it to the gas line. And went on to work.

[Coral]

A McGyver in our midst!

reminded me of the time me and my Ma were returning home with my Uncle in the car ( '68 *I think* Impala ) and they were chatting away in the front whilst I was reading in the backseat...
Suddenly, my Ma goes "whats that in the road?"
My uncle kinda grunted under his breath, and shot his hand out to grab the steering wheel...it was the front passenger tire, rolling down the road a head of us
Just seconds after his hand was on the wheel, the car lurched and a lovely spray of fireworks was seen and crunching metal was watched and heard... had my uncle not grabbed the wheel, I know my Ma would have lost control and there would have been an accident, versus the repairable car damage and a few extra pairs of shorts....

This of course was human error not rust, lug nuts not correctly tightened -

[JohnG]

it used to be a prank of the local kids to loosen up the lug nuts and then put the hubcap back on so no one would notice. Happened to my father once.

I always wondered how it was the departing tire was able to go ahead of the car it just left... seemed like it violated some law of Physics.

[Coral]

... cause it was already rotating that direction and speed; once loose from the bolts ..weight of the car...it was free to roam , it will continue for a bit on its own but without power to continue the roll, iz when it begins to wobble and fall over....

[Guest]

When I had my '65 Thunderbird, I had that problem with hub caps. You be driving down the road and something would pass the car. Your like what the @%$^, then you realize you have lost a hub cap again. Run it down and throw it in the car and hope no one seen you!
Richard D. Hord

[vernz]

One of the caps on my 59 kept coming loose and would pass the car. Good thing, because then I would see it and could retrieve it. I finally replaced the cap. I studied that cap and could never figure out why it came loose all the time. The "teeth" for grabbing the wheel rim looked the same as the other caps.

Vern

[bird 60]

I didn't have problems with my '61 caps coming off, but my front ones kept shifting & was in fear of cutting into the Air Valves. The Grabbing Teeth were tight . What I did to fix the problem was to remove the Caps & Centre Punched a few dots on the rim where the teeth would seat. For me it did the trick. At first I did adjust the Grabbing teeth but it made it very hard to put on & take off, & still ddidn't solve the problem. I don't have that problem with my '60 'cause I have wires. They are NOT Kelseys & don't have any problems leaking.

Chris....From the Land of OZ.

[dgs]

I had a cap that came loose twice (before the alloys) and wedged itself in the wheel well.

Back in about '66, Dad was coming home from the service driving from El Paso TX to Toledo OH in a '65 Barracuda towing a '37 Ford 4 door sedan with a tow bar. He started to hear rattling and wondered what was going on. It suddenly hit him - lug nuts in a wheel cover. He pulled over right away.

The Barracuda had exposed nuts, so he started popping covers on the Ford. On one all 5 nuts dropped to the ground. the wheel holes were well oversized and the studs were I think worn about half way through. If he had lost that wheel, he likely would have totaled both vehicles.

[Guest]

Man reading this brings back memories!!!!
I was 17, just finished putting my first car together....a 67 Mustang coup. (My dad told me that car was nothing but trouble!) Stuck a 428/auto in it. On its maden voyage, I was crusin down main street showing off. Every stop light I would churp the tires just a little. Then who do I see? Lori.....THE hottest girl at school walking with her friends! I flirted with her for months but she wouldnt give me the time of day. So I thought " this is my chance"! I drove by her and as she was looking right at me, I floored it and started to lay down some really mean rubber! Then all of the sudden, I felt the left rear go down, then at the speed of light, there went my tire flying past me! It traveled about 3 blocks before it got wedged between the road and bumper of the city police car! I was embarresed as all get out but the officer was easy on me. Lori, on the other hand, still didnt give me the time of day! Lesson for the day.....make sure everything's tight before impressing the ladies!

[tbird430]

Man reading this brings back memories!!!!
I was 17, just finished putting my first car together....a 67 Mustang coup. (My dad told me that car was nothing but trouble!) Stuck a 428/auto in it. On its maden voyage, I was crusin down main street showing off. Every stop light I would churp the tires just a little. Then who do I see? Lori.....THE hottest girl at school walking with her friends! I flirted with her for months but she wouldnt give me the time of day. So I thought " this is my chance"! I drove by her and as she was looking right at me, I floored it and started to lay down some really mean rubber! Then all of the sudden, I felt the left rear go down, then at the speed of light, there went my tire flying past me! It traveled about 3 blocks before it got wedged between the road and bumper of the city police car! I was embarresed as all get out but the officer was easy on me. Lori, on the other hand, still didnt give me the time of day! Lesson for the day.....make sure everything's tight before impressing the ladies!

HAHAHA!! Funy story there bro...

[Coral]

I had a cap that came loose twice (before the alloys) and wedged itself in the wheel well.

Back in about '66, Dad was coming home from the service driving from El Paso TX to Toledo OH in a '65 Barracuda towing a '37 Ford 4 door sedan with a tow bar. He started to hear rattling and wondered what was going on. It suddenly hit him - lug nuts in a wheel cover. He pulled over right away.

The Barracuda had exposed nuts, so he started popping covers on the Ford. On one all 5 nuts dropped to the ground. the wheel holes were well oversized and the studs were I think worn about half way through. If he had lost that wheel, he likely would have totaled both vehicles.

Quick thinking on his part!

Its amazing to me how many people these days drive about, not a care in the world... when they have a shockingly low/flat tire or one that the belts have slipped and is wobbling away, hanging/dragging exhaust bits or worse, the idiot lights on the dash going ignored....

.... my foster-sister asked me once to help me check her oil...I said sure, come on... she opened the hood and pulled out the tranny stick and said..."its full, right?" -
I smiled at her and said, hon, thats your transmission dipstick - not oil...and pointing/pulling it out...noted that it was bone dry...I asked her when she checked it last... "oh, Ive never seen that one before, but the orange light on the dash shows an oil can" ...I blinked several times before asking how long the light had been on.... " a few weeks now, why? "


over heard one gal at work the other day talking about having to replace her daughters brakes and the amount it cost...turns out after a few well placed questions, the daughter ignored the screeching of the disc brakes for well into a year and the rotors had to be replaced as they'd been gouged deeper than a pencil...she didn't stop driving the car until she couldn't get it TO stop....