Your best (or worst) "car" moment?

I enjoy the camaraderie around here, and definately the sharing of stories. So tell me guys, (and girls), what's your best story in or around your cars?

I haven't had my Maverick for long, so one of my previous vehicles will have to do.

I'll kick things off with my scariest (worst) moment, which was with my 1990 S-10 Blazer. I jacked the truck up inside my garage from the passenger side, in preparation of replacing my starter. When I turned around to grab the jackstand, I heard a creak and a groan and I jumped back, the jack, sitting on a smooth concrete floor, pushed out from under the truck with enough force to put a hole in the drywall across the room. Scared the living daylights out of me, because I'm sure the jack would have broken my foot or something if I was still in front of it. In the end, I used 2x4's to brace ramps against the wall in the back to get the truck off the ground, was a little nervous to get under there again, but you get over it.

 

My worst is a sad story. My dad was working under a 67 Cougar with a (429 or something rare) in Colorado in the winter. Gas suddenly gushed out of the car on accident and the fumes caught fire on the heater in the garage. The garage burned down even though I tried to stop it with a cup of water (I was 6 yrs old or so). The worst part was seeing nothing left but skeleton cars of ash after the fire. Even worse, the other car in the garage was a 427 Torino Cobra Jet (black and perfect condition, very rare). I was scarred for life and so was my dad who didn't get the cars covered in the insurance for some reason.

Best was I had my first Lovin' experience in my 72 Maverick Grabber when I was 16.

-Erick

 

I had one of the rear tires of of my mothers E150 , I was using the bodle jack and it was the one time that I didn`t block the front wheel . Right when I put the tire back on the van it rolled off the jack , I only use my 3 ton floor jack now .

then there was the time that I got stuck under my tranny while I was taking it out of my mav ...

 

Worst time was when I was putting a trans in my 85 ranger. Had the trans on a jack and was under the truck trying to get it past the Y pipes when the jack slid out from under it. The trans wasn't too heavy (manual with no gear oil) so I could hold it up, but it took two hands and I couldn't lay it down (would land on my head) and I couldn't move because I had no way of pushing on anything. So I lay there for 5 min benchpressing a trans, kicking the side of the truck and yelling before my sister finaly realized something was wrong and came out.

The best moment was when I too got some lovin in my maverick...which isn't too easy to do.

-Harry

 

Mine was not with my Maverick or a jack. Now I am going to have to rethink the next time I use a jack. Mine was with my old car. It was '82 Cavilier. Yes a Chevy and the last GM I have owned. I went to pull out into traffic to have the gas peddle collapse to the floor. Luckly it was manual and I made it home in first gear with a high idle. The throttle cable broke off the carb. And yes I had the only year that they put carbs on those cars. Second one just as bad was in the same car I went to U-turn in front of my house to hit the brake and have them not working and roll right through my neighbor's front yard fence. Broken vacume line was that one.

 

The worst experiance I remember involved me, my brother and a 1968 Camero. I was about 8 or 9 years old at the time. He was home on leave from the Army and had just come home that Sunday morning from a Saturday night out drinking. He was massively hungover when he and I went into town to get the Sunday paper . He was so out of it that he turned the Camero across traffic on a busy highway right into path of a Buick going about 40 miles an hour. The Buick T-boned us on my side of the car. My brother somehow still had enough sense to pull me across the bucket seat toward him just before the car hit us. Of coarse, back then no one used seatbelts. If I had a belt on, I would probably would not be here right now. The force of the impact caved the passenger side door in over a foot and threw my glasses out the broken window into the street. All I remember was climbing out the window to get my glasses so I could see what happened. Thankfully, no one was hurt except for a few small cuts from the broken glass. The best experiance was when I was 16. I just got my senior drivers licence, my first car ( a 1966 Mustang coupe) and went on my first solo cross country road trip. That was the greatest trip I ever had in my life.

 

My worst moment was with a 1971 International Travelall. It was my Dad's truck and it was old and rusty but it was reliable. I pulled it into the garage to change the oil. I got out of it leaving it running to warm up the engine and my brothers came out the kitchen door and were talking to me. I stood there with my back to the truck in the garage talking to them when I heard a clang. I stopped talking and turned around to look was not sure if it was the truck or something in the garage did not see or hear anymore so I turned back to continue talking but my brother was now pointing back at the truck and could barely get the words out of his mouth "the truck". The old international slipped out of park and was backing itself out of the garage. It had big towing mirrors so I could not get around the sides but it did somehow clear the garage opening without clipping anything. Since I could not get around I am not sure what I thought I could do but I grabbed hold of the front bumper :confused: as it drug me with it out of the the garage. Once out of the garage I could now go for the door to get in except for the fact that once out of the garage the landscape goes down at about a 45 degree angle so I am now basically chasing it down the hill. I managed to get my hand into the handle and open the door but now find that I cannot get around the door and keep up as the old machine is now really picking up momentum but I continue to hold on to that handle. It starts down the driveway and all I can think about is our neighbor's white picket fence and then house. The driveway has a slight bend and dropoff and the truck continued right off the edge of the driveway off into the grass but as it came off the driveway the ground really dips which caused the wheel to turn sharp. It completely did a 180 and threw me as I could not hold on and more , I must have been thrown 10-15 feet away and did not know where in the hell I was anymore so I rolled like mad trying to prevent from being run over. When I stopped I was so dizzy I could barely stand but I looked up to see the truck now trying to back itself up our front yard and it had reached an equal point where it could not back any more but was not rolling straight down forward either. I ran to it and got in thankful I had not been hurt too bad and there was no property damage done.
It later popped out of gear several more times but because of what happened to me no one ever left it unattended and running. It turns out that the body was rusting right at the body bolts and the linkage for the transmission was out of alignment because the body was sinking. Not long after even though it was a great vehicle we had to junk it. I used to kid my dad saying one day you are going to do a panic stop and the drivetrain will stop but the body will keep going and rip away from the chassis. Sorry for the long story but from that day forth I have to trust a vehicle before I leave it running and always apply the emergency brake.

 

Worst moment was when I had taken the mav to a mechanic to help tune the carb and when I was on my way home I gave her a little gas and the linkage got stuck because the idiots didn't follow my specific instructions and put the air cleaner cover on wrong. I couldn't stop and the engine was wide open at full throttle. I seriously thought my car was gone, then my boyfriend calmly reached over and turned the engine off.

Best moment was taking her down the track for the first time and having my Mom see me do it, she herself used to run the 1/4 mile in a 66 Road Runner that she built up by herself. She was proud to see me continue the tradition. Who says girls can kick some butt?

 

Its always nice to see girls out on the track...as long as they're not driving a pink honda or neon

Anyway, your story reminds me of my dad. Had a 60's commet with a 289. He dumped the clutch and broke an engine mount. Of course when the engine cocked the throttle was jammed wide open. Said he almost lost it before he could turn the ignition off and back on. Of course when he did it, it backfired and split his muffler like a bananna :bananaman

-Harry

 

Bad:
When I was thriteen, my shade-tree mechanic brother had me sit in the driver's seat of his '55 Ford. I was to 'pop' the clutch at the right time as he was pulling me all around our property with our dad's tractor.

I'm not a big guy now, and I certainly wasn't at 13. I could barely see just over the dash and just under the huge steering wheel.

I didn't wanna be pulled around "Book Hill" trying to start that old car cause I knew I was gonna screw something up.

It happened when we were headed down the hill. After about 20 times of poping the clutch (while the cars was in one of the forward gears), 'Old Blue' finally sucumbed to my brothers relentless dragging and fired up.

The car accelerated pretty good to be such an old car. It acclerated so good in fact that my brother couldn't get the tractor out of the way quick enough.

I rammed the back of the tractor. It had the 3-point hookup (two ominous bars sticking out the back at near bumper high level). I panicked and engaged the clutch. As I did, the slack came outta the chain. A whiplash and clutch dump later, I was cranked again and headed for the rear of the tractor again. WHAM! Crush! Grind! Mangle!

I must've hit that tractor five times before we synchronized our forward leaps and stops.

After the car stopped, I jumped out and ran as fast as I could to my room, knowing I was gonna be hollered at.

We both (I can now blame him too) managed to total the front end of that old '55 Ford (bumper, grill, lights, radiator, etc). I'm not sure whatever became of that old car.

Good:
I drove my (same) brother's Maverick Sprint on my first trip down the quarter-mile drag strip!

 

thats an easy one

I was 16 years old with my new drivers license in hand and climbing behind the wheel of MY 72 Maverick by myself for the first time. I sometimes sit behind the familiar dash of my 4 door and it reminds me what an awesome feeling that was.

 

Unfortuneately I cannot discuss my best, or worst car moment, afterall, this is a family message board.
Dan

 

My worst car experience was in Vocational school about 10 years ago. I started working in a garage at 16 BTW. Anyhow, A fellow class mate was doing an alignment, the car was about 6 feet in the air(drive on rack). He had removed the frt saftey guards(dumb ass) and for got to chalk the wheels. I was BSing with him in frt of it next thing I know a car is falling on top of me. If it had not been for the alignment computer it would have fallen off on top of me all the way. It looked as if my head was smahed between the frt bumper and the machine.(one student even tossed his cookies). My head was between the rad core support and frt bumper( it was a 84 dodge 024) I used every ounce of strength to try and stop it. I hurt so bad for the next couple of weeks. Could have been worse though some stitches and bruises.


My Best was beating that Viper in the "BADMAV" in a street race:bananaman

 

I had a 72 GMC pickup that had broken down. A friend and I borrowed a buddies roll back to go get it. My friend was operating the roll back. We had the truck up on the roll back and he still had it slanted back to keep tension on the cable. I went around to the back to put a chain on the rear axle. I knelt down and was bracing my arm across the rear tire as I reached in with the hook to snag the axle when the wench kicked out. The truck jumped backwards and knocked me to the ground. As the truck rolled off the roll back it rolled on my right ankle and pinned me before I could get out of the way. As it came up my thigh heading for the family jewels I grabbed the tire with both hands and it jammed my elbows into the concrete and I actually picked up the back of the truck while it passed over the good stuff and my belly. But the fore arms are only so long so it dumped on my chess and rolled over my face. After it was off my head I managed to roll out from under it just in time to miss the front tire going by. Afterward, I actually had a bruse across my face that matched the tread pattern of the tire for awhile. One of the weird things about the whole thing was when my friend called my wife from the emergency room, my wife said as soon as the phone rang before she answered it, my daughter said " daddys been hurt" To add more weirdness, years later while working one day, my cell phone rang and the first though that went through my brain was, Oh ****, Kelly wrecked the truck. Sure enough, thats what happened. Luckly were all still here and healthy.

 

Dang Dennis. That's some scary stuff.

I clipped my cuticles too close one time. Man, did it ever hurt!