Your best (or worst) "car" moment?

treebasher

My battery cables recently went south on me. One day at work (greenhouse and nursery) I was leaving and my car went "click." So I opened the hood, wiggled the cable, and not knowing if I had made a connection or not, I reached through the window and hit the starter. By golly the butal torque of my 250 fired her off in reverse and away she went. By the time I got my hand back in and shut 'er down, I had backed over a small evergreen tree that was planted near where employees park. It was stuck under my car bent over, so I pulled foreward, and the tree sprang back to life I didn't know they would start in gear. Nobody saw it happen, so I told nobody but you guys!

 

I am new here, no mav unfortunitly seeing as I am in college and broke off my arse..However if anyone was looking to donate one to someone, I am always game for that.

My worst car moment took place this summer when I was working on my '95 Crown Vic; It's an old 5-0 from the rust belt and the underbody shows it, the oil pan was nearly rusted through. So I took it upon myself to change the oil pan, now if any of you have worked on a panther platform vehicle you know the trouble that accompanies changing an oil pan. The front crossmember is directly below the oilpan, so to replace it, you have to lift the engine up a couple of inches to pull the pan.

Now, I have been lying under my car for a couple of days now having disconnected just about everything and struggling with a couple of nuts on the exhaust flange; when I decided to lift the engine anyways a little bit with a bottle jack to see how much clearence I need. I have the car on jackstands and the engine and transmission are on a bottlejack, I brought another bottle jack under the car to lift one side of it slightly to adjust one of the jackstands to a safer position...bad Idea.
After I have the drivers side of the car lifted about 1/8" of an inch above the jackstand on that side, I prepare to move the jackstand.

I am laying on my right side right now directly under the engine block and crossmember; when I look and I see the bottle jack under the frame tilt and fall, and I think for a brief second "Crap at least there are the jackstands to catch the car and hold it." that bottle jack knocks the jack holding the engine and transmission, and I have about .23 seconds to realize I am in trouble, the wieght of the engine and transmission falling a couple inches back onto their mounts just overpowers the jackstands that are resting under the car, and they tilt towards the passanger side of the car.

The car falls, and if it wasn't for a random sawzall on the ground and one of the jackstands holding part of the car tilted, I would have been completely crushed. As the car fell it just strongly clipped my shoulder, compressed part of my chest, and twisted part of my back. But there was barely enough room to crawl out; I walk back inside, and my brother is sitting there with a cup of coffee getting ready to go out and check on how I am progressing on the car, and I just look at him and say "I think I almost died"

After a trip to the ER, all I have is some chest cavity pain and road rash, the bruising was very extensive reaching from my elbow tip to the far side of my back, and my back is iffy now occasionally flaring up where I hurt it; but I think thats understandable seeing as this took place just a little more than a month ago.

I certianly learned my lesson, never adjust the height of a car while being underniegth it, and always try to keep someone outside with you..... cause EKG's suck....*if you have chest trama, they always proform one on you and they are not cheap*

Best time in a car? I don't know, I have had some pretty fun road trips, and one time after spending 23 hours in a car coming back from wyoming to home (chicago) in one day, A friend of mine swore he saw a monkey in the middle of the road, and that was pretty funny.

 

Worst!
Trying the line lock at the starting line.......foot brake to 4,000 rpm.........when I let it go. The car squatted and the leaped like a frog only to end up darn near side ways about 10 feet pass the starting line! I was so sideways I had to put it in reverse to back away from the wall so I could "crawl" down the track!

 

RussianCelery.... what a first post , welcome to the forums!!!

 

The luck that some of us have....

Well, my worst has to be when I messed up and used my mav for a trade in on a 89 escort.Laugh is up cause I do. It was my first car with a radio and working ac which I used neither.
My brother was flying into Ftworth and he and his wife had arranged to pick up their new car but needed a ride from the hotel to the dealership.So, I figured I could help them out and save a few bucks from getting a rental car. It was a four door so I figured we could cram their goods in the trunk.It was over an hour drive up to the hotel and me getting lost didnt help.I pulled up, loaded everything up and was ready to go.

*Let me take a second to say that the car had a problem which I later found out was the ignition switch, but I would have to jump out and jumper the solenoid to get it to start*

I had it down doing that, so when we were ready to leave I jumped out and jumped the solenoid and it started,I noticed water on the engine but didnt pay any attention to it. Jumped in the car and noticed the temp gauge was high. I didnt care we were going to pick them up a new car....or so I thought.

We are cruising down the highway and notice an odd smell..Antifreeze! The car sputters and eventually dies and as I coast to the side of the highway the song "its getting hot in here" is playing (ironic?) We end up running to homedepot for water and getting some stop leak. We put-put our butts to the next exit and down the service road. Only to hit a stop light, the car dies, but doesnt restart and I have to jump out with plenty of cars behind us waiting to start it.I end up doing it twice before we get to a shop. We leave it there and get a rental.

We called back later and its atleast a blown headgasket.We go back and get the stuff out of the escort and leave it there for the car place from which I was financing it.I ended up going back to the guy and telling him the situation, he lent me a car but I ended up getting my mav back and leaving him the escort.

 

RussianCelery vbmenu_register("postmenu_81929", true); its nice to see another ex popo car out there. mines a 90 crown vic. ive got 2 bad times for you all to laugh at. first i was 14 moms fish were gonna die from bleach if i didnt make it to the pond in time to get water. it was late and the car they bought me for my later 16th bday seemed to not have headlights. ponds maybe a 1/4 mile away which is nice for some things but not this time. i made it to that point. i made it to the big old tree on the other side of the road head on at about roughly 55 mph. no belt on spiderwebbed the window. im just happy the car didnt go to the otherside or it would have been a late night swim in cow water. ironic for this one is when i hit the tree the lights came on so i could see what i hit. funny last year a jeep hit the same tree. part 2 of bad things. i lay all my parts out. found my lost head for my lil engine with my foot, threw the hammer i had in my hand. broke the grille. got mad punched the door and found the fiberglass spot on my lil mav. needless to say im still hunting a new grille. head is useless like the engine. and i somehow lack a good car story as of yet

 

Worst... My former brother-in-law lent me his truck to pick up a 460 with. It was a manual, and my truck, which was broke at the time, was an automatic. I jumped in the truck and fired it up, not used to pushing a clutch pedal down. The truck took off in reverse... right into my then-wife's flower garden. It plowed over (and broke) an antique bird-bath and an antique sun dial, both of which had been in her family for many generations.

Another bad incident was a few months back. I was taking the body off of the frame on my 70 Chevelle. We had the body almost far enough up to roll the frame out, when one of the sawhorses broke. The body came crashing down, pinning me against the wall of the garage. I didn't get hurt, but my shorts might have been a little soiled. The only damage it did to the body was on a quarter that is getting replaced anyway.

Great moments in various cars- anytime you drive them out of the garage for the first time under their own power. I just recently felt this with my 69 Nova

Best Moment in a Maverick- I had just installed headers, a cam, intake and carb. The thing was downright fast. At the time, I lived in Pennville, among the Amish. In fact, on the road I lived on, we were the only house with electricity for about a mile each way. Back then, I was working construction, employed by the Amish. Funny bunch, those Amish. They won't use power tools, so the 'regular' people like me got to do all the cutting. Also, they had a phone... installed in one of our outbuildings. Anyway, they don't own cars, but they'll ride with you. I took a couple of them to work one day in the Mav, and naturally, I stood on it a bit. They refused to ride home with me! After that, they called it the Devil's Chariot, and swore it was gonna kill me. Anytime they heard me coming (my entire exhaust was just headers and glass packs), they'd pull the horse and buggy to the side of the road.

Another funny Maverick/Amish moment... I had just installed an Alpine CD player with a Rockford Fosgate amp and a pair of subs, and Pioneer speakers. A couple of the younger Amish boys were over watching me do this (imagine their suprise when they heard Bullet Boys at a very loud volume). A few days later, one of the Amish boys came over and said he had some music for me to try. I said sure, Ill try it. He handed me an 8-track tape.

 

lilgreenmav

Another Newbie here but really enjoy your posts. My story was in the mid 70"s when i was 15 and driving Mom's 70 mav. (with no a/c) in the summer down the back dirt roads of Georgia. As I'm driving with the windows down, a wasp flies in and lands on my left hand. I see it raise it's tail to sting me so i slap it away and slap the only hand holding the wheel which causes me to veer left and off the road. I travel through the woods and up a slight embankment causing me to go airborne over a small creek and land on some brush between 2 trees (never touched them (Thank the Lord) . Mom's boyfriend came down in his tractor and pulled it out just shaking his head while Mom just stood by glaring at me. For the next week big piles of Georgia red clay would fall out in the parkinglot and poor Mom would look through it to make sure there were no parts in it. The Mighty Maverick drove great and no damage could be found. I still have it and drove it through Highschool (of course I hated it being just a 6 cylinder)

 

See now the duke boys realy could do it with the charger

 

without getting too lengthy, here is the recipe for my worst car moment:
1 12 pack Budweiser(in bottles)
1 broken leafspring on a 65 Falcon
1 totally rusted bolt
1 oxygen-acetylene torch
Consume 10 bottles of beer, mix well with the broken leafspring and the totally rusted bolt, being sure to thoroughly strip the head off the bolt, necessitating the need for the torch. Next, attempt to torch off the bolt, but be sure too blow a hole through the rear floorpan under the backseat. Continue with the torch until the bolt can be removed. Replace leafsprings as usual, then go inside for the night. Allow backseat to smolder overnight, and PRESTO! One cooked backseat!
Best car moment, anytime I'm drooling over some other person's car, and they wanna talk about my Maverick!

 

here's one: last year when I put the engine inside with a engine leveler and chain bolt on intake hole and we found a hole at the end of the engine leveler arm so we decide to bolt the chain there with 1 heavy bolt and some washer but it's not me who tight the nut so I don't realy know what happen but when I see the engine with trans. fall down in engine bay and on radiator frame I know something had broked. The engine flip on radiator frame to fall downto the ground on carb. and dist. . So guys never trust a bolt with some washer and if some one do your job please verify twice if it's well done. Finaly when it was time to start the engine it burn the gas that we put in carb before and shut down. after a couple week end trying to found the problem with 2 30 years experience in mechanic guys I finaly found the problem (after one of the guys said to me that it's like a vacuum problem it don't breath in the carb) so I found that EGR valve had been churshed when the engine fall down and vacuum lost between valve and spacer.

so that's it and it's enough too

 

worst and best

My worst and best moments came on the same night. I was 17, my new car was a 69 dodge dart GTS 340 magnum auto. My then best girl Sarah and myself had gone to the local parking spot on the banks of the mississippi river west of tunica miss.I had let her drive because she ask me so nicely . Anyway we pull right up to the edge of the river, its about a 14 ft drop to the water. Out we come with our blanket and cooler to watch the submarine races. the radio is playing and we got down to discussing basic human animal relations when all of a sudden I hear a large splash.my car has nosed dived into the freakin river and as I watch my tail lights go under the waters of old muddy, Sarah said and I quote"I must have shifted into neutral instead of park." Next day I got my car back with a 4 pound catfish in back floorboard and a new girlfriend with her OWN car...jim

 

I guess you could call this an in between moment. About 18 years ago in the Mav I have now. At that time it was owned by my sister. She had called me and asked me to go pick up my brother in law because he was drunk at my other brother in laws house. I have three sisters BTW. anyhow i drive down and get him and decided to take him home in his car (only time i had ever driven the mav to this day.) because i always wanted to drive it.:bananaman :bananaman my other sister followed me to thier house. well on the way there danny was so out of it he had actually passed out. as i rounded a righthand curve he he rolled over into my lap and his head went into the steering wheel!! well i tried braking the best i could on a curve doing about 55 and proceeded thru a corn field for about another 200 feet before coming to a stop. after my sister helped me get danny's head out of the wheel we got the car out(the ground was hard luckily) and took him home. we let him ponder for about a week before we told him how all the stalks got attached to the car.

 

The worst would have to be the time me, my cousin Patricia, and my bro Tylar were flying around my grandpa's field up in NC in my grandpa's '78 Bronco after it had been raining for a couple of days. I found out the hard way that even with 33 inch mud tires, you can't stop very good on mud. Ohh well, at least the side of that old house trailer my grandpa bought for storage softened the impact a little bit. Explaining to my grandpa what happened when he got home was not fun...

The best has to be rideing around in my dad's Comet. Then, just recently the first time I took my F250 out on the road after doing my first engine swap and automatic to manual trans conversion on it, followed closely by the first time I got to drive my dad's '95 Mustang GT.

 

My worst moment was when my (step)dad made me sell my very first car, a 70 challanger with the fox hood,red with black interior and the widest tires on the back in town. It only had a slant six with a three speed but I loved that car,MAN, the memories, anyway, I think he thought I would kill myself or get into trouble with the law cause I would come home bragging about all the races I had participated(spelling) in. I was not a happy 15 yr old boy for a few months. Then came the best moments, my mom gave me the family car cause I had rebeled and decided I wasn't riding the bus to school, it was a 73 comet 302, baaaad mistake dad-thanks mom! I learned my lesson about draging and braging. The number one worst moment though was when I wrecked and totaled that car , but within a couple of weeks I landed on a 73 GT the exact same color,interior and exterior-my project car from that day forward.