more adventures

[gcyeaw]

Randy’s recent historical essays have reminded me of some of the adventures of my youth, back in the age of B&W TV.

While I was a teenager still living at home, I bought a 1947 Ford two-door coupe from a friend for $25. He had rolled it over once or twice while racing around a lot behind his parents’ house. They forced him to get rid of it, and I was a willing buyer.

So I proceeded to remove the body from the frame and ended up with the world’s biggest go-kart. It was a flat head V8 with a three-speed floor shift, a bench seat and a wire connected to the two-barrel carburetor throttle linkage.

I would back down the driveway and then drag race to the top, over and over again. I don’t know how my parents managed to endure it.

One day I ran across a late 20’s Chevrolet. I took the body off and set it on the 1947 frame. We headed for my friends house, where he had an arc welder, to make up some mounts and create a monster. I drove it to the house sitting on a milk crate working the throttle with the cable wrapped around my hand. When I encountered the ½ inch rise into his garage, the body slipped off the frame and dropped to the axel, I fell off the milk crate backwards and opened the throttle wide open. The rear wheels spun and we entered the garage under full power. My friend, who was standing on the rear of the frame like a fireman, thought I was fooling around and held on. When we arrived at the cinder block wall at the end of the garage the vehicle came to an abrupt stop, and my friend Larry smashed his chin on the roof of the body, two stitches worth.

There was a moment of silence, and then the sound of my friends’ mother leaping down the stairs to the basement and launching herself into the garage to see if anyone was seriously injured.

No one was worthy of a hospital visit, but the motor mounts were broken and my friends’ brothers’ go-kart was somewhat flat in appearance. The cinderblock wall was a little crooked and the double steel door to his fathers’ wood shop was kind of crooked.

Within an hour we had the motor mounts replaced and were well on the way to mounting the body.

The house took a little longer to repair.

[Randy Dupree]

See!! it is normal! (for bird owners anyway!)
Thanks for sharing Gardner,anybody else?

[howie2017]

I had a '36 Ford, had started to convert it into a "stock car" and was backing it into the garage when I hit the lip, started to fall back off the MILK CRATE reached out to find support and pulled out the hand throttle. The back wall was pushed out enought so that the rear wheels dropped off the foundation and th frame hung on th concrete.

[Rick]

In 2000 I started my 2nd retirement by completing my 69 Super Pro Mustand and shop. I had the car media blasted and then painted Artic White (yes I know that a chevy color) with purple pearl and purple strips. The car looked great. Got it home with the help of a very good friend. While unloading the cable came loose the car sailed down the trailer ramps and ran through the back wall of the shop. This was just a few days before I set the Mustang on fire while trying to start it with a pop bottle of racing fuel. Sometime I thing I as stupid as---other men. Rick

[fxdwg]

Rick,
So what engine you have in that SP (super pro)?

[Rick]

Stared With Real 429 CJ Bored / Stroked to 514. Rons Bowl, MSD. Just the normal stuff. We ran at Centerville, Ar and Rogersville, Mo. Car did real well for a home built ride. On normal days we ran 5.60s @ 123. Rick

[Don Meyer]

Speaking of 429 CJ's. I once had a 1959 Ford Panel truck. Originaly a straight 6 with 3 speed on column. Engine started knocking so we pulled it into a friends junk yard. Pulled a 429 from a Mustang that had been broadsided and dumped it in my panel truck along with a 6C automatic. What a sleeper that was!
One Friday I put a brand new set of Desert Dog wide oval tires on it (anyone remember those) and went out "playing" all weekend. Had to go back Monday for a new set of back tires. Back when you could do some street racing and get away with it. We could light 'em up for 100ft. Ahhh...those were the days.

But yet it was also a nice highway cruiser. Drove it from NJ to St Louis, twice.

[iamflagman]

Originally Posted by Don Meyer

Speaking of 429 CJ's. I once had a 1959 Ford Panel truck. Originaly a straight 6 with 3 speed on column. Engine started knocking so we pulled it into a friends junk yard. Pulled a 429 from a Mustang that had been broadsided and dumped it in my panel truck along with a 6C automatic. What a sleeper that was!
One Friday I put a brand new set of Desert Dog wide oval tires on it (anyone remember those) and went out "playing" all weekend. Had to go back Monday for a new set of back tires. Back when you could do some street racing and get away with it. We could light 'em up for 100ft. Ahhh...those were the days.

But yet it was also a nice highway cruiser. Drove it from NJ to St Louis, twice.

Here's one Farm Truck that MIGHT be able to compete with that Ford Panel truck sleeper, real legal street racing with two squad cars down the road, check out;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFtEw7G40nw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5oftRgd9VY

I got this from Randy a few days ago, you wouldn't expect this truck

[Randy Dupree]

lots of gear heads on this site!
more of you need to come to Maxton to the races!
Maybe we need to get a bonneville rally going?
How about the turkey rod run,how many of you go to daytona on thanksgiving?

[Joatha]

Here's an adventure for you....

Back when I was still a student at Georgia Tech around 87-88 or so, I ended up with a piece of **** 76 Buick that my mom bought from the neighbor lady. I told her not to buy it but she liked it and I am the fool that ended up having to drive it. The transmission gave out on it - only had reverse - after I nursed it along for a year or so. I told her that would happen when I drove it the first time.

It finally completely died at the house I was renting with a buddy of mine near GT. Fortunately, I had just horse-traded for a 65 Plymouth Sport Fury that ran like a top so I wasn't without transportation. I told Mom about the Buick and she decides she wants the car back to get it fixed (she had a strange fixation with that car). So, my buddy and I go down to his farm south of Atlanta and get his dad's truck and trailer. Remember that part about no forward gears? Well, it ended up that we had to back the car on the trailer. Unfortunately, the tongue weight was a little less than what it needed to be as that car was VERY front heavy. Still, we thought we could make a go of it and be just fine. We had backed the car as far towards the front of the trailer as we could.

So, all loaded up, we head out, wind our way to the interstate (10th/14th St exit I think it was), and get on I-75 pretty much in downtown Atlanta around 11pm (wanted to stay out of heavy traffic and we only had an hour to go to get the car there). We go about a mile just past the Howell Mill exit (just a couple miles from 10th/14th St) and encounter the first downhill. The trailer starts to sway back and forth. It finally gets too much and my buddy loses control. We end up doing a 180 going from the far right lane to the far left lane and then back in a big powerslide. Ultimately, we end up in the shoulder of the interstate facing the wrong way with the car and trailer right behind us. Everything was even off the interstate and on the shoulder. I don't know how (blind luck) but my buddy somehow kept us out of the median wall, no one hit us, and we somehow didn't plow in to the shoulder wall. Furthemore, we were right at the base of the exit ramp. We slung a board or 2 out and in to the road. But, the car stayed completely rock solid where it was (we chained it up REAL good). We ended up driving up the exit ramp the wrong way and went about 3-4 miles back home at a SLOW pace. I cleaned my drawers up when I got back home! LOL

I called my mom up the next day and told her that if she wanted the car, she'd have to come and get it. Ultimately, I had a junkyard come get rid of it - especially after I finally told her about our adventure in moving the car.

He and I still talk about it when we see each other. And, of course, 20 years later, we laugh about it. In fact, about an hour after it happened, he looked at me and said you know that someday we'll laugh about this. I started laughing right then and that broke the tension. Still, its a wonder we didn't get killed. Of course, that's what being 20-21 years old is all about I suppose!

I certainly learned a valuable lesson about tongue weight!!