Yeah I did that

[Guest billybird]

I'm going to start this thread and see what it brings forth. O.K. here goes--- What is the dumbest or most outlandish thing you ever did with an old car? For example: My grandfather ran a wood yard in the 1950's and 60's and I saw some great old iron cut in half to make wood saws! I'm sure there are some good stories to tell within this thread.

[Bill Harmatuk]

Back in 1970ish, I bought a running 50 Ford 2 dr for my 51 Ford 2 dr.

When I finished pulling the motor and transmishion I took a 950 wheel loader from the veneer plant next door and took the 50 Ford body to a vacant lot next door and lifted the car as far up as I could get it and dropped it. Then proceeded to play monster truck. Huge wheel loader against automobile.

A real sickening story. About the same time, 1970ish, a friend of mine that lived down the street was given, from his older brother, a.. 1963 Galaxie 500XL CONVERTIBLE, 390, 4 SPEED, red with red and white interior, white convertible top, bucket seats.... the whole deal. Running car. Beautiful. But it smoked and it was getting ragged.

Well just for fun my buddy and another friend took the car to the woods to see how many trees they could hit and proceeded to destroy the car. They left it wedged between two big pine trees.

There was a junk yard in Fort Barnwell NC that had a 40 Ford coup in the back. My Dad said he took his hand and wiped the dust off of the hood and there was the prettiest blue paint under the dust and dirt. This was a running car. I was going to buy it instead of my Model A.

We went back about a week later to buy the car for 400.00 and the owner of the junkyard said he was sorry. Sorry what??

He said he walked by the car the other day and a bunch of wasps flew out from under the car and ate him up.... He went and got a can of gasoline and set the car on fire.

Just old cars.

Bill H

[TexRiv_63]

The dumbest thing I ever did with most of my old cars was to sell them a long time ago for small money.

[R Walling]

Back in the early 50's, you could get more money for scrap metal if it was cut up into 36" lengths. My friend had a 36 Ford convertable that he no longer wanted so we got out the hack saw...... Oh! I can't go on, the shame is too much.

[Guest Hinckley]

Lets see, where do we begin. I purchased a 1963 Cadillac Coupe deVille in 1976 that had been hit so hard on the drivers side the door almost touched the steering wheel. We made a convertible out of it.

In the late 60s my dad was selling copper and brace by the truck load. The nearest wrecking yard was several hundred miles away so dad would buy scrap such as radiators at ten cents on the dollar and then haul it into Phoenix.

As the word got out he was buying this stuff we began receiving calls from remote ranches. I do not know how many times we pulled the radiators from perfectly good AA trucks and had the owner tell us, "Give me another $20 and you can take the whole truck."

[Dandy Dave]

When I was a kid, I can remember smashing the windows out of a 1957 Desoto Wagon that was in our farm dump that was discarded by a hired man. I wanted to see how strong the glass really was. I was supprised to see that there was plastic between the two layers of glass at that age. It took a lot of rocks for a 7 year old to take them out as they were tough. A few years later my dad decided to fill in a small gravel bank we had on a hill side. I stood by and watched as a D-8H Caterpillar bulldozer flatend the old Desoto, and several other junk cars that were on the farm, and burried them. I bet that wagon was a rare car. Such is life. Dandy Dave!

[Guest billybird]

I had to smile as I read these posts. Brings back memories. Anyone else?

[Bill Harmatuk]

My Dad and I used to fossil hunt at an old limestone quarry in Eastern N.C. Next to the road going on/into the property was every pickup truck and various cars that once belonged to the mining operation. I was probably 13 years old, Maybe 1968.

The cars and trucks were backed into the woods, lining the road, side by side like a car lot. These cars were in great shape and like most cars and trucks back then,... when they quit, they would park it and get another. There were probably 15 of them wrapped up in briers, weeds and saplings next to the driveway. If I remember correctly they were anywhere from 1936 to 1948 Ford cars and Dodge trucks. All had the upright grills, lights on top of the fenders, etc. Company name on doors.

We were going to ask the owner about them and you know how that goes.

Next time we visited the quarry...... the owner had taken a bulldozer and rolled every one of them up into a big pile.

I still have the before and after memory with me today.

Bill Harmatuk

[Guest billybird]

When I was just a kid {circa 1960} I used to watch my grandpa unload slabs of wood. He had a 1950 Chev. 1 ton stake bed, dual rear wheels. He would back that truck up real fast, slam on the brakes and when the load shifted the front end would go up until the back of the bed hit the ground. He would then drive out from under the load and the front end would come slamming down and bounce two or three times before coming to rest. I understand now why all those trucks need to be restored!

[Guest Siegfried]

My first car was a 1956 four door Plymouth Savoy. Flat six with push button automatic. The big rage at high school in 1967 was pulling 'J's in the parking lot. Here's how you did it: Foot flat to the floor in neutral, then punch reverse, and while roaring backwards twist the wheel, and punch drive. The result was smoking rubber in a 'J' shape. If caught you got a three day suspension, and lost your drive to school privileges for a week. At one time 30 plus seniors were out on suspension together. We cruised by the school a couple times a day in a parade caravan honking horns to beat the band! Of course, on day three we were met by the township police chief and everyone he could muster, and out came the creating a public nuisance citations, and additional tickets for whatever they could find illegal, did not meet Pa. inspection code, on our and most of us got hammered some more. It seems that cheater slicks are definitely not allowed on the street. Bummer.

The saddest result for me was that I put a rod right through the side of the block one day while pulling a 'J', and that ended it for me.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

[Fleek]

In the early 60's I worked on a ranch in Texas that was owned by a movie producer from California. He used a silver 59 coupe de ville as his ranch car when he was in town. He would try to take it anywhere on the ranch. Sides were scratched and dented from runnung thru the bushes and we spent a lot of time pulling the Cad out of various creeks, sand, mud etc. We used a 49 ford 1/2 ton for the ranch work. It was a good truck. Still love the sound of that ole flat head v-8

[keiser31]

The only car I really did a bad thing to was a 1936 Dodge Brothers 4 door sedan parts car that I bought for $25.00. It was a totally complete car with loads of good parts on it. I needed it for the differential for my nice touring sedan with side mounts. I took it home, removed the rear gears and proceeded to take a chisel and hammer and cut the car up into 24" or so squares and hauled it off. The touring sedan was back on the road and I never regretted it until this post came up. It was 1970 and I was 17 years old.

[Guest windjamer]

Billy, I grew up or I should say spent a lot of my youth in a small PA. village that was really to small to even be called a village. Brandt PA. I had two older brouthers and a slew of cussins, all of us just a we bit wild. The rural roads in Pa. are really not as bad as some folks think,though it is common knowlage the engineers that made em just followed the trail a snake made. Ours had a short stright away with a large hump. If you got your car going fast enough when you hit that hump you could get all four wheels off the ground.Yup!!We did that. About 30 miles away was Binghamton NY. The local paper was the press and every Sunday they ran a small comic strip called Bromedan,it would show somethin that had made the recent news. One sunday the first panel showed a bunch of kids tipping over a country out house, the next panel was a cop car chaseing a car with 8 or 10 heads sticking out the windows and the last was a picture of a bunch of kids that placed a bunch of corn stocks accross the road as a road block. YUP we done that, makes me want to research the old press and see if I can find that strip.:D

[boblichty]

Dumbest thing I've done with old cars? I keep buying more. Just drug one home last week I have no clue what I am going to do with it.

[bill donnelly]

Dumbest thing I've done with old cars? I keep buying more. Just drug one home last week I have no clue what I am going to do with it.[/quote in 1958 or 1959 I bought a 39 desoto business coupe from the old lady down the street for $15.00,she was the original owner,it was a nice clean garage kept car.it was a fluid drive transmission.my buddy Jay and I would drive it up to about 50 mph push in the clutch put it in reverse ,then let the clutch out.the car would rattle,jerk and shake,with smoke billowing from under the car,it would slowly slow down to about 5 mph,and start backing up.we did that lots of times,the car was runnig and shifting fine,untill I ran into a wall and wrecked it.you wonder why back in the day why your car insurance was a lot of money.

[Dan Marx]

Staying at a car show in Michigan when it started to snow. OK, I won a trophy, but darn it was cold and wet!!!! I WASN'T ALONE!!!

[Marty Roth]

I keep spending our hard-earned money to "improve" our cars which already look pretty good and run well enough to go touring.

[keiser31]

The only car I really did a bad thing to was a 1936 Dodge Brothers 4 door sedan parts car that I bought for $25.00. It was a totally complete car with loads of good parts on it. I needed it for the differential for my nice touring sedan with side mounts. I took it home, removed the rear gears and proceeded to take a chisel and hammer and cut the car up into 24" or so squares and hauled it off. The touring sedan was back on the road and I never regretted it until this post came up. It was 1970 and I was 17 years old.

Well...I DID do some "Dukes of Hazzard" jumps out in Cranbrook north of Detroit on a little bridge a few times in my '68 Roadrunner...along with street racing it...does that count as abuse?