This is when I need an Alias!

[R W Burgess]

Well, we've had "Can you afford the hobby?", and "The Fastest car in your School!", so, now it's time for some "Stupid Stuff!"

Things you may have done in the early days!

How about blowing the master cylinder out of one's '55 Chevy, but too tight for a wrecker, you drove it 6 miles on back roads to your friend's shop with nothing but an emergency brake for stopping power!???

Someone else today spoke of a friend using fold up chairs in his ride. How about (in the rodding days), you drive your '35 (almost all) Ford 12 miles from the body shop back home sitting on a 5 gallon paint bucket!:eek:

Was that the original "bucket seat" in this fellow's life?

Well, we've already heard about the 29 Essex still!

One more...How about giving your daughter a snow driving lesson? Coming out of a shopping center intersection, I explained to her that snow is very slippery, while grapping her's car's emergency brake and making a 180 right under the traffic light!!! We both almost died laughing while the stopped traffic looked at us like we were crazy???? :eek:

Well, what can I say?:cool:

Your Turn!

Wayne

[Shop Rat]

When I was moving from a rental house to my first house (with a mortgage ) I had to move something in the neighborhood of 40-50 cinder block type patio blocks that were the base of my dog's kennel.

There wasn't any snow on the road so I loaded a bunch of them in the floorboards of my 1980 VW Bug and put some plywood in the roof rack and loaded a few layers of them there also. Tied them down well. Off I went. No problems.....until I came around a curve and there was ice on the bridge and the car started to spin. :eek: Luckily I didn't hit anything and no one was near me. It was like "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". From then on I only loaded them in the car.

[Guest]

When I was moving from a rental house to my first house (with a mortgage ) I had to move something in the neighborhood of 40-50 cinder block type patio blocks that were the base of my dog's kennel.

There wasn't any snow on the road so I loaded a bunch of them in the floorboards of my 1980 VW Bug and put some plywood in the roof rack and loaded a few layers of them there also. Tied them down well. Off I went. No problems.....until I came around a curve and there was ice on the bridge and the car started to spin. :eek: Luckily I didn't hit anything and no one was near me. It was like "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". From then on I only loaded them in the car.

_________________________________________________________________

Hey Susan, Was that a gray market VW?? The last sedans we got here in U.S.A. was 1977 and the last convertible was 1979.

[Guest Kingoftheroad]

I had to drive my truck w/a 3 in the tree, home without a clutch cause the linkage broke underneath..

I've had to drive a couple of my cars home with a taped radiator hose & open radiators (loose cap) cause they sprung leaks...

[oldcarfudd]

My first wife, back about 50 years ago, was from Alice Springs, Australia. She had learned to drive in the empty outback on the left, in a big Chevy (biggest car in town by far) with an automatic. My car in NJ was a VW bug with, of course, 4 on the floor, and she became quite competent at driving it on the right in our traffic. In 1963 we bought a house in the suburbs. Shortly after our first snowfall (a biggie), when the roads had barely been plowed, I took her for a snow driving lesson. VWs were great on snow, and she did well, but she was intimidated by the huge snowbanks at the side of the road, the like of which she'd never seen. I changed seats with her and deliberately drove into a snowbank. "This is how you get out of a snowbank" said I, confidence oozing from every pore. And sure enough, I managed to drive out of the snowbank, 37 l-o-n-g minutes later. "This is how you get out of a snowbank" quickly became family lore. To this day, if I do something particularly stupid in front of one of my kids, I'll get a funny look followed by "This is how you get out of a snowbank".

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ

Edited November 25, 2011 by oldcarfudd (see edit history)

[Bill Harmatuk]

I used to know a man I worked with that drove his car over 40 miles, home, in REVERSE, after getting off 3 - 11 shift. The automatic transmission wouldn't go in any other gear except reverse.

I have owned 5, (five), Volkswagens in my earlier years. I drove a 63 to high school. It was standard procedure to use the emergency brake for fun and when the master cylinder was low or a wheel cylinder was leaking.

Then there was a friend that was messing around with another man's woman.

Leaving a night club, one night, his 428 Torino started rattling and knocking.

He shut it down, called a wrecker and the next day we proceeded to tear the 428 down. Some one had dumped valve grinding compound in the oil through the valve cover. The motor basically ate itself from the inside out.

Bill H

[DAVE A]

Just after graduating from high school a bunch of us went down to Rehoboth, Del. for a week or so of fun and frolic. We got a set of wide tires and I took my 65 Corvair on the beach for some sand fun. Somewhere down near Indian River, I snapped the clutch cable. I nursed it through 13 traffic lights back to my parents place in Dewey Beach. There I used a wire clamp and a piece of the garage door cable to make a repair that I drove for over a year on.

Another time my best friend and I used his 63 Impala SS 327 3 speed on the floor to tow a 52 chevy truck with flat tires out of his barn. The clutch smoke was tremendous and the clutch had to be replaced immediately after that. an expensive lesson.

Another time I forgot to tighten the lug nuts on dads boat trailer and lost the wheel in the middle of Ocean City Md. It rolled accross the highway and into the outdoor area of an open air resturant. No one was injured but it was sure embarrasing collecting the wheel. Come to think of it, I've lost a lot of wheels. Must have a problem or two with loose lugs.

[Bleach]

I had an issue with a worker from the neighboring business regularly leaving his car in our unloading zone of our shop. After a few times of politely asking not to leave his car there didn't work, I tied up a chunk of concrete under his car with some wire. He came back the next day cussing and yelling about how something was banging around under his car and having to pay a mechanic $20 to put it up on a lift only to discover my prank.

Everyone who was present at both locations were ROTFLMAO!

Needless to say he never left his car in the loading zone again.

[R W Burgess]

.........Must have a problem or two with loose lugs.

Ummm, a few loose nuts you say, Dave?

Join the club!

Wayne

[R W Burgess]

Back in let's say 1985 or so, we had a truck (still auto related?) blow out its input shaft on the front driver below Raleigh, NC. My mechanic and I drove another truck down to swap rides with him.

Well, with the trailer loaded and no way for the dead truck to power out from under the trailer, we had to run the landing gear down and crank up hard on it to get weight off the broken truck. Problem was, he was on the shoulder of really soft dirt. Gosh, we forgot to bring a board????:eek::confused:

Looking around I saw a filling station at the end of the highway ramp. Looking around the building I found some small pieces of wood, but that wasn't enough for the softer right side. Ummm, looking up we noticed the road sign signifying the road ahead. Well, someone borrowed it off the pole to help stabilize our timbers just long enough to pull the dead truck out with the good one, then drive the good one back under the trailer. BTW, we did return the boards to the station. The sign? Umm, probably still beside the pole, darn defective sign bolts!??

The next day, a friend came down with parts and we swapped the input shaft on the side of the road and bobtailed all the way home, my mechanic and me!

Lots of truck stories, but I don't trust you guys to keep me out of jail!!!

Wayne

[critterpainter]

Hmm. Drove my MGGT from Gilroy to Los Altos with a stuck throttle (67mph in 4th) when the speed limit was 55 and 101 still had lots of stop lights on it. Also was driving a bobtail hauling gravel at work (15 mile round trip on back roads with a steep hill) and came to work one day my boss said the clutch was out on the truck....would not dis-engage. I finished the hauling job (3 more days of driving) before I pulled the clutch.

I'm sure I have stories of stupid things I have done but none come to mind..

[DAVE A]

Wayne;

Most people who know me know I have a few screws loose. One time in downtown Cincinnatti rush hour traffic, the fender came off my open trailer and wrapped around so that it formed a skid under the wheel. I dragged it off the road at 55 mph with sparks flying. Backed it up. pulled the fender out from under the wheel, threw it in the truck bed and drove away. A shop in Wauseon, Ohio welded it back on and it is still that way today!! I lost so many wheels and blew so many tires on that trailer, my wife thought it was cursed and vowed never to ride with me while towing it. I bought a new enclosed trailer and although I still use to old one, have had no problems since!!

[Guest Bob Call]

When in high school back in the 50's I resuced a 34 Ford jalopy racer, sans engine, from a junk yard to build a hot rod. Towed it home with homemade tow bar from its racing days. Got a Ford flat head V8 from another junkyard, rebuilt it and put it in the hot rod. It was in December or January on a Sunday back when there were blue laws. My buddies and I just had to get it on the street and try it out, but, there was a problem. The brake master cylinder was empty (had 39 - 40 hydralics) and no place open to buy brake fluid. Simpleton teenage physics says fluid cannot be compressed that is why hydralic brakes work. What fluid is available and cheap? Water. We filled the brakes with water and off we went. Result, about 30 minutes out the water froze and we had no brakes. Had to carefully creep back home using downshifting and engine compression to slow down.

[Paul Dobbin]

Having never done anything stupid myself, I'm enjoying this tread.

Even though there are probably many who would doubt that, and

offer some suspect tales, they don't read the Forum, I hope.

Also Wayne, how was England? I hope the $1,000 I sent was enough**.

** Refer to the first line of my post.

[MCHinson]

Paul,

That is funny. I too am reading this thread but not admitting anything. The first thing that you learn as a cop is "Admit nothing and demand proof!"

[Bob40]

1975,16 year old driving a 1965 Tempest hardtop with air shocks in the rear and tires that that stuck out 2" wider than the wheel well openings.Was out in the middle of BFEgypt camping with a few friends and after a night of consuming illegally attained beverages woke up to find the main air line had developed a leak and the rear quarters were resting on the tires.We were 30 miles from anything resembling a place to get parts.

What to do....what to do.

Got out the jack and raised right rear bumper so rear end was hanging down as far as possible.Grabbed the axe used for firewood and cut a log down to wedge between frame and rear end housing.Repeat process on left rear.

Drive home really slowly. Talk about a lumber wagon ride!

[John_Maine]

Sort of automotive related - well, engine related - as a teen, I used to cut my grandfather's lawn with his mower. One day while cutting the grass, it didn't sound right so I decided to check the oil but I didn't shut the mower off - this was back in the 60's when you could leave a mower idling. I got the oil cap unscrewed only to have hot oil spray all over me (I had bent down so I could see if there was any oil) and my favorite shirt. Lesson learned.

[490touring]

I may set a record for the most stupid incidents... let's see,age 12 piloted my 12 hp Wisconsin powered golf cart around the neighborhood, someone called sheriff's office, was pursued back to my house where I promptly ran inside. The officer was harder on my parents than me. Age 15 rode a Kawasaki dirtbike around the neighborhood with no tag, someone called the highway patrol and before I knew it 6 Florida Smokeys in black and yellow 440 powered '72 Furys were chasing me down a rutted path next to a RR track. Went into a pasture with tall grass, laid the bike down and waited 3 hours before sneaking back home.Age 16, driving my dad's brand spanking new '69 LTD up and down the driveway with permission, turned to wave at a buddy driving by on a Honda Trail 70, intersected with a chain link fence next to the drive and put an inch deep, 2 foot scar down the side. Dad wasn't amused. Age 17, hit a curve too fast in the rain in a Corvair powered VW chassis dune buggy with slick drag tires on back, hydroplaned and did a 180 in the median, fortunately didn't make it to the opposite lane. Age 17 drag raced against a VW Bug uphill on a two lane road in a '62 Corvair Monza, beat him soundly and miraculously did not meet a semi at the top as I passed blindly on the left near the top of the hill . Age 18 bought a Honda 350 streetbike for college, speeded through an industrial area at about 55, a concrete mixer pulled in front of me doing 5mph, no possibility of stopping, veered left and managed to get around him without dropping the bike, but lost all my new expensive textbooks off the rear rack. Sold the bike and never bought another motorcycle. Age 23 , had a vending machine route and was transporting a large candy machine in the back of my 78 Colt wagon, too large for tailgate to close, did not tie it in any way, drove out from under it in the middle of an intersection, had to reload the 350 pound machine by myself. Several years later did exactly the same thing with a new fridge, fortunately it was still packed in styrofoam and cardboard and was unscathed. Now I tie stuff down. These are just the highlights, there's plenty more stupidity in my past.

Edited November 26, 2011 by 490touring (see edit history)

[franklinman]

Well, since I've certainly done, or been an active conspirator in, any number of auto-related "stupid" stunts over the years (far too many to recount, and some that I will, to this day, deny all knowledge of), I'll go with the first major one that I can remember. I acquired my first real antique, a rough 1920 Dodge Brothers Touring Car shortly after turning 14. After two years of work, and with the help of a local friendly collector, fellow DB owner, and one of the best body/paint men I've ever known, I finally had a painted/restored running chassis. Wanting to show my pride and joy to my mentor, who BTW lived over 15 miles away, and having no trailer at the time, I decided one warm summer morning that a 30+ mile roundtrip from Camp Hill, PA to Grantham, all via back roads which only served to increase the length of the trip, would be just the way to spend the afternoon. We stuck the touring body back on the chassis with 3 or 4 bolts, (no doors, fenders, hood, windshield, or floorboards), bolted the outer tank from the still unrestored vacume tank to the firewall and installed a rubber line to the carb, tied the radiator down to the frame so the hoses wern't doing all the work, and ran a length of old clothes line from the throttle lever on the carb through hole in the dash and tied it off to a convienent hole on the front seat base. An old 12V battery in the box with a couple of jumper wires supplied juice to the coil and a set of jumper cables for running the starter completed the electrical system. Since I still didn't have a good gas tank, 2 5-Gal. jerry cans carried the fuel supply for the trip, and a quick pull off to the side of the road every couple of miles to re-fill the "vacume tank" kept thinks running right along! The car (I use the term with great reservation) made the trip with nary a hiccup, although when I pulled into the drive at Jim's body shop and he walked out to see what the fuss was (I think I forgot to mention that I hadn't gotten around to installing the muffler or tail pipe yet), I thought that I just might have to perform some sort of resusitation on him. After recovering from the shock, and reading me the riot act for trying such a SD)@#&%$OEDO stunt, we did a quick tour around to block to show him how good she ran. After promising to call to confirm I made it back home, we headed back out and made the trip home in uneventful style. To this day I can't believe I made the entire trip without encountering even one cop! I really can't belive that I even tried it at all. Oh yeah, the most unbelieveable part I left out was that the "we" in this story, my riding mechanic and partner in this whole fiasco, was my DAD! He' still goin strong at 88 years young, but I'm sure at least some of his gray hairs are due to his son's car games.

[Guest Rob McDonald]

Hard to pin down one stupid thing... driving a '57 Roadmaster with no brakes? A '57 Windsor with no brakes? A '73 MGB with no brakes? Common thread is that I seem to have hydraulic issues.

[TexRiv_63]

Wayne, while I have no shortage of "stupid" car stories, I prefer to look at the ones involving nursing a car home instead of calling AAA as tributes to my frugality and spirit of adventure! Here's one - I drove one of my early 55 Fords into Chicago on the Kennedy expressway. I had been ignoring the flickering oil light for so long I did'nt notice when it stopped flickering and stayed on. I also didn't hear the knocking sound because the glasspacks were so loud, but I sure noticed it when I hit the offramp and wound up on the street. I pulled into a gas station and shut it off to check the oil - empty! I bought 5 quarts of cheap oil and started pouring it in, it took 4 before the dipstick showed full. I started it up and it made a hell of a racket, the oil also was leaking out the rear main real bad. I went back in and bought a case of recycled oil and proceeded to drive it home about 35 miles at about 25 mph on back roads, pulling off every few miles and adding a couple more quarts of oil. I pulled it right in the garage and had the pleasure the next day of installing a new crank, bearings, oil pump, and oil pump driveshaft - but I made it home!

[Guest Old48Truck]

How about during college years, jamming six guys into a '64 MG1100 and heading out to the bars - with only downshifting and the emergency brake to stop us?

A year later I had a '64 Ford convertible with no reverse. One snowy night I got too frisky with the accelerator and me, the car, and three friends were doing a series of 180's down the road. We hit no one, and did a neat pirouette around a telephone pole and wound up in a driveway. Back end in, of course. Started it up and away we went, after prying the shotgun rider out from under the dash, and one of the back seat guys off the lap of the other.

Ah, fun times.

[Guest Oldengineer]

I'll fess up too. I needed some sand for the kids sandbox at home. A contractor had a big pile at a jobsite no far from home, and, told me to take what I wanted. I had a Chevy Chevette hatchback to haul it in. I put a very large cardboard box that filled the whole back of the car with the back seat folded down, and filled it was all the sand I could get in. I headed for home, and, not far from my house , a lady pulled right out in front of me and I had to lock the brakes to keep from hitting her. The cardboard box let go, and, I had about half the sand in the front seat and floor with me. Took me a long time to get the sand out of her, and, to get the floor shifter mechanism cleaned out.

Regards:

Oldengineer

[Shop Rat]

I'll fess up too. I needed some sand for the kids sandbox at home. A contractor had a big pile at a jobsite no far from home, and, told me to take what I wanted. I had a Chevy Chevette hatchback to haul it in. I put a very large cardboard box that filled the whole back of the car with the back seat folded down, and filled it was all the sand I could get in. I headed for home, and, not far from my house , a lady pulled right out in front of me and I had to lock the brakes to keep from hitting her. The cardboard box let go, and, I had about half the sand in the front seat and floor with me. Took me a long time to get the sand out of her, and, to get the floor shifter mechanism cleaned out.

Regards:

Oldengineer

Hopefully they didn't up the taxes on that car as "beach front property".

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

I won't admit in 1959 to being among a party of several that successfully brought both East and West bound traffic on U.S. 80 to a standstill one night by strictly observing an ordinance on the books of the City of Marshall, Texas.

Being the good law abiding teens we were upon discovering their ordinance requiring that anyone entering the City of Marshall after Sundown with a horseless carriage was required to have an individual walking ten paces ahead of said horseless carriage waving a lantern and ringing a bell we chose to follow the letter of the law to its fullest extent. Two teams (Eastbound and Westbound) had a copy of the ordinance in hand so when the Cops arrived we wouldn't be going to jail. Needless to say they weren't happy about our efforts to follow the law. After a few minutes of their begging us, and at least 200 cars honking their horns in unison, we jumped into our "horseless carriages" and went home. The next week the City Council rescinded the ordinance at the request of the Chief of Police, the Sheriffs Office, and the Texas Department of Public safety.

[DavidMc]

OK its time to "fess up" to one of the dumbest things I have done. Touring in our 1920's sedan in hot weather here in NSW Australia we experienced vapor lock on a long climb. Nothing unusual about that and I was prepared. The solution is a wet rag around the carb and the vacuum tank to get going and to add kerosene to the fuel to avoid a re-occurance. I had bought a 5 litre bottle of kerosene in anticipation. However the blue kerosene I normally use was out of stock so I got the clear stuff. No problem it should do the same. Only problem was I was carrying an identical 5 litre plastic bottle of water and sure enough in the rush to get going again I poured the 5 litres of water into the fuel tank. It sure stopped the vapor lock but some hours later after draining large amonts of water and fuel we got going again. Still haunts me!

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Best one so far, Jim. Wonder how many old ordinences are still on the books. Thanks for the laugh!

Ben

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

Best one so far, Jim. Wonder how many old ordinences are still on the books. Thanks for the laugh!

Ben

Ben I would suspect there may be more old and ridiculous city ordinances on the books around the country than anyone imagines. As I best recall we got wind of the one we made use of via an article on that very issue that appeared in a Dallas newspaper. Of course the whole thing was sweeter because we were neighboring towns with huge football rivalry and the rivalry extended to just coming up with anything to aggravate the rivalry to new heights. A year or two after I graduated some enterprising individuals managed to remove a probably 2 ton statue from in front of their high school and placed it in front of our high school.

There was a long history of outlandish pranks at the hands of our high school student body, not the least of which was one class managing to put a '49 Studebaker on the roof of the school when they graduated. The school was a three story building. Teaching staff wasn't a whole lot more reserved than the student body. As an example the physics teacher was once compelled to ride a Cushman motor scooter around the third floor halls to demonstrate the internal combustion engine, and the principal who had been quite a gymnast in college was known to go up or down the stairs on his hands just to get everyone's attention. The motion picture "Animal House" could have been made at our high school, which curiously had a history of producing Doctors, Lawyers, scientist, and other professionals.

Edited November 27, 2011 by Jim_Edwards (see edit history)

[rocketraider]

Back during Virginia International Raceway's first go-round...

Friend had this ratty Peugeot 404, faded out maroon and broke high school kids that we were, nearly slick tires all around.

We went to a motorcycle race in 1973 and somehow managed to get out into the infield with the Poojoe. We had also managed to get some beer, enough to get us all slightly juiced.

There was a Portajohn out in the infield and Mike says watch this (so you know nothing good could come of it).

He bumped the Poojoe into the Portajohn hard enough to turn it over which, being a bunch of drunk high school boys, we thought was hilarious.

Until the Portajohn's door opened and out came an ogre of a hippie type guy, covered in Portajohn contents and mad as hell.

He saw us laughing, hollered something unprintable and headed for us. The grass was wet, the slick tires on the Poojoe would only spin, and that big mad goon was intent on doing us harm. The guys in the back seat jumped out and started pushing the Poojoe trying to get away. It finally got traction, they jumped on the trunk and off we went, less than 20 feet from him grabbing the bumper and probably taking a big chunk out of our skinny behinds. They hung on by the doors and here we went whooping and hollering thru the infield till we got back over the crossover bridge and headed out of the racetrack.

Needless to say we didn't go back to VIR in that Poojoe any more.

[John_Maine]

I'll fess up too. I needed some sand for the kids sandbox at home. A contractor had a big pile at a jobsite no far from home, and, told me to take what I wanted. I had a Chevy Chevette hatchback to haul it in. I put a very large cardboard box that filled the whole back of the car with the back seat folded down, and filled it was all the sand I could get in. I headed for home, and, not far from my house , a lady pulled right out in front of me and I had to lock the brakes to keep from hitting her. The cardboard box let go, and, I had about half the sand in the front seat and floor with me. Took me a long time to get the sand out of her, and, to get the floor shifter mechanism cleaned out.

Regards:

Oldengineer

A couple of years ago, I went to the town sand pile to get sand mixed with salt for our driveway for the winter. I put some 5 gallon plastic buckets in the back of my wife's Mariner and headed out. Never dawned on me to secure them, guess I figured they would be heavy enough with the sand in them that they'd stay upright. Wrong! I took one corner too fast and they fell over, spilling sand all over the back of the car all the way to the back of the front seats. What a mess! I vowed then and there that I'd get a truck, but I still haven't. At least, it didn't get in a shifter!

[Guest Oldengineer]

A couple of years ago, I went to the town sand pile to get sand mixed with salt for our driveway for the winter. I put some 5 gallon plastic buckets in the back of my wife's Mariner and headed out. Never dawned on me to secure them, guess I figured they would be heavy enough with the sand in them that they'd stay upright. Wrong! I took one corner too fast and they fell over, spilling sand all over the back of the car all the way to the back of the front seats. What a mess! I vowed then and there that I'd get a truck, but I still haven't. At least, it didn't get in a shifter!

I feel better now - I'm not the only one that pulled this stunt. At least you didn't have a sand dune in the front seat with you like I did.

Regards:

Oldengineer

[padgett]

Think the only manual transmissionned car I haven't had to drive clutchless at one time or another was a Fiero. Got very good at getting a Moss gearbox in a Jag into first (non-syncho) at almost any speed.

When the 70's interlock came along, my first action was always to disconnect the starter interlock so I could do a start in first (could always spot a GM musclecar with a four speed by the backup llights that were always on - I put a switch above the radio for the backups. Handy for discouraging tailgaters.)

One time we were towing an A/SR to an SCCA race when the tongue on the trailer broke at 70. Things then got interesting but the chains held. Decision was made to remove the car from the trailer, lash the trailer to the van, and get to the next exit for repairs.

Could not leave the keyless A/SR on the roadside so fired it up and drove to the next exit. Got some very strange looks from motorists that were suddenly vibrated by the big Chevvy in the back.

[John_Maine]

I feel better now - I'm not the only one that pulled this stunt. At least you didn't have a sand dune in the front seat with you like I did.

Regards:

Oldengineer

Nope, I had a sand dune in the back seat - as I had the seats down and the sand went behind and underneath. Plus, the sand was wet and it had salt in it. A real bear to clean up. I'm glad it didn't get in front!

[Bleach]

15 years ago I drove my '63 F-150 over 50 miles from the storage location to my home. It had been sitting for about 15 years before that trip but I got it ready for the trip by taking care of various issues that needed attention from sitting so long. The trip was completely uneventful until I was about 15 miles from home. That was when the radiator blew a seam. Luckily I had a large container of water just in case something like this was to happen. I kept adding water every few miles. I was a mile from home when I ran completely out of water. I continued on without any water and the truck barely ran by the time I got home. It was so hot and pinged so bad it sounded like a diesel. It wouldn't even shut off that I had to dump the clutch to kill it. I really thought I cooked the engine but I let it cool down and added water and tried starting it. It started up and ran fine like nothing ever happened.

I really got lucky I guess.

[R W Burgess]

............I was a mile from home when I ran completely out of water. I continued on without any water and the truck barely ran by the time I got home. It was so hot and pinged so bad it sounded like a diesel. ..........

Note to Bleach, add stopleak or a can of pepper to your toolbox for the next barn find!!

[Bleach]

I sold the truck the following week. I don't think any leak repair short of a new radiator would have fixed that one. The buyer did just that.

[Guest windjamer]

An army buddy was the motor pool sgt. He bought a new AMC rambler was a pos from the word go. Spent more time at the dealers than in his drive. Dealer jerked him awrond till the warentee ran out and then told him to take it some place else. Bill wrote letters and called AMC but could not get any help. As a last resort we took it to the motor pool and painted everything but the glass Army OD:eek: Had anouther friend paint big lemons on it and took it to the post sign shop. Had one of the guys make a 4x8 sign that said I think AMC builds lemons. Ask me why. Drove it to the dealers and parked out front. Filled the meater with change and wated, long story short Dealer replaced the car.