What's worst thing you've destroyed in your hot rodding history?

Had the seat out of my 54 Ford pu for reupholstery in the early 70s, we put 2 of those aluminum and yellow and green webbed chairs in it so we could still cruise, grabbed 2nd gear and gassed it around a corner and both chairs collasped in the floor, lost it and hit a telephone pole and totaled my truck out, couple days later we had a new seat to sit on in the garage but no truck. Spike

 

When we were kids on the farm my brother and cousin used a Massey Harris tractor and log chain to dismember a perfectly good 49 Packard convertable and a 33 Chevy 2 door sedan.

 

Three Marriages, and $1000,000,000, and about 59 cars

 

In '79 I had a 74 torino, Starsky and hutch only blue. One night after excessive liquid refreshment, I decided I wanted a convertible. Out came the jig saw, skill saw, and a hammer and axe. The next morning I woke, hoping in had been a dream... no such luck.

I had a convertible alright, one that you had to climb over the doors to get into, cause the frame sagged. Oh well stripped it and everything went into a 56 Fairlane.

 

Chopped the front clip off a twin spinner Ford with an axe then rolled the car on its side into a ditch to get the sidevalve out for my rod project. Did the same thing to a single spinner ute a few years later.

Blew a piston in my 1953 Anniversary model Ford ute, then kept driving it for weeks until the rod finally beat its way through the bore and seized the engine, so I sold it for scrap.

Blew the gearbox in my grandfather's 41 Willys sedan (my first car) so I sold it for $20.

Cut up an Austin A90 Atlantic convertible with an axe after someone ran up the back of it and totalled it.

All this happened back in the 60's of course...

Cheers, Glen.

 

Back in high school, I destroyed a pile of original '55 chevy 3-speeds, but in retrospect, that wasn't hard to do!

 

dude i learned how to drive on a massey harris!
i think i was wrecking a 55 oval window beetle at the time!

 

Years before Hemi Mopar stuff went nuts I had a '70 Cuda....

..... it's still too hard to talk about.





JK, JH

 

I destroyed a German Shephard by hitting it at about 100mph in my '54 belair. My car sits about 2 inches high, and that dog went UNDER the car somehow. It looked like a giant smear on the road.

On the flipside, I'm sure my car was the worst thing that dog ever destroyed too. It unlatched my hood, and the hood flew up and smashed in my roof and windshield, not to mention killing my grill and fenders.

I was pulling my front clip off about a week later and found about a 3 inch piece of dog ear on my radiator. ugghhhh.....

big mac

 

LOL!

 

My Dad and brother and I would frequently pay farmers $20 to $25 to attach our chains to roll over 55 to 64 Chevys with their tractors. Wrecked 2 doors, wagons, 4 door Bel Air hardtops, ex 409 SS's ,etc, just to pull drivetrain parts off. I shot the crap out of an A-400 with a shotgun and a .22. I walked away from a running 40's Indian because of the outrageous price of $3500. Not to mention the 1st gen 427 Camaro. 63 split window corvette? 35 3 window coupe- no good because it had a torched firewall and 55 265 for $1500? I will not confess to more egregious sins unless you have a collar, a blue rubber glove and a nice smile.

 

In the spring 87' my friend bought a 55 Chevy 210, had a 283 and a 4-speed. Sometime in 88 (I was not with him) he went to the local park and met a few people to have a few beers, he was still in high school at the time. Anyway, the park rangers were making their rounds and pulled up on these guys. Everyone stayed put in their cars except for my buddy in his 55. He thought he would have no problem getting away from them. He gave a good chase....as in, he went pretty far considering he was diving a car that had no cornering abilities. But when he saw cops behind him, and cops coming toward him, he tried to get down a side street. He lost control and spun the car around, floored it and hit a tree dead center, spinning it around, and wasting the b-pillar on a tree. BUSTED...He lost his license for quite sometime, along with many other charges. My first question to him was, his car is not a dime a dozen, if he had gotten away that night, he would have been caught eventually...not to many 55 daily drivers in 88. If anyone is from the east side of Cincy, they might know this car....from the guy that eventually bought the remains.

And me...maybe too new for this site, but I gave away a 69 Oldsmobile F-85 (base model Cutlass 2-door, with a post) in 1990, it had a blown engine, but the body was in good shape.

 

In 1956 We Bought A 1932 Ford Victoria (for $85 )which Had Been Converted To Hydraulic Brakes. Removed The Brakes And Junked The Car. Wish I Had That Vicky Now.

 

Even here in NZ some pretty crazy stuff happened....
My Ex's dad use to tell me about him and his mates buying 30's ford sedans for 10 pound or less in the 60's and basically rally driving them round the hawkes bay till they died and pushing them off the road and walking away.... also a great pic in "looking Back" book on early hot rodding of some gutys removing a 32 from its chassis and the chassis was pushed down into the gulley behine the house never to be seen again.
I was talking to an old time rodder I know who raced all sorts of stuff back again in the 60's they bought a package deal of 34's to get one car so dirt tracked the balance along with a Willys coupe and all manner of other neat stuff, he also has a garage floor with some real intersting fill !!!
Me personally, nothing too bad, I did get rid of a cool set of ex sprint car locally built Hallibrand replicas a few years back that I wish I kept, specially after swapping a narrower rear end into the car they came on years later, they would have worked great.....

 

When I was a little kid I remember my dad striping a cherry 57 Chevy Convertable and pushing it off a cliff in Elfin Forest. He tried to sell it for months, but back then they were "faggot" cars.

Drew

 

I cut a nice 1961 Caddy 2 door hard top in half to keep the rearquarters and decklid. The car was in decent conditon and was a metalic pink.

 

In 1980 I bought a cherry 55 Chevy 210 Post with no engine/trans or seats for $100 as a parts car for my 2-door hardtop which needed quarters. Though I took nearly every savable part, it makes me sad to this day that I destroyed such a nice car.

 

Had a fairly reasonable 39 std Coupe which was also my only car and daily driver...,I had a 3/8x3/8 flattie with triples etc etc in it which I used to scare the living daylights out my passengers with. I blew the '36 straight cut tranny out the bottom one night ,doing traffic light light racing in Aucklands(NZ) main street. I towed it home then decided it really needed some more work So I picked up a 39 Std Tudor from a relative,cut the body off because the trunk floor was slightly rusty and rebuilt the chassis for my coupe.
The coupes chassis had all sorts of stuff welded to it because in part of it's earlier life it had been a dirt track stock car....I cut that chassis up.
After placing the coupe on it's new chassis,I decided I wanted a convertible ...and cut the roof off .

Sold off the engine
and gave the rest away...

 

My story is a twist in the tale. My grandmother used to give us kids a silver dollar on our birthday. This was when you could go to the bank and exchange a paper dollar for a silver dollar. When I was 16 (1961), I took all my silver dollars and used them to buy some flathead speed equipment from an old dirt tracker...heads, aluminum flywheel, cam and lifters, and a Spaulding ignition. I later sold my engine to a fellow who is still a good friend today. He has no recollection of what he did with the engine, although he still has the 1946 Coupe he stuck it in, and I dread to think what the silver dollars would be worth today.

 

Bought a 800$ 73 AMC Javelin that looked descent yet i HAD to grind all the rust off,coat the car with cheap ass rattle can primer and then strip it and leave it out in the elements becuase I had no garage.I ended up giving the hull to a buddy of mine and he cut it up with a sawsall

 

Gutted a real nice 57 Chev 2-dr in 1973 just for the body and used it for a stock car!

 

Junked a 1940 Ford sedan delivery for $35. Lost a 40 Mercury conv cause I couldn't pay the storage. Sold a 66 Vette for $700 to pay for the kids christmas and make two months house payments. Many years ago, but it stills hurts to think about.

 

65 Chevelle's 327, 300HP, 4 speed, racing an old car in Alburquerque NM, in 1965, blew it up, but it was still under warrantee. I was in the USAF, and had just enough to pay for plugs, oil, and the antifreeze they charge me.

 

I let my nice '61 biscayne 2 door get towed away from in front of my apartment in 1976 because it quit running. it even had chrome wheels on it. i never saw it again, and i didn't care. god i suck!

 

I remember my uncle getting a blith ordinance citation in the city of Covington Ky for having his lot of some rental property full of junk cars..Those junk cars(in 1974 mind you) were a stack of frames 10 high late 50's early 60's Corvette frames, and 2 stripped Coupe's(63-7 Vettes). So him and my dad(which are tried and true Vette-o-philes) cut up the frames and delivered them to the scrap yard, netting a whopping $17... And cut the other 2 in half to get them into his basement(where they still sit today)...They giggle with sickness everytime they tell the story..

 

In the mid 50s I helped my dad make a trailer out of a complete straight '41 Ford pick-up. We scrapped the rest except for the warmed up '48 Merc Flathead that we put in my brother's '39 coupe. My Granddad had bought that pick-up new! Then we used the trailer to haul other scrap metal,a '41 Dodge ,and a PERFECT '32 Plymouth Roadster. Times were tough and it was just junk. In the '60s I got pissed and threw a Harman&Collins flathead Mag in the empty field across the street from my garage. There are a lot of smaller temper tantrums out there too. Flathead head gaskets really sail! It's still an empty lot, I wonder what is still there. Next time I'm in Concord ,CA I'll look! Oh yea, there was the '40 woody and the '40 sedan delivery. Just shoot me!

 

My daughters inheirtance.

 

during the summer when i was a sophmore in high school no driver license yet.. my older brother called home and asked me to wash his 64 Plymouth Fury tudor .it was a big block 4bbl , duals , a nice car.. for his friday night date ...so i grabbed the keys out of his dresser fired it up peeled out the driveway and proceded out into the hay field next door doing broadies and spins in the greasy wet grass and light mud .. gonna wash it any way..so after that i drove it into the back yard through the heavily wooded access to the rear of thr house where the hose was ... one more blip of the gas on the last corner .hanging it sideways....O HELL throttle stuck wfo bing bang off a couple more large trees ,right, left then wham center punching the last large oak tree before it would have hit the back door of the house ooomph,stars ,tasted purple. cruuunchh.... hood folds , steam ,wfo engine screaming, fan in the radiator ..me breathless with a sore chest from smacking the wheel ...it finally dies on its own.. as i get out pass side cuz the drive door won't open.. my parents come around the corner of the house carrying groceries... needless to say a major set back in my life ... almost killing my family, my brother actually almost killing me, me almost killing me ..and setting up the rule of not getting my license until i was 21 or moved out.. did both the same day

still don't wash my cars much either

 

how about two ss396 chevelles one with the twin bubble hood and plastic fender panels -to the circle track gods! but the sacrifice won two track championships and two runnerups in four years.
a 1952 hudson hornet twin carb six with the optional alcohol/water injection add on to drag racing. gave twenty-five dollars for it to a transmission shop in 1967. it was a beautiful maroon two door. at least we didn't destroy it or discard the pieces we removed to lighten it. some lucky guy saw it setting at my dads while i was in the army and offered enough to get my '60 t-bird cleaned up and on the road when i came home. Lord, the good ole days!(when you didn't have house payments, college payments, taxes, and gas was 30 cents)
these don't count the 2- 55 chevy 2dr hdt's, 1- 57 2dr hdt, 1-63 falcon sprint fastback. circle tracks and drag racing and we young kids demolished a lot, but it was definitely a ball doing it!

 

took a donated ($1) car (59 ford) to high school for shop class so students could all take turns learning how to use a cutting torch, seemed like a good idea at the time.