" How Many Milk Crate Seat Storys Are Out There.."

Been there done that!!

 

No that wasn't him.It was a few years ago.Your dad probably remembers him.

 

Okay.. Heck of a coincedence, tho'!

 

Sure is.

 

brother bought a 79 ford truck one weekend for a $150, so that week we took to a buddys garage and did very little body work and prepped it for paint. had it already to spray and it had to be driven about 8 miles to another guy to spray it. now truck was all taped up but had a 12"x12" cut out on the windsheild to see and the drivers side was down just enough so see out of, had no grill bumper or lights on the front or rear. so of course i was elected to drive into town while my brother followed me and of course we passed a local police officer out on patrol, and he quickly does a u turn so we pulled over and the cop comes up all big and shit and is giving us the 3rd drgree about the windsheild visabliity and everything else. of course me being a cocky young lad i told him we were running it into town right around the corner were i worked at a GM dealership at the time and that i had plenty of windsheild view as that you needed an 8"x 5" viewing area according to the inspection licence on which i had just aquired and the cop didnt know what to say. so he gave us an escort into town. oh by the way i was sitting on a 5 gallon bucket

 

We stuck a Chrysler hemi in a 40 Ford coupe. God only knows how we ever got it to fit, but we did. The owner couldn't wait 'til he got a steering wheel to test drive it, so he used vice grips in place of the steering wheel. The cops stopped him for no head lights or license plate and speeding. They didn't know how to write up no steering wheel, so they let him go on that infraction.

 

A friend of mine, Frog took out the '51/331 Chrysler Hemi out of his 40 Ford 2dr Sedan. After the oil pump went out and damaged the crank, he bought a rebuild from an engine shop right up the street. Why he chose to go where he did, I'll never know. He changed his mind & picked up his engine, minus the crank & took everything home again. I later met up with him @ pomona Swap Meet, & long story short- He GAVE me the Hemi. It had indusutrial heads & a mix of salvaged WELL USED old parts. Amazing it even ran at all. I later sold it at Pomona. I didn't wanna cover it up under the hood of my 55 Chevy. I hope it roams free somewhere right now.. amongst the other Elephant herds!

 

Greetings from Oklahoma! This question brought back memories from the 1960's. A buddy of mine had a 56 ford that we were rebuilding. Our shop consisted of the largest tree he had in his backyard. After installing a police intersepter engine complete with screw on dumps, we just had to drive it. With no seats in the front we found on wooden pop bottle crate and one can. Oh, for some reason the car did not have a steering wheel on it. My buddy, intelligent person that he is intalled a pair of vice grips on the spline of the steering collum. We did make it around the block with the car, loud exhaust and all. Stupid, yes, would I do it today? Yesss.

 

I was always fascinated with these Metro vans when I was a kid...still am! I remember General Diaper Service bringing fresh diapers in a METRO for my brother in the early '50s in New Orleans. I like your wheels/tires. DD

 

Yep, been there many times. I traded for a Fairlane once that needed a muffler repair and a tear in the driver's bucket seat fixed. I've always been one to multi task, so I had the seat out to have it repaired and jacked the car up to install a new muffler. (This was before 'muffler shops', you had to buy mufflers, tailpipes, etc and install them yourself).

After I got the muffler installed I decided to take it for a test drive to see if I had any exhaust leaks. I lived out in the country, not much traffic. I pulled out of the driveway and drove up to a crossroads, 1/4 mile away. Turned around and floored it; went about 100 yards and the right rear wheel flew off. When it flew off, the hood also flew up and I couldn't see. I hit the brakes hard and when I did the milk crate slipped out from under me and I was sitting on the floorboard! Here I was, one rear wheel off, the hood standing straight up, and me sitting on the floor board not able to see a damn thing! All I could do was hold on and mash the brake. I was a good thing the road was straight and there was no traffic. When the car finally stopped, I was on the shoulder of the opposite side of the road.

I was thinking that the rear drum and axle would be ruined, but the rear springs had been built up on the car and the spring perch held the drum off the pavement. You could see where the bolts had dug into the pavement! Of course the hinges bucked the hood and the only other damage was some stained drawers! Could have been a lot worse. I learned a lot that day!

 

Not just a few have used old lawn chairs too.

 

In the early 70s we put a 310 inch Ford 6 in a 51 Anglia for H/Gas. We couldnt wait to finish it to try it out so we put 2 milk crates in for seats. I steered, shifted and braked and my buddy worked the throttle with a cat leash. He reved it up, I turned it loose, causing him to fall over backwards still holding the cat leash wide open, shifted to 2nd, third, then 4th screaming for him to let go but he couldnt hear me. Finally I snatched it out of his hand and we slid into a major intersection with no one there. We then decided that wasnt the best idea we ever had and took it home. Crap was that stupid or what ?

 

Lovin this thread, ya'll!

 

I customized (?) mine with a plywood back, foam padding and wire tie to hold everything together. It worked nuff said.

 

damn, dude, that thing is niiiice...

 

Kind of "A" tradition around my family. every A that we have done a body off restoration gets a drive around the block like that. piece of plywood to mount the lawn mower gas tank and coil. plywood to hold the box can't wait to drive my newest project! Will take a video of that!

 

I was telling my Dad some of the stories on this thread.. He said, "Why would you do that?" I jus' laughed!

 

55 Chevy, 327 and muncie 4 speed. We can't wait to test drive the new engine....No interior, I mean no carpets, seats, back seat, bracing behind rear seat was cut out too, like nothing.

No shocks either but hell with it.

Get out on the road, I'm on the passenger milk crate, buddy is on the crate driving. Well Ok man dump the clutch and let's see what it will do.

Bad idea! I had no chance to stay on the crate, instead I went ass over bollucks right into the trunk. Well a car with no shocks is like trying to drive a buckin bronco! My buddy was hanging on to the steering wheel for dear life as the the car pitched back and forth. Every time the car dived forward he would hit the gas again and we take off. I can't get a grip on anything - I keep getting rolled around the car - back in the trunk - rolled forward - and dumped back in the trunk. I just couldn't stop laughing all the while as I tried to get a damn grip on something. Finally my buddy gets knocked off the crate and we nearly crash as we come to a halt! We laughed for days after that bonehead move.

Don't ever use a pair of visegrips as a steering wheel. We were pushing a car while I was steering with the visegrips when we pushed the front wheel into the curb when I cut it too short into the driveway. That flocking pair of visegrips spun out of my hand and whipped around at high speed hitting my hand right below my thumb. Hurt like hell and took months to recover. That was really stupid - now that I think about it I probably broke my damn hand.

 

It wasn't a milk crate but this ones a pretty good story. the last motor home i scrapped out didn't run and didn't have a seat. so we pulled this bastard about 10 miles with my buddies 3/4 ton dodge. what did I sit on while moving this thing? a folding chair. pulling a dead rv is hard enough with a regular seat. let alone an rv with the brake pedal almost to the floor and no power steering. and we had to pull it through some switch backs lol

 

oh yeah. then there was the time with the same rv after we got it stripped to just the metal. Had to flip it around so we could get to the motor with a cherry picker this time i had no seat and stood on the motor and frame holding onto the steering wheel. we pulled it out to the road which had a little bit of a slope as we are moving it there becomes some slack in the tow strap my buddy doesn't know this and then the motor home chasis rolls some more and jerks on the strap. so i get basically thrown on the steering wheel then on the rebound I'm trying to hold on the wheel so i don't fall off after this the shaft rips out of the sliding joint by the steering box and i come tumbling to the ground with a steering column in my hand. and meanwhile my buddy is watching this from the cab of his truck laughing his ass off..

 

It's time to get my truck seat reupholstered, and after reading all these, my "spare" will be solid wood, mounted securely to the seat frame instead of that folding chair I was eyeing. Checked in looking for entertainment and instead took a very frightening trip down memory lane.

I'm going to have nightmares all over again thinking about the little basket case roller TR4 i bought then was towed home in by the psycho owner with a short chain, a pair of vise grips for a steering wheel, old underinflated tires, and yes a milk crate to sit on. Would have been just fine down the old lanes in North Sac, but without any warning he hopped on I 80 and punched it up to fast lane speed to shorten the drive. I was scared as hell and all i could see was bumper and tailgate in front of me as I wove from side to side deathgripping that 8" craftsman plier. at one point a motorcycle cop pulled up beside me back there, looked over and I swear he shook his head - just rode off. I had to use the e brake lever in panic every time the taillights on the truck lit. We actually made it ALL the way to my place without me hitting the back of the truck! Then, just to slacken the cable he backed up and dinged his hitch ball and mount into the front of the TR denting the perfect sheetmetal.

Afterward, he explained to me how divorce had made him crazy. I just said thanks, because after that ride, I was truly glad to be alive.

Be safe out there, and don't drive sitting on milk crates, steering with pliers.

 

drove my dads 56 chevy from the paint shop to his on concrete block. 400\400
got on it a lttle dump my ass back in floor.

 

Two stories:

Story one disclaimer: I didn't ever see this car, but I heard about it for years!
There was a guy near here who made extra bucks delivering phone books in rural areas. To minimize cost/maximize profit, he took an old VW bug and took out ALL of the interior. He would pack the interior full of phone books, just leaving enough room to sit on one stack of them. He even stuffed them in the front (under the 'hood'). Then he'd bungee a little folding camp chair to the back bumper. He'd deliver part of the load and put the camp chair inside as soon as he had room.

Story two (no question here, I was a participant ).
Back in the early '70s, there was a group of us who loved going to the drags. None of us had much money, so saving on transportation was important. One of the guys had an old Corvair commercial van (driver's seat only). When it was time to go to the races, everyone brought their own aluminum lawn chair and pitched in a quarter or fifty cents for gas. The longest trip we ever took was to Columbus (125 miles) for the SpringNationals. Never had any problems or got pulled over...

 

I heard of a fella who was doing a shakedown with the doors hung but no latches. Zero interior but steering wheel, maybe oil pressure and tach. He held the doors shut by tying a hammock across the upper door frames on each side and proceeded to ride around that way using his body weight to keep the doors pulled shut.

 

A 4 spd El Camino. No front seats but 1 milk crate for the driver and buddy sitting on the floor. Gas on and fell off the crate, gas off I went foreward to WAY to much gas on to gas off to laughing so hard I couldnt see no more. Had that going for me once.

 

I don't know if my dad has posted this story yet or not, but when I was a kid he bought a complete 36 chevy p/u straight out of a field. He had it running the next day. He sat two milk crates inside and asked if I wanted to go for a ride. I was about 6 years old, and will remember that day until I am 106.

 

Years ago in a 62 C10 I used a bucket while the seat was getting upholstered took a left turn to fast and fell off the bucket, I ended up in a yard before I got it under control.

 

pulled all the interior from my 54 ford so i had a crate for a driver seat. and a s i went to pull the car out of my garage at my apartment complex, i had to slam on the brakes for some reason and ended up on my back . while me and my car rolled right through another garage door. it was awesome. the best part was i had no damage to the car since it wasn t painted. but the door on the other hand...

 

Glad to see this thread ain't dead.. All Smiles!

 

Bought an o/t 84 mustang for the drive-train. drove it outta the wrtecking yard. forgot to make sure the wrecked front-end was secure. hit the top of 1st--hit second--couldn't see all of a sudden. stuck my head out of the window. my buddies thought it was a big laugh!