Whats the Most Unsafe Hot Rod you ever owned.??

If you ever owned a car that ran a 12 second 1/4 mile but needed 3 miles to shut it down, I want to hear about it... Mine would be a toss up between a 32 Ford Truck,that when you went over bumps on the road the solenoids would activate and pop the doors open,it had no seat belts of course.. and a 63 Galaxie convertible,that had hardly had any brake pedal and when it did grab it would pull so hard to the right you prayed for the force to be with you...they both were scary cars.. but hey at least they were fast.

 

Well, it's not a hot rod, but my daily driver's a '67 VW bus...front end collision and my knees are my first line of defense. That qualifies as dangerous, right?

-Taylor

 

I have been in some Race Cars that had some things that were wrong with them, and I knew it.
But I don't Feel the need to brag about that now...

 

The most unsafe car I would ever own would be one I bought from you!!!
Sorry man, someone was gonna say it!!

 

it's not a hot rod but after i had my Ranger bagged and bodydropped(mini truck term for channel) it was pretty unsafe. there were a lot of things that weren't fully welded together, the front end was supported enough, so in a collision my legs would be f'd up, etc, etc.

after i had sold it, the new owner told me the left track bar on the rear 2-link came off due to shitty welding. Marcus, the doors opening must've been pretty scary. i bet you had to change the underwear a few times right?

 

this car has a plywood firewall and floor...it's been that way for over 30 years

 

I've never sold you a car you weasel!! hahaha!! Yes the doors popping open were freaky it scared my girlfriend pretty good a few times back then,I finally removed the old solenoids and remounted a new set and put locks on the doors to prevent it from happening again.But I kinda missed the spotaneous adrenalin rush I got.Oh!! the American Graffiti Coupe,was funny, it had a wood floor too!! I didnt get to drive it but riding in the passenger seat was cool!!I always imagined some kids in the 50's drinking booze, the cops showing up and ditching it by lifting the floor up!!

 

it wasn't a hot rod,

actually it wasn't even the car

it was the driver.

blew a .22

cop may have saved lives that night by pullin me over.

that was twenty plus years ago,

I never let that happen again.

Paul

 

Damn YOU ARE lucky you got pulled over and thats all that happened....

 

Dad had a 72 Ford Ranger that was squirrely. Every time you hit the brakes, it would dart to a different side. Sometimes a slight touch would lock them up, other times they barely worked. We bled them like crazy, they were just crap and he couldn't afford to rebuild them. You didn't really steer it either... you just kinda suggested where you wanted to go.

This mustang I have was a bit of a handful at first. The brakes needed to be bled, it wouldn't idle for shit, and all for tires were dry rotted so it shook pretty good. I've slowly got it straightened out, so it's pretty tame now.

 

A shit brown warn out 2wd 1966 Travelall with the rear doors wired shut (w/ bailing wire), steering so loose that you could hardly keep it between the lines sober w/o the brody knob, brakes that were very mushy, and a healthy 392 4 bbl V8 - 4 speed w/ a trac-loc rear end. She went like stink & was a blast laying rubber on the back roads and turning donuts in the fields. I still can hear the beer cans & bottles banging around in the back as we threw some dust! Paid $200 for it, nicknamed it the "Sin Bin", drove it all summer around the farm and into town, and then sold it for $300 to my little brother. He just sat there one Saturday morning and watched it burn to the ground when a fuel line broke and he was too hung over to find the fire extingusher or the hose that was right next to it. Our Dad was pretty pissed off about the mess it made. Life sure was good is the unsafe "pre tort law" old days!

 

The way I rode them it was a toss up...

My bycicles or my skateboards.

 

57 chevy truck
so hard to steer after you made a corner you had to struggle with the wheel even to straighten her out, drove it for a couple years making more power and living with the steering the way it was and a friend always hounded me to drive so one day I let him, coming out of a corner the dick couldn't strighten it out and went into the other lane and got nailed by a cement truck....

nobody was hurt but my pride as the wrecker hauled it home,I could have actually driven it home if the cab hadn't been shoved forward enough to smash the distributor cap

got it rebuilt in a couple weeks though and had better steering from the truck I picked up for the rebuild

 

Reading this post brought back some thoughts of how I ever managed to grow up to be this old!I've probably told it before but here goes anyway:
I was 16 or 17 and my friend Eddie had a 40 Chevy convertible he had just purchased.It had no engine but once had a 57 Olds in it.Eddie got a 53 Olds w/Hydro and we installed it.
For some reason the distributor had been removed and when it was re-installed it had been put in wrong.Repeated attempts to start it with a battery were fruitless.
Another friend Pat had a 56 Olds and offered to try and push start it.In that car,you had to be rolling at a minimum of 25 mph before it would kick over.
Eddie lived kind of out in the sticks and to get to his house you had to drive around a couple of ponds and up a hill curving into his driveway.
The car had no front seat in it so a trusty wooden milk crate was layed in.The throttle consisted of a coat hanger straightened out and run through the firewall.
We got in the car and with Eddie on the milk crate and me in the back seat,Pat pushed us down the driveway and around the ponds onto the main road.After pushing for nearly a mile and getting nothing but some serious backfiring through the carb,we came to the conclusion that the distributor was installed incorrectly.As we didn't have any tools with us,and we wanted to get it fired before we got back to the house,we devised this ingenious plan:
As the car had no hood on it,I volunteered to sit on the front fender of the car(holding on to the wiper pivot)and attempt to turn the distributor to the proper position while Pat pushed the car up to the required speed.
Well Pat must have forgotten that you only needed to get up to 25 because he was doing almost 50 and I'm desperately juggling the distributor when the engine suddenly comes to life!
Eddie's got the coathanger pulled back(we neglected to install a return spring!)all the way trying to keep the engine lit,steer and maintain his position on a loose milk crate,and try to see around this lunatic who's sitting on his front fender hanging on for dear life!
He makes almost a bootlegger's turn into the first road around the pond and we're barreling down this narrow unpaved cowpath(for want of a better description)trying not to land the car in the water or stall it out.
We made it back to the driveway where the engine promptly died;along with me!
Pat is laughing hysterically raving about the look on my face when we turned the corner(I think he was about five feet behind the Chevy's rear bumper ready to start pushing again(while we're still moving)if the engine quit.
Later on I could laugh about it but right then I didn't find it too amusing!
Anyway that's my tale.I REALLY do wonder sometimes how I ever got past seventeen!

 

safe??? what are you chris titus now?????? hahhaahaha

shouldnt you be building some black primmered 4000lb. gassers??? LOL

 

No more 4000 pounders.. That dude Chris Titus is a local guy..Used to shop at Vic Hubbards where I worked ...

 

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Well, it's not a hot rod, but my daily driver's a '67 VW bus...front end collision and my knees are my first line of defense. That qualifies as dangerous, right?

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No, no, no, ya got it all wrong!

You're knees will be FIIIIINE...

Your FEET will just get crimped off...

 

Not a hot rod but way to much torque for the tires and brakes.

66 Starfire, 425 Olds, skinny bias-ply tires, worn tie rod ends and the brakes on the right side pulled bad. Carb linkage broke so I had a string through the vent window for 2 months.

 

My 34 mod dirt car the first part of last year by fare was the wrost thing I ever drove. When I built it I didnt go through the locker in the rearend and it was broke. Add the rearend a bad break gage and a bad caliper on the rearend and me never runing a trany like I have in it made it a nightmair to figer out what was wrong. I said the rear was broke the first time I drove it but when we checked it it was fine. To make a long story short if you had to lift going down the strait it would try to put you in the wall.If You made it to the corner good luck. What a hand full, I damn near cut the damn thing up. I would not even sale it it was so bad but I did get it fixed

 

This....

 

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As the car had no hood on it,I volunteered to sit on the front fender of the car(holding on to the wiper pivot)and attempt to turn the distributor to the proper position while Pat pushed the car up to the required speed.

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LOL! I knew some guys who were all the time messing with real junkers. I was walking home from high school once, and they came barreling up the holler (guess what part of the country this was) in this beat ass chevy truck with no bed, no hood, no seats, and no glass. One of them was sitting on the front fenderwell, with a funnel and a milk jug full of gas, pouring it down the fuel line to the carb... I just shoke my head and kept walking.

Unfortunately, the lead dummy died a few years later when he rolled a car over a hill. We were all stunned, but not really surprised.

 

It was not mine , but a friend wanted to drive my 57 chevy delivery back from a show. So I let him and I drove his 29 Essex back. It was a winding canion road with a rock wall on one side and a cliff on the other. After I got home another friend told me Willie had told him he only had two bolts holding the body down. When I asked Willie about it He said that it was true. I still shudder about it. Useless

 

Here's mine. I built the car from a basket case. I added the power brakes with a flea market booster. When I got it running it would throw you through the windshield with squeeling tires when you lightly applied the brakes. Very scary. I couldn't figure it out until I bought a rebuilt booster and then I noticed that there was no plunger rod in the old booster.

 

I had a 68 Beetle years ago that I reversed rotation on the transaxle and set a Corvair engine in. I ran air shocks and traction bars on the rear with 50's on the ground. Skinnys up front and a trunk full of tools and concrete blocks. That stupid thing would lift the front wheels at any speed in any gear. That's scary if you're on the interstate (loping along at 70 turning 1200 r's) decide to pass the car ahead and punch it. Next thing you see is sky as the car tries to piggy-back the car ahead. I had that car 2 years and drove it 600 miles. Too scary

 

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Next thing you see is sky as the car tries to piggy-back the car ahead. I had that car 2 years and drove it 600 miles. Too scary

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I have a dog like that

 

My 68 camaro was a wannabe wheelstander. Solid mounted rear axle and worn out 90/10 shocks on the front. Among other things. Had to ease it onto the road or the front tires would slide or lift and you'd go across the street instead of turning into your lane. When you got on the gas, you'd better not be turning or it would just go straight. Ever try to ease out a power brute clutch? It also had a habit of popping the driver's door open on right turns till I welded the subframe connectors into it.

 

Damn near died in this one back in '66. I bought a "tornado" after-market chrome steering arm to fit the left front spindle. Rather than spoil the chrome by welding in the tapered eye, I ran it as is. As I entered turn 3 at the local bullring, the eye popped out leaving me with no steering. I slid to a stop at the entry to the turn, sideways to traffic. Got T-boned by a guy who still had his foot in it. I was knocked cold and the car was demolished. I spent several days on crutches.

 

Back in high school (and a year or two thereafter), my best pal had a '29 A sedan with a corvette motor (two-fours). The entire thing was scabbed together, but we were, of course, indestructable.

There were no windows (or top panel), no seats, no-nothing actually - just the body, frame and motor. We sat on 5-gallon pails turned upside-down. The only thing the driver had to hold onto - to keep from being thrown to the back when you mashed the gas pedal - was the steering wheel. The passenger had it a bit easier, as you could grab the cowl or window post.

"Handling" and braking were sketchy, at best - but what the hell. We drove the piss out of it and had great fun doing it (as long as we didn't run into any cops!).

The same friend lived on a small farmstead outside of town and used to cruise the local drive-in with his old man's Ford tractor. It had some sort of automatic tranny and he'd wrap the thing up a bit, then jamb it into gear and pop a 4-ft wheelie. It's amazing he didn't ever go all the way over. That would have killed him for sure as there were no roll bars on tractors back then.

 

I bought a bad ass primered 63 chevy step side for cheap with an awesome motor. It had 4 wheel drums.

One day after I several months of running around I decided to adjust the brake pedal acutator rod to take some of the slack out of the pedal.

I loosened the nut and twisted it out a few turns till there was not slop and tightened the nut beck up.

Went for a ride - went about one mile brakes felt good - got off at the first exit

hit the brakes - heard clank dink - pedal just swinging now - no brakes at all

the nut I had loosened and retightened was actually a southern engineered coupling holding the hacksaw cut 2 piece rod together!!! - I still can't believe some jack ass thought that was a good idea

I went through a stop sign on a two lane road between cars traveling either direction and got her stopped downshifting and fred Flinstoning out the door.

talking about scared and pissed and lucky - If I had not gotten off at that exit while still going slow - who knows what could have happened

that is my worst story - so now the first thing I do is inspect that fucking rod and the brakes with any new old car

 

Last year driving from Dallas to Sherman for the KKOA show. Car seemed to have some unstable steering. I blamed on the tires and decided to haul ass up and back. Put the car on the lift and found that the lower a-arm bushing had started to back out and the nut was backing off. Finger loose.