Do you keep a trophy of a screw up???

Yeah she's sitting on the couch next to me.....HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

 

I always keep those major screw-up parts...as a reminder, but also, as many others do, as a sacrifice to the Gods of speed. I must be getting a bit older & wiser as the frequency of these "failures" has been changing dramatically over the years to the point that they are really rare...thank God.

 

Cracked rear spoiler off 77 TransAm. All that was salvable

 

Everyone ****s up now and then it's learning your lesson that matters and double checking everything so it doesn't happen again. Even better if you can take to heart the mistakes of others to save yourself the direct h***le.


The first trophy hangs in the garage at a buddy's house where he grew up... In High School we swapped a lower mileage slant six into this clean but ugly 76 Dodge Aspen to get him back on the road. My brother gave it an oil change and cranked on a new filter while we were pulling the old one out. He made sure it was good and tight as I don't think he wanted to help that day and thought it would be funny. It took more time to chisel it back off in the cramped space it was mounted in 3,000 miles later than the swap took. He was made to share in the fun of removing it peice by peice down to the last section of thread. We drove a railroad spike through it as a mark of victory over such a foe. It was just a joke but it is still there and brings a good laugh.

Number two is the snout and front counter weight from a 427 sideoiler crank. The owner let a local shop work on it with a generally good name. The place can handle crate engine quality stock rebuilds and off the shelf upgrades but everything else is farmed out. It is one of those shops where the local street rodder guys go because so and so said he's the best and they don't know how little is done in house. Anyway the engine spun a few bearings at start up on the first try, then the crank was cut too far under size by mistake, so it was then welded on to bring all the journals to the same size. Try number two fired up and ran smooth but then the first counter weight snapped off clean, I guess the third time was the charm. The fun was there were no FE aftermarket forged cranks then so one had to be found. I currently use it to keep my grinding discs from curling up. It is also fun to show it to people after they run off at the mouth about how I should take my stuff there instead.

Number three I think I finally tossed out. When I stated building cars professionally I got a few welding "tips" as it were from a rather boosting person starting with the he had been doing this longer than you've been alive bull **** speach. He is the type that five minutes after hearing about anything he is the expert on whatever subject but this he did have experience in. I thought he was off his rocker as normal but listened to his reasoning anyway as he showed his refined technic welding a steering box support heim bracket in place on the brand new ch***is of a composite 33 Ford kit. After he quit I got to go over some of his fine work, resetting the wheel base as Ford intended, and centering the body on the frame after it was mounted crooked. The steering was a binding mess to start with that was mocked up without the headers and even worse once the body was correctly placed. So his welding lesson had to go. Between making it of iron plate instead of steel and his lay the weld on top of the metal as fast as possible style, one swing of hammer took it right off. Being the weld joint itself is where it seperated those of us working there had quite a laugh and kept it on display in his honor.

 

I have a broken in half rotor somewhere, Me and a friend did a brake job for another friend who had someone do it prior to us. When we took off the caliper part of the rotor fell off, the guy who did it before put one of the brake pads on backwards!!! How the **** do you do that???

 

"Focus!"

 

No, I just throw 'em in the s**** bin. Life is too short for me to carry around that much debris!

 

I have a pinion yoke from my '51 Ford rear end, broken into two pieces and hanging on the wall. Trying to do a water burnout like the big boys in a parade in Long Beach, Mississippi, 1600 miles from home. Had it on the road by noon the next day thanks to some some local help.

 

I have a Black Hawk Helicopter tail wheel lock pin (well half of one anyways) on my key chain. Reminds me to pull the lock pin before you ground taxi.

 

When in college I bought a $400 '77 LeSabre to get me back and forth, with a 301 Pontiac motor in it. Was a clean car and solid enough for it's age (just shy of 20 years old at the time).

Well, one cold morning it started hammering a rod and I tried to make it home anyways. I got about 7 miles. Eventually I got another cheap 301 from a kid, but it had a bad head gasket or something, kept overheating on me. Heck maybe it was just a thermostat - by then I didn't give a ****.

Anyhow I opened up the old motor to see what I did and it had thrown one rod, broke it in three pieces, the piston had dings in it from hitting the valves, and the next rod the bearings were hammered out and fused to the rod. So I saved the two rods and the piston, cleaned them up, and when we clearcoated a car in body I used some extra to paint them, and the pieces are floating around to this day as paperweights. My first blown motor, and my last Pontiac 301.

 

I have 2 trophy's from my Biggest screw up. I only get to see them when they decide they need something. As far as Hot Rods go I guess I've been real Lucky.
The Wizzard

 

I've got a Muncie 4 speed main shaft with twisted slip yoke splines, a reminder of why during of impromptu acceleration contests with a full size mid 60's Pontiac (4300# car) you go from a 10 m.p.h. os so rolling start......

 

Yeah, the scar that reminds me to wear gloves when using a cut-off wheel

 

Trophy I made for the car owner. His call on how long to go between freshenings. <!-- google_ad_section_end -->

 

I have the wheel bearing out of my '59 Chevy Apaches front axle... just 3/4 of the retainer and two or three of the balls... sometimes that "pulls to one side" thing doesn't mean you need an alignment.

I have a ball cap where the underside of the brim is coated in aluminum, I keep it to remind myself not to trust other people when they say "trust me". We were casting and at the end of the cast I lifted the gate to empty the trough into a steel tub that was SUPPOSED to be preheated and dry... it wasn't. I wasn't wearing my faceshield down and I'm damn lucky I can see.

I have a jar of plasma'ed copper and steel, and a piece of obsidian with small flecks of aggregate in it, both reminders that electricity is a scary *****, and she'll try to kill you if you give her even half a chance.

 

If I break something bad I keep it! I have a U shaped con-rod that I picked off my steering column in '82.

 

i got some pistons from my first blower motor, that grenaded on the dyno. JE botched them up and put the ring lands in the wrong place.. They refused to do anything about it (and lost my business for good) and wouldn't send back the pistons we sent in for them to see how it failed. Either way I kept the few pistons that we didn't send back.. some how I can't bring myself to throw out 700$ custom pistons even if they are paper weights now.

 

Iv got a piston with a valve sticking straight out the top sideways.

Remindes me to check valve clearance

 

Should have kept the ARC billet rod from the briggs I blew up. Would have been a good reminder to periodically retorque the rod bolts

 

yes i have two kids hahaha im joking

 

Yea, but I hide them.

 

I had a production run of about 50 parts that one of my guys welded the gussets on all of them backwards. I saved one and have had it on my welder for about 10 years now as a reminder of "if you want something done right, do it yourself".

 

Ikept old brolen stuff till I ran outa space for it all

 

I've got a small ziploc bag filled with gear teeth labeled "second gear". I used to run a very potent Firebird with a built 400 in it that was known to grenade a transmission every now and then. I finally upgraded to something better and that took care of the problem.

Thor

 

Here is a pushrod that reminds me to not be an idiot when adjusting valves.
I kept the worst one, and threw the other 15 away

 

Not car related but, I've got what's left of a brand new $600 facemill, on my toolbox at work. Just a chunk of molted steel and carbid that I wrote "did you check your tool lengths?" on. Then I glued a magnet to the bottom. Now it holds my blueprints down.

 

Jack stand failer or lack of!

 

I feel your pain. I had my knee and femur rebuilt when I was in 8th grade (now almost done with college) and to this day it's not right. Hurts when it's wet and/or cold, can't walk on it normal when it's wet cuz i'm afraid i'll slip and jar/jam/twist it and redo things all over again.

They cloned my cartilage and bone from my shin and sewed it in little pouches to the bone and where the cartilage from my knee was originally. They said 3 more months walking and have the break happen I wouldn't be walking.

I have the screws and scars as my "trophies".

 

+1 a**** other things.

 

Not car related but a trophy x-ray. They had to go to their maintenance shop and get a Vise Grip to pull it out.