Funnyest thing happened today!

That's got to be like the '74 Dodge pickup, a 3/4 ton 4x4 plow truck, I bought with a friend back in high school. First, he wants to sell us this Dodge Charger too.. like a '75.. that he'd customized back in the day, I guess to take to shows and win trophies with. He's trying to start the thing and something shorts out and the whole wiring harness starts smoking. He also admits the big wing on the deck lid is a piece of pressure treated wood covered in bondo (4 or 5 gallons worth by the looks of it). That probably should have been a bad sign, I was stupid then but I knew enough to know that's shitty custom work.

We went to drive the truck back and this guy lives at a camp on a lake, down a dirt road.. so I get to the end of the road and hit the brake pedal to find I now have no brakes. My buddy is sitting there waiting to turn on the main road in my parents car, so I go to hit the horn... yeah, no horn either. So I swung to the right and hit a telephone pole at like 25 mph. Busted a factory weld on the plow. If I'd had more than 3 seconds to think about it I suppose I would have thought to drop the plow blade to stop me, but I'd never even been around a plow truck before. I was thinking more about how dead I'd be if I wrecked my folks car while driving this uninsured piece of shit, though. Fortunately I didn't kill myself and while I did clip the car, all I did was knock a piece of rubber trim off the bumper.

The guy came up and was nice enough to take the blame for it and told us to get out of there, and we ended up flat-towing it home a few days later. I think he felt bad because he's thinking what could have happened if those brakes let go someplace out on the road with it. There was some metal box thing in front of the pole I smashed all to hell. Never did hear how it worked out.


And we did make a small profit on the truck after putting a new floor in it and having the plow welded back up.

 

Funny stuff. I called this cat last spring about a '50 Ford, he was an older guy in his 60's (old enough to know better, let's put it that way). Over the phone he said: She's slammed, shaved, head and taillight are frenched, has a newer interior, and runs like a top.
After about two minutes there, I was ready to leave. Now this guy allegedly owned a used car lot and got this on trade, but needed to sell it quick 'cuz his mail order bride didn't like the Wisconsin weather and they had to move.
Yeah, the lights were frenched, but had slag hanging off of them, and holes all around. It was missing half of the glass, handles WERE shaved but NOT filled, the interior WAS newer, but the front saets cam from an 80's minivan and the rear was from what looked like a Ford tempo and was kicked repeatedly to make it "fit". This car lot owner didn't even know that it was a "51, OR what engine was in it (even as he was staring at it under the hood). It was fun blowing gas money on a 2 hour trip...

 

That is real Funny I needed this it 's been a bad day thanks LOL

 

Why didnt you help him take the axles out? hahaha
your aquiring needed knowlege and great stories.
We all have stories like these and its good to hear new ones.
Ya gotta laugh when a test drive turns into a "health walk".
Allways better when its not because you forgot to tighten lugs and your looking for em while dragging a floorjack 2 blocks wearing car workin rag clothes.
But, I dont know anything about THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

First LOL!
Pop the axle out 8 or 9....or GM...not a side of the road task.
Reminds me of the time I took a mustang for a test drive.
I shifted into third and the rearend locked up.
I limped it back to the owners house...(stepdad)
I told him the situation.
Right our of his mouth..."It has never done that before ...I power shift it all the time."
He was quickly educated that not all T-5's are equal. Even pulled the tranny to shut him up..

 

Unfortunately, I don't know anything remotely like that either. Pisses you right off, don't it?

Good stories guys.

My best was getting my Jeep running in high school for the first time. I took it out on M52 to go get some gas from the tiny town of Jasper Michigan. Got about 11 miles into the 12 mile trip and determined my Jeep got 10 miles to the gallon and you can guess how much I'd put in there! I figured it was good for 15...

Anyway, I'm a skinny 16 year old health walking with a gallon jug of gas to get my Jeep back to town when this dude in some type of turd brown AMC car (Hornet?) stops and offers me a ride. I got in and after about 2 seconds of riding decide that I'd just gotten into a car with a 300 pound pedophile. I damn near jumped OUT as soon as we got close to my Jeep. I think he only stopped because I had the door open at 50 mph and there was a cop headed towards us. My buddies were impressed that I survived that trip.

Note to self, stay away from those types of guys!!!

 

Very funny,Man! I bet he was pissed, No sale and somebody young who knew a LOT more than he did!Great Man, just great!
'64 Chevy trucks are nice lookin' though!

Nick.

 

I don't know but I can have both axels out of my 9" inside of 10 mins. max.

I've done it enough.

 

Car breaking on a test drive?? That's my fucking DREAM. The price drops so fast you can hear a whooshing noise.

 

Hey my pop's old ford truck had axles that would just slide out going down the road... don't think he wanted to slide out but one side did!! We had a load of wood, looked in the side mirror and the axle was nearly 3' out of the housing!! barley got it to the side of the road before it came out!

 

Similar thing happened to a friend's Impala. Driving down mainstreet a C-clip (or whatever GM used back then) broke and the axle was hanging 3 feet out still going down the street.

I suppose if ya left him there, and got your car, drove back, and offered him a ride for the price of the truck, you could've got a good deal.

 

now thats funny

 

And the $000 start coming off the For sale sign But you did right Bail Out

 

The moral of the story: Wear good shoes, Every ride in a used car is a potential walk home.

 

I have bought / traded many used cars over the years. Emotional decisions they are. I've learned that emotions can work for you or against you.

Catch a guy pissed off at his ride, emotions work for you. thats a time to low ball him!

 

Hey,Guitar Guy I'll bet the owner wanted a bunch for that "fine restoration". That's the way it usually works when they're holdin' JUNK!

 

yea, if it's a c20 they will come out without taking the tires off. one of the advantages of a 3/4 ton.

 

I once went to look at a rust bucket camaro some old guy had - 70's camaro with a built up small block in it that I was looking at as a parts car (it had a 4 speed I wanted).

Well the old guy starts it up, and then wings the thing up to a valve float a few times, telling me how much power it has.

On the third time the engine drops a valve or something equally as bad and comes apart in a spectactular fashion. Rods hanging out of the block, the balancer sitting at a 30 degree angle and looking through the carb, I can see pieces in the bottom of the intake.

He just gets out, looks at me and says "never done that before".

 

I'm surprised he didn't give the one about "one just like it" went for over a 100,000 at Barrett-Jackson. There's alot of clueless out there.

 

Exactly, I bought a 0/T 1998 nissan altima last week for $20, with a supposed bad transmission. a new CV axle and $61 dollars later and I have a new daily driver!

 

All the chevys i have about 100 of them made fron 47 on up you have to take a c clip out before the axles can be removed . there are two exceptions3/4 tons and 63 thru 70 gmc,s

 

Thanks for posting this, it's hilarious.

For some reason it reminded me of a time I was working on my drum brakes and my grandfather was watching me. He taught me how to work on cars and was always telling me about how when he was young, they didn't have money to pay mechanics, so he fixed everything himself and I should do the same. Anyway I was yanking on this brake spring trying to get my brakes apart and my channel locks slipped and it popped back into place. He told me I better watch those brake springs because if it were to pop off, it would knock my pecker into my back pocket! I still laugh my ass off when I think about that.

 

So did the truck get cheeper after that happened?