My 1st brand new car I ever bought - 2006 Ford Ranger... last week some ***** ran a red and t-boned me
after Nam ai bought a 1968 Impala Custom Coupe first new car 2 yr later I matalflaked it with red and silver and then spiderwebed it to take out the mottling, was a beautiful machine wife #1 was hit in it and I had no insurance, got the guy to sign me off and his ins co paid out decent and I got the car back but it was bent bad fender rocker frame and rear quarter the car had very high miles but I hated to lose it
1979, Cruisin "downtown" Portage La Prairie Manitoba in my first vehicle - a 55 F-100 that I put togther from a beater my brother gave to me. Trying to impress some girls on the sidewalk, I mashed the pedal in reverse. The throttle stuck wide open and the faithful Boss 351 took me straight into the corner of a house at some ungodly rate of speed - literally split the box in half. Believe it or not, the insurance company WROTE OFF THE HOUSE due to foundation damage. The old guy that lived there took the money and moved into a nice senior's home. Happy ending? Not for me.
O/T, to be sure, but an '87 T-bird. Coming home from high school with it, I was 17, the car was 4 years old and still fairly low miles. It also was my dad's car. I was going too fast for the road and a guy in a van parked in the road, I don't know if he was trying to find a house number or what, but I hit the brakes and the wheels locked up and I slid across the road sideways p***enger door handle into a telephone pole. Bent the whole car a little bit. Pole was buried in the side of the car but I didn't break it. Tow guy got there before the cops did. My dad replaced it with an '88 and he ended up wrecking that one twice - once an old lady ran into him at an intersection, got it fixed, then he spun it himself coming up on stopped traffic on the interstate - again in the winter - and fixed it again, so I didn't feel too bad after that. I had a couple more minor things after that - a couple of times just dumb ******** - but was always able to drive home - and it's been 10 years since the last one, knock on wood.
This is the only car I ever wrecked. Its not a hot rod, but it was my cruiser. This is what happens when you have a car trailer loaded wrong. There was to much weight on the tail of the trailer. I got up to around 45mph and went into a violent "tail wagging the dog" episode. I couldn't get it back. We ended up in the ditch upside down with the trailer stuck out in the highway. Two other cars rearended each other trying to avoid me. I had Larry(HeneryJ429 on here), and his 6 year old son with me. Thank good they were not injured(seat belts on them). The crash wrecked my truck and Larrys trailer, but the piece of **** on the trailer going to the crusher didn't get a scratch. I didn't sleep good for days afterword. I haven't pulled a trailer since, probably never will either. I don't think I could have lived with myself if anyone had been injured/killed.
A fitting thread as tomorrow 6/26 marks the 1 year anniversary of my accident. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=275101 Before (taken less than a week before the accident): After:
Had a 55 buick super 2 door hardtop when i was 19 years old. lost her and my daily holden kingswood ( aussie GM) both were in my folks warehouse and went up in flames.
Over the course of a few years of dirt track racing I trashed 6 or 8 tri-five chevies. In the 60s they were cheap and readily available so we didn't try too hard to fix them if they got bent up too bad. I wish I had a couple of them now.
68 Camaro SS/RS L-89 automatic I bought the car in 1972 when I was 18 years old. 36 hours later after a bottle of Annie Green Springs wine.........
In December 1973 I was the third owner of an arrow straight '55 Chev Belair 2dr post with a 'Vette 327, Muncie 4 speed, 4:11 Posi, all original yellow / white two tone exterior and mint black and white original interior. Unfortunately back then the suspensions and tires weren't the best and I rolled it doing 100+. Thank gawd it was a post car since we landed on the drivers side top and having the stock steering wheel kept me from flying out of my seatbeltless car ! What a waste......
I wanted this truck for three years and finally bought one when I was 21 years old, I know, non-Hamb friendly but I loved it. White standard cab 5 speed 4x4 4cyl... perfect vehicle for everything was my thought... 4x4ing didn't love the truck as much as I did. To everyone, a word from experience, if you're ****ing around in a vehicle be it on the track on out in the dirt, BUILD A ROLL CAGE. She isn't as pretty as you see anymore. I don't even have the heart to take a pic of it right now, but I plan on saving her for an off-road only vehicle.
O/T but my mint '93 Mustang LX 5.0 5-speed coupe in 2001. Swerved to miss a guy in a box van who pulled out in front of me and nailed a parked FWD LeBaron and virtually destroyed the little Chrysler. It could have been fixed, but I didn't have the money. Looking back, what I paid for my '68 Galaxie would have done the trick.
My turqouise and white 55 Nomad, I was cruising through a flashing yellow and this big T-Bird was blasting through a flashing red..wrinkled up the drivers side from stem to stern..probably would have rebuilt it but I was 19 and Nomad quarters were as hard to find then as they are now...
Totaled a 1994 Nissan Pathfinder into a 1988 Honda coupe. This was in 2002, haven't lost a wink of sleep ...
not a car, but a showroom fresh 1990 CBR600F4RR special race edition. I had just spent the week safety wiring the entire bike, and installing the stage 3 pipe and jet kit and race slicks for the customer - he wanted the bike ready for Staurdays race at Summit Point, and with two days to raceday, my Manager gave me a dealer tag and told me to suit up and take it for laps to scrub the cosmoline off the tires and get the engine burned in. Everything was going sweet, until some old lady pulled out of the gas station, blocking my path...quick rap of the throttle, and dropped to my left and then right to dance around the car, and I thought I was home clear, until the rear wheel broke loose, and I was spinnin the tire while in a full slide - woulda saved that too, had there not been a pot hole for the rear wheel to drop into... Highsided the bike, I hit the ground and came to a stop just in time to watch the bike flipping end over end and landing just inches from my feet, and then the screeching tires - seems the lady never saw me till the bike was flipping end over end at windsheild height - she managed to stop just as the front bumper popped overtop my helmet(any further and the drivers front wheel woulda been ontop of my head!) They had to lift the car up to get me and my helmet out from under it. My manager and the owner had just stepped out the front doors as all this went down before their eyes...$30K bike with 8 miles on it, totaled, and me with a dislocated hip and some cracked ribs. Coworkers thought it was grandly hilarious to bring me parts of "my new bike" in lieu of flowers at the hospital...
My very first car got totalled, and you know how much you miss your first car. 66 Special Deluxe 2 dr. hdtp. Parked on the side of the road and went in to a party. Some idiot came along and rear ended her, and shoved the nose right into the rear of my my buddies Montego. Dam I was pissed. Folded up the front of his 80s Regal big time. Shortened my special about 6 inches front and rear. Took the $600 check from the insurance co., bought parts for my Chevy 2, then kept driving the Special another 6 months. Car was a sweetie my Dad bought brand new. It was like the giving tree. It brought me home wasted but safe. Took my dates out parking in the woods. Survived 4 wheeling in the sand. Everything a 16/17 year old could dish out and more. Even contributed it's blodd money to my other car. But the thing was tweaked, even the doors wouldn't shut. if i knew then how much i would miss it though, i might have tried to fix it.
Yep, get a little stank in a Galaxie and they can get a little loosey-goosey in the back, you wouldn't think so with a big car... Sounds like what I did, drivin' like an *** on a back road, came through a RH turn sideways, back drivers side wheel bashed into the curb on the other side of the road, caught traction, and spun us 180*. Busted up the quarter panel when I clipped a speed limit sign (OH, the irony!) and drove though a ragged *** chain link fence which was being reclaimed by mother nature. Note I said fence and not gate. Replaced the fender, fixed the smushed head primarys, still need a quarter. I'm hoping I can buff out the front bumper, it looks like I can, that was a really nice bumper. Pushed the back bumper closer into the body. It looks BETTER. I'm gonna do the same to the other side. Didn't deal with my insurance, I was worried if they'd total it (it just needs some sheet metal and some paint, but you never know with ins. companies). It very easily could have rolled, lookin back its amazing we didn't flip it. The god of dumb***es must have been smiling down on my friend and I that day. I'm gonna take pictures, that way when my kid starts drivin' I can show him those along with "don't drive like a dip****" speech.
A 1971 Mach 1, 351C-4V 4-speed, second day I had my driver's license, second time I was driving the car by myself. Kids think they are invincible...
'04 F 150 Extended cab; Silver Grey; less than 1500 miles on it. A gentleman from another land disregarded a red light. Last I heard my insurance was suing him because he didn't have enough insurance to pay for my truck or to repair his nice 3/4 ton GMC.
I know this is off topic but I had to share this when I saw the name "Larry Sharp" There was a guy in our neighbourhood named "Larry Sharp". When ever anyone got caught doing something by an adult or police we would use the name Larry Sharp. Nobody had ID then. Half the school used Larry's name. Poor Larry had angry parents and police coming to his door regularly. Sorry Larry!
An inattentive driver crossed the center line and hit me head on. I was going about 35 and he was going at least 40-45. My skid marks were about 3 feet long as I had virtually no time to react before impact. The accident happened almost exactly 1 year ago. 1 year and 1 hour ago as I type this. The aftermath - broken wrist, shattered knee, multiple lacerations. Ambulance ride, emergency surgery, a week in the hospital, months in a wheelchair, months of physical therapy, months on the couch, loss of job, and legal battles still ensuing . . . BUT I'm here to tell the tale and living life with a smile! Me in the ER: Some of my war wounds: Me at the HAMB meet & greet at Goodguy's Des Moines 2 days after getting out of the hospital (in the chair and on some good drugs!) for some good ol hot rod therapy:
The Jalopy Journal
