Thread: car stories

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harve was-is a professional drunk .. no-one can tell when he`s drunk cause no-ones ever seen him sober .. i was cruising with him in about 1975 and we were jamming pretty good to some doobie bros.. he mumbled something to me and i did`nt hear what he said but i nodded my head as if i did, .in the next second an empty colt 45 quart beer bottle cam zipping by my head and crashed thru my door glass .. i rather excitedly asked what he was doing .. he said he was trying to hit that mail box that we just passed .. i said you mite could have told me to role down the window first .. on another occasion we were coming back from a nite of fun in fayetteville tenn. we were in a 1970 ltd with a 429 4 speed and 4 doors .. all black former FBI car or moonshine runner .. harve liked wierd cars .. he also had a 427 4 door 67 impala .. but anywho ,, we soon found ourselves in a race with some girls from ardmore al.. they in a 340 demon .. coming up wells hill either they or us made contact and they lost .. they left the road and demolished their car .. we went back and they were ok but the law was quickly on us before we could leave ..we all went to jail ..luckily harve knew the jailor so he and i just had to sit around in the lobby .. the poor girls were arrested for drunk driving and jailed .you didnt mess around in tenn back then with alabama plates ... he had no insurance but that was no big deal then .. just washed it under the bridge ..

lets meet eddie .. he was my best friend .. working at the junkyard was a blast thanks in part to him .. we had some of the meanest junkyard dogs on the planet and they mostly roamed free during the day and signs were everywhere warning customers not to go beyond the front counter .. one of eddies favorite things to do was to hide behind the counter when some customers came in .. knowing they were going to walk beyond the counter eddie would reach out and grab their legs real hard and growl real big like a dog .. scared the crap out of many a customer .. several did`nt see the humor in it and never came back but the owner did`nt care .. he was well on his way to becoming a millionaire .. eddie was skinny as a rail and his clothes would not stay up .. sort of like the way kids wear their pants at their knees today but it was`nt in fashion yet back then .. once we got a brand new car that had been totaled in transport to the dealor ..some shop promptly needed the starter off it for a repair .. eddie took it and laid it precariously near the edge of the counter .. as he went to grab his pants that were falling down he bumped the one of a kind starter and it fell to the floor breaking it beyond use .. the yard owner bought eddie some suspendors that day

HOSS429 I had a friend that owned a small junkyard . I did some part time weekend work for him . He would pay me with cars or parts . Man you should have seen how happy I was when a Chevy truck came in that yard . Most all of them had 350 4 bolt main engines with Q Jets and none EGR intakes . One time a 1967 Buick with a 430 came in . I pulled that engine and put it in a shed . It may still be in there . Another time a lady called and asked if we could come over right away and pick up her sons Camaro . She said he was doing poorly in school and the car had to go ! Well when he got to the house . There was the car in the garage . A Z-28 with a built long block on an engine stand . The lady said take every thing . Man I bet her son still mad at her

that`s what friends are for ..after a nite of running around and with the buzz winding down and being out of money eddie, al,danny,and myself was looking for something to do .. someone mentioned that opryland had a free rides and admission day the next day ,, that sounded like a good idea but we had no gas in the car we were in ... eddie was passed out and we knew he most always had lots of gas as he got it from the wrecked cars at the junkyard .. we snuck up to his house and essentually stold his car .. 69 390 torino ..but we put his passed out body in with us .. we knew he`d want to go ..off to nashville we went .. nun of us had ever been to the place so we rode around for most of the nite looking for it .. went half way to kentucky a couple times .. finally stoped at a store and asked for directions .. the manager pointed across the street .. rite there he said .. we parked in the parking lot and fell asleep .. a polite rapping on the window the next morning got us up .. it was the person who was opening up the place ..we seemed to have parked at the front gate .. we didn`t feel much like riding anything by then so we made a bee line for home .. quietly pushed eddies car back in his parents yard with him still passed out and snuck away .. eddie never figured out where all his gas went nor why his parents put him on restriction for a month ..

eddie wanted to go roundtrack racing for a while so we dug out a pretty good 69 chevelle body at the yard .. gutted it ,put in the roll cage and other required stuff .. i built a pretty stout 327 for it .. he tested it around the yard a few times and made a race or two at huntsville speedway .. the car ran good .. so when the track announced that it was going to have a celebrity race we gladly lent his car to one of the local sportscasters .. we even changed the # on the car to 31 for the channel that the guy was from .. we did not read the fine print on the release agreement and that was a big mistake .. the race turned into a demolition derby and eddies car was destroyed beyond repair ,, the news station paid him 35 bucks for the car .. that was the assessed value of it at the time .. we built another car but certainly never lent it to anyone agian .. eddie`s wife decided she did`nt want to live with eddie one day .. eddie decided he couldn`t live without her .. never do two of us from the old days get together these days without an eddie story or two popping up .. i wish i rememberd more .. i tell kids today to please slow down and absorb every minute of life .. they are so in a hurry to grow up ..no clue how precious memories will become as they get old

well ..three ladies of the same name anyway .. janice # 1 was a schoolmate in high school .. she was a carguy (girl) who was as tuff as any of us boys and was`nt affraid to get her hands greasy .. she did her own mechanic work and drove her 67 289 4 speed mustang as well as any of us ..i lost her after graduation but saw her 2 years ago at a show in fayetteville .. she was in an 07 stang and still has her 67 .. janice # 2 was al`s wife ( eddies sister ) .. she had a 70 383 4 speed cuda but she was`nt a hot rodder .. it was just a car ...she was tons of fun but al did`nt appreciate what he had .i havent seen her in 15 years .. janice # 3 was an amazing critter .. gorgeous child .. built like a playboy model yet as was # 1 janice she was tuff .. out cuss and out drink an out drive us all .. the very few times she did feel the need to go off the deep end ( get passed out drunk ) she would cruise with me knowing i wouldn`t take advantage of her .. and she was the only person who drove my mustang when i had plans to get waisted... in my stupid youth i told some bad things on her and lost her trust .. one of many things i regret

well use this till i can do better .. back when i was still in wedfull bliss my wife and i were returning from the grocery store and i spied a big turtle in the middle of a very buisy 4 lane street .. being the animal lover that i am i stopped and proceeded to rescue the beast .. it turned out to be a alligator snapper about the size of a wash pan and he did`nt seem to want my help .. i finally got him to clamp onto a stick and i hoisted him into a cardboard box that i took groceries out of .. much to the verbal protesting of my wife we headed away .. turtlezilla was tearing that box apart trying to get out and the dear wife was screaming at every move .. after a bit they both settled down a little and i could`nt refuse the chance to get a rise out of her .. as wifey was looking out the doorglass dreaming of something ( or someone as i later found out ) i reached over a gave her leg a big PINCH .. the beateng i got was still worth the look and death cutrling scream she let out .. she almost wrecked us making me stop and dump the beast .. not long after that she divorced me .. but not because of the turtle .. she had been seeing a good friend of mine for a bit behind my back .. had i known that at the time i would have tossed her out instead of the turtle ..well they are divorced now and he is a friend again .. though he wont forgive me for letting her get away the first time ..

back in 19 hunnert and 72 when i was in the tenth grade of school i had no car of my own so i had to bum rides off my older brothers if i went anywhere .. when i wanted to see my girlfriend i had to with till the brother who dated a girl near mine was going to see his girl then i`d get dropped off at my girls house .. once while coming back from a trip to town for sumpthin i had to have some relief rite then and now .. so brother found a secluded gravel back road and i stepped away from the car to do my buisness .. at the same time BIG FOOT had made national news by being spotted in the same general area we were at .. as i am standing at the back of the car with little hoss hanging out suddenly a monster of a cow raised his head over a fence and snorted right in the drivers door window .. several screams from the girls and i know one from my brother and he hit the gas and pealed gravel all over me as he made his escape .. there i stand not yet done doing my buisness but i`m not waiting .. i take off in a flash like an olympic sprinter trying to catch that car .. after about a 1/4 mile i finally saw some brake lites .. it didnt take me but about 15 seconds to catch up .. when i got there i grabbed for the door and grabbed my brothers arm instead and off again they went after several more yells and screams .. took a bit for me to finally get back in the car but i quit seeing that girl the very next day

there are a few more stories left to tell .. then i will go through and make up a series of imaginary drags involving the fastest cars i remember from days gone by .. " donkey " as we called him .. was a few years older than the rest of us and so he had a regular job and had money to spend on his hot rod .. he had a 69 dart 340 / 4 speed that was built pretty good .. we being younger did`nt mess with him much even though i had my super bee at the time .. donkey was one of the tenn bunch i hang out with ... Brent was one of the alabama gang i ran with ... he had a pretty quick 70 camaro .. claimed a 307 motor but we all knew better ,, i talked up a race between them and tried to act as peace keeper as well .. rival gangs so to speak .. we all met at miles creek as van town was too dangerous a place to race if one had a car with very much more than stock power .. miles creek had a good long concrete bridge to launch off and a good wide road .. only thing was it was at the bottom of a quick hill so a lookout had to sit at the top and warn of oncoming traffic or law ..they ran two times and brent won both times much to my and everyone from vantowns surprise ,, brent later admitted he had an 350 lt1 motor from a vette that was misteriously stolen and stripped a few months back .. donkey still has his dart and it`s the only car left on my list of " holey grail " cars i want to get a pic of .. i just never see him anymore ..brent died about ten years ago .from some debilating diease ... still a hot rodder till the end .. i took him for a blast in my Tbird shortly before his death

frankie and jeff .. jeff i knew very well and is still one of the few hot rod friends from the old days who still is active in the scene .. he was smarter than most all of us and kept his cars in perfect tune .. was a big stickler on replacing valve springs regularly .. in the early 70`s he had quite the bad 340 demon .. automatic trans and a few non stock items and gears .. he usually out run most folks by just being quicker .. he was always messing with frankie .. made him mad when frankie would not pay him no mind .. frankie was from a different area and had a white 69 428 mustang that everbody knew was bad to the bone .. finally he agreed to run jeff at lickskillet road .. after beating jeff with relative ease three or four times and every time jeff claiming car trouble or frankie jumped the start or any number of other reasons frankie just told jeff " take off any time your ready " he did so and frankie really lowered the boom on him and blew him away .. frankie went insane later in life and passed away in a home .. his mustang is what i modeled my HOSS429 after .. most of the baddest cars around was 428 mustangs .. chevy`s would blow up too easy and dodge or plymouth stuff was either too heavy ( roadrunners - superbees and such ) or had too small of engines .. as i said in an ealier tale no one had hemi stuff or boss stuff out in the country and we rarely went to town but the baddest car in town was a 428 cobra torino so there you go !!

Originally Posted by Hot Rod Angel

Oooo! I just love a good story!

The Studebaker truck that I am working on now has been in my famly since I was knee-high to a grasshopper...ever since that truck first rolled into our driveway that fateful summer day, I have loved it.

My dad picked me up from school everyday in it, it took me to the dentist (which I hated going to, but riding in the Stude always seemed to make things better), and it hauled firewood every year to keep my family warm. It was truly part of the family. It seemed only natural that it come live with me, after my daddy died, so that I could help her become the glorious hot rod she is destined to be.

My Corvair, well, she and I just belong together....we both have our quirks, so we understand each other just fine. The Vair is what I learned to drive on, and I have had it ever since.

I consider both the Corvair and the Studebaker to pieces of my past, and a way for me to keep my dad close to me, because everytime I see them, I think of him, and smile. They are my kids. And my one passion that I don't ever see fading away.

Hot rod angel
I've said this before, but since you love a good story...read Truck a love story, by Michael Perrry. Thanks to him my wife wanted me to get my old ford as a project!

danny had a 67 olds 442 with a later 455 & turbo 400 combo .. very quick car for its size .. would out zero to 60 most all of us as we did that a lot on hump creek bridge .. we`d see how fast one could get from one end to the other .. i know the guy that had the 70 torino cobra but have drawn a blank on his name just now .. anywho .. danny and the 429 torino met up to race at miles creek one sunday eave .. the torino was the baddest car in new market at the moment .. 4 speed - 4'10 detroit locker .. he could beat danny about one car length from a dead stop but danny could beat him the same from a role .. they declared the cars equal .. danny wrecked his car into a tree at about 130 mph .. the motor went about 300 feet .. danny never got a scratch .. the guy with the torino finally hurt the motor and parked it behind his home where it still sits today .. he died about 15 years ago .. his wife wont take gold for the car .. it does at least stay under a cover year round .. she let me uncover it long enuff to take some shots of it ...

Here's a blast from the past thread. I figure I love reading old stories of cool and stupid things we used to do. Most turned out with fun little twists.
When we were in high school the local drive in became an Adult theater. So one of the fun things to do on a Friday or Saturday night was cruise out to the theater and park outside and see what was up on the big screen. On one occasion were parked on the dirt by the road along with several other cars when the local sheriff comes cruising down the road. I nudge my friend Jim who is engrossed in a huge body part across the three story tall screen, saying Jim it's the sheriff, let's get out of here. Well Jim's smug reply was "It's just a sheriff!" Wrong response! The sheriff pulls up and gives him a parking ticket, in an unauthorized area. Well now Jim is panicked because he's driving his mom's car, and the ticket will be sent in the mail, according to the sheriff! We're laughing hysterically thinking good luck explaining this one! So he decides to bogey home for the next two weeks from school before the mail arrives to intercept the ticket, and pay it himself. Which works out fine. Now flash forward 30 some odd years at a picnic with Another friends parents. We are telling all kinds of stories of when we were kids, and include that one. Andre's dad says, yeh we knew all about that, but we could never say anything, because we were inside the drive in when the sheriff gave you guy's the ticket! His wife was so worried we had saw them there that nothing was ever mentioned! That sory goes along with many capers perpetrated in Jim's mom's old Plymouth Satelite. God I loved that car!

i had forgot about this old thread .. i just checked again on the torino cobra from a post down and the lady still wont part with it .. says her son is going to fix it someday .. i doubt it .. i offered her 6 grand .. her eyes lit up but she still said no ..