Thread: Remembering An Old Story...

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So I'm gonna ramble a bit here, as this is a story from late '66 early '67 when I was in my first stint at school, before my years in the US Navy. There was a guy named Fred Ott in my dorm who was from Little Rock, and as I recall his Dad owned a service station back when they knew what "service" meant so he'd grown up a gear head. Fred was a year or three ahead of me in school, and he had a righteous red '56 Chevy with a Muncie 4-speed and a nicely cammed SBC running a factory fuel injection system that he'd salvaged off of a wrecked car. It was a sweet, sweet ride, and listening to it run smoothly through the gears as he cruised away from the parking lot was just beautiful.

One day, perhaps after a few beers at the local drive-in hamburger joint that happened to offer cold brew for the college boys, Fred told the story that he'd been out one evening, cruising around and after romping on the throttle he smelled raw fuel, STRONG raw fuel so shut it down, coasted to the side of the road and popped the hood to find the passenger side of the engine dripping with raw gasoline. Now according to Fred, there was a metal plug that friction fit into the side of the injector that had popped out and was no where to be found! On the side of the road, stranded, Fred said he started looking closer and thought that the size of that plug looked almost like the size of a nickle, so he reached into his pocket and found that he had an old Buffalo Head nickle. Holding it up to the port he found it to be just a hair too big, but not much.... A bit of thought, out came the tool box, a right sized socket, a ball peen hammer and a short handled BFH and the nickle soon had a nice dish to it. Still a tiny bit too big, but one more precision tap and it slid in snug with the dish out. A sharp rap to the dished crown wedged it snugly in place, and - moment of truth - start it up and no leak! It was such a great story of innovation overcoming tragedy that we just HAD to believe!! Fred swore that the nickle was still in place - "Why take it out?", but I never laid eyes on it.

Now many times I have gazed down at factory FI units, looking for that plug, and I always thought that ol' Fred was maybe just pulling our legs way back then, but yesterday at Turkey Creek I'm looking at this very, very nice little '57 Corvette, and as I looked at the passenger side, there on the vertical surface of what I believe may be the regulator, just below the curved aluminum pipe that plug just seemed to be glowing! Fred Ott, I could just imagine a Buffalo Head nickle sitting in that spot, with a little peen mark on his cheek bone!

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Now there may be some here who will choose to berate this story, saying that it cannot be true or otherwise criticize the telling, but before you go there I choose to believe Fred Ott, based on seeing that plug calling my attention with a soft glow in the afternoon sun. Naysayers be damned!

Enjoyed the story and remember making washers from penny's in a pinch. Sometimes it just can't be made up.

Roger, that's a story that IS worth a 'plug nickel!"

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Roger, that's a story that IS worth a 'plug nickel!"

And there you go, the old saying proves it!

Great story, I found a band saw for a older man looking for one (83+) several years ago about 1994, he went to pick it up and they told him it was missing the blade guides and he said "sure it is, they are in my tool box I took them off to recondition them and got drafted and the saw was gone when I got back"...he was drafted in WW II!!
Stories like these are just to crazy not to be true, fun to hear though!

Stories like that are just good enough to be believable. I understand your trepidation about it though...........I see the same skepticism when I tell my story about giving away a '57 Bel Aire two door hardtop.

Uncle Bob, I thought you told me that you practically "gave" away every car you have sold

Very nice story Roger! I knew an old fella whom restored Corvettes and he told me a long time ago about that said plug and apparently they were popular for falling out. He had pictures of a 63 split window that had burnt due to that plug falling out. He had pics of the burnt hull all the way through the resto process to a finished product. Looking at those old pics was too cool to me. You won't see that now as he has passed on. Anyway, cool story. Some of us didn't grow up when these cars were a common occurance on the road ways.

Originally Posted by robot

Uncle Bob, I thought you told me that you practically "gave" away every car you have sold

It's true..............trust me..............especially when I'm selling something to you!

I've decided to change how I do this hot rod thing now. Instead of buying a car I think I like and spending money to transport it, register/license it, make a few changes to suit my tastes, and all the other little holes in the bucket, I'm just going to give the current owner a few thousand dollars, not take the car, and save doing all that phupha in the middle. Hmmm, with that kind of thinking, that might qualify me for a job as Secretary of State.......maybe even President! WooHoo!!!

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

It's true..............trust me..............especially when I'm selling something to you!

I've decided to change how I do this hot rod thing now. Instead of buying a car I think I like and spending money to transport it, register/license it, make a few changes to suit my tastes, and all the other little holes in the bucket, I'm just going to give the current owner a few thousand dollars, not take the car, and save doing all that phupha in the middle. Hmmm, with that kind of thinking, that might qualify me for a job as Secretary of State.......maybe even President! WooHoo!!!

I've got a '32 Roadster project that I think you'd really, really, REALLY like, Uncle Bob!