Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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What forum is she on? Mention of her wreck on this thread is all I have heard of it... When did it happen? Was it in Florida?

Jim, I know she is on Rodding Roundtable, and also the HAMB, I think. They live in Ohio because she mentioned they are near the Flaming River factory. She was returning from some show (maybe T Bucket Nationals?) and that is when it happened. Not sure in what State though. She said it happened August of 2006.

I should have gotten more details from her, but I was a little foggy from just driving up to Daytona when she and her Husband came over to my car and introduced themselves. My hearing wasn't up to par from all the wind rushing by for 5 hours either, so I missed a lot of what they were telling me.

They did say the body stayed remarkably intact, and even the little rubber wellnuts that hold the body to the frame didn't come loose. Mickey from Total Performance called them a couple of days later and wanted the car back for research purposes so they could learn what a wreck does to a car like this.

That is as much as I know, and maybe someone else can fill in the blanks and give better facts than I have given here. I kept thinking of her wreck as I was buzzing along at 70mph coming home from Daytona. It wouldn't take much to end up off of the road and these things sure don't afford much protection. You also can't relax for a second and have to keep watching traffic all around you to make sure some rubbernecker isn't moving over into your lane as he looks at your car (happened a couple of times on the trip)

Don

Glad all of you guys had fun at Daytona. Next year you have to set up an area lit by large floodlights if you are going to take car photos at night!!!!! haahaa. And a lobster in Maine is worth the drive, better than a crawdad in Flor-------ehhhh, well anyways!!! haahaaaa. I am glad you talked about the T accident and your having to be careful and such. I been thinking for a couple of years that I would feel REAL vulnerable in one of those things! It's like a motorcycle to me, went for a ride, once, that was enough! haahaa. Best Regards to everyone. oldrodder43 perley

Don, I copied and pasted the below statement made by chevygirlrox from the h.a.m.b. thread that covered the accident back in August of 06. I've also included a link to the thread for those that wish to read it.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...rlrox+accident


"Ok, now the story...
I had drove Matt's t-bucket the 400 plus miles down to Louisville the Wednesday the nationals started without the slightest of problems. I had driven the t bucket alot since it was done, so it wasn't any big deal. I had a great time at the nationals with lots of new and old friends. We had decided to leave Sunday afternoon after the drawing and more importantly after Plowboy gave me my much deserved ride in the Lunar Lander! So after that was over we finished packing up everything and jumped in the cars. It was going to be a nice afternoon/evening so I told Matt I would keep driving the bucket and he could drive the giveaway truck. We went a few miles up the road and fueled up the cars and headed off. I had decided to be in the middle of the pack since I had a tendency to go a little faster than my friend that was trailering two cars wanted to go. So, my friend Devin was in front, me in the middle and Matt behind me.

I was cruising along at about 75 when I went over a bridge. The engine changed pitch slightly and I wasn't sure what was wrong, but the car was still moving forward. I decided that I had better slow down and pull over to check things out. I didn't want to put on the brakes since I wasn't sure what was wrong. We were ascending a hill so I figured I would just take my foot off the gas and naturally slow down. Well that all went through my mind in about three seconds. The next thing I knew the wheels were skidding and the bucket was out of control. I remember ramming into the guardrail and then my body rolling in the grass. The next thing I remember was Matt yelling my name. I was laying in some tall grass and thought he might not see me so I got up and ran up the hill so he knew where I was. I don't remember hurting, but I'm sure I was in shock. As soon as I got to the top of the hill everyone was yelling at me to lay down.

Traffic had come to stop and there were people everywhere. Within what seemed to be seconds there were people hovering over me on the ground all asking questions and yelling and talking on their cellphones. A State Highway patrolman had the nerve to ask me why I wasn't wearing a seltbelt and consequently had the seatbelt argument with me at that very moment. I think he finally saw the light though that I would have been dead if I would have been strapped to that machine. Some very nice registered nurses happened to be travelling on the highway in the traffic with me took care of me until the ambulance arrived (thanks if you are reading this, I know at least one of you was a rodder). All in all I felt pretty good. I knew there was some bleeding on my face from when I hugged Matt but wasn't sure what else was wrong. I felt like someone had kicked the wind out of me but I was still breathing. One of the nurses told me I had a really bad cut on the back of my right leg so she was compressing it. I really didn't have any pain though.

Then the ambulance came. The strapped me to one of those boards so so so tight I thought I was going to die! They also put one of those neck braces on so I was completely immobile and I HATED it. Then the biggest crime occured....they cut off my brand new Halibrand shirt that I had been wearing for a total of 8 minutes. I told them I would just take it off and not to cut it but they didn't seem to care. The lady then told me that I had to go to the hospital to get checked out. I told her I was fine but she said I at least needed some stitches. I told here I wanted to go to Cinci so I would be closer to home but she said the the helicopter would probably take me back to Louisville. Wait...did she say helicopter? Yes, she thought I needed airflighted because of my 'condition' and the type of accident I had been in. I fought with her about it but she really didn't care. So the helicopter came and landed in the middle of the freeway and they took me away all by myself. They wouldn't let any of my friends ride along.

They took me to the U of L Medical Center where a trauma team got right to work taking scans and poking me with needles. After a couple hours of tests and observation they came in and told me I was going to have my spleen removed and that they would stitch up my leg while I was under. I told them I didn't want to have surgery and that I was fine. The next thing I remember was waking up and having a nurse tell me that I needed to find a way to get comfortable to have my leg stitched up. That was the first chance I had to move with my newly cracked ribs, that was fun. She also told me the doctors had decided to just keep me under observation and not remove my spleen.

So I spent the next week in the ICU getting my blood checked every two hours and laying around. They could tell from my blood count that my spleen was ok. I have LOTS of stitches in my leg. Not sure the exact number but it took an hour and 45 minutes to stitch it shut.

I came home from the University of Louisville Hospital on Saturday afternoon. It was a long ride but I knew I would be rewarded in the end by finally being at my own house! It was nice to sleep in my own bed without being poked with needles or having tens of wires hooked up to me. Don't get me wrong, the care I received there was great, but I don't plan on going back anytime soon for more."

Wow, just wow!!! I read her statement and the entire HAMB thread you posted Gastrick, thank you. How scary. From the sounds of it something locked up in the tranny, and one person ventured the opinion that it might have been the shifter dropping down from when she came over the bridge bump.

I've had the same discussions with people who chastise me for not having a seatbelt in either of my roadsters, but I have always felt I do not want to be strapped to them if they flip. In her case it was what probably saved her......getting thrown clear. I worry about my Son in his T because I have driven these little pocket rockets for years and have learned some lessons on what they can do in a heartbeat. He seems to respect that though, so hopefully he will take it easy with his.

I guess the brightside is that statisically we rodders are involved in fewer accidents than the average passenger car. You rarely hear about a hot rod or custom wrecking, compared to the daily carnage of family type vehicles. But when it does happen the results can be very serious. I'm so glad Megan came out of it so well.

Here are two other rods that I have pictures of that have wrecked. The light colored T bucket supposedly was wrecked when some girl borrowed a roomates T and punched it coming out of a gas station. The other black one unfortunately resulted in the death of the owner/driver.

Don

My ears were burning so I thought I'd better check around to see who was talking about me!

It was nice meeting you Don at the Turkey Run. I really like your t-bucket. It is very well done and has a great style to it. Hopefully someday I will get to see your son's as well.

Yes, the above grainy photo is the bucket post accident.

I miss the bucket a lot. I am and will always be a roadster girl.
Don't feel too bad though. At the end of spring my friend Matt (not husband as previously mentioned ) and I found a 1950s Cali built '32 roadster hi boy that had been in storage since the mid-60s. We got it back on the road again in time for the Deuce reunion in Detroit in August and I love it. I also had the privilege to drive a friend of mine's '32 roadster all the way to Bonneville for Speedweek and back (6500 miles round trip) topless!

A lot of people thought I would never drive a roadster again but actually after I got out of the hospital the first car I drove was a convertible. Even though we never really figured out exactly what happened; whether it was the tranny, rear end or another component in the drivetrain; I have realized that accidents do happen. No matter how good of a builder or a driver you are they still happen. It was a Total Performance T bucket and chassis that we had built. I didn't plan to be their crash test dummy but I must admit it held up really well in the accident. The body never came off the frame and only had one small crack in it where the 'bed' was bondo'd onto the bucket. I know that Matt would build another Total Performance bucket in a heartbeat. Matter of fact, he talked with Mickey at the Turkey Run this past weekend about it.

Well, I guess that's about it. Or should I say, 'that's my story and I'm sticking to it!'

Welcome to Club Hot Rod!

Seems that I got all this accident talk started and I thank you for answering my question. I've been curious about it since reading it on the HAMB. It never hurts to look for new things to check in the name of safety.

I'm glad to hear you're doing OK and that you're back in a roadster.

Mike

[QUOTE=ChevyGirlRox] I also had the privilege to drive a friend of mine's '32 roadster all the way to Bonneville for Speedweek and back (6500 miles round trip) topless!


Did you cause many accidents driving around that way?????
(sorry, couldn't pass that one up )

I enjoyed meeting you and Matt also. Nice to meet a lady who enjoys this hobby, and especially roadsters, as much as you do. BTW, don't be a stranger around here, we would love to have you aboard now and then.

Don

"I found a 1950s Cali built '32 roadster hi boy that had been in storage since the mid-60s. We got it back on the road again in time for the Deuce reunion in Detroit in August and I love it. I also had the privilege to drive a friend of mine's '32 roadster all the way to Bonneville for Speedweek and back (6500 miles round trip) topless!"

Yeah I'm with Don, load some photos and show us your topless ride! Seriously I loved watching Don's build and enjoy seeing everyones cars as they build and post.
Don glad you made it safe up and back. I wonder if your son's interior kit had 4 inch foam for those long hours in the seat! How is Don's engine? Also I never fully appreciated how low your car is until I saw it in the group fotos. It must seem like your going 90 mph when your at the speed limit!

Thanks, glad we made the trip safely too. Yep, it's low for sure. I realized that more and more as I was driving up 75 and trailer trucks would go by. One false move and it could have been very uncool.

We pulled Don's head off Monday night and the exhaust valve was kissed by that piston. Piston has a little gouge in it, nothing bad and it's a forged piston so it will be fine. The head of the valve is intact and only bent over a little, so the machine shop can press it out, ream the guide and install a new valve.

It supports my theory that when the pushrods were too long that valve touched the piston and slightly bent the stem, then as it was moving up and down it kept getting tighter and tigher until it froze and broke the stem. All the other valves are fine and so are the pistons, so I think once that one is fixed it will cure the problem. We were worried that the head would have been messed up, and there is a lot of porting , polishing. big valves, etc. in them and it would be expensive to redo a new one. Pretty sure he dodged the bullet.

Don

Yeah Don that T is low enough to ride under tractor trailer's. I'm glad I wasn't the only Buckeye to make it to Turkey run. Welcome to the club.
BradC

We didn't get to talk about it much at Daytona Don but I thought your "valve kissing piston" theory was on the money. Looks like that was the problem. I'd feel pretty good about the valve not dropping into the chamber and taking out the piston which could have caused catastrophic engine failure of biblical proportions. He'll be back on the road in no time.

Dan just told me they got it running tonight. Don took it to the machine shop this morning and the owner did it while he waited. Punched the valve out, cleaned up the guide and seat, put a new valve in it, and set the spring height.......... all for free!! I guess we have given him enough business over the years, and Don did tip him.

They took it for a ride tonight and it seems fine. So it looks like we will both make the downtown Ft Myers show this Sunday. I have to change out my leaking steering box (Flaming River gave me a new one and I just have to send back the leaker) and detail my car from the trip to and from Daytona, and I'm ready to go too. Don Garlits was at last years show, maybe I can get a picture of him sitting in my car.........that would be really cool.

Don

Glad to hear the engine wasn't bad.

Looks like you'll have good weather for this weekend.

I stopped by Garlits' museum a few years ago. Great place if you're a gear head. Didn't get to meet him, though. That would have been cool.

A few pages back Pops had mentioned some deal killing problems with Inline Tube, so I thought I'd relay a recent, more positive, experience I had with a similar company.

I don't have near the selection of tools at the Vegas garage where I'm doing the '65 Dodge, so I ordered a preformed kit for both the fuel and brake lines from Classic Tube, http://www.classictube.com/. Both sets of lines fit the chassis as well as the stock pieces did, with all the bends conforming to the twisting and turning needed to get from back to front with only minor tweaking needed. The only issue I encountered was the lines from the master cylinder to the distribution block. These were non-stock items as we converted the car from drum to disc brakes. It just so happened that we discovered this the day before going to the SEMA show, so stopped by their booth to talk with someone. Had a good discussion with one of their sales guys, Mike Vacanti, and he understood the problem almost immediately. From my description he surmised that they had shipped a later model set of tubes for the M/C connections. He asked me to send back the wrong stuff to exchange for the right pieces. I asked if they could custom make them to my desired routing, and he said "sure, for a small fee, just send patterns". So we made up some wire form patterns that routed the lines in a neater way than the typical setup and sent them along with the return. When I did a follow up with Mike the following week it only took a small reminder of what we'd discussed (amazed me since he probably talked to a bazillion people at SEMA). The upshot of the story is, I got very good service from Mike, at a very reasonable price for the custom work, the lines were formed right to the patterns I sent, and except for a misrouting by UPS, they would have gotten back to me in a timely manner.