Five Dumbest things you ever did

[marxjunk]

1. traded my 71 GTO 400 4 speed, triple black, even for a junk mustang fastback...

2. didnt buy the Sox and Martin race car i found in southern missouri for 2500 bux..had the money thought too high

3. parted a white 70 Judge Ram IV 4 speed...black spoiler car...title was screwed up..Mssouri had horrible title laws back then

4. Parted a black with white striped 71 W-30 loaded, and i mean loaded power everything tach etch

5. Passed on a 71 Hemi R/T Charger, Missing the motor for $9,000..thought it was too high...it was in the 90s...I was a GM guy..just didnt get it

[twertsy]

1. "Rode" a bike down an incredibly steep hill on a 1/2 mile tractor trail, with no brakes.
2. Insisted I was "big / old enough" to load my Grandfather's lawn tractor onto his truck....straight through the cab.
3. Drank way too much and jumped way too often off the cliffs/trussel at the "Powder Hole" in Berwick, PA. Very high jump (~70 ft.) and approximately 100 sq. ft. landing pool. Been closed/patrolled now for a long time due to death(s).
4. Drove way too fast in the Shelby, top down, without the cover. Did you know at 140 mph the top does not stay in the down position without the cover on? BTW, 140 in 4th, still two gears left...
5. Confronted a Hispanic "gentleman" regarding the theft of my $2500 (in 1990) Shon pool cue....amongst about 50 of his "friends," in Salinas, CA. Wasn't a brainy move.

[njsteve]

All mine involve selling cars back in the old days.

Like I have said before...I have sold more million dollar cars long before they were worth a million dollars, than anyone else on the planet. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

1971 Hemicuda auto Convertible (yellow/white)
1968 LO23 Hemi Dart (later turned out to be Dick Landy's 4-speed car)
1971 Cuda 440-6 barrel 4-speed convertible (orange/black every option)
1971 Cuda 440-6 barrel auto convertible (red/black 19k mile survivor)
1971 Hemi Charger auto (orange/white, sunroof, 38K mile survivor)

[KevinW]

I like Steve's answers! I saw some of his pics of past cars, it was a shame [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img] Yup I did all the old car regrets too. But two things still stick in my mind.

1. sold my original smog exhaust manifolds off my 69 SS 4 speed when I sold my 69 El Camino auto (apart) and kept the auto manifolds because they &quot;looked nicer&quot;

2. drove my 69 with L60 tires and air shocks in the snowy nj roads (was not a good combo), spinning out and going over curbs and in ditches seemed common [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[K code Mustang]

Also Steve... selling OUR Charger.

[Canuck]

1.1968, While trying to strip paint from a wheel in my parents basement, I used too much chemical stripper. Soaked the excess with an old towel. With still some stuborn paint to remove I though I would use heat!! Wheel caught fire,tried to douse with towel, towel was in flames as I grabbed it and exited house, up a flight of stairs down a hallway and out the side door. My mother came down stairs to a smoke filled hallway and the smell of burning chemicals, asked what happened? I said &quot;nothing&quot;.
2.1973, After agrument with a girlfriend I decided to head out of town to collect my thoughts, was travelling along a piece of road I knew well,about 25 over the posted speed limit of 40. Remembered the road as straight, but mounted rise in the road(its was 10:00 PM and dark) to find the road did a hard right. The rise had me weightless for a moment and with no brake or steering controll, when I landed I did a four weheel drift off the road, tearing up a tire and rim, caved in the rocker panel and the gas tank. Was still able to brive away with a $1100 hard lesson, next time I had an agrument with a girlfriend...stay home and drink. This was done to a one year old 73 Duster 340.
3.1999,In my shop a few yars ago, I had the bright idea of compressing a coil spring aqbout two inches by lowering my hoist(with a car on it) to install compression clamps. The spring did not hold and launched itself skyward into the door of the car on the hoist. Nice dent!
4.2000. Sold a pile of NOS and good parts at a Denver, Olds Club event. Two years later bought a rare 71 W30 4 speed convert and ended up seeking out and buying most of the same parts back at about twice what I sold them for.65 cent Canadian dollar didnt help.
5.Drove through whiteout conditions to get to a concert we had tickets for! Hotel we had stayed at offered to have us stay comlimentary because of the storm. At one point drove off the road. Got out of the car to find road and when I looked back could not see car. Only because dog was barking could I locate car. It was th prairies in -22 conditions.


Paul

[travlnz28]

Like most teens I have done a number of rather dumb things. However this example was dumb enough to count for five. In 1972 just prior to graduating from high school my friend and I were driving on the freeway one night in his Dodge Colt (not exactly a high performance car!). My friend had a spotlight that could be plugged into the cigarette lighter and it had a red cover on it. I really don't remember whose idea it was to put the spotlight out the driver side window and shine it on the car in front of us but that's what we did. Of course we were cracking up just thinking about what is going through the drivers mind ahead of us. Well the driver didn't fall for it at first and just kept driving so my buddy flashed his bright lights a few times and that was enough to convince the driver to pull to the right. As we accelerated past him by BA was pressed against the window. As we passed him my friend caught a look of absolute hate in the guy's eye and we knew we were in trouble. The car chased us down the freeway a few miles before we were able to take an offramp the guy couldn't manuever fast enough to make. We weren't laughing anymore and it was the last time that spotlight was plugged in.

Please don't try this at home.

[markinnaples]

Car related (because if I had to put the real dumb stuff, I'd have to include my 2nd wife):
1. Locked the keys in our 74 Cutlass. In the rain. Running. In the middle of the street. (good thing I was good at the wire hangar trick)
2. Backed my sister's car up the driveway with the driver's door open (didn't realize I was that close to my dad's car so that my door was bent backwards, ugh)
3. Instead of washer fluid, put gas in my gf's windshield washer tank (someone else put the funky colored gas in the washer fluid bottle, not me)
4. After a night out, came up a winding hill and when I crested it, got airborn and slammed my 85 528 into the guardrail, bending it in half. (thank God for the guardrail and those giant Nazi bumpers, otherwise it was a 30 foot drop)
5. After the Christmas party and then leaving a buddy's house, lit 'em up pulling out of the street and when my 78 T/A continued sideways about 50 ft until I got traction and firmly planted it into a sizable tree stopping me from a 20 ft drop into someone's backyard. (my dad bought the story about someone hit-and-running my T/A until the next afternoon when he was picking bark out of what was leftover of the grill - but he was cool as heck about everything and I sure do miss him now that he's gone)

I could go on, but you only said five...

[njsteve]

Oh, I forgot these:

1) Trying to install the oil pump pick-up on a Chevy oil pump at four o'clock in the morning after coming home from a night on the town. I used the tried-and-true method of slipping a proper sized open end wrench over the ridge on the pick-up and then hitting the wrench with a 32 ounce ball peen hammer. Worked great all the other times...that I didn't have my thumb on top of the wrench. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/eek.gif[/img]

2) Helped a high school buddy build a Pontiac 455 in his basement...when it was finished we both noticed at the same time that there was no way to get the engine out of the basement and up the wooden stairs to the garage. Had to take it apart again and reassemble it outside.

3) Installed a complete 426 Hemi engine on a cheapo engine stand. Tried pushing it sideways, thinking the casters on the wheels would turn correctly. The engine immediately flipped and fell to the ground. Not really fell, per se, but performed what seemed like a 20,000 mph, meteoric, re-entry into the atmosphere, and punched a hole through the concrete floor. Didn't damage the engine at all - didn't even chip the paint on the block.

4) After getting the rolling body of the 70 Hemi Charger painted in 2004, I brought it back home and was unstrapping it from the enclosed trailer. I didn't chock the wheels. Once I took the last strap off the front suspension, the car started slowly rolling out of the back of the trailer...and down the driveway about 75 feet...with me hanging on the radiator support trying to slow it down with my shoes smoking from the friction...knocking down a section of the six foot tall stockade fence pickets...and into the backyard, all while clearing the two main 8&quot;x8&quot; support posts for the stockade fence by 1/2&quot; on either side.

5) Installing the three position crank gear in the wrong position on my 455HO and aligning it with the TDC mark on the timing gear. Only to find out later that the engine wasn't at TDC at the time. That was a fun time trying to diagnose THAT no-start situation.

[twertsy]

I forgot one too. This past summer, I let my son hook up the trailer, and didn't check it. (So really, my fault) Pulled the front of a newly acquired Mustang onto the ramp, at which point the tongue rose, trailer pushed forward and straight into / through the tailgate