Catastrophic failure stories

[Nate S]

Its the same A12 Superbee,I bought it from Jack. It had a nice dent in the frame rail from that incident. The car was sublime green,I added the black top after the bodywork on the quarter panel to roof seams cracked. Are you building any Mopars these days, Nate,I know that Jack had a modern Shelby Mustang the last time that I talked to him.

Holy crap! That’s so cool. Had the sixpak with the rare pumping secondaries when jack had it. Side float. The 4.88’s were a bit much.

 

[64BEL]

 

[Nate S]

Its the same A12 Superbee,I bought it from Jack. It had a nice dent in the frame rail from that incident. The car was sublime green,I added the black top after the bodywork on the quarter panel to roof seams cracked. Are you building any Mopars these days, Nate,I know that Jack had a modern Shelby Mustang the last time that I talked to him.

oh, missed the second part. I stopped doing the cars for years. About ten years ago picked up a ‘55 dodge step side. Last summer I sold the truck and motorcycle and picked up a ’64 sport fury. Been enjoying that. Not going nuts with it, just rebuilt the suspension and engine and driving it.

Were you a friend of Pete’s? The guy with the ‘70 Charger R/T who bought my truck Dana?

 

[Budnicks]

View attachment 944828

I love that one too
seen it on Mancini Racing site was looking at trans parts there years ago
the 1st time that photo was on it
made me laugh a little

KaBoom goes the trans

 

[64BEL]

I love that one too
seen it on Mancini Racing site was looking at trans parts there years ago
the 1st time that photo was on it
made me laugh a little

KaBoom goes the trans

Good old neutral drop starts!

 

[chargervert]

oh, missed the second part. I stopped doing the cars for years. About ten years ago picked up a ‘55 dodge step side. Last summer I sold the truck and motorcycle and picked up a ’64 sport fury. Been enjoying that. Not going nuts with it, just rebuilt the suspension and engine and driving it.

Were you a friend of Pete’s? The guy with the ‘70 Charger R/T who bought my truck Dana?

No,I am Pete.

 

[493 Mike]

not me but this is a perfect example

View attachment 944702

Classic too much!
Mike

 

[jason79]

My buddy had a 69 chevelle with a pretty stout small block in it. One evening while doing some possibly alcohol induced burnouts on a back country road the tranny let go. The result was a drive shaft that bent into a U and came through the rear floor pan, and the turbo 350 rotated 90 degrees as we destroyed the bell housing.

 

[Nate S]

No,I am Pete.

Oh wow, so cool. Tag name makes sense now!

 

[451Mopar]

I need to get better photos, but the 505 stroker I built for a friend got totally trashed about a month ago.
Some bolt or air cleaner stud got dropped in the engine, chewed up the heads pretty good, and split a cylinder top to bottom.
My old 451 engine dropped a valve and punched holes through the piston, before the valve got jammed back into the intake port sideways.

 

[Glenwood]

A few loose bolts maybe?

 

[Nate S]

A few loose bolts maybe?

Those four 5/16 studs never seemed like much.

 

[chargervert]

Nate,I would think that your adventure with the 70 Road Runner convertible might fit well in this thread!

 

[threewood]

How about a catastrophic muffler failure? I go to start my 62 Belvedere and it was like a bomb went off. Ears ringing, cloud of smoke and dust, my neighbor walks over and asks if anyone was alive lmao!!! Thanks Jegs!

 

[451Mopar]

Those four 5/16 studs never seemed like much.

I don't think either car had stock leaf springs. The black car had ladder bars, and the bracket detatched from the axle (bad welding.)
I think the read car might have been the same?

 

[Nate S]

Nate,I would think that your adventure with the 70 Road Runner convertible might fit well in this thread!

On special request...

In about ‘87 a friend and I drove from RI to Chryslers at Carlisle. We took his new Buick Grand National. I had a few thousand and was looking to buy something. Saw a ‘70 challenger six pak for $3000, had a 318. Looked at a ‘69 roadrunner for $3000, passed on that too. I then found a ‘70 roadrunner convertible. Had a ‘66 440 in it. Burnt orange, dried out top, leaky exhaust, kinda rough, $1000. Gave the guy his money and planned to drive it unregistered and uninsured the 425 miles to RI. What could go wrong? Lots.

So I prepared. Bought a tow strap, spare tire, jack, checked the oil and threw in some STP oil treatment. Then went over to the custom vanity plate counter and had a license plate made to match the registration from my ‘67 Polara 500 convertible. Incorrect but closer to believable in that pre-computer world. Put it on the back and we were ready to go!

Left at night so as to not draw too much attention. Started raining, started pouring. Rain was coming in the huge hole in the convertible top. At about 100 miles the engine blew. We were prepared. Hooked up the tow strap and flat towed (with the new Buick) for a while. When the battery and lights in the RR started to die we stopped and slept a bit.

started again at sunrise and got to the rest stop before the Tappan Zee bridge. Pulled in there and for a whole lot of good reasons my friend no longer wanted to tow with the grand National. We parked the RR and drove the 3+ hours back to RI. Picked up the Polara with the 440 and tow package and headed right back out for another 3+ hours. About halfway through Connecticut the Polara started having an engine noise. Pulled into a rest area and damn near had a breakdown (mental). After getting a grip checked the oil, none. So I bought 5 quarts and put it in, all was well! Just burnt some oil, like all of it.

Onward to the RR! So we got there and hooked it up, same tow strap, and pulled it over the Tappan Zee. They were awaiting us at the toll and immediately towed the RR. Tow guy was cool though, basically pulled it off the highway, unhooked it and said “take route 6”, so I paid him his $36 and we hooked back up.

So we were on 6 and that merges with 84-a highway. We kept going until the Connecticut state police pulled us over. Guy was going to write me up for everything conceivable when a second statie showed up. He walks up and says “cool cars” and talks the first one out of everything but the radar detector ticket. He then walks over and asks “how the hell do you have three of the same plate?” So we left the RR on the side of 84 with a big orange sticker on it. Apparently needed a tow bar to continue legally, and after grabbing some food were going back to RI for the night. As we pulled out of the McDonald’s the second statie comes by and says, “you should just go hook that up and tow it home, the other guys gone and I’m the only statie from here to Hartford”. I had had enough though. We left. Next day we were back with the Polara again and a tow bar from the rental place. As we approached on the highway from the other direction they were doing work and traffic was backed up for miles. We took the exit and got back on going toward home in all the traffic. A couple minutes later a statie passes us in the breakdown lane, jams on his brakes and backs up. It was statie #2 again. He tells us, “pull in behind me and follow me up the breakdown lane” so we did. We get to the RR and these guys are there about to hook it up, stealing it. So the cop goes to deal with them and we start hooking it up. We eventually get on the road and it’s finally the home stretch! Until the right rear tire blows on the RR. We were prepared though, had bought a spare. We weren’t prepared for the 3 different size lug nuts. Another side trip and we had a four way wrench, fixed the flat and made it home.

turned out the damn thing had massive chassis rot. Put it in the “Yankee swapper” and got about 170 calls for it. Sold it covering my costs but without screwing anyone. Next year saw it at the Papa’s Dodge meet at the polo grounds in Farmington, CT, for sale. Wonder where it ever went. Thought about buying a satellite convertible donor car for a while, probably worth something meaningful today.

 

[Nate S]

How about a catastrophic muffler failure? I go to start my 62 Belvedere and it was like a bomb went off. Ears ringing, cloud of smoke and dust, my neighbor walks over and asks if anyone was alive lmao!!! Thanks Jegs!
View attachment 945048

Did that once after putting in a new cam and not turning it 1 rev before putting the distributor on cyl #1. Didn’t quite grenade it that gloriously though!

 

[Kern Dog]

Not a catastrophic event but a funny one:

A buddy of mine was having trouble getting a firm pedal with his brakes. He bled them, adjusted the rear shoes, tried different calipers...several things. On one road test, I went along. He had his Pomeranian dog in the back seat.
He got up to around 70 and hit the pedal HARD. The dog flew face first into the dash and YIPE !!
I wanted to laugh, really wanted because that piece of **** dog was the angriest little bitch I'd seen in years.