The header screw up.....
In highschool I got my hands on a 71 Lemans with the Pontiac 350. I scored a set of used headers for $15 and couldn't wait to get them on. I started one day after school and stayed at it until midnight. I had trouble with the oil filter adapter housing.
My dad came downstairs and told me to knock it off for the night. I fired up the old pontiac open headers and cruised it around the side of the house shutting it down half way to coast it to the parking spot (since it was so loud). I parked it and slid the column shift in PARK. I got out of the car and walked about 15 feet away when I heard KABOOOOM! I thought a tree limb had fallen on the car. I ran to the car (in the dark)...but there was no car! I ran DOWN THE HILL in the backyard finally finding the car wedged against the nose of my dad's 64 Jeep. Yep....when I installed the headers I had to bend the shift rod from the column and I didn't verify it would actually go all the way back to park.
I ended up ripping the nose off the pontiac and smashing the jeep. If the jeep had been 3' further back the Lemans would have gone over a culvert into a 12' drop creek!
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The snow drift jump....
Same jeep riding with my g/f in a Kmart parking lot after hours. There had been a snow storm and all the snow was plowed into large piles in the parking lot. I had visions of these white fluffy snow drifts that I could punch through with the jeep sending flurries all around like some kind of postcard image. Against my g/f's protest, I pointed the jeep at the largest pile I could find and nailed it. (this is before seatbelt laws in Michigan). We hit the pile and within a split moment I found myself being pushed into the floor (as the jeep went airborn on the rock hard ice pile). My g/f got pushed into the floor too. As the jeep peeked in the air we both went up and hit the headliner, then came back to the seat and floor. We both bit our toungs, bruised our heads, knees, and had some scrapes. As I came to the jeep was just doing slow circles in the lot.
About a month later my dad was complaining the shocks were blown out on the jeep and had me help him swap them on a saturday afternoon. Low and behold, no only were the shocks blown, but the landing was severe enough to allow the front diff to make contact with the oil pan. My dad couldn't figure out how in the world such a thing would have happened......
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