Tell us about your automotive hard luck stories !

[Kern Dog]

Anyone that has tinkered with cars has at least one, right?
The car you wanted that was sold before you got there, the one that was stolen, the one that broke down all the time....
I have a few.
This one guy I used to know built a Challenger. He was in his late 40s before he could afford to buy the car that he had wanted since High School. He still didn't have much money but he really had ambition.
He made a lot of short cuts along the way with the car. In California, we often migrate to the south for the annual Spring Fling show in Van Nuys. This is about a 400 mile trip for me, the Challenger guy was 180 miles further North. On the way to my place, his car spit the crank pulley, the automatic floor shifter linkage rattled loose and he lost the power steering when the crank pulley sliced the pressure hose.
WHY all the carnage?
He assembled the 340/416 without getting it balanced and it shook like 4 plug wires weren't connected. The crank pulley was spaced off the balancer using washers as shims...he had some generic balancer that was too thin and his pulleys didn't align.
On the way south, his Gear Vendors crapped out. It would later be discovered that he bought it used and never checked the oil in it. Yeah, it was shipped without oil. Having no overdrive really matters when you have a 4.56 axle gear!

 

[68-500]

Most of my hard luck stories start with, the transmission in my…..

 

[Kern Dog]

Anyone run out of gas in heavy traffic? The car won't start and you had no tools? Unplanned repossession?

 

[themechanic]

My first car was a hand-me-down from my older brother. It was a 68 Camaro RS witha327 and power glide. It didn't run. I got it running with Dad's help and drove it to school and work. I drove to Texas that summer to work on a construction site for my uncle Jack. On the return trip it threw the timing chain. We towed it home and I replaced the chain and plastic gear with steel and had the heads rebuilt. It's white paint and red interior were in great shape for a 10 year old Chevy. About a week after getting the car back on the road a man made a left turn in front of me as I was going to work doing about 40 mph. I t-boned him and the car was totalled. Nobody was injured but I could have killed that guy.

With the $500 from the insurance company Dad bought me a blue 67 Firebird.

 

[Kern Dog]

I got in TWO accidents in one week with this car:

Both times, a car turned left in front of me and I T-boned the other car. That totaled it but of course, the car wasn't worth much in 1987.

A plumber on a job I worked said he flew from California to Montana to get a truck he owned and was storing there. Short on cash, he slept in the truck on the way back. One morning he woke up and proceeded to resume the drive back to the interstate when he encountered a sharp turn on a slightly elevated road surface. He made a full roll but landed back on the tires. The windshield was smashed so he kicked it out and drove the rest of the way home.
I called bullshit but he wasn't the lying type so maybe it did happen as he said.

 

[DeltaV]

Vandals, Thieves, & Idiots​

It could be its own thread!!!

 

[Triplegreen500]

Dad had a bad *** Cutlass - 87, 307 4bbl, duals, buckets, console, posi, t-tops, factory lace aluminum wheels (think BBS style, very rare), black...looked like a Cutlass version of a Grand National. Parked it at a DC park n ride. Left the ticket on the visor.

Yup.

Stolen. Popped the ignition, paid the parking fee...gone.

 

[Sam69sat]

Worked in Portland when i was 19. Came home to the parents house for Christmas and had to be back at work on the 26th. Decided to drive back on Christmas day and bring my little brother along to see the "big city". Made it about 100 miles of the 350 and the lights started to get dim. Was getting dark fast so had to pull over at a truck stop motel along the interstate. Everything was closed since it was Chrismas day so there was no way to get a replacment alternator. Had to spend a night in that NASTY azz motel. Sounded like they were moving furniture the entire night. No doubt the lot lizards were cleaning up. Worst Chrismas and worst breakdown ever!

 

[Kern Dog]

*I rarely get gas unless I'm near the E line.
On the way to work one morning, I stopped for fuel and a soda. My wallet was not in the truck! I knew I didn't have enough in the tank to get back home either.
I remembered that I left it at my Mother's place the night before when we had our family dinner. I was not about to call anyone to bring me gas or money at 5:00 AM so I called the boss to tell him I'd be late, then drove to Mom's and waited for her to get up before bothering her. She had a gallon gas can in the garage so I used it up and went to a station to fill up, then onto work.

* I was painting my Chevy truck and lost the tech sheet that listed the mix ratio. The paint store was closed and at the time, it didn't occur to me to do a search on the computer so I mixed 2 to 1 to 1 of paint, catalyst and reducer. The correct ratio was 4 to 1 to 1. The paint came out with a lot of weird specs in it like tiny ants even though no insects were around. The mix was so far off, the paint didn't mix and blend together right. I didn't know why it was coming out so bad, I thought it would flow out and be okay.
But it was not okay at all.
A couple years later, a buddy borrowed the truck to tow home a 78 Bronco he bought. He had the Bronco loaded onto the trailer *** first which made for near zero tongue weight. He got crossed up in traffic and jack knifed it.....

He made it up to me though....He made it look better than new:

 

[Kern Dog]

I was just reminded of an experience that my wife went through a couple years before we met.
She was all packed up and moving to California. She rented a U-Haul van and had her car on a dolly behind it. She enlisted the help of a male friend she knew from college. They set about the journey early one day in late Summer.
Somewhere just East of Metro LA, the engine blew up on the U-haul, puking oil and anti-freeze all over the car. They sent out some dork in a pickup truck...as if ALL of her stuff would fit in a 1/2 ton truck! They sent out a flat bed to haul the rental and her car which was then taken to a seedy motel in Riverside. The next morning another U-haul was delivered so they transferred all her stuff to the next truck. She had her dog with her, the hotel didn't allow dogs so she sneaked him into the room anyway.

 

[OneWheelPeel]

I have a couple that have stuck with me.
1. In the 90s I was a security guard making a little over minimum wage, so broke, but I was still at Brotherhood Raceway racing every weekend. The photographer there got a hold of a 67 Firebird and told me I could buy it, and for a really cheap price, but I had to scramble to get the money together. I get the money and tell the guy, this is all within a week, so not a long wait, and he says he is sorry, he can't sell it. He realizes it has sentimental value or some crap, a car he just apparently got. Another two weeks later I see that someone I'm friends with (if you ever saw my old YouTube vid of me at that track, it was his kids who filmed it) bought the Firebird. He had no idea and was really sorry, he declined to say how much he paid when I told him what it was offered to me for, so basically the photog just realized he could get more money and was a snake about it.
My friend did offer to let me putt it down the quarter mile so I took him up on the offer.

2. This one really sucks, in the early 2000s after being in the tech field and not so broke anymore, I got laid off and thats when my back was really just ruined to where I was in my early 30s walking with a cane. But being laid off I was broke again and some big bills were coming so I had to sell my 1985 Mustang GT for a ridiculously low price.
Then for the next few month I would hear about how the new owners were all over town like jackasses with it. They cut off the exhaust to make it loud, then one day at a Target parking lot I see it, spray painted grey and the dash was spray painted silver, shortly after that the next news I got (these idiots were sorta friends with my ex) was while racing they crashed it, dude went to the hospital and the stang was totalled. I have a pic of it totalled somewhere but can't find it, but it really sucked.
Here are a couple of pics from its glory years.

 

[Kern Dog]

Somehow after all of the miles driven in all of the cars and trucks that I have, I've yet to blow up an engine while out on the road. Somehow I have always been able to get home. I've never completely blown up a transmission or rear axle either.
I've encountered flat tires, ran out of gas, had collisions, small fires, had a timing chain break, lost control and went off the road but never anything catastrophic.

 

[1967coronet]

I had bought a mid 70s 4x4 blazer to flip.
Owner was convinced the rods were going.
I had heard the sound of a cracked flex plate. Bought it and home we go on the trailer.
Working off the floor I pulled the trans and transfer case. Sure enough cracked flex plate, re placed it and thought what the heck it looked a little damp under the converter so I pulled it and stuck a new seal in.
All back together set down on the floor and started it up , look under to check trans lines ect. It is just pouring fluid when I tried to back out of the shop.
Pull back in , seal replacment #2 finished the next day. During the middle of the 2nd round my stepdad stopped by. Popped a cold one and as im under the blazer he asks why I bought 2 more seals instead of just one.
Yeh, no chit I had left that new seal on the bench.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I've forgotten many of my hard luck stories & there isn't enough time in the day to write about the ones I do remember.

 

[440 4 speed]

I got in TWO accidents in one week with this car:

View attachment 1911145

View attachment 1911146

Both times, a car turned left in front of me and I T-boned the other car. That totaled it but of course, the car wasn't worth much in 1987.

A plumber on a job I worked said he flew from California to Montana to get a truck he owned and was storing there. Short on cash, he slept in the truck on the way back. One morning he woke up and proceeded to resume the drive back to the interstate when he encountered a sharp turn on a slightly elevated road surface. He made a full roll but landed back on the tires. The windshield was smashed so he kicked it out and drove the rest of the way home.
I called bullshit but he wasn't the lying type so maybe it did happen as he said.

Was that the last GM you bought?

 

[Kern Dog]

Was that the last GM you bought?

My last Chevy was the '84 truck in 1993.

 

[beanhead]

The one that comes to mind first for me is the '68 Charger, yellow with black stripes and top that I got faked out on in the late 90s.
I came across it sitting on some property back when I was doing inspections for our electrical utility. This thing was clean. R/T badges, automatic with black interior. I was in my late 20s, not a lot of money then but these cars were commanding nowhere near what they do nowadays.

I left a note on the door of the house, saying that I would buy it for X amount of cash if they were interested, and left my phone number. What do I have to lose, they'll either wanna deal or they'll toss my note in the trash and ignore me.
Well, that evening there was a message on my answering machine saying "yeah, I need the money I'll sell it for that bring me the cash and you can take it..."

So of course after not sleeping that night from giddy excitement, my buddy drove me out there the next day only to be met by apparently the owner who got a puzzled and pissed off look and said hell no he's not selling it for that...I was confused, but he was like "I never called you and there was never any note on my door"...but his voice was obviously the same as the one on the phone message.
Anyway then I start to get irate and I swear I was about to grab him by his pony tail and break his *** just for fuk'n with me but my (295lb USMarine) buddy got to me first and got me out of there without incident....but man what a disappointment. I wouldn't have cared if I'd never heard from him but I really thought I was getting that car!

 

[Sixpactogo]

The only hard luck story I can remember is back in 1966 while in the Navy, I had a 53 Chevy coupe. I swapped out the stovebolt six with a 283 Corvette engine and painted the car Competition Orange in the Long Beach CA shop on the base. Within a month, the damn thing got stolen twice. I got it back the first time with just a few pieces missing. Couple weeks later it got stolen again. I never saw it after that. Of course with the wages I was drawing as a seaman, I couldn't afford insurance other than liability so it stung pretty good.
In afterthought, maybe it is a good luck story since I soon after upgraded to a 60 Pontiac Ventura with a 389 4 speed that I had tons of fun with. Lots of memories but this is the only picture I have of it.

 

[Kern Dog]

The one that comes to mind first for me is the '68 Charger. I came across it sitting on some property back when I was in my late 20s.

I left a note on the door of the house. Well, that evening there was a message on my answering machine saying "yeah, I'll sell it for that bring me the cash and you can take it..."
My buddy drove me out there the next day only to be met by the owner who said "I never called you and there was never any note on my door"...but his voice was obviously the same as the one on the phone message.... man what a disappointment. I wouldn't have cared if I'd never heard from him but I really thought I was getting that car!

I would not be pleased either.
In 1987 after totaling the 73 Camaro (My only car) I had to get something else to be able to get to work. I read about two separate Camaros listed for sale in the newspaper classified section.
One was a green '72 that was pretty clean. I was waiting for the insurance company to pay up and the car got sold before I could get there with the cash. The next one was a black 72 or 73, a sort of rare color for those cars. I made a deal over the phone, saw the car and shook hands and made plans to return the next day with the money. Of course, more delays with the insurance company.
I did get the money and called him to say that I was heading over but then when I arrived, the car was gone. He had another buyer that beat me there by about a half hour. I was in a pinch so I widened my search and settled for a 76 Camaro with a 305....

Remember the monochromatic trend in the 80s ?

 

[DasFusca]

I reached in the window and started a VW I was working on. It was in gear. It drove itself across the driveway and through the shop door. I dove into the window and pulled up the brake but it already smashed through the door. I stopped it just before it rear-ended a customer's car in the bay. Guy standing out front said "you don't see that every day".