Mighty Shilling

Rock's thread about hitting the sign in his 944 brings up the thought of "I wonder what kind of bone-headed learning experience moves everyone else, INCLUDING TOM R., has made when they were his age up until now, because they couldn't afford a certain piece of maintinance, or fate brought it to be?"

Lets keep this flame-free...

Also, who here has over $500.00 in car repair money in their bank account?

Ok, for me, I've got 2:

First, I had a 1993 Nissan Maxima SE. I was driving on baldish tires on ice and slid into a curb, knocking the alignment WAY off. It would've been a $600.00 repair. I decided to sell it and buy a Porsche. Buyer was informed of this repair being necessary. I was all of 18 years old, I had no spare money, and pretty much, no job. I couldn't afford it, so I left it and sold the car as is.

Second, in the 924S, we did a suspension upgrade. put in new swaybars, but my dad didn't wanna fork up the money for the bushing brackets on the front sway, so we re-used the old ones. HOWEVER they were so stretched, that they couldn't fit into the gap available on the bushing itself on the new sway bar, so my dad and I wrapped the new bushing in DUCT TAPE!!! it seemed to work well, so I went on a test run on a deserted road by a golf course. I was hauling ***, and of course, the hanger didn't hold. it slipped RIGHT off of the bushing, and I went into the curb, destroying 4 new tires, 2 A-arms, and all 4 of my freshly repainted Phone Dials. that's a fun lesson of "spend the extra cash jackasses!" so I put my spare wheels and tires on, ordered a set of A-arms overnight, and had the car back together the next day. and Yes, I looked back and laughed! What else was I supposed to do?

and No, I don't have $500.00 in my bank account for Porsche repairs. If it's necessary for the life of the vehicle, My dad is nice and helps out. if it's not, It's waiting until I can afford it.

iloveporsches

I spun my car the first night I got it. That was it for bonehead moves in the 944.

I have over $500 in my bank account. I don't drive the car in the winter though.

Serge944

My cousin spun the car into the ditch the first night we got her running. I guess it was a bone-head move for letting him drive it.

Matt O.

Tried losening the rear eccentric bolt with the weight of the car, jack gave way, brake rotor came down on my hand. Sucked pretty bad. Was able to jack the car back up with my other hand, as I was alone in the garage. THAT is pretty BONE HEADED.

Jakerx

when i had my 95 civic ex coupe, in the rain i went a little fast and had to put the brakes on in a curve. i ended up hitting the curb of the curve...luckily i only had misalignment problems and no damage...except a few scratches to the new wheels which i had bought 2 weeks prior

but how about we ask...who has $500 of car UPGRADE money in their account

tifosiman

There was a time in my life, when I was 19 or so, that I could acquire beer with great ease despite the legal drinking age being 21. I knew several adults who were always happy to supply it for me as long as I could pay for it. The problem with drinking when you're underage is that you get drunk and then have nothing to do, since you still can't get served in bars. This often leads to drunken mischief.

Among my small circle of friends at the time, lawn jobs were the chosen form of late-night entertainment. For those of you who don't know what a lawn job is, a lawn job consists of driving on someone's lawn with your car, hopefully leaving an indelible impression in their grass. The lawn job is not as popular as it used to be, since if you were to try it today you'd probably get shot.

Anyway, some of my friends and I did this so often that lawn-jobbing became an art form. In particular, I had a friend named Kerry who drove a Pinto and was always ready to wreck some lawns. As the plain old run-over-someone's-lawn-and-take-off routine began to dull, we began seeking further thrills, running over small shrubbery and even lawn-jobbing flower beds. Sometimes we would even do one on our friend Mike's house, just to let him know we dropped by. After all, it was on the way.

One night, we peaked.

It was a Saturday, and we were drunk and bored as usual. We wanted to go beyond the routine lawn job and prove that there were bigger thrills to be had. I don't remember who came up with the idea, but as we were scoping out a local subdivision, we found a nice challenge: Three houses in a row looked very lawn-jobbable, but were sitting at different elevations, with about a two-foot dropoff from one house to the next. We figured out that by starting out at the highest house, we could achieve a Triple Lawn Job and enjoy a "jump" between each one as well. Kerry's Pinto performed this triple lawn job to perfection, with the two of us screaming with laughter at each jump and thump, and leaving deep scars in each lawn. That was when we should have stopped.

But we were still bored as we pulled into the parking lot of a local church. Now, I had always wanted to lawn-job a church, but there was a problem with churches: They rarely had lawns. This one was no exception, and as we turned around in the parking lot, there was nothing there but a couple traffic islands with flower beds in them. We decided to lawn job one of the flower beds.

Kerry carefully pulled the Pinto up the curb and into the flower bed with the two left wheels. Unfortunately, the soil in the flower bed was exceedingly soft. We got stuck immediately. We were unable to push the Pinto out no matter what we tried. There was a house right next to the church, where the preacher lived. Surely the sound of a revving Pinto at 2:00 am should wake him, but so far, nothing. We were too drunk for panic, but we needed a tow.

And so it was that Kerry and I set out on foot towards my house, with Mike's house on the way. Once we got to Mike's, Kerry found their garage door unlocked, snuk in, and grabbed a tow rope he had recalled being there. Once we got to my house, I snuk upstairs and grabbed the keys to my dad's truck, which, fortunately, he didn't park in the garage. We headed back to the scene in the pickup. Still no preacher, or anyone, in sight, as if a Pinto parked half in and half out of a flower bed was normal for a church parking lot. We quickly pulled out the Pinto and got out of there.

We never lawn-jobbed again, unless you count the time Greg was backing out of Mike's driveway after a drunken party, and not only knocked down but ran over Mike's mailbox, crushing the box itself with a tire going right over its middle. He replaced it later with a better one, which still stands to this day.

Mighty Shilling

OUCH! break any bones? didja recover well?

Jakerx

wow tifo i'm surprised you had the patience to write that. but knowing you, is that story real or something you found?

pete944

Ok here's one.
I had a '68 Mustang and wanted to build a new motor for it so I found a '69 Torino parts car for $50 that had a decent motor. All I really wanted was the block. After it was towed to my house one of my friends said that we should drive it around before we tear it apart. It was a 4 speed and the clutch and accellerator pedals were gone. I don't know what happened to them, they just weren't there. Well, one of the othe guys said it would be impossible to drive it so we decided to prove him wrong.
We busted out the windsheild, removed the hood. and tied a kite string to the carb linkage. That would control the throttle. We said the heck with the clutch so we stuck it in second and the gear shift broke off. Oh well, at least it was in gear.
Next we push started it in gear and drove the pos to this guys house and circled his block while laying on the horn. We couldn't stop the car without killing the motor so we had to just keep circling until he saw us.
I don't think the thing had more than one working drum brake either.

Mighty Shilling

Pete, that's AWESOME!

Chris_924s

Lessee...
Decorating Pete's new garage floor with virgin Mobil1...
Figuring out Jello shots and AC compressor replacement dont mix..
Dropping the entire tailpipe from the cat back on the way to Hershey..
Steam cleaning the engine bay on the Celica..
Waiting WAAY too long to do motor mounts and rear brakes..

Just the ones I remember off of the top of my head- I'm sure there are many others..

pete944

It's 100% true. After we pulled the good parts we beat the hell out of it with baseball bats, cut a sunroof in it with tin snips, and I thnk someone peed in it.
I had it hauled off for $20 the next day.

SamGrant951

Going around a switchback corner wwwaaaayyyyyy to fast in the rain in my mom's miata. Did a perfect 360, then a nice little 180 right into a pretty deep ditch. No real damage other than the obvious grass sticking out between the tires/rims. This was when I had my learners permit DRIVING WITH MY MOM IN THE PASSENGER SEAT. I freaked out as I knew my Dad was home and doesnt take kindly to driving mistakes. (Till this day, I still havent had an accident)

Best part of the story: My mom got in the driver seat and rocked the car (1st-R-1st-R-1st) out of the ditch. The people that saw the car go sailing into the ditch backward couldnt believe that we didnt need a tow out.

This all proves, Moms flat out kick *** in times of need. Dont think my dad ever found out.

theedge

Went ripping out of my old workplace in the rain, tires spinning. Second gear + boost + rain = WHOOPS, as I go madly fishtailing all over the road and end up spinning out.

I also pulled a move like Porschephile in his first post, tried to take a corner nice and fast in my dads Sentra. Thanks to some retarded construction workers, the part of the 3 way instersection I went through was covered in gravel and sand. I of course go straight into a curb. Not much damage, so I drop my friend Ashleigh off. Im lucky to have her as a friend, she was with me for that, AND for the reason my family has that Sentra, when I was in an accident with my dads truck (not my fault).

Tom R.

It was a hot summer night I was 17, she was 16. We were cruising in the Firebird. A guy in a 280SL pulls up next to us. Both of our tops were down. He says something to me, I ask what he has, he says turbocharged. Being the car enthusiast that I am I appreciate what he has and I say nice.

He asks if I want to race, I say sure. He wants to put something on it, I say I only race for fun. He tries to pull a Marty McFly on me, I say just for fun.

Next thing you know my girlfriend is standing up and three tops are down, and she says how bout this! She was a smokin C, she was a real hottie. Damn I got some real hotties back then in the red Firebird Convertible.

Next thing you know there is a hand you know where on me and a threat that the massage will turn into a vice grip if I loose.

I won. That was one of my few kills with a passenger.

I also killed a Beatle and a Dodge Colt with the Firebird when I had a passenger. How I beat the SS396 is beyond me, but I did. Too bad nobody was with me to witness it.

Did I say to myself that was pretty stupid right aftewards? You bet I did. Thats the difference. I admitted it was stupid, and tried to change.