What disasterous story do you have to tell about the car you own.

[69bronzeT5]

bought my 68 charger in feb. of 1968 383 ,4sp power windows,brakes,steering,red with vinal top black
out looking for a house to buy because i was being transfered. i came up over a bridge and on the other side was a mecury station wagon in my lane.we hit at about 50 miles per hour. he was drunk. i had a broken jaw and right leg,the wife internal injuries and the boy had a bad bump on his head.the girles were not to bad.
i had the car about 1 year and two months.

What happened to the car after that?

[440charger68]

i was in my auto class in high school, and a kid backed off one of our lifts and rear ended my 68' charger. I was pissed at first because i have no money to fix it, but the school paid me. Its the only reason why i have a running car now, because i spent all the money on the motor and interior. I fixed the dent myself and im planning to repaint it in a month or so, with a brand new motor i partially paid for from the money.

[Crazy Larry]

Here are the stills from an outtake during the filming of my first feature film "And I Lived"....

The stunt driver was supposed to fly by the camera, kind of like buzzing the tower (as we called it after the Top Gun scene). It makes for a real great shot, the closer you can come to the camera. The chase scene in the movie lasts for about 8 minutes, so we had a ton of shots like this in there.

Well...(since it is a lot to describe. here is an excerpt from the book that I wrote on it detailing moments during the incident...after that I'll post the pictures)

Details:

     Chris jumped into his leather jacket and "Matt-wig" and got behind the wheel of the Charger. He keyed the engine and the car growled to life. We quickly went over the establishing shot of the Charger entering the lot. The muscle car was driven into place. "Action!" was called. Chris jumped on the gas and steered the car down the paved drive way and onto the slippery gravel terrain. I cut the camera and watched as the Charger spun around in a doughnut. We had been filming on pavement the entire time and the guys were not used to the slippery grip the tires had on the gravel.
     Scott drove me in the Ford Taurus to the center of the lot. The next shot needed was a high vantage point showing the Charger just entering the lot and speeding straight across. I wanted the Charger to turn towards the camera with some flare (kind of kick the rear end out as it turns) and then straighten out and speed on by to my left.
     Chris went and got into position as I explained what I needed the car to do. The sun was hanging low. How about a practice run? No chance, no time.

     Scott was standing by the driver-side door of the Ford with the hand held radio, ready to call "Action" on my mark. I switched camera lenses from wide to zoom, remembering to check the gate. The cars were kicking a lot of gravel dust into the air and I was paranoid that it might affect the film.
     I stood up on the roof of the Ford and raised the camera, but I was so exhausted from running around for the last hour, my legs were unsteady. I decided to sit down on the roof to get a better shot. Since I was shooting through the zoom lens at normal speed, a simple movement such as a shake or twitch is amplified (on screen, it would look like an earthquake). In order to steady myself, I sat down, laying my legs down windshield and propping my boots against the back of the hood, over the windshield wipers. I was pretty comfortable and ready to get a steady shot. It wasn't as high of an angle that I could get from standing, but it would have to do.
     With the Charger in frame, I gave Scott the "OK" and he radioed to Chris. The Charger started in motion and I held down the camera trigger. In the eye piece, I watched the flickering image of the shiny black car as it hit the gravel. Chris hooked the right turn and the car's end spun all the way out. It was sliding sideways towards us about 30 yards from the camera's lens. With a roar of the engine and a cloud of dust spitting out from under its tires, the Charger straightened out and jumped ahead. I kept the camera rolling, expecting the vehicle to break right and zoom right by. To all of our surprise, the tires then turned to the left, causing the Charger to angle sideways. The muscle car was now looking straight into the camera. Chris had lost control. With another rev of the big block engine, he tried to accelerate out of the impending doom, but the laws of physics were now in effect. Combine that with the non-grip gravel surface and...
     Scott yelled "Look out!" I couldn't gauge the distance in my camera's eye piece. I didn't realize how close the Charger was, so I kept filming...
     BAM!!!
     I remember watching the Charger's front right fender buckle from the collision with the Ford's front bumper just a few feet below the camera lens.
     Our lens box, a steel WWII ammunition case that was resting on the Ford's hood, went rocketing forward like a missile. It burst open on the gravel, spilling all the lenses and filters everywhere.       
     The force of the impact tore the Ford's transmission out of park, and sent the vehicle rolling backwards across the lot. I never moved. I was still sitting on the roof, with my boots braced against the back of the hood. If I had been standing on the roof in my normal filming position, I would have been thrown from the vehicle. (Guardian Angel working overtime today)











These are actual stills from the outtake during filming - you can see my shadow in the last frame holding the camera, right next to the Charger fender as it is contorting upon impact...
I'll try to dig up the footage of this and put it up on youtube, you'd guys get a kick out of it. Or a cringe out of it as I did.

[73chgrSE]

Holy crap!! Well atleast you guys weren't trying to jump 35 cars or something. Glad you weren't hurt.

[pettyfan43]

We love this kid.   For better or worse, ....many of us have adopted him

Thats why I love it here. Theres ALOT of nice people



Mike (NYCMILLE), I remember when you got knocked off the show....I was on my hands and knees infront of the TV yelling "NO!!!!!!!!!!"

I know nothing of the show, but would love for someone to explain it? 

This is kinda the "Reader's Digest" version and it's pretty darn cool!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCjwrOB2VK8

Mike's Charger is my favorite Charger EVER!!!!

My favorite parts come up about :38 Seconds and 1:08!

[TUFCAT]

Oh wow...its been so long, I can hardly remember this one - - ha!! - - (it wasn't my car so it was an easy one to forget). Circa 1971 and my Dad has a 1969 383 Charger SE - T7 Dark Bronze. 

Making a long story short, when it was just a year old (in 1970) it received a perfect showcar paint job! .... the car was stock in every way, except for the "stock appearing" super shiny, mile-deep, T7 bronze lacquer.  To say this was a perfect showcar was an understatement.  To drive this car on the street you had to be sick.....but it was a daily driver.   My Dad was afraid to park the car anywhere....and he was really worried about driving it because it could get damaged..... don't forget this very important point!

Here's a guy who came home from work and spent his every bit of his extra time putting an arrow-straight lacquer paint job on his nearly new (1 year old Charger)..... wouldn't you think he'd be more careful? 

Here's the scene.  Its 1971. Enter his two young brats, and your Charger is parked in the driveway.... because your getting ready to go to a wedding......and those same two young brats are both inside the car - - waiting to captain your ride!!!!  Oh yeah, did I forget to say that you just went inside the house for a moment?    ..... uh oh!

Naturally, being a 69 SE we had bucket seats and a console.  I wanted to sit in the drivers seat and shift gears....but uh oh, I can't reach the pedals.  Hey....who needs to sit in the drivers seat??   Being a car crazed 4 year old, I just decided to shift the car out of park.....and then down the driveway we went, for about five seconds, ....ghost-riding......in a Charger that was nearly to straight, to shiny, and to perfect to be driven.

My Brother couldn't get into the driver seat fast enough to steer clear of the street lamp pole that I was about to hit......ouch.  I knew (we) were in trouble when the neighbors came running out!!!  Remember that lacquer paint job??  Well, that was the end of a rear valance, and right quarter panel above the tail lamp housing. 

After an emergency session of blending many more coats of hand rubbed lacquer to the affected areas, our Dad has his daily driven showcar Charger looking good again.  But to say he was PISSED??  That was an understatement!

Later, after the car was fixed, it got a door ding in a parking lot, a stone chip in the hood, then a big FOR SALE sign.  Later....in the fall of 1971, he ordered a new 1972 Charger SE. You just couldn't keep a daily driven showcar nice very long back in the 70's with kids.   

[MattAShine]

I have three stories actually:

1 - My brother and I were cruising in our 1969 Charger one day either a year or two ago. We were going through this small town about 40 mph. About 1000 feet ahead or us, a traffic light goes from green to red (lacking yellow mind you). Now, my daily driver is a 2000 Buick, and until the Charger I had no experience with drum brakes, so anti-locks are what I was used to. I see the red, and hit the brakes and start to slide. The front end pulls toward the passenger side, but I managed to bring it back straight, but then it pulled toward the driver side (never leaving my own lane mind you). By the time I finally stop, I am just before the light, sitting in my original lane still, but the car is sitting broadside in the lane. I quickly pull into a parking lot and my brother and I are almost hyperventilating. We calm down, and as we are getting ready to leave, we see a cop pull in, see us, turn around and follow us out. Turns out somebody called the cop on us. He pulled us over, but couldn't give a ticket as he did not see it himself.

2 - My brother and I 'used' to own a 1970 Coronet and a 1968 Charger. I have to say 'used to' as we no longer do. We had them stored in a 'friends' garage in Maine before we moved to our current state of Indiana last January. We paid him in January for Jan and Feb (2006). I hard a hard time finding a job when we got here, but by May we were back on our feet. I tried to call the person we were renting from, and my calls were ignored. I had a family member go over there and he said the locks were changed. Turned out this 'friend' and another 'friend' who also rented out in this garage cleaned us out for both the Coronet and the '68 and all of our personal effects. We can't do anything to fight it as we were about 2 months late in rent, so legally we have no re-course.

3 - In late January 2006, during the actual move to Indy, my Uncle and I rented a U-Haul car carrier to haul the '69 Charger. Now, Maine to Indiana is north of a 12 hour haul (closer to 13 or more I think). We started early in the morning, and by 10:00 at night we were in upstate New York, heading for Pennsylvania. We just hit Erie, PA, around 11:00pm and found ourselves in a snow storm. My Uncle (the driver of the truck at the time) had been yawning pretty consistently for around an hour, but insisted that he was okay to drive. Going through Erie, the front end of the truck started to leave our lane, and go into the passing lane, but never stopped. I looked at my Uncle to see that he had fallen asleep behind the wheel. I shouted at him, and he woke up and tried to correct the truck. We hit some black-ice and he over corrected. The momentum of the weight of the trailer and the Charger pushed the front of the truck into a guard-rail. The front end of the Charger lanced the rear end of the passenger side of the truck (so we were sitting like an 'L'). I stumble out of the truck to survey the damage. The front passenger fender was smashed, the front of the hood had paint damaged (by mostly saved by the push-bar that so many loath), the passenger side of the grille was shattered and the front valance was almost flattened. The cops had to stop traffic to get us out. The most gauling thing about that was that I had to watch the cops taking pictures of themselves posing by the 'General Lee' while I was trying desperately not to lose my mind as my car sat there crippled.

She's fixed now (of course), but it's still difficult to think about.

[TUFCAT]

That was some serious bad luck you guys had!!   

[0X01B8]

I don't have a disastrous story.  Should I be worried?   

[MattAShine]

I don't have a disastrous story.  Should I be worried?   

I think eventually everybody who owns one of these cars has either a disaster story or at least a 'close call' story. It's the nature of owning a car, classic or otherwise. The only thing I can hope is that if I ever have a MAJOR disaster, nobody is killed and the Charger repairable.

To be honest, after seeing pics of the crash test 68 Charger and some others that have had REALLY major accidents, I really believe that if ever there was an accident so bad that the car could not be salvaged, I honestly don't think I'll be walking away either.

[69bronzeT5]

To be honest, after seeing pics of the crash test 68 Charger

I havent seen that pic...could you share it?

[MattAShine]

To be honest, after seeing pics of the crash test 68 Charger

I havent seen that pic...could you share it?

My bad, it's a '69. It's pretty harsh pic. I've never posted a pic on this board before, but here goes...

[bordin34]

Somebody has to say it so... That looks like an easy to do father son project yee-haw.

[73chgrSE]

wow, what was the speed of that test?

[MattAShine]

wow, what was the speed of that test?

Lord only knows. I was never told.

[73chgrSE]

It had to be atleast 100mph to do that much crumpling, I'ld hope.

[monoptn]

Here's a true story that's worth telling, but it happened to a friend of mine.  In high school he had a 73 Monte Carlo with a 350 in it.  His thermostat stuck, so he changed it, but over torqued it and broke his intake.  He found an intake and replaced it, but when he fired the motor, the oil pump was not engaged (or something like that...don't know about chevy small blocks).  The motor seized up.  So, he rolled the car under a tree and pulled the motor in the front yard, and got a nice lesson in rebuilding.  After the motor was complete, he hoisted it back into the tree, and rolled the car under it, but it got away from him and the motor went through the windshield.  He got the motor in and fired finally, so all was good.  Before re-installing his hood, he power washed the underside on his driveway, and walked away for a few minutes.  About that time, his mom backed out and ran over the hood. 

[Highway by the Sea]

One of my neighbors gave me my former 74 Charger SE with a blown 318 in it.  I had the motor rebuilt, bored .30 over, and drove it about 300 miles or so and it started making loud noises.  I had told the mechanic when it was being rebuilt that I wanted the carb replaced, but he would not do it.  It turned out that somehow (related to the bad carb) the car used up all the oil in the rebuilt engine in a short time, the oil pump was shot, and the crankcase had a quart of gasoline in it.  I never did go back to him after I had him fix this mess.

[SFRT]

I totalled 3 cars in 3 years-2 of the 3 I was stoned outta my gourd

1977- Plymouth Sport Fury convertible-ran it into a huge metal streetlight on a foggy Sacto night
1978- '69 Nova, rolled it of a levee road in West Sac on the 4th of July
1979- 70 (71?) Tempest-collision with a station wagon (this one wasnt my fault)

nothing since.

[MsMopar]

Pictures are worth a thousand words.  MsMopar

[MsMopar]

Another

[69bronzeT5]

I cant see it entirely well....what car is in there?

[MsMopar]

It is on the rotissere sideways to the right. Here's another. MsMopar

[MsMopar]

It is my 69 Charger 500. Fortunetly, the paint booth protected it from too much heat. That melted lump in the paint booth is the corvette that started the fire.  MsMopar

[69bronzeT5]

  Is it fixable?? What happened?? Was this recentley or???