Made a bonehead mistake!!

[Danny Gutierrez]

  I've been working on and around cars most of my life.  I am usually very thorough and cautious when it comes to working on cars.  Especially when my Charger is involved.  Well a couple of weeks ago I changed brake pads and shoes on my 69.  A simple procedure I have performed on dozens of cars.  Everything went smooth and I ended up parking the car for a week and a half due to the wet weather.  Well the weather cleared up and I took her out for an errand.  I got about a mile and a half when I heard a clunking coming from the front of my car.  I was in the inside lane and had to get over fast to pull off the road.  I ALMOST made it to the shoulder when the driver's side front wheel came off!!!!!  Seems that I forgot to tighten that wheel after the brake job!!!!!   STUPID!!!!!!  Anyways there was minimal damage to my brake rotor and some minor damage to my wheel well and fender.  I know better and have NO excuse.  Could have been a lot worse or even DANGEROUS!!!!!  Here's some pics of my shame.

[CornDogsCharger]

Hey, don't feel bad.  As much as I hate to admit it... I did the exact same thing with my '66 Charger, except the wheel didn't actually come off.  But.... I was going down the interstate!!  I just finished freshening up the brakes on the front of the car at the body shop where I work.  From there, I took it on a 25 mile trip to my friend's house where I planned on leaving it for a couple weeks so I coupld rebuild the carb and tune on it.  About 3-4 miles from completing the trip I started to hear a faint "knocking" in the right front.  I slowed down a little but didn't feel the need to stop.  When I got about 1 mile from my friend's house, the knocking became much worse and I decided to pull over.  With the weight of the car still on the wheel, you could still grab the top of the wheel and shake it in and out.  At first, I thought the wheel bearings were shot.  So we loaded the car up on the trailer and pulled it to my friend's house.  I felt like such and idiot when I popped the dogdish hubcap off and two lugnuts fell out.  The other three had back off the studs and were about halfway backed off.  DOH!!!  I learned.... always double and triple check!!!

Justin
"CornDog"

[MGBRingo]

I did the same thing on my MGB a couple of years ago.  Wheel didn't come off but I noticed the sound a few miles down the road and stopped to tighten it.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Ouch Danny that hurts to look at!!

Glad you didnt get hurt, it could have been much worse.  Your training as a mechanic paid off in that respect.....many others would have turned the radio louder

[Brock Samson]

  That happened to me too, first yr. i owned mine, i had a shop return the brakes to stock, cause i mistakenly thought if B-body brakes were good, C-body brakes were better,... Oppps,.. I used to so enjoy telling folks "My Charger Has Highway Patrol Car Brakes".
anyhow,.. i was lucky that there was no real damage as when I heard my "noise"  i was only doing about 25 MPH on a quiet street and I pulled over just in time to see the front pass. slot mag. was walking off the lugs which had only been  finger tightend when the lunch truck pulled up...
So the shop replaced the stripped stems and did some other minor crap for free after apologising profusly...
there was another red or orange 2nd gen. which had the same thing happen on the old site.., caved in the fender as I recall..

[Bandit72]

never done that, but i've forgot to put the rotor back in after setting points acouple times, that'll get on your nerves QUICK!!

later 

[Big Lebowski]

Ouch dude.

[Dodge-Charger]

feel better man, this is what happend to mine before I got it from the last owner.

[Charger Aficionado]

Imagine smashing it into a parked car because it came-off in a turn...

[bull]

That stinks. I guess now we're obligated to give you a hard time about it. I've met a few perfect people (so they believe) but the rest of us tend to screw up on occasion. At least you didn't kill yourself or someone else. Hopefully a $500 bill will take care of it.

[Charger_Croatia]

Don't be hard on yourself. What when such thing happened by professional?!

Once when I was changing rims on previous daily driver, from steel to aluminum, in local tire shop. After few hundred meters I heard that "clunk, clunk" noise on right front wheel. Fortunately speed was low and I wasn't to far from them. No damage, they apologized.

Once friend of mine forgot to put back a cap after checking oil level. Just imagine how it looks after some time when he discovered that.

[Danny Gutierrez]

I plan on taking the car to a body shop for a quote this week.  I had just purchased some new wheel moldings a couple of days before the mishap.

[Ghoste]

I've done it too.  Like the others, I was lucky enough to not lose a wheel but one afternoon after working on the car I went for a test drive.  I heard a clunk coming from the back and when I pulled over to investigate found I hadn't tightened the lugs on one of the rears.
It's easy to do and luckily no one was hurt.

[tan top]

done that on my daily driver after rebuilding the front suspension , luckily not on the charger

[dpm68]

I have done the same thing too...I had put brakes on a customer's car and went for a test drive and just as I was going over the tracks, I noticed a sound like the wheels were about to come off...I hopped out of the car immidiately (after clearing the tracks) and used the lug wrench in the trunk to snug them up...whew! dm

[PocketThunder]

I was in my 55 Chev and running down the freeway one time with old tires on it and the front tires tread pealed right off the tire and started flapping against the fender.  the tire didnt pop, but it shaked the sh!t out of the car untill i got it stopped....

[71charger_fan]

Been there, done that. The lug holes in the spare of one of Cherokees are all hogged out because I got distracted and forgot to final tighten the lugs.