Today’s BangShift Daily Tune Up is a Colt Ford song that talks about a motor hanging from a tree for his ’68 red Chevelle which made us laugh and think about the stupid stuff we have done in the front yard and shouldn’t have. And then I started thinking about the things we did in college at our apartment and shouldn’t have. Like polishing an entire set of satin aluminum wheels to full polished beautifulness on the front porch of my apartment. The neighbors loved us. Or step notching a truck in the parking lot of the same apartment complex. And there is nothing more entertaining than coming home with some wreck and leaving it on the trailer in the driveway for a day or two. The neighbors love that and it’s fun to watch them squirm. I’ve never pulled an engine with a tree before, but I would like to. Our biggest trees are giant palm trees and they won’t work for that.
I know people who have pulled engines in their front yards, and who have painted cars in their driveways. And I’ve seen plenty of cars sitting on jack stands for weeks. I’d love to hear some of the entertaining ones you BangShifters have done though. So share. We want to hear it! Tell us all the cool examples of you getting your redneck on.
Next week we have one that you may need to answer anonymously so your significant other doesn’t find out about it, but you’ll dig it too.
Until then, what is the worst (best?) thing you have ever repaired or stored in your front yard? You know, the thing that makes your neighbors cringe and your better half scream.
I put a worn out El Camino out on the street in Richardson that I wish I had back. No place to store it. Anyway, I was pulling suspension bits off of it and stripping all the stuff off of it that I wanted to keep with the stereo CRANKED in the garage when Richardson’s finest showed up. I turned the stereo down and we talked for a minute, neighbor had claimed I was drunk and endangering myself. He was a young guy and understood what I was doing. Told him “I’ve only been home from work for 20 minutes, I haven’t had time to get drunk yet.” He laughed, we chatted, everything was fine. I explained the neighbor situation and he understood. Good cop.
His partner “Bad cop” rolls up and starts railing on me, good cop says “it’s under control” and Bad cop is not gonna let up without bitching at me some more. “You know we’re gonna tow that car”
“That sir, I am absolutely counting on!”
Good cop laughed. Bad cop had no sense of humor. It sat out there for two days on cinder blocks, missing two legs, the hood, and all semblance of dignity. On the third day, when I got home from work, it was gone.
When I was 16 and living at my parents house I had a 66 Chevelle convertible with no engine, I intended to put the 283 I had laying around in it. The car was in the grass next to the driveway and looked like hell. I finally decided to do something else with the engine and started to sell parts off the Chevelle. Now there’s a half stripped car in Dad’s yard in a neighborhood where this just did not happen. Mom kept threatening to have it towed, I kept promising to do something about it, but never did. One day I get home from school and the car is gone, and my jack stands had been run over. I look in the garage and the 283 was gone, along with brand new headers, two Powerglides and a four speed, plus other miscellaneous parts. Mom said the tow truck driver from the junkyard said all that stuff was “supposed” to go with the car, and she didn’t question him. And after only about 26 warnings, Mom got rid of all my valuable junk.
Most of my antics have been pretty boring compared to the above ones. Installed the EFI system on my Dart with it parked on gravel next to the side of my house. And in college, I once did an oil and filter change on the nearest stretch of road to my dorm that didn’t have a “no parking” sign, in a snow storm.
I bought a 77 Mercury wagon for the 460/C6. The side was wiped off leaving the back bumper hanging by one side. Left it on the trailer beside the garage for two weeks due to working 7 days a week. City sent me a letter about having “inoperable vehcles” on my property. Since then, every time a strange vehicle is here with the hood up city code enforcment goes by. When I built my “shed”, 12×20 with overhead door, they even stopped Had to show the permits and blueprints. I’m 99.9% sure who keeps calling, because when I work on her husbands truck nothing happens.
Built headers in my apartment back yard. The grinding and welding pissed off my neighbors. Assembled and installed the 454 in my caprice back there as well. But, rebuilding a wrecked 67 chevelle was the craziest. We lifted the body off the bent frame with two engine hoists and slid the new one underneath. Had the parts car with no suspension on a trailer for two while we stripped it.
My freshman year in college we pulled my buddies 396 out of his Camaro and stuck it in a shopping cart and wheeled it up to our 5th floor dorm “suite” where we stripped it down. We degreased it in the dorm showers. The crank was bad, so it sat in the cart for about a month as my buddy figured out how to pay for another crank.
I love it! That is dedication!
In 1968 while still in high school, my friend, Joe, and I bought a not running 1963 Ford Falcon for $50 and dragged it to my house to build a modified production drag car. My mom was shocked to see me driving this junker with Joe in his car pushing me down the street. I never told her about our plan, I knew it was easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission. Neither of us had ever done more than change the spark plugs or oil on a car before. With a slimmer than slim budget we needed to pull the motor without paying to rent a hoist. In the middle of my yard we built a tripod from 3 16 ft long 2X4s, hung a cheap come along from the top, pushed the front of the car under it and pulled the engine & 3 spd trans out together. Every body we knew that had more mechanical experience than us was amazed that we didn’t get killed using our tripod to support the weight of the engine & trans. By the time we graduated H.S. we had a decent roller. I sold my half to Joe when I went to collage and after 2 more years he got it finished. By that time it was obsolete for the track so he put it on the street and street raced it for quite a while.
I have a 2001 Sonoma sitting in the front yard without an engine in it, as we speak. Pulling the 2.2l with an engine hoist, in the grass gives you a good workout! Too many projects. In the past, I’ve cut up parts-cars with a torch and sawzall, and thrown the parts in the dumpster.
When I was in college, my 74 Nova decided to puke out the transmission pan gasket in the parking lot by my dorm. After leaving a sea of red under the car, I moved it 2 spaces over and replaced the gasket not once, not twice, but three times! I learned 2 good lessons: 1) Don’t be afraid to ask advice from someone wiser than you and 2) Always check the flatness on the transmission pan.
More recently I built a engine for a 4th Gen Camaro and found that it was easier to pull the engine cradle out the bottom of the car. The Camaro set in the driveway for a few days with the front end on a cart with caster wheels. Luckily, my wife just rolled her eyes when she saw it for the first time.
I’ve got a 34 foot RV in the back yard right with a bad 454 that needs replaced right now ! My neighbors arn’t real happy about another house on the property .
Not me, but I have pictures somewhere; 3 guys went to Bathurst in a Torana (GM Australia product, 6 or v8) to watch the racing one year when I was there.Their snotty 202 6 cylinder in the Torana basically dies when they pulled up in the camping spot on the top of the mountain.
They got one of their mates to get a spare motor from the wreckers, then changed it in a sea of tents, with a few basic hand tools, blocks of wood and a rope up a gumtree for an engine crane.And got it done before the big race started Sunday morning!!
When junking a car for scrap metal the easiest way to remove the gas tank and catalytic converter is to punch a softball size hole in the roof with a claw hammer and wrap a long chain thru the hole and around the window sill and run it across the roof to the other side and hook it to your truck and pull the car on its side.(this is very DANGEROUS.do not attempt if you dont know what your diong.Do not attampt alone