[QUOTE=aceinthehole]Are you kidding ? I love this stuff. It's as good as Mark Twain. I was married and parenting by the age of 19, and divorced by the age of 21.  I vowed not to remarry, and for the next 10 years I had a life until I made "the mistake" again. I paid child support and lived for my children for the next 25 years. Your stories remind me of those very precious single years. "Carry on McDuff, an darned be he who cries "hold...enough".[/QUOTE] WOW Jimmy you played with fire............more than I did............

On a summer night, I went out to drag race (at the strip)….. I love night racing. The bad part is using a flash light to remove the exhaust and carburetor…then re-install later. I was alone. I was driving home 75 miles and being followed. Two guys were trying to outwit me by following behind, then getting in front at times. It was obvious to me that they wanted to see where I lived to steal my vette. I was about 5 miles from home and plenty worried. The guys where in front of me, when I was nearing a down ramp at a cloverleaf intersection. As they were up front and were very close to the ramp, I indicated (turn indicator) from behind that I was turning right….BINGO………they made a very quick right turn down the ramp….SUCCESS…….I downshifted to third gear, and accelerated to 6,500 rpm, shifted into fourth……….and flew as fast as I could to distance myself from them. By the time they realized what had happened I was GOOOOOOOOONE. I hooked it down every side street back and forth to get to my parents home. I was pretty worked up by the time I got the car into the garage and got the door closed. WHEW! I'll tell you about my 64 red Fastback that was stolen from my Chevy dealer that was only 9 months old later. (I think they had it stolen)  

 

corvette440hp2009-05-29 07:23:27

[QUOTE=corvette440hp][QUOTE=aceinthehole I was married and parenting by the age of 19, and divorced by the age of 21. [/QUOTE]  My friends all predicted that I would be dead by 27..........soooo, at the ripe age of 27, I settled down and got married.....been maried for 37 years, this July. Jimmy you have been thru a whole lot worse than me........  

I order a midyear Riverside Red Corvette coupe (fastback). Anything that has to do with speed/performance I order. Engine was 327/365hp, I can do magic to increase the horsepower, vs. the 327/375hp fuelie. I order the close ratio 4-speed, 4.56 gears, and positraction, also transistorized ignition system. Oh yea, white wall tires and AM/FM radio….(sure to make me go faster)….. haha. The ignition system was a midyear option………man what a disaster. It was totally unproven, and unreliable. The first time it crashed, they replaced everything….due to lack of knowledge. The second time they replaced the pulse amplifier. The third time they sent it out to an ignition shop that specialized in that field. It turned out that moisture was getting into the pulse amplifier behind the grill for cooling purposes. The transistors would get corroded from the moisture.  They installed new transistors and RTV sealed. I couldn’t shift at the red line of 6,500rpm due to the clutch (diaphragm) not engaging anything above 6,000. It would stay disengaged, until I brought down the rpm’s…..then snap back in………..like side stepping the clutch……wham! They told me not to shift over 6,000………..I told them they were insane. They changed out the pressure plate two times…………still can’t shift at 6,500. I appeal to them that I’ll buy a three finger pressure plate over the counter and install it myself. They think about it and get back with “buy any racing pressure plate, and clutch that I prefer………but we have to install it to keep the warranty” YES………..YES…… just do it, I say! I went with Weber…….good stuff at that time. That ended that problem. Now for the rear end………I went  through only three. The last one happened when I was “test” driving pulling gears…….when I hit a large bump in the road….kind of went airborne……came down and cleaned a few teeth off of the spider gears. Man you should hear what that sounds like…..it’s sort of like the body is loose from the frame and they’re smacking into each other when you make a turn. I was a nightmare to the Service Department. During the winter I did a lot of engine work. The battery was left in the car. It discharged and evidently the battery froze. It would recharge…….but the charge wouldn’t last more than a couple of hours. I took it in for the battery to be replaced (warranty)…the car was only 9 months old. They told me they were busy……..and to leave the car. I called up a guy that I worked with to take me home, and to work………afternoon 3-11 shift in a steel mill. I’m running a overhead crane, when the foreman motions, that there is a call for me. I park the crane, come down a gizzilion stairs and go to the foreman’s office. "Call your Chevy dealer"………I call, "did you take your car when you left this morning?"…………."dah…….NO" was my answer……….."well it’s missing"………"we’ll check our other lots to see if we can locate it………call back in an hour"……….I call back…….."well we reported it as stolen……….you have to also report it as the owner"……………I tell them "GREAT, your insurance has to cover it because……..YOU LOST POSSESION OF IT"……….they said "come in tomorrow……..we’ll talk about it" This is just the beginning of much more bad "stuff" that happened with the stolen "vette".

 

 

Well I must jump in on that one...One of my freinds from high school and myself were late gettin out to class. So we decided to "borrow" his brothers car...His brother was in Basic at the time...I was the one with a license at the time so I was drivin. Well after having the car reported stolen and his parents finding out we borrowed it we unded up the creek with out a paddle. Man his brother was mad at us for that. I guess turn about was fair play too, or maybe just bad karma. But while i was in basic my sister stole my car(she did not have a license) and proceded to wreck it. Moral of the story is I never never borrow a car williammoore22009-05-30 10:33:22

My Corvette was stolen on a Friday. At 11PM my girlfriend is waiting to pick me up from work. I tell her something happened today……..she utters “I got to tell you something important, first!” I quietly listen as see tells me that she seen my car at 3:30PM waiting for a light. The red coupe was distinctive in many ways. The front bumper was removed, the whole undercarriage was painted white, including behind the grill. I had my front plate mounted behind the grill. The plate was white with red lettering. It was my initials LM 327. The front was jacked up. The wheels were Mickey Thompson. I painted the brake drums (disc brakes weren’t on a 64) candy apple red. I had knock offs, that I painted the indented M/T candy apple red. The Firestone tires logo was painted white (I would buy special rubber white paint). My biggest fear was that while the dealer had my car…….someone would be using it. Connie (my girlfriend) tell me that she thought that I cut work, because the guy looked like me……..holy crap, she saw the thief. I then tell her that the car was stolen. I then asked the location and told her to get me home. I jump in my father’s car and canvas the area. I snuck through back yards…looking for garages with lights on……………I lucky no one saw me………..no luck at all finding, after a whole night. Monday, I’m working 3-11 shift. I go to get something to eat at 5PM. I bump into a friend who tells me that he seen a hot vette engine for sale. He describes things that no one knew about because some changes were made the night before the car was stolen. I call up Connie and tell her where my  engine was (kind of close to where she seen the guy in it). I tell her that I’m breaking into the place at 11PM., so not to come pick me up from work. My friend drops me off at Auto Body & Frame………I tell him to circle the block until I come out. He takes off, I check out the windows (bars on them) and doors………no go! I go into the back to climb a cyclone fence to get up to the rungs of a power pole. I climb then jump over onto the roof…..it wasn’t very far away. I’m looking for a roof hatch door or skylight….. NOTHING……man! I see something moving around on the ground behind the cyclone fence that I climbed…….nuts….it’s a night watchman in a junkyard……….it’s time to for me to adios……..before the law comes. Boom……..I run out to the street as my friend was going by. He stops for me but yells to hurry up because he’s being followed…….Yipes…….. We start darting down side streets to lose the follower…………finally I tell him to slow down a little so that I could see the kind of car following…..HOLY COW,……………it’s my girlfriend Connie. This gets more intense the next day when I call up the place and talk with the owner(thief)……….I’ll get into that fiasco tomorrow.       

 

 

corvette440hp2009-05-31 06:41:56

The next day I call up the shop where my engine was seen. I ask for Joe (and even give his last name).....…the guy on the phone gives me a rough time……….I tell him that Joe will be mad at him if he doesn’t put him on....NOW! Joe gets on and wants to know who I am………..I tell him that I’m a friend of one of his friends (not naming anyone)………I cut straight to an engine for sale. He describes it and gives me a price. It’s too late for me to go today…..so I tell him that I’ll get the money and see him tomorrow. He tells me that at the price he’s asking………the engine will be gone. I go to work and tell my brother (who is leaving work), about me going to where my engine is. Keeeee-RaP, the next morning my mom wakes me up to meet with two Cleveland Policemen in the living room. They already know about me planning on going the chop shop. My brother was worried so he contacted his father-in-law who is on the Homicide Squad. He doesn’t want to investigate them murdering me. The police want all the info………..and tell me they’re going in to check everything out and for me to stay away from there.......man! They tell me all kinds of horror stories about the chop shop…….like, the last guy that accused them was put head first through a glass window that required 119 stitches to his face. They told me he almost went blind...........I think they're trying to scare me.  So they tell me that they’ll get back to me………yea right…………well they did……….only to tell me the place was cleaned up………no engine….no nothing. This is still just part of all the fun of losing my vette….a lot more happened………..  

 

 

corvette440hp2009-06-02 10:09:02

Larry,. What happend after this. Did ya get' er back or what?

[QUOTE=williammoore2]Larry,. What happend after this. Did ya get' er back or what?[/QUOTE] Will, I kind of thought no-one was even reading about "My true confessions" or how to live through being a bonehead.........and actually surviving! I'll fill you in since you seem interested.