Reminiscing: Stupid Things you did to/with your Car when You were Young

[LJ851]

I have a feeling there are some fantastic stories of incredibly stupid shit we have done to our vehicles, particularly in our youth. Some of these events may be 40 years old and some may have happened just last week, lets hear about them! Add pics if you can. I'll start.

My first car was this '69 Camaro, saved up all summer to buy it. The drivetrain was still original but it ran great and looked like a million bucks.

Took my very first road trip in it from D.C. to some where in NJ. About halfway home i noticed a lot of noise coming from the engine bay when i went under bridges but i kept going anyway cause i was a little freaked out to stop. Made it home and shut it off,it sounded like hell. I fired it up for my dad when he got home and he said AAaaAahhh!! Shut It OFF!!

Drained the oil and it had less than 1 quart left in it. Filled it back up and never had a problem.

Car:


Decided i HAD to have a folding sunroof in my '66 beetle. In the middle of winter in DC. Had to drive with a 3 ft square hole in my roof because the silicone sealer to install it would not cure below 50 degrees. It turned cold the day i cut the hole and stayed in the 30's for 3 weeks.


Oh, the headliner also caught on fire. Big surprise there.



Removed the choke plates from my 40/40 weber carb on my 2002 for that extra .3 hp. Car no longer was able to be started below 40 degrees.



Built a sub box for my brothers '77 civic. it was (2) 15 inch subs in a tiny triangular box that barely cleared the magnets. Then we mounted (2) 5 1/4" speakers in the upper corners of the sub box.

Sounded like absolute dog shit and every time the bass hit the little 5 1/4s would get absolutely Pounded from behind and failed shortly thereafter. Wish i had a pic of that sweet setup!



Lowered my first 2002 4 inches on cut springs and stock shocks. Less than an inch of travel left in the front. Only rode OK on billard table smooth roads.

I know i have more, will try to add later.

[bonobo]

Golden.
I've jacked up my 944 by the radiator more than a few times

[regnu]

The absolute dumbest thing I have done.
Age 17ish. Only cared about skating back then cars not so much, brakes were squealing on my '79 Z28. Let it go for a while then the squealing turned into grinding. Saw metal shaving coming out of my right front wheel. Told Dad, he freaked and showed me how to change rotors and pads. About cracked the rotor in half after grinding the backing plate into it for a few days.

[slammin.e28]

That pic with the Beetle is fantastic!

I wanted a mini truck so I took the 4x4 Hardbody I had and ripped out the rear suspension to do spring under axle. This was after I blew up the engine trying to run it through a water filled hole in the dead of winter. Cold water + hot block = cracked block.

Spray painted the inside of my 1986 300zx flat black, in winter, in the garage, in the car. Went to the store afterwards and everyone kept asking if I was stoned (having never smoked pot in my life, or any other drug).

Neons on the e28 when I was 17. I thought making the kidneys glow red would be badass in my bone stock 535i/A.

[mccor023]

So funny, I was about to start the same thread after finally finding the source of a Vacuum leak.
Basically when I first bought the car I painted the valve cover, only I didn't tape off the oil cap area well. An ever since I have not had a good seal on my oil cap. I fixed that today.

[IronFreak]

Second car I ever owned was a 1985 Camaro RS. I lived on a gravel road......ripped the exhaust off due to blown out shocks so I used barbed wire and a Folgers coffee can to re-attach it and splice the pipe......

Down the street from my house I had a set of railroad tracks, the grade in the road rose up right before them........my shocks were still blown......I thought if I could hit the little "ramp" fast enough I could dukes of hazard my ass across the railroad tracks. Funny how it always works out in your head. I ripped off the lower bell housing cover, transmission pan and broke two of the housing tabs.....then I drove it home.....

Same car.......racing home from football practice.....going way to fast, popped over a hill and right in the middle of the road was a raccoon. cranked it sideways, went off the road, hit a huge pot hole and spun 2 main bearings on my crank........

Dad took the liberty of sell that car for me.........then he gave me a pink pinstriped conversion van......ya....that'll teach me hahaha!

[IronFreak]

I have a feeling there are some fantastic stories of incredibly stupid shit we have done to our vehicles, particularly in our youth.

Oh......And I bought a Dodge Neon once so I could trick it out.....HAHAHA!

[K1CKBAC]

Almost hit a bus head on. Changed the the way I drive for the better, forever.

[redsubdivisions]

Purposely blew up my 924. Ramped it, next thing I know there is white smoke coming from my exhaust (head gasket). Threw a rock on the accelerator and left it in the middle of nowhere and asked my mom to come pick me up. No big deal considering I paid $100 for the piece of shit. lol

[e30jake]

Oh......And I bought a Dodge Neon once so I could trick it out.....HAHAHA!

NFS Underground brainwashed me into legitimately wanting a Neon before I could drive...

[Vtec?lol]

my first BMW was a redneck special. a lifted 84 318i and we took it off roading... turned out where we were off roading was also an illegal dump site.
I was goinf about 65mph (yes, m10's move) and a 6ft pile of roofing and old shingles was straight ahead. I hit the brakes but that was no good (bald tires, no ABS) as I was on mud. Tried to slide it but that seemed like a bad idea so just in the middle of correcting it I hit the pile at 50mph.
Feels like i was flying for about 5 minutes but the real issue was when I started to land. I thought the launch hurt like hell but the landine was 20x more fucked up. I landed at a 45* angle. bent the front passenger side into a U shape. Sprang my wrist and cut my leg open pretty bad. Thanks to no knee bolster protection.

The engine and trans hung underneath the car and we were able to drive it home.

After that we went mudding in every car we bought.
the list
-90's dodge dynasty
-96 towncar
-91 f150
-92 f150
-civics
-accords
-2001 impala
-98 taurus

Speaking of the taurus. We used to hit trash can as fast as we could to make "Garbage Rainbow" over peoples houses. Such tards. it was too fun.

Then they'd grab the largest roll of gorilla or duct tape we could find and make large strips of double sided tape rope. Then throw them out the window so cars behind us would run over them and make a really loud slapping sound under the car.
then.... The taurus died a stupid death.
Saw a huge flooded street and wanted to see how big of a wave we could make.
We hit the water as fast as we could and SPLASH! the car stalled in the middle of the water @5ft deep and the wave came back and trapped us in the car. Alsmost died we did lol.

What they hell were we thinking.. This is what happens when you decide to try something new and hang out with the punk rock/ emo kids.

[slammin.e28]

We went to the local TJ Maxx with my old truck and decided running down shopping cars was a good idea. Ran over line of like 5 and bolted because that was where the "illegal" street racing was going on and the cops showed.

[ClayW]

Stupid things I did with my first BMW, a 1969 1600:

1. With stock suspension and brakes, took it to a white-knuckled 110mph.

2. Took a 6-hour (each way) road-trip with no spare tools (I did have a fire extinguisher, which I used).

3. Drove it into Mexico.

4. Upgraded the transmission and engine before upgrading the brakes.

There. Am I absolved?

[F34R]

Impacted my subframe bolts and snapped them off in the car haha! Did that when I was 16.

[ButtJuice]

Putting black kidney grilles on my first e30 and lowering it on stock 14 inchners to the point where driving over speed bumps was nearly impossible.