The Most Dangerous Car You've Ever Owned

[TransAmMike]

4 minutes ago, deuces wild said:

The one I have now....

CS

Great lookin Mustang, and yeah anything 400HP+ can be a wild ride.

[deuces wild]

Yes it's a GT/CS... And it has the 6-speed manual trans.... Hope I don't kill myself with it...

[The Junkman]

4 hours ago, deuces wild said:

The one I have now....

As a fellow 5.0 Mustang owner, I share your fear.   As the Germans might say: "Der Teufel ist in meinem Fuß." (The Devil is in my foot.)

Edited September 7, 2022 by The Junkman

[W Humble]

Possibly a car I learned to like very much; my second car, a '51 Ford Club Coupe with flathead v-8.  I had several when I went to JC in Redding CA.  What I discovered about the 'shoebox' Fords (always hated that label!) was that there was a capscrew (one of three, as I recall) on many that went through the frame to help secure the steering box.  It was threaded up too short, and on the assembly line they would be torqued down with air tools until the thread shoulder seated against the cast iron box, and if the frame metal (it was a box, but not real heavy ga.) distorted, the screw shank would crack right where the last thread ended, thus promoting -- after twenty years -- a break.  And mine did.  It looked okay, but when another capscrew snapped (wow!) all that was left holding the steering box to the frame was one shorty at the top, and it, as I recall, went through a steel bracket, which allowed the box to move away from the frame cheek on turns; forget right or left. 

Now, my friends all had newer stuff, and named the old tin Henry 'The Wanderer', after the popular Dion song of a year or so before.  It did, too, though it had a lot of idiosyncrasies!  I've never had a car with that type issue before or since; tho it wasn't a fatal flaw, it was disconcerting -- until I figured out the problem, using a parts-car, of which I needed plenty!  My first car was actually a very nice '55 Chevy Delray 'post' with all the street-racing attributes, but I simply couldn't afford to keep it and pay for school.  The most dangerous thing about that ride was the proverbial nut behind the wheel!  My folks were 'disciplining' me for being such a twit -- at age 16, fall of '61 when 'I had to have it!'  Well, the lesson took!  Still, I truly wish I had one of those little flatmotor coupes, but now I can't afford one!  I am, however, make a model of it  as well as my six-year old '55!  Wick, class of '63

[espo]

12 hours ago, W Humble said:

Possibly a car I learned to like very much; my second car, a '51 Ford Club Coupe with flathead v-8.  I had several when I went to JC in Redding CA.  What I discovered about the 'shoebox' Fords (always hated that label!) was that there was a capscrew (one of three, as I recall) on many that went through the frame to help secure the steering box.  It was threaded up too short, and on the assembly line they would be torqued down with air tools until the thread shoulder seated against the cast iron box, and if the frame metal (it was a box, but not real heavy ga.) distorted, the screw shank would crack right where the last thread ended, thus promoting -- after twenty years -- a break.  And mine did.  It looked okay, but when another capscrew snapped (wow!) all that was left holding the steering box to the frame was one shorty at the top, and it, as I recall, went through a steel bracket, which allowed the box to move away from the frame cheek on turns; forget right or left. 

Now, my friends all had newer stuff, and named the old tin Henry 'The Wanderer', after the popular Dion song of a year or so before.  It did, too, though it had a lot of idiosyncrasies!  I've never had a car with that type issue before or since; tho it wasn't a fatal flaw, it was disconcerting -- until I figured out the problem, using a parts-car, of which I needed plenty!  My first car was actually a very nice '55 Chevy Delray 'post' with all the street-racing attributes, but I simply couldn't afford to keep it and pay for school.  The most dangerous thing about that ride was the proverbial nut behind the wheel!  My folks were 'disciplining' me for being such a twit -- at age 16, fall of '61 when 'I had to have it!'  Well, the lesson took!  Still, I truly wish I had one of those little flatmotor coupes, but now I can't afford one!  I am, however, make a model of it  as well as my six-year old '55!  Wick, class of '63

We seem to have a lot in common in both the timeline of our lives, and also in owning a '51 Ford. I never experienced the problems with the steering box you described, but I did manage to destroy a number of the three speed overdrive transmissions. With my Elco floor shift conversion I was even able to engage more than one gear at the same time. I had a local wrecking yard that would call me anytime a Ford with a three-speed overdrive came in.  All said and done I had more enjoyment with that little car than I was intitled to.  

[W Humble]

David,

Too true!  I had a $50 two-door 'Deluxe' with 16-in rims (and no floors, rockers, etc; an Illinois car that made it cross-country in '62!), then the infamous Club Coupe 'Custom', that endeared itself to me, then three more as parts cars, etc.  Another un-tiltable Coupe became a 'brush buggy, sans body and shortened 15-in.  The nice C.C. came to grief in a blinding snow-storm in extreme N CA where our clan lived, versus a '59 Dodge HT; I rebuilt the Ford to driving condition, but the Dodge was scrap iron. Highest I ever paid was $50 -- oh how I wish...

That CC came with the O/D, but the wife's cousin, previous owner, had taken it apart, and I had a perfect box from the Deluxe sedan that had gotten totaled.  Still had the 4.11:1 standard equipment gears though!  My class at the NHRA drags was N/Stock; racing non-Spyder Corvairs, Chevy 235's, and... Volvos!

I never lost a trans, partially because I bought one of the first Hurst 'Mystery Shifters' (story was; it was a mystery how they could be sold so cheap; $24.95 from Honest Charlies) and it came with the 'Synchro-lock' dowel pin that went into the side-cover replacing the coil-spring; kept gears from oversliding on hard shifts! I later learned how to rebuild B-W HD three-speed/ods on my brother's '59 Rambler wagon (room for our band equipment, and the seat folded...!) which eventually got a Hurst M/S also!  Hurst's 'Shifty Doctor' told me to use their kit for a '59 Ford with o/d, but shorten the bracket and thread the rods further back; worked like a charm!!

After the CC was sold, I went back to '55 Chevys -- did you drive those also?  I'm making replicas of my '51, '55's, and '65 Tempest Custom HT 326/3-speed, plus 24-Z's.  I'll make a 'show' and post them someday.  Wick                I was dangerous: Raced a lot, won a few!  Wick

 

[espo]

1 hour ago, W Humble said:

David,

Too true!  I had a $50 two-door 'Deluxe' with 16-in rims (and no floors, rockers, etc; an Illinois car that made it cross-country in '62!), then the infamous Club Coupe 'Custom', that endeared itself to me, then three more as parts cars, etc.  Another un-tiltable Coupe became a 'brush buggy, sans body and shortened 15-in.  The nice C.C. came to grief in a blinding snow-storm in extreme N CA where our clan lived, versus a '59 Dodge HT; I rebuilt the Ford to driving condition, but the Dodge was scrap iron. Highest I ever paid was $50 -- oh how I wish...

That CC came with the O/D, but the wife's cousin, previous owner, had taken it apart, and I had a perfect box from the Deluxe sedan that had gotten totaled.  Still had the 4.11:1 standard equipment gears though!  My class at the NHRA drags was N/Stock; racing non-Spyder Corvairs, Chevy 235's, and... Volvos!

I never lost a trans, partially because I bought one of the first Hurst 'Mystery Shifters' (story was; it was a mystery how they could be sold so cheap; $24.95 from Honest Charlies) and it came with the 'Synchro-lock' dowel pin that went into the side-cover replacing the coil-spring; kept gears from oversliding on hard shifts! I later learned how to rebuild B-W HD three-speed/ods on my brother's '59 Rambler wagon (room for our band equipment, and the seat folded...!) which eventually got a Hurst M/S also!  Hurst's 'Shifty Doctor' told me to use their kit for a '59 Ford with o/d, but shorten the bracket and thread the rods further back; worked like a charm!!

After the CC was sold, I went back to '55 Chevys -- did you drive those also?  I'm making replicas of my '51, '55's, and '65 Tempest Custom HT 326/3-speed, plus 24-Z's.  I'll make a 'show' and post them someday.  Wick                I was dangerous: Raced a lot, won a few!  Wick

 

I paid a whapping $150 for my first '51 Ford Custom two door sedan around '62. The car was granny fresh with zero rust, oxidized paint and Pep Boys seat covers and this was in Santa Monica Ca. She lived away from the beach, and I never found any rust. I kept it as a second car when I bought a '57 Ford Fairlane 500 convertible the next year from another retired couple that were the original owners for around $500. The Fairlane did need a new top and exhaust. This doesn't sound like much now but adjusting that 1960's price to today's money it wasn't that cheap either. 

[W Humble]

Dave

I  picked up another '51 Deluxe 2-dt sedan about 1973 here in Chico; it was a 'driveway car' that had been parked for years and left to moulder, but in a very posh driveway!  Another $50 car, but it was one of the worst; not much body rust, but oh -- the plating!  It mu have been of the first of the Korean War 'rationed chrome' cars, because the grille literally went bare when I tried to put some Classic Wax on it!  And, though I got it running well enough to drive across town, it was so low on power that it wouldn't accelerate in third; just gagged along until you down-shifted! 

And... when I knowingly went looking for the dreaded broken steering box capscrew: there it was !!  Boy, it's almost impossible to ease threaded stubs out when the bolt shaft is inside the frame, but this on loosened while I was drilling it for an Easy-Out, and with a little encouragement, drove on through the casting and out!

Foam Green, and we called it "Geraldine" Ford after POTUS.  We moved, had our first child, and reality set it: it had to go.  Two dudes (what they would have called themselves, back then) gave me $700 for Gerry, even I warned them of the engine probs.  Ten years later, I made an offer of $2K for a Victoria HT (which I might not have had in the readies!) and lost out, but it was nice, if shopworn.  I'll never b e able to afford one again, sad to say; at least not a Tudor!  Wick

[cobraman]

According to Ralph Nader it should have been my 67 Corvair Monza. It was not. I lived in a Chicago suburb at the time and that little car was great in the snow. Corvairs got a bad rap IMO.

[W Humble]

 

Ray,

Got my CDL in summer of '61, and drove both Corvair and '60 Ford Falcon almost new:  my opinion is that at the point when the 'Vair is starting to tuck a wheel on it's not-optimum swing axle suspension, the Falcon would probably have rolled over.  For the suspension Ford put under the original Falcon, the center of gravity was too high, and it rolled like a round-bottomed boat.  SO: I like my '62 LeMans ragtop, but it shares the swing axles with the Chevy; just that the Tempests had infinitely better weight distribution, with their front engine, almost 50-50% f&r.  All the above needed better, but in that era, they were economy cars, hoping to compete with V-W -- which also had swing-axles until about '68??  Every car mag loved the '65 up 'Vair, but... not enough oomph to compete with the Mustang, etc.  Wick