I kinda hate to tell this one....but I will
Last year my Corvette buddy J bought a 1972 Corvette in another
town. Told him he could use my tow dolly.......I ended up going with him.
Anywho, we drive over to get the car...it's West of Indy and we are
in Columbus. We get there and he backs the dolly up to the garage door
where the Vette is. The owner has stripped all of the custom paint (1980's)
from the body. The body is perfect! No damage or repair at all. A couple of
large flares had been added to the rear. The installation was excellent...I used
to do a few Corvette body repairs years ago.
Remember, I'm only supplying the dolly for the transport.
They push the car onto the dolly rear end first because it had been pulled
into the garage before the guy started working on it. They strapped it down
and doubled checked everything.
Now here's a couple of things that were not done.
No safety chain in case the straps fail.
The tranny was left in neutral and not park.
The deal was done...the guy was paid and away we go.....don't read ahead
on this one, you might miss something
We get about 10 minutes from where we got the car on our way back home.
We had to turn off the main road onto a country road to get over to
I-70. When we made the turn there was a chuck hole the dolly tire hit.
We continue up an incline and I just happened to look in the mirror on my side of
the truck. Yep, you guessed it...I see a Corvette rolling down the hill behind
us going like a bat out of you know where.
Stop the truck I yelled.
I jump out and start running to catch the Vette....as if I could catch it and
if I did how would I stop it. The farther it went, the faster it got. They pick
up speed going downhill you know.
I watched that car go into the trees, then all of a sudden the rear end bounced up,
slid sideways and came back down as the pictures will show.
It had ended up on a steep hill going down to a small stream. A tree was
sticking out of the left front fender back to the tire. The T tops flew off the car
when it hit the log that caused the rear of the car to bounce up. The previous owner
only had them laying on the car as the hold downs had been taken off and were in a box.
Had we had made it to I-70 we would have been
flinging parts off that car all the way home. We later discovered that the
windshield was just laying on the windshield frame also. When I saw that tree sticking out
the middle of the rear end...I thought to myself "How in the hell did that tree go all the way
thru that car."
But wait!.....it gets better
J calls the Police to report the accident. When the policeman comes out
an hour later he was with out words. Said he had to go to his car to write
this one up as he didn't quite know where to start. There goes another 45
minutes. He ends up calling his wrecker contacts and in another 2 hours
here comes a roll back. He takes one look at the car and decides to call
a standard wrecker as the roll back was useless. Here goes another hour.
When the new guy arrives he hooks onto the rear end assembly of the car and begins to pull.
When it came down sideways from the bounce the right rear flare slips behind a tree. J says he
has a saw in his truck and gets it. He cuts wheel flare from the car.....probably totaled anyway.
Now he pulls her out. We pick up the pieces, throw them in the back of the truck and load the car up again.
This time it gets a safety chain from the car to the dolly.
But wait it gets better.
The wrecker drivers said they would show us the way to I-70. We would follow one and the other one
would bring up the rear.
As we are getting close to the Interstate the front driver stops and puts his emergency lights on.
We pull in behind him and get out to see what is going on.
The guy in back radioed him to stop because the right front tire and wheel had come off
and that we had been dragging the car on the suspension.
The reason the wheel came off is because the previous owner
only put 3 lugs on finger tight.
By this time it was well after dark and rainy. The guy in back goes back and
finds the wheel in the ditch line and brings it up. At that point J told them to take it on the roll back to
their facility and to deliver it to Scottsburg the next week.
J's insurance company had to write him a policy that next week. Since he
got a smoking deal on the car when he bought it, he got twice
what he paid for it and was able to buy it back from them for a very small sum. They didn't want a busted up Corvette.
He is still using parts from that car for his other vettes. Sorry the story was so long but that's what happened.
Here's the pics.
P.S. When the right front tire came off it busted up the right front area of the car.
