I was a teenage dumb ass!

[Hemlock]

Ever wish you could go back in time and slap the crap out of yourself!?!?

Here's your chance to vent and let everyone know that we all make mistakes as kids, teens and young adults. What you think is cool now might not be so cool in about 10-15 years.

I was posting in another thread and realized what stupid decisions I use to make as a teen and young adult. In example trashing the perfectly good stock paint on a pristine 1975 GT Vega that my father gave me as a first car just because I thought it would look better in black PRIMER!!! What a MORON I was! I took a beautiful paint job and made it LOOK LIKE CRAP!

Here is another thing I thankfully didn't get to do because I was flat broke at the time. I was going to do the same thing to my Capri back in 1991 when my Dad first sold me the RS! I wanted to change the hatch to a Mustang one with a Saleen wing and Primer the car black until I could afford to paint it dark purple! Glad I was so freaking poor at the time!

Lets hear some stories folks!

Who knows, it might help some of our younger members from making similar mistakes!
Robert

[83gtstang]

Well, I had a 79 notch back in high school, it was my first running car, all others just sat in the driveway or smoked so bad I couldn't drive them. Anyways, one day my girlfriend at the time had dumped me. I was so love sick, LOL I thought I would marry her one day. Well I would cruise past her home to see if I could see her outside to make an excuse to talk things over. It never worked, so I used a pay phone at a gas station near by. We talked, but it didn't end good and just messed me up. With my mind on other things, I jumped in my notch, punched it to rip out the parking lot, unaware that I was too close to the four steel post protecting the booth. I completed mashed my passenger door, and I didn't stop at first crunch either. I took off and didn't look back. I had to go back the next day to retrieve my entire rubber door molding. Never called that girl again, instantly I was over her.

Different girlfriend, my future ex wife lol. Same ex girlfriend at a party, my gf and her got into it, I was drunk split peeling out the gravel road. The road y'd and I didn't. Went straight into a ditch, pushed the radiator support up into my fan shroud and ended up facing apposite traffic on the side of the road. Sherrif shows up as my gf runs up just then, sweet talks the Sherrif out of hauling me in. Oh please don't let my boys do the same to their Fox bodies over foxy ladies.

[Rge464]

I sold my 1971 Mach 1 for $1800 back in 1987 because I just had to have an 84 SVO. The 71 had 101k miles and was totally stock in very good condition. The SVO was a good car but had some issues and I sold it less than a year later.

Knowing now what I had makes me want to puke. At the time I was thinking the 71 was getting old, and I never thought the prices would explode like they did.

[TopGear85]

I had the opportunity to buy a 66 fastback that was Shelby cloned (very nicely done too) for $5000, but I had my 86GT and I didn't want a car that "old." Don't get me wrong I loved the car, but my 86 had ttops and was really the talk of my highschool (for a day or two), so I passed. Now I want a fastback more than anything, but I can't justify spending 40K or more on a car.

I'm still kicking myself for that one through.

[Ray Dog]

When I was a Senior in high school I could have bought a 57 Studebaker Hawk.
I still kick my self for that,so what if it needed floors.
My second wife, but we want to warn the children, not scar them for life.

[83gtstang]

LOL reading these make me remember a lot of things as a teenager. I was "that teen". What I wish I could do was go back in time and pick all those old turbo mustangs with all the hood scoops and turbo hoods 79s on up. I even saw a SVO which I did buy the dash spats and buckets from at this junkyard, he even had an 82gt complete with front airdam and all. I burned the guy of $20 bucks and could never go back. I got my gf prego and needed the cash. He let me take the seats without paying him. He let me comeback later to pay him and never did. A couple of years later I joined the service and went to California. I found a yard full of awesome vintage tin. This yard even had a row dedicated to 79 pacecars. All of them 5.0 and turbos. There were about 8-10 lined up next to each other. Most were complete and restoreable! I didn't even think about offering him some cash or pick the hard to find parts from not one. I also worked for a old man at an old school service station Philips 66 turned to auto repair and tire shop. He had an 69 Indiana pace car Camaro in his back fenced in lot. Big block convertible 4 speed! He offered to sell it to me for $5000 and I said no way too much. Even said will take payments, but bought his 65 Baracuda instead for $450. Real 70s surfer car, brown shellac brush paint with glitter thrown in it and speckled beast wrote on the doors and when in doubt chowder out and about 500 surfboard stickers all vintage on them.

[TNT]

I guess I was old before my time. The dumbest thing I can remember doing as a teen actually made a twisted sort of sense.

I wanted a better car, but couldn't afford much on my part time job. Dad said he wouldn't help me with cash or financing anything as long as I had a running car that got me to work and school. The car he said was good enough, a 1985 Chevy Sprint with over 400,000 miles. So I set out to KILL the Sprint. But I wanted it to be believable, so no hammers, explosives or obvious stuff. I just proceeded to drive that car like I stole it every time I got into it. Off road, dumped the clutch at 4000 or so, daily j-turns. Months went by and the damn thing refused to die. I forget what stunt finally did the trick, but eventually I blew the transaxle......the engine still ran somehow.

I'm pretty sure its replacement was a 79 notchback. Nothing special, V6 automatic in bad need of a new interior. But dad helped me out with the work it needed to get it roadworthy at least.

[gt pony]

This thread got me thinking and the dumbest thing I ever did turned out to be a whopper by todays standards.

When I got out of the Navy in Oct 69 I ordered a 70 Boss 302 from my dad. About 6 months later I was at the local speed shop in Rockford Il. and an older gent pulls up in a Boss 429 and gets out. When he walked into the shop I say wow a Boss 429, his reply "Yup, you wanna buy it, $3500? Then he tosses me the keys and tells me to take it for a drive. I said but you don't even know me, he said no problem, I trust you, so off I went. I swear that car was twisting when I jumped on it, what a drive. I had just bought a new car and I couldn't afford another one at the time.

[wraithracing]

I would like to add to this thread, but I am not sure the legal statute of limitations is up for many of my Teenage Years!

Some Good Stories!

Trey

[StangerGT]

When I was a Senior in high school I could have bought a 57 Studebaker Hawk.
I still kick my self for that,so what if it needed floors.
My second wife, but we want to warn the children, not scar them for life.

I bought a 1959 Studebaker Hawk in 2000. I fell onto hard times a few years later and had to either sell it or my 75 Corvette. It was sad to see the vette go but it was worth it in order to keep the Hawk. I still have it

I think the dumbest thing I've done as a teenager was passing up a 1970 Super Bee for $500 because I thought it needed too much work (needed 1/4 panels and rockers). Besides, I had my sweet 79 Monte Carlo at the time and there was no way that old dodge would ever be as valuable...

[JTurbo]

This:


I was a 16 year old bumb-ass...

[mmb617]

I can't even blame it on being a teenage dumb ass since I was well past my teens at the time, but the one car related thing I did that I still regret was selling my '71 Challenger for $900 back in 1988.





It wasn't perfect, but a fun car with a warmed up 340 and pistol grip 4 speed. At the time I had just bought a new Harley and my reasoning was that if the weather was nice enough to drive the Challenger, I'd be riding instead. I really should have kept the car as I wasn't in the position where I had to get rid of it. By the way I still have that bike.

Maybe it was just meant to be. If I'd have kept the car all my toy money would now be going into it and I'd have never bought my Mustang.

[Ttopcapri]

Senior year of high school, went to a Friday night party at a friend's farm while his parents were out of town. At some point in the middle of the night, said friend decides we should fire up the snowmobiles ( his and 2 belonging to his parents). Of course this sounds like a great idea when we're half in the bag. Well, we didn't get far before friend #2 rolled friend #1's father's snowmobile at high speed. Fortunately he only sustained minor injuries but the sled was a mess. We left the sled in the field and went back to the house to sleep it off. Saturday morning, we go retrieve the rolled sled and it sinks in that if it looks like this on Wednesday when the parents get home, we're all as good as dead. So we make a list of the parts we need to replace and head to the dealer who has some of the parts in stock but most won't be in until Tuesday morning. I can't remember what the parts cost but the three of us had to pool our money together. Tuesday after school, I picked up the parts and the three of us spent the evening thrashing to put the snowmobile back together. As far as I know, we were never found out. We got lucky. Our drunk ride in the dark could have ended with far worse consequences than an empty bank account.

[Code Blue]

In high school (early ‘80s), I had a chance to buy a ’69 Torino. I can’t swear to it now, but I’m pretty sure the seller wanted $2,700. It looked to be in great shape inside and out but since it would have taken every dollar I had saved, I asked my older brother’s opinion. He drove it and recommended against it because the front end was worn out – and I listened to him.
It looked just like this one except it had the red C-stripe.

[85GT-79FJ40]

I did many dumb things as a teenager. When I was 16 I decided to take a friend for a joyride in the 5 speed Camry my dad had just spent months tracking down. Wasn't even supposed to be driving it. Too fast around a corner and smashed the rear quarter into a tree. 5 grand worth of damage and unimpressed dad. Then about a year later I almost killed my girlfriend at the time when my rusted out POS 77 FJ40 popped a brake line and rolled away down a ski mountain with her in it... I was picking up the spare tire that fell out on the way up. It must have flipped 20-25 times before it came to rest. She jumped out thankfully. Fast forward a few years and I had my first Fox, an 86GT at 19. Got so many speeding tickets and moving violations over the following 2 years I wound up riding a bicycle for a summer... Didn't wreck it though. And I did meet my wife riding my bike home late one night.. She picked me up and gave me a ride.

[83gtstang]

Lol, I think a book may be written with these stories! I was the youngest of about 6 teenagers in my neighborhood click. We all would hang out everyday of the week doing bad things like smoking and drinking not water and not cigarettes. Anyways one of the guys we called Fat Raymond. All his family was big huge Samoan type, they always had food, and we didn't, so we were always there hanging out at his place. They also were a huge Ford family, name it and they had three of them. We worked on engines constantly, swapping cams, heads trannies and all. Fairlanes, Torinos, Mustangs, Cougars, Granadas, Rancheros all years and models, just too many to name all. Just as many engines and big and small HiPo 289s Boss 351s 390s 460s etc. I think back at how lucky I was just to learn so much about Ford's, I guess I've been a Ford guy ever since.

[83gtstang]

I double posted so I will go on. Don't mean to hijack, but I had a 66 Ford F100, big block 390. I was driving without a license since I was 13, had this truck when I was 16. Constantly needed oil and gas, 6-10 bucks would fill it up. One day I changed the oil before going out on Friday night. Come night time went to a party and everything was available. By the time I left the party it was O dark thirty something, two of my buddies were leaving as well in their pretty formula TA and the other in a Smokey edition TA. We hit the main rode, they were ahead lined up at the light, green hit and they race out of the intersection. With liquid courage running through my veins I got on it as well and somehow ended up in front of them. I had the buried the needle, and didn't let off for a couple of miles. When we finally stopped, I noticed my truck was knocking really bad and had lost lots of power. When I checked the oil it was empty, turned out in my rush to change the oil, I missed the O ring was not on the old oil filter. I had double gasket the oil filter and the whole time oil was shooting out between the gaskets. I was forced to drive that truck for almost two years to school and back, work and on dates, knocking and running on about 5 cylinders. When I finally got my first income check I was ready to rebuild the engine, I had already pulled the Y block out and was in the garage. To my surprise when I got home and yanked the garage door open, my truck was gone. Turned out my dad called the junkyard to pick it up. I was devastated, but dad said let's go look for you a good running car. There came my first Fox body. A shiny red 79 notch back! The feeling I had when I drove it off the used car lot in the ghetto, was unreal. I remember looking at the woodgrain plastic dash, all black interior and sun roof as exotic as a Ferrari to me.