Quote: ....driving my old Challenger around the block without first securing its lift-off glass hood. I was only doing 20 mph, not enough to float a hood, right? Wrong! That hood came up, over, and landed flat on the road behind the car.
A steel hood requires about 50 mph to fly off, but will completely clear the car when it does....don't ask me how I know.
A few months ago, I was working on my '65 Belvedere project and decided to roll the car out of the garage to tear out the headliner and insulation, a messy job.
The car had no rear end in it at the time so I picked up the rear with a piece of steel channel, some blocks of wood and a floor jack. I then began rolling the car out.
About halfway out, I got carried away and pulled the jack out from under my steel and wood supports. The car hit the ground hard but the floor jack was still all the way up. This made a really neat looking "volcano" feature in the center of the trunk floor.
I then decided to fix the damage, so I got a sledge hammer and more blocks of wood and beat the "volcano" down. When I tried to close the trunk, however, the rear panel had moved due volcano induced tectonic forces.
So I moved my sledge and block work to the rear panel. After a few dozen hammer blows, I noticed the bits of plastic by my feet. That is when I realized the reverse lights and license plate lights had still been in the panel.
At that point, I quit for the day, figuring ruining the trunk floor, rear panel, reverse lights and license plate lights was enough for one day. In fact, I was so ticked, I called my paint and body guy and sent the car away for new paint so I would not have to see it for a while.
