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1) Freshman year at college done and the magic bus, a '80 VW Vanagon, finally packed in what compression it had left getting me home. Spent the summer rebuilding motor with new heads, fat pistons/barrels, free flow exhaust, etc. etc. Destroy it within 50 miles, turns out I had set distributor timing to 11 degrees BTDC instead of ATDC like the new pistons called for. Stupid!
2) Junior year. Dad dies and leaves a 914 for me in unc's driveway on the opposite coast. Decide to drive it back home cross country sight unseen and it turns out to be a serious POS through to the bone. Stupid move. 3500 miles haunted by the specter of being stranded in in BFE. Half way across TX, decide an oil change is required to alleviate the heinous engine noises that are reminiscent of the bus right before it blew up. Now I'm in BFE and next station is 50 miles up the road, station attendant says park on the other side of the dirt road and "drain it out on the ground" So I pay the "mechanic" at the gas station $40 labor to change my oil thinking it will be properly disposed of, only to watch as he walks his drain pan across the dirt road and pours my used oil out onto the ground! wtf!??!! Engine noise same, $40 poorer, BFE ground water more poluted... stupid.
3) Senior year, changed a flat on the way home and did the "drop it on the ground to tighten lug nuts only forgot that last step" thing. Wheel violently shakes itself loose on the freeway, passes me in the left lane as the bus drops onto a brake drum. Stupid.
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