PhattyX
New member
Alright, some background info. My Jeep has been in a restore process, which was supposed to be a quick paint job since it was bought with several colors. One thing led to another, welders happened, parts broke, bears got upity... you know the story. 8 months later, it's driveable again. Not finished, but certainly road-worthy. All the body rust cut out and new metal welded in; full paint job; lots of new parts, etc. Day two - On the way to work, 1 bang + engine significantly louder = me cutting the exhaust hanger with a pocket knife in my work cloths in the work parking lot. The exhaust on the driver's side broke after the Cat. Day four - 3 or 4 louder bangs + obscenely obnoxious engine noise = me seriously considering doing something about this. The passenger side (V8 dual exhaust) broke at the header. So, on the weekend, I took it to my brother (who is the best I've seen at doing exhaust) and he does this amazing custom piping on both sides from the header back. It's art I tell you... ART. I drive the hour home and the CJ is running better than it ever has. She looks purty, she runs great. Sunday...
Ahh Sunday. I get up nice and early to finish up some odds and ends that still need to be done, hopefully install a radio. The guy that did the paint sees the new exhaust pipes and says "Fire it up. Let me hear it". I do just that... from outside the vehicle, I lean in, not thinking, and turn the key. It's in gear... but instead of bucking a little... it fired right up and started driving away. It's first target... me.
I'm stunned at this point. Who the heck is driving? ... and where to? Wait, what? Am I on a hill? So it's knocked me over at this point. Instead of just letting go, I hold on. Obviously, I can do something about the situation from my position hanging off the door. I try to hit the p. brake, but can't reach it. In hind site, knocking it out of gear would have done the trick, but like I said. I was stunned! It's driving away. At this point, the d.s. rear tire is pushing my ankle along the gravel drive. I get my ankle out of the way, by conveniently replacing it with my knee. 31 + knee = bad. Finally, I let go.
Next on its list was an old refridgerator (which I've never seen before. I don't have a clue how it got there... or why). It's at this point that I would like to remind you: there is no one driving. It's in first gear. No pressure on the gas pedal... While pushing the fridge, it sequentially hit 4 cinder blocks which finally stopped its forward progression after it pushed them through the neighbor's fence. After digging into the gravel for a couple seconds, it stalled.
I went to the ER (after all it was Sunday), which is a story in itself. I had to explain the above story to each different person I talked to there. Each one of them shook their head and said "That's amazing, I have to tell 'insert name'" 'insert name' would come into the room minutes later for me to explain to all over again. I got some Xrays of my knee and a tetnus (sp?) shot. On Tues, my family Dr. advised me not to drive (thanks, no really thanks, driving was on the top of my list of things to do).
So, I worked from home last week AND learned that my Trak-loc is working open since there was only one tire mark in the gravel.
There you go... my "I drove over myself" story. Enjoy!
The Jeep really only took a hit to the fender, which has already been banged back out. The fender's being repainted. Hopefully, some other stuff will be done by the time I get back next week.
http://www.quinnproject.com/nuke/modules.php?name=Thats_Hot!
-X
