I'm not in a position to lecture you, Matt.

When I got out of the Navy I knew everything and didn't need advice from anybody. I bought a really nice '51 Chevy and started making some changes that I felt would tell the world that I was eaten up with cool ideas. The first change was to install lowering blocks to get the back bumper as close dragging as possible.

That in itself was dumb, but not as dumb as what I did next, and you can see this coming.......

Two bumper jacks. That's all. No jack stands, no blocks, no nothing.

I crawled under and unhooked the springs. My father looked under there and said "Good Lord, boy! That's going to fall on you!". In my infinite wisdom I told him "Naw, Pop. It's solid". About one second later the jacks went over to the left and the spare tire wheel well came down in my gut and nailed me to the ground. I couldn't breathe so I couldn't have yelled for help.

Thank God for my good old Dad. Despite having a double hernia and not being exactly a kid, he lifted the car up high enough for me to squirm out and start gasping and bawling like a baby. Nothing a bruised mid-section and a shot-to-hell ego.

I still do stupid things regularly but I never did THAT again.


Jim