[Digger]

Well, its taken me this long to talk about it. Yesterday afternoon I went to pick up my "new" 65 fastback, 289 4spd, you know the one I've been looking for forever and found 15 miles away. Anyhow we got there and aired up the tires, got it loaded and everything was going great, you couldn't wipe the grin off my face. Headed home pulling behind my Powerstroke you couldn't even tell it was there. But then I thought I could fell it "trailer hitching" and slowed a bit, just in time for the front strap to break, and the rear to give way shortly thereafter. Needless to say, my fastback crossed 3 lanes of traffic at 60MPH with a ghost driver and gracefully planted its nose in the embankment. I almost tossed my lunch. Luckily no one was even remotely endangered and besides the car and my ego, no one was hurt. So, who makes the best inner fender apron repros? I need front rear, radiator support, export brace, fender, stone guard, front valance at the least. Sorry for this being long, but I am feeling a little low right now.

 

[Shaun]

OH SH*T, you poor guy...

What a pisser...

 

[DaveK]

Sorry about the bad luck. Did you have it on a full trailer or on a dolly?

If you rented the trailer or dolly, I would think that the company who rented the equipment to you would be at fault for providing faulty equipment.

Just a thought.

 

[65pony]

Do you need new shorts or just a prybar to remove them? That has get to be the most helpless feeling you could imagine. At least no one was injured. It could have been worse.

 

[kketell]

That's terrible... I feel for you, man.

 

[abadtb2]

Like you said, nobody got hurt. Man, that's too bad about the car though. One step forward, three steps back, messed up kinda thing to happen. Dang, that just really sucks! Chin-up and all that, right?

 

[Alydar]

Bad deal! I almost lost a car/trailer once on the Interstate and I know the feeling was just sudden panic. Best of luck on your project.

 

[Laurie_S]

Oh wow, I know how I would feel if that happened to one of my cars. As you say, it's lucky that the embankment is all it hit as it could have been much worse. I check the tiedown straps almost every time we stop and a couple of times I've had some bad surprises. The worst was when I discovered the two front straps holding my coupe had been cut by friction and we were about to go back on the highway. Fortunately, my friends had some spare straps and no damage was done.

 

[NRiley]

Sounds like a more expensive version of a day I had. I use to desert race motorcycles. The promoters had a duece and a half pick up all of the disabled bikes. Because of the other bikes already collected, mine was strapped on the tail gate. When we went over a large bump at approx 40 mph, my bike fell off the back, dropped 4 ft and then went end over end across the desert. An inexpensive DNF became very expensive. However, it could have been much worse; I resisted the urge to grab the bike when I saw it starting to fall off.

A guy was shot in the chest. The doctor told him that he was lucky in that a few inches to the left and he would have died of a heart shot. He responded that a few inches to the right and it would have missed him. Sorry the car was damaged. But it could have been much worse. The car wasn't destroyed. And, if that car had hit somebody they would have owned you.

 

[Axnjxn]

Oh man, that SUCKS!!! I can't even begin to imagine. I have that sunken feeling in my gut right now for ya.

FWIW, from everything I've heard, the inner rocker repros suck. You will be better off in the long run finding a donor and cutting the front off it. I've also heard of cutting the front off a '67 and grafting it onto a '65, giving you a bit more room and better suspension. I don't know the details, but you might want to look into it. The rest of that stuff should be no prob to acquire, except that I don't know what's going to hurt worse, your pride or your wallet.

I'm also curious as to what you were towing it on. Flatbed? If you rented it, I'd be asking why their straps broke.

 

[Digger]

Thanks everyone. The trailer and straps were all mine. Luckily, since the truck has full coverage, the car is covered, but my body guy says a minimum of about $6000 to fix the car, if the front frame can be straightened. He wants to clip it and I'm not so sure about that. His other suggestion was to find a 65 FB hull and transfer my stuff to it. Sure, no problem, I'll just go down to the 65 fastback shop and pick one up, rust free of course!! I'm at a loss and think I might try to find a hull. Oh well, as they say....

 

[Guest]

Sounds like my experience this last Monday. I drove 150 miles to pick up a 20 ft boat that i'd bought.Got about 15 miles down the highway when the tongue broke completely off the trailer about 4 feet back from the hitch. Luckily the 7-wire light cable was strong enough to keep it from going into oncoming traffic.
I feel for you,what rotten luck!

 

[Arto65FB]

As an owner of 65FB with 289 and 4spd and having done a nose job (to the car and myself) on race track, I feel your inner pain. My solution was to get on with it without thinking "if only..". In two months my car was back on road, which was totally out of character (which can be described: it took 6 years to swap the new carb I had bought and 5 years to swap headers I had bought). You might now consider glassfibre parts to get weight off.