No tags yet.
Beaming with the excitement of a kid on Christmas morning, I returned to the site with my wife Terrie on Saturday April 12, 2014. With a truck, some basic tools, a tow strap, and some misguided expectations Terrie and I went to see my latest obsession. The goal for the day was to break the car free from its decades-long resting place. How hard could it be to drag a car a few dozen feet so I could get it later with a trailer?
After giving Terrie the tour and my vision of a finished concourse restoration, the time had come to hook the car to the truck and give it a tug. Tugging on an entrenched car with an empty two-wheel drive truck on wet grass resulted in complete failure. [Car 1 - Mike 0] It made for an easy decision to call it a day. I bought a come-along cable puller tool that night and convinced myself that the following day would bring success. Just a little more tugging and the car would be free. I was so confident that I scheduled a rental auto transport trailer for the following day.
Sunday April 13, 2014 was another sunny day and the morning started off splendidly. I picked up the Uhaul car trailer and headed to the car site. Terrie and her brother Dave met me at the site. Things started to go awry rather quickly. For the first attempt with the come-along, the tool was placed between two tow straps that were attached to the car and a small tree stump off to the front right of the car. The first attempt with the come-along tool showed that the car was anchored into the ground worse than imagined. The angle of the straps off to the right of the car meant the come-along would have to pull much harder to break the car free. The first attempt resulted in a broken come-along tool and a new plan.
It took a few minutes to disassemble and reassemble the come-along to get it working again. I normally only buy tools made in the USA. Unfortunately I needed one quickly and the chain stores only sell foreign made junk.
The tree side strap was re-positioned to another tree that was directly in front of the car and I started to crank the come-along. The tension on the straps was immense but the car wasn’t budging. A few more cranks and the driver side door popped open. The good news was that I could finally get a look at the door jamb and see the serial number of the car. The bad news was that the door opened because I pulled the front of the car forward an inch and the back didn’t move. It was obvious that the car wasn’t coming home with me that day. Two days resulted in two failed move attempts. [Car 2 – Mike 0]
In addition to over confidence the following contributed to the failure: 1. The car was sunk into the ground which meant a lot more than tires were in contact with the ground. 2. All four tires were flat. 3. Only one wheel was able to spin. The other three were locked. 4. The car was on a 40 to 45 degree incline which meant I was pulling it uphill. 5. The frame was very weak and wasn’t able to withstand much force when being pulled.
The trailer went unused for the day and was returned 2 hours and 27 minutes after it was picked up. It was a $67.99 lesson to not be overconfident with this car.
Dave brought a metal detector to the site to help determine if a mound near the car held the missing engine. A quick sweep of the site did not yield a lost engine.
The serial number information made the day a success for me even though the car was ahead 2-0 for the weekend. I had another piece of the puzzle and went back to Google and the SDC forums to learn more.
Happy Easter today!!! Thanks for stopping by. -Mike
Here is a video to commemorate that first week: