Not a good day yesterday

[Frankenstein57]

I just logged on , been away for a week or so. That sucks Rich, glad it stopped before you were hurt or it shot out into the highway. Mark

[BWhitmore]

There must be a way to wire the car, using the neutral safety switch, to allow the car to start only when the brake pedal is depressed.  A lot of late model cars use this system.  Might be worth some research to see how this works.  Possibly to wire the neutral safety switch in line with a brake light switch that only provides 12 volts to the neutral safety switch when the brake pedal is depressed? 

Running a car without a neutral safety switch is pretty dangerous - your spouse or kid jumps in the car and forgets, parking lot attendants, car wash worker, friends, etc. 

[jvo]

Sorry for your pain.  Pretty sad situation after working on the car for so long.
You stated that when you fire it up, it runs up to 2000 rpm for about 10 seconds or so.  My 2004 Ranger pickup does the same thing, and I'd like to know what genius at Ford designed that into the software for the engine computer.  Up here, in the cold frozen North, when its thirty below zero, and I fire it up, and it instantly goes to 2000 rpm, I cringe at how that molasses in the oil pan is desperately trying to find its way through all those little passages inside the engine.  I changed over to synthetic as soon as the first winter came so as to help that problem somewhat, as synthetic doesn't thicken up in the cold like regular oil.
BUT, what genius at Ford designed that into the software in the first place, and for what reason?  I'd sure like to know the reasoning behind it.

[Thor]

Rich,
      I am glad that you or some one else didn't get hurt!!! That ultimately is the only thing that is important!!! All of us have done something stupid that has damaged something (no mater what anyone says, it takes a real man to own up to it). A wise man told me once that "the folks that don't screw **** up are the ones that aren't doing anything". The car can be repaired. It takes longer to fix the car, and is much harder to drive, if you are broken worse than the car is.
     

[57AGIN]

Rich:

Like Frakenstein57 I just logged in after a couple of days off the internet and I couldn't be more surprised and upset for your misfortune.  As you know, lots of love go into restoring, rebuilding and working on our 57's and to see your love bruised and damaged is tough.  Just like in my accident God must have been looking out for all involved, as everyone walked away and the metal can be restored.  Everyone on this site has watched you bring about wonderful changes and modernizations to your 57 and now as you work through what caused this will somehow gain from your painful learning experience.  I still have a driver side fender that could be massaged if you need it.  I never got a driver side door, as my crunch was primarily on the passenger side.  Let me know if I can help in any way.

Bob
57 AGIN

[hiball3985]

Jim, the ebrake wasn't on. Actually I had just adjusted it the day before and it holds great. To be honest, I rarely use the parking brake. My daily driver doesn't get it used more than once a year or so, but I would be more apt to use it in the '57.

Just a word of wisdom to all, never depend on just the trans to hold your car. I learned that many years ago and I always set the brake when parked for any reason. The two seconds it takes to do it can be worth a pot of gold..

[Jeff Norwell]

Rich.... thank god you are ok....the 57 can be fixed.....
I know it's not any comfort at this point....but I can't stress how glad we all are you were not hurt.The very sad thing is I know how much passion and love you have put into your 57.
You shall rebuild.
The incident you talked about on the Hamb. was at the GNRS a few years ago,...I was there helping another builder on set up day.It was a 32 roadster called the Pineapple Princess...... the gentleman was from Calgary and did a clone of his old hotrod from the 50's.... had a supercharged 392.... that was a horrible day.

At any rate...Can't stress enough that you did not get hurt.We tend to forget that sometimes... when working on our pride n joys.

Jeff

[JPotter57]

Dang, Rich, I hate to hear about this.  Hopefully, you'll be able to get it back looking good again soon.

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks for all the kind word guys. Sure a 180* from other sites for other guys.
some updates: I talked to my builder friend and he hasn't seen the car and I forgot to bring pics so he's just going on my discription but until he sees it he agrees with me that if the door outer sheetmetal cannot be repaired within reason, it would be much easier to replace the skin than having to go thru everything to bring an entire door up to snuff. Hopefully I can get him to stop by in the near future to make that decision so I can pick up the door skin from Rick/Outlaw if needed.

My "gotta get away from it for some time" didn't last too long. It was driving me nuts guessing at what was wrong with the shifter or tranny, and it actually turns out it will be a relatively easy fix. The housing that the cable goes thru came undone from the shifter bracket, so the shifter was just pushing the housing around with the cable not moving back and forth very much as it should. I'll have to jack the car up and undo the cable at the tranny so I can pull everything out and make better, more secure, for that attachment. The good news here is obviously no internal problems with the tranny.
Biggest reason for this whole incident...not paying attention to the signs and not thinking thru all the posibilities.
It wouldn't be that hard to figure something out to make the car not start unless the brake was applied, BUT, like the saying goes..."you can't fix stupid". I could have easily bypassed that as well.
As I mentioned, there was never an intention to eliminate the neutral switch.

[Zapato]

Let me know and the spear will be headed your way.

Zap-

[RICH MUISE]

I will Zap, thanks. That's an awesome offer. I will only need the front portion of the spear if mine  can't be fixed. It got bent up a little, but the rear part just got a few scrapes right on the lower crown so that's an easy fix.
I got the shifter problem fixed. The car now starts when it should, doesn't start when it shouldn't and goes in all gears. Tomorrow I'm going to make a keeper for it so the cable housing can't come loose from the bracket even if the screws come loose again.

[lalessi1]

Rich, I feel really awful about your car, but I agree with all about the good fortune that no one was hurt.
Your story reminds me of my $25K carwash accident, I was inline (company car) and popped the trunk to put some stuff in it so they could vacuum it out. The car in front pulled forward and as I hurried to get out I neglected to take the car out of drive....The car idled foward and hit the car in front with a car length of momentum. It was in park and as the elderly gentleman was getting out, he was knocked to the ground before I could get in and hit the brakes. I freaked out and jumped out of the car with the engine running and the car still in drive to see if he was OK. I slammed the door on my car not realizing the doors were locked. Here I was with my car running, in drive, doors locked jammed up against the car in front. I noticed then that the young lady who writing the tickets for payment was on the ground in front of the elderly gentleman's car. His car when it rocked forward hit her in he side of the knee. There was less than $200 in car damage...she sued the company and got $25,000. 

[hiball3985]

All I can contribute is band-aids so don't beat yourself up to badly. As you can see from all the posts it won't be the first time something like this has happen but I'm sure that does nothing to relieve the pain..

[RICH MUISE]

OK, Lynn, now I feel better about mine. Well, actually not yet, but sometime I'll laugh about it. Wow.

[RICH MUISE]

Here's some pics. I could not get what may be the worst part to repair to show up on the pics, and that's the waves that are now in the sheet metal. I think I mentioned previously I was totally surprised there were no cracks at the headlight eyebrow as hard as it was hit.