Tragedy Strikes

[1949P17BC]

Or should I say another Bone Head move. On Saturday coming back from a car show I stopped by a friends house who has helped me a lot on my 47. He and his son where working on his 63 Nostalgic Super Stock. So I pull up behind his cars, OD lever in, power off, set E brake. About 30 minutes later I am talking with his wife and she yells there goes your car, brake didn't hold, car rolled down the street, into a neighbors yard and head on into the house!!! Got it back on level ground. The Drivers side frame horn took the brunt and is bent pretty good, bumper a slight buckle right below the bumper guard, fender looks to be slight bow in it, think when I pull everything back out it should be OK. We spent the next hour, readjusting my ebake to hold, hold and still hold. How hard will it be to straighten out that frame horn. Make matters worse I got second place at the show beat out by a 54 Hudson, frame off professional restore. That was OK My list of things to fix for Portland just got a little longer

[PatS....]

WOW...glad nobody was hurt and minimal damage. Those e-brakes, to me, are never reliable, even brand new.

A hunk o' wood is always a good idea.

You should be able to have a good frame shop fix up the frame horn like new.

I'm not sure that's a DIY job but could be wrong there.

[Young Ed]

Gotta pull that OD lever back out for parking. I agree with Pat probably a job for a frame shop. I had a pro pull the frame back on my p15 after the crash

[Rodney Bullock]

Sorry to hear that news. I have had my share of E-brake horror. On my truck(1953 chevy) I put the brake on and went in the house. I hear a loud crash. I went out to see what it was and it's the truck into the fence.

The fender, bumper and hood. I took it as a sign to replace all that stuff. I put a new firewall insulator in my truck and now I can't get the E-brake to work at all. The rod keeps hitting the insulation.

I now always use the block of wood to hold my cars and trucks with clutches. I use to put them in gear however I would forget and get scared to death when the car lurched forward.

These cars make you really pay attention to what you are doing. You have to be so mindful.

The frame can be fixed by any competent body shop. As long as they have the measurements and that "L" shaped machine. I use to use that thing as an anvil. One day the guy who was teaching me bodywork pulled it out and rolled it under a car. I saw what it was used fo and never use it as a anvil again.

[greg g]

OH CRAP!!! You will be suprised about how a frame machine will pull you frame horn back t where it should be. MAybe they ca even message the fender out without needing traditional body work. How about the house, any damage there???

[T120]

Sorry to hear of your mishap.Hope the damage is not too bad.It happened to me once several years back.I arrived home after a club event and left my car running with the brake set,got out to open the garage door -then watched as my car rolled backwards down the driveway and over an embankment.Amazing thing was, no damage was done to the car.It took out a rose bush on my property - My wife asked what happened to the rose bush,didn't get a straight answer .Since then I carry a set of wheel chocks in the trunk.I would hate to be responsible for damage to someone's property or their car.

[greg g]

You gotta get a MOPAR approved brick for the just in case parking situation. Power washed and given a nice coat of clear they make the perfect accessory. Plus you can prop up the WEBER if you encounter less than ideal tailgating situations.

[steveplym]

Sorry to hear about that Mark. Your car was looking great. Those type of things happening can drive you nuts. Makes me want to go out and readjust my e-brake.

[james curl]

On my 55 Chevy pick up with a BW overdrive I always leave the lever in the in position but make sure to turn the power off to the solenoid before the trucks quit moving then I can park it in reverse and it will not freewheel. You have to shift out of reverse before you can reactivate the solenoid. If you have your solenoid wired through your governor then when you drop below 30 MPH the solenoid should be deactivated and you can just put your car in reverse when you park and it should not roll either direction as it is no longer in freewheel mode.

[Oldguy48]

Or should I say another Bone Head move. On Saturday coming back from a car show I stopped by a friends house who has helped me a lot on my 47. He and his son where working on his 63 Nostalgic Super Stock. So I pull up behind his cars, OD lever in, power off, set E brake. About 30 minutes later I am talking with his wife and she yells there goes your car, brake didn't hold, car rolled down the street, into a neighbors yard and head on into the house!!! Got it back on level ground. The Drivers side frame horn took the brunt and is bent pretty good, bumper a slight buckle right below the bumper guard, fender looks to be slight bow in it, think when I pull everything back out it should be OK. We spent the next hour, readjusting my ebake to hold, hold and still hold. How hard will it be to straighten out that frame horn. Make matters worse I got second place at the show beat out by a 54 Hudson, frame off professional restore. That was OK My list of things to fix for Portland just got a little longer

At age 16, my car was a P15. Parked in the driveway, E-Brake set, and in the morning the car was out of the driveway, across the road, and up on the bank opposite the driveway. Luckily, there was no damage. It didn't hit anything on it's journey, but never, ever trusted the E-Brake after that. The P15s had a lot of great engineering, but the E-Brake wasn't one of their better efforts.

[Jim Saraceno]

Geez Louise Mark! Sorry to hear about that. If you need a hand with anything don't hesitate to get in touch with me. I'm in the phone book.

Good luck getting her back together.

[Don Coatney]

Mark;

Sorry to hear of your problem. Lesson to be learned buy our friend Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein called gravity a distortion in the shape of space-time.

As I see it the distortion was the shape damage to your car and damage to the house in the time it took gravity to overcome the resistance of the parking brake lining and start the car rolling. Once it started rolling the intensity increased and continued until the resistance of the house equalized the gravitational forces. Such is the world we live in.

Hope repairs go well.

[BobT-47P15]

Mark.....the right frame horn on the convert was bent from it's

accident years ago. So I finally took the car to a body shop

and had them use their frame machine to straighten it. Looked

OK when they got done and the bumper was in a better position.

[mackster]

You gotta get a MOPAR approved brick for the just in case parking situation. Power washed and given a nice coat of clear they make the perfect accessory. Plus you can prop up the WEBER if you encounter less than ideal tailgating situations.

how rare is this item? does everyone want one? because I will buy it if everyone else likes it!

Glad to hear no one got hurt. sounds like the car took the worst of the boxing match. how about the house?

[woodie49]

Terrible luck. My E-brake has never been reliable and I haven't been able to find the MOPAR Approved Brick, so I went for a cheap aftermarket repalcement.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96479

[Plymouthy Adams]

brick ?

[Merle Coggins]

WOW! Then is some mighty fine lookin' parking brakes. Purdy fancy fer 'round here.

[MacGyver]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Seeing these creative parking solutions makes me feel a little better about jumping out of the car to officially put it in park. I will no longer feel sheepish about this but will hold my head high as a proud member of the p15-d24 community as I chock my wheels!

[woodie49]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Seeing these creative parking solutions makes me feel a little better about jumping out of the car to officially put it in park. I will no longer feel sheepish about this but will hold my head high as a proud member of the p15-d24 community as I chock my wheels!

Do you have another block for "Drive"?

[1949P17BC]

Update, took my car to the vocal Tech School a friend is a displaced Chrysler worker and being retrained in Auto Restoration. The class is building a 32 Ford, 56 Chevy, 54 Nash, complete frame off restorations. I take my car in next Tuesday for a "teachable moment on frame straightening". Best part it Free, they ask for a donation to the class.

[Eneto-55]

My first car was a 62 Chrysler Newport, push button shift, an automatic with no 'Park'. The emergency brake was the same basic setup - only internal drum instead of external like on the P-15s (I have one too). I used to carry a wheel chock and would go up hill as far as possible (up close to the next car on a city street), then open the door and put the wheel chock out, and then ease up against it. People laughed at me, but hey, it worked fine!

[Jim Saraceno]

Update, took my car to the vocal Tech School a friend is a displaced Chrysler worker and being retrained in Auto Restoration. The class is building a 32 Ford, 56 Chevy, 54 Nash, complete frame off restorations. I take my car in next Tuesday for a "teachable moment on frame straightening". Best part it Free, they ask for a donation to the class.

Good deal. I hope all goes well. Which school did you take it to?

[RobertKB]

I personally like the pumpkin brake.

[PatS....]

Update, took my car to the vocal Tech School a friend is a displaced Chrysler worker and being retrained in Auto Restoration. The class is building a 32 Ford, 56 Chevy, 54 Nash, complete frame off restorations. I take my car in next Tuesday for a "teachable moment on frame straightening". Best part it Free, they ask for a donation to the class.

Good deal. Make sure to have a chock block in the car and that they know the ebrake is unreliable:eek:

[1949P17BC]

Jim, Four Rivers in Washington MO.. The e brake holds like it should, but still a little gun shy so I have been blocking the wheels also