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On the vette i was missing one of the front fender to grill brackets..bought a new one from paragon and hung it on a peg ...it disappeared. ..bought another, put it on the peg, it disappeared. bought a third and installed it right away....the other 2 are now found....
Bought a 2nd hardtop in pieces. Took the long front stainless header trim and put it where it wouldnt get damaged or lost.....bought a second a few years later. Havent rebuilt the top yet so its right where i left it....
I used to have a tool gremlin that would take tools in the early 90s. Last time it was an issue i had made sure the socket i was using was securely on my wiper tray while i used a different one. When i went to swap back it was gone. This had been going on for years and i would get mad and throw tools and bitch and scream. I definitely had a gremlin that enjoyed the show. This time i just shrugged my sholders and went to another socket set and grabbbed another same size socket and went back to work...a few minutes later the other socket was right where i left it....my gremlin disappeared for the last 30 years.
It just started coming back in force this past year but i have about 3 or four 3/8 drive socket sets so i can find one pretty easily if it goes missing. It still happens but i dont throw tools, just grab another. Same with wrenches...got lots of them now too. I just have a huge pile by the end of the project when they all start reappearing....lol
Good story, those gremlins have invaded all of our garages
I was doing a tining belt on my 2009 Kia Rio commuter and had it all done. Found out the hard way that the woodruff key had fallen off and landed on the cross member right below the crank. Ran great for about 3 seconds and BANG! I threw up in my mouth a little. Learned how to do valve job on a tiny 4 cylinder tho!
I was doing a tining belt on my 2009 Kia Rio commuter and had it all done. Found out the hard way that the woodruff key had fallen off and landed on the cross member right below the crank. Ran great for about 3 seconds and BANG! I threw up in my mouth a little. Learned how to do valve job on a tiny 4 cylinder tho!
I did something similar once with an old alarm bell. It was a 12V bell but I didnt realize that and hooked it up to 110V to test it. Well, it worked, for One, Really, LOUD, Ding..... and a small puff of smoke.
Today I spent at least an hour looking for a ziplock baggie with 4 transmission to bell housing bolts in it - these are not small bolts. The baggies with the bell housing to block bolts, flywheel bolts, and pressure plate bolts are there with the bolts and washers all wire-brushed and pretty. I considered I didn't put them in a baggie like I did all of the other bolts last summer when I pulled the engine out of my '67 so searched my miscellaneous bolt collection - more than once; I wondered if I dropped them into a solvent can to get de-gunked and forgot about them - again checked more than once; I went through all of the black/yellow boxes with any car parts in them at all - more than once; I checked the passenger floor and under the car, just in case...
Hopefully my local Ace or NAPA has the proper size so I can buy them in order to find the originals.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
My speedometer got stuck at 70, then dropped to 50 and is still at 40. I have another assembly in a box that i labeled and put on my shelf. I am hesitant to start looking because i know i wont be able to find it.....
OK, you can all stop looking now -- I found them! Under a couple of polishing pads on my parts table, which I would swear I went through at least twice. Didn't even have to go to the hardware store for them to turn up!
2025 c3 ('74-'82) of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2024 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2023 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
About 25 years ago, while still living back in the UK, my wife and I changed the crankshaft damper on our '78, in thge "lock-up" garage that it lived in then. No power or light, we did the job with the car on ramps, front end in the far end of the garage, where the ceiling was higher to allow the hood to be raised. I worked with a flashlight under and above the car. I struggled to remove the old crankshaft timing cover seal and eventually decided it was "make or break" and banged in a screwdriver and whacked the end of it to lever out the seal.
Sure enough, the seal flew out - and disappeared into the front of the engine bay/bodywork somewhere. We spent ages looking for it and to this day it has never reappeared.
Had a 9” Ford rear axle with disk brakes and 3.89 gears in it that I was going to put in a 66 Mustang. Changed my mind because it was so heavy. Went to load it up to take to a friend and couldn’t find one of the caliper brackets. Looked everywhere, even though I kept it all in one corner of the garage. Finally gave up and just gave it to him misting that one piece. Two years later while sweeping, I found it laying right where it was supposed to be. Somehow it turned invisible for two years I guess.
