So much for my vacation plans..

[tsm1mt]

Some not-too-nice and probably-drunk fawk put a real kink in 'em at about 2:37 this morning...






I sure hope the SOB is hurtin pretty good after a hit like that.. cop figures it was 30-35mph.

I heard a BANG followed by tires squealing. First thought - someone hit my truck. Second thought - probably just fireworks.. and with the tire squeal, the vehicle would've been gone before I was back out of bed (I'd just come in from the shop..)



See the stain near the "AM" in the above pic? That's from my leaking power steering box.. which would indicate where the truck *WAS* parked before some asshole fawked it up.

I hope the cops manage to find this guy.. and that he actually has insurance, a job, or SOMETHING since it's still against the law to beat on someone until you feel you've gotten your money's worth.

FAWK.

I USED to own ONE NICE TRUCK..

[SSGTWC]

THAT REALLY SUCKS!!!!!!

I feel for ya Tom

I hope ya get it goin soon

[ol John Henry]

Hit & Run ...DAMN


oh well ..life goes on

[Cliffy [JD]]

Damn tom, I totally feel your pain, about three years ago (a year after I got my blazer) I got it also. I was lucky though, the guy LEFT A NOTE and I got $2,000 for my blazer.

Hope you are as lucky.

[Chief yelling alot]

hunt the fwcker down

[tsm1mt]

Originally posted by Cliffhanger
Damn tom, I totally feel your pain, about three years ago (a year after I got my blazer) I got it also. I was lucky though, the guy LEFT A NOTE and I got $2,000 for my blazer.

Hope you are as lucky.

A note sure would've been nice.. or SOMETHING.

My hope is we can find the SOB and he/she has insurance... yeah, but what are the odds of THAT happening. :-(

Hit & Run ...DAMN


oh well ..life goes on

Yep, it goes on.. I wasn't hurt.. but it sure does set back everything a good bit.

Took a few years to find a truck this nice.. perfect grille and front bumper, nary a dent or ding in the whole body.. it was my ONE nice looking rig.. the rest are a bunch of POSs.. but nooo, the Travelall didn't get hit.. the truck did.

I bought THIS truck because I didn't have to do any body work on it. Jokes on me..

It will have been "home" for exactly one year on Thursday - the 4th.

*sigh*

I feel for ya Tom

I hope ya get it goin soon

Thanks, Tim. Dunno how soon I'll get it back on the road.. I was really looking forward to "tinkering" and not "fixing/working".. getting the stereo installed before RMIHR was my priority.. swapping a perfectly good and rust-free front clip out was NOT in my plan.


On the positive side, I think there's enough good sheetmetal in the local boneyard to make a good front clip - but I'll have to paint the whole cab to make anything match now. Not sure about a good grille for it, or a good 74/75 hood in the yard, but I've made a note of a few good fenders n' such on my trips for parts.

If I stay home and skip RMIHR, I'll have the $$ to put it back together..

shrug.

[tsm1mt]

Originally posted by Chief Yelling Alot
hunt the fwcker down

Sounds good to me.

I was working on my trailer last week in the driveway, and thought I heard someone throwing rocks at me and the truck.. I was going to go to bed early that night, instead found myself sitting with my gun and all the lights off crouched down next to the truck (in the driveway, where it should've been last night, too..) waiting to see if someone was gonna try it again..

[JoshC]

Wow, sorry to hear that Tom. Did he/she leave any paint? I'd spend the day driving around looking for a fawked up car/truck.

Looks like the damage would be on the driver side of the vehicle and if you had some paint, you could hunt down that color.

Also, I'd take a trip to the nearest bar this evening and just have a beer or two and keep my ears open. It happened on a weeknight. The dude probably was drunk to swerve that far over to the left. If it's a weeknight, it's a habbit, and he'll probably be back at the bar tonight. And he'll probably have a story to tell after he throws back a few.

[Chief yelling alot]

Originally posted by tsm1mt


but nooo, the Travelall didn't get hit.. the truck did.

No IH deservs to get hit

[tsm1mt]

Originally posted by Chief Yelling Alot


No IH deservs to get hit

Yeah, but of all of 'em, the T'all is the one slated for sale or parting out.. downside is it's the one that runs and has been the most reliable.. just the ugliest one, and Michelle despises it.

I wasn't too happy when I had it up on the RTI ramp and went to climb back in and jumped up into the driver's seat only to fall through the floor, either.. even if it was kinda funny.

[Hooper]

Originally posted by tsm1mt


Yeah, but of all of 'em, the T'all is the one slated for sale or parting out.. downside is it's the one that runs and has been the most reliable.. just the ugliest one, and Michelle despises it.

I wasn't too happy when I had it up on the RTI ramp and went to climb back in and jumped up into the driver's seat only to fall through the floor, either.. even if it was kinda funny.

Choke. Sorry. I just had to laugh at that last bit.

BTW, club member is selling me a running 345 to put in my T-all. I'll work on getting it home after Roundup...

[tsm1mt]

Originally posted by JoshC
Wow, sorry to hear that Tom. Did he/she leave any paint? I'd spend the day driving around looking for a fawked up car/truck.

I cruised the trailer park across the street (in the direction the vehicle was headed) before the cops even showed up - I had to get walking and moving and DOING.. it's been a long time since I was so pissed I was shaking..

My sister's been cruising the neighborhood looking for a wrecked pickup, too.. along with her friends.

One of her friends was walking to the corner store when it happened and saw a truck rollin' smoke come around the corner and went down a dead-end street in the trailer park.. truck's nowhere to be found this morning, of course.. I probably should've gotten back up at 2:30.. I probably could've found the fawk then.

Looks like the damage would be on the driver side of the vehicle and if you had some paint, you could hunt down that color.

Red paint chips. According to my sister, with a lot of other colors on the backside - vehicle must've been painted a few times.

Bonus - person left a jug of NAPA antifreeze in the street for me.. must've flew out of the truck when they hit, or when they took off after the impact. Has red paint rubbed onto one side of it.

I wonder if it was a recent paintjob.. hrmm..

Also, I'd take a trip to the nearest bar this evening and just have a beer or two and keep my ears open. It happened on a weeknight. The dude probably was drunk to swerve that far over to the left. If it's a weeknight, it's a habbit, and he'll probably be back at the bar tonight. And he'll probably have a story to tell after he throws back a few.

Funny, my sister was thinking the same - she was just going to case the local bars, not go inside.. but that's a good idea, too.

Could I be lucky enough that he'd come back down my street again at 2:30 tonight in a wrecked pickup? Now THAT would make for an interesting evening...

I'll have to take some time and cruise around the bars..

And I was worried about putting the new t'case adapter on and getting the Dana 20 swapped in so I could get the driveshaft cut down tomorrow.

Oh, if that was my only worry..

[HarleyM]

A friend of mine had his pick-up parked off the street one night and it got nailed too. We did some alley driving and back fence checking and did find it.
Good luck on finding the SOB, I'm going to check with a couple of guys that used to work with me that are from Helena and try to find out if they have heard anything .
The best place to check that I can think of is that country bar. I believe it was in the Kmart area but can't remember now If you know which one I'm talking about check to see if Shawn is still bouncing there and ask him about it. He always seemed to know what was going on around that town.

[Sully]

Crap Tom.... That really sucks. That was a sweet ride too. I'm really surprised that whatever hit your truck was able to take off after delivering that kind of damage!!!

I feel for ya, and I hope they get the prick that did that to ya

[harkinoff]

fawkers

[TERRA-IZER]

Tom that really sucks i hope you find that dumb son-of-bitch and make him fell some pain in the pocket book and maybe the face for hurting such a nice rig, i was really hopeing to see it this year at the RMIHR. Let me know what parts you can't find and i will check around, there are a lot of 68-75's around here.

[jdjanda]

Tom

for ya, sorry to here it had to happen to the one rig you don't have five spares for.

Joe

[Binderfan2002]

Really sorry to here about your truck. What ever hit it had to be one stout sun of a fawker. I am suprided it got away. I sure hope you find em.. Good luck and sorry once again. It hurts to see a IH that clean get a beating.

Steve

[tsm1mt]

Originally posted by jdjanda
Tom

for ya, sorry to here it had to happen to the one rig you don't have five spares for.

Joe

Yeah, no kidding. It couldn't have been the rusty Travelall I'm looking to unload.. or the trashed trail Scout that is begging for a new tub.. or just any part of the Scout, since I have a half dozen others..

Nooo.. the straight truck.. the nice respectable truck..

Michelle came over and took some pictures with the digi cam tonight.

We then cruised the neighborhood, the local bars, etc.. no luck.

However, before I left work I got a call from some wheelin' friends.. spotted a red Ford with front end damage at the parts store.. gave the cops the plate #..

Stopped at my parts store, Champion, and caught up with the guys there - they'd been on the prowl all day, too.

Handed me the same plate #. Said they'd seen blue paint on it.. and the manager at Checker says he's a regular customer, truck was fine yesterday, and he's a regular partier.

Called the cops back.. sounded annoyed with me, then said they stopped the truck I'd phoned in earlier, and it was old damage (his word or their investigation I wonder..)

Dunno. Maybe the officer handling my case will have more to say in the morning when he gets back on duty.


Here ya go, in Digital Color.. uhh.. Glory..

[Chief yelling alot]

dam i would hunt that red truck down no matter what it takes!

look on the bright side... the head lamp dident brake.


go figgure

[NotQuiteSane]

Geez tom, that blows.

sorry I don't have spare parts to offer you.

as top dealing with the fawker, you mix equal parts of & . melt over a low flame to make a powder. either add plaster of parris to make blocks, or use in powder form.

since thermite is a class D fire (7000+ degrees) agent, you'll need a magnesium strip or something similar to start it.

I'd say about 2 pounds in powder form, about 1" wide down the center line of the offending vehicle should do the trick.

I've seen about a quarter ouce burn through an engine and leave a hole in the ground.

NQS

[HarleyM]

NotQuiteSane, I do like you idea but it would cause more problems than it is worth. Unfortunatly with the way things are done with the system now, if Tom took revenge of any kind he would be the one to get nailed to the wall. He would have to do it with no marks and no witnesses. I don't like the system either when the criminal has more rights then the rest of us.

Tom if they continue to say that the damage is old get as many statements for people that heve seen the pickup and give it to the cops. That may push them a bit to check into it further and do an actual investigation on this. Try and get a sample of the red paint off of yours and put it into a bag so you have it in case they actually try to prove he did it. Get some pictures if possible of his pickup and maybe find out where he lives. It shouldn't be far from your place, unless he uses that as a short cut to the main road.
If not I know of this coulee behind Holter lake........................

[tsm1mt]

Originally posted by HarleyM
NotQuiteSane, I do like you idea but it would cause more problems than it is worth. Unfortunatly with the way things are done with the system now, if Tom took revenge of any kind he would be the one to get nailed to the wall. He would have to do it with no marks and no witnesses. I don't like the system either when the criminal has more rights then the rest of us.

Remember the three S-s?

Shoot straight
Shovel deep
Shutthehellup



Just make sure you don't fire any ranch hands that watched you doing it any time soon..

Tom if they continue to say that the damage is old get as many statements for people that heve seen the pickup and give it to the cops. That may push them a bit to check into it further and do an actual investigation on this. Try and get a sample of the red paint off of yours and put it into a bag so you have it in case they actually try to prove he did it. Get some pictures if possible of his pickup and maybe find out where he lives. It shouldn't be far from your place, unless he uses that as a short cut to the main road.

Got some paint chips (and bondo) from the truck.

I've been running around with a camera in my pocket hoping to get a picture...

[NotQuiteSane]

Originally posted by HarleyM
NotQuiteSane, I do like you idea but it would cause more problems than it is worth. Unfortunatly with the way things are done with the system now, if Tom took revenge of any kind he would be the one to get nailed to the wall. He would have to do it with no marks and no witnesses. I don't like the system either when the criminal has more rights then the rest of us.

Yeah, I was just joking, thats why i left out what the ingredients are.

NQS

[R O]

That sucks

You are friendly with the local auto wreckers right? Tell them what happened and ask if they will keep an eye out for somebody looking for parts to fix the hit and run vehicle.