Little Blue got a BooBoo

Tire Discounters was the last to touch the lug nuts. Overtorqued and stripped and I had no idea until.......





Well...I knew something wasnt right. I felt a bad imbalance. Pulled over. Inspected. I noted the front drivers tie rod was very loose. Figured it was that. Drove another 200 yards to a parking lot because it got worse, but this time I noticed noise in the back. Inspected rear driver wheel. Appeared fine. All the lugs where there. I noted brake fluid and figured I lost a wheel cylinder due to something in the drum brake assembly coming apart. Decided to drive the 3 miles home. I got another 300 yards. Went around a turn and the back felt loose. I slowed to about 35. Then a heard a snap....which I thought at this point my axle bearing just dissentegrated or my axle snapped or the drum brakes where breaking apart.....then I looked in the rear view which I had angled down to watch that wheel....and I saw it depart from the truck....at which point I k ew I had screwed up....haha. I took the closest ditch and shut her down.

Dang Ray, that really sucks. I had my left front come off on my daily due to a poorly machined spindle so I know the feeling. At least it didn't touch my fender like what happened to yours.

It could have been worse....

Anybody got a spare flareside fender? Lol

Bummer!  Sure hate that, Ray!  

Dang! Sorry that happened.

I always see pictures of Flaresides for sale with cracked and busted fenders and I always wonder, how'd they get that way?...lol.

Ray, time to throw in the towel and junk this truck. Not worth fixing. What's you're address again? I'll come over there and take it away for you so it's not so unsightly sitting in the driveway.

J/K! Sorry to hear man, seriously. If there's one thing that's fragile on these trucks, it's those fenders (oh, and the rotten wood floors I suppose...lol). I actually have a spare set of fenders...after all of the old parts that I sold, I've hung on to those fiberglass fenders just to have as spares.

Funny, I had some for sale ads saved for these fenders and just deleted them all the other day.

You'll get 'er all fixed up. Those fenders are easy to swap, and a rattle can paint job will match well enough.

Nice set in Kansas...shipping them wouldn't be easy (not without damaging them at least...)

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2503898986607512/?surface=product_details

Set with steel sides in NC...

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/471270920443486/?surface=product_details

That  if you have the parts that broke off you can glass them back into place.
It is kind of what I did to install the rear filler door.



I also had a few cracks I had to fix. I added mat to the back side to make it stronger and just a little rosin to the front side and finish with body filler.
Dave ----

And what does Tire Discounters have to Say?
Sorry to see this... Like Cory, I have a set of Spares..

That's exactly how I repaired my original DRW fenders, glassed all the broken pieces back on. I would definitely be having a serious discussion with Tire Discounters. I had a similar (didn't lose a wheel though) experience on my 1970 1/2 Falcon wagon. The rear wheels were so tight that when I had a flat I almost couldn't get the nuts off. It took my cross wrench as the nice angled jack handle/lug wrench would start to come off the nuts. It took the cross wrench, pulling with both hands and pushing with one foot to break them loose.

I took it back to the Goodyear store and told the manager what had happened. He called one of his techs in, told him to put the car inside and take the opposite side wheel off with the cross wrench, he couldn't move it.

This was before "torque sticks", the method was to turn down the air valve on the impact wrench.

I had a similar thing happen with Sears.  It took everything I had to break them loose.  Took it back to Sears and talked to the shop manager and explained that when the rotors warped they'd be paying for them.  And, that they'd lost my business forever.

Fortunately we caught it early enough that the rotors never warped.  But I've NEVER been back to any Sears automotive service, and won't.  (However, I did manage Sears IT infrastructure for a while.  )

Aw, man, that hurts just to look at.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go check my lug nuts...

Rembrant wrote

.....Ray, time to throw in the towel and junk this truck. Not worth fixing. What's you're address again? I'll come over there and take it away for you so it's not so unsightly sitting in the driveway......

You'll have to trade me yours first....

......as far as Tire Discounters goes...I will call them tomorrow. I've been incredibly busy yesterday and today. There is no way I can prove, nor would it hold up in court, that they are at fault. It's not worth my time. Honestly. My time is more valuable than to spend it playing the blame game. I can fix it, and I will, when I get around to it. Truth is....it could have happened at 65-70 mph and caused a major accident in which I perished. Luckily, I was going no more than 30mph. I knew Poo was about to hit the fan so I slowed.

It blows my mind that all 5 lugs came off the studs. All 5 of them were there when I checked in the church parking lot....300 yards down the road and Boom....no lugs.

And now you know why they had left hand threads on that side of cars & trucks.
Dave ----

FuzzFace2 wrote

And now you know why they had left hand threads on that side of cars & trucks.
Dave ----

Huh?

if the lugs were over torqued and stripped that's plenty of evidence for me. Show it to them, they have insurance for stuff like this for a reason. Especially if they just mounted the tires, I don't see them not helping you out. They will either cut you a check or let you go to a professional shop to have it done and foot the bill.

With business as bad as it has been for those types of shops they don't need any bad publicity. They will probably make it right.

Ray, beautiful truck and I hate this for you. I'm curious, why do you think this occurred from the lug nuts being over torqued verses the possibility that they were left loose and not tightened?