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Hello Everyone on the IML,
Russell and I lost a really good friend yesterday
to a tragic, yet preventable accident. He was the fellow we have mentioned
before who has helped us remove and restore parts not only from our Imperial but
other cars we own as well. He really admired the Imperial and
realized early on it was no Mustang when it came to working on it or removing
parts from it. I cannot begin to tell you how many parts mechanical,
electrical and otherwise he has rebuilt/restored for the Imperial.
He has taken parts and blasted/polished them to where they looked
NOS. He was a tinkerer and would try over and over until he was
successful at whatever task he was attempting. Bob was 55 and not in
good health but certainly was not a candidate for the cemetery...until
yesterday. I am passing this on so that NO ONE on this list (or
any other for that matter) will make the same mistake as he did. It cost
him his life!
He was restoring one of his favorite cars, a '67
Mustang GT fastback. He needed to get the car up high enough to get under
it to work on the transmission. I believe he was planning to install
a new torque converter. He jacked the car up high enough to place two
rather tall jackstands underneath the rear of the car. Here is the
stupid part: Rather than go to the trouble of finding the matching
jackstands (somewhere in his shop) to place under the front of the
car, he used shorter ones that were closer to his work
area. In order to get the front level with the rear, he put
the stands on cinder blocks! MAJOR MISTAKE! While under the car on his stomach, he must
have found a bolt hard to remove or something. Heck he may have just
turned the wrong way as he was a big guy. Who knows for sure as he
was alone. Another MAJOR MISTAKE! He apparently jostled the
car enough to shake the cinder blocks and the jackstands wobbled
on the shaky blocks. The frame came down on his back and it was all
over! His poor wife found him when she came
home from work! I can only hope he never knew what hit him and he died
instantly.
I realize this is not entirely Imperial related
yet many of us work underneath our Imperials and perhaps aren't as careful
as we should be. Hopefully no one would be so careless as to use cinder
blocks but in a pinch when we want to get that particular job done, who knows
what happens to reason and common sense? Please everyone, learn
from our poor friend's mistake and always practice the utmost in safety
when working on, around and especially underneath your Imperial (or
other make) automobile. I wrote not to be "the bearer of bad news"
but to remind everyone how quickly our lives can come to an end
when we get careless working on these machines. It is indeed a tragedy
that our talented friend paid the ultimate price for his
negligence. Please remember Bob's misfortune the next time any of you head
underneath your cars! It may save your life!
Respectfully,
Greg McDonnell
Mobile, AL
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