Silly pranks

[cp1969]

In high school, a non-mechanically inclined friend asked me to install some "glass-pack" mufflers on his beloved '55 Chevy.

He was oh-so-proud, and vain, about this car that I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. I installed the mufflers, all right. But first, I brazed grease zerks into them near the inlets.

Every so often, I would lube his mufflers, creating huge clouds of embarrasing blue smoke. Smoking episodes mysteriously came and went with the owner in a near panic to find out what was wrong with his baby.

He was a good guy. He could take a joke as well as dish them out.

 

[cp1969]

Another thing we did lots of times, especially to individuals who knew very little about automobiles, but were proud of the one he/she had, was to stretch a 12" to 18" piece of bicycle inner tube over the end of the tailpipe. It certainly makes for a funny sounding exhaust.

Showed that one to my kids. They loved it. We did that (almost like the scene out of Animal House, only twenty years before it) to a '55 Pontiac that we put in a Labor Day parade. Had the crowd screaming with laughter.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

I installed the mufflers, all right. But first, I brazed grease zerks into them near the inlets.

Hey, I thought they were there to lube the muffler bearings!

 

[Bird]

Fifty plus years ago, the fireworks stands had a fun gadget. I don't remember a name and have no idea whether anyone still makes them or not, but I guess you'd call it a firecracker with two wires instead of a normal fuse. You attached one wire to a spark plug on a car and the other wire to a ground. When someone started that car, there was a long screeching whistle, a loud explosion, and smoke would billow out from under the hood. The first time I ever saw one was when Dad put one on our '48 Olds because he knew Mother would be driving it later that day. She failed to see the humor in it.

 

[hitekcountry]

And then there was the prank that someone tried to pull on me that I didn't fall for.

In college on a day that I only had morning classes, I went to leave and I found a note on my car. It read "meet me at the (name of the cafe on the corner) for lunch, Your Secret Admirer."

Now my instant reaction to that wasn't the image of some lovely female sitting alone in the corner anxiously waiting for me, but the image of two or three guys waiting to get a good laugh as they see me searching for the secret admirer. I wasn't going to fall for that one. I tossed the note and went home.

But ..... then on the other hand you don't suppose...... Na!!

 

[EastTnFarmboy]

Fifty plus years ago, the fireworks stands had a fun gadget. I don't remember a name and have no idea whether anyone still makes them or not, but I guess you'd call it a firecracker with two wires instead of a normal fuse. You attached one wire to a spark plug on a car and the other wire to a ground. When someone started that car, there was a long screeching whistle, a loud explosion, and smoke would billow out from under the hood. The first time I ever saw one was when Dad put one on our '48 Olds because he knew Mother would be driving it later that day. She failed to see the humor in it.

Ya' think!

 

[EastTnFarmboy]

In college there was a dorm floor above a floor where classrooms were located. Some guys filled a 39 gallon trash can with water and leaned it up against a dorm room door. The doors opened into the room, so they knocked on the door and scampered away. When the poor unsuspecting soul opened the door, he experienced quite a rush...of water of course. That water had to go somewhere...into the classroom below.

Although I didn't see it personally, I heard stories of someone rigging up a car battery attached to one of the door handles. When the person opened the door, I guess it was like grabbing hold of an electric fence. What a way to start your day!

 

[Bird]

My first car was a 1946 Chevrolet when I was a sophomore in high school. The first day I had it and drove it to school a friend told me, that afternoon, that he saw a couple of the seniors with the hood up on my car and learned that they had pulled the coil wire out of the distributor, inserted a cigarette filter, then put the wire back. So I promptly removed the cigarette filter after school. If a friend hadn't seen what happened and warned me, there's no telling when I would have found that problem. And I learned that one of the seniors had a 1952 Chevrolet and our keys were the same.

 

[cyberknight]

And another payback I did.

I had a friend of mine and his girl friend living in my house while we were redoing an old place they had bought. We had to knock down a building that was very old and beyond dirty. Well we spent a weekend and got er done and we were black from the dust and bat poop that was in the atic. His girlfriend was pulling little stunts on me all day just to annoy me. We get back to my place and I am the first to get a shower and cleaned up after a hard days work..
Now my payback. She goes into take her shower. I goto my main water shutoffs and wait. I hear the shower come on and wait till i think she is all soaped up with shampoo and all. Then I shut the hot water off. The scream and all the cursing was unbelievable. Then I shut all the water off. She came out of the shower with a towel around her, yelling , and it looked like someone dumped a bucket of mud on her. My timeing was pefect. I thought she was going to kill me. It took me a good half hour to stop laughing so i could turn the water back on. She stills remember's that stunt very well.

Glenn

 

[EastTnFarmboy]

Growing up in Missouri, I knew of some boys who would take a lady's purse and attach super heavy fishing line to the handle. They lived out in the country so they would find a place to hide in the woods or a thicket next to one of the paved roads. They would put the purse in the road and then wait. Of course, someone would come trucking down the road and see the purse as they passed by it. Before the person could get their vehicle stopped, the boys would pull the purse into their hiding place and remain deathly still. As far as I know, they never were found. I bet there were some confused and aggravated drivers though.