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Well that was frightening...one more 93 Fleet bites the dust....

2K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  brougham 
#1 ·
So...my friend has been looking for a 93-96 Fleetwood for awhile now. I always keep my eye open, because I like them too, and they're few and far between in my neck of the woods. Lo and behold, I find a really nice 93 on kijiji....and it's only $2000.00, but the guy selling it says "I don't know what this car is worth, so make me an offer." It's in a little town about 20 minutes away.

The car is/was white on white, astroroof, rims (not chrome), blue leather interior. It has 160km on it. Off we go to take a look. It's a nice car...gigantic, gleaming white. Sure, it had a couple of small issues that I was going to contact thefleetwoodguy about, but no matter now....the power seat on the driver's side wasn't working, it needed a new headliner due to the astroroof having had a leaky seal, was missing the hood ornament, and the vinyl top was ready to be replaced.

Note I'm talking about this thing in the PAST tense.

We get to the guy's place, he gives us the keys and tells us to take it for a spin. "You don't look like a couple of car thieves, ha ha."

My friend takes the first leg of the trip. We drive through town heading to the highway when I say "hey, pull over in this parking lot and let's take a good look at it." We take a look, note the car's faults, which aside from the above items were pretty few. The car had no rust on it...just a little on the door hinges was all that was visible. It had typical wear and tear in the interior, nothing to worry about.

Now it's my turn to drive. I'm thinking I'm going to take it on the highway, which was 5 minutes away. I'm driving down the road to the highway at 50km/hour (35mph). I wasn't speeding in the slightest. We head over some railway tracks and BAM, the friggin' hood flies open. Holy friggin' crap. I immediately put on the brakes (and noted the look of terror on the guy's face in the car behind me). My immediate thought was "oh shit, this might bend the hood struts so it won't close properly. Nothin' to fear there my friends....why? Because at the same time the hood flew open, a gust of wind caught the f*cker, and it TWISTED RIGHT OFF. BOTH of the struts snapped where the hood connects. The whole thing twisted off, snapped, hit the windshield, then turned completely upside down and landed on the engine compartment. The only thing that stopped that hood from flying right off and hitting the car behind me was the cable for the hood light.

Scariest...thing...ever. My immediate thought was "holy cow, he's going to be pissed." We call the guy, he comes right over. I'm looking at my friend, and we're thinking he's going to start screaming. Not at all! He asked "what the f*ck" about 300 times, but then he says "oh, gee, I checked the oil on it the other day. I guess I didn't have the hood fully latched. I guess I'll just scrap it now."

Kids, if you have a hood lying around, check out kijiji for Hamilton Ontario Canada, and you'll get yourself a deal. He offered it to us for $1000.00, but I'm willing to bet he's going to take $500.

Here's the damage....
 

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#2 ·
Oh....and by the way, there was no sign that the hood wasn't latched...it was fully seated, and actually when I was taking a good look at the car I tugged on it to make sure it was latched and it wouldn't move. Wierd...neither of us even touched the hood release inside the car.

I feel really, really bad about what happened to that car....the hood is f*cked....totally bent.
 
#5 ·
No, suprisingly the windshield didn't take any damage....I was really surprised. When the hood twisted off and hit the windshield I thought it was going to spiderweb, but it was fine. The funny thing was that the hood struts were completly rusted/rotten where they met the hood...brittle....it also suprised me how small they were.

There weren't any dents on the fenders even after the incident.

As for buying it...it was my friend looking for the car, not me. I like my 1991 Brougham. I don't know where I'd find a hood here...not many of those cars around.
 
#7 ·
wtf?
thats a friggin story, why didnt the safety latch stop it?
theres two latches to open that up!...maybe disconnected
anyway I have access to a decent hood in white! if someone grabs it
and needs a hood
I would take it for the right price, just too far
outside of my cadar arc
at least you werent injured thats the main thing!
 
#10 ·
Glad, no one was hurt it could have been worse . Fluttering hood is not something new to me . However that incident was very unusual .
 
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