Here is a story that I have put off telling for a week because it was just too painful and I screwed up so bad it was embarrassing. I did not even look at my car for a week, did not take any pictures, nothing. If I went to the garage I tried not to glance that direction even though the damage was on the far side of the car.
I have been working overtime on my car to get interior in and AC working. I had finally buttoned up the AC system under the hood and it is ready for charging. I bought two cans of R134A for my new system and was ready to head off to get it charged last Sunday afternoon (also my anniversary). And I wanted to give my wife a ride in the car with AC for the first time.
I started it up but did not wait my usual 5 minutes to get it up to temperature and open the choke so when I backed out of the garage it stalled. I put it in park and tried the key but it did not crank. Tried a few things and still did not crank. So I figured maybe my solenoid is bad so I go to jump it and see if the starter engages. It does, the car starts and it starts pulling away from me in reverse. Begore I could pull the ignition wire to the distributor it side swiped a tree. As you can guess I did not get it all the way into park and the car was in gear and the ignition cutoff switch was working properly and I bypassed that safety switch with my hairbrained idea.
Damage is to the passenger door and front fender. Side mirror was also ripped off. At least it was not painted yet. The cowl, hood and rockers are fine. It drives the same. Could have been worse.
Took me a week of letting it go to get to where I could tell you guys.