[DeTomaso] Speaking of Missing the Obvious

[Art Stephens]

     In retrospect I now find this funny,  at the time,  I wasn't happy with myself.  I had my good friend and Pantera owner Bill Wright come over and help me install my decklid so that I could make some new inconspicuous brackets for the struts.  Later that day I continued with some body work I was doing to the back panel of the car.  I had the car jacked way up high to make the job easier.  When I have the struts off the car I have a piece of 2x3" that goes between the decklid and the wheel house spreader bar to support the lid.  Since I had the car jacked up so high,  I couldn't reach as far as I needed to insert the 2x3".  So instead of going to get a step ladder that would have allowed me to put the prop in it's normal place,  I just decided to place it at the back of the car between the decklid and the body,  reminding myself not to knock it out while working on the car.  So I'm half in the engine bay and half out doing the body work with my head under the back of the decklid.  With my elbow,  I accidentally knocked the prop out,  MOTHER _____ER !!!!!!!!!!!!  Of course the rubber molding was not on the vertical piece of sheet metal,  so my face gets slammed into it.  As I was bent over with my hands on my knees swearing and spitting out blood,  I decided I had better go stand over the grass,  because I wasn't sure I was going to be able to remain standing.  The neighbor across the street heard the ruckus and came to check on me.  After I stopped the bleeding,  I went to the doctor for stitches in my lip.  Don't try this at home kids!  I have since made a much safer prop.

Art