I had a ‘72 Nova 350 V8 in my shop back in the day that I was fixing up to flip.
We had painted it earlier in the week, redid the interior and had just finished putting on the front disk brakes before we called it a day and the front Cragar SS wheel were on, but the lugs only finger tight. We were going to torque them up the following day.
That night one of my guys, drunk off his ***, decided to go into the shop and take the Nova for a ride. He dropped it down off the lift and went for a joy ride.
3 am, I get a drunk call from him that he got home but one of the front wheels was missing. Something must be wrong with the car.
I chewed him out and told him to go to bed. The next morning at 6 am I went looking for the wheel along his path Home. Found it in a front yard a 1/4 mike from his place. I collected it and went to the shop.
When he arrived, I promptly fired his dumb *** and had a tow truck go get the Nova from his driveway.
Driver’s side disc as a wreck and along with all the front wheel studs. Both front Cragar wheels were toast. Cost me $500 to repair it all and he damn sure didn’t get his last paycheck.
