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I am very surprised to hear your experience with AAA. I use to rely on my insurance road side assistance and that was miserable. I started using AAA a few years back and have been exceedingly pleased. I have had at least 5 tows, a few dead battery calls and one keys locked in car when on vacation. They have always been extremely prompt and except for the cost of the batteries it has cost me nothing. I highly recommend them over insurance road side assistance.
Corey

I'm glad you have had positive experiences with AAA.  Trust is essential. My only towing experience with them didn't work out but also know that no company their size is going to have 100% satisfaction and there is always going to be a dissatisfied customer along the way.  Mine just happened to be a little on the traumatic side.
Maybe their service in my area needs improvement?

Hey KR Convertible,

I did a search on the service station online to see if there were any threads that would indicate that others had the same issue but didn't come up with anything.
Have had the car for over 40 years and used it as a daily driver, first for transportation in college then for work before I decided to get a car with AC and other modern conveniences for daily use.
I've mostly run into clutch related issues and annoying noise coming from various places since restoration but was up until now pretty pleased with the engine and handling upgrades. Am in the process of sorting out these loose ends and am looking forward to a better driving experience.
Yes, the anxiety caused by lack of trust in the reliability can sometimes be a buzz kill.
You were probably wiser than me in buying a car that had already been restored. Even if you have some sorting to do it is probably cheaper than going through the process of a full restoration.

Great question. I'll post the sequence of events as I'm still unsure because of the plausibility of what may have happened.

Decided to top off gas tank just prior to entering event as I'd run it down to half a tank on trip there.

BTW it was running great up to this point.

5-6 miles into return trip home I accelerated to pass another car on freeway and it started sputtering and running rough. Within less than a mile I was searching for an off ramp.  The car died on frontage road just off of the freeway exit.  Managed to start it by pushing gas pedal to the floor to get another 100 yards into the parking lot where it would no longer start. Blew the fuel filter out but didn't appear to be clogged.

Parked in back garage when we got it home and didn't want to look at it for a couple of months while recovering from PTSD due to the event.

First thought was maybe the carb power valve went bad and was passing gas and flooding. So replaced that and the carb needle and seat even though the fuel levels in primary and secondary bowls were good and no gas was coming out of the overflow tube.

Mechanic friend came by and he suggested that the fuel that had been put in the car just before going into car show might be bad so we drained the tank, flushed the fuel lines and replaced with fresh premium fuel.  He determined that the tank had been contaminated with diesel and suggested that the service station had put diesel in the premium storage tank.

Plugs were fouled so replaced and also changed oil out as I still wasn't sure if excessive gas was passing into cylinders.

Car started but was still missing a little and backfiring in tail pipe under load.  Figured one of the cylinders wasn't igniting and in addition to main problem I'd developed another during the troubleshooting process.  Replaced the distributor cap, rotor, and plug wires and now car runs great.

Between replacing the power valve and draining the gas tank it fixed the problem.  I'm leaning towards the power valve but mechanic friend insists on there being diesel in the fuel tank.  Was a shot gun approach. 

A bonus from this exercise is that now I have 12 gallons of gas to use on my burn piles I use to dispose of vegetation. 
 

Thanks Side-Oilers!  All great suggestions.

I will find extended towing coverage and start taking some large bills with me to ensure safe delivery of vehicle if this ever happens again.

Another thing that might help would be to caravan to the event.  My brother has a '67 Shelby and is too afraid to drive it.  I tell him what's the point of owning the car if you're not going to drive it? especially at this point in life.  It's not like it's going to accompany you to whatever might be ahead of you once your ashes are scattered to the wind.

Have registered for the same event again this year and am looking forward to it. 

Thanks Bill!!!

You've really made my day.

A good way of finding stored parts that seem to have wandered off is buying replacements. The lost ones will mysteriously reappear.

Thanks KR Convertible!  Great picture!

Yes, doesn't appear to be reproduced.  Am assuming not much demand.  I had one but has been years since I looked at it so forgot what it actually looked like.  Put it in a special place so when the time came to pull out the instrument cluster and install I'd know where to find it.  Of course it was no longer there

It looks like Auto Club is AAA.  Am wondering why with a fleet of tow trucks typically in major areas it took so long?  They assign a truck to you and a tracking map so you know where they are.  The truck was over 100 miles away.  We call the guy after 3 hours and he says he's an hour out but he's going to stop for dinner even though we can see on the map he's still over 100 miles away in Turlock.

I have Heacock and ran into the $200 mile thing.  That gets chewed up apparently in 5 miles. The frustrating thing was that I'd just received a letter from them stating if I needed towing to call the number provided in the letter. Had the letter with me, called number and there was no answer.  Had to call the claims department where I was able to talk to an agent.  Their towing is only good if you break down 5 miles from a trusted shop or your home.

With the experience we had I'd say what I wanted the most was to get the car on a flatbed ASAP. If I can do that and also have it be affordable would have been a dream.

The Ferrari and Aston Martin stories tell you all you need to know about people even though you'd think at a car show there would be a little more respect.  I live one stop sign and a stop light away from miles of open northern CA foothill roads, so taking car on the freeway to get into a congested area is almost too nerve wracking. There is one restaurant with outdoor seating in a very small gold rush town near home where I'll park my car far out in the parking lot away from all cars and I can see the entire time.

I don't think the family thought I was being patient as it took me time to walk the distance to discover that they had lucked out by contacting the door handle instead of the paint.  I hadn't run out of choice words and could have kept on going. Even if it was a 2000 Toyota Corolla, the lack of respect for someone else's property is amazing.

Thanks for the heads up on Auto Club! I will definitely check them out. Am assuming they enlist local towing services which is better than AAA.

Was wondering what Shelby owners who drive their cars in 100-mile radius or more from their homes do about towing insurance.

Have been intending to post this experience so other could avoid what I went through, although this might be on the extreme side. 

My '68 Shelby is covered by one of the major classic car insurance companies but due to my lack of reading the details of the towing portion was put in a bad situation. Car has had a recent rotisserie restoration and should have been more diligent about understanding the coverage. Is only once at most a year that I will take it out 100 miles from home so was in a way gambling.

Coming back from a car show in SF Bay area (90 miles away) and car takes a crap and barely get off freeway in time to break down in the parking lot of a furniture store. Can't troubleshoot problem although many come by to offer help but to no avail. Call insurance company who tells me they cover a 5-mile radius for towing and that only option is a Pep Boys who can take a look at the car in 4 days. That information leads me to pursue girlfriend's AAA coverage.

AAA tells me it will be a couple of hours before they can make it and will be $1100 towing charge 90 miles to home (obviously didn't have the premium coverage). In the meantime, a car pulls up next to mine (they have dozens of other parking options and have to park next to me) and as I'm watching, the rear passenger door is wildly kicked open by an elderly woman and hear the impact 20 yards away.  Was elderly parents and their adult kids. To my amazement there was no apparent damage as by luck their car door hit my passenger door handle and did not touch the paint. Was assuming there would be at least $10k in damage. I won't go into details about what happened next, but their stance was that it was an old beater and why was I so upset?  This unfortunately is the world we live in. Yes, CA is a "special" case.

5 hours goes by and no tow truck. Sun is going down, low riders (they seemed okay and had no problems) have their floor jacks out and are working on their cars at the service station 100 feet away in preparation for Saturday night cruise. Homeless people are coming out of the bushes with shopping carts. An old homeless guy comes by in a wheelchair and feel so bad for him that we push him over to the convenience store to buy him his favorite 6-pack of beer.
Concern for overall safety was increasing and decided to call a local towing service.  They were there in 15 minutes, pretty much so dark by this time, was $300 cheaper than AAA. Kicking myself for not calling them at the beginning thus avoiding being strung along by AAA.

Broke down at 3PM and finally arrived home at 11:30PM.

Do classic car insurance companies offer extended towing and if so, which ones are the most reasonable and quickest to respond? Or do you just go into it knowing that you will absorb the towing expense of $1k+ out of pocket if something bad happens and will be at the mercy of when they decide to show up?  Am assuming most are not comfortable with having their cars towed to nearest auto repair place.

Not sure if this is a correct description in the subject title, but my understanding is that there is a red lens located on the right side of the instrument cluster that is back lit when a failure in the brake system is detected.

I can't find any photos of what this lens looks like but heard rumor that is stenciled with the word "brakes". I would post a WTB but since I don't know exactly what I'm asking for then I thought maybe someone could educate me (or post a picture) and possibly point me to where I could buy one. 

Thanks in advance for any information that might help or to anyone that has an extra they'd like to sell.

Thanks Pete!  I had come to a dead end in my search.

I'm making a list of things that didn't get done or wasn't done correctly when my car came back from restoration 7 years ago and saw this discussion so had to take a look. Sure enough, I'm in violation of the fiberglass not being on the correct side of the bracket, the hardware used to secure the fiberglass to the bracket is also not correct.

Am surprised as I supplied the restoration shop with the Master Body kit from AMK which should have contained the correct part to use. 

In the picture of the white car, I see a bolt used on each end of the header support bracket.  Are they both the same bolt/washer assembly? 

Cannot find my catalog that contains the assembly drawing ever since I cleaned my office. Is the bolt assembly PN 378178 -52?  Picture is a little grainy.  If so, does the link below contain the correct part with correct bolt head stamping and finish?

Apologies as I cannot figure out the insert hyperlink option.

https://www.npdlink.com/product/body-bolt-chrome/167653/202914

Owner of #770 for 40 years
Unfortunately don't know salesman.
Thanks for the links !

He's only 2 hours from me. Could knock on his door and offer money for the plate as mine is also Acapulco/saddle from Hayward Ford. . plus would give me an excuse to buy gas for $1/gal cheaper by crossing into NV