:shock: Well as we were restoring my wife's 65 beetle I had the shock of my life! I was almost too scared to go back and look at the car after I realized what happened too. I had done all of the body work on the car and had just had it painted. I paid the bill on my paint job ($2,800) and the owner wanted it out of his way so I went up after hours in the rain and hooked the tow bar to it. I was going to pull this bug all the way across Montgomery in the dark with no lights and no glass in it. It was basically a bug shell with fenders bolted on. It would crank and run but not down the highway legally. I decided to have a cop buddy follow me and make sure that no one rear ended me on the trip across town.

We pulled out of the body shop and jumped on I-65 south and caught the interchange to I-85 north and the ride got a little rough because the interstate is in bad shape right there. The next thing I know I look over to my left and see a wheel & tire rolling past me at 65 mph. I saw it and thought damn I'm glad that didn't hit my bug and I kept on rolling. I got to a cleaner section of road and the bug still pulled like crap. About that time my cell phone rings and my cop buddy is laughing and telling me to pull over. Well I see the blue lights come on and I pull over to the side and he tells me on the phone that he thinks a wheel came off the bug!  :shock:  WHAT ? I go back and look and sure enought the driver's front wheel is gone and the brake drum is on the concrete. I started checking out the body and paint and there is absolutely no damage. Apparently the tow bar acted like a skid plate and kept the fenders and apron from dragging. What a relief!

We then jumped in the patrol car and went back up the road a couple miles and found my nice, just restored, wheel resting up against the retaining wall in the center of the interstate. We threw it in the back seat and brought it back to the bug. Jacked it up and stole a lug off each of the other three wheels (while tightening the other 4) and got back on the road . I felt like and idiot but apparently when I putting the bug back on the pan I pulled the front wheel off and put it back on finger tight.  I was extremely lucky that I didn't screw up a good paint job!

Yeah I was extremely lucky.... The only thing I had to do was touch up a brake drum and find 5 more lug bolts. It could have been so much worse. I was lucky too that the tire didn't hit another car as it was rolling down the interstate. I didn't even have the car insured yet and probably would have had to pay for any damages to other cars out of pocket unless my insurance on my pull truck would have covered it.