What's the stupidest thing you're ever done in your shop?

I opened my shop in 1978, and was willing to do about anything. I was tuning up my first ex-wife's '76 VW Rabbit [she'd left me because she didn't want to suffer through the start up]. It was COLD out, late evening, I was alone, and I didn't want to open the door. My rubber exhaust hose wouldn't fit through my new aluminum exhaust port in the door, so I stuck a piece of steel exhaust pipe in the end of the rubber hose [as a reducer], and put the steel pipe through aluminum ring in the door. This was a carbureted Rabbit, and it had been fouling plugs. I had it running pretty well, and thought I'd give it a few more minutes run time so I could watch the choke open and set the idle. The next thing I new, I just decided to sit down at my desk and take a nap. It seemed like a great idea. I sat down and put my head down to sleep, just like that. For some reason I woke up and thought , "This is weird, you've never done this". I got up and the shop was full of exhaust. The metal pipe had slipped out of the door. I opened the doors and was OK later that evening, but I'd just about bought it because I was in a hurry and not paying attention. Carbon monoxide is insidious, it's like a drug or a tranquilizer. Watch out - it loves stupid.

 

Use my wife's coffee thermos for a urinal.

 

"This was the 4th time I had broken my nose"


You just don't learn quickly. Do you?

 

when I worked in a body shop, we had a pick up truck that got hit in the rear. we took the bed off and the gas tank had a small puncture hole near the top edge. they were all talking about removing the tank and emptying it. fill it with water and exhaust fumes. I just dragged the mig welder over there and did a quick spot tack on it with the tank full of gas. you should have seen them run! it was like watching rats jumping off a sinking ship...

 

Ah, I would have been running too..I just use a sheet metal screw with a facet washer..

 

Thats funny, about 3 weeks ago we found out how many quarts of oil it takes to fill a 6.0L ford diesel---72qts, till it came out the breather and started pouring out the air filter. Glad that one wasn't me.

 

Heres some things that happened that I didn't do, but none the less rememberable.

I painted a black probe gt years back when I was working at a place that did rebuilders. Black sucks to get looking its best. Spent a good amount of time sanding and buffing and cleaning it. After a bunch of hard work, its looking pretty good, and was left in the shop overnight. Come into work the next day, and the car now has scratches all over the hood and fenders, and stained. What the hell, I was po'd. Find out a friend of my boss picked some chick up in a bar, and asked my boss for the keys to his house. He didn't want to give him the keys to his house, so gives him the keys to the shop. Of course they pick the shiney black car I spent a lot of day slaving to look good, not one of the other cars in the shop in the process. I told my boss I'm not touching that car.

When I was in body school, They let you pretty much work most of your shop time on your own vehicle toward the end of the year. I didn't have my own project, so I worked on a cougar for a friend of my dads. I am sanding on the thing, all of a sudden these little yellow blobs start falling all over the car. I am then wondering, what the fuck? Look around, and way across on the other side of the shop is another student. I think he put too much pressure in the gun, and it exploded. His face and glasses are filled with rustproofing, and look up at the ceiling above him (ceiling was really high in the school shop too) and there is a big ass blob of rust proofing up there.

Also from school, we are in the middle of mechanics class, and an old guy walks in to ask about getting his car in for work. The instructor tells him, he will have to come back later, as we are in the middle of class. As he is walking out, he must of been thirsty, so decides to get a drink from the bubbler (water fountain for you non wisconsin folks). Only problem is it was the eye wash station, two streams coming out hitting him in the face. Couldn't have tasted the best either. Not something you want to do in a class full of kids, but everyone held there laughter pretty good, till he was out the door.

 

It wasn't in my garage but my Grandma thought she should check the water in her 66 Olds and looked down the long oil fill tube in the front. Looks low so she takes the garden hose and fills er' up. She figured it out after two or three minutes. We saved the motor with a couple of oil changes in an hour and she left the fluid level checks to somebody else!

 

My buddy was welding up the plates to fill the holes left behind while shaving the door handles on my Other buddies '56. Well they thought it would be a good idea to roll the window DOWN so that the sparks wouldn't etch the glass. Well next thing you know the F'n headliner caught fire! Ran around to get the fire extinguisher, and couldn't get the thing to work. FINALLY got it to work but by this time the headliner was toast. Saved the car though!

 

Stupid but lucky.

We had an original owner, southern barnfind 50 GMC longbed back in the late 80's, still on 600 /16s, still with pinstriping around the hood.

Son was 11.

Decided to buff the black paint on the hood with a 7 inch sears angle buffer.

All we had for light was a cheap medical heat lamp holder with that metal cage and with plastic coated spring clamps.

Clamped it to an eyebolt in the ceiling my 11 year old and I went to work on the hood.

Old paint started shining like a black mirror. Wow.

Wife shot a picture of us working together through the window in the side door of the garage. Great father son moment.

Flash startled son, who bumped me.

The buffer contacted the light cord and that baby ripped off the ceiling and wrapped up into the buffer, wooosh wooosh woosh, slinging hot glass from the bulb

The metal cage couldn't have been an inch from the top of the hood as it ripped around on the buffer wheel.

But it didn't hit the hood! Big save! (Am looking for the picture now, hope I find it).

 

while setting up to deck a 351w the bottle jack slipped out and pinned both my forearms in between the bed and block ouch .... of course nobody to be found, set yourself on fire from welding or grinding always a classic manouver. my ex boss put his finger in between a bore and the boring bar and hit the go button pretty awesome because it wasnt me. left the big blood swirl on the floor about a meter away

 

left the oil gun on over night and came in the next morning and turned power on ,turned around and got the mail came back and found oil shot all over and in customers cars!
high priced detail bill!!

 

lifted up the front of my 49 Plymouth with an air powered bumper jack when there was no bumper on it or any grille installed yet, I just put the arms on the front frame horns. I had it lifted about 3 feet in the air when the arms came off the frame tips. The car came crashing down and the grille opening caught the arms of the jack. The headlights were chest high when it was all over, the sides of the fenders were torn and buckled, and the fender to hood gaps were open enough to put your arms thru. I turned and walked out of the shop, closed the door and didn't go in again for months. When I finally could see myself driving it again, I went back down, fixed all the sheet metal and did not replace a thing. By the time I was done, the gaps and the fit were better than before. I never took a before pic, but here is the after.

 

"Goatboy" speak with fork tongue! the clear wasn't dripping off, it was pouring off, you know, much like an old barn in a heavy rain with no gutters!!!! I looked at him, my eyes crossed and bleeding and said Todd! Todd! That's when those famous words were uttered "DON"T WORRY, IT WILL LEVEL ITSELF" yep, OK. After some time though it was worked out and turned out great.

 

yea i wouldve been hauling ass too... a few years back here in south florida we had a guy who decided to weld a 50 gallon tank that was empty and had fumes of laque thinner in it and hit it to weld on it or around it and an explosion that could be heard half a mile away split him in half and set the other guy who was helping him completely on fire. it was a big deal osha had a field day.

 

The tank was full, not empty. I would've run too, but you have less of a chance of blowing yourself up in a huge fireball (not enought difference for me) welding on a full tank with no fumes than an empty tank full of fumes. Fumes are what ignites, causing said fireball.

 

I just finished a 35 dodge sedan delivery,2 year build,the grill shell touches the ground when its all the way down,had to fix a small leak in the front bag,so i jacked it up,let the air out,fixed the leak and let the jack down fast,,screwing up the grill shell,my flush mount leds and fenders,,,forgot to air it up,,,,

 

A buddy and I worked at a gas station in high school. When we were finished cleaning the bays at night we would lower the hoists down to the ground (most had cars on them). One night he wasn't paying attention and lowered the car onto my boss's brand new shopvac. The car was propped up on one corner. So up went the hoist again, back down, up again, back down. Finally my buddy calls me over to look at the other side of the car to see what was up. I fell over laughing. Here was this car with a shopvac as a jackstand. Up went the car, out came the shopvac, down went the car resting nicely on the ground.

Bent the castors all to hell on the shopvac, boss wasn't impressed the next day. Shopvac still worked though, i was damn impressed.

 

My summer job just out of HS before college was at an MG dealership working as a mechanic helper with a friend of my father. I did a front rotor job an a Healey 3000 and the brakes were real soft & the car wouldn't stop for squat.

Pulled into the shop & got out to check if the rotors were working by what seemed to be the logical method to me...stick my finger through the spokes to find out if the rotors were hot. After instantly reversing the process my father's friend shared with me that that was the stupidest thing that he ever saw.

Same dealer a few weeks later I again did front brakes on a British car with knock off hubs. Switched the left & right sides and those suckers loosened up impressively fast and the owner tossed a wheel real fast.

Talk about being oblivious....

 

yea for sure it wouldve been worse if it was empty but after that situation happeneed it rang a bell i mean even then under the influence of liquor i do some less than thought out stuff at times. i caught myself cutting off exhaust pipe fro my 1500 that was dangling and the only thing i had to cut through it was my plasma cutter and if was right next to the fuel tank. it was dumb but i positioned myself under the truck and the plasma cutter to where i could get it where the tank was the least exposed and the whole time i was cutting the pipe all i could think of was that explosion.

 

and Crocks

 

Moved the jackstands from under the frame to under the suspension last week and then today wondered why I couldn't get the shop vac out from under the back of the car. The gas tank now has a concave area that used to bulge out a bit and the shop vac no longer rolls like it once did. Dummmbbb.

 

welding in my flip flops..... hurt a lot worse than stepping on a pop top..

 

another one was letting my 4 year old son help me in the shop... wasn't paying attention to him and he helped me by taking a phillips screw driver and fixing the side of my all original perfect grand national 800$ worth of paint work later.. Grr..

 

2 from my dad when i was a kid.

once he was waxing the bandsaw blade with an almost used up tube of beeswax..you know the cardboard tubes that come with little steel discs on each end. stuck it up in the blade while it was running and wouldnt you know it caught the little steel disc at the bottom, drew his hand up into it and cut his entire thumb, the middle of his pointer finger and tip of his middle finger almost all the way through, they were dangling by the skin bottom skin. his hand is still intact to this day

second, cold winter ["cold" california winter] drill press with cotton gloves on... went to knock a big burr off the drill bit while the drill was running, instantly caught the cotton glove and wrapped his fingers up backwards so tight it pulled his pinky finger entirely off and shattered the bones in his middle 3 fingers. This was the opposite hand fromt he first incident....this hand is also completely intact..albeit a little weak, to this day.

Safety #1 (eye roll)

 

After washing a outer wheel bearing i put it on my left index finger and started blow drying it with the air nozzle, all was well and quite fun getting it to spin faster and faster, then the cage exploded sending needle rollers all over the shop and ring barking my finger, Ouch!!

 

Ouch

gotta love 4 year olds, a couple weeks ago my 4 year old daughter and I were sitting out under the shade tree working on an old bicycle we are fixing up. I had sanded and primed the frame and was getting ready to put the finish coat on, pink Krylon. I noticed a little run in the primer and stopped to sand it out before spraying the finish and all of a sudden I noticed it was real quiet. I looked around and could see the top of her head over the hood of my wife's car.

I asked her what she was doing and she answered "painting mamas car". I looked around, the can of krylon was gone...oh shit!! I ran around there and found a big pink stripe down the side of my wife's mark viii and ran like hell to the shed for some thinner and a rag.

Luckily it was still really wet and it came off with no trouble. That mark viii is my wife's baby, I would have been dead meat over that one!

 

wax and grease remover takes off fresh spray bomb paint very well, just an fyi. I helped a guy out that had a primer spray bomb blow up on the side of his car, it was less than a day old. made good money on that one and he was happy to pay it.

 

And for a small fee we won't tell her!

 

Lol, that brought back memories! Worked in a heavy truck shop in the late '70s, and one day whacked myself good in the crotch with the handle of a mall. (I still have no idea how) Couldn't walk for an hour, boss finally made me go to the emergency room. When the cute little receptionist filling out the paperwork asked me the "Nature of the injury", I told her I whacked myself in the crotch with a hammer. She didn't say a word but I saw her turn beet red. The lady Doc read the report and said "I'll bet that took your breath away!" Smartass.