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

Loading a shoebox Ford onto one of those two-wheel tow dollies, back before I had a proper car trailer. The car was inop, and I was by myself. After failing to push the thing up the uphill driveway and onto the dolly, I thought of unhooking and chocking the dolly and using a tow rope from my truck to pull the car onto the dolly. When gentle gas didn't get her up onto the dolly, I put my 4x4 F250 into granny gear and gunned it. The '50 was yanked completely over the dolly and ended up high-centered on top of it.

 

Well I had a 400 turbo trans on a shelf, and was to lazy to walk to the other shop and get a ladder. I have all these stolen milk crates stacked around. I will just make a quick set of stairs I thought. Well I guess not every milk crate is built the same. My fat ass + 400 turbo was to much for the pos crate. I step on the last crate and my foot and leg went through, cutting piss out of me. Like a bear trap. So I am hobblen around trying to get to the bench to put down the trans, all the while its diggen deeper. 5 min. with a set of dikes I was free. Shop towls and black tape bandage and alot of mother f'n. Got to the truck and drove my self to the er. I think i lost a quart of blood just in my shop. Left the blood there for a week to answer the (what happened to your leg).

 

Putting the small block Chevrolet back into my Austin Healey 3000 and discovering that I did not have a bolt long enough to hold the chain together. "Hey this combination padlock looks strong enough". Dumb is alway dumb. When it fell the motor landed right on the mounts, bending one slightly. I got a whole lot more lucky than I deserved. Cheap padlock anyhow!!

 

where i used to work we used glycol to cool our equipment.we had a 1500 gallon storage tank. the system was low so i went to add a 55 gallon drum.the line you put it in was under pressure so you had to pump it in at a higher pressure.our pump would do it but took forever so i thought what can i do to help.i took an airline hooked it in the vent hole of the drum turned on the air, went back out to check on it about 15 minutes later drum was gone.found it on other side of parking lot.learned that day 55 gallon drum cant hold 130 psi air pressure.thank god no one got hurt

 

I was draining a gas tank and topped off the gas can, so the last gallon or so went into an open container. I looked over a few minutes later and my dog was lapping up the gas, started running around in circles and finally flopped over on his side! I thought he'd died, but he just ran out of gas.

 

yesterday my brain said, "hey, do you really need a finger nail?" I was doing something thoughtless and put the cut off wheel 1/8 th inch into my finger. my gf had to run to the store to get me some bandaids cause I was all woosy. luckily the store didnt have any hello kitty band aids, cause you know she would have bought them.

 

I entered this hobby fresh last year, so am fairly new...hell, i'm new to turning a wrench for that matter. I had never even changed my own oil before building my car. I guess my father-in-law decided to make a man out of me and got me started. I built my car at his shop, under his guidence - pretty much to make sure i didn't burn his shop down, and build a car that will end up killing his daughter.

One of the first tasks was to disassemble a 38 ford front end, that had apparently sat in water for a good portion of its life and was completely siezed with rust. After a lot of cussing and sweating, i couldn't break a couple of the bolts loose. FIL showed me a trick....hit it with a lot of heat, and sometimes it'll help break it free. So, he hit the nut with a blow torch, as i stood by with my socket wrench and cheater bar....got it a nice glowing shade of red when i put the socket on it, and tried to break it loose. Still wouldn't budge....he said he'd hit it with the torch again. I took the wrench off, but the socket remained on the nut. At that point, in my 30's, i finally learned the concept that fire makes things hot, and heat is transfered through metal very efficiently as i reached down and grabbed the socket. After playing hot potato, cussing, and throwing the socket across the shop, i looked up to see my FIL laughing at me, with a bewildered look in his eye as he wondered how his beautiful and intellegent daughter could have married such a dumbass.

Still never learned that fire makes things hot. I don't know how many times i welded something, then proceeded to pick it up with my bare hands to inspect my weld. Also learned not to wear jeans with frayed cuffs and weld.

Oh, and caught my engine on fire once, that was fun. Changed out carb, and in process of removing fuel lines, spilled a bit of gas on the engine. Finished what i was doing, then noticed that my Alternator bracket was broken...no big, i can weld it while it was still on the car. Learned that gasoline is flamable at that point.

Now i wonder how my dumbass ended up with a beautiful and intellegent woman.

 

That's funny shit

 

This thread has made me laugh and has stayed alive longer than I would have ever imagined when I started it.

If you can't laugh at yourself, you have no senseof humor. Obviously, HAMBers have a great sense of humor! You guys rock!

 

Is this the reason that you USED TO work there (I. e., no longer work there)?

 

Well, yesterday i opened the water reservoir cap on a car w/ a blown head gasket while there was vapor whisteling outta its seam.
I knew it would explode on me but i opened it anyway thinkin it would cool the motor down quicker.
Neither to say i have a terrible burn on 3 of my fingers and my forearm.
Im lucky my face was left outta the eqation.
I didnt sleep for the pain.
oh, btw, yeah im a dick.

 

After a few minutes of checking and rechecking the transmission fluid, getting pissed because the car won't move, I see it on the work bench, the torque converter I forgot to install.

 

was gas welding one day wearing shorts as you do and had wicked sunburn on the inside of my legs for about a week after

 

Hmm got mad and stabbed a screwdriver on the ground and I was holding it the wrong ways... that was a month ago lol

Grinding to get a floor ready to put a floor pan in and the grinder snagged something and flung itself on my leg. I HATE grinding things that have something that can cause it to loose control.

Still have many many more accidents to happen in the next 60 years. I try to use extreme caution now though.

 

An old buddy, who had a strong affection for heathen devil weed, was helping as we were getting an old 65 Stang drag car back together, the owner and I were putting the 3rd member together, so he decided he'd lower the engine in to help. Old farm shop with a chain fall, so whirrr- whirrr for a while, the nothing for a minute, then WHIRRRRR...
So we walk over just in time to catch him trying to get it out before we see it- with the Lakewood in the front

Best dumbshit story I know- now this guy had previous history, had his picture on the front page of the paper after doing a burnout in the Lucky's parking lot, then T-boning and rolling over on it's roof a Challenger with 4 guys inside, including the driver at about 350lbs, all in a pile on the headliner
So a few years later, he's doing some yard work, and has moved on to 4x4 pickups. Got this big juniper bush up by the front porch that he didn't like, so he digs around it a little, and the macho 4x4 instinct takes over, he's gonna pull it out with his pickup.. So he backs the truck up to the curb so he can make some tire smoke on the pavement for the neighborhood crowd (who knew of his legendary list of previous "watch this" moments) that was gathering. Gets out a couple 3/8 chains that he used to hang on the front bumper to look cool, hooks to the trailer hitch, and across the yard, and comes up about 10ft short of the juniper- so he scrounges in the garage and come out with some nylon rope, telling the crowd that he has it figured out that by tripling the rope it's as strong as the chain blah blah, neighbors are making popcorn and setting up chairs to watch.
Lock the hubs, granny low, get some RPM, eeehaw!!! Nylon rope stretches out about 10 ft before snapping, 3/8 chain recoils up and through the back window of the truck, cold-cocks Numbnutz with his foot still on the gas, across the street, over the curb, across the yard, right into the neighbor's living room. Got to ride in the "Tim the Tool Man Taxi", and made the paper again. That was about 20 yrs ago, and I still see his ex-wife at the Italian place she works at about once a week, and can't resist reminding her- her co-workers just love that story

 

Do you guys have any idea how much a shop rag will disintergrate into smallish pieces if left in the lifter galley when reinstalling an intake? Think about it.

 

If you have a cast iron 4bbl FE intake leaning up against the wall in your shop, be careful when you are sweeping up...

Oh, and yes, there are broken bones involved here.

 

Had an old 71 ElCamino as a winter beater and was welding up some rust holes up under the inner quarter panel. I had the rear wheel off and I was sitting up against the brake drum, using my 7 inch grinder overhead with a big 'ol cone shaped wire wheel on it. Things we going great until my arms got tired working overhead. I had a stocking cap on for protection [yeah..protection] and decided to select the "always on" position on the grinder's switch to ease the arm/hand fatigue...
YOu guess it. The wire wheel snagged and ripped the grinder outta my hands with the switch ON...
That thing decended on my head/arms/hands and punished the shit outta me while I was trying to get out!
The thing finally spun around and wrapped up the cord enough times to pull it out of the wall socket.
I came wimpering out from under the wheel well and went in the house, stripped down and limped into the shower to wash off all the blood...
And I blame geneology for not having hair on my head..HA!

 

I was welding in jeans with a large hole in one knee but I had something else on underneath because it was cold outside. The fringes caught on fire and I didn't realize it until my auto darkening helmet wouldn't lighten up.

 

You Guys are mostly talking about gettin bit doing things we all do.
Stupid is when your inner child thinks it would be really cool to shoot a spray can with your new pellet gun...
So you drew a bead on a can on your spray can shelf...
You laugh you ass off for a few seconds as cans go shooting across the shop,
then you see the mess, all your semi flat black is on the ceiling.
then you feel stupid.

 

Remembered another dumb think I did back a few years ago. I was putting an auto trans in a 67 Fairlane and kinda got in a hurry, don't remember why. Well, I got it all buttoned up and cranked it but it wouldn't move. Nothing. Messed around with it for a while and figured I must have done something wrong.Check the torque converter and it was bolted up right. So I finally pulled out the trans and saw something missing. I had left the input shaft out. No wonder it went in so easy.

 

Cutting off some no longer needed brackets from my truck frame when I ran out of gas on the last bracket. I figured I could knock it off with a hammer but that didn't work so I picked up a mini sledge and took a swing. End result the head went flying out the shop door and my hand punched the frame which resulted in 1 broken bird finger and another ripped open.

 

Years ago, I thrashed all day to get my drag car car ready, got the engine and trans back in and slid under the car to throw the bolts in the torque convertor..... and as I just got under it, I saw the convertor laying on the floor under the bench. Ended up pulling the trans and finishing that night and still got to the track.

Speaking of ex wives.... Mine backed my OT Roadrunner out of the garage with the driver's door open. She caught the divider between the two doors and knocked it off the foundation. The car wasn't damaged too much, fortunately for her.... You would have thought she would have learned from that, but she did it again... at least this time it was her new husband's car.

 

3 weeks ago, the lift was coming down and walked up to the passenger side of my coupe, which was on the lift. Leaned in to shut the door and the lift came down on my foot. Not my toes, my whole foot. There is no space between the floor and the bottom of the lift. I was scared to pull my shoe and sock off. Turned out not hardly a bruise and within a couple hours the pain was all but gone. If the car had been anything but an A coupe I would have been done.

Stupid stupid stupid.

Yeah, I am the guy that bungee cords the release lever on my lift so I don't have to waste time.

 

Put phone in it.

 

Jacking up my freshly painted Scout gasser while it was under a drive on hoist. Put a serious dent in my repaired roof and 6 nasty gouges.

Then I went home and just threw up

 

Took the guard off my table saw and proceded to cut a butcher block counter. Well I un-did the cardboard and plastic and leaned them on the bench directly behind me. I then put the wood on the saw, turned it on and ran it through. As I reached the end of the cut I reached over to turn off the saw I slipped on the plastic that had blown under my feet. As my hand did the slow-mo bee-line for the blade I jerked it back just in time to hear SINNNNNNG! I looked down to see my ring and bird finger with saw gashes through them. Quickly did the feeling, still attached, not gushing blood check then called the wife after I had a smoke to calm my nerves. Made the mistake of telling her I didn't know if I needed stitches(I did). Ended up using butterfly stitches, neo-sporin, and guaze. Lost a month of work.

Last week my hatch on my camper pop up while I was pulling out to go a camping trip. The handle caught on the hoist and blew glass over the entire shop. I'm still findin glass.LB

 

Nailed the neighbor and her daughter in the same day.

Damn bitches talk. (to each other)

 

Tried to help somebody! J.Y.

 

Well I got sooo many it's hard to choose one, iv set my shirt on fire wile cutting the springs on my 35 Buick, sticking the hot end of tig wire in my mouth seems keep happening. I guess the worst one was putting my hand under a 69 torino wile it was being jacked up..... Fell on my hand snapping my left ring finger in two and messing my hand all up. But that lead to another one when I caught my ace bandage on fire two days later wile cutting on a 55 chevy door. None of this makes me sound smart