I feel really stupid--dumbest mistake ever

bought a car and drove it home and at every stoplight did a crazy burnout. As i got closer to home i noticed a vibration and it was getting worse, ok i figure i wasted the u-joints i get home park it and decide to back it up, CLUNK! ok u-joints are getting replaced i jack up the vehicle and about **** because the rearend is held in with 4 c-clamps getting ready to fall off! somebody had swapped out the rearend set it up and never finished welding the perches to the housing. the vibration was due to the fact the rearend had shifted and the ghetto shims they used to obtain pinion angle has fallen out on the way home!

 

Was driving home when a friend pulled along side of me. we did the rev and lurch thing while both were laughing. he surged in front of me and got into my lane, so I thought i would change lanes and fly p***ed him, maybe i should have noticed the guy in the honda driving next to me. I put my door into his fender, funny part was the guy in the honda felt worse then i did, he said he came along side to get a better look at my car, I guess he got more of a look then he hoped for.

 

Today I spent a great deal of my Sunday fabricating a bracket system to mount a manual choke cable on the Edelbrock carb of my fiances 55 oldsmobile. I did this on the drivers side of the carb...only noticing after completion that a bracket for this exact reason already exists on the p***enger side of said carb.

Ya I felt like a damn fool.

 

Pulled a hi-top conversion van into the ba*****t of a body shop I worked in in the early '90's (the kind with the 2 foot tall fibergl*** replacement roof panel). Promptly wedged it under a huge support beam had to let the air out of the tires to get it out. The only damage were 2 small scratches that I touched up with a brush. Doubtful anyone ever looked there anyway

 

damn, these are some funny stories!! Ive never done ANYthing this dumb!!

 

I was relieving a flathead block in auto shop with a pair of coveralls on and a 3/8 inch drill motor. Drill grabs & winds up the crotch of the coveralls and by the time someone pulled the plug I was singing in a higher note. Laughter was abundent from all but me.

 

Had my car up on mid rise lift in garage, put up the garage door and it skidded across the open hood......my door opener now has a piece of tape on it that says, is hood open....just a reminder.....

Parked car in trailer too close to inner wheel wells of trailer, lower quarter had nice "rash" on it from inner wheel wells rubbing on it.

 

Top this one...

Watched as a friend tried to disconnect the battery on his '77 LTD Landau. Ended up dropping the wrench down between the battery and the fender, then reached down with his left hand, the one that was wearing the wrist watch with the metal band that proceeded to ground itself between the positive post of the battery and the edge for the fender. You do know where this is going, right?

OUCH!

 

There are plenty of guys who won't/don't admit to errors,,,The EXPERTS....I used to think i was the only one who made numerous errors over the years...Not so..I have a long list of errors I have made,,the older I get the longer that list get

 

The mental picture Geezer gave me with his description made me laugh so much I had to look around to see if anyone was watching.
My list is sooo long I don't have time share.

 

I can remember the first big mistake I made. It was when I was around 15 years old and just started being trusted by my dad to work on engines. Well we are living in phoenix, az. and it was after dark and we are preparing to make a trip to tenn.
My dad looks over at me while he was checking out the engine in our mercury wagon. He takes the air cleaner out and says, "This air filter is pretty dirty, do you think we should leave it out and get a new one in the morning?" "I say no, what if the wind is blowing in the desert and we **** sand into the engine?" So he puts it back in and we head out. Well half way up the mountains the car starts back firing and finally dies. Dad get out unwinds the wingnut and removes the air breather lid. Woosh a 6 foot flame shoots out hitting my dad right in the face as I watched from the front seat peaking through the gap of the raised hood. He yanks the whole air breather off and dumps the burning filter on the ground then puts everything back together. When he gets back inside I look at him by the light of the dome light shinning and all his hair from the front to the back on top his head is burnned off along with his eye brows. I tryed to keep a straight face, but couldn't and bust out laughing. Well you can guess what happened after that.

 

Dont matter if ya make a dumb mistake as long as ya got it fixed thats all that matters. I forgot to tighten the flywheel on my truck and it flew off.... destroyed the torque converter,starter and cracked the transmission housing.

 

Back in the '60s I was working for my brother at his gas station in Miami. Had a customer's car up on a 'drive on' lift doing some exhaust work which required a floor jack under the rearend. Had just finished the job when a customer pulls up to the pumps for gas. On the way out to pump the gas I hit the down lever for the lift. While pumping the gas I just happened to look at the descending lift and saw the *** end of the car way up in the air and the front end going down with the lift! I had forgotten to remove the jack from under the rearend! Made a mad dash inside and stopped the lift just as the car was about to fall off. I do remember it was kind tricky getting the car situated safely back on the lift.

 

Dropped a push rod for a lift pump on a powerstroke. It fell into the oil pan. I heard it splash and hit the bottom of the pan. Brother says "damn it that engine's gonna be a ******* to get out". I sez "watch this" took a 1 1/2" holesaw to the side of the oil pan. (hell its my truck ok) Retreived the rod with a magnet cleaned up the metal shavings (vewwwy carefully) and tig welded a 2" round patch over said hole. Repair complete in 1 hr instead of 5 days. Don't drop yer rod fellers!

 

HOLY ****!!!

 

mines a clutch one too. changing the clutch on a land rover while in the Army and got tyhe gearbox out. removed the old clutch, dropped the gearbox back in, then noticed the new clutch sitting on the work bench. I worked late thst day.....

 

While working at a dealership, I had a couple mishaps. Put a rear wheel bearing in a suburban, and apparently the c-clip for the axle I wasn't working on popped out at some point, I never even noticed or thought to look at the other side. The wash kid took it to fill up with gas, got a good mile away or so before the wheel, axle and all, came out and spun around bashing in the rear door.

My second day on the job they gave me a rear hatch gl*** to replace. I was putting the hinge mounts on, and there must have been done dirt on the surface because as I hand tightened the hinges on, that gl*** popped right in my hands. Luckily had gloves on, and managed to keep my job.

 

My son and I were putting disk brakes on the rear of his OT 67 Mustang. I needed to get the piston out of the caliper and decided to use the compressed air trick. I'd always told my son to work safely so we had our safety gl***es on, our work gloves and we clamped the caliper in the bench vise and put a shop rag in the opening of the caliper. Just before hitting the lever on the air chuck, I put my hand in there to "catch" the piston. A few minutes of screaming and clutching my hand in pain and I peel back the gloves to a very nasty cut on the end of my middle finger. Most of the end of my finger was already black. I hope he learns from my mistake.

 

O/T 69 Camaro, had a pin on fibergl*** cowl hood, got my new carb in the mail and had a friend come over after work to help install it. after making new fuel lines, setting the carb up etc took it out for a drive. 2 blocks from the shop was a 2 lane highway. lined the car up, heated up the tires and launched, 6200 rpm shift into second and the car jumped. same time my friend goes " HEY Oh, SHIIIT" hood flips up, hits the windshield and cartwheels off into a corn field. I hit third gear soon after that.
luckily the light fibergl*** hood was like a sail, and didnt get hurt much, put it back on the car - cracked up and ran some wire thru the pins to get home. layed some mat and resin that night, and had paint on it in 2 days. In time for the weekend.

 

left out a cotter pin/didnt tighten nut on tie rod end.
I was in my 57 Chevy way out in Texas on the way to the Round up when the tierod came apart at 70 on a bridge with a Cadillac coming at me. I was pulled into the oncoming lane because my left wheel turned full stop left.
stupid Cadillac did not give an inch but I missed her. It scrubbed a new tire down to the steel belt. Did you know a lugnut fits on a tie rod end?

 

I did NOT do this. I repeat, t'was not me:

I got a call from one of our upholstery shops, wanted a quote for basically the entire interior (fabrics and carpets) for a 2012 Rogue. I hadda ask "what the hell happened?"

Seems their customer didn't want to buy one of those dealer interior protection packages, so he Scotchguarded his interior himself.

With spray glue. Over the entire interior. Seats. Door panels. carpets. Everything.

Beat THAT for stupid!!

BTW - $7,400.00 in parts.

Cosmo

 

Stopped in for a beer at the Velvet Room in the Haight/Asbhury expecting hippies.

 

Got married at 18...smiles

 

i dont make mistakes... i just learn...alot and quite often

 

Chopped the flywheel and bought a "compe***ion" clutch for my '50 Merc, got the flywheel on, aligned the clutch, hooked up the linkage, re-installed the trans, and, exhausted, went up to my room, crashed on the bed, and then noticed a little round br*** thing on my dresser that said "Ford" on it...it was the pilot bearing....which I had obviously forgotten to put in, the inner-most part of the ***embly!

...and the time I was degreeing the mag in my Ardun fueler to put more lead in it, but put the degree wheel on the crank instead of the cam...what I though was 32 degrees must have been 64 degrees, and we wondered why it wouldn't fire up, there is some providence that protects somesimes protects stupid people from their mistakes (or I probably would have blown the heads off)

 

Unfortunately, it seems the older some people get the less they remember they made mistakes themselves, my wife and her dad have this problem.

 

Jee....a Ford flathead, with some
hugely valuable and expensive hemi
heads on it and NITRO.....what could
possibly go wrong....ever????

Mart3406
===============

 

mmmm, My O/T vehicle has caught fire three times...guess what I do for a living.......well it does have 382K.....
1. fuel injector leaked, ran rich, converter caught carpet in back seat on fire.
2. rear bearing on the alternator seized- caught some wiring on fire.
3. vapor hose in engine compartment split on fitting, big fire.
ALWAYS carry a fire extigusher
still driving....25 mpg...drove it 2000 miles last week

 

Back in January I spent about 2 hours marking the center line of the wheels on the old AMC Pacer front end I had in my truck. I checked and double checked the measurement to make sure that when I put my new front end in the wheels would be centered in the fenders. Wellllll fast forward 4 months......

I just finished re-installing my 2nd new MII cross member in my truck after welding the first one in about an inch to far forward thus not having the wheels centered in the fenders. Cost me about $600 for the new cross member and $50 bucks in beer trying to figure out how the hell I measured wrong in the first dam place.

 

1. When I was 15 YO - ***embled a 340 for my dart installed it with 7 qt oil pan and headers, a real pain in the A in an A-body. Started the engine and oil was poring out the rear. Forgot to install the rear main. I would have found this on the engine stand IF I would have primed it like dad said. Lesson learned listen to pops.

2. Pulling an all nighter build dropping a 340 in a Model A to drive to Indy with the club leaving at 7 am the next morning. Got it don at around 4:30 and ran a test drive, all cool, so I sacked out for a couple hours. Got up and headed out the next morning. Got about a hour into the 4 hour trip and a tick in the engine turned into a miss and a bang, bang, bang in about 30 seconds, so I shut her down and costed to the side of the road. Long story short I forgot to tighten the jam nuts on the adjustable rockers on #7. Got a ride back home from pops, got the truck and trailer and fixed it in Indy. Lesson learned always give yourself enough time to finish, if you have to pull an all nighter, go a day later.

3. Taking my best friend for granted, luckly she forgave me and we are still married. Now I try to keep all this car stuff into perspective. Lesson learned; Family first, all hoddies second.