Probably my stoooopidest mistake was only a few weeks a go. I got out the powder coating equipment that I hadn't used in a year. Plugged it in and the little red light wouldn't light up. No electrical attraction for the powder. I'd only used this one once. I was pissed. I went to Carlisle to see if they had a warantee. The saleman, as usual, was busy helping someone else when I noticed the push button. Oh yeah...I remember...press the button... DUMBASS!! I love "DUMB OFFS" I got a million of 'em.
Shaved the head on my push rod Volvo four banger for better compression, reinstalled it, and turned the motor over without re-adjusting the valve lash... Bent all eight pushrods
I cut the hole for my cowl steering 3 times. My T roadster looks like swiss cheese on the drivers side cowl, ooops. I measured once and cut three times. I figured I was bound to get it right, third times the charm.
Changed the voltage regulator on my 58 f100. I couldn't understand why everything worked all right, but the ignition light on the dash came on again as the revs came up. discovered I'd connected it to the field terminal instead of the armature. Not as funny as the above, but had me baffled for about a month! Mart.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to put carpet in my '46 Ford. I used the rubber floor covering as a template. Layed the carpet face down, put template on it, and started carving. Finished product would have been perfect for a right hand drive vehicle, as the holes for the brake and clutch were on the passenger side.
I had done my first intake and carb swap on my SBC, and, as all kids are, was enthusiastic about testing it out... leaving the fuel-soaked rag sitting on the intake manifold, next to the distributor.... needless to say, my car was "hot" for a bit, and I learned to repair burnt wiring, fire damage....
Couple of years ago, I was in a hurry and changed my oil, jumped in the truck to continue on the rest of the day's chores and went.............about 1/8 mile before the engine seized up - forgot to pour in the five new quarts!! That little fuck-up cost me about $2k and negated all the savings I ever made from changing my own oil for the last 40+ years........... Made some others over the years, but that was the stoooooopidist and the co$tlie$t !!!!
On my EFI swap for my daily driver 64 1/2 ton...i had it all the wiring, plumbing and intake swapped out in 2 days, all buttoned up...wouldn't start, had spark, but no fuel, sucked on the fuel lines to prime them, used a bike pump, left a line open overnight !!! oops, it was capped but leaked, got a walk up yell at 4o am to get my ass outside and soak that shit up, the whole house smelled and it was -20 outside. Finally found out that the power and ground hookups for the harness DID NOT feed power to the coil itself, so i did that after 3 months of being pissed off and going to Automtive tech school at the same time. So then i could get it to run but only on 3-4 cyls and had to hold it at half throttle...2 more months...haul it in to school on a buddies trailer...pull the distributor and upper intake to check the injectors...though for sure they were fubar...when reinstalling found that i had wired the distributor in the correct firing order...but backwards...that was fun realizing that in front of my instructor and 25 students...drive it in popping and banging...5 mins later it purrs.
When I was in the Navy I was building a '39 Ford coupe (about 1967). Plumbed the brakes. Worked fine. I left and went out to sea. My brother towed the non-street legal car to Island Dragway in NJ. Made a pass or 2 and then NO brakes. I plumbed the brakes to the rear with hardline. No flexible line. Luckily he got the car stopped.
did it cost you any money on your mistake, if not then it is not that big of a mistake, and remember a smart man learns from his own mistakes but a wise man learns from the mistakes from others
Whe I was 14, my first auto repair was changin the starter on my moms 77 Dodge van. Said shed give me the $40 she was savin from the auto repair place. Showed me what and where, and I was off. Fireworks like no tomorrow. Always unhook the battery when changin a starter. Lesson learned.
I did an engine change over in my 38 a while back. Did it all in the car park to my barracks block in front of everyone. Got it all back together and went to start it, turned but wouldn’t catch. Looked for about a day to find what was wrong, finally worked out it was the distributor. Threw in some new points and condenser, hit it………… same deal. After some yelling, kicking and general unsocial behaviour I pushed it to the base mechanic to take a look. I had used the wrong condenser in the distributor and it was holding the points closed. Fuckit. One of the guys came into my room one day telling me he had just changed the oil and his car wont go. Went out for a look, oil pissing out the exhaust and out from under the car. Simple question, how much oil did you put in it?? The reply, “Only up to the top” Yup, the top of the rocker cover!! Doc.
Been feeling like a complete eeeejit this week after realizing that I,ve managed to fully weld the new spring hangers on my nicely prepared 8", upside down. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I apparently have a complete inability to think upside down.
I rewired my entire car after failing to realize that my $3 ballast resistor had burned up. I learned the hard way that B/RB Mopar exhaust studs are NOT 3/8-16 into the head, even though that bolt fits and threads perfectly. Don't work on your car angry. There is no good to come out of it for you or the car
What's up with all the transmission booboo's? And I thought I was the only one. Slapped my brand new c4 in the falcon, car hadn't ever run since I put the heated up motor in it. I was dying to hear the new exhaust and the lumpy cam sound. Get everything all primed up, got gas at the carb, spun the oil pump with a drill to pre-lube it. I'm thinking damn this is going to be sweet! Everything is a go. Car roars to life on cue, but what the hell is that high pitched howling sound. Ahhh, must have been the transmission pumping up cause it stopped pretty fast. Hmmmm, wait I put it in gear but I got nothing. Pour some more fluid in it. Yeah it's just low, that's got to be it. Still no dice. Call the transmission shop. 'Sounds like the front pump. You DID make sure the pump was engaged right?' Uh, yeah it bolted up to the bellhousing perfectly. 'Well it still could have been not all the way in' Then I mentioned the howling. 'Yep, front pump is done' So I took it back in, they fixed it again. I put it back in, called them three times from under the car making sure I was doing it right. That was a pretty expensive transmission. heh. I'd like to get my hands on the genius that designed that rig. The thing bolts up fine, but your about 1/8" off. sigh. gary
All the time. That's why there are $500 worth of brand new tires and wheels for sale in classifieds that didn't fit on my Shoebox. Why? Because when I was doing the measuring and calculating of the wheel offset I needed, I forgot that a 7" wheel is REALLY 8" wide when determining backspace. When I f*** up, I do it right.
I've avoided that by zip-tying the keys to the dipstick. Of course, I've spent several hours trying to remember where I put the damned keys.
I thought my best one was the time I got done putting the motor back in my GTO. Was cleaning up the last of the tools, and noticed the flexplate laying on the work bench... Told my budy about it a couple weeks ago while I'm butining up the transmission in the latest toy. Next day he calls me and asks if I had a second flex plate for the car, cause he just found one on his work bench... DOH!!! at least now I get to crawl around on a cement floor instead of a gravel driveway.
One time in Tucson helping a friend to get his truck running. Would start and run fine when we jumpered off another vehicle, pull the jumpers and it would immediately die. It's starting to get dark about now, go over and look at the battery cables. Looks good. Get a flashlight and look again. Looks a little dark on the negative post. Took alot of force to get the terminal off, seems somethings wrong! Look at the post, it's clean. Look at the terminal and can't see thru it. Kid forgot to take the plastic cap off the negative termial on the battery! Had one hell of a time not laughing too hard! jerry
My first car was a '69 Roadrunner with a lift-off fiberglass 6 pack hood that has a scoop. I had just finished a tune-up. I put the hood back on and went inside to clean up. I decided to go up town to get some lunch. Jumped in the car and headed up the street. Let's see how she runs. Sounds good, pulling hard in first, bang second, then in slow motion the hood starts to wiggle, then flutter, then whoosh, up it went, over the roof. In the rear view mirror I watched it land in the street, on its nose. Luckily no one ran over it. Well it was a good excuse to finally paint it and I never forgot the hood pins again..
totally rebuilt a 74 bronco once. Paint, body, lift kit, big tires, fresh engine, didn't have to mess with the auto tranny though. First automatic that I had owned. Driving down the highway one day, it seemed to just slip into netrual. No grinding or anything, just like it was in neutral. Dipstick in tranny seemed low to me, so...6 mile walk later I am pouring trany fluid into it. After one qt, it seemed to be overly full and still not working... wtf. $85 tow to tranny shop and and the mechanic drives it around from the back in 3 minutes. Transfer case had poped into neutral. After paying the bill I get out of there as quick as I could to minimize the embarasment....on the way home, the tranny blew out the front seal from the extra fluid I had put into it. Took it to a different tranny shop out of pure shame.
How about learning why you 'tack weld' everything in place to size it up AND THEN fully weld it after it's checked and deemed good. I learned this valued little tidbit after I got so juiced about having finally having my boxing plates and brand new K member kit ready to assemble and install. As you can guess, I had it all assembled and installed and it was about an inch too far forward and there was a tube that was in direct line with that big tube that goes from the business end of the transmission to the rear axle. That's right; I had a tube that crossed the drive shaft. After I spent the next six hours cutting that all out and TACKING in back in where it ought to be, I re-measured it and then welded it up. Then I tackled that other tube. This was actually an easy and a smart fix. I fabbed a drive shaft safety loop outta 2x1/4 CRS and cut out that much of that tube and TACKED it in. Then and only then did I weld in up. Lesson learned. Vance
While tuning my C10 I stood up quick, and got stabbed in the back of the head by the hood latch. So I stoopid proofed it and put a rubber shock grommet on the end. Finished tuning it and slammed the hood, almost. Four more times, then I took the grommet off.
BTW, My genius showed when I built a 389 to go in my 56 Poncho. I'd "been given" a nice, shiny pair of 3/8ths grade 8 studs at work. They were brittle and were used to mount sign posts on traffic islands. Thought was, when some errant driver finds himself driving up on the concrete island and hits a traffic sign, the brittle bolts shear off and he doesn't become impaled on the sign post. Knowing all this, I reason my high pressure/high volume 389 oil pump won't put any shock loads on the mounting bolts and replacing them with these trick studs will be a cool thing to do. It was the middle of summer and I put the rest of the engine together and put it in the car at the local college. I lived in an apartment with no garage. Fired up the engine one warm summer day for the first time and it was perfect. Drove the car to the exhaust shop for a complete new exhaust system and home to the apartment where it sat in the parking lot overnight. It was about 40 degrees that night and the next morning I came outside and fired the beast up..........no oil pressure! With all the lifters clattering, I shut the engine down. @*^&%$#CK! I pulled the distributor out to check the oil pump driveshaft. I used my flashlite to peer into the hole and.........no pump driveshaft! Spent all day pulling the pan to find the oil pump sitting happily in the bottom of the pan with the two sheared off studs.....DOH! Took the original Pontiac oil pump mounting bolts out of my tool box and installed them...never had another problem with the oil pump.
what I have seen and done myself in the early years and too some extent even now. 1. not doing your home work on car values B4 you buy it ,(grandma's rotted out 74 4 dr Ply 6 /auto sedan has little to no resale power in a investment minded way) ya better have LOTS of memories in that car cause your gonna have it awhile ,ALL old cars are not going to make you rich and you would be surprised how many uninitiated think they will. 2. looking at a project w rose colored glasses-no way in hell it will ever get built w/o a a million dollars worth of rust repair and missing parts 3 opening up the check book and buying all the parts you THINK above car needs w/o finding the fool to do the rust repairs -HARD to find, cause you do not have a welder or even know how. 4. not abandonong above even once you realize you are in over your head B4 you spent all that cash-just keep dumping cash into the money pit. 5. just replacing the timing chain w/o lining up the marks "what marks ? I thought that was casting spots" or "whats #1 mean ?" 6.tourqing nothing 7 putting parts /wiring where they "look" right.
heres a couple that are a bit funny ,lessons learned some years ago I distained large cars like post 66 Impala's (67-70), a guy stops over and says he has a 68 Imp.2dr hdtp , I say naw too big for me , so i gave him my buddy's #,2 days later you guessed it , Buddy shows up w a decent more or less solid met. blue Imp on a trailer, no mouldings are on the car anymore, so I climb up to take a look, buckets console + 4 spd Hmmmm, I move to hood and open up ??? yep 427 ! SHIT! I never pass on anything anymore unseen and I never pass anything along to a buddy until I look at it first.The Imp went immediately up for sale and sold the first day for 3 grand, his total investment $600 w hauling gas - did i get a finder fee? thanks? nope, he still sets up a bitch when I want to borrow a tool,fuck him just last week a neighbor kid walked over to shoot the shit , says his GF uncle said he could HAVE a 68 Charger that was taking up space ,he takes it or it is scrap, so what are you waiting for ? says , for dad to drive me out there to look at it , would you help me restore it ? he says , ya , I'll help you as in show you what /how to do it, but I won't do it for you, OK , you can have the Nova he says , WHAT??? NOVA, oh, my uncle has a 67 Nova too. back round on this kid-he is 22, 1 kid + one in the oven ,lives at home w Mom + Pop, no license , on probation , drinks, pot and meth head,no way in hell that charger will ever get built unless its by me, but I never pass up a chance to help get a kid straightened out so i will help , chances are dollars to donuts that Charger will end up in my driveway when he needs cash. oh the Charger? turned out to be a 70 R/T 440 4 spd w a fair amount of rust, the Nova? -MINE for the haul- 2 dr hdtp plain jane V8 car both are titled NEVER pass on at least a look ;D
Stupid beginners! Ha just kiddin, first 327 i ever rebuilt i was about 16 or 17, man i built this thing with pride, did everything buy the numbers, finished it cranked it and it run for a little bit while i was adjusting it then it got real bad and stopped, i could not get it right, well i was hurting real bad man i think i might have even cried, my mom seen me and had my dad take it to a shop where he had a friend look at it, now to this day i dont know how i did it but there was a nut on number 8 piston and it cracked it, man i dont know if i dropped in there are maybe down the carb, i just dont know, but it was a lot of work and embarressment.
The Jalopy Journal
