Guy I work with, same guy that was under the truck in my last post BTW was working on a bulldozer and went to climb off the machine and slipped on the muddy track and fell. When he was falling he grabbed ahold of the sheetmetal around the engine and the only thing that caught was his wedding ring. Said he did not really feel much but when he looked at his finger the only thing there was bone, his ring and skin were still on the dozer hood. They were not able to fix it so he only has nine fingers. He is fun to fuck with though, always asking him where he buys nine fingered gloves at and shit like that. He is a good sport. LOL
Had all 900 pounds of chassis roll onto the back of my foot, ankle stopping it all on the downhill. Grinding, the grinder slipped and took out almost all of my skin on my pointer index. Well, that was fabrication. Aside from the average burns and all, nothing special. Oh yeah, and I almost spat out a tooth when the oil fill tube came flying at my lower lip because I thought I could prove my manhood by pulling it out instead of levering it out oops.
Man that hurts to look at .I have a few beauty marks like that my self .Its funny how i seem to hurt myself more working on other peoples hotrods than my own.I cant even put gas in one of Scrapes cars without fuck'n myself up...
About a month ago when i was changing the clutch in the Falcon (by myself as usual) ,i dropped the trans crossmember while tring to get a bolt started and the corner of it hit me about a 1/4 inch under my left eyeball .It hit me so hard it busted the skin and bled like a stuck hog.After about an hour i went in the house and cleaned it .By then it was already turning purple .Looked like someone socked me in the eye for a week.I am lucky the cross memeber didnt hit my stupid ass in the eyeball ,cuz it would have put it out for sure.I wont even mention the time i was putting a turbo 350 in a car when i was 17 without a jack.I slid the tranny on my chest under the car and went to stab it, i tipped it and the convertor slipped out of the pump and just missed my forehead by a inch or so.I used to be a stout mother mucker when i was young and dumb,now i have a bad back,shoulder ,and lots of scars...
I've pulled those muscles before, and no, you're not a wimp. Even sleeping sucked. "(gasp!) Honey...wake up...I can't breath again, and I can't roll over...please roll me over..." She's a good woman, and didn't leave me laying there like a turtle on it's back. Not too long, anyway. A couple years ago, I left the ignition on my Buick in the "Run" position, but didn't start the car (it's got a starter relay run through the gas pedal/carb linkage; start it by flooring the gas). The whole time it was like that, juice was running to the coil. Fun fact: Coils get VERY hot with power running to them for long periods of time, and not discharging. I grabbed onto the coil for some reason, and instantly second-degree burned my right hand. Our shop was 25 minutes from home, and it was 2am. I held it under cold water and wrapped it in cool, damp shop rags for an hour and a half before finally calling my wife to come and get me, because I couldn't drive the stick shift truck home. She didn't say anything, and was nothing but sweet to me, even though she had to get the toddler up and out of bed for the trip. Don't wear sandles in the shop. I had a heavy duty jack stand in the fully extended position, and bumped it with something. It fell, the head landing right on my big toe, just behind the toe nail. That jack stand tipping over was like a slow motion hammer drop at the county fair. It hit the toe, I doubled over, looked at my wife (who, though usually a great woman, was yipping at me about something that was very annoying and very, very distracting...hence the hit jackstand) and said very quickly, through clenched teeth "Honey...this wasn't your fault, but you have to leave. RIGHT now." To her credit, she didn't say a word, spun on one heal and walked out of the shop, shutting the door behind her. One of the more important things in life for a man is to never let them see you cry like a baby. Swelled up, lost the nail, hurt like hell for a couple weeks. -Brad
I dont know how many times i have burnt my eyes welding.The last time i did it was when i was welding the roof back on my 54 Chevy years ago after chopping .I was spot welding for hours without a hood using the blink method.I thought i was gunna go blind that time .I layed in bed with shreaded potatos on my eyes all the next day.That time made a believer out of me cuz i never didit again...
Cutting the dash out of a '58 Chevy, prying up the front with a lugwrench to try to see what was still attached, my hand slipped, my pinky finger hit the freshly sawzalled edge right below the nail. After much cussing, it was getting dark and I wanted to get done, so I made a bandage out of a paper towel and some duct tape and finished cutting the thing out. The nail fell off a while later, but grew back. Another reason I always try to wear gloves when I work. I've been fortunate that I've never had a really serious injury, but I managed to get a bit of metal in my eye grinding under a '57 Buick that through some miracle from God fell out as I lay face down in bed the next night. And I have a nice scar on my leg from the '53 Skylark where my foot went through the rusted out floorboard while it was still upside down and I scraped the front of my shin. It's fading out but still pretty obvious now like 15 months after the fact. I guess I don't heal up like I used to. Just last week working on a parts truck, I put my hand on the doorjam for something, the back door swings closed and pinches my fingers. No real damage, but much cussing and I had to figure out how to open a left side door (handle to the right) with my left hand while my right hand was pinned in the top left corner of the doorframe. I figure it's not a successful repair if you don't come away with some kind of scrape or bruise or sore spot -
After seeing that grinder over the thumb injury i think i'm going to go in my garage and put the safety guard back on my grinder. I've got about a million lil welding scars from being too lazy to wear my leathers, nothing exdciting. The worst thing i ever did was pure stupidity. I was tryin' to cram some truck headers onto the 390 in my 64 Tbird. They were a lil wide so used a bottle jack on the oil pan and undid the motor mounts to lift the motor(pure stupid, i was 15). The tranny was also out of the car so the whole engine was pretty unstable at this point. Well of course the 390 slipped off the bottle jack, fell kind of cockeyed and landed on my hand pinning it between the head and the fenderwell. I was stuck for a few minutes until i just decided to pull my hand out. That one hurt for a long time. I also almost dropped the started for that car on my head. I did drop a wrench on my face changing another starter. The worst part was i tried to dodge it by turning my head and caught my head on something so i ended up with two cuts on my face (one from the 'dodge' and one from the wrench). Worst thing i think i saw was a buddy of mine had a piece of 36 grit DA paper blow apart and a chunk got in his eye. Everytime he blinked he was sanding his eyeball.
Wow! I've only got a sissy one after reading all the above. Has to have been 30+ years ago, but genius kid decided to zap the under seat batttery in the '36 p/u with the Big Charger as the little one wasn't makng much progress. Didya know that batteries will explode if you charge them too fast? Scratch one battery, one pair of glasses (thank god) and one sweatshirt. I now own a trickle charger and have managed to accumulate significant patience over the years
I once got lit up adjusting the dist .timing on a 327 with a hopped accel ign and super coil when i was a teenager.I was leaning against the fender which was wet and i had no shirt on and standing in water with no shoes on.It shocked me so hard that i hit my head on the hood and pissed my pants .The more i tried to get away from it the more i slid back into it .The motor was bogging down from a lack of fire which was going through me .Man i am making myself look stupid here...
about 20 years ago i used to work for a motorcycle suspension company building rear shocks. they had a converted shotgun sheller as a spring compressor. well one day as i was putting the spring on a rear shock the lever for the shot gun sheller slipped out of my left hand crushing my ring finger on my right hand inbetween the spring and the aluminum retainer.i couldnt get the lever back down to release my finger until my boss saw me stuck there. he ran over and compressed the spring releasing my finger. i took two steps when all the pain hit. i yelled F*&^ so loud they heard me in the office over all the CNCs and other machines. the company is still in business and i bet that damn shotgun sheller/spring compressor is still there. im just lucky it didnt cut my finger off.
I was filling a motorcycle battery case with acid. Holding the battery in one hand, pouring with the other. I was thinking "this is taking a lot more acid than it should", then "why do my pants feel wet?", then "oh sh*t this is going to hurt!!!". The battery case had a hole in the bottom and acid was pouring out of the battery and down my legs. I dropped everything and ran for the garden hose, stripping as I ran. Started burning as I was fumbling turning on the water. Luckily I ended up with a bad 1st and some 2nd degree burns and a ruined pair of pants. Always set the battery down when you're filling it. Or let the MC shop fill it. They'll do it for free and ruin their own pants. Tom
To any others who insist on still doing this..."Arc Eye" can be contracted by the arc light entering your eye from the peripheral,in other words the worst damage is caused by the arc comming though the side of the eye ball behind the pupil. What gets damged? it's called the macular. Unlike corneas which can be transplanted, the macular,once it's damaged by Arc flash ( symptoms are 'sand like" sensations in the eye caused by blood vessel's breaking) will continue to degenerate so that by the time you are your middle age you will have lost significant amounts of vison until as you grow older you become blind.There is no cure.
had a snap on spring compressor come apart trying to put springs back in a 65 impalla . the spring hit me in the head so hard ! I just new it broke my skull ? after laying there for a while and poking at my skull I stood up and it just gave me a big cut , and my whole body was sore for awhile . and I looked like rocky for a month. #2 breaking in a new motor in my dads truck the radiator seemed to flow OK replaced every other part on the dam truck ! had the front clip off so just radiator and hoses , got it started ran it up to break in the cam for a few minutes saw the hose`s seemed to be swelling ? turned it off let it cool down. start it back up still breaking in the cam hoses swelling again turned it off again felt the top hose then boom the radiator flop`s forward spraying the whole shop celling as I`m getting sprayed with a crazy top hose I jumped one way then the other burnt the hell out of me . that rad was full of stop leak and would build up pressure . popped blisters for awhile from that one . and had the shop van Tinted real dark cause the sun hurt the burns ! even did half the windshield .
Satan's Ride has to have the best one so far. I have been "hit" too, but never lost any bodily functions. Once I forgot to take the chuck outa the drill. I saw my middle finger almost touch the back of my hand before the drill torqued back. Broke in two places through the knuckle. Countless hit fingers, slipped wrench knuckles, steel slivers in my eye(s)and welding berry burns (just today in fact...) but I don't count the stuff that doesn't require a doctor's visit.
About 4 years ago I was cutting off the cab mounts of my 67 C-10 with a oxy/acet torch, and some of the slag landed inside my ear. I was jumping around the driveway like a freakin monkey trying to get it out. Kinda weird to hear something sizzle from inside your ear, I thought I was gonna go deaf.
Not auto related,but i once got talked into riding a mechanical bull on high while i was drunk and came down pinching me between the horn and my beltbuckle.I thought it cut it off ,seriously.I had to be carried out .I fathered a child after that ,so i guess im okay.That hurt worse than brake fluid in my eyes ,and the ign .shock put together...
a couple months ago i was trying to break a rusty bolt free on a s-10 pulley bracket, it wouldnt budge so i got a 3 ft piece of 1 1/2 square tubing as a breaker bar .....i was pulling toward me and the bolt finally broke free and ended up yacking myself right in the forehead , no serious damage but i did bleed like a mutha and scared the shit out of my girlfriend when i walked in the house giggling and streaming blood down my face
I`ve had plenty of cuts, bruises and busted knuckles over the years, so I`ll just report on ER visits. When I was 19, I was pulling a turbo 350 out of a chevy pickup. I had the tranny on a cheap little floorjack. Just as I`m lowering it, the tranny slips and the converter falls out and lands right on the tip of my middle finger. I go to the ER and they drill a hole in my fingernail -- oh what a relief. I`ve been to the ER twice to remove metal from my eye --- yes , grinding without safety goggles ....
I was helping my son rotate tires on his daily driver.The lug nuts were on so tight that I put a lot into it.I heard a loud pop and my right arm hurt like a muther.I had pulled so hard that I pulled the bicep loose from my lower arm.Thought it would get better but a couple of weeks later I went to the doc and had to have it surgically tied back.Took a year to get some strength back. In my old neighborhood,one of the guys was working on his hot rod Maverick back in the 80's.He was gunning the engine while leaning over the radiator.The fan broke loose and exploded,cutting his throat,killing him instantly.I didn't see it, but the neighbors said it all but decapitated him.ALWAYS keep away from the fan when running the engine!A lesson I have since always remembered.
Injuries while wrenching for me are too numerous to list but the worst one would have to be back in about 1990 when I was working on my brothers 81 F100 (currently mine)...While pulling the front of the engine apart to replace a jumped timing chain I was standing on the front bumper leaning over the radiator support and hood latch hook when my foot slipped on the bumper due to some antifreeze that dripped on the bumper after removing the radiator...As I fell I slammed the center of my chest into the hook latch breaking my sternum in half.....Doc told me most people die when that happens and usually happens in car accidents, fortunately I didn't but to this day I still feel it when stretching, sneezing ect....feels like it broke all over again, probably arthritis now........
I've detailed cars since I was 13 to earn extra cash.. About 6-7 years ago I was detailing my In-laws black ford expedition for free. At about 10pm at night I was cutting the clear cause it was so rough.. the buffer hit the rear wiper arm and then hit me in the nuts... I have to say that the garage floor was very cool on my face.. As I layed there for about 20 minutes.. I went in the house and my wife couldn't stop laughing...
That's hard to top. In the past 45+ years of working on and around cars I have accumulated my quota of scars. The most painful car related one was hitting my right thumb with a 2-1/2 lb hammer when I missed the pickle fork and smashing the thumb against the brake rotor. JD Fikes was driving me to the emergency room in Waco and took the long way to show me a shoe box Ford sitting in someone's driveway as I was doubled over in the passenger seat holding my bleeding thumb.
My worst injury was mental. When I was about 12 my dad got me a '54 Ford truck to start rebuilding so I would have something to drive when I turn 16. We rebuilt the motor together and he was teaching me all about cars. When we got the motor back in it, he gave me some metal pliars and told me to grab the end of one of the spark plug wires and hold on to it while he started the truck. Needless to say it shocked the crap out of me. Then he said, "OK, now you've learned another important lesson. Don't touch that end while starting the car." I think he laughed about that for at least a week. I haven't trusted him around anything electrical since then. big mac
Metal in the Eye. had to get it power spooned out. (Thats fun!!!!) brake cleaner in the eye. (Oh yaeh sign me up for that again) Using a 2# blacksmithing hammer pointy end Eye shot (K.O. and broken eye socket.) Tig welding Stainless in a T-shirt. never seen so many blisters in my life(that felt good) 4 1/2" cutoff wheel exlpoded(picked pieces of the wheel out of my arms face and neck for @2 weeks) and a Grease tatto on my knuckle(no Grease does not fester out)
Man you aint lying. I had it fall in my eyes and face while working on my Pontiac. I had safety glasses on but don't do much good for liquid while laying flat on your back. I couldn't see for 15-20 minutes, no one else was home so I had to find the garden hose, turn it on and run it through my eyes. Took me a few minutes just to find the hose and hose bib.
Was trying to use the winch on the front of my kids Jeep to pull a 36 chevy out of a junkyard. Didn't have the winch control with me and couldn't find anything to jump the switch so I used a house key to bridge the contacts. I never saw anything get hot that fast, I could read the word "Kwik-set" on my thumb for about two weeks. My favorite though was trying to unhitch a trailer on a slope. I lifted the tongue and pushed back then the trailer rolled toward the car catching the meat between my thumb and forefinger between the ball and hitch. I couldn't reach the trailer with my feet to push it back t so I just stood there yelling for my wife. She finally came out and couldn't push the trailer so I had her get in the car and put it in neutral. That didn't work either because the trailer kept up with the car rolling forward. She finally started the car and pulled forward quickly enough to release my hand and then I had to try and stop the trailer from running over me. Just an all-around crappy day, but no permanent damage. Oh, that was last time I tried to hookup the trailer on a hill.
I have done several things over the years, from cuts to burns to dropping stuff on myself BUT I would say the 2 things that hurt the most was getting a drop of very hot mtr oil in my eye & drop kicking my cutting torch tank. I kicked the tank after tripping over something &&&&& GUESS WHAT those tanks don't move very easy either. It turn just about every color in the box & about 2 weeks later abouy 3/4ths of the nail fell off.
Someone gave me a Monza a few years ago. I jacked it up and put jack stands on the spring perches which were behind the rear axel. I crawled underneath to look at the trans. There is a C chanel that goes from the rear end housing to the trans, alongside the driveshaft. Unknowingly, the bolts had been removed from the chanel at the trans. With the stands behind the axel, the chanel let go with the help of rear spring pressure and vehicle weight, pinning my head to the floor. I was able to free myself, looked in a mirror, ugly, stitches time. Drove myself to the doctors office where my ex worked - she was pissed at me because the shirt I was wearing was quite dirty/bloody - that's truely adding insult to injury!
One more for me.... Twas 15 years ago now...I was 17 and drove a SWEET 73 lincoln MK VIII (shit brown with the pimpin white leather interior and 460...the proverbial aold ladies car only had 40K on the clock) Anyway, I was headed to school in the early evening for practice and found a flat tire...goodyear to be exact (forget which model but it had a bitchen tread design...more on that later) well I used the shitty bumper jack had the car up lug nuts all losened up and pushed off the ground with my hand to stand up right as the car fell off the bumper jack. It pinned my hand under the flat tire...I was stuck with a 2.5 ton car on my hand....the good part was my hand/lower arm went numb quick...I hollered till Mr. jackson the neighbor from 3 house down showed up to extracate me from the grips of my rincoln...he also took me to the ER...where they found that all the cartiledge in my hand was separated from the bone... The class ring I was wearing saved my finger due to the rim resting on it as opposed to my finger. The best part...I had the most bitchen tread design in my arm for weeks after that due to all the blood vessels blowing out....I was quite proud of that temporary tatoo....
The Jalopy Journal
