The dumbest mistakes you've made..

marring the first wife............... BIGGEST ONE YET!

 

Here's a little one. Changed a battery outside when it was raining. Couldn't figure out at first why I was getting a shock as I leaned on the truck tightening the positive cable. Oh yeah, it's raining, I'm wet, the truck's wet...

There was the beater I was pulling back on the rusted tailgate skin to see if I could dick with the mechanism to crank the window down, and I pulled too hard I guess and the window basically blew up in my face. What made that worse was the window was all that held that tailgate on, so it fell off along with all the glass.

Couple boners back in school, putting the wrecked Camaro back together I go under to hook up fuel lines and never stop to think there might still be gas in this car that hasn't run in two or three years. Got a nice face full. At least I had goggles on for that one.

There was a car I worked on for some girl, too, I never tightened the lugnuts up on one side all the way, I guess. Someone stopped to talk to me and I went right on to the other side and never checked it. Came loose on her on the way home from school. Kinda soured me on working on other people's cars for a while.

It helps to think of some of the dumb engineering done on some of the vehicles I have - GM goofed shit up, too, that you don't find until you have to work on them.

 

How about this for dumb? In 1976 I was at a junk yard and a guy said to me "Hey you like old cars dont you? I know where there is a coupe for sale". So I follow up on it and it is a rolling 32 Ford 3-W that has the floor torched out and a 390 T-bird engine and trans half-assed stuck down in the frame. The guy who was butchering it had decided to give up and sell it. Price was $400. I bought it with dash, hood, garnish, original grill and shell, doors and deck lid. I had it two days and a guy offered my $1500 and I sold it! Now that was dumb!

 

First marriage !!!

 

Forgot to put the rotor back in once, spent hours trying to figure that one out. What an Idjit...

 

Second marriage!!Boy,I was real dumb!!

 

I traded off a '32 three window body to some dirt track guys back in '64 because, "I'm not going to do anything with it". Dirt track guys, no less.....
Let the flaming begin, I deserve it........Mike

 

I bought an old car to fix up thinking it would be fun. The worst part is, I still haven't figured out it isn't fun. Boy am I dumb.

 

I did a brake job in a hurry once in the shop and forgot to put one of the drums back on before I bolted up the wheels. I hit the pedal and it went to the floor. Instantly dawned on me what happened.

 

Tried to build my roadster and my '57 Chev at the same time while triyin to stay married.
Still married but had to sell the '57

 

But it was '64, it'd be like giving a '77 Mustang II to dirt trackers right now.

Maybe more like a Pinto. . .

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!! Thats priceless!!!

Ok, the Blazer thing wasn't my worst. I bought a used 500ci long block for my Caddy, pulled the old motor, swapped all the acc. ect., intake/carb/exhaust, you know the drill. Get the thing completely installed and for the life of me I can't get the thing to run. We messed with that thing for days and finally pulled it out, fixed my OLD engine, installed THAT one and it still wouldnt start. Now I'm going, this engine ran when I pulled it out a week ago....WTF??!

Somehow, & I still can't figure this one out, we had been looking in the manual at the firing order for a 4.1L Cadillac V8 instead of the 500ci. I don't know how that got past at least four of us that were working on this thing!

Got the firing order off the intake manifold & she's been running ever since.

These stories are great!

-John

 

Once bought a 1970 Pontiac Bonneville station wagon.Had a 455 and about every power option but had been sitting about a year.Hauled it to the gas station I worked at and tried to get it running.New plugs,battery,points and condensor.Spin like a mother,good compression,good spark but no fire.Burned up the starter trying to get it to run.Had it up on the hoist while changing the starter and a buddy walked in.I explained to him what was up.
Buddy:"Check to make sure you have gas?"
Me:" Hell,yes...ya think I'm a moron? First thing I did"
Buddy:"Hmmmmm...let me know what it was.I gotta go."
I wait until he's gone then dump in 5 gallons...squirt a bit down the carb...VAROOOM
That was 33 years ago and he still gives me crap about it

 

Stupid? Oh yeah. I was working on an electric flatbed cart, the kind mechanics use to travel around big facilities. I needed to fix the steering linkage, so I hoisted it up and put stands under the front tires. Then I got underneath it and accidentally pushed the resistor for the throttle and immediately remembered that I hadn't disconnected the battery pack in my haste. The front end came off the blocks and pinned my neck to the concrete. Thank God I hadn't disconnected the lift, it was the only thing holding the cart up that extra inch that saved my life...I was stuck there for about an hour before someone came in and found me.

 

gutting my first car before finding the HAMB

 

I did alot of stupid shit before the HAMB. COme to think of it I sometimes still do.

 

Had a '68 'Cuda that we bracket raced years ago with a 340, Carter AVS and A/T. It started, idled and ran almost flawlessly with this combo, so of course we decided we'd better put a Holley on it and see how that runs. Changed it at the track after the races were done for the day but couldn't get it to idle right. Seemed to go down the track OK but it was a bear to get it staged. Pulled back into the pits, pulled the hood, fiddled with it some more, but finally gave up on it for the day.

Luckily we were able to drive it up onto the trailer without driving it into the bed of the truck. Set the hood back in place, pinned it down and headed home. Backed everything into the driveway and decided to unload the car and get it into the garage before dark. We figured we'd at least get it started long enough to get off the trailer and let it roll or push it the rest of the way into the garage.

Expecting the worst, I hit the key and it started instantly. It idled like a stocker, even after I dropped it in gear. I idled it off the trailer, down the driveway and into the garage with out a so much as a hiccup. So now we're all a combination of P.O.'d and confused as it seems to have fixed itself as we lift off the hood. And there laying across the top of the carb is the old shop
rag that we put there for the trip home since we didn't have an air cleaner for the Holley yet, acting like just enough of a choke to make it idle as smooth as silk.

 

Just Last Week!
My daughter drives a '95 F150. Her drivers side rear drum was smoking and the dash lights for ABS and EBRAKE were coming on.
I checked and all seemed to be there, though the shoe pads themselves were a bit fractured due to the heat. So, I get new shoes and hardware. Removed and replaced both sides.
Two days later, lights come on again.
I open them back up and put some high temp lube on the hardware and backing plate. For some reason though, while I was on the passenger side, I decided to check the wheel cylinders...again. Well, I pushed the rods in and they went in fine, but remembered I had not checked them on the 'out' stroke.
So I pushed one rod in and guess what? It was sticking on the passenger side, hence the smoke on the drivers side, cuz it was doing all the work!
I could do those drum brakes blindfolded now.

 

I'm working on swapping a Brake Booster in a Corvette. C4's have this huge frame rail that sticks up above the floorboard on the outside. So I'm laying with my back arched over that rail, reaching up over my head, holding a socketwrench with about 18 inches worth of semi-swivels, trying to get a nut to perch on the bolt and get it started when I burn my arm on the shoplight.

That caused me to smash the bridge of my nose with the wrench and wrench my back something fierce....and the nut fell down between the firewall and the jute.

 

Finding the Hamb web site! it takes up too much of my time.

 

ill agree on this hahahahahaha

 

After 21 years of working in FORD and LINCOLN dealers i wouldnt even know where to start what to list.

 

"I DO" enough said......

 

ever getting into cars at all

 

after i got home from iraq i did what ever soldier does when they get home from war: i bought a new car. the mistake was spending thousands of dollars on said car plus thousands of more dollars on hop-up parts. i got sucked into the newer high end euro scene for about 5 years.

fast forward to today and the car isn't worth shit and i could have built two hot rods with all the money i sunk into my stupid "new" car.

dumb.

 

Drank a bottle of Rumple mintz before driving Riv. Thats all I want to talk about.

 

I lost count. And I am the dumbest mistake my wife ever made.

 

I guess about everybody has got plug wires crossed but it's about the dumbest thing I ever did except for buying three Dodges.

 

At least you learned from your mistake. The rest of us just keep repeating the same ones over and over. Alot of these stories bring back memories I'd rather forget. At least when I read them I feel better about myself

 

Pissin on an electric fence was one...........