worst thing to happen while working on your project...

Was using a MAP gas trigger torch to heat shrink wrap on battery cables. I didnt notice the torch was leaking around the neck and the whole thing went up in flames. I didnt want to let it go and blow the tank up which would have been a huge disaster so I bit the bullet and unscrewed the neck off the tank while it was fully engulfed. Spent this past spring blistered and oozy from elbow to fingernails on my good arm...suckd

 

Fell through the celing to the concrete floor 10' below. woke up (came to) who knows how much later in a pool of blood. Went to the house for the jug and had a vision for the dash for my pickup. turned out killer. Wait, that's not bad. OK, Icut my arm near off with a 7" cutoff wheel doing a frame deal. Wait, I got two weeks off behind that and finished my rear suspension. I guess I can't think of anything bad that happened while working on a heap

 

I'm sure you'll think of something!

 

dropping the rear end in the delivery in my younger and less experienced days. poorly placed jack stand + spring tensions+ last u bolt nut= car jumping off of jackstands. resulted in the leaf spring landing across my forearm pinning me underneath the car--did I mention that I was in a detached garage where my wife woudn't have come looking for MANY hours.

I'd like to say I mustered superhuman strenth, but I think with the other stand still in place physics was on my side. got out with just a bruise and hight heart rate.

 

G'day, Was welding a fan cage out of 1/8" steel cable. The cable went from a 1000 pound roll and fed into a jig. Ex-buddy thought it would be funny to crank up the welder when I wasn't looking. Hit it with the jaws, immediately burned through the cable, and hit me in the chest. Hurt like hell. Looked down and realized my shirt was on fire and I was impaled on the cable still attached to the roll. In the front and out the back. Since the end that I could see on the role was flattened into an evil looking arrowhead, I knew the back couldn't be any better.

So, had to pour my bottle of water on my shirt, reach down, grab the cutters and cut the cable off. Then had to reach behind me and pull the cable out of my chest. Once I was free of the roll, I pulled my shirt off and assessed the damage. No blood, just a cauterized in and out and blisters on my side.

Ruined my favorite damn shirt too.

 

When I was 16 I was in a hurry working on my car and needed a large washer to fit in a small place so I went over to the bench grinder (not using a plyers) and the grinder sucked the washer in along with both of my thumbs. Happened so fast I didn't realize it till I saw a puddle of blood. Its very difficult to wrap an injury when both of your thumbs are bleeding heavely

 

working on a 40 coupe--no one home but me--electric fan that closed by ground--was under the car fooling with the fan and must have shoved the ground into the frame--fan started and made a hell of a racket--cut one finger til only the bone held it together and the thumb about as bad--blood all over--taped it up with an old rag and duct tape and went to emergency--then called my wife and told her where I was--in ER they looked and called a hand surgeon ( he was miraculous)-he sent my wife and son home with a little bottle of saline solution to retrieve pieces from the fan--with that and a graft from my leg--it was all OK after 3 months of idle time and two more surgeries--no more fooling with electric fans unless the battery is disconnected !!

 

Heehee.

OMG!

See...this is the kind of stuff I mean...EEEEEWWWWW!

Gotta say...even though, as I said, I hate reading these stories, (I really do) it's good to know what can happen...so the rest of us can maybe avoid it.

Want to look away...but...I...can't...

 

I got married. My "free time" shrank up real quick !
-Karl

 

My friend's cell phone rang, he ran off to answer it. Cause I am deaf, I did not know he left and I unbolted the driveshaft and then the tranny and it fell on me. I thought he would quickly help me out by lifting the rear of the tranny up, but he was 30 feet away talking on the phone with his girl. The red fluid poured out of the rear yoke of the tranny and soaked my pants. His mom screamed when she saw me get out from under the car, she thought I cut an artery.

While this is not the worst thing that can happen, it is the fault of a needy girlfriend, a horny guy, and a cell phone.

 

I just put my gaurd back on my air cutting tool! 3 weeks ago, cutting 3/8 metal round stock, cutting wheel blew apart, a piece hit my cheek, (felt like a baseball bat), gashed open, blood all down my shirt, went inside to clean up, wife freaks out!!! Got lucky, no black eye, but sure swelled up like a tennis ball for about 3 days! Had safety glasses on, should have had my safety shield on. I very glad my grand-daughter wasn't helping this time...now I have an extra safety shield in the garage, so when she helps me!

 

in with him ^^^^

 

Replacing the lifters in an old Mustang.
Pushed the car halfway out of the shop, the rear tires were on the dirt.

Everything buttoned up, ran the idle screw in for a fast idle so to break in the new lifters. Reached in, turned the ignition on, used a screwdriver on the starter solenoid to crank the motor.

Engine fired instantly IN DRIVE! Car takes off through the shop, I narrowly get out of the way, crashes into my 67 GT500 project, shoves it up against the back wall. I ran up and jerked the coil wire out.

Many $$$ in damages but feel really lucky I wasn't killed/hurt.

I've been more careful.

 

Had the battery end of a drill come around and smack me in the mouth hard enough to drive my two front teeth into my lower lip, and snap the root canal pin that was inside one. Luckily it was on a customer job and workman's comp covered the bridge. It was my fault though I had been laying in the trunk of a 55 chevy using a hole saw and

Couple years later I was hammering on a home made pickle fork (crecent wrench ground to a taper and cutoff boxed end) the hammer missed and caught on something during my back swing and redirected it straight back into the same spot. Broke the bridge out where the missing tooth was. Luckily again it was at work and got covered.

Broke that tooth out originally as a kid doing a back flip on a diving board. Full flip in the air, Tucked into a ball, As I came down I straightened out and ended up mouth first into the board. Root canal fixed it until the '55.

Swear it's always been trying to escape my mouth. lol

 

I was working in a truck tank shop and while walking between bays, I stepped on an air line. Guess the line was loose where it connected to the main line and as I stepped off of it, it spun the hose loose. The pressure in it made it fly out and hit a guy standing there, 1/2" above his left eye. Didn't even know what happened till I looked around after hearing the air leak and seeing him lying there.

Worst one I came across was a buddy of mine who was dropping the front driveshaft in his 4WD Blazer. As he got it free, the truck began to roll back in the driveway, the driveshaft caught his sleeve and wrapped his arm around it a couple times. In triage he tells the nurse that he broke his arm. Nurse looks up and says "so you think you broke your arm?" He holds up his mangled limb and says "no, I broke my arm" Apparently the look on her face was priceless

 

Worst thing to happen? So far, having to sell the damned thing before I finished it. Kind of lame, but it's the best I can do so far.

 

While working on the T a bunch of years ago I was squatting down checking the number of pan bolts to make sure I had the right one. When I rolled the tranny over I twisted my intestine. I didn't find this out until the surgeon checked me out at six in the morning after a very painful night, even with the load of morphine. As it turned out , while he was pressing on the area of pain, he must of straightened out the twisted part and at once I felt relief. After a four day stay in the hospital, I was good to go.
After the car was on the road awhile, I was fussing with the front end and tried to make some adjustments, all of the details of which I can't remember except for the part where the front axel started to roll out from under at which time I pushed it back under the car with my feet when I heard a "pop". Well, eventually I had the hernia repaired. Other than that, everything has been swell........ I just remembered why I sold the car.

 

I just about forgot.....Has anyone seen my old car around ?

 

Nothing major, but I just about took off a nail ramming it into the freshly sawed off pinchweld seam cutting the dash out of a '58 Chevy, which after seeing I wasn't going to bleed to death I wrapped in tape and kept going to get the damn thing out before dark... I've had the grinder catch my shirt under a car and left me with a scar on my stomach, and had the 4" wire cup brush throw wires that got impaled in me - one I didn't even notice for several hours, I couldn't figure out why I was sore above my knee until I ran my hand over and there was the wire sticking out. But honestly it hurt more about two months ago when I managed to shut my index finger between the doors of my van, that's the first time I did anything that hurt enough to give me some nausea... knock on wood...

Anymore since I'm usually working alone I make sure to avoid the most obvious potential injury-causing moves. I've had too many cars roll off of jacks already.

 

I had some redneck setup to do some welding on a rocker panel, which included a floor jack, a 4x4 block of wood and a 8 inch piece of angle iron. I was using the hole contraption to hold the rocker panel in place while I welded along the bottom of the rocker. I let some of the pressure off so I could move everything forward pump up the jack again, angle iron slips out and drops straight down on top of my thumb which was holding the 4x4 in place. Within a few minutes the blood starts forming under my thumbnail so I get out a drillbit and start drilling a hole by hand. I then decide that this was taking too long so I put the drill bit into my Makita cordless drill and proceed to run the 1/8 bit into the center of my thumbnail..I swear to god the blood must have shot a foot in the air. Still gives me the heebies to think about it...

 

i was cutting out some bad metal on a 57 beetle, to make a repair panel. i thought i had all the edges cleaned up. i found out, really quick that i missed a bur.the bur was about an inch long, and as thin as a needle. it was a result of multiple cuts from tin snips.
as i slid the new metal into place, the needle like bur slid into the first knuckle joint of my thumb. as a reaction, i pulled my thumb away and without thinking, i straightened up my thumb. i pulled the bur out of my knuckle, but the end wasnt very sharp. when i straightened my thumb, i snapped the metal off in my joint. it still hurts.

another time, i was pulling the plug off of the electric fan of a 50 plymouth that i used to have. it was a late model gm fan, and the plug was right next to the blades. i regret to admit , the fan was running. i pulled the plug , and my hand went into the fan. it ground down the skin and flesh on the third knuckle of my left index finger. felt like a total dumbass.
i find myself closing my hands tight whenever im around a running fan ever since then.
knew a kid in high school, that was changing his girlfriends oil in the gravel driveway, and the car slipped off the jack. fell on his head , and killed him.

 

Hydraulic windows in the 53' stopped working. While trying to reach my arm up in the small door opening to get at the wires, I had forgotten to disconnect the battery & the wires that i exposed shocked my hand and i slipped from the shitty harbor freight stool. Now im hanging from my arm because the cars up on stands. I cant get myself twisted around to get out. Hearing my shoulder pop and my elbow grinding on the inside of the door. Finally i get my boot planted and push up high enough to get out.
Wouldn't wanna do it again.

 

I had a jack slip off the frame and bust through my floor board haha. I was planning on putting new ones in....this just helped me get started i guess.

 

One time I was replacing a wiper motor and for some reason it wasn't getting power from the switch. I was messing with the wires and scratching my head. I moved some wires around and tried it again. Unfortunately, I didn't have my fingers out from near the motor before I flipped the switch. The motor kicks right on and the wiper linkage comes around, crushing my fingers against motor and gouging a chunk of meat out of my middle finger. FFFUUUUUUUU........

 

a mate of mine who is a metalworker decided to fabricate his own shifter [too tight to buy one] he was doing this on a weekend at his place of work [sheetmetal shop] in the driveway [not flat ground] and while he is lying on the ground under the car, also on the ground, adjusting the linkage [no reverse lockout] the car starts to roll decides to try and stop it himself by nocking transmission into park as he does this the car rolls onto his shoulder pining him and breaking his shoulder blade. so now he is stuck under the wheel of a car thats in park ,he cant reach the shifter linkage to try and roll the car off him and he is in an industrial estate on a weekedd [no one around] after yelling for a while and getting no answer he realises that he has to drag him self out ,so not only has he got a broken shoulder but now he is severly graised [needed some stiches].he then drives himself to hospital in the car that ran him over moral is always chock wheels

 

I set the carpet padding on fire while welding under the car!!! Luckily mostly smoke damage as that stuff didn't flare up!!! ROY.

 

Was changing the master on my old 51 Buick and my chest was about 3 inches from the lower control arm. I got out to answer my phone and at that moment a junk truck was flying down the alley and i guess the vibration caused the jack to give and the beast fell. Thank God for the caller that kept calling over and over. Funny thing it was a restricted number and they hung up before i answered. No joke!!!

 

I was cutting some rusty floorboards out and cut right thru a brake line under the floor.....I only found out when I saw the puddle on the floor getting bigger and bigger!

 

I also heard it wasn't traditional. Probably the same thread

 

35 yrs ago while in college, a friend and I went to Ereaka, UT to pull parts off a '39 chevy sedan. I was under the car (lying in the dirt) cutting parts off. All of a sudden, the car just slipped and was lying on my chest. I could breath ok but was absolutely pinned down. My friend asked if I was ok but I couldn't speak. He saw my situation and just musceled the car off me. There was no other person around for miles!!!!! Whew!!!!!

Dennis Bubp