Ever have one of those DAMMIT moments?

Back in the early 90's, I am restoring a '53 Buick Super. This car has a great, V8 hood orniment. I have the car in the garage, with the hood up. NOT paying attention, I run the jack under front end and start jacking. About 5 pumps into the job, I hear a loud snap and the front 2 inches of the hood orniment bullet comes falling down in front of me ! Had jacked that thing up under the open door and snapped it in half ! Man, I was SICK !!!!!

 

I fell off a scaffold years ago, fell about 20', by some MIRACLE I wasnt injured, just bruised up pretty good, but been scared shitless of hieghts ever since. Sweat bullets every time I have to get on the roof of my house. Funny how once you have fallen far enough to have time to think about it while you are in the air, you never forget that feeling...

 

I think we have all had those moments. I do however have a fix for you. You can repair the emblem, then take a mold of it in silicone rubber. Once you have a mold, you can make all the emblems you need with urethane plastic. Here is a link to an article I wrote about the process.

http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/techarticles/0803rc_polyurethane_casting/index.html

 

Two of many,

1). Installing the back window in my truck, tightened the bolt about 1/2 turn too much. Heard the PING, closed the shop door & went in the house.

2). Replacing the windshield in my truck (punks threw rocks off of a bridge). Did not quite have enought urethane in one corner. Told my buddy to push with his palm to spread it out, PING.

This truck was heck on glass the first 2 months of its life!!! All better now, that was 2 years ago.

 

As an antique engine collector, and backyard car and bike builder, everytime I break/dent/scratch something, I think: DAMMIT this has survived 60-80 years without damage until I got my clumsy hands on it!

 

building a stand for my big disc sander out of a 4x4 steel post. stand the post on end about 3 feet from the back of my 61 Dodge. while fiddlefucking with the rest of the parts to weld this together I knock the 4x4 over and destroy the tail light lens and chrome trim on the dodge. excellent chrome with no pits at all and a nice red lens. I have since scored an NOS lens for 50 bucks but have yet to find a suitable chrome trim piece.


I watched a guy driving a fork lift with a 383 Mopar he just bought for $800.00 drop it on the crankshaft and break it. he just spent all morning pulling it out. the car he was going to put it in eventually got towed off to the scrap yard. I saw it drop, then saw the balancer rolling away. I don't think he said dammit though.

 

If you don't have a dammit moment, you aren't doing anything. I remember one of my most expensive ones is when I bought a set of glass T-tops for my daughter's Vette.I proceed to put one on it,line it up,it looks good.So I press one of the latches on...good. Press the other latch and Pop! Broke a 300 dollar glass top right across the front.I let off the adjustments on the other one BEFORE I pressed the latches.

 

about 10 years ago I was building my 49 Plymouth and lifted the front with an air powered bumper jack. THe Plymouth did not have a bumper on it yet. I lifted it up about 3 feet and went to grab the jack stands when the car slipped off the arms of the jack and the arms grabbed the grille opening on both sides. The Plymouth crashed to the ground, but the front end lifted up and tore the fenders up real bad. the headlights were about 2 feet higher than they were before it happened. I screamed, shut off the lights in the shop, locked the door and did not go down to fix it for about 3 to 4 months. I repaired all the parts and it actually fit better afterwards than it did before.

 

can't remember how many times i've done a gd it. or dropped a heavy part on my self but the best was putting up a new fence around my yard, i was banging in the post with a 18 pounder. some how had a finger between it and the sledge, smashed my right index finger a good one, trip to the er to stitch it up and stop the bleeding,
now a year latter i still can't hold a guitar pick or use that finger. even to click a mouse.

 

HRP Just read your story, and thought it was me doing it, you have been looking over my shoulder havent you? I think the JB Weld should do the trick and they did a very nice job on the chroming.

 

Painting aTriumph Spitfire one day. White enamal, nothing fancy. Mixed the last cup of paint, turned back to the car, and had missed an ear on the paint cup, which fell off, which splatered paint all over the front of said Triumph. Nothing to do but go to the house, let it dry and wet sand the spots a few days later, then a couple light coats to finish it off.

 

Prolly shouldn't tell this-
It was an almost dammit moment, the kind where your legs get all cold and you have to a second to breathe.

It was raining and I was pulling a brand-new (less than 1000 miles) 2010 Mustang GT 5.0 with a glassroof out of my shop heading to a cruise night. my shop is 14' at the eaves, start the car, hit the close button, jump in and start backing up. The 5.0 is a stick, and I was watching where I was going. I look and see the door coming down way faster than I expected. I punch it and as the car clears the door, I hear it "squeeeeeek". Holy crap, that was close. and i will NEVER do that again.

 

Went to clean my work glasses. Took them off. Reached for the spraycan of glass cleaner. Wasn't really concentrating as I was talking to a workmate. Picked up the spraycan of clear lacquer off the same shelf. Next time I'll pick up the can before I take off the glasses. Irony is a bitch who should be taken out and shot.

 

I think I am more careful than average. But the more you do, the more likely something bad is going to happen. There are a number of times I have thought exactly what you posted both about myself and others.

 

These two come to mind:
-While painting my wire wheels with a nice high gloss red Industrial quality paint I made ALOT of overspray. Really nothing you can do if your spraying wires... anyway the next day i go into the shop to work on a customers truck. It was a brand spankin new $50k Dodge with white paint. It turned pink! Who'd a thought the overspray would travel 60' across the shop? Took alot of elbow grease to get that off.

-Working on my '66 impala. I had the front clip off, but the radiator support and radiator still hooked up. I wanted to hear it run because i haven't started it for a few weeks. Hopped in the car, turned the key and she fired right up after a few pumps of the skinny pedal. Got out of the car, walked around front, rev'd it up by hand. She was running perfect, the best running 283 i ever seen with only 34k on the whole car. Decided i had enough fun, time to shut her down. As i go to walk back around to get into the car my hip hit the corner of the rad. support. Which caused it to bend back, sending the perfect original radiator into the spinning fan......DAMN IT

 

had the stiched inserts in the front seats replaced on my 67 dodge
found back seat out of a matching colored car in perfect condition

to save money ? i took the factory seat panels apart ... both by carefully cutting the individual stitches on the old fronts and the new replacement rear panels i found .. brought the seats and inserts to an upolstery shop 4 weeks later they were done absolutely perfect
installed the seats put all the side trim on threaded the seat belts in place and sat down in the driver seat ..
with the long philips screwdriver in my back pocket producing a large hole .. did not even sit it once before wrecking them ..

took another and redid it again only to have the dog jump in the car wreck them again

 

Not me but a woman of an older age was backing her car out of a garage in the Newport Beach, Ca. peninsula as I was riding by on a bicycle. I heard a metallic twang and the garage door came slamming down on her front window. The woman had mis-judged the distance from the side of the car to the spring holding the garage open and she snapped the spring off and the door free-fell, smashing her window. She had no clue what went wrong until I told her.

 

Just one of Many, I posted a pic so you can get an idea of shop lay out, I was doing some touch-up for a friend who had bought a "done" 409 car, said car was where the benz is in the pic., Note the door opening up on the right(second floor) I had one of those cast iron ladys w/her legs up(for taken boots off) hanging on the outside door by a piece of wire.... I'm in another part of the shop.... I hear the door slam close due to the wind... and with the door slam I heard a un-mistakable sound!!!! As the door slammed(note: not the door you see, the one on the outside, walls are 2" thick), said cast boot chick flew across the shop and landed dead smack between the rear window and the trunk lid... 1/4" dent and the smallest panel on the car... But really what are the odds.... could have landed on the glass or the trunk...

 

Bought a very nice holley 830 dp carb off the internet.It was one of them deals were it was much better than the pictures showed.I was in the back garage and decided I would take it to the garage under the house.There was ice on the ground and you know what happened next I fell and bent the throttle arm. so much for my great carb buy. Not sure why I even needed to move it from one shop to the other. RLS

 

Well,at least I'm not alone! HRP

 

Well,it's been a while,actually several months and I realized I never posted a update on the repair.

Steve at Advanced Plating did a fantastic job of repairing my Script and accomplished it in a very timely manor,,as I recall less than 2 weeks.
The repaired piece as installed on the wagon. HRP

 

You could have broke something else..like a body part. I have two part epoxy in an easy to get to spot. Tim

 

One of many that I can quickly think of...

I had just finished spending SEVERAL hours painting a Harley front fender including the basecoat, lots of masking for flames, about 3 accent colors in the flames, etc. for the second time after it got some damage on it after the owner had ridden it for a while. It was probably after midnight or so and I was unmasking it getting ready for clear. It turned out perfect and I just needed to wipe it down with a little degreaser to get rid of my fingerprints prior to clear. I accidently picked up the laquer thinner can and you can guess how much longer I got to spend doing it all over again...

By the way, emblem looks great!

 

After many years of bodywork and prep on my 35, bringing it back from paint shop on the back of a transporter, car was on backwards, journey of about 50 miles. The doors were wired closed but vibration must have stressed the wire and it gave way. Door flew open, hit real wheel, bent lower hinge and damaged A post.
What should have been a highlight, bringing a freshly painted car home turned into a real bummer, annoyingly through my own stupidity.
I did not take any pictures, but I did learn something !