So who else has blown anything up in their garage

I cleaned up a neat lil' Schwinn- type dragster bike for sale. Mr. Magoo blows the original '69 double pinner rear whitewall tyre up to 100 p.s.i. Then after a few bourbons, decides a test ride 'round the shed would be a good idea. BANG.
One rare 30 psi- rated tyre with blown out sidewall. Kid's bikes, bourbon + fat middle age idiot= dumb.

 

The worst i did was stroke the hell out of a 318 with 340 6-pack, when i got it tuned and rewerd it the first time for real, one of the heads jumped out of the enginebay. Blown the topend of sevral bikes. Ahh those 15-25 years with mad tuning and builds...

 

Had a near-miss. Early 70's, during the gas crisis, Dad had a 30 gallon barrel of gas in the greese pit in the garage (yeah, he had one put in when the house was built, early 60's.) My older brother and a couple of his buddies come over with one of the buddies' car and they are going to do something (oil change, whatever.) One proceeds to climb down into the pit with a lit cigarette. He nearly crapped when I told him what was in that barrel next to him. The cig went outside pretty quick.

 

This was so worth reading from beginning to end... I had tears, and was trying not to get in trouble while reading this. My co-workers look at you like a retard for laughing at work, but I can so relate to these stories...

 

This is a great thread. Most of your stories had me dieing. I havent blown anything up other then engines, but I did set my brothers car on fire welding up the trim holes.. The welding sparks caught the inside on fire, imagine that lol...

At a shop I worked at, they had this big clearish tank that I think farmers use to water that they put old coolant in. Well they were supposed too. The other mechanics and service writers liked to use is as an ashtray too. Well they get it drained one day when it was full, and at the same time they were cleaning up old and broken stock, and get the other apprentice to pour a bunch of lacquer thinner and other flammable liquids in it so they dont have to pay o get rid of them. It was a large store with a shop attached so there was lots, like cases. Well later on the one douche manager guy that got him to put that shit in there goes out for a smoke, comes back a few min later, goes back to the office. Two min later the guy who was pouring the shit in, goes back out to continue, and the whole fucking thing was a blaze. I know gas wont light with a smoke, but maybe lacquer thinner? Or whatever he was pouring in there reacted.

 

I think we have a winner - liquid came out my nose from laughing at the visual on this one - Brand new Pinto burning to the ground, guy on fire running in circles, woman kicking a drunk guy's ass - holy fuck that's funny!!!

 

Yes thats the winner...

 

The guy next to me at a shop touched the jumper cables from the tow truck backwards on car battery, big bang....I could not hear for 2 hours..no injuries.

Working in a Chevy dealer...a guy three stalls away was trying to start a diesel with starting ether....bang...across the floor skips a broken connecting rod and there is a large flash from under the vehicle..two fire extingushers later....no paint damage...no injuries

 

I convinced my very very well endowed gal pal to wash her motorcycle in the garage topless...but she never blew anything in there...up...

 

I've farmed for the last 30 yrs, but in a previous life I painted cars in an autobody shop. In the paint room, under the mixing shelf, were 3 five gallon pails of thinner (fast and slow) and reducer. The previous painter had a bad habit of smoking while he mixed the paint, and one day he dropped his cigarette on top of one pail. Lucky for him he managed to slam a lid on it before it blew, but the flames left a black melted spot in the galvanized metal roof panelling. That's when I got hired.
One day a helper is cursing the POS shopvac and says it won't lift the broken glass out of a car's carpets. I wheeled the thing out into the middle of the shop with a very long extension cord, poured a half pint of lacquer removing solvent down the motor and plugged it in. Got about 8 ft of flames and a new shop vac shortly after.
We also had a wrecking yard that dealt in scrap metal. Apparently at one time there was a shortline ag manufacturer that tried to increase the wieght of it's farm discers by filling the frames with filings and scraps of metal. Over time this would actually heat in the enclosed frame, and when scrappers tried to cut into them, they would explode. Lucky for us nobody got killed. Ahhh....the good old days. Also saw my boss lean over a charging battery once while toking on his smelly old pipe....only happened once, but I got to clean up the acid in the customer's engine bay. Makes a very nice POP!

 

Man o man, there is some funny stuff here. However, there is way too much really stupid shit also. I mean, how old do you have to be to know not to:
1) clean garage floor with gasoline, naptha, laquer thinner or whatever. I know its funny here, but holy shit how dangerous, and stupid, is that.
2) Storing fireworks in the work shop????????????????????????????
3) Welding on gas tanks or any container that once held flammables. Jesus, safety 101 here. Kinda like auto mechanics 202,,,start engine..exhaust manifold gets fucking hot so don't touch.

Some are very very very lucky to be here to write this stuff..........Glad you are though, this shit is funny.

 

worked in a body shop in the late 80's was going to burn the cardboard in the incinerator out back. the boss had put a lot of branches from trimming his bushes in with the cardboard to burn so I just sloshed some waste thinner on it like always and then went back to the shop for matches. got distracted while in there and was about 15 min's till I got back to light it giving the thinner fumes a good long time to build up in the branches. as soon as I struck the match I was engulfed in a huge fireball. several guys in the shop ran out to see what happened and found me on my back with my eyebrows and hair burnt off. I was ok but it scared the hell out of me and I learned to not light things like that again!

 

One of my good friends was using a BBQ for heat in his dad's garage one night and was drilling a few holes in the bed of his PROPANE fueled truck. Suddenly heard the psssssst from when the hole in the tank occurred and got out of the garage just in time to see the roof lift off.

 

blew up the engine in my T roadster in a friends garage, almost burned my garage down with a wood stove and have set myself on fire with grinders and welders.
I now have a flammable cabinet(for paint and oils), fire extinguishers and no other flammable's in the garage. Wife doesn't like standing fire watch

 

Haven't blown anything up yet, but I light myself on fire pretty regularly.

 

My roommate lit his mullet on fire while welding under his minitruck.

 

Did his head explode?-MIKE

 

Sounds to me like someone needs to be on "mullet" watch? Joe Dirt wouldn't let that happen.

 

That is so funny on so many levels

 

I have a flammables can in the garage. The night before a buddy and I were reloading some ammo and pulling down about 200 old 1947 German mauser rounds for the bullets. Spilled powder on the floor, no big deal, dropped some primers, no big deal. I went inside for a minute and he swept up. Instead of throwing all of the stuff swept up, and old steel cases in the trash, he threw it in the burn can. The next day I wiped down some metal with laquer thinner and threw the paper towels in the hot can prior to welding.
As I was tacking my project a spark landed in the hot bucket, not a big deal, that is why it is metal!
WRONG! It started the paper towels on fire which started a 6 foot volcano of 66 year old gun powder burning, which set off the primers and primed cases. Burning shit was flying all around me. Not a good day!!