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

Keep 'em coming,i'm in stitches!

 

Didn't happen to me but, one of my crew at the body shop I managed was drilling 1/8" holes in a fender for moulding clips. When he got to the middle section of the fender, the pressure was bowing the fender and he stuck his hand behind it to keep it from getting damaged. When he did that, the drill went thru the fender and thru his palm as well. He was hollering like hell. I ran over and asked what happened. He explained and said he couldn't get his hand free. I told him I would hold the drill steady and he could use his other hand to help free himself. When I got my hands on the drill.......zzzzzzzzip! I hit the trigger and pulled it out. He was screaming like a little girl at this point and hollering like hell at me. I thought it was funny as hell. Actually, I still think it's funny as hell.

 

This one did happen to me. I was buffing out the roof on a laquer paint job with an old (felt like a 30 lb.) electric buffer. This was 40 years ago. I had the buffer plugged into and tied together with a 50 foot extention cord. I had the button locked on and the buffing wheel caught the cord and being up so high. It started to wrap around my neck. My hand was caught in the cord as well. I have a very long beard so I was trying to keep it out of that as well. I couldn't get at the trigger release button and the damn thing was wrapping tighter around my neck choking the hell out of me. So here I am running thru the shop like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to run the cord out to unplug it from the wall. Finally it comes out and I'm laying on the floor almost out of breath still choking and trying to untangle my neck. If it had a longer cord, I probably would have choked to death. Funny now but really wasn't then...

 

My wife figuring out I spent on the project........

 

This just happend to my bosses brother two days ago- He was drilling out the hole in the end of a battery cable. He was holding the cable in his hand when the bit caught it rapped the cable and his pinkie and ring finger up around the bit. tore the pinkie off at the second knuckle and ring finger an the first. fingers where to bad to put back on.

 

I was taking apart a 55 Chevy dash board vent cable to use as a truck release for my 52 Merc, when some how I, while getting it unsiezed got the end of the cable head pushed through my right hand thumb and I mean it went right through...I had to yell for my ex to come out to the garage so she could cut the end of the cable off so I could pull it out of my thumb..She just screamed and cried for oh about 20 minutes and then did as I had asked..I do remember it friggin throbbing for a day..

 

Started a construction company economy went to shit and sold everything to survive.

 

went to start my ladys 50 buick by pushing the connector on the starter solenoid, and the solenoid sparked, caught on fire and light my had left pointer on fire, still have a nice burn mark from it

 

That hits close to home I've done some stupid shit like that way too often lately

A hospital bill sure makes the price of a drillpress and a vice look cheap.

I've had some cutoff wheels blow up in my face. Thank god I had a shield on.

How does crap manage to get in your eye after you have a face shield *and* safety glasses on?!? One of lifes mysteries

 

Only time i couldnt find my safety glasses, i had drilled the holes in my frame where i mounted my starter relay, laying under the truck i put the first bolt in and embeded a piece of metal in my eye, , this was on a friday, didnt go to the doctor untill the next tuesday, had to have the rust drilled out of my eye and piece of metal pulled out with a needle. Fun times fun times!

 

As a Paramedic I have taken many of these injuries to the ER, the one that still gets me is the kid who fell and his brother ran over his feet with the riding mower, just so you don't have nightmares I won't describe the injuries other than saying the right foot was ALOT worse than the left, I was first on the scene and beat the squad there by 20 minutes, I restored the pulse in his right foot and had a helicopter there....it got there before the squad also, the boy lost 1 toe out of the whole ordeal...

 

Thank you for your service, hope you get back to grinding rust and burning metal and rubber again soon!

 

Worst thing to happen to me was a very close call while welding in the hole left from a sunroof installed many years prior by me. I cut the headliner out and covered the seats and interior, then got some thin plywood to further control sparks and put it up against the roof with some makeshift poles to hold it all in place.
I fitted the donor roof and began to tack weld it in place with the MIG welder. Had my hood down and was outside in the driveway feeling everything was going great. I stopped after making a number of tack welds to check the progress. Since I use an autodarkening hood I didn't need to constantly lift it and check.
When I raised the hood I noticed it was pretty smokey and warm, and in a few seconds the reason became obvious; the headliner had gotten trapped between the plywood and the roof and had caught fire!
I had some light gloves on and figured I'd ust rip the burning liner out and that would extinguish the fire. When I grabbed the flaming liner it stuck to my glove and immediately I felt the heat and tried to shake it off, but it had pretty well bonded to me, and I had to rip the glove off to get rid of it. My hand was badly burned, and the liner was still on fire! I looked around and realised I had the garden hose behind me, so I turned it on and sprayed the fire out.
Pretty well soaked the interior, but saved the car. I checked my hand and saw the backs of my fingers and hand all blistering up, so a trip to the hospital was next. After getting the hand fixed I returned home and finished welding in the roof, which came out great.
Could have been a lot worse losing a car I'd owned for 37 years!

 

Mine went from a "I'm just going to get it running and drive it "as is" project" to a frame off project.

 

Ive been turnin wrenches for awhile now so my hands are pretty calloused up.I put a 36 grit belt on the industrail belt sander and started dressin a part up.I'd be damned if that belt didnt grab the skin on the tip of my thumb and jerk it clear off YIPE!!got witnesses.It was like lookin at the rings of a cut down tree and hurt like all getout.

 

got any pics?

 

Lost my left eye putting in a u-joint. Beatin on it with a b f h. And not wearing safty glasses.

 

I'm either a very lucky fella or I don't wrench near enough. Caught my shirt on fire with an angle grinder, got electrocuted by my brother welding steel pipe on a wet garage floor while barefoot, had a stock car I was welding gussets on fall on me - just enough to hurt a lot and burn me at the fresh weld, nothing broken.

You guys are hardcore... or crazy. I am not qualified to say which.

 

working at the shop one day i got something in my eye while grinding didnt think anything of it woke up the next morning in extreme pain...went to the eye doctor had a piece of steel removed...then went into work and and later that day i was cutting a piece of rubber tubing and sliced my hand open ended up with 8 stitches...more recentlyhad the door of the 34 international opened and up on the lift stood up and my head went rightintothe corner...cut down to my skull pretty much

 

One word, telephone.

 

working on a set of big block heads with a cheap valve spring compressor..got the locks off the spring and the compressor spread open and let the valve keeper richochet off my forehead. had a golf ball size knot on my head for awhile. (note to self get rid of the cheap tools)

later moving some heads into the attic of the garage. dropped heat onto the tailfin of my 57 chevy hardtop the dent was in an area that was not accessable to tools....that hurt worse than the knot on my head!

 

do they call you lucky ?

 

working under the car and the rear airbags decided to start leaking with me under it, got stuck but luckily plenty of room under it and i had a cell phone to call for help.

 

When my Dad and I broke bones in the back of our hands when a 3/4" drill drilling a 7/8" hole stalled while drilling through the frame, smashing the back of our hands against the rear leaf spring.

 

First, a thank you and best wishes to LMopar69 for his patriotic service, be careful out there Brother.

Eye injury Fix (temporary)

Here is a solution that might help someone else someday.
While attending college in the day, I was working nights at a local Chevy dealer's body shop.

While doing a repair job and grinding away on a patch of a rusty fender. the grinder threw a handful of metal filings into both of my eyes.
My eyes were watering so badly that I couldn't see a farking thing.

This happened in the mid 70s (yes, 1970s smartass) remember that back then, there were no cel phones or 911 to call. In fact, the only phone around was in the locked Body Shop office.

Panic and pain, when combined with the realization that no one is available to help fix this particular situation can promote a solution.

The solution that saved my ignorant ass that night was the Snap-on screwdriver that lived in my right rear pocket. This particular screwdriver had a magnetic tip. By using the rusty car's rear view mirror, I was able to stuff the screwdriver into each eye, using the magnetic tip to grab nearly all of the metal filings.
After what seemed like an eternity, I was able to get enough of the metal out of my eyes to see just a bit. I drove myself to the hospital for the good Doctor to finish the cleanup job. Yes, the Doctor commented that though creative, I was still an idiot.
And, yes, I still have the screwdriver and both of my OEM eyes. The eyes, though intact, are a bit worn and tired.
Dale
Cleveland OH

 

Working on my daily at a borrowed garage a couple of miles form home. I'm replacing the brakeshoes when the pliers slip and my thumb is caught between the shoe and the backplate. Took me a couple of hours to free my thumb, wrap tape over the deep cut and finish the job, to get me to the local doctor, who sent my to hosital.
Lost the whole nail, and gained a couple of rows of stitches in my thumb.

 

I was removing paint from a car and the sanding disk split in half and hit my leg this picture is from two days after.

 

While removing a right front coil spring, I didn’t clamp the compressor properly over the top coil and as I pulled the compressed spring from the wheel well, the spring let go and hit the inside of my left hand where the ring finger meets the palm.
I gave the spring size to my coworker, who has a masters’ degree in engineering and he calculated that when the spring became unsprung from its’ fully compressed state, it was traveling at 46mph. That one hurt for a few days. Took awhile to get the cajones to put it back in too.

 

Soldered my eyeball. Don't ask.

 

You guys make me never want to work on a car again.

That 1970s story and no phone, brings back memories. We were just assed out if you needed to call someone.

Well, maybe you could grab a CB though!!!