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

I spilled a beer. worst. day. ever.

 

had the interior dude (Bigfoot) here in Ohio take the whole insides out of a 50 caddy I was doing, he went 4 wheeling one weekend, and drove his 4x4 over a cliff...no records of the 3K I gave him, and he took it all apart.......

Happy ending, is old shop helper, came in and bought the business, and agreed to finish what Kirt had started for No Add'l Funds!!!

 

A friend of mine was doing some welding on the firewall of a friends car (the car had shaved door handles and the windows were up) as he was welding he saw smoke coming from the inside...ran to the car reached for the handle and yup no handle...doors closed windows up and no power to the door poppers..as he tried to figure out which window to break the flames grew..pop goes the wing window and he stuck the fire extunguisher through the window and got the fire out..interior was a total loss..leave the windows down and doors open!!!

 

Now that's honest^^.

 

well..I have burnt one interior that way..

then my worst injury was while I was literally running around 2 cars spot priming in between color coats on a 34' checkmate speedboat...the car that got me was a '57 T-bird w/ a continental kit..rear bumper removed but those sheet metal fillers were still there..yup, full force 2 inches of metal up UNDER MY KNEECAP!..wrapped it, limped my way around and finished the paint job on the boat..then went home and washed it, wrapped it and went to bed at 9!...drove myself to the hospital at 5:30 the next morning almost passing out from lost blood~!!!luckily no damage other than the cut...a tetanus shot and 28 staples later I was fixed!

 

I was really careless with paint stripper and chemical burned both hands. Several layers of skin lifted before it peeled like a snake, it was incredibly painful...

 

while working on a project I died once.









I got better.

 

worst that happened to me was my wife found the stack of parts receipts in my toolbox and work out how much i had really spent...

 

Had a trans cooler line blow while breaking in my engine. Made a small fire. Were lucky nobody was hurt.
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXgulm2b6zU

 

Knocked the f...ing can of contact adhesive over on the new carpet of my wife's Mercury.

 

my friend Dave Neal was working on his '68 chevy truck one night by himself when the floor jack dropped and he was under the truck with no stands (dumbass)...pinned him with the brake drum in the middle of his chest and the jack out of reach...finally got it swung around and started jacking the truck back up with his feet cuz they could reach the handle...I told him he was a liar,,,yeah, until he lifted his shirt to show me his entire chest and back were bruised and still had brake drum fin imprints about 5 inches long..that thing HAD to have been on him to leave that long of an imprint...he's very lucky and I think owns some stands now...

 

I'm a member of this club too.

Caught the ragged ends of my jeans on fire while grinding.

Discovered electricity! Was running a new circuit in my garage. I was drilling a hole in the header with a dull butterfly bit. It jumped and cut into the 220V line for my heater. Thank heaven for double insulated drills and thick gloves.

Had my 32 chev up on stands while unbolting entire Corvair suspension. When the last bolt came out, the suspension assembly rolled forward throwing my jackstands out into the driveway and dropping the car on my head. Caught the finned aluminum pan with my forehead. Broke my glasses. Lots of blood. Fortunately wasnt stuck. The car rebounded just enough for me to roll out. Had 2 black eyes and a fracture into a sinus cavity, but no permanent damage other than one numb spot on my forehead (numbskull).

Was slowly pushing my nova out of the garage over the little one inch lip at the edge. very gentle slope, should be able to stop it and put it in park. NOT. Kept speeding up as it hit the steep part of the drive. I dove through the window, grabbed the wheel with left hand and pushed the brake pedal with my right hand. Finally got it to stop and put it in park. Got out to look and it had stopped with 1 inch between the gas tank and a concrete retaining wall.

Fell off a thirty foot ladder once. Good thing I was only on the second step.

.bjb

 

When I was young and dumb and doing an engine swap in a $50 1971 Cutlass S in the apartment parking lot I disconnected the condenser thinking it was the transmission cooler and got sprayed all over my face and upper body with good old freon.

No safety goggles or anything of course. I shoved my tools inside, shut the hood, and went up to my apartment to wash up and see the damage.

God was looking out for me that day, no harm done.

 

My mate works from his garage all week and I had borrowed it on a sunday morning to work on my old running restoration.
I'd been wearing my old quilted tartan work shirt while spot welding a repair panel on my old car, and could smell burning. The car was 4 feet up on a ramp, and I climbed the ladder and checked the engine compartment and cables and still couldn't find anything burning, but damped everything down with a spray of water. I was satisfied the car was safe, as I was openning the garage doors to let the smoke out suddenly my old shirt burst into flames.
I've never stripped so fast in all my life, and got away with a ruined shirt, burned overalls and teeshirt. I've learned to wipe oily tools and hands on rags now, and not on the work shirt I'm wearing.

 

wont ask did that myself. long story short pea sized ball of solder from above falls behind saftey glasses burns deeply into eyeball. drive myself to eye doc. here is where it gets bad. he says let me see open your eye. the look on his face wasnt good. if he looks worried i had better be. my memories are as follows . sizzle sizzle, fuck that hurts...let me see that eye.. wow impressive... drill noises and the clinking sound of solder hitting the metal exam tray... only issue, when i close my left eye a see a blue car and when i close my right eye i see a green car

 

A few years back while cutting some useless brackets off a frame I got to the point where I couldn't go any further with the torch and started hitting them with a mini sledge. While hitting one bracket as I was swinging down the head of the sledge went flying and my hand with handle smacked the frame. I ended up with two broken fingers and one of them split wide open.

 

OK, how did you get the donkey out of the well?

 

Like me still there. An ass in a hole yep an asshole

 

I don't know if this the worst thing that has happened, but this one is still fresh and I'm feelin it with just about ever breath I take... Last Monday a buddy rolls over to help me get the clutch link made and adjust the pedal on my roadster. Due to the tight confines of the slave cylinder and boxed rails, it required a pry bar to pull the clutch fork back so the new link can be installed between the slave cylinder and the clutch fork.

So, with the drivers door open on the T, floor removed and me reaching through to wedge the pry bar between the bellhousing and the clutch fork, I begin to pull back with my torso firmly planted on the lower door opening for additional force. Obviously, the fork requires an assload of pressure and I'm givin it all I got. My buddy is doin all he can to get the link in there, but it just won't quite make it so I do the "this is all I got for sure this time last ditch effort pull" and I hear a crack and immediately feel some serious pain in the right side of chest.

My buddy being the expert that he is, gets the link in there just as this all happens so I can let go of it in a fraction of a second. WHEW!! Lucky, lucky. Thanks Jay!

I go to stand up thinkin the pain will subside, but it pretty much puts me back down as I grab my rib cage.

me - "Man I think I broke a rib or somethin!"
him - "Is that what that noise was!?"
me- "Yeah, ugggg."

So, pretty much since then when I breath, sit, lay, stand, open a beer, tie my shoes, anything... all the time, I'm hurtin. It's weird how you take for granted the little stuff like a sneeze or a cough that usually is no big deal, but now is wicked pain! LOL What else can I do but laugh about it (which also hurts like a mutha!) and hope this heals up pretty soon.

On the plus side... The clutch works GREAT and the pain has not kept me away from a few rides to make sure all is well with the roadster.

 

one day about a year ago i was cuttin some pritty thick metal out of my car with a 4" grinder. i gess i should have stopped when the disc kept gettin stuck in the metal. a few minutes later the disc flew apart and cut my forehead open above my right eye. that sucked! but i was wearin safty glasses

 

The stories on this thread get better...or should i say more tragic, every time i read it.Hope we are all learning something!........ Ya right!

 

While working on a project, I lost interest.

 

Back in the 1970's had a friend that was a mechanic in a service station . He was a damn good mechanic and all he needed to do it listen to an engine and he could tell you actually what was wrong with it . So got a XXX for a dead battery , I went out on the service call and got the car going and told the lady I would follow her back to the station . When we got there I told her to wait in the car and let it run and I would get her some help . Well the mechanic came over and I told him what was wrong and told him the V belt was very loose so that probably was the problem and he agreed . So he asked the lady to come out of the car and started to explain what was wrong with the car and the V belt being loose wasn't charging the batter and so on . Then he said look how loose the fan belt and before anyone could say a word he reached down to show how loose the belt was.........as the engine was still running ! Needless to say when he grabbed the belt it pulled his fingers right across the alt. pulleys and took off 3 fingers and broke his wrist ! Just one of those things that you never know when something could go wrong and as we saw the V belt bouncing as the engine was running you could tell the belt was loose . I just couldn't believe such a damn good mechanic could make such a terrible mistake like that . Anyway we found his fingers as they got cut off and they were able to sow them back on but had a lot of damage . Well it didn't work so he lost 3 fingers that day in a heartbeat that fast . Lost the middle finger , next one and the pinky . They were cut off about a little above the knuckle but the pinky was more or less just pulled off . Then with the engine running it twisted his hand around the pulley and broke his wrist as well .

Anyway just shows you no matter how good you are and how safe you are , it just takes that one split second for a mistake to happen to mess you up real good . It was sad and a hell of a good guy and mechanic as well .

Retro Jim

 

I've posted this on before but here goes again our shop has a oil change pit about 20 yrs ago dads 70 impala ss convt is backed in the garage he tells me to pull it out. Me being the smart kid I was tach it up dump clutch car kicks pit boards out. When everything came to a stop it needed most of the passanger side. About a month ago same shop same pit narrow front tractor I gusse ill never learn.

 

Wasn't the worst,but the most recent. The body for my A coupe was sitting on a a wheeled dolly that was not very wide. I crawled inside to drill the body mount holes in the sub rails to a larger size. I'm up on my knees leaning down on the drill when the body starts to tip over. By the time I realized what was happening I couldn't back up to try to balance it. Long story short,I rolled the damn thing before I even got to drive it. Minimal damage to the car and none to me.

 

Back when I was 19 I was working on the fuel line on my 73 AMC Javelin and it had them cheap ass crappy glass clear fuel filters kinda near the carb and I was changing the brittle rubber lines and was trying with all my might to pull the hose free and when it gave it sprayed gas all in my eyes. I still remember fumbling all over the yard looking for the water hose,and after finally finding it i remember having the hose in my eyes for what seemed like an eternity trying to get the stinging to stop. I'm blind in one eye too since I was 3 and am lucky I didn't blind myself in the other eye. I've never used them damn filters again.

 

I was working on a 51 chrysler a couple of years ago taking the body off of the frame. I almost had it high enough to roll the chassis out when the right side of the lift gave way and somehow my right thumb got between the frame and body on its way down. When it hit, I jerked it out leaving the thumbnail and the tip of my thumb behind. Good thing I'm a lefty I guess.

 

In '72, I took the '55 B/Gas Chevy I was building to a friend's house. He worked in a front end shop and was installing new front coil springs for me. As he straddled a spring, already squeezed with a compressor, he picked it up and when it was about thigh high, the bolt stripped and shot between his legs (just inches below you know where), went through the back garage wall and killed his German Shepherd in the back yard. I gained a lot of respect for spring compressors.... treat them just like you would a gun.

 

broke a tooth with a 7/8 wrench. the worst part as it was winter and the cold air hit it when i walked outside about brought me to my knees.

 

This isn't as gory as some of the others, but it did involve a little ingenuity. I was using a grinder- no eye protection. (Idiot, I know.) Lots of flying bits and pieces. Something went in my eye. I kept blinking but it didn't make any difference- whatever it was wouldn't move. Went in the house to look in the mirror to see what it was. I could see a black spot of something on the white of my eyeball. Tried to dislodge it and realized it was a piece of metal embedded in my eyeball. I didn't want to go to the emergency room- so I improvised. I took a small magnet I had, put it up close to my eye and out it came. I went back to work- wearing my faceshield.