I feel really stupid--dumbest mistake ever

[mart3406]

Several years ago, I was helping a
buddy remove the rear suspension
from an old, OT Camaro race car that
had been sitting for several years.
The car had aftermarket aluminum
front spring eye bushings in the rear
leaf springs. We had the wheels off
and car up on jack stands with
stands under both the rear frame
section and the rear axle too. I
removed the bolt from the spring
eye, expecting the spring to simply
drop out of the bracket. But the
aluminum bushing was corroded
and seized tight in the mounting
bracket and nothing happened...
at least, not right away, anyway.
I crawled out from under the car
to go and get a hammer to tap on
the seized bushing and no sooner
was I out from under the car, when
the seized spring bushing let go
on it's accord, suddenly, violently,
releasing all of the energy stored
in the springs . There was a
tremendous "BANG!" and the back
end of the car leapt about a foot
into the air - and then, the car
crashed down, coming completely
off of the jack stands, landing flat
on the shop floor! Not even 20
seconds before, I'd been under
that car. BE VERY CAREFUL
WHEN WORKING ON OR AROUND
COMPRESSED COIL OR LEAF
SPRINGS! There is enough energy
stored in a compressed spring to
kill you ten times over!

Mart3406
=========

[mj40's]

Nope, can't top that.

[31Vicky with a hemi]

Did a complete paint job on a work van.
Installed fancy new ladder rack with out a scratch.
Oops, won't fit out thru the door now.
Take the 7000 piece rack off the truck in one piece. To save time.
Oops couple minor scratches, brushable no problem.
Move van out and reinstall 7000 piece ladder rack in one piece. To save time
Step ladder scratched the shit out of the side.
Remove 7000 piece rack in one piece again. To save time.
Bring van back in for major touch up and blend respray.
Dissassembe 7000 piece rack , move van out, reinstall 7000 piece rack.

Saving time isn't cheap.

[Thorkle Rod]

Re building a motor and got all of the bottom end done and flipped the motor over on the stand and set the heads on the locating pins. Phone rings and I had to go rescue the now ex-wife and couldn't get back to the motor that weekend. The next weekend my dad came over to check out the motor and asked me something about the crank. So I flipped the motor back over and both heads hit the floor just missing both our feet.

[39 Ford]

!. Got Married to a bi-polar woman, still fighting to get divorced, the kids 20 and 24 (autistic) are with me thank God.I have my car and 98% of my parts not many tools she has them locked up.
2 I have done many stupid car things like dropping a pipe plug down the valley and having to remove the pan to ge it back,, I have never screwed up a car or gun so bad that it could not be fixed, with time and sometimes money.

[cosmo]

1) Got married too young, got out, no kids. Not bad.
2) Married a BPD hillbilly from W.V. STILL going to court from THAT one (over 10 years now)
3) Married a Mexican with Spanish heritage (Basque). Bitch flipped as soon as papers signed.
3a) Stopped dating white women.
4) Married quite happily to a wonderful Puerto Rican.

Cars?!?!? Should've kept the second one - '66 Galaxie 500 2dr htdp 390 4 bbl, from CA.
Mechanical mistakes! Not many notable, but I do have a habit of changing pads on my bikes and rolling (downhill) out of the garage before pumping up the master...usually on my right side, if you have to ask...

Cosmo

[ParkinsonSpeed]

Im highly debating getting married any time soon and i think this thread has bought me a year or two, But hell i will try to pick a good one up at a car show or a swap meet.... The worst thing i have done is forgetting the cotter pin on my front hub and losing the truck to a concrete median totaled a 64 f100 and only got the motor and trans out of it, i learned to triple check my suspension work on anything now.

[LWT]

I've done my share of dumb shit, but I've got a funny one that a buddy did years ago with his car while I was workin' on mine:

He worked for hours & hours hand making an aluminum fan shroud, and then I heard reher-reher-whumipda-whumpida-kkrcrhh...silence...............profanity.
He used thin gauge aluminum which promptly got sucked into the fan.

[GeezersP15]

Trailered my 1948 Plymouth to the brother-in-law's garage for body work. The engine was installed, but not running yet. The brakes didn't work right, but I had enough pedal to back it off the trailer. Started down the slight grade in his driveway, and the car gained a little speed. I stepped on the brake pedal and got practically nothing. The car is now going a little faster. Now I'm frantically pumping the brake pedal, and as I did, I'm pulling up on the steering wheel for a bit more leverage. At that precise moment, I realized I never installed the nut on the steering shaft....I was now frantically pumping the brake pedal while holding the steering wheel in mid-air. Now I'm trying to shove the steering wheel back onto the steering shaft so I can steer away from his Kubota tractor that was straight ahead of me. And all this while sitting on a large wooden block because the seats were removed. Luckily, the car came to a stop before I hit anything, and my brother-in-law was standing at the top of the driveway laughing hysterically. It seems really funny now, but it was a few seconds of sheer terror while it was happening. I only wish we had video-taped the whole fiasco so I could post it on you-tube

[RagtopBuick66]

Dropped an obscenely large Olds engine into a Buick (300 seized) and decided to put hood pins in versus the OEM latch while we were in there. Spent half the day getting the top plates lined up and bolted down, started the car up to take it for a test drive. Punched it on the straightaway, at which time the hood flew up and basically wrapped around the front window, shattering it and destroying the hood. Throughout all our concentrating on getting the stupid posts and plates to line up and look good, nobody thought to install the pins! It was my car, so I guess it was my fault.

[55 dude]

bought a car and drove it home and at every stoplight did a crazy burnout. As i got closer to home i noticed a vibration and it was getting worse, ok i figure i wasted the u-joints i get home park it and decide to back it up, CLUNK! ok u-joints are getting replaced i jack up the vehicle and about shit because the rearend is held in with 4 c-clamps getting ready to fall off! somebody had swapped out the rearend set it up and never finished welding the perches to the housing. the vibration was due to the fact the rearend had shifted and the ghetto shims they used to obtain pinion angle has fallen out on the way home!

[glmke]

Was driving home when a friend pulled along side of me. we did the rev and lurch thing while both were laughing. he surged in front of me and got into my lane, so I thought i would change lanes and fly passed him, maybe i should have noticed the guy in the honda driving next to me. I put my door into his fender, funny part was the guy in the honda felt worse then i did, he said he came along side to get a better look at my car, I guess he got more of a look then he hoped for.

[sparkydeluxe]

Today I spent a great deal of my Sunday fabricating a bracket system to mount a manual choke cable on the Edelbrock carb of my fiances 55 oldsmobile. I did this on the drivers side of the carb...only noticing after completion that a bracket for this exact reason already exists on the passenger side of said carb.

Ya I felt like a damn fool.

[s55mercury66]

Pulled a hi-top conversion van into the basement of a body shop I worked in in the early '90's (the kind with the 2 foot tall fiberglass replacement roof panel). Promptly wedged it under a huge support beam had to let the air out of the tires to get it out. The only damage were 2 small scratches that I touched up with a brush. Doubtful anyone ever looked there anyway

[The_Monster]

damn, these are some funny stories!! Ive never done ANYthing this dumb!!

[mtkawboy]

I was relieving a flathead block in auto shop with a pair of coveralls on and a 3/8 inch drill motor. Drill grabs & winds up the crotch of the coveralls and by the time someone pulled the plug I was singing in a higher note. Laughter was abundent from all but me.

[firstgear]

Had my car up on mid rise lift in garage, put up the garage door and it skidded across the open hood......my door opener now has a piece of tape on it that says, is hood open....just a reminder.....

Parked car in trailer too close to inner wheel wells of trailer, lower quarter had nice "rash" on it from inner wheel wells rubbing on it.

[dmikulec]

Top this one...

Watched as a friend tried to disconnect the battery on his '77 LTD Landau. Ended up dropping the wrench down between the battery and the fender, then reached down with his left hand, the one that was wearing the wrist watch with the metal band that proceeded to ground itself between the positive post of the battery and the edge for the fender. You do know where this is going, right?

OUCH!

[jazz1]

There are plenty of guys who won't/don't admit to errors,,,The EXPERTS....I used to think i was the only one who made numerous errors over the years...Not so..I have a long list of errors I have made,,the older I get the longer that list get

[1low52]

The mental picture Geezer gave me with his description made me laugh so much I had to look around to see if anyone was watching.
My list is sooo long I don't have time share.