Crazy/Insane Shop Accidents

Let's hear a few knuckle bustin stories.Ive got a few,but I'll have to think for awhile.
I'm about to go use our forklift to move some cars here,so I mite actually have a new one later today.

 

I had a roller bearing come apart in my face, i had cleaned it and was using the air to blow out the grease and solvent before repacking.

my car fell on me when i was swapping the rear, i had it on blocks, jackstands and cnders, still managed to knock the f*er over.

almost watched a t/a dragster get runover when the truck driver was backing up to the door, told him to back up to the door, he went through it, inches from $20000 damage.

 

I used to work with some real mental midgets. (No offense to those Little People out there) Jimmy was the king. I used to do pinstriping for a trim shop and we did quite a bit of repair work for local body shops. You know, matching the stripes on the new panel. So a customer picked up his truck at the body shop, drove directly to our shop to get the sriping fixed. I was finishing another job so I asked Jimmy to pull the truck in for me while I parked the job I just did.

After I parked I was walking back to the shop just intime to witness Jimmy tyring to pull inthe truck with his left leg hanging out of the open door. What I didn't see was Jimmy trying to manipulate the gas, brake, and CLUTCH peadl with one foot. He was spectacularly unsuccesful. He did however manage to let out the clutch, get the truck into the building and miss the brake trying to stop. He hit the gas instead, thereby propelling the customer's truck directly into a steel I beam that held up the building, smashing the freshly painted fender and destroying the new grille, headlight assembly, bumper and hood - all of which had just been painted and repaired.

Not only did I get to see this, the owner of the truck got to see it. The truck had been out of the body shop a whopping 12 minutes!!! Jimmy did NOT get fired - but only because he wasn't working for me and he did grunt work without questioning it.

Maybe someday I'll tell you about the punk who was 'borrowing' my tools without permission. That's a good one....

 

heard a good one yesterday, at a car dealership, guy trades a car in, it was on LPG (propane) and petrol and for some reason he decides to pull the LPG tank out before he drops it off.it was mounted in the trunk.
didnt tell the dealer.
A salesman takes the car home for the night, was low on fuel so pulls in to a gas station and fills it up with LPG, the filler still there and looking normal...the lpg just fills into the trunk....gets in the car, starts it,BOOM
third degree burns, car burns to the ground.
just happened last week.
shudder.

 

I heard this third hand so you guys will have to tell me if it is possible or not. I have never worked around a lot of AC repair that involved a machine. My old boss claims he heard that some kid in a local shop hooked a refrigerant recycler onto the fuel pressure rail on a late model mustang and the recycler pulled the fuel into it and blew up. He says no one was killed but it burned the shop to the ground after it exploded.


Later- Reece

 

Was using the plasma cutter one day. When I got done I was like hmmm I smell something burning. Crap my sweatshirt was on fire. I've also caught my frayed jeans on fire too.

I'm sure there is more stories..............

Bill

 

I was changing a strut on a front wheel drive car at work.
I had a 1/2" impact swivel adaptor and socket on my impact gun, and when i hit the trigger on the gun the socket slipped off the bolt.

As it slipped off, the swivel cocked to the side from the force of the gun rotating, then it came off the gun with the socket attached at full speed (it had a lock pin on the adaptor to hold it on) and hit me right between the side of my nose and right eye. all this happened in a few seconds before i could release the trigger (i was using my "off" hand not the one i normally hold the gun in, so my responces weren't as quick.)
It Instantly took me to the ground like i was hit with a baseball bat square in the face.
it hit me so hard it didn't hurt at first, just felt numb and just about got knocked out.

I couldn't see out of the right eye for olmost an hour, had a black eye and honeslty think i broke my nose..there is now small mark there that wasn't there before..
It scared the hell out of me..and took me a while just to regain my sences..
No, i wasn't wearing safety glasses..
I have NEVER used any of those tools since then without them..

That was one of the scariest 'accident's that's happened to me working on car's..to not be able to see after something like that is NOT a good feeling, i thought i was in real trouble..

Be safe and wear that stuff! there's a reason it's out there..

Tony

 

I was carrying a minivan seat across my garage floor... and I must have had my finger in the hinge or the sliding mechanism, and I fell down on it and it cut the end of my middle finger off... not a real awesome way to do it.

A friend of mine from the old motorcycle club had just finished cleaning out a roller bearing in some solvent, and he was going to dry it out... so he slid it on his index finger and shot compressed air on it do dry it before he repacked it.... and apparently he got it going pretty good, but without any lubrication, it promptly siezed up... and the built up momentum twisted his finger right off at the knuckle.

Thats about as good as I can come up with.

 

damn cola you just made me kringe

 

a few years back at school my professor was inflating a steel sculpture and it blew up. shrapnel everywhere. spent weeks picking steel out with tweezers.

Another girl was tightening the lathe chuck and hit the on lever and the chuck key swung around and pinned her hand down. it only oved aobut 8 inches but hand already built up enough speed to give her a small fracture.

Another girl had a 2200 pound nibbler fall on her and we had to pry it off with a pry bar as she sat theere with a peice of cast iron stuck in her leg and a machine on her foot. Preety nasty looking wound.

As for myself. Well i set myself on fire a bunch. Dont wear frayed jeans.

My friend joel works in the west texas oil fields and has the worst strories i've ever heard. Socketed fingers, ripped off arms, guy got his head smashed between 2 deisel engine blocks. Horrible stuff.

 

Stripping paint with a wire wheel in a drill locked in the 'on' position. The wheel catches the bottom edge of my t-shirt and instantly rolls up my chest to my upper arm. The damn thing is trying to twist into my bicep while I'm trying to hit the kill switch! I had a green bruise that lasted about a month."In the garage they can't hear you scream!"
-stick

 

When I was 18 I was in an old Sear store watching the mechanic install a new mufler. The car began to rock on the lift, did a full flip and landed on its roof on the floor. The owner was there and was not happy camper. It was a nice 56 Buick hardtop that was totally crushed.

Years later I saw a bus fall off a lift in Jamaica. The mechanic ran out from under the lift. as it was rocking. The bus flattened him. Not cool.

 

I was doing brakes on my daily and was using a large screwdriver to put the springs back on. The spring slipped off the screwdriver and wouldn't you know it, I ran that fuckin screwdriver in my eye! My pops was sitting on the other side of the car. I stood up and said 'dad, I think I hurt myself pretty bad!' I can remember seeing the ground out of 1 eye and the look of shock on my dads face with the other. There was no long term damage to the eye, but I couldn't see for a few hours. Ya know what!?!? I use safety glasses for some of the dumbest shit now, but these are the only 2 eyes I have.

 

I don't know what to think about posts like this. Either we are tryin' to teach youngins' about safety first, or we are tellin' on ourselves on how stupid we really are...

 

My first job ever. I worked at a shell service station in MI. There was this old dude that worked there, "Dan". Well, Dan put this nice old lady's buick wagon up on the lift (center post type) to do a lube/oil/filter job. He set the rear pads, but forgot to set the front ones... it pushed the front floors all the way up to the dash! kewwwl.

 

About 1959 I pulled into a gas station, the gas jockey was just puttin a new De Soto on the lube rack. Pulled the up handle and stuck a wedge in it then ran to pump my gas. Didn't set the brake, car rolled off backwards just far enough for the rack to catch the front bumper, stood it perfect on the rear bumper..........OLDBEET

 

..I am not a mechanic & love to learn from others, I did this day..

....Those of you who have done tire work can relate to the frustration of trying to get a bead to set when working with with primitive tools.

Well, one day the company I work for decided to do all the tire work "In House" to save money. The inexperienced mechanics on duty fumbled & fucked around for a long time trying to get a drive tire off of a 5 series case forklift. I should have known better when they had problems getting the bead to set when putting the new tire on. We should have called the company who did our tire work to come & give some tips to the guys, I still bought the tires from them, just no labor...Anyways after an hour of hearing the cheetah tank & watching them using ratchet straps & about half a pail of soap I said "give 'em a call for some help". The guy on the phone said "try a shot of Ether", well the message was misconstrued somehow & the guy sprayed about half a can into the tire. I was walking out back for a cigarette when the tire was ignited, the plexiglass window in the door was nothing but a flash of fire in front of my face.
No one was seriously hurt. The guy who set it off was knocked out cold, the other guy quit 2 days after.

...Oh yeah, one time I stuck my finger into the fan of my caddy while it was running, it took the nail right off (not as good of a story though).
-John

 

i myself have been real lucky not having anything bad happen...but a few months ago a bodyman in the shop i work at was pulling a frame.the chain snaped and hit him in the side of the face..it ripped his ear in half,,nearly broke his nose,,and put a huge cut next to his left eye..fucking guy was lucky it wasnt any worse.. i watched it happen!! scared the crap outta me..

 

i had a socket explode when i was putting a u-joint in a friends car (i was using the poor mans press....a vice). broke in 2, 1 piece hit me just above my eyebrow (i was wearing goggles) and now i have a cool 1/2 moon scar above my eye..........oh yea it was 2 days before xmas, the family pictures were funny.

 

I was cutting about 10 pieces of re-bar on a Saturday. So that means no hard hat or boots. I had slipped on some old hiking boots insted. I've got one foot on the bars and the other behind me for balance. After grinding on them for a while with the demolition saw, the other foot began to feel kind of warm. I finished cuting and looked back at my foot. FIRE!?!?! The sparks had ignited the nylon webing between the leather parts. I got a nice burn were the molten goo oozed into my sock and held it against my skin. At least my Pop got a good laugh at his kid runing around with a flaming foot.

 

Uh-huh...

 

OK, not a shop accident but here goes. A new customer through a referrel shows up at my shop. He wants to bring a 70(?) Vette out of mothballs after sitting 7 years. We go to his house to look at the car. While in the garage he starts telling me the story. He bought the car 7 years ago, and on the way home (never made it home ) he stops at a body shop to have a 73 nose put on the car. 73 is the first year the Vettes came with a rubber nose instead of a chrome bumper. A couple weeks(?) go by, and the shop says come and get your car. He goes to the shop, pays, and hits a pole on the shop lot, having never even hit the street and knocked the nose off. Right off! Obviously, leaves the car for another 73 nose. The car's ready again, he goes to pick it up, and WHAM, a city bus just smears the nose off as he idles out the shops driveway onto the street. LEAVES the car for nose number FOUR (the original, and the 3rd 73 nose). Long story longer, he stuffs the car on the way home, gets it towed to the front of his house, where his neighbor backs into it. Hang on, i'm fucking crying/laughing so hard right now. OK, there it sits for 7 years, and he's never driven the fucker. So now (are you ready for this?), he says to me, i don't know if i should fix it, or just sell it. More laughing. I just met this guy, and i'm laughing my ass off. I look at him, and look up and say...If you could just give me a sign Lord, just one little sign on what to do. Just something Lord

 

second-hand-story but...they used to build handicapped vans around here and before they had a plasma cutter they would use a circular-saw. They'd jack up the van to cut the floor out and this guy was going at it with this saw in front of him. The saw bit the metal, jumped back and slit his throat from chin to chest. My buddy said he took one look and fainted, got up a few seconds later and called 911. Dude was OK though.

 

Not car related, but years ago when working in the packing plant, I walk in and heres this guy with his dick stuck in a bacon slicer!!
I didn't have a choice...I fired them both.........OLDBEET

 

Back when I was working at the auto repair shop, I was rotatig a set of tires on a car that was on a hoist. The car was lifted to about chest high. When I pulled the wheel off the one rear side, the tire stuck to the beake drum and pulled it off with the wheel, until the drum cleared the axle. Once clear of the axle the drum dropped to the floor. Only problem was, my foot was between the floor and the drum. I had on steel toe shoes, but the drum landed across the little toe that wasn't protected by the steel toe. Broke my little toe, hurt like hell.

One other time I was working by myself pulling a motor and trans out of a car. I had the lift up as high as it would go, but was lacking about 2" from clearing the fender with the trans tail stock. I got the brilient idea I could just lift the trans tail stock and swing it over the fender and I would be all set. As I lifted and twisted, the motor/trans shifted and swung freely until the trans mount cought the fender lip. Problem was, I was holding the trans up by the trans mount. Cut two fingers to the bone and smashed my hand. Worst part was I had to lift it up off my hand, finish swinging it around and set the motor on the ground before I could attend to my bloddy and very sore hand. By the time that motor was on the ground, I was feeling pretty light headed. Managed to wrap my fingers in a clean shop rag and get sit down before I passed out. Still got the scars for that one.
Gene

 

A friend of mine was a manager in a chevy dealership bodyshop back in the sixties....Customer comes to pick up his 69 427 Corvette from the bodyshop....the shop gopher (16 years old)goes to pick it up from the washrack...pulls it in the body shop and it's running a little rough.....one of the bodymen makes the motion with his hands to "rev it up a little"....the kid floors it....knocks it into gear....all hell breaks loose as he is WOT...tires burnin....outta control IN the shop...headed straight for the office where the owner and my buddy are standing...frozen in fear.....the car starts swerving from side to side of the shop and starts takin out every car in the shop...finally stopping with the help from a fullsize van backstop. When the smoke clears, the kid is sitting in the car freaked out. They have to pry his hands off the steering wheel. The kid gets out and walks away...they never saw him again. I stopped back at the shop 10 years after this happened and the blackmarks were still on the floor.

 

I watched a guy tear his wedding ring finger off with a drill press... Yup, you guessed it. He had the ring on and the drill found it. I got a half-day off to drive him to the hospital so they could sew it back on. To this day, I'm still single.

 

All of my work (frayed) pants are uneven (one leg a little shorter than the other ) because of catchin' on fire. White strings on one leg and a black/brown ring around the other.


What about the moron who tried to remove a freeze plug by drillin' it out & ended up drillin' through the cylinder wall and into the piston.

 

i hurt myself all the time, it just happens, especially when i work with sheet metal!

heres one story,

when i was building my 32 five window i started about removing the crudely installed model a front crossmember from the 32 frame, was grinding the heads off of the 3 bolts on the top of the rails, i get done and look up to se the steel garbage can about 15 feet away on fire, so i calmly walk over open the garage door and then grab the garbage can, move it to the edge of the garage door opening, then figure id better put it all of the way out side, well on the second grab of the garbage can i hit HOT metal, i burned the ENTIRE palm, and 4 out of five fingers on my right hand, that sucked.

JEFF

 

When I was younger I worked @ a body shop in alaska. One day the lodtimer bodyman chipped his tooth while eating lunch. No big deal, huh. The fun started when he told me that dentists used bondo to fix teeth. He then mixed up a nice hot batch of bondo and with the assitance of a small screwdriver he jamed it into the hole in his tooth. The exposed nerve must have loved the hot chemicals, because in a matter of moments he was screaming and crying for me to take him to the nearest e.r.