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Blood, Sweat, & Tears Go Into Your Cars, Let's Hear Your "Blood" Stories...

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Farrah Lane, Jul 28, 2010.

  1. Farrah Lane
    Joined: Jul 12, 2010
    Posts: 54

    Farrah Lane
    Member

    So, in just now beginning my journey down the road of classics and their inner workings, I had my first injury the other day. Nothing major at all but more than I ever got doing anything else lol. I tend to be a big baby about some stuff (which is depressing 'cause I used to think I was tough for a girl) but a few friends were telling me some of their stories, showing me their scars, proving to me that I could've gotten it muuuuuch worse. (It was actually so minute, it's not even worth mentioning...) But hearing their stories got me thinking....

    Besides all the money and heartache you put into your cars, you share a special bond with them in the wounds you earn while working on them... So I wanna hear your stories....
     
  2. i cut my hand lastnight pretty good, i get injured all the time, its just how it goes but i was told for the first time while i was bleeding 'i can smell the iron in your blood'.

    dont hold a piece of 18 gage with a bare hand and a grinder in the other...
     
  3. Farrah Lane
    Joined: Jul 12, 2010
    Posts: 54

    Farrah Lane
    Member

    so you're being literal then when you tell people your love for cars is "in your blood" :)
     
  4. yes, in more ways then one. this car has fought me most of the way.

    cut my finger down the midle with a grinder,cut a tip almost off with a razor(making templates)

    burned by the welder more than i can count
     

  5. Shawn M
    Joined: Sep 10, 2008
    Posts: 408

    Shawn M
    Member

    Too numerous to mention, but I have the scars to prove it!
     
  6. ArtGeco
    Joined: Apr 6, 2005
    Posts: 759

    ArtGeco
    Member
    from Miami

    Truly, there should be a "Scar Thread".
     
  7. zmcmil2121
    Joined: Dec 13, 2009
    Posts: 625

    zmcmil2121
    Member

    Well a while ago a friend of mine bought a 1950's Cadillac and to get it out of the area it was in we had to tow it out. Well it was in a yellow jackets nest and he said he would pay me $50 to be the one to hitch it. In my rush of stings and pain I hooked it to the front bumper. The truck moved, the car stayed (the bumper didn't) I got to re hitch it 5 more times before we got it out of the hole it was in. All I got was an ass load of bites and $50. Plus I got to buy lunch afterward, how messed up is that? Plus when I helped him strip down the car, I opened the car and boom, another nest of yellow jackets.

    Another time, several months later, same friend, new car. A 1947 ford coupe. We go to the place, pick it up, buy it, all rather quickly and painlessly. we get it to his place and set it down for the night. It won't go anywhere we thought. next morning, bright and early. You know the saying with the birds and the worms, well that is how we felt. We get on our gear (gloves, coveralls, etc.) and... in the car there were 5 snakes. All alive and ready for a fight. We slowly find each one and kill it. At the end of the day we went to the hospital to find out the the snakes were not particularly poisonous. Just long toothed. So we give it a rest, time to heal and all (plus we thought any more snakes would die by the next weekend) Wrong. Big momma was in the frame. Long story short, we were gonna call it "King Kobra" (the K's are because it was a kustom) but he sold it to fund his Cadillac.
     
  8. Dyce
    Joined: Sep 12, 2006
    Posts: 1,973

    Dyce
    Member

    A safty thread would be more productive. I'm 42 years old and have been working on cars and trucks for at least 30 years. There's no glory in getting hurt. I've been pinned under a car alone, cut, smashed all 10 fingers (I think) and had shit taken out of my eyes 4 or 5 times. It plain sucks.
     
  9. zmcmil2121
    Joined: Dec 13, 2009
    Posts: 625

    zmcmil2121
    Member

    I know right. "Battle Wounds" or "Battle Scars" is what it should be called. Just post up a picture of it and let people speculate about what happened to you. Ha ha.
     
  10. oh yeah dyce! i forgot about how fun it is to get metal in your eye! i think thats the worst of them all. and its expensive since i cant wrap a old shirt around it and keep workin.
     
  11. zmcmil2121
    Joined: Dec 13, 2009
    Posts: 625

    zmcmil2121
    Member

    Really, you had that happen? I don't know that I would be good after that, that is one of my fears. Catching something in the eye. Saw a guy (don't know who he was) who was fishing and he somehow caught his hook through his eye ball. Ouch.
     
  12. Farrah Lane
    Joined: Jul 12, 2010
    Posts: 54

    Farrah Lane
    Member

    I don't mean to glorify the pain... I always assumed (rather ignorantly) that most injuries were a cut here, a burn there...But I'm rapidly learning that many times, it's MUCH worse than that. I think it takes a LOT of dedication for people to suffer through whatever they've had to suffer through and keep going. The beautiful, finished outcome that people post pictures of don't do the driver justice in all the work and sacrifices they truly put into their rides.

    But I agree, a safety thread would be beneficial and one that a noob and klutz like myself would behoove from.... in the meantime, I'll be using the mistakes others are posting and try to remember not to make the same mistakes.

    Hats off to you guys, for all the suffering you've endured over the years to make the image in your mind become a reality you can drive.
     
  13. Farrah Lane
    Joined: Jul 12, 2010
    Posts: 54

    Farrah Lane
    Member

    You're a true friend!!
     
  14. yeah i mean, little bits of metal, nothing like a HOOK!! good lord, that sounds of pure terror.
     
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  16. zmcmil2121
    Joined: Dec 13, 2009
    Posts: 625

    zmcmil2121
    Member

    Ha ha, yeah and when he won't do something because of that little voice, he pays me. Long story short, it helps to make your friends better friends by paying them, because sometimes, conning them into it just doesn't work.
     
  17. deto
    Joined: Jun 26, 2010
    Posts: 2,620

    deto
    Member

    got my eye drilled and actually payed for it. Apparently the human eye heals rapidly, so when it grew over a steal shaving, it started to rust. Hurt like a bitch. Doc took a jewelers bit and went to town. "Smallest wound doing the most damage" award goes to a cut on the back of my left hand pointer finger. Its only a quarter inch long but it was so damn deep i can't move it as well as the others.
     

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  18. Worst one i did on my build was on the drill press. Foot slipped whilst doing up the chuck, chain on the chuck key wrapped around my arm, chuck key got ripped out of my fingers (nearly lost the middle finger) and my arm smashed into the driveshaft on the drill.

    Apart from the bits of skin and blood, just had alot of bruising.

    I switch the power off now
     
  19. Farrah Lane
    Joined: Jul 12, 2010
    Posts: 54

    Farrah Lane
    Member

    Wow!! Rust in the eye...that is definately not good... are you able to see out if it normally now?

    Sounds like that could have been a lot worse than what it was!! I'll be sure to remember to hit the power too!!!
     
  20. Julio
    Joined: Feb 25, 2009
    Posts: 263

    Julio
    Member
    from san diego

    When I was first working on cars I was working on my first car, My brakes went out on the freeway so i E-Braked it home, Had the morning to work on it, didnt have jack stands at the time (actually still dont, I usually "Borrow" my brothers) so i had it on the jack, blocked all the tires and Jack. But I was under the disk trying to hammer this damn caliper off with my chest under it for a better angle, I changed positions with my leg under it now at this time, after the first blow the car fell on my leg, rolled foreward and I saw all the neat stuff our legs are made of, Luckily it didnt break the bone, just fucked up all it could. Im lucky to be alive and since then I ALWAYS use stands. but now work on cars even more haha
     
  21. deto
    Joined: Jun 26, 2010
    Posts: 2,620

    deto
    Member

    yeah I can see but it swelled up bad and leaked for 2 days
     
  22. DocWatson
    Joined: Mar 24, 2006
    Posts: 10,273

    DocWatson
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Having grown up a third generation hot rodder (What luck huh?) it was just what happened, like lunch and dinner, you got hurt working on the cars. Never realy thought too much of it.
    I do remember as a young fella being under the family hotrod (38 Coupe) cleaning for the Nationals one year when my father forgot I was under there and rolled the car back pinning my narrow (then) chest under the sump, I couldnt yell as all the air was pushed out of me! Then he started it and the fan blades spinning half an inch above my forehead was scary.
    Im glad my mum remembered where I was.

    I did learn the true meaning of being injured for your passion once I joined the Army though. I am now a permanently invalided Ex Soldier......

    Doc.
     
  23. hooligan909
    Joined: May 19, 2009
    Posts: 121

    hooligan909
    Member
    from San Diego!

    once when i was 16 when i first got into cars (wasnt lucky like every one else my dad wasnt into cars) i went up to a turbo car that just pulled into the street races and poped his hood. i saw a crack on his manifold.... and thought i should point it out to him.... 3 seconds latter my finger is blistering. i sure learned my lesson! alltho that one should of been pretty obvious lol!
     
  24. need louvers ?
    Joined: Nov 20, 2008
    Posts: 12,903

    need louvers ?
    Member

    Too many to even enumerate! But the one that still gets me to this day is drilling out the spring mounts I made for the Plymouth. (this was close to twenty years ago) A fairly complicated bit of fab,and all I had to do was enlarge the hole in it from about 7/16 to 1/2. No vice grips, no clamps, no gloves, just hold that puppy on the drill press like a man! Long story short, of course it grabbed on the first revolution and hit my left hand about 8 times, reducing it to hamburger. While yelling and shaking my torn up hand to kill the pain I realize the drill press area of my shop now looks like an out take from "Texas chainsaw massacre", blood all over! Drill press still running, my addled mind formulates extreme anger and my still usable right hand makes a good solid fist, and punches the safety shut off - thereby breaking several bones in my right hand! After my dear friends got done laughing so hard they spilled their beer and cried real tears, they trundled me of to the emergency room, where my left hand was patched back together and wrapped, and my right hand was set and wrapped. I looked like a real dork for about three weeks, lesson learned...
     
  25. cleatus
    Joined: Mar 1, 2002
    Posts: 2,277

    cleatus
    Member
    from Sacramento

    Does it have to be a 'blood' story, or is a 'burned scrotum' story good enough?
     
  26. Farrah Lane
    Joined: Jul 12, 2010
    Posts: 54

    Farrah Lane
    Member

    LOL it doesn't have to be a "blood" story. I'm sure more pain went into a burned scrotum and the whole point was to see what others have experienced out of love for their cars lol. I'm definately interested in your burned scrotum story....although despite my lack of certain equipment, I'm already wincing.....
     
  27. billy6223
    Joined: Sep 7, 2007
    Posts: 17

    billy6223
    Member
    from Utah

    I always remember welding bugs me the most. I hate when your under you HotRod welding and get a hot spark that decides to jump down your ear drum, no where to go, nothing to do but scream like a girl, and by the time you get out from under the car it's gone... my 2 cents...:eek:
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2010
  28. I was using an axle shaft as a pry bar in a wrecking yard (wrong tool fool!), the axle shaft slipped off the perch and smacked my fingers into the hitch under the bumper and pushed the bone through the end of my right ring finger.

    The worst part was I had taken a day of vacation to chase parts and had only been in the yard for 15 minutes. I wrapped the meat in my sweatshirt, packed my tools and told the guys I'd be back in 3 hours.... 5 hours later I showed up stitched and swollen but determined to get my parts (well some of them anyway)

    Local shop owners and hot rodders like to remind me I am an accountant with desk job hands.

    Last week I was in the shop hurrying to finish up one last spot weld and forgot to put the hood down and pulled the trigger on the mig with my eyes wide open.... duh, I guess I WAS done for the day.
     
  29. Farrah Lane
    Joined: Jul 12, 2010
    Posts: 54

    Farrah Lane
    Member

    ouuuccchhh!!!!
     
  30. need louvers ?
    Joined: Nov 20, 2008
    Posts: 12,903

    need louvers ?
    Member

    Along those same lines, picture the dashing idiot with two sitched back together and bandaged hands wearing a suit and tie selling your wife, daughter or girlfriend an expensive sewing machine! Damn good thing I owned the place in those days and had employees to do the demos...
     

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