Older and Stupider or Just One of Those Days

So how many of you guys are going to "fess up " LOL. This happened about a month ago, can finally see some humor in it now so going to tell on myself. I suck at finish body work - probably because I just hate doing it so had been waiting for a fellow about a 5 hour drive away to do the finish work on my 5 wndw and give it some satin. Got a call in the afternoon that he could get at it and to bring it over . Now to set the scene , has been freezing rain for the last day, open trailer is a skating rink, no problem, get the ice melt salt out and sprinkle the deck, wait a couple of hours, now its near dark, hurry and load so I can see to tie it down, Moved the 34 out of the shop, lined the trailer up, set the ramps, 34 was sitting on loose landscape colored gravel, no traction, get it moving back, into drive and give er, Then..a big bang, high centered , no brakes, no more brake booster, no more brakes, F##K, forgot to jack the frnt of the trailer up and/or raise the bags in the dodge, get the 34 back in the shop, too pissed to even have a MGD, ok, lets get it up on stands and repair, jack under crossmember, jack rolls back while jacking, off of x-member and now the jack is sitting squarely underneath of the orig rad that I just had recored and the new trans cooler also bent to shit. but hey, nothing is leaking, might just get the car on the trailer yet to night.. Managed to piece the booster / m.c. back together, got it loaded and delivered the next day. Honest to god, wouldn't have been this stupid when i was 16 , must be part of the evolution to an old fart. Best part is I'll probably forget about it in no time ..

 

I did something similar to your mishap years ago, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet. It could have been a lot worse than it was.

 

they say you'll feel better if you get it out in the open LOL

 

We all have those days...at least you weren't dead drunk and being stupid....well, you weren't drunk.
Dad usta tell me "This is how we learn". Sometimes the lesson is frustrating and expensive. Good thing it wasn't a customer's car, eh?
Fess up? Ha! Ok...I was bring my 35 IHC pickup home from the Nebraska cornfields on my buddy's borrowed open trailer behind my 78 ford pickup. Hadn't towed much but I was sure I knew all the basics...how hard can it be?
I used the finest 3/8ths chain to fasten the pickup to the trailer with chain binders. Problem was, I'd hooked to the little IHC's pickup's frame, not a suspension member. Things were going along really smooth...all tires pumped up and rolling easily after I'd torched the brake drums off the IHC to load it.
The road was rough and I was watching in my mirrors as the conrbinder bounced along on it's trailer...I was makin great time as George Costanza would say.
I crested a hill and just as I did, I took a glance in my inside mirror. I saw the IHC roll forward and hit the front of the trailer...clunk!
OH SHIT! the International was loose on an open trailer at 60 MPH! Good thing I was driving downhill. I slowly came to a stop before I reached the bottom of the hill and walked back to take a look. The last chain had come loose as I'd pulled over! Absolutely nothing keeping the truck on that trailer except gravity.
That was the day I learned to hook the chains to an axle, not a suspended part.

 

And I was really counting on the saying "older and wiser" to be true..Damn!

 

Might just work for you, I'm still waiting for it to kick in..

 

stupider is not a word.

 

it is where I live

 

:d:d:d

 

Ouch!! Man that sucks. Only comparable thing I have is a radiator I ruined. Had an original radiator for my 50 truck cleaned, tested painted etc and decided to take it home rather than leave it at the shop where it could get damaged. I carry it out to my truck and attempt to put in in the front seat but the door is locked, key is in the ignition. So I lean the rad up against the truck and walk around to the other side and notice there are a bunch of leaves in my floorboard. I go grab the air hose to blow everything out but the truck is too far out and there isnt enough slack so I jump in and back up. Of course I hear a crunch and realize the rad fell over then I ran over it...

Worst part of all that is I am only 34 so I guess things will just get worse and more expensive, ha!

 

You probably have a ways to go yet before the dumber part kicks in, I'm close to twice your age and was not too bad until a while back.. at least as far as I can remember ..

 

Hey, at least you didnt do what this idiot at U-haul did to a customers truck we just finished up. They had a hitch and brake controller installed and when they plugged in their new trailer the air bags went off. After the smoke cleared and everyone was still alive they limped it in with the air bags hanging out everywhere and we found the idiot got power from the air bag connector under the dash. The rest of the install was just as bad, scotch locks galore....

 

Group therapy. Hi my name is Rick, and I'm a fuck-up.

Fixed the radiator in my 93yr old buddy's '62 John Deere 30/10. Took three tries to get all the leaks soldered. Finally got 'er sealed up...yay! Then proceeded to drop it...upside down...right smack on the filler neck. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! Turned it over to inspect the damage. Oh crap...smashed in that whole area of the upper tank. After I got done kicking my own ass..."Hello...radiator shop?"

 

tinhunter; "Honest to god, wouldn't have been this stupid when i was 16 , must be part of the evolution to an old fart."

Well, I was that kind of stupid when I was 16. At 56 years of age, I'm still that kind of stupid. But, I move slower, allowing me a moment to think about being stupid. On occasion, I avoid stupid. Yet, not often enough to become a positive example to the theory of evolution.

"Best part is I'll probably forget about it in no time" ..forget about what..?

All the best,
Dale
Cleveland OH

 

Guess I got off lucky then......

Don't have a lift, so I have to get under the car by jacking it up and putting ramps under the wheels and lower it to have full weight on them before putting jacks under it. Really thinking it all out and being double safe, huh? But I needed to turn the driveshaft to get to the grease fitting on the rear U. Jacked the rear and put the trans in nuetral and lined it up and eased it back down the on the jacks leaving the ramps out as it was the last thing I was doing.

Time to put it back on the floor so I lifted it off the jacks, pulled them out and lowered the rear to go to the front next. Guess the jacks weren't holding much because it rolled back off the ramps since I didn't put the car back in gear. Surprised I held the car from going any further than it did, but not before punching a hole in the overhead door with the new lenses with blue dot's I'd just installed. Back to the stock units I still had and patched the door.

Wish I had the clearance for a lift...................

 

Lol..good plan..group therapy

 

How 'bout this one: My dad drives his pickup over to get his motorhome from storage out at a friend's property. The pickup has a tow bar on the front so he can hook it up to the motorhome's trailer hitch so he can bring them both home together.
As he's driving home, he looks in the rear view mirror & sees some f'r pull out and try to pass him heading into a blind corner, so dad stomps the gas to force the sumbitch to back off and drop back in behind him, then realizes it is his own pickup, and watches helplessly as it drifts off the road and rolls over in the ditch. Forgot to flip the latch on the hitch and chain it!

 

Yep..he's one of us..

 

Okay... okay.... I was setting the idle on my carb and was using a 12" screw driver. Just happened to be handy. Anyway, when I finished, I shut the engine off and instead of putting it away, I layed it across the upper hose and thermostat. Well, it slipped and fell at an angle between the lower pulley and the radiator. What the hell, I'll get it later.

So, I do a few more little things and remember that I meant to rotate my flywheel to look for a possible missing tooth. I slide underneath and start rotating the flywheel by hand. I'm getting resistance and can't figure out why. No worrys, use more strength. Then... POP... and a little stream of green liquid comes trickling my way. Yup, rotating the flywheel rotated the lower pulley and pushed the screw driver into the radiator core.

Cost of lesson: $274+ shipping for a new aluminum radiator. Famous last words: I'll get it later.

 

We've all "been there, done that."

I was laying under the dash of one of my cars messing with something (bad sign; can't even remember what I was doing...)

Luckily, my legs were up over the back of the driver's seat.

The car started rolling out of the garage and was stopped by the open driver's door hitting the frame of the garage door.

The shifter was in neutral and from my vantage point under the dash I didn't notice that the stupid thing was rolling out of the garage and down the driveway towards my neighbor's family room...

Amazing how much load those door hinges can handle....

 

well, had a B'day last Sunday #61. I'm making fewer mistakes of the mechanical kind. I believe it's because I move so slow.........

 

This is a great thread....I dont feel so bad now!!! LOL I thought I was the dumbest......maybe I still am. haha

 

Letting myself get this old was by biggest mistake.

 

I saw a post on here that said, "you don't get wiser with age, theres just less dumb stuff you haven't tried".

 

My father used to say "life a shitty teacher, it gives you the test first and the knowledge second"


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My wife claims I'm not the dumbest guy alive but, when he dies...


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Now that makes sense LOL

 

A few years ago, the motor in my wife's POS 97 Chrysler LHS died. I wanted to put it on my trailer to go somewhere. (I forget where, now) It was too heavy to push, and no winch on the trailer. I fired up my Ramcharger with the snow plow and hung a couple of old tires on the blade so I could push the car up onto the trailer. I was home alone and about 8 beers into a six pack at the time. That car had a really long nose on it, and I forgot about my nice big, self fabricated sheet metal tool box on the trailer tongue! Nuff said??

 

Another trailer screw up. I drained the oil from an engine hanging on my hoist, and still had my big plastic oil drain container, (The kind you cap off and take to the recycler), setting in the floor of my garage. I fergot it was there, and needed to back my trailer into the garage because I wanted to haul the engine away to be cleaned. Backing a 8'4" wide trailer into a 9' wide garage door takes some concentration. I was real proud that I missed the sides of the door frame, and then POP! the trailer wheels ran up over the container and about 3 oil changes worth of black oil came running out the door!

 

Here's some.
Yrs ago I told my young son Black on Neg. Red on Pos.
I built a T-bucket. Battery in the back. Long BLACK cable going to starter, short RED one going to the frame.
I called him from work to go to the parts store and get me a new battery. He hooks it up and fries the battery and wiring.
Later that month after buying another new battery. Didn;t have a battery hold down, I punched the gas going thru an intersection and the battery slides back, hits the tailgate knocking it open and falls out dragging behind me on the road. So I get another new battery, decide to put a hold down in, move the battery over to measure and get underneath and drill a hole. Water comes running out. DUH. drilled a hole thru the new battery. 5 batteries for that car in less than 2 months.

Another story
Had the hood, visor, and decklid louvered for my ModelA. Had the upholstery done also. The hood, decklid and 32 gas tank were setting along the wall in my shop. The guy brings in my newly uphostered front seat. I decide to store the seat in the rafters of my shop. I lose my balance going up the ladder, the seat falls on the hood, gas tank, and decklid denting them, and the new material on the seat gets torn. Talk about SHIT HAPPENING.