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

Winter.

 

I was building a 1948 4 door Chevy Crew cab and was almost finished with the re assembly after paint. It was time to put the bed on and my custom chassis was too long out back as the roll pan would not allow the bed to move forward for aligning the mounting holes. NO problem..it's about 2 inches too long. Mark lines with a square and cut both frame rails ends off. Time to put the bed back on and bolt her down.

WHAT WAS I THINKING? I just cut the rear mounting hole locations off and they were laying there in the floor. The well duh light comes on and I should have cut the frame rails off at a diagonal to retain the mounting hole on top and allow the roll pan room on the bottom.

I was so upset that I left the whole thing sitting there a couple of weeks before welding the drops back on , grinding the welds smooth and then cutting again. What a waste!

NO blood, no injuries, just had my pride hurt for doing something stupid.

George

 

I was using a hammer and drift. I hit the drift as hard as I could, missed it and hit my thumbnail with everything I had. The pain was excruciating, so I needed to vent and I hit the front tire of the T as hard as I could with the hammer. About the time it took to think, "crap, that is going to come back", it fit me in the forehead and almost knocked me off my feet. When I recovered from the shock I couldn't stop laughing. What a bonehead!

 

Building Model A highboy, using a different chasis. Sunday morning early decide to jack up original Model A and spray all the body bolts with penatrating oil(going to use only the sedan body off original Model A) too lazy to go get jack stands I jack up the car and put 4inch cinder blocks under each wheel,put car in gear. Spray the rear section of car and have to move to front,on concrete no creeper, so pull on frame to help get to the front of car. Car is in gear right but my fat ass moves car off the cinder blocks, falls on me but the wheels are on and it doesn,'t crush me just traps me under it. Get my phone out my pocket to wake my wife to free me. Stupid phone only wants to take pic's. Finalyl start yelling, wife comes out the house and is freaking. Please jack the car up, she says where I say anywhere just raise one end. Not hurt just bruised chest. Wife tells me that has been her fear for years "coming home and finding you with a car on top of you" Plus I've done almost all the 4 inch grinder escapades from above. Still doing them

 

I smashed my thumb with a hammer, the how and why isn't important, but I was glad I was wearing a glove. Was weird watching my blood run down out of that glove before I took it off.

 

I was putting a cylinder head on a big block chevy and didnt have the aliment dowls and in a hurry set the head on the block holding the bottom of the head with my fingers just on the edge as I was sliding down the block when it got to the bottom of the cylinder bore it got away for me and as it slid down it took off the finger prints of all eight of my fingers.
Guess that would have been a good time to take up bank robbing a would not have left any prints.

 

This didn't happen to me but its maybe the worst thing I have heard of while working on a project.
I used to be a mailman and there was this fellow on my route who raced Fords. I think this particular one was a Maverick. I didn't see this happen but was told by the neighbors that he was leaning over the engine adjusting something and when he sped up the rpms pretty high, the fan blade came loose and hit him in the neck, all but decapitating him. I have been leery of leaning over an open fan on a running engine ever since. At least he didn't feel pain for very long.

 

That happened to a guy here locally with a V8 Vega. He survived taking the blade to the side of his head but it messed him up really bad and he won't ever be right again.



I was putting a transmission in an OT truck and when I put the driveshaft back in I couldn't get the splines to line up so I though I'll just roll the truck a little. Well I couldn't budge it. Even got out from under it and really pushed like hell on the tailgate. Couldn't move the damn thing at all so I looked back under it to see it was still on jackstands. They don't roll well when on those

 

You posted this back in May as well. I can't believe you gave up on that car for that little mistake.

 

I was helping my Dad button up his '62 Nova convertible, and the gas tank filler neck needed a little persuasion into the quarter panel. Don't ask my why I had a giant screwdriver on the OUTSIDE of the fender, but of course it slipped and I gouged the fresh paint. It later got blended in, but I still feel bad. He quit teasing me after awhile because he knew that I knew better!

 

Finished bolting down oil pan, motor on stand nad went to turn it right side up.
Yep, B Model casting failed and landed on valve cover and oil pump.

I left the weld this ugly to remind me.

 

I was polishing a piece of chrome on the polisher when all of a sudden the wheel grabbed the killer chunk of shiny antique castrating tool and ripped my pants from the crotch to the knee, I opened up the ripped jeans and didn't see any damage. I was walking over to the bench when I get this piercing pain of the crown jewels and a juicy warm feeling in my boot. On closer examination I was sure my voice was going to change as the holding pouch of the jewels was ripped open and not looking too good. I was alone in the shop and nobody was home so I was trying to remember the phone number for 911, finally got that straitened out and to the hospital to get a little restoration of the manhood which amounted to some creative stitching with the greatest female doctor with a soft touch doing the repairs. 6 weeks on crutches and some of the finest pain killers ever I was back in the garage polishing more chrome but this time I dug into the old football gear and dug out the trusty cup for future polishing jobs.
I didn't loose anything except a little pride but gained a new respect for anything that looks like a rotating devil wheel.

 

Knocking the house paint off my Chrysler when the bondo buster disc came apart on my 5 1/2 grinder, went through my coveralls, a light winter jacket, a sweatshirt, a t shirt and into my gut. Two weeks ago, still carrying a fresh scar, huge bruise, zero warning, just a weird noise, found myself on the ground feeling for blood. Got some, pulled out the disc, went in the house, cleaned it up, thought about continuing on, but thankfully, my gut told me I better quit, thank god for beer guts, only damage was a few fat cells. Lucky, lucky.

 

My buddy had a VW repair shop where we all used to hang out. One day I showed up and everyone was walking around with their hands tucked in their armpits. I asked what was the deal. The owner of the shop across the street was a good friend. He was tuning up an early 911 Porsche and his son was starting it. As he reached for the carburetor his son gassed it. The fan sucked his hand in and his fingers went around the fan pulley under the fan belt. He lost parts of all 4 fingers on his right hand. None of the tips were recoverable. Needless to say, I stuck my hands in the safety of my armpits also.

 

You know better than that!
as long as guys work, theres gonna be injuries
I had a SBC and 350 turbo on the floor and had reached under the turbo 350 to wiggle it toward the SBC to bolt them together when something sliced my hand big time. I had to get stitches at the ER
The really weird part is that there is nothing on the bottom of the turbo 350 transmission to cut you! I still dont know what caused it

 

Yikes!!!
Screw it!
From now on im wearing my chastity belt!

 

Running out of money and having to sell it Complete downer...

 

............................................................................
I now know what my next purchase for the shop will be.. Your post made me hurt..

 

I have picked up another '31 DB three window business coupe to drive, so I am slightly distracted, still. I have since convinced myself that I can fix the original without further damage to the engine. It wasn't just the babbitt problem.....I ran out of cash, too. I have been collecting more parts and soon will be back at my original '31. Apparently, my memory is failing, too as I had forgotten I had posted this event prior to this post.

 

I'm not doing anything stupid again, thanks for all the warnings

 

Didn't happen to me, but had a friend who worked on heavy trucks screw a wheel nut onto his thumb while trying to get it un-stuck from a socket. Accidentally pressed the trigger on the 3/4 impact gun! He always got a little tear in his eye telling that one.

 

I was under a car finishing up replacing an auto trans. A buddy was helping me get to all the torque converter bolts by turning the motor over with a ratchet from above the car. He was having trouble finding the balancer bolt with the socket. I moved under that area of the motor to help get him set up. While he was trying to fish the tools back into position, the socket (1-1/4) came off the ratchet. It fell into my mouth and broke my two front teeth in half.

He still tells people how I spit the broken teeth out and finished the install without coming out from under the car.


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Aug 1, 2013 cutting the trunk floor out of my 70' Nova. Burned down our 30 x 50 shop with 3 cars, tractor, tools ect... all lost. THAT was a bad day.

 

My wife found about it...

Viva

 

Many years ago, 1966, I was building a T-bucket, got a 57 Chevy rear end from junkyard and was knocking off leaf spring brackets with BFH and chisel. Should have stopped, was getting tired, but only had a few more welds to break. I hit myself in my right ankle, smashed the bone and severed the vein, minor surgery and a sore/sensitive ankle for a few years. I can say that I learned from that experience, never hit myself with a hammer again, just other stupid stuff, but luckily have not had any major injury's. John

 

I bought a 61 Lincoln that had been sitting for 10+ years with a full tank of gas. It had one of those old AC delco electric fuel pumps mounted on the frame behind the axle that made noise but wouldn't pump the fuel out. So I slide under and proceed to pull the hose off the pump and have pressurized decade old varnished gas shoot directly into my face so hard that it went under my eyelids. So on top of the severe burning sensation and blindness I am soaked in old smelly ass fuel. 10 min with the garden hose blasting directly into my eyes and 2 days for the smell to go away and I was good as new.

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This might be more along the lines of "stupidest thing to happen"

I was being consumed by the amount of rust on my 54' chevy. Had a friend offer to take the body to the scrap yard. My first thought was "fine, I guess I'll just part it out." Couple months later, the guilt started to set in. This was my first car! How many people had I heard talk about how they wish they still had theirs! So now I'm on the lookout for a new body (preferably without all the rust).

In my defence, I was young and confused. Now I'm a little older and headstrong. This car might never forgive me, but I will finnish it!

 

The quote, "There but for the grace of God go I" runs through my mind while reading many of the stories.

 

I wasn't working on a car but when I was a kid we got this great idea to play Frisbee with a hubcap. Well when I caught it it took a huge chunk of meat out of my hand. Still have the scar.

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I was grinding on a frame with this 7" grinder and a large grinding wheel. It had a lot of torque on start up and would actually fly your hands up several inches and then you could start grinding. I had be grinding for about a half hour stopping every few minutes to check the progress. My arms were getting a little tired and when I stopped to look at my work, the grinding wheel nicked my knee and cut threw my pants. I was pissed because I was wearing new work pants and a few moments later I felt my leg get wet. I looked down and my pants leg was covered in blood. I ran into the house and bathroom and dropped my pants to my ankles and saw a 3 inch long cut on my knee. I stopped the bleeding with a towel but every time I removed it, the bleeding started again. I finally found some of those square white dressings but no tape. I had to duck walk with my pants down around my ankles from the bathroom thru the living room, dining room and into the kitchen before finding an elastic bandage to hold the dressing on. The whole front of my house is windows and the curtains were open. The whole time I was scared that someone would walk by and look in. Lucky no one did.


Another time I was welding the deck on my trailer. I had a shop use their CNC plasma to cut round holes into the sheet metal deck and I was plug welding them.
I was about half done, with the garage door open, when the UPS driver showed up with a package. It was a can of that spray you use to paint your license plate so those red light cameras can't take your picture. I opened the box, looked inside and placed it on the work bench about five feet from where I was welding. The box was about 10" square and shredder paper packing to protect the spray can. I went back to welding and all of a sudden I heard a explosion which sounded like a stick of dynamite going off next to me. I lifted my hood and the workbench was on fire and there was a fallout of burning paper falling all around me. (Viet Nam all over again). It took me awhile to figure out what happened. Apparently a spark ignited the packing in the box and caught fire causing the license paint can to explode. Lucky the plastic gallon of paint thinner about a foot away didn't ignite. The neighbor was outside of his house on the other side of my garage and he said it echoed so loud that he though it was a explosion at a construction site about a mile away. I didn't feel like spending another $30.00 on another can of license paint and guess what, I just got a ticket in the mail for $180.00 for 33 in a 20 mile per hour zone. Some times you just can't win.