Hot Rods WHAT'S THE WORST INJURY YOU HAVE GOTTEN FROM A CAR?

Got my head put through the windshield of my brother's 50 Ford coupe when he hit another car. Glass, blood, & a headache for a bit, but after that I was fine. Found out later my brother delayed hitting his brakes because he wanted a newer car, & he knew the other guy would be at fault. I about beat his a%# after that.

 

I would have too.!

 

I was going to do a burnout with my red merc , but stalled the engine. A bunch of friends were watching, and they laughed.. It hurt my feelings.

 

When you are clumsy and work on cars, you get injuries. Daily cuts with bleeding, smashed fingers, a few broken toes and a couple of broken fingers, and stitches (many times, and many times there should have been but weren't) are pretty much expected events. If you consider 20 years as an auto mechanic followed by 25 years as a welder, mostly working on cars and trucks, and add in the clumsy, I think I'm doing pretty good still being here. My scars are my tattoos, and I've earned every one of them.

I don't remember ever getting rid of something because it hurt me, except the totaled truck. I had considered rebuilding that, so getting rid of it wasn't because I got 11 stitches and a sprained thumb from the wreck. Gene

 

overdrawn bank account

 

1.my sanity
2.ripped pectoralis muscle from upper bicep trying to loosen a stuck exhaust manifold stud. Whole left arm down to the wrist turned purple.

 

How many times have you been doing something that you know you shouldn't be doing, like leaning on a frozen bolt thinking "If this spanner slips off the nut, I will take a large piece of bark from my arm. I should really wrap something around my arm, or shield the sharp piece of steel which I will undoubtedly hit". But you don't. Like a true soldier, you keep going until - Wham! - The spanner slips off , your arm has hit an immovable steel object, with the momentum of a small elephant, you can now see what hides under your skin, through a torrent of blood. But then you make up for it by thinking- "see! I was right!!!".
As you get older, you get wiser, just try to remember how much the last one really hurt!

 

same happened to me with metal in eye, mine happened after job was done and having a shower in the evening, water
washed metal into eye, drove to doctor,had it removed,a patch placed over eye, "how you getting home"
"driving my car,thats how I got here" "you cannot do that it is illegal " "See ya " ,in car and home
Bloody hurt

 

I've had a lot of stitches from working on cars over the years and a couple of trips to the eye dock to have rusty chunks of metal dug out of my eyes. Broke a tooth when a wrench slipped off a bolt under a 65 Chevy on the front end rack once.
Ran my brush buggy through the neighbor's barb wire fence when I was 19 and almost didn't get to be 20. Still pack a couple of scars from that 60 years later.
Still the scariest thing that I did that I got hurt on was dropping the axle of my car trailer on my nose last year when I was replacing the spring. Had the trailer blocked up and was using a floor jack to hold the axle up and it slipped off the jack and the brake drum landed on my nose. Didn't break any teeth and didn't hit my eyes but I scared the hell out of the cat with all the blood coming out of my nose. Face still hurts at times from that bit of not being smart.

 

The normal ER trips for stitches from bolts breaking, wrench slipping, etc. experience seems to come with a price. I worked in Tool & Die/Pattern trades for 46 years total, some injuries, nothing major. Like RJP, jaracer and some other old racers here I ran open wheel race cars, driver/owner/owner driver Midgets then wing Sprint Cars for a total of 21 years. No crash house visits from the Sprint car but the Midget deal bit my butt real hard 3 times, sheet time with some years off from racing to heal neck injuries. I was a car owner those years with great success but I still went back to driving as I loved strapping one on. My 15 minutes of fame came as a 2x champion car owner, 0 championship as a driver but did achieved veteran status level, had lots of fun, great memories, Priceless but like I stated, I paid a price for all of it.

 

Well, I haven't seen anyone else post a 9 level spinal fusion. May 20, 1962 I was running something over 150 in our 53 Stude at El Mirage, when a cross wind sent us off on a series of violent aerial acrobatics. Shattered the first 3 levels of my spine. Spending your 17th summer in a body cast is about as much fun as it sounds. My spinal Doc could not believe I had some feeling in my feet and legs. But no surgery then. I worked almost 50 years with no trouble. I retired at the end of 2009, and 6 months later, while walking the Pomona swap meet, the most god awful pain hit my upper legs, and I could hardly stand. 7 months later I had the surgery you see here. Still can't walk 20 feet with out the pain in my legs showing up, along with the parting gift of pain in the lower back. So, basically, I now live with what the orthopedic doctors a failed back surgery. I bow to anyone who has a car related injury worse than mine.

 

At least I came out a little better than the Stude.

 

maybe the car is telling you that it wants to be driven, - not trailered………….

 

I have an OT custom that is mid/rear engined. A copy of the Little Red Wagon.

I once started it by leaning over the rear and jumping a relay. The car started in reverse (an auto) as I had by-passed the NSW without realising, and crushed me against a 4x4.

End result 3 fractures to my Pelvis and one to my tailbone.

Doctor said I should be dead.

I don't start the car that way anymore!

 

You win the contest if it is a contest. I understand your pain as I fractured my neck twice Midget racing 1975 and 1981 different vertebrae and the second time surgery was a suggested, but not mandatory. I went home with a neck brace and got other opinions as back then everyone I knew had big problems from neck/back operations, I gambled and opted out on surgery. Now I live with major back/neck pain, lots of scar tissue, numbness in my hands PIA, I thought the surgery repairs are better today. I remember when I got my physical for racing in 1987 to go with wing Sprint cars, my DR told me I was Nuts, but signed off on my request. I ran them for 5 years and then I knew it was time to walk away on my terms and here I am enjoying the HAMB with you. Good Luck !

 

Hello,

The only major accident I had was at Lion’s Dragstrip after we had to do some adjusting of the starter motor. My brother was under the car and removing the nuts/bolts and I was given the job of reaching down and holding up the starter while the ratchet was doing its thing. But, my brother did not tell me when it was coming out and when he removed the last nut, the starter dropped down toward his face. I grabbed the starter and my bent elbow immediately straightened out with the added weight.

The end result of the arm straightening was my bicep went right into the hot header pipe. I could have let it fall, but my brother was laying on the ground directly under the starter motor. So, that action made almost a 3 inch circular burn that made the skin curl back on my bicep and hurt like hell. He grabbed the starter and removed it, while I went to our first aid kit. There was nothing to use for a severe burn.

While it was pounding pain with every second. The Lion’s Dragstrip kit did not have something to coat the burn. So, it was teenage ingenuity. In the trunk of the tow vehicle, the 58 Impala was a can of STP Oil. I remember the Boy Scouts emergency book that said to keep the wound from outside elements and dirt to ward off infection. I was not going to the hospital, since we were in the middle of eliminations for the B/Gas Willys Coupe races.

So, I put on some thick STP to cover the wound. It was instant cooling and the pain went away after a few minutes. I am not advocating STP to treat burns, but if one saw the raw flesh and the pain it was giving me, anything would do at the moment.

The rest of the afternoon and night, I was walking around with my t-shirt sleeve rolled up and the wound with STP showing. At night, I had a clean hot dog wrapper paper over the STP under my jacket. So, I was protected from the elements.

Jnaki

On Monday, my family doctor said that was very unusual, but after he cleaned it off, he said nothing happened to the burn and it was starting to show healing. He did not recommend the same course of action, but he said I did well to keep the infection to a minimum if any. His goopy medical stuff he put on smelled and did what it was supposed to do for a 2nd/3rd degree burn.

The hot header pipe made a perfect oval on my bicep. The obvious scar lasted for 50+ years and eventually, it turned into a couple of curvy lines only. But to me, still noticeable.

 

A badly bruised wallet.......

 

Dean wins!! LOL!

 

I know that pain, and it is hard to describe- I was cleaning up behind one of those big asphalt grinders, and a 6" thick chunk of asphalt spit out from under the skiploader tire, and she dropped. Was OK til I got up and stood up, and the best description I have is like getting hit with lightning- I immediately sat down on the curb- just blinding pain. L3-4 and L4-5
But back to cars- I tweaked my knee real good tryin' to get busy in the back seat of my '69 Mach1 in '74- I am 6'2" and she was a 5'10" very limber and quite crazy hippie chick and well worth the pain- later lol..

 

There is a tiny, evil spirit that resides in my car. The thing is, it came with my first car and every time that I trade or sell, it transfers into the next one. I know it must be tiny because it's only strong enough to try to kill me one drop of blood at a time. I believe it's called The Death Of Ten Thousand Scabs.

 

perhaps a bit "smartass," but, on my last motorcycle ride, some douchebag pulled out in front of me. dislocated both shoulders and broke a toe. (the toe was the only thing that didn't hurt!)

 

About 25 years ago I had changed distributor on a VW from an 009 to one with advance to pass smog. I also needed to swap in a new belt as the old one was a bit floppy and decided to wait before shimming the generator pulley. That turned out to be a good thing (waiting). The engine was well warmed up and the distributor was hot as well, so left hand on the timing light, I grabbed a red rag (should have grabbed a glove) to keep my right hand from feeling the heat. The end of the rag got caught up, suck my hand around the crank pulley before I could pull it back. Crushed up some fingers.
Still can’t give a firm handshake.
A few weeks later the ex put a sticker on the fan cover “Be aware of moving parts “.
I’ve always thought had I put a new belt on it and set up the pulley for proper tension first, I wouldn’t be able to pick my nose now

 

One of you guys reminded me of another injury....we get so many we often forget.
I was trying to loosen one of those lug nuts on my truck that some tire store idiot yahoo used a high power air tool to tighten. I heard a pop and got a shooting pain. I had torn my bicep loose at my elbow and had to have it surgically sewn back.

 

Broke my neck when a kid ran a red light and hit my freshly painted 1961 olds cutlass. But as far as an injury caused by working on a car, i had a spring compressor explode and grab my thumb, tearing it back and breaking it, also leaving a mutilation from the thumbnail to the center of my palm. They could not stitch it because, in the words of the doctor, it looked like a grenade went off. I have also managed to let a runaway grinder give me a gash in my leg that required 51 stitches to seal up.

 

When I was 17yrs. old and living on my own, no health insurance of course had my '40 Chevy coupe with
raised front end. Starter went out on it, so crawled under. loosened up the last bolt and was trying to get
a better position to do the final turns on the nut, when the starter fell down right on my thumb, splitting it
wide open. Hurt like H___L! No money so just duct taped it together and lived through it. Still have the
2" scar and crooked thumb 55yrs. later. BUT, damn sure never let THAT happen again!

 

These Threads freak me out......I have a tough time reading this stuff...be careful out there whatever you do...

Very sorry for many of you that have injuries haunting you indefinitely...

I have got off lightly it seems and I'll take it...

 

Hard of hearing from open exhaust more than likely..

 

Seems like your problem is with trailers.

 

I've had my share of bumps, bruises, cuts, steel removed from eye, etc. After reading some of these, I feel fortunate.

 

I ran out in front of a '59 Chevy when I was a kid...it hurt.