modification blunders? shop disasters?

Well since ive been planning hardcore on my coronet modifications I'm thinking about some of the mods i shouldn't have done when i didn't know any better. the best one is on my first car when i put lowering blocks on the rear axle i jacked it up and put jack stands on the axle tubes... that was pretty stupid. anyone care to share their blunders?

 

This was MANY years ago. We were working on a donor hearse in our club and the frame wasn't great on it. When we jacked it up, we put the stands at the far ends of the car - now, take your normal car and add 5 feet to it and that is about how long a mid 70's hearse is (I think just a hair under 21 feet). Needless to say the doors didn't close real well after that and there was a half inch gap at the bottom of both doors.

 

I'm sure you didn't have the owner's manual, but it is stated in there, and in the shop manual, that you must use the axles to lift the limos and hearses. I thought maybe overkill, but you just convinced me that they knew whereof they spoke.

Cosmo

P.S. 156" WB, 20 1/2' overall.

 

I predict the longest thread ever on the H.A.M.B.

 

it might go as long as this one
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=417353&highlight=shop+accidents

 

My first "custom" motor swap I welded in the mounts crooked so the whole motor and trans was off by 3 inches in the back. No biggie I thought. I hooked a chain to the tail end of the trans and pulled it with my car. It got bolted into place but I would hate to see what would have happened if anyone else had to take the transmission out.

 

Maybe everything I built in the 80's. I was part of the problem. I am sorry. I have changed my ways.

 

Didn't we just talk this shit over a couple months ago? The search function is your friend!

 

One memorable blunder i was part of was when Wes decided to put a straight axle under his mustang. we started on a friday cuttin and a weldin, went thru more than a case or two of beer and had lots of friends stoppin by with god knows what for consumption. Wes fired her up sunday night for the check-out cruise and promptly drove into the overhead door jam. The steering was backwards! Yup, swear to god! Turn the streering to the right and the car would go left!

 

saw that older post.. just thought I'd see if we could muster up some more and i wanted to see some modification blunders its good to laugh at one self ya know..

 

One time I was jacking up a car with the door closed and I was of course using a floor jack .Car rolled back and almost pinned me inbetween the garage door and car.I moved out of the way just in time,Welding and garage clothes caught on fire around the holes in my knees,Another time was welding and floor caught fire from a can of laquer that spilled and I previously cleaned up.The one that really took the cake was a lawn mower handle I was welding outside and gas soaked grass caught fire I ran the mower away from cars and extinguished.

 

I was 16 and doing a v8 (nailhead as a matter of fact!) conversion in a Chevy LUV pickup. Took the cab off to make things easier. Got the mounts welded in place and installed the engine. I knew the cab wasn't going to fit back on so I rolled the frame out of the way and picked the cab up with our overhead chainfall and a 4X4 through the windows. I lit the torch and started cutting. Got the entire firewall and most of the floor out and I was rolling the frame back under the cab when the windshield and rear window EXPLODED....guess that was all that was holding the shape of the cab. End of project...

 

Everything I build is a blunder

 

Had to move my front clip to my 56 alone and since it had the hood off when i remove it i used tubeing to hold hood opening correct. I used a forklift, slid the forks under the tubes to lift. All was good till i lowered it. I had not noticed the clip moved to one side, the underside of fork was over the cowl mounting tab of fender. Well that fender got about a bit shorter with a nice lil bulge. Saved it with a 2X4 and a large C clamp.

 

Back when I was poor,,no shop,& worked outside.
I gave my brother a nice Mazda Truck that I bought new. He being a fng drove it low on water and cracked the head. I fixed it and had it assembled. I turned the key to unlock the steering & adjust the front wheels. Then as I put on the distributor cap and slightly twist the distributor to set the marks the engine fired and took off in first gear dragging me like in an Indiana Jones movie across the lawn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oGd6eAuv0c I was able to throw myself over and out of the way and rolled and looked up to see it hit a tree.

 

That straight axle story reminds me of one from 20 years ago also. A friend called me on a Friday and asked me to give him a hand installing his straight axle on his 57 Chevy. Said everything was ready to go, just needed a hand putting it up and in. So I volunteered to do the grunt work. Mere hours later when we set it on the floor for the first time. It wouldn't turn very far left. The pitman arm wouldn't clear the front leafs. In mortal fear of being hit by flying things and unsure I could keep all the jokes inside much longer, I wisely excused myself only to return Monday night and helped take it apart. Where it stayed until he sold it.

 

Well it's funny now but was life threatening when it happened....

I have one of the four post lifts and it works well except I never adjusted the safety release lever so that all 4 hooks retracted equally. The front hooks would retract after the rear hooks. All was well as long as I remembered to pull the handle all the way.

My 1967 El Camino is on the lift so I start lowerering. Carelessly I failed to notice that I had not pulled the handle fully as the rear started to drop. What's This? Crap! All of a sudden the car started to roll off the hoist while it was still six feet off the ground. The front safeties had not released and the ramps were now tilted at an angle toward the rear! Quickly I ran behind the car to stop it from rolling. Now I'm really screwed. Picture this - I can't reach the electric push button to raise the lift - and I'm behind the car keeping it from rolling off - and my strength is fading - I can't hold this thing forever. I start yelling HELP but my wife is as usual completely oblivious and though I'm yelling at the top of my lungs in a life and death struggle but no help arrives. Now what! I keep yelling....finally I say hell with it and let go as I imagine the car dropping off the hoist and rolling out through the garage door leaving a wake of destruction in it's pass.

God was with me that day. The car rolled off...but when the rear wheels rolled off... the frame smashed down onto the rails and the car ground to a halt.

After raising the car, unlatching the safeties, and lowering it safely I ran into the house to change my shorts and barbeque my wife for being so oblivious to my near death experience. She just looked at me and said I should be more careful. Bah!

Afterwords I found that the exhaust system was smashed into the driveshaft but all in all not bad. Also my throat was sore for a week when I realized how long and loud I must have been yelling.

P.S. My dear mother would always go into the garage and check on me every few hours to see if I was OK. God rest her soul. My wife - I could die out there - and she would only find out when I didn't come to bed. Nobody loves you like Mama!

 

does that new Detroit Motors show on discovery count as a shop disaster?

 

my old boss drove an MG on to and off of a ramp lift. got it stuck in the middle. that was pretty funny

 

I just got thru watching that - it's like a 'less talented' version of Monster Garage. The brother that has hair and the dad are the only people on that show worth a damn - the other brother should be working at Hallmark making birthday cards that play songs when you open them.

 

35 years ago when I was 16 I had a VW bug (who didn't) that wouldn't start for some reason. Little did I know the float was stuck and the engine was full of gas. I pulled a spark plug and looked down the hole into the cylinder head with a drop light and had a friend turn the engine over. I got sprayed in the eyes with gasoline dropped the drop light which broke the bare bulb open and set myself and the garage on fire. Thankfully everything turned out alright as the oilly rag in my hand put the fire out on my face before I got burned too seriously. The garage went out on its own after the fuel burned away.

 

My best friend did a brake job on his dads avalanche a few years ago. He lowered the lift open the door hopped in started it in neutral and poped it into reverse to. You guessed it he about ripped the door off on the lift because he didnt bring the pedel up.

 

How about a diesel truck shop disaster!.
A few years ago I was at a local Cat
dealer having the turbo on my 3406
Cat-powered Freightliner replaced on
warranty. In the next bay there was
another truck, a nice; shiny; late model
Pete, also 3406 Cat powered, in getting
an oil change, grease job and service
The shop had recently hired a 17 or 18
year-old kid for the summer, who had
supposedly been shown and trained by
one of the mechanics on how to do
"big truck"oil changes. Anyway, the kid
went under the truck and drained the
old oil out into a large, wheeled drain
pan. When the last of the oil had finished
draining out, he pulled the drain pan back
out, set it off to the side and started filling
and replacing the oil filters on the engine.
So far so good. That done, he went into
the stock room and came back pulling
a cart with 7 one-gallon jugs of fresh
motor oil on it. Then after carefully
placing each jug up on top of the engine,
he climbed up and standing on the front
tire, started emptying the jugs of oil
into the engine. When the last jug was
empty, he stepped off the tire onto the
frame and then jumped from the frame
down to the floor....and promptly fell
flat on his ass into very large and still
spreading 7-gallon pool of fresh 15W40
Shell Rotella! You guessed it. He'd
forgotten to replace the drain plug after
draining the old oil out and taking away
the drain pan! But that's not the worst
of it. I was in the shop about a week
later and the kid was still working there,
although he was now relegated to cleaning
parts and sweeping the floor - and no
longer allowed to do oil changes or anything
else on, in, or around any customer's
truck, because apparently the disaster he
had when I had been there a week earlier,
was the *second time that same week*
that he'd done the exact same thing!!!:
eek:

Mart3406
=============================

 

In the late 60's I was heavily into Hillmans. They were cheap, easy to find, and lots of parts interchanged, especially if you had a Husky 2 door wagon like I did. Only weighed 13cwt so were far lighter than any sedan and all the sedan bits fitted.... Sort of.

I scored a Superminx sedan, 1725cc engine as opposed to the 1300cc in the stock Husky, long gone and replaced by a souped up 1600cc Minx unit anyway, but the Super also had a disc brake front end, vastly superior to the lil' Husky's drums.

We ripped the front end out of both cars, and rolled the Super frontend under the Husky. One side bolted up, the other wouldn't. Problem was Superminx's were a full inch wider in the chassis and body than the Husky.

Problem solved... Drop a 2 ton hydraulic jack down between the Husky rails and pump until the bolts fitted, tighten them up and pull the jack...

I drove it like that until I sold it. Had the best brakes going, and the 1725 with a Hunter GT 4 speed behind it gave it decent grunt off the line. In hindsight I wouldn't want to be the one who pulled the frontend out of her.

Cheers, Glen.

 

I was installing aftermarket retractable 3 point seat-belts in my 1970 vehicle. The car was nice and painted. I had to drill out an existing hole where one of the factory straps hung from the roof. I started hogging the hole out, and all of a sudden the drill grabbed hold and started pulling upward out of my control. By the time I let go of the trigger, the little tiny drill point had made a small outward dimple in the nicely painted roof. It didn't puncture the roof, but made very small cracks in the paint. After that happened, I was so mad I didn't go out in the garage for two weeks.

I finished the car and put it back on the road in 2001, and just left the little flaw the way it is. Nobody has ever asked me about it until this day. I'm sure we all have little mess-ups that we would have to point out to other people for them to see them.

 

When I was young and dumb working in a auto wreckers. I was torching something on the rear floor of a van. Cut right through the gas tank. We usually pulled the gas tank when the vehicles first came in. Didn't check this one! The explosion through me out the front windshield luckily. landed on the ground in front of the van on fire. Luckily I was near a fire extingisher. Someone put me out. Just changed my coveralls and went back to work. Lost little hair w/ no burns, but my ears were ringing for the rest of the day, UNREAL!!!!!

 

over 20 years ago I was removing the transmission from my car,and I did not have 4 jack stands.
so I used car ramps.
well all was cool as I had jacked car up and put the front tires on the ramps,but it was not cool when I went to jack up the back of the car and the car rolled off the ramps and down the driveway.
from then on I would put one ramp facing the other way of the other one to avoid that.

 

i got a used 305 from a friend who i told i just needed a decent stocker, running, sbc to just drop in my 54 so he gave me one he had laying around. Now i didn;t think to check it out when i pulled it was delivered ....slapped in new freeze plugs and went to drop it in ...everything bolted/welded up. Then i got that bad feeling!

didn't turn....this is why! This pic is looking down from the distributor...can't blame him...my stupid mistake for not checking from the start.

 

When I was in High school a couple of buddies and I was working on a guys '52 Chey with a truck 6 cyl in it, three dueces etc. When we fired it off the carbs spit back and caught on fire. The guy who owned the car said not to use the fire ext. on it cause it would mess up his engine! So,,,with the motor still idleing, he got up on the front bumper and proceeded to "whizz" on it to put the fire out. Well, he got across a spark plug wire and took the full 12 volts rite in the "kanuten valve". He did a complete full back flip and hit the ground on his azz! When we ran over to him his "kanuten valve" had swolen up to about 4 inches around and was BRITE red. This condition lasted about a week before he started gettin back to normal! Funniest part of it was going over to his house during the week to visit and seeing him sitting on the couch, with his "valve" in his lap , and a towel over it! I'm still laughing about it!!!!! Crow.