Ever have one of those DAMMIT moments?

Yeah right! Tell us another one....

 

I usually have something horrible like that happen to me immediately following a "aren't I smart/I'm so clever/No one can match me" moment.

I turn around and trip or knock something over which spills the dogs bowl which I slip in and arms flailing knock the most expensive, rare thing I own to the floor, scratching, breaking or otherwise destroying it!



www.highspeedmotorsports.com

 

I could write a book on the stupid mistakes I made in the past, but I ain't going there...

 

there was that time when I was about 14 years old. Was filling the radiator with water while dad had the valve covers off tuning the adjustable rockers. Pulled the hose out of the radiator and pointed it at the motor with the valve covers off.....

yeah....dad said dammit and a few other things that day.

 

One of my personal bests involved personal injury and permanent scarring. Not car related, but a good one to think about. Back in my mill wrighting days, when I was young and invincible, I was working on a trough that was going to have a conveyer belt running in it. It was about 3' above a steel deck that was about 30 feet off the ground, and I was standing on the deck. I was using a nice, big, electric angle grinder to smooth off a bunch of welds in the bottom of the trough, and there was a nice long, heavy extension cord hanging off the deck running down to the ground.
After grinding the 6th or 7th weld. I decided that this was too slow and monotonous, and it would go faster if I locked the button on the grinder in the on position. Brilliant! So I am going along at a good clip now, until the extension cord hung up on the edge of the deck, and the sudden stop, combined with the torque of the grinder, pulled the bottom of the grinder out of my right hand. Of course, I was still holding on to the short little handle up by the spindle, and quick as could be, the grinder spun around using that handle as a fulcrum, and the grinding wheel cut a 1/4" wide swath out of my left wrist.As I was sitting in emergency, watching the Dr. scalpel the dirty, burnt meat out of a now shockingly LARGE groove in my left wrist, I thought to myself "hmmmm, maybe locking the power button on was NOT one of my brightest moments."

 

Was working on a 59 vette. Windshield guy had just finished. I didn't like the way some of the screws looked holding the w/shield mouldings . Took a 10-32 tap and tapped some of them so the screw lined up better. Had one hole that needed just a little more. Having worked in the GM factory with glass I knew that little squeek I heard when the tap hit that brand new windshield. $355. My boss thought I was kidding. Ever so slowly the crack began to creep up the glass.

 

Years ago a friend was pulling the small block out of his SS Nova with an overhead crane. Once the car was moved out of the way the engine was just hanging there, suspended vertically, when the chain broke. The fall broke the end of the crank off. What started out as a simple overhaul ended up being a LOT more expensive.

 

i was doing a little careful, selective pressure washing on my 68 and accidentally hit the trigger full blast while pointed at the front of the radiator. takes a really long time to bend all those little fins back..

 

Ah yes - defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. the story of my life.

 

I'm waxing my 67 Mustang, it's only a year old so I'm really into it and I see a baby squirrel sitting on top of the front tire. Freaks me out, but I scoop him up in a pail and toss him in the garden. 10 minutes later he's back, repeat the pail trick. 10 minutes later you guessed it, he's back. Finally left him in the pail till I was done. Let him go for the fourth time and left with the car. When I got back home I discovered I had ran him over. Thank God it didn't mess up my wax job.

 

Yeah, I feel your pain. I live a my on little DAMMIT world. I do crap like that all the time. Sorry about you emblem.

 

I know the feeling...x2

 

I was 16....the day I got my '56 Chevy wagon back from the paint shop...I'm in the garage installing all the chrome emblems and goodies. I put the hood bird on and put one nut on one of the three studs. I turn around to go to the tool box for the other two nuts and before I can get back to the car a buddy of mine lifts the hood and the bird comes loose and does a nice 3/4 spin on my fresh paint, leaving a big 3/4 circle scratch! I was soo pissed I couldn't even talk.

 

two days ago i made a real nice rear frame rail for a '67 buick electra. tapered nice ,right length, but bent the wrong way, a right side not the left.

 

Doh!

 

I had one last summer. I picked up a 29 ford coupe from the sandblaster and put it in mt truck. It fit good and I have bedliner sprayed in it too, so didnt think it would slide out. Thats where I made mistake, "didnt think" I needed straps. I turned corner and it slid out onto the road completely flat and didnt hurt nothing. We jumped out and threw it back in like we ment to do it.

 

I was reassembling my '63 Porsche 356 Coupe and had had to have almost every exterior piece either replated or replace by repops. One of the few original pieces that was still really good was the backup light assembly. It had a stainless frame which I had polished and had a REAL glass lens.

I did not remember that it was REAL glass when I was installing it and it was one of the last exterior pieces left to be installed. As I was trying to get the screws lined up, the damned thing slipped out of my grip and crashed on the concrete breaking it into dozens of pieces. That was one of many vivid Dammit moments for me.

Glad Randy knows where another piece is. Good luck on number 2!

 

Aww man that sucks HRP! I can't wait to see the wagon in person.

 

I've got a 283 with a bell housing bolt broke off flush in it, not to mention the flush-broken Easy-Out in the center of that.

 

painted a 74 or 75 vette years ago, candy brandywine, only thing left to put on the car were the bezels around the pop up headlights, 8 lousy screws to payday, well i figured it was a no brain job so i let one of the guys do it, and you guessed it, he put the 2 long screws right thru the top of the headlight covers, i don't think i was ever so pissed, had to fix it and blend the whole nose of the car. matter of fact, i'm still pissed, and that was 15 years ago!

 

"If it's stuck, force it. If it breaks it needed replacing anyway."

 

I have been told by people who know me on more than one occasion that I have the worst luck of anyone they know. I feel your pain. Once after searching 2 years for a rare piece of tempered glass for one of my cars, I decided to put it up on the second floor of my garage so nothing would happen to it. I even cleaned out a corner for it for safe keeping until needed. As I was putting some parts on a shelf in another area a small part fell, landed onto the toe of my shoe, took an unnatural bounce and you guessed it - flew into the corner nicking the edge of the glass shattering it into a million pieces. Dammit! What are the odds? For me - 100%. I repel good luck.

 

Poor fuzzy little forest creature.

 

Yeah ... I feel your pain .
Although ... If you keep reading these replies , at least you will feel better about your spelling and punctuation ....

Have a better day tomorrow ....

 

I worked in a body shop as the painter. I did a repair/paint match on a very tough to match door/fender/hood. Took me several hours of tinting etc. just as I had the paint done,shut off the booth fan, the owner of the car shows up and wants to see how the paint match was. My boss takes him in the booth and they are BS'ing when the guy leans back against the wet paint on the fender. I freak out but kept it to myself. The boss says sorry, sh*t happens, just repaint it. I force dry it with heat lamps, spend more time than the aorigianl paint time to wet sand and feather it out. I spend several more hours matching the paint again.....fast forward to customer comes back while the paint is wet again and wants to look at it again. I'm like I rather not have anyone in the booth because the paint is wet and don't want another accident. He goes to the boss, wouldn't you know it...I look and they are in the booth looking at the paint match again. I leave the booth with them in it and 5 minutes later the boss says to me.....hey jim, the customer knelt down to look at the lower section of the fender and put his hand on the fender to balance himself. Of course you know who got to paint it for the third time.....

 

More of an "oh shit" moment. I was drifting something out with a punch and a big hammer. I gave it everthing I had and missed the punch. Hit my thumb square on. Was so mad, I was looking for something to hit with the hammer. My T tub was sitting there with no fenders so decided to hit the tire. All this happened in milli-seconds. As the hammer is travelling down at the tire at light speed it dawns on me that it will rebound. Too late as by the time I processed the thought it had rebounded and whacked me in the forehead. New pain. Now I was pissed, so thru the hammer and it went right thru my walk out door on my garage. This wasn't getting any better. Got to learn to control my temper. hahaha Pat.

 

I've had a few of those moments, Actually too many to list...

 

We have all done it..All of my cars have a spot or two I could point out where I whacked it with something. My 1970 Chevelle has a spot that caused me to hate spring loaded floor-jack handles

 

my 40 merc convert...first time out,ever .my lower garage has a semi-steep hill to go up.i did not realize that the front end of the car was so long,and the steepest part of the hill was going to catch the splash panels under the car.i heard something drag under the car. when i got out to see what had dragged,the splash pan had wrapped that newly painted fender up under itself and put a crease in the lip.i still have a 10 inch crack in the paint and that fender is bowed.i used my allotment of words up for the next 15 years

 

I backed off a church roof in 1993. All the way down I was having one of those dammit moments and was calling myself all kinds of stupid. Crushed both wrists, the doctors said he didn't have anything there to set, the bones were just "powder".