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

My first dedicated drag car was a 56 Chevrolet model 150 Business Coupe with a 396 BBC, Powerglide, and 68 Camaro 12 bolt (5.38 on a Moroso Brute Strength differential). I used to flat tow the car tpo the track. I have my girlfirned (now wife) in the tow car while I'm holding the tow bar; she's to back the car SLOWLY so I can set the hitch. She stabs the gas, and my hand is caught between the tow bar and bumper; breaking three fingers, that I X-Rayed and splinted myself, and still wen to the drags. Another time, I'm splitting the retainer ring on an axle to remove the bearing. I'd lent my brass hammer to a friend, so I was using a steel hammer. A chip/fleck flies off the chisel and goes right through my jeans, imbedding itself in my groin (missed the important parts). I worked that afternoon, and use a fluoroscope and needle holder to remove the chip/fleck from my groin while a coworker actually operates the fluoscope. He can't believe I'm digging away at it without local anesthesia, but I got it out. No infection either. I no longer lend out any of my tools. I think most of us have had the metal fleck in an eye, burned hair from a carb backfire, or flash burns from welding. I won't go into the things I saw in my career; but it's amazing just what the human body can take that we dish out to it, caused by our own inattention. Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

back when I was getting started, just a teenager of course and my tool set was very limited. I had a used '66 chev and wanted to remove the resonator at the back and put a straight piece of pipe on it. So I jacked up the car with the only jack I had - the bumper jack. I started sawing the resonator off with a hacksaw, pulling on it occasionally when I heard a loud creak - not sure How I did it but as I jumped over the neighbor's chainlink fence and hit the ground, the bumperjack smacked the chainlink on the other side right in front of my face. Now, I was unhurt but the very next car thing I bought was a set of safety stands from Honest Charley's Speed Shop and I still use them today...
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I was working on my wagon a couple of weeks ago and had the ass end up on a jack. I thought I had the jackstands positioned correctly but obviously not! I was underneath it and turned the handle to move the jack out of the way. The wagon dropped and I was able to turn the handle before the thing crushed me. But my left arm was pinned under the tire with a hell of a lot of weight on it and the gas tank was sitting on my chest allowing me only about 1/4 of a breath at a time. Luckily my wife was outside the house painting and came to my rescue! I probably only had about 10 minutes or so before it would have been a wrap for me. Scary thing only being able to catch less than a half breath and being stuck. This must be what having a true asthma attack feels like!


4 hours later at work. Thank you Coker tire for the souvenier!!!

 

I had a coil spring out of my truck one day , the compressing tool came apart and the pickle fork flew across my shop striking my buddy just below the kneecap.Broke his leg in two places, cost me $30,00.00 and lost a good friendship over it.

 

Wow... this hardly compares but one day I was dropping the starter on my O/T Cutlass and it slipped from my hands and put a nice gash on my forehead.

 

Background: I never used to own a pair of steel toe boots.

Story: When I was building my '48 Anglia gasser, I had cut the bottom half of the firewall for a recess. I had the new recessed piece cut and held in place with 2 vice grips. All was well when I flipped down the welding helmet (before common auto darkening helmets) when I heard a crash followed by extreme pain in my Left Big Toe (remember, no steel toes). The steel fell like a shear and landed on my 1st knuckle on my big toe. I thought I sheared my toe off.

By the time my sock and boot were off my toe was purple and pulsating.

This was back when I was a field auditor for a CPA firm. That week, I was limping around trying to not look like an idiot. Luckily I was auditing a hospital. Their accountant asked me what happened, I told him and he said "take off your shoe" he came back with a doctor. Had to explain the story again. They both had a laugh and said that I could drill the nail, otherwise there was nothing I could do.

What did I learn: Buy steel toe boots and quit the Accounting job.

 

I was just getting a 400 Ford engine running after putting a short block in it. The truck was new and I started it with a starter button on the fenderwell. I was letting the engine warm up and felt the truck starting to pull. I ran around the truck to put it in park, but it started moving before I got there and ran into the workbench. Replaced the grille surround and it was still a new truck.

 

How bout somebody else's project? I was finishing a gas tank install on my Dad's '62 Nova and grabbed a large common screwdriver to align the rear filler neck...and this ended in about a 4" gouge up the side of the 1/4 panel. I've never done anything like that to one of my vehicles even. I felt like a real turd, and and we went to a few show where he would tell people his "free mechanic" did it while pointing at me. He finally got it fixed thankfully!

 

My Dad and I were modify the size of the spring eyes on the rear of my Scout. We were using a big f#ing drill - something like 3/4" and probably 1 HP. The springs were still attached to the truck on one end so the attack angle for the drill and bit left very little room to hold it properly. In turn, my Dad and I broke fingers in our hands as the drill bit caught and wrapped the handle into our hands against the frame. We promptly quit for the day and regrouped to finish the next day. We took the springs out this time. Man that hurt.



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This is nothing compared to some of the stories but it made me thankful and gave me a lesson. I was lying on my back putting a flywheel on my truck. It was just myself like it usually is so the plan was to lift the flywheel and place it on the floor jack lying behind my head and support it there and jack into place on the crank. Still lying on my back I get the flywheel on the jack and get everything lined up and thought it was supported when the flywheel slips off the jack and combs my hair just missing my forehead. I think I may have had an angel with me because I can just imagine the fw teeth cutting a nice groove in my noggin leaving me under the truck till my wife coming out there the next morning to find me.

 

Worst thing that happened to me really didn't involve the car directly. I was working in the garage on the bodywork, and the flourescent lights above the car went out. No way to really get to them, and I couldn't see without them, so I set up a ladder beside the car to get to them.
I couldn't quite reach the lamps to replace, so I stepped over and put one foot on the cowl to get closer. Got the lamps replaced, but as I was moving back to the ladder my coverall pants leg caught on the wiper stud and I fell head first to the floor. I tried a move to keep from landing on my head and shoulder, but didn't totally avoid it. I did avoid hitting any sharp metal on the car and didn't break anything, but I was so sore for days that I took a week off from the build. Took many weeks to really get back to 100%, and I still can't believe I was so fortunate to avoid serious damage from such a stupid mistake.

 

Maybe not a at home project but while at work
Performing underwater repairs on a offhsore drilling rig..

The water is quite cool.
So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered
industrial water heater.
This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea.
It heats it to a delightful temperature.
It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is
taped to the air hose.
Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several
times with no complaints.
What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the
hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit.
This floods my whole suit with warm water.
It's like working in a Jacuzzi.
Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to
itch.
So, of course, I scratched it.
This only made things worse.
Within a few seconds my ass started to burn.
I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done.
In agony I realized what had happened.
The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into
my suit.
Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't
stick to it, however, the crack of my ass was not as fortunate.
When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding
the jellyfish into the crack of my ass.
I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator.
His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with
five other divers, were all laughing hysterically.
Needless to say, I aborted the dive.
I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression
stops totalling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface
to begin my chamber dry decompression.
When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass
helmet.
As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter
running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub
it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber.
The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't shit for two days because
my ass was swollen shut.
So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much
worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your ass.
Happy New Year

 

I was checking a tailshaft leak on my 1934 Ford pick up. I jacked the truck up with a floor jack and slipped a jack stand under the frame and lowered the truck onto the jackstand and then I removed the floor jack and crawled under it to have a look. I must have bumped the jackstand and it collapsed to the bottom setting. The truck frame landed right accross my chest, I just layed there thinking.....this can't be happening to me. Luckily I had all four wheels and tires bolted on and I was able to slide out from under. As I was stumbling around the garage trying to catch my breath and recover from the pain, my wife walked into the garage.....next thing she is crying and mad a hell at me. Lesson learned....always a least three forms of support when going under a car. ALWAYS!!! Gary p.s I hurt for two months after.

 

Worst thing that happened to my 52 Buick build was discovering the engine was all seized after being told it had been reconditioned. Guy never told me which century it had been done. Worst thing was, rather than get it rebuilt, I had it pulled and then sold the engine off and then sold off the whole project as an epic fail.

 

Been checking out this thread that I started awhile back,and I thought my worst day working on my car was bad? Man,you guys have some shit happen to you,way worst than myself....keep them coming...LOL

 

I was working on my 1923 T-bucket and was standing right outside the drivers door. I went to start the car and guess what....yeah, it was in gear and I had never fixed the neutral safety switch and the bitch started up, ran over my right leg and knocked me down. It ran up to just above my knee and pinned me there. I could not get up and nobody else was home. I live in a country subdivision so the neighbors are a couple of house distance apart. I laid there in pain and tried to figure out how to get the car turned of and get it off my ankle. I had no idea what to do and finally I started yelling out loud "help"..."help" and I didn't think anyone heard me so I grabbed the top of the door and could barely pull myself up enough to get to the key and turn it off. Then as I was rolling it off of me a neighbor came running up to help. Ankle is all messed up still. Lesson: make sure that neutral safety switch works, especially if you have an open wheeled car!

 

Finding out that my wife has terminal cancer last April. Pretty much put a stop to the rebuild of my Essex that day. I'm just now getting back into the shop to help take my mind off things.

 

Doing stuff with the fuel , Set fire to the wifes car .....................

Never mind , it was a Corvair ...........

She never saw the funny side of it.

 

Snap, did the same back in the 80's, wow it stung!

 

Loading an old Dodge on a flatbed with a winch, I never put jackstands under the rear of the trailer, just counting on the towing ball to hold the trailer straight. Yep, the hitch let go and the trailer, with the weight of the Dodge on the rear tilted up suddenly with me leaning over the front. Broke my shoulder joint all to hell and separated the bicep. Now I've got a metal shoulder joint.

 

One of my best was in high school mechanics class. A girl brought in an older 5 speed Honda to replace the battery and check a couple of other things. Well we got it taken care of and told her to get in and start it. One of her friends saved her some walking and reached in the window and turned the ignition over. Being a stick, the motor turned over. Somehow the motor turned and the thing took off. The only problem was it was parked in line with ramps on our 4 post lift. Did i mention I was standing in front of it when it took off. The damn thing ran right up the ramps as if someone was inside drove it up on the lift. Thought i was safe jumping over the end of the lift until i saw a car chasing me. I got out of the way just in time for the car to run off the rack and smash a new diagnostic machine into the wall.

 

I sold a frame to a guy that I spent a few hours removing from a car.I took it home and he comes by to get it with just a single axle trailer. I have to remove a bunch of stuff to get it to fit. While we were loading it on the trailer, I fell off the trailer when I stumbled on some crap he left lying there. Break a rib. He leaves and I go to the emergency clinic. Cost me $150. I sold the frame for only $200. A days work and 3 weeks of pain for $50 profit. Oh, the pain pills.....make that $25 profit.

 

I was under an 80 Cutlass dropping a driveshaft so I could hook up a towbar and forgot to chock the wheels as I was running late to get the car to a tranny shop before it closed. When I loosened the last bolt I realized my mistake but couldn't roll out fast enough.(I was skinny then). It drug me down the driveway into the street where luckilly a passerby stopped and knocked on the door and recommended my wife call an ambulance and wrecker to lift the car off me.
Damm near broke my neck, crushed my shoulder, and lost a good bit of skin on my back.
Most recently my wife asked why I had a big hole in my jeans near my crotch. Amazing that you can focus on welding that final tack even with a distraction like that.

 

Holy crap!
Lets see that scar.

 

I would have to say ran out of Money...

 

Painting the underside with hammered finish rustoleum while drunk. Yep, couldn't leave the house for days and ruined my pillow sheets.

 

working on a dump truck at my dads business to weld a plate over a hole in the bed and while gringing the 4 .5 inch grinder jumped up and went across the top of my wrist thank god for the welding gloves i had on that day. no harm done to me just made me wise up

 

While changing the fuel pump on a '63 Thunderbird I owned. Laying under car I remove the fuel lines and I bit of gas runs out and goes straight into my ear. If you've never had gas in your ear it is quite excruciating. I couldn't do anything for it except lay with that ear turned down and take deep breaths. Even turning my heard hurt. Have had trouble hearing on that side since then. Wish I had the car still.

 

i was welding on my car one day and somehow a spray paint can had been wedged up in between the quater panel and the wheel well and long story short it exploded and was shooting out a four foot flame out of the trunk of the car

 

When I was much younger I made the mistake of getting under a car held up by a jack. I rolled out just in time to avoid serious injury when it came tumbling down. Still banged up my leg, but I never made that mistake again.