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

Had to sell it, them.

 

plan to finish my first car in 1984 , that dream never happened its still sitting in the barn . next plan was to learn to drive that hasnt happened either. i live in a crazy mixed world inside my head


Jen

 

Lesson learned the hard way= Never leave a Body Dollie or anything heavy on the roof of the car your are hammering on the side.

 

Not my project but a buddy of mine had a concrete pad that was on the lot the house he bought sat on. He let a guy he worked with use it once to work on his '77 Trans AM that belonged to the guys dad, who gave it to him on his 21st birthday. I'm not a Trans Am guy, but it was a pretty damn nice car, all original, nearly flawless, and had a tad over 54 grand on the odometer. Now..the bad thing about this pad was that it sat on the edge of a gully that had been cleared out until it was almost at the bottom. This guy is is soing something inside the car, he somehow knocks it off the jackstands and it hits the ground running backwards down the gully. Hit a tree at the bottom, demolished the rear end, and the guy broke his arm and a rib.

Also had a coil spring pop out of the '64 Tbird once when the compressor broke. That sucked.

 

Started with a 64 Catalina I drove in High School. Sold it in 72 after I beat the tar out of it. Long about 76 I decided I needed it back. I was pulling the Engine out of it [they beat it worse than I did] and my engine hoist that I had just got back after loaning it to a "friend" started lifting the old engine out and it comes down cause the jack is broken and takes my right index finger off at the first knuckle. is was repaired and works pretty good to this day.
Then a few months later the same car sitting on jack stands, [The cheep tin ones] without any rear tires on it. I came home from work on a Saturday and brought some tires home for it and put them on. I then proceeded to crawl under neath and put the drive shaft and cross member in it. I hear a creaking noise and the car is on top of me one of the jack stands gave out and when it fell the rest of the stands gave out. I couldn't move and yelled for someone, no one was home no neighbors around, so I could just push up with my chest and raise the car so I took the drive shaft out and slid over into the tunnel and got off of the creeper and slid out from under the car. If I had not put the tires on the car which had been on the stands for a couple weeks, I would not be writing this now.
The stands went in the trash and I now only buy the good heavy ones. And sold that damn pain in the ass car. and I never bought it back again!!

 

Lost my business due to bankruptcy from excess medical debt.

 

Set myself on fire today...again.

Seems to be something I do on a regular basis.
Project just doesn't seem right until I'm on fire.

 

Finding out that the previous owner builder of our 1932 sedan had welded the frame together about 6" narrower than original and then reworked the body to match.

 

This is the worst grinder vs. hand fight i have ever entered myself into. Fortunately it was not while working on my vehicles but while working at a customers house cutting the tails off of rafters that were spaced too close together at the customers request. 37 stitches later and a severed artery. Keep the guards where they belong. This public service announcement has been brought to you by my wallet being a few thousand dollars lighter.

 

Why post stuff like that... Admittedly having nothing to do with the subject either!!

 

I was working at the Datsun dealer and I leaned onto my remote starter button and got my finger under the Alt. belt and the Alt pulley. I pulled the belt until I could get my finger out between the belt and pulley.

 

My '33 sedan was in the shop getting prepped for paint, had the front wheels off so we could pull the fenders. Front was sitting on a floor jack under the crossmember. Had to move the car back so they could move another car into the shop. We were pushing the car back when the jack ran into some junk on the floor. Jack stopped, car didn't... The jack slipped off the cross member and up into the bottom of the radiator, and screwed up both aprons and the bottom of the grille shell.

 

Body work on my squarebird was just finished but the engine wouldn't start. I left the keys in the on position and stood between the open drivers door and body while my dad fiddled with the engine. I still don't know what happened but all of a sudden VROOM the fucking engine started and the transmission somehow kicked into reverse. It dragged me across the street about 30 feet.

Luckily I flew away right before the car crashed into my neighbors truck and a tree and stopped. My dad then came running over because the engine was still running and the car was still in reverse. The drivers front tire ran my foot over and my left knee and shin were bleeding bad. I had a limp for a couple weeks and my right arm had a scratch/cut from my arm pit to the palm of my hand from the door. What hurt more was paying someone else to fix shit that shouldn't have happened.

 

2 main ones:
1. Gearbox rebuilt on OT car (66 Triumph) and was putting it back in so underneath the car. All good but although everything was lined up it just would not go back in..... it'd been 'one of those dayse' where nothing went right. Instead of walking away and leaving it - I lost it and kick the bejeezus out of it. The gearbox fell and I tried to catch it.... jammed my right hand on the bulkhead/tunnel and main box casing on my chest. Chest hurt like hell and hand was losing a lot of blood but i glued it after some hot water cleansing. 2hrs later at home I flexed it - to show concerned GF it was OK - and the tendon snapped. Microsurgery fixed it but finger won't curl completely ever again.

2. Friends 64 Fairlane wouldn't start - so went through everything to see if we could sort it. His GF was pi**ed that she was going to miss her appointment( hair ir nails or spry tan or some crap) and was out of the car. I was leaning in and she slammed the door on my hand. Of course the damn car started as she did this.... he panicked when I yelled and the car lurched forward for what seemed like forever as it broke all my fingers and a couple of main bones...... - do NOT lean into a car and leave your hand between the door and frame

 

The grinder incidents make me cringe badly. Infact i dont even read them full. Honest. I used to do work without guard and all in the beginning. Now if i can avoid the cuttin disk you can bet i will.

Anyway. worst that happened was a Socket handle right into my eyeball!
Was tightening the very last bolt of the rear suspension after some 15 hours of work, i was basically tucked under one of the arches and pullin hard to tighten it.
All of a sudden i see black and feel an incredivle pain. Couldnt open my eyes, the left from the pain, the right cause it would make the left hurt more LOL
Was feelin my face soaked so i thought it was blood and i was sure i poked my eyeball out, i managed to crawl into the house by feelin the walls and openin my right eye about a millimiter. Ran to the mirror and you have no idea how happy i was to see my eyeball was "fine" and just lacrimating like hell.
Couldnt sleep a single minute from the pain, but was ok in 2 days. scary shit thou.

 

Was looking for an oil leak that only leaked when the truck was running so I crawled under the front end of the truck to inspect for the leak when the truck overheated and blew the bottom radiator hose off. Needless to say I went from being under that truck to being damn near named in a split second. That was the worst pain I've felt through out my whole body ever

 

Sorry for wasting your precious time. I posted it as a reminder that safety equipment is there for a reason.

 

I had a car on jack stands when one broke and the 3600 pound car fell on me. I was on my side tightening an oil cooler line just behind the drivers seat...I held the car up with my shoulders and could not breath or move. I assure you that when this happens the first thing you think is OH SH(oo)t..how do I get out of this ..then try and lift the car with your shoulders and wiggle out...then the lights go out and kinda you go away.
Someone just happened by at the moment the car fell and grabbed a jack , jacked the car up a bit , dragged my no breathing butt out and could not do cpr because he couldn't get my locked jaw open while he was doing this, I was hearing real nice music, which I did not want to hear and was busy trying to make it go away. After hearing real nice music and fighting to make it go away, for a while I decided to come back. I was up and around the same day.
I was very very sore for months...well hurt like hell, felt like I had been beat with a baseball bat everyday.
I do not use cheap jack stands anymore.

 

Set myself on fire...again...yesterday. Not the worst thing I've done but seems to be the most common "stupid" thing I do in the shop

 

Wow no where near as bad as most but young and dumb managed to get a 302 ford short block under the hood of my 71 comet gt by hand. I stacked a couple of 4x4s on a floor jack to be able to move the block high enough to clear the frame mounts while aligning the bell housing. I threaded 2 lower head bolts to use as hand grips and while rocking the block the 4x4s slipped off the jack , engine dropped about 3" crushing and pinning my right pinkie finger between the block and steering box. It was definatley an eye opening expirience.

 

LOL
I like the way you said it as if it was routine exercise
I almost set my self on fire once too now that you said it. I removed the fuel lines from a inner fender to weld a bracket and spilled some gas, on a dirt surface, waited a good 20 minutes to make sure it evaporated, then lowered the mask and started weldin the bracket. When i rised the mask there was a foot of flames in front/under me!!! tank fuck i had a blanket handy....could have blown up with the car.

 

wife came into the shop and wondered where in hell I got this car...... I sure wish my shop was further from the house!!!!

 

Found another project truck

 

Ha ha ha!

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

The worst thing was knocking over a brand new beer.....the second worst was hitting the end of my big toe with a full overhead swing of a 24oz dead blow ball pein hammer.

 

Car was finished when the owners of the Chrysler dealer I worked for got caught steeling from the bank.75 cars and 1.3 million,now after 20 years I am out of work.
I always did a fair amount of side work at home doing welding and machine work.
My house garage bairly had enough room to walk in,equipment takes a lot of real estate.
So I start my own business and clear out the garage.
Now I can rebuild it the way I always wanted.
Not so easy,when you work for yourself. Four years later and a lot of help from friends I rebuilt the garage. Epoxy floors,tig welder milling machine,lathe,everything to work on just my stuff.life is good....... Now I get some hair brained idea to repower my finished car.
I decided to take out the great running flatty od trans and hail rand rear for a nailhead Doug Nash 5 and a 57 olds rear.
I pull the motor out replace the rear I have been working on for a year,and place the nailhead in.
Now is where it goes wrong...
I knew I had to replumb the fuel system but I just plugged it.
Car on four jack stands waist high I have a mock up motor in place and start trimming with a cut off wheel to get it in far enough.
I cut the fuel line while I was inside the car,gravity fed it sprays hot liquid death all over.
I jump out and it's taking off. Sprayed the fender the frame and it just keeps coming.
Tried to smother it to no avail. Then I see the extinguisher in the corner,I pull the pin and NADA.....it died while in storage while rebuilding the dam garage!!!!
Now black smoke has taken over I can't see more than five feet.just about to abandon everything and I see a jacket out of the corner of my eye that I placed on the bed of my 32 pickup.
As I kept flailing it over the flames and holding it down,slowly I started to win.
It seemed like hours but I'm shure it was seconds I had it out.
Opened the doors for it was last December and it was cold. The smoke bellowed out for quite a while.walked into the house and the wife was watching tv as if nothing happened.
I just stared and said we almost lost everything we own.
Now I have six extinguishers in the garage and in several places throughout the house,guys it happens fast. Be carefully out there.

 

Winter came

 

I know this guy. He was on his back under the dash installing a amp meter on a POS import. Thought the car was in neutral and started the car to make sure gauge worked. Car was in gear fired up took off and went thru the roll up door and hit the side of the garage on the way out. Destroyed the garage door and the car door this guy was hanging out of and car piled into a berm outside. Black eye, bruised arm and ribs. Destroyed car and two rows of garage door panels. Bad day at the shop.

 

The 2nd inauguration.