I've been watching a guy take the gas tank out of a Lincon for a couple of days now using only a bumper jack to hold up the back of the car, and I thought that was bad, but..........
guy down the street was working with another guy and he thought they were both out....lowered the truck and heard a scream. i cringe just thinking about it. I am so paranoid myself that I use multiple jack stands, a jack and most of the time put a chain around the frame and hook it up to the engine picker too.
I have a friend who purchased a 69 Camaro from the mother of the 18 year old previous owner who was found dead under it, after the jack slipped. So, i'm paranoid when it comes to getting under cars. I'd never trust just a jack.
I won't get under any car without multiple jackstands, a jack within arm's reach and when alone my cell phone at my side...call me paranoid, but I know the EMT's would have trouble moving my 400+ pound ass around if I got hurt...
I can imagine. When I was in High School I worked as a remover for a local funeral home.... I saw shit I didn't think was possible. I've been hurt a few times under a car/truck. Had a driveshaft I was working on under a school bus fall and beat the crap out of my leg. I thought it was broken, but wasn't. Another time I had gas drip in my eyes and burnt like hell.
had a friend put a clutch in my Dodge. Pulled the tailshaft out on a incline!! He had a very large education when it came down the ramps, and ran him over breaking his ribs ouch!!!!!!!!!!!
i used to work at a rod shop in norcal. shop kid. i was always the one detailing the underside of the car the night before the show while all the other guys were still bolting stuff on. when ever we had a car on the lift id always end up hitting my head on something. it sucked being 6'3" in a shop full of 5'9". outside of that it was the greatest time of my life.
one time when i was under my car, a buddy came over and started telling me a funny story about what he'd been doing the night before. it made me laugh so hard i hit my head on the floorpan and blood was running down. it was a really, really funny story though
I pulled the driveshaft out of my 1 ton crew cab truck. My driveway is sloped, so away it went. Smart me put my foot in front of the wheel to stop it. It did stop it, right on it. Hurt like hell and I was stuck for a couple of hours.. When I was a longhair, my beautiful locks got wound up in the wheels of my creeper. Roll any which way and more pain happens... I ended up somehow rolling over and crawling out from under the car with the creeper hanging from my head.. I still prefer cardboard to this day!
I also had a buddy who was laying down welding under a late model chevy truck, and he did not realize that he was heating up the factory undercoating they put on the frames. The coating got so hot it ran off the frame , and onto the side of his face. The coating burned into skin, and you know how undercoating is he couldn't get it off quickly. To this day he has a huge reddish scare on the side of his face.
I still pack a marked up fingernail on my right hand where a guy hit the starter switch on a training aid in trade school and ran my finger through the crank pully with the belt. Broken front tooth from an 1-1/8 wrench under a 65 Chev on the alignment rack. Scar on my right thumb from missing a pickle fork with a 2-1/2 lb hammer (I'm left handed). Four stitches in that one. I broke a drill bit when working on my T and the broken bit took a chunck out of the back side of my right thumb. It didn't hurt a lot but the little neighbor kid watching me puked in the middle of the street on the way home after that one. And some scares with jack stands not on solid ground that I would rather not discuss. I was hell on wheels on safety in the 13 years I taught automechanics and only had to fill out 4 reports on kids getting hurt in that period of time and none of those were serious. One did find out that you don't get up on top of the engine and crank it over with the fuel line disconnected from the carb. No fire but three others held him upside down under the faucet on the sink for several minutes. That redneck jack makes me cringe every time I see it.
plenty of times....buddy and I were under the lift, he had a prybar on the lower a-arm and it slipped and the end hit me right in the sternum...knocked me on my ass....hit my st. christopher pendant...
Ive busted my head and knuckles plenty of times but the thing that scared me most is i had the front end of my camaro jacked up about 4 feet in the air installing headers underneath it, i had two huge jackstands to each side of it. Needless to say i left the jack holding the pressure of the car and didnt lower the jack ontop of the stands, went to jam the header up and the jack slipt and fell onto the jackstands. Not a great feeling thinking your going to die with a oil pan to the head.
Got squashed under my own Ambulance once, no real damage but a lot of pain! We were supporting the firefighters during one of Victorias largest bush fires in years. This is an ecerpt from a story about it I wrote for the Ambulance news letter.
At the ripe age of 14.. I had a 55 chevy.. 6 cyl.. Powerglide.. It was time for a hotrod... Just gotta get that 6/glide outta there... After dicking around under it with my handfull of tools I got with a few books of S&H green stamps.. It was time to drop the glide.. Well... If you unbolt the bell housing.. Trans mounts from the frame.. I figured.. One good pull on the tail housing and I was in business.. It would slam straight down to the ground... WRONG.....The trans slips down the converter (What the hell is a torque converter??) until the mounts clear the frame horns.. Then the weight of the engine (Stock front mounts) Added to the weight of the cast glide pins your hand under the tail housing breaking many bones in your hand.. Add in the fact that I was home alone and there was no one to get the damn thing off me for 30 min. or so..
OUCH! Once I was under my fathers hotrod polishing for a show (No it wasn't a show car, the club had a stand!) He was adjusting the clutch forgetting I was under there, I was a little guy at 14 years old. The car rolled back and I was pinned under the sump, once again nothing broken but it pushed the air out of me and the thumping on the floor pan must have woken him up! That fan spinning inches from my head when he started it up to move scared me a little too. Doc.
under the car i've been lucky because i'm a little paranoid. i always use stands and block em up. i have managed to get my fair share of cuts and bruises. the one below, i didn't get under the car, it came from a 36 chevy pu door. it took 3 stitches inside to close an artery and a vein & 8 stitches on the outside. broke a thumb inside the door of a 73 newport while trying to remove a regulator. needed stitches but didn't get them. now i know how all the old men i knew as a kid had such beat up hands.
I was changing the wheels on my daily driver, avalanche, with a friend. Well he was pushing hard on the wheel for some reason and I was using a car jack on the front crossmember. We were too lazy to get the stands out cause it was cold. he pushes, the jack handle jumps out of my hand, I look down and the truck is falling, he was still holding onto the 22inch rim. WTF. He jams it back agains the hub, the lugs catch on the inside of the rim and keep it from smashing to the ground. that is what saved my cross drilled rotors from certain death. his brother is my best friend and when we were in High School my car fell on both of us while we were changing the trans mount. the only thing that save us was a spare jackstand that I had set off to the side of my head when I decided not to use it since the car was driven up ramps. F RAMPS, they are dangerous. car rolled and then teetered on the spare stand. we both looked at each other then went inside to clean up our pants.
Since I'm a licenced mechanic, this happens almost daily. The worst happened while I was doing an alignment on a newer buick. It was on a drive on hoist with 2 rolling jacks in the center. I was under the car adjusting the camber on the RF wheel ( its easier with the weight off the wheels) and the car slipped off the front rolling jack. My head was in the wheel well and I pulled it out just momnets before my head was crushed between the car and the hoist. The feeling of your head getting squished by the frame of a car is something I'll never forget.I dont know how i was able to get it out in time. Luckily i wasn't badliy injured. The doctor siad I didn't Brain my damage.
I had my 55 olds up on ramps to remove the treadlevac and had to move the shiter to get it out,wrong move as it came rolling down and I am glad the door was shut as it stopped it. I was working in my grandparents garage and no one was home as they were in florida but I was able to get out fron under it and I noticed the creeper was broke,I did have some bruised ribs that hurt for a couple weeks. I did wonder how I was going to get out from under that olds but managed to get off the creeper was able to squeeze out from under it and wont do that again.
As a mechanic, I get something maybe once a week or so. My pet peeve is when working on a brand new car, maybe 12 miles on it, and the ONE speck of dirt will find your eye. WTF??????????
Me,too. And while not as exciting as being crushed, let me state firmly that if you only have 1/2" of clearance between your fat gut and the bottom of your car,you Do Not want to piss off a cat who is under there with you.
Just the regular bangs and bruises for me. I saw the guy down the street from me get crushed to death under his Pinto when his kid jumped in the car to pretend he was driving and the weight shifted the car and knocked it off the cinder blocks he was using for jacks. I always use muliple heavy duty jack stands and my big hydraulic jack under the car just in case. J ust a couple months ago one of the club guys I know was under his '50 Chevy pickup doing something with a grinder or cutoff wheel and he didn't realize he caught a fuel line. Sparks from the grinder ignited dripping fuel and he couldn't get back out from under the truck in time to save himself. His wife saw smoke from the kitchen window and found him. Sad day.
A friend of mine, stock car driver, got killed under a motor home. He was a great mechanic, but apparently was in a hurry to go on vacation, so he put it up unsafely and died when it came down. One of his young kids found him crushed to death. If you get under a vehicle, use good, safe jackstands and a back-up support, as well. Throw those cheap sheet metal stands away, too. I had one break one time and I cut the others up and tossed them so nobody else could ever use them. Cars are my life, but I'd just as soon not have them be my death, too.
ive never got hurt because of a car falling on me..thank god!, but ive had the typical "working on car wounds" from working under cars. My policy is..Good Jack, Good Jack stands, wood blocking (as a back up) and if i feel necessary..i put old rims laying flat under each tire. maybe this is why Ive never had one come down on me..oh and after i have it up, i shake the shit out of it to be sure it is steadfast. I cant wait until i can afford a Lift!..im getting too old for this garage floor and cardboard mattress. I can believe there are fools like the one pictured above...happens all the time, people just dont know the risks until something bad happens.
I saw a bay lift fold stripping all the stops on it's way down just as the kid emerged holding a starter I had a truck fall off a lift a new extended cab with a 8ft box had under coating on the frame and shifted on the pads then came crashing down while I was under it luckily one leg got caught in the front wheel opening I was scared shitless shaking and white
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