stupid things we did as teenagers while working on our cars

Long hair and an open spindle drill press comes to mind .

Brian

 

I was 16ish and fabricating some upper shock mounts for my '40 chev pickup. I was grinding down the welds when I set the contents of the garbage can on fire with the sparks from the grinder I was using. I picked up the garbage can and carried it outside, but it never occurred to me the sparks could set a fire...lol. When my dad came home, wow...did I get in trouble....lol.

 

well it wasn't me but I witnessed my cousin pull his pickup up the hill into his yard and then proceed to take the driveshaft out of it to replace a u joint. The thing ran over him and ended up rolling across the alley into my yard and into a tree, best part was his girlfriend trying to open the door to stop it and he had locked the doors. He had to use a hammer to knock tghe driveshaft out too

 

1967. leaned over the fender of my 55 with 327 and dual quad cross ram intake (no air filters). wile adjusting the timing by ear, it backfired through the carb and burnt off my eyebrows and lashes on one side. does that count as stupid?

Russ

 

Never did that but saw it happen. Ouch.

I DID roll mine up in a creeper wheel though.

 

Now I am a dumb arse, thats for sure but the only thing I can honestly say I did was priming the carb with a jar of petrol!
Hell I have never even seen a bumper jack!!

Doc.

 

I was pulling a cotter pin out with Vice grips at the local wreckers , it was stubborn so I sat down and pulled real hard...wonked myself between the eyes so hard I saw stars. First thing I did was look around to see if anyone was watching.

 

I've got a few. Trans fliud replace on OT Dodge Tradesman van using only 1 floor jack. Fuel pump/ oil pan gasket on OT plymouth valiant, again supported by a lone floorjack. Drove another van about 30 miles home with the engine cover/ dog house off and a gallon gas can between the seats hooked up to the fuel pump. Drove it another week to work like that. My younger brother is only 10 minutes younger but he still does the floor jack thing... I've had a few what the hell are you doin'?! moments when I've come home to see him under the car without jackstands.
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OK, It's 1963, I'm 15, just bought a 33 Plymouth coupe for $35.00, olds motor/trans/rear end, needs wiring. Spent the night with my friend wiring the car...3am we go midnight auto a battery to make this little jewell run. Next morning, my Marine Corps D.I. dad asks where I got the battery..." Oh. borrowed it from a friend."...thinking as quick as I could. He says.." Uh huh, well the friend you "borrowed" it from saw you and called me. Oh crap. " OK, I'll bring it back to him." No you won't he says. What you will do is sell that car and buy him a new one. It's useless to argue with a Marine Corps D.I....you will NOT win. I got $75.00 for the car, minus $15.00 or so for a battery. I made money yea, big deal. I learned a hard lesson and lost a sweet coupe because of it...
"If you have to steal for it, you don't deserve it".....I've never forgotten his words.

 

Back circa 1962, tried to boost a frozen(it was winter)6 volt battery with a 12 volt one. The 6v blew down rather than up as I was leaning over it.

 

took a screwdriver to the eye working on a buddies camaro. Don't remember all the circumstances. But the throttle return spring on the carb broke, flipping the screwdriver out of my hand and into my.

 

I was 17, it was 1992 and it was raining. I had a flat left rear, a bumper jack and a distributor...I juacked the car up, used the spare distributor as a wheel chock and watched the car roll forward over the distributor and fall off the bumper jack. To this very day 20 years later, the drivers side rear 1/4 panel still has a crease in when it came down on the loose rim and tire. Hope I can pound it out someday ha ha ha!

 

I remember a shop teacher I had always reminded those of us with long hair to be careful.
"Could tend to ruin your day." he used to say.

 

I've been foolin with cars for nearly 60 years. I'm happy to say I've never done anything stupid!

Did ya know WD-40 is flamable? And we don't have to be a teenager----Did ya know that if you have your kid lower a frame with a jack while your finger is hanging under it and there is a jackstand below, something will be removed? Luck it was only a tiny piece! Maybe lucky ain't the right word!

I say if we haven't done anything stupid---- we haven't done anything! Let's just say I've done a lot!

 

Back in the 60's I was in Chico CA visiting family. I got board and was wandering around the neighborhood. A kid was working on a 33 or so Ford Pickup. I was in Jr. High. He was in High School. He had a screw jack under the middle of the rear axel, no rear wheels. As he worked on the exhaust the truck was waving back and forth. I knew if I said anything he would just blow me off so I knocked on the door of his house. His dad came to the door. I asked his father if that was his kid working on the car. I informed him that the kid was going to get himself killed and pointed at the rocking PU. The father walked over, grabbed the son by the ankle, hauled him out and gave the truck a kick at the same time. The truck went crashing to the ground with the jack going through the floor of the bed and bending both rear fenders.

If you are that kid, reading this, your welcome!

 

Changed a starter in an Arby's parking lot on my '65 GTO during Buffalo's Blizzard of '77.

Man that really sucked!

 

first car at age 14...modal A coupe...it was 1956...me in Pennsylvania, but, wanting it to be California....wanted a roadster...hack saw was one of the few tools I had in the day......instant roadster...fenders had to come off...freinds helped me get that done on the second day...4 banger came out on day 3 at age fourteen with very modest resources....the car ha d to set until funds were available....two years later I sold it to a freind for $20.........I ruined the car....dumb ass....and learned a valuable lesson. Mr freind had it for 5 years and it was towed to the junk yard for same reasons

 

Changed oil in dad's car.......unplug oil pan and
let motor oil drain onto front lawn.

Grass didn't grow there rest of summer.

 

Wow, to many to list for me,but my favorite. I was about 16 got my first 4 speed car, a '65 Fairlane Sport Coupe genuine K-code Hi-Po. So anyway the thing needed a clutch and a new shifter. So I jacked the front up and put it on some of those k-mart muffler pipe jackstands. I had never removed a transmission before, but I got everything out except the trans. Now it was cold winter and I was outside on the parking spot behind my boyhood home. So I'm laying under the thing, bolts are out and the trans won't budge. About this time my dad comes out,I can see his feet standing outside the car and says whats the matter,so I tell him. To which he says"did you jack up the motor to remove the crossmember?"and I say"yes". So he says "well let the jack down its probably pinned against the floor". He goes back in the house and shuts the door. I did what he told me, and voila the trans parted from the bell housing. So twinkie arms here grabs ahold of that cast iron T-10 and WHAM that sumbich comes out of there right onto my chest and I can't lift it off. Oh and by the way I didn't drain it either, so as I lay there pinned under it all the gear lube comes pouring out of the tailshaft and is running down my collar. I had also only partly removed the shifter so the loose rods were digging into my chest. And of course the car wasn't high enough to roll the trans of my chest. The old man is in the house and can't hear me pleading for help. So eventually I managed to scoot forward with the trans on my chest and weasel my way out from under it. Bruised, bleeding, and soaked in 90 weight. What fun. After a few days and collecting the needed parts I put it back together, but this time I was smart and got two more of thes spiffy mufler pipe jack stands and raised the rear end up. Well I get all done except for the shifter handle on my new Hurst, so I figure I'll set er down and finish that up inside. So the first thing I did was let the front down, then went to the back and set it down, however the parking spot had a pretty good pitch to it, so the car starts rolling away from me towards the stone wall on the neighbors building. I go franticly running after it trying to get the door open only to find I had locked it. Car rolls into the wall. No real body damage, just a bruised ego. Guess it just shows we have all been there and fortunate if we survive. Those are learning experiences you never forget.

 

Whenever this subject comes up I remember using a screwdriver and hitting it with my palm on the battery terminal on my '65 LeSabre which instantly exploded battery acid all over the front of me. I quickly ran into the gas station work bay to wash my eyes and face with water and luckily no serious damage but the next day after my mom washed those jeans they looked like somebody shot me in the crotch with buckshot. I thought that looked "cool" so I wore those pants for a long time thereafter. The "old timers" explained that a hydrogen gas explosion was what took out the Hindenburg. Oh, the humanity!

 

Not for the genuine HAMB, but I tell it anyway:

I worked as a mechanic for BMW, and had a expensive 325ix on the floor for service. It was a car with a manual gearbox, not a automatic

At one time during the testprocedure I had to start the engine with the remote-start from the Diagnosis. And yes, the fucker wasnt in neutral. The car passed me with just a inch or two, after I had walked between the carfront and the garagewall.

The car crunched the Diagnosis before it hit the wall, with all the specialtools hanging. The result on the car was litterary like it had hit the wall...

 

my dumb butt was pulling an engine out of a friends 1948 chevy 235 and the hood wouldnt hold up in place so my jack ass friend told me " lets use this broom stick to hold it up " yup you got it you know whats coming ! the engine got jamed by the fire wall so we pulled it and BOOM! hood comes down and hits me rite in the center of the head...i looked around to see if my buddy was ok but i was the one in pain and after the long ride to the docter with my wife telling me what the hell i was thinking , my buddy in the back seat laughing at me because of our bright idea and the 8 staples to close up the damage , i learned a few things never call your wife after the damage because your a dumb ass , use your buddy to test the set up and last take the dame hood off first ...i was 19..................

 

In 1966 The front bumper on my 55 Buick was bent up a little so I decided to take it off and give the Buick a "gasser" look. Backed it in my dad's dirt floored carport and jacked it up and put some of those cheapie split pipe stands under it and pulled the front tires off to get at the bumper bracket bolts. I'd just crawled out from under it to go get something and it went sideways on the stands and caught one of the posts in the carport knocking it off it's block. It took an hour to jack the car up and get the tires on it and another hour to figure out how to get the post back in place and about a week for my heart beat to calm down. I went though two helicopter crashes in 1968 that didn't scare me that bad.

 

Oh my well lets see leaving a incandescent trouble light on the floor of a jag turned on and go for my one hour lunch only to come back to the drivers floor carpet completely melted!

Using a stereoscope listening to an engine noise getting too close to the pulleys and getting my head pulled and smashed into the front of the rad/engine before the hose on the stereoscope finally broke

Getting pulled over by the police driving my o/t vw bug with no fenders,doors,glass,hood or trunk and sitting on a bucket!! Lucky I was 2 houses away from home and he was sympathetic ( or too lazy to write up that much paper work!)

Spraying some parts off with brake clean into a trash can the 30 minutes later using the torch and setting off an explosion that blew me off my feet and shook the shop!!

I could go on and on but I think I've made my point

A buddy of mine was so hung over one day working on a 80's Chevy van hunched over through the dog house, had the carb off and barfed his lunch right into the engine! He's a big guy so was kinda pinned in their and yacked 2 or3 more time before he came out

 

After changine the tranny in my mustang I had as my first car, I tried to start it to see if it would leak, but it didnt start, so becuase it seemed more likely to me that there was an electrical problem all of a suden? I decided to bump start it, and it fired right up, in reverse becuase I never hooked up the shifter cable, and it drove right off the jackstands and ramps, thankfully getting stuck on one ramp, and I turned it off. Hmm.. Why was it not in park? Stupid. I've fucked myself over a few times by getting in to much of a hurry, so I try and go slow and double check everything now.

 

59 ford galaxie. 14 years old Trying to start the 352 interceptor. I had the hood off. it wouldnt start so i decide to jump it with a pk. I was standing between both vehicles. and I had the ignition key on. I thought the auto trans was in neutral. so I jumped acroos the selnoid with a screwdriver and it fired off. It was running great and I opened the throttle to rev it up. It lurched forward on flat tires pinning my shins between the bumpers. I pulled the coil wire to kill it and it give just enough to let me escape. My shins where dented and are still dented and hurt for quite a time. I stil have the 59 ford and the engine.lNot car related but my cousin and I where about 10 and collecting pop bottles in an attempt to get enough (2cents deposit) to go see the godzilla movie. and I stuck my thumb on my right hand in a bottle and couldnt pull it out. So he hammerd it with a rock and cut a big slice out clear to the bone right at the joint. 50 years later there is still a scar. OldWolf

 

Here's the deal. When you are born, you have two bags. One is experience and it is empty. The other is luck and it's full. The idea is to fill the first one up, before the second one is empty.