What's the dumbest mistake you ever made on your ride and what did it cost you?

Well I just realized I made a monumental mistake (amateur and I'm sure I am not the first one to do it), while doing some fabrication on my ride.

I spent this past Sunday staring and drinking, staring and drinking, at the mistake wondering how the fuck I could of done it. I contemplated on just leaving it until my wife came in the garage and said why does the....look so f&%$ up? It was at that point I knew I couldn't just leave it and live with it.

So I was hoping you guys could make me feel a little better and tell me your war stories and what it cost you to repair your blunder. Hopefully then I can come back and post you a pic of my stupidity and let you laugh away at me. Please true stories only! LOL

 

The biggest mistake I ever made was buying a Downs 32 Ford Vicky on a TCI chassis. The happiest day in my life was selling that POS. If it's not steel, it's not real.

 

You bring this up and want US to post first? Really?

Man up and show some photos now. THEN I'll tell you mine...

 

^^^Yea, wtf is up with that!!! I got plenty but you show me yours and I'll show you mine!!

 

The Dumbest!!!! - Very tired and it was dark (that's my story and I am sticking to it)Used a 3 gallon jug of Roundup in my tractor hydraulic system - Have completely flushed the system several times over the past few years and still have to change filters way to often.

 

Went to the cheapest body shop to paint my '56 when I was in high school (1999)

 

Ok, since there's only a couple people on here who actually know me. I put a nova clip in my 53 GMC when I was ALOT younger. When I marked the clip as to where to cut it, I used a normal 2" wide level to scribe a straight line down the frame to cut it off. All good right? Well on the opposite side of the fram I did the same thing, and even used the same side of the level when I scribed my mark. Cut it off and when i went to put the nova clip up to the stock pickup fram I realized one side was 2" too short.

 

I made a volksrod. I learned alot chopping the roof and mounting a straight axle to a bug but when it was done the state of NH would not let me drive it on the road. I sold it to a guy in TX.

 

did a double screw up some time ago. painted my firewall on my car after hours of hole filling and bodywork. Black with clear. the paint came out kind of foggy looking,,, the paintshop guy says I probably didn't let one of my clearcoats flash enough between coats.

then I tried to sand it down a bit and repaint... well I couldn't paint the color over the old clear.. it lifted. so I started to strip it all down and start the whole process over again. that was about 4 years ago and it is still sitting in the same spot.

should have just left it foggy... it is the firewall... most of it cannot be seen with all the stuff in the way, and even with the hood open I bet no one would have ever noticed. I was on a roll with the car at the time and haven't got back to rolling yet

 

Drove it into a pole. $16,000 and a whole lot of grief from a whole lot of people.

 

Before I kept a check list going,...

Took a fresh build car out for it's maiden voyage, on May 15th. 1977 at 6:45 P.M.,.... And forgot to check the level of dope in the rear axle (fresh build, totally empty) ,.... That cost me,.... ah,... uh-hum,........... I'm,... I'm sorry,.. I thought I could talk about it.

 

..oh... even more stupid than that. I once accidentally put a 65 Mustang on my rotissierie. the whole thing started with a blown headgasket.. then I thought why not pull the motor and paint the engine compartment. snowballed into a bare metal resto on a car I did not really like as much as I had thought.

 

I put Kerosine in my tractor instead of gas...The container was labeled and it was daylight...Sheesh....

 

Using an old vacuum 4wd selector valve without checking for crud. Of course it sent something through the motor leading to three cracked pistons, the decision to put a rebuilt pontiac in instead of rebuilding the 307 I had just installed which led to a two year rebuild. So much for a budget spare parts build...

 

Two in recent memory were both on ford trucks I owned.
One was working on fixing something simple in the engine compartment. Had a trouble lamp for a light, but had a heat lamp in it instead of a bulb. Plus the clips to clip it to the hood or something was broke off. Had it setting in the engine compartment, and burnt thru the plastic formed clutch line, which is a dealer only part, and thus not all that cheap. Then never could seem to get the line bled, so I was driving around with little peddle and tough to shift till the thing died and I parked it.

Another was a few years ago, at a place I was renting before I bought my house. Was laid off and had time on my hands, so took the 302 out of that truck and was going to try putting it in my other truck, that blew the engine, and twisted a rod, had a big hole in the piston, and a nice big gouge in the cylinder wall. Checked compression on the engine, and it was low. Called about getting it machined so I could rebuild it, and price was much more then when I last rebuilt one, and didn't want to stick that kind of money into the truck.

So I clean the engine up, and buy a cheap ring, bearing and gasket kit, and was going to see if that would help at all and if I could get it running. Got it put back together, and in truck, and go to try starting it. I didn't get the injectors in correct, and now I have a huge fireball under the hood, no fire extinguisher. So run and get the garden hose and quickly drag it to the garage, and in the process break the hose where it screws into the faucet. Fahhk.

Now the flames are getting nice and high, almost about hitting the rafters. Try pushing the truck outside the garage, so at least the garage won't burn to the ground. Can't get the big pig of a truck rollin. Luckily I then saw I had a big 5 gallon bucket of degreaser and water I was washing parts in the yard still full. Dumped that on there and that killed most of the fire, and was able to refill bucket and put it out. Later tested the engine, and still low compression.

Finally found a used engine on craigslist for 200 bucks, dropped it in, patched up all my now burnt wiring and plastic vaccum lines in the truck. I Used the truck to haul all my stuff moving to my new house, and flat towed the other truck and a car when moving and that cheap used engine is still running good today, 2+ years later.

 

I started "fixing-it-up" and cant find a place to stop!

 

Putting the battery and the fuel tank in the trunk of my roadster... I had just finished fueling up and wasn't paying attention like I usually did and bumped the metal fuel nozzle on the positive battery cable inside a trunk full of gas fumes. I got it out pretty quickly and no damage was done to the car other than a trunk full of white powder from the extinguisher. Cost me a pair of eyebrows and a pair of underwear. You shoulda seen the look on the guy's face who was fueling up beside me... I think he had to change his shorts too!

 

About 17 years ago I was on a date with this hot chick. At the time, I had an untouched, really nice 67 Mustang (yeah I know). Stopped to get gas on the way to San Francisco (going to see the Paladins) and was so worked up about this unbelievable chick, that I put DIESEL in the tank. Got about 2 Miles up the road before it went up in a cloud of smoke. Had to have it flat towed home and replace the head gaskets and drain the full tank of fuel. On the plus side, the gal and I had a little make out session waiting for the wrecker! 15 years and 3 kids later, we're still married and havin' a ball.

 

Ha! I bought an Outlaw 34 and built a street rod out of it then sold it for way less than I had in it. I am still glad it's gone!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have the 36 in my avatar. Real Ford steel !! No more fake for me.

 

1989, some time in May, I think....I did the same damn thing.

But dumber was driving my truck into a minivan. You gotta watch the road ahead of you, Jim.

 

Just out of high school me and my girl were cruising down the road in my 67 chevelle, at the time I thought it was cool to shift my automatic manually, well this time my right arm was around my girl so I reached through the steering wheel and grabbed the shifter and yanked it up, well I passed the gear and neutral and went right into reverse, now my engine locks up and puts my car into a death slide in traffic with my one arm still around the girl and the other stuck in the steering wheel, I had little control of the ride and it ended up in the other lane facing the opposite way I was going.

Lucky to be alive we hit nothing, never shifted it that way again.
Still have the chevelle but not the girl....go figure.

 

Most stupid thing i did, and damn ashamed of it was when i put a mustang II under my 33 chevy...Best thing i did was pulled it back out and put a dropped 40 ford axel back in...

 

Was to paint the darn thing YELLOW

 

Threw the water pump belt at the drags, melted the boost line to the msd on the return road, didnt think of it at the time. Next day out, cracked 3 pistons scored the bores and copped a windscreen full of 40W oil at 115mph, wasnt fun on the wallet either...

V2 is nearly back together and have got the timing locked out with no boost retard to idiot proof it!

 

Alright guys you all have made me feel a whole lot better about this. Soooo the plan was to replace the Pacer front end on my truck with a new MII. My buddy and I spent about 20 minutes marking what we thought was the center line of the wheels before we disassembled the truck. I could have sworn we measured right off the ends of the spindles.
Because I new that the existing wheels where centered in the fender I didn't think it would be necessary to just tack the new cross member in and hang the gear to double check the wheels.

Long story short I had my welder burn the new cross member in an 1 1/4" to far forward and now the dam wheels are out of center in the fenders. After spending all weekend looking at my truck and drinking until I passed out to ease the pain and embarrassment, I still can't figure out how the hell it happened.

Well it looks like its going to cost me about $600 for a new cross member! Am I the only one who has ever done this?

 

Probably not...how good are you at bodywork? you could move the wheel openings in the fenders

 

mine would be finished installing my steering box had everything hooked up turned the steering wheel left only to find that the wheels turning the opposite way.

ended up cutting off the mounts and reversing the steering box was a pain and felt very stupid lol

 

I bought a tri-power from Charlie Price... That was a pretty darn expensive mistake.

 

Forgot after about a year of the engine being on the engine stand that I put a plastic shopping bag in the water pump inlet on a SBC. Pump sucked it up and shreded the hell out of it and plugged a brand new radiator. I wondered why it took so long to put coolant in it.

 

Nothing on a car is as expensive as marrying the wrong woman..... 20 years later I am still adding up all the costs. Jim