Worst thing that happened to you while working on cars?

[90blknotch]

x2, I hate that. I had an engine on a stand and I was giving it a bath with brake clean... sprayed it right into a corner on accident and it came right back at me and into my eye. I was freaking out because I was blind in that eye for a minute or two on top of it burning like hell. I wear glasses when using brake clean now.

Another time I was taking pictures of a subwoofer out of my car to sell on ebay. Went to flip it around to get pics of the backside, well I rotated the thing on two of my fingers under the edge of the basket. Yeah, made a DEEP slice into my left ring finger right from the nail, 180° around my finger, and down to my first knuckle. Still have a scar from it but insisted on not going and getting stitches. Healed up just fine, although I'm 99% sure I saw bone under there when it was sliced open. It was bleeding so profusely it was hard to tell. Damn thing felt cold and numb for hours, took at least an hour to get it to stop bleeding. I felt really dumb after that one.

I used to be a tech at a dealership - I did the brakeclean in the eye trick too. The shit evaporates quick and you can't open your eye! That was a long trip to the eyewash station for me. It was one of the most painful things ever.

Same dealership I had a wrench break while I was reefing on it pretty hard - hit me square between the eyes. Nice cut on that one.

The worst I have done has taking out a tie rod end on an Explorer I was full out swingin on the thing with an 8 pount sledge and caught my thumb not paying attention. The end lieterally blew up - I could not even walk to the house from the shop ot hurt so bad! I had to sit down in the grass about halfway there so I would not pass out. It swelled up like a balloon; I ended up drilling through my nail (which eventually fell off anyway) and it made it fell 100% better.

 

[00sonolow]

In school, we were doing brakes and suspension. I had to completely disassemble the enitre front end of an 87'ish Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. Took it entirely apart, everything went great. Putting it back together, using a chinsey coil spring compressor, which i didnt like, and the instructor told me it was a p.o.s. But I said whatever I'm goin for it. Had my right hand on the bottom of the coil, left hand on one of the coils and was installing it the passenger side. Compressor let go and blasted my right hand into the lower control arm. I dropped the coil, and I had a few choice explitives, teacher never said a word about me swearing in class. Had the imprint of the coil on my hand for a few days, but I was fine.

Doing a fuel pump on a 94' 2.3L Ranger, in my garage, by myself, Somehow got the feed and return lines backwards. Had the new pump installed, primed it a few times, tried to start truck, nothin, primed a few more times, nothin. I'm like wtf, the pumps runnin, etc. Then it hit me, I bet the lines are backward. So i get back underneath the truck, to inspect the lines, I BARELY touched the lines, and got a SHITTON of high psi unleaded to my face, eyes, mouth. I yelled for my dad, he opened the door to those and I ran past him to the kitchen sink, and used the little hose next to the faucet to rinse my eye for an hour. My mom walks in and yells at me for smelling like gas in the house. unchball


Countless, bolt snapped, hand bites it, wrenches to face. Took a 4 1/2" angle grinder full tilt to my arm on time, I was grinding on a frame and knicked a bolt, grinder kicked and put a nnniiiceee gouge in the top of my left forearm....It happens to the best of us I guess. :lol:

 

[cjmatt]

Stupidest thing I ever did, was when I was under a mini van, and took it out of park by moving the linkage while under the vehicle. I almost ran myself over. I touched a hot cat, to see if it was still hot. It was. Burned my whole palm. Got a metal sliver in my tongue, while hammering a chisel. Shot a piece into my tongue. Had to get it xrayed. First time they ever xrayed a tongue. Got brake cleaner in my eyes once. But that was while cleaning cosmoline off a gun.

dishwasher

 

[grr456]

In the early 70's my brother was sitting on the tailgate of my truck putting on his driving suit at Mt. Clemens race track. His race car was parked directly behind my truck. I reached in the car, checked to make sure the car was in neutral and hit the start button. It lurched forward a little and immediatly started, pinning my brother's legs between the car and tailgate. Well, the car was still running, while spinning the rear tires, with his legs jammed up underneath the tailgate and race car. I think fast and go to hit the shifter into neutral, but it shifts right into second gear. I then just switched off the ignition, leaving everything jammed...I then knock it into neutral, so I can roll the car back away...

The outcome was 2 broken legs for my brother...The comedy of errors is kinda funny now, but wasn't too funny when it happened....Ohh yeah, it was the first day out with his brand new race car we just finished building from scratch...

Ohhhh..Not a car story, but an Army story...A really stupid move...We were all loaded up travelling somewhere in a Deuce and a Half. I was sitting on the bench all the way up front on the passenger side. The company commander was sitting in the cab, right in front of me. Our weapons were always loaded with live ammo, safety's off, just in case....I pull the "T" handle back on my M-16 to load the chamber and it seems like it jams, as it doesn't go all the way forward. I look and the bolt is kinda half way back, but covering the chamber slot. I try pulling the "T" handle back again and banging the gun around, pulling the trigger, all the while the barrel is pointing towards the front of the vehicle. I once again open the bolt inspection cover, pull the "T" handle back and see that there are 2 bullets in the chamber!!!! There was a bullet already in the chamber when I pulled the "T" handle back the first time and it loaded a second bullet. That's why the handle didn't go all the way forward. It would have been really, really bad if the bullet had gone off by me screwing around and not knowing that the weapon was already locked and loaded. Needless to say, I always know the status of my weapons from there on out...I had only been in-country a couple of weeks at that point. My uniform was still really green, too

That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Gary