Dumb things that you did.......because you didn't know any better.

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Cudafever

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I'm sure we all have a story or two like this.
When i was 17 and working at a tire shop. we had this stuff call "Murphy Soap" it was this thick gooey Grease looking stuff that we would put around a tire bead that wouldn't seal up.

One day after work, i decide to re pack my front wheel bearing in my car. 72 Demon with a slate and a 3 speed on the floor.(sure wish i had that car now)
I decided to pack my bearing with this Murphy Soap.(Ignoring the word SOAP!)

It was a Saturday after work, and even put new seal in.
Then decide i was going to visit my older brother that lived some 60 miles away. Made it all the way there with no problem. Spent the night there, and when i when to leave in the afternoon. there was bad noise coming from the front end.

My brother had to take me to the parts story to buy new bearing and seals..... and a tube of real Grease!
 
I remember as a teenager living at home, we had an old lawn mower that smoked and used a lot of oil. So one day I put some gear lube in it ... LOL didn't run long after that.
 
Worked at a gas station too. I was probably 15. We had heater hose in bulk. Both sizes. lol. Guy pulls in with a leaky heater hose. Hell ya, I'll be the hero. Unscrewed the hose clamp with 13 or so pounds of pressure behind it. Ya... that one hurt.
 
I innocently took an apartment neighbor out to dinner (for the first time) on my birthday because my wife was out of town. When we got back to our respective apartments, I said thank you and good night, but she walked over to my apartment door (instead of her own) and just stood there. After a short discussion, she admitted she was horny. I told her I was married. Her response was we shouldn't but we could. Don't worry, I eventually told my wife the whole story (the truth).

caught.jpeg
 
I was storing a Harley Davidson for a relative and went out to start it up for a few minutes to charge the battery. There was a set screw on the throttle, so I set up a fast idle. While it was running/charging, I got distracted and went about doing something else. When I returned to the garage, oil was spilling out of the reserve oil tank under the seat.

I shut off the motor. I found the plastic plug that closed the fill hole for the oil tank had melted from the hot oil and flew/fell out. The superheated oil smelled burnt and was thick as molasses. I changed the oil/filter and hoped for the best.

Later, a family friend was driving the bike down the highway and the motor blew. I wonder if I had anything to do with that?
(photo not actual damage)

piston.jpeg
 
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Fuel filter backwards on my last Grand National. Working too many hours and just not retracing steps. Spent a couple grand on it and figured it out mistake one day.

All good. Next time at the track is was a conversation with tech about no bar so I was headed in the right direction lol....

JW
 
Owned a couple Fords and a few Chevys....had a kid too young(dont get me started on that)...A buddy of mine had a little Montesa motorcycle as we were in maybe 6th grade...we rode the **** out of that thing...Wweeelll....one day we ran out gas, went into the garage and found some Cox model airplane fuel (pure nitromethane) MAN!!! That thing ran like a bat out of hell for about 15 minutes, then it blew the rings out of the exhaust...lol
 
dibbons said:
I was storing a Harley Davidson for a relative and went out to start it up for a few minutes to charge the battery. There was a set screw on the throttle, so I set up a fast idle. While it was running/charging, I got distracted and went about doing something else. When I returned to the garage, oil was spilling out of the reserve oil tank under the seat.

I shut off the motor. I found the plastic plug that closed the fill hole for the oil tank had melted from the hot oil and flew/fell out. The oil smelt burnt. I changed the oil and hoped for the best.

Later, a family friend was driving the bike down the highway and the motor blew. I wonder if I had anything to do with that?
(photo not actual damage)

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NO , Thats normal for a Harley.:lol:
 
worked closing shift at a gas station in the early 80's, right off an exit of a major interstate highway. and working as a closer, owning a 71 charger, all my buddies with muscle cars hung out at well. We would dump a case of windshield washer fluid between the pump islands, and see who had the biggest balls to start at the end of the parking lot, floor it and throw it sideways, while burning tires,,basically "drifting" sideways between the islands, without creaming any of the pumps,, or hitting the yellow island posts. extra points if u leave sideways black tire marks between the two islands. i can't even imagine being that stupid today,,,,but we all did it nearly every weekend,, to the cheers of our buddies goading us on,,,,
 
I flipped the inside brake pad on my 1990 Audi Coupe, put the metal part against the rotor. I was in a hurry. I couldn't understand why it make a horrible noise......oh......oops.
 
jack68gts said:
worked closing shift at a gas station in the early 80's, right off an exit of a major interstate highway. and working as a closer, owning a 71 charger, all my buddies with muscle cars hung out at well. We would dump a case of windshield washer fluid between the pump islands, and see who had the biggest balls to start at the end of the parking lot, floor it and throw it sideways, while burning tires,,basically "drifting" sideways between the islands, without creaming any of the pumps,, or hitting the yellow island posts. extra points if u leave sideways black tire marks between the two islands. i can't even imagine being that stupid today,,,,but we all did it nearly every weekend,, to the cheers of our buddies goading us on,,,,
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I worked at a gas station when I was around 17, there was another guy that only worked Saturdays, early one morning after a good dump of snow, he challenged me to ride on the sling of the tow truck while he did donuts around the pump islands and across the parking lot. He was swinging me around pretty good, but I was determined not to give up. He made a pass through the pumps again, had a really good head of speed going, and swung the truck around in front of the storefront window, directly onto a patch of dry pavement. I didn't lose my grip on the cable, but my *** hit the 10 X 10 window, which fortunately didn't completely shatter, but we had to come up with a cover story to explain how the glass got cracked. No pun intended.
 
dano said:
I flipped the inside brake pad on my 1990 Audi Coupe, put the metal part against the rotor. I was in a hurry. I couldn't understand why it make a horrible noise......oh......oops.
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Once when I was younger, I was running low on brake fluid so I decided to put transmission fluid in the brake reservoir. Everything seemed fine for a day or two, until the brakes started locking up one at a time. The transmission fluid swelled the rubber in the wheel cylinders. Yeah, I definitely learned a lesson from that one.
 
I was a teen in high school, traded a 18 spline 833 even for a 23 spline ball and trunion 4-speed because NAPA did not sell a 18 spline 10.5" disk.
 
around 18.....put a can of header spray paint on my moms gas stove in a pot of water (you know to heat it up so it would spray better)...went back outside to sand on my headers some more, heard a boom........the kitchen was white and the stove top looked like a launch pad, there was a hole in the kitchen ceiling where the paint can went through......
 
383Duster said:
around 18.....put a can of header spray paint on my moms gas stove in a pot of water (you know to heat it up so it would spray better)...went back outside to sand on my headers some more, heard a boom........the kitchen was white and the stove top looked like a launch pad, there was a hole in the kitchen ceiling where the paint can went through......
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RustyRatRod said:
Got married.
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:rofl:


missing linc said:
I worked at a gas station when I was around 17, there was another guy that only worked Saturdays, early one morning after a good dump of snow, he challenged me to ride on the sling of the tow truck while he did donuts around the pump islands and across the parking lot. He was swinging me around pretty good, but I was determined not to give up. He made a pass through the pumps again, had a really good head of speed going, and swung the truck around in front of the storefront window, directly onto a patch of dry pavement. I didn't lose my grip on the cable, but my *** hit the 10 X 10 window, which fortunately didn't completely shatter, but we had to come up with a cover story to explain how the glass got cracked. No pun intended.
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:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
At 17, I was working in a garage and had to go pump gas whenever the air bell rang. One hot day a 4 door light blue Dart with a 318, driven by an old lady asked me to Fill it up and check all the fluids, (that is what Full Service stations did in the late 70s).
After washing the windshield with a squeegee, I popped the hood, checked the oil, ran the engine for the auto trans dipstick, asked her to shut off the engine, went to pop the brake master cylinder cover, I guess she was ON the brake cause the fluid splashed all over the left side engine, I watched as the fluid smoked on the exhaust manifold and WHOOSH, went on fire! As the flames grew, I covered the cylinder and quickly grabbed the squeegee and started slinging the water onto the flames, enough to cool the fire and it went out.
My boss came over and surveyed the damage, only 1 minor disfigured spark plug wire. The funny thing was that the lady was oblivious, she just sat there and watched us hoovering around. Feeling awkward I said to her, "that will be $7.00 please and don't let anyone tell you that brake fluid doesn't burn".
My boss laughed later saying that it looked like I was blessing the car, running around slinging the water across the engine. Good times! LOL
 
Ok i told you my young and dumb trick
Now here is me old enough to know better....but did it anyways.
Do you know if you light a oxygen and settling torch and set it to a nice blue flame.......then snuff it out and fill a balloon......and light it off, it will go Boom.
The first one was the size of a marble. tied it off, sprayed brake cleaner as a fuse and Boooom. It was amazed at just how loud it was. About the sound of a good fire cracker. For weeks this when one until we got STUPID.
filled a balloon ....vary large and tied a fuse to the end of it. we had done this several time, only in a much smaller scale. light the fuse, let go of the balloon and it float up way into the air and boom. so this time big big balloon and loneeeee fuse.

Light fuse and release the balloon. but there was a flaw in our plan. The extra long fuse was long long, so it would be way way up in the air before the boom. The flow in our plan was that the fuse was extra weight and the ballon barely got of the ground and cleared the fence.

It was traveling more horizontal them lifting......and heading towards the golf course. As the fuse burned it started to climb. it was probably 300 foot off the ground when it when off......................
an officer showed up a while later asking if we had hered the noise:wtf:..............point at the golf course, saying that it was real loud.

The paper the next day said that people were calling in thinking we were being attacked.
That was are last torch bomb.:BangHead::realcrazy:
 
Cudafever said:
Ok i told you my young and dumb trick
Now here is me old enough to know better....but did it anyways.
Do you know if you light a oxygen and settling torch and set it to a nice blue flame.......then snuff it out and fill a balloon......and light it off, it will go Boom.
The first one was the size of a marble. tied it off, sprayed brake cleaner as a fuse and Boooom. It was amazed at just how loud it was. About the sound of a good fire cracker. For weeks this when one until we got STUPID.
filled a balloon ....vary large and tied a fuse to the end of it. we had done this several time, only in a much smaller scale. light the fuse, let go of the balloon and it float up way into the air and boom. so this time big big balloon and loneeeee fuse.

Light fuse and release the balloon. but there was a flaw in our plan. The extra long fuse was long long, so it would be way way up in the air before the boom. The flow in our plan was that the fuse was extra weight and the ballon barely got of the ground and cleared the fence.

It was traveling more horizontal them lifting......and heading towards the golf course. As the fuse burned it started to climb. it was probably 300 foot off the ground when it when off......................
an officer showed up a while later asking if we had hered the noise:wtf:..............point at the golf course, saying that it was real loud.

The paper the next day said that people were calling in thinking we were being attacked.
That was are last torch bomb.:BangHead::realcrazy:
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Some of these are a hoot!!!!! Gotta give it to the paint bomb on the stove!!!:rofl:
Of course I can add to the mayhem... Before my driving days, my dad and I were boat guys. We had an IO boat with a v6 Chev in it. It started running crappy so I decided (while out on the river):BangHead: to mess with the carb. I barely could work on a lawn mower never mind a boat or car. Anyway, I started taking stuff off the carb, undid the fuel line and of course got nowhere fast. Put it back together and it ran the same (YES IT RAN!!). Got back to the dock and had to bump the throttle to get the back of the boat up next to the dock. The motor backfired and ignited the gas that had been leaking from the loose fuel line that I didn't tighten.:wtf: BOOM!!!!! The large engine cover - gone, my buddy dove into the water, the fire extinguisher didn't work as the fire started to grow.... But the captain stayed with the ship!!!! The neighbor saved the day with a fire extinguisher that should have been in the Smithsonian.
Luckily, the two 18 gallon fuel tanks on each side of the engine didn't blow.....:thankyou:
Never did tell the old man....:mad:
 
It's a wonder we made it out alive.

When I was 11 years old I had a Honda Trail 70. We had a lot of woods around my house and I rode that thing everywhere.

One day a buddy and I were riding and found an old aerosol can, no label. Well, I had this big thick knife that was very dull. We were throwing the knife at the can trying to puncture it. Just couldn't get it to work.

So I grab it with my left hand and put the knife in the can!! "Something" white sprayed all over my face and hair. My buddy helped me walk home to tell Dad. Dad gets a can of gasoline and cleans off my face!! Then takes me to a hair salon that my mom used. I get in the chair and he starts to cut my hair. When he's done cutting it he washes my hair...
AND IT ALL WASHED OUT!!!

Sure wish dad would have thought of that first!!!
 
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In 1983 I was looking for a floor shift steering column for my 70 coronet, I had found a floor shifter and console in a 68 but needed the 70 column. A friend of my cousin told me he knew where there was one in a junkyard, we went and sure enough there it was 1970 coronet R/T , 4 speed track pack Dana 60 and ram air hood, hemi orange car. I asked how much for the column he said I'll sell you the whole car for $100.00. It had been run in a ditch and the windshield post was bent and windshield busted, easy fix today. He put a battery on it and fired the 440 right up and drove us around the yard in it. It was only missing the original bucket seats, guy kept them and put them in a van. I told the guy no thank's I only need a steering column and left. I went back a year later after I learned what a significant car it was and he had sold it. I tracked it down and the guy that bought it had put the engine in a 67 GTX. Told me he would sell me what was left for $35.00, which still had the dana 60! I said no thank's and left. What an idiot was I! :BangHead::BangHead::BangHead: this stuff haunts me today but I have to remember that stuff was dirt cheap back then and times have changed!
 
I tryed the aliens movie knife trick with a two pronged carving fork, yep straight through my little finger.
 
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