What stupid things have you done?

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myasylum

myasylum

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Before I contine on with my idiot move of the day, I'm curious of what others may have done that wasn't exactly a smooth move, and you may not want to admit.

To get started, I'll start with one.

When I first got my Duster, the interior was pretty nice (other then the carpet). Not ONE tear in the dash. It was pretty amazing really. Then I decided to install new carpeting. When I took out the bench seat I kind of had to twist it a certain way to get it out. I finally got it loose, and when it came lose I heard it hit something. Since It was loose though I just decided to continue to pull out the seat. After the seat was out. I notice the stud of the seat went right into the dash and tore all the way out the door.

Real nice huh? The dash made it 35 years, until I got to it! :banghead:
 
myasylum said:
Before I contine on with my idiot move of the day, I'm curious of what others may have done that wasn't exactly a smooth move, and you may not want to admit.

To get started, I'll start with one.

When I first got my Duster, the interior was pretty nice (other then the carpet). Not ONE tear in the dash. It was pretty amazing really. Then I decided to install new carpeting. When I took out the bench seat I kind of had to twist it a certain way to get it out. I finally got it loose, and when it came lose I heard it hit something. Since It was loose though I just decided to continue to pull out the seat. After the seat was out. I notice the stud of the seat went right into the dash and tore all the way out the door.

Real nice huh? The dash made it 35 years, until I got to it! :banghead:
Click to expand...

That sucks.
My dealership experience kept me from ever doing that one, but I've had my share of screw ups like the time when I had a lower oil pan off of a mercedes to replace the oil level sensor.

Before adding the tube type sealant to seal the lower portion of the pan, a trick to keep the oil from running onto the mating surface was to stuff a red rag at the rear of the pan to catch residual.
Well, some rocket scientist at the shop wanted to save money and did away with the red rags and got a crappy company with used, worn out, formerly blue rags that were now faded gray and really blended in with the aluminum oil pans....can you see where this is going???

Well I got it all sealed up and took it for my test drive after the lunch break gave it time to set up, and the car ran fine under load but was ticking real bad at idle.
I knew exactly what happened and when it hitme I felt like I swallowed my own stomach....you know that feeling.

Well, I got it back to my lift and pulled the drain plug and found my rag, it was coming out in clumps.

I had to tear the motor apart , clean it and replaced all the rings and bearings to play it safe.

I thought I would get fired for sure but the service manager liked me and actually chewed out one of the shop foreman for getting rid of the red rags because he knew they would blend in and be hard to spot under the hood or in and engine which is the reason we had red rags in the first place.
I felt like a total moron especially when it was brought up at the next Monay morning meeting...ugh.

I don;t feel that bad because their was a tech that left a rag in the engine compartment of a brand new pre delivery inspection car which happened to be an SL-55 AMG and the customer was there to pick it up.
During the test drive the tech noticed a smell, then smoke, hten opened the hood to find the engine compartment on fire.
The rag was on the catalyst and the car burned to the ground right there.
 
About 25 or so years ago I was working at a shop in south Fla. The shop had about six cars in it at the time the one I was working on was a 3.0 BMW. Keep in mind this was south Fla. so the other cars were Porsches, a lotus, and a Ferrari. 4 of which including the Ferrari were drop tops. Well I'd been trying to get a header bolt started in this rich kids built up BMW for like an hour with no luck ( come to find out the hole was miss located in the flange.)

Well finally after tearing another bit off my knuckle I lost it. So being as pissed off as much as I was I threw that bolt toward the open garage door at the far end of the shop. Judging by the velocity of said bolt I must have been really pissed and due to the exacting trajectory it took out 8 8ft overhead fluorescent light bulbs on the way out the door. Showering glass down onto and into afore mentioned cars between me and the door.

Now for the good part, the shop owner was a strange fellow a bit paranoid at times he had his back toward my about half way between me and the overhead door. He dove for the floor faster than I thought a human could move. Seems he thought it was a drive by shooting. After he composed himself he got everyone cleaning up the glass and vacuuming out the cars.

I went to lunch.

I thought about telling him but seeing as how he could be a real ******** when he put some of his profit up his nose I never quite got around to it. Besides he had so much fun telling everybody the tale about being shot at I didn't have the heart.
 
I was a little drunk once and got the bright idea I was putting a bigger cam in my engine, I kinda forgot to let the engine cool off so when I took off the radiator cap I got a face full of boiling antifreeze, I crawled blindly into the house and made it to the kitchen sink to cool down the burn, then I mixed me another and finished the cam swap...
 
You asked for it. And it's a doozy!

Not too long ago my brother-in-law bought a Durango to tow his newly acquired boat with.

He brought it to the shop to put a hitch on it, put a tranny cooler on it, and since it was at the mileage, we put a trans service on it.

Filled the trans, dropped it off the lift and went to back out. Nothing. What the heck...

Put it back in the air, pulled the pan back down, not one drop of fluid in the pan. What the heck!

Then it dawned on me...I put five quarts of trans fluid in the oil dipstick tube. Yeah, that's right. One oil change later, fill the trans, and we're good to go.

It get's better. The next morning, my old man, who worked side by side with me for five years building cars, walks up to me and asks, "so, what distracted you last night?"

Yeah, he knew I didn't have my head in the game. That's the frustrating part...
 
Lets see, transmisson in the engine on a motor grader, caught it before starting it! I was once pushing a mower (the older gas ones without the engine kill/stop brake) and saw a wire I was just about to run over, idiot here reached down to pick up the wire and the mower caught some of it and almost yanked my hand into it, I about passed out! I took a bath the other day in hot transmission fluid as in hair, face and clothes. Synthetic oil no less. Oh yea, my 69 340 Swinger that has been painted for 12 or 14 years now and NEVER been on the road, well it's parked in the garage under a cover, I had to move a dryer out of the garage into the house and while doing that I managed to scratch the top corner of the right fender that has never been out. Made me almost cry. And it's still sittin like that. And the list could go on.
 
Two immediately come to mind:

The first one taught me to never put tools, especially screwdrivers, in my back pocket when working on my car. I sat down in the drivers bucket on my '70 Charger 500 and felt a tiny bit of resistance not allowing me to slide all the way back to the backrest. Just one little shove put me all the way back and a hole in my seatcover.
The second taught me that you can't use a socket extension between a cam lobe and the lifter valley web to keep a 340 from turning over while you're trying to break the crankbolt loose prior to doing a cam change. Lean into that breaker bar real good and that 'snap' you hear is the block breaking right through a lifter bore. We didn't do the cam change on that block - we did it on a brand new high-nickel 340TA block I bought from Keith Black's shop.
The good thing is I learned from both of these as they happened over 30 years ago. I've never repeated either one.
Once is dumb, twice is stupid.
 
Many years ago I had the intake and valley pan off a 383 I owned. I put a couple shop towels over the lifter galley to keep debris out.
A few weeks later I got back to reassemble the engine. Got it back together and took it for a drive. Got about 3 blocks down the street and lost all oil presure. Seems I put it all back together and left the shop towels under the valley pan. What a mess that was to fix!!
What do they call that? A major brain fart!
 
Well... Here is my stupid move of the day!

I have two buckets seats I planed on putting in my Duster.
I had them sitting in back of the car. I moved one, and I was distracted by my kids and forgot the other one. So I just got my car tuned pretty well, so I decided to go for a drive. I saw the one seat was moved so I thought at the time, I must have moved both of them. I started the car, went in reverse and I heard a noise, and the tires began to spin. I was like?? WTF? I look under the car, and here I ran over the bucket seat, and it was all bent up, so was the gas tank. Needless to say, about a mile down the road I ran out of gas because... of course the seat put a hole in my gas tank!
Now, I'm out a bucket seat, and a $140.00 for a gas tank! Piss me off! It's day like today, I don't know why I bother!
 
Right after I painted my dart I decided to do the headliner. The bows in the back were kind of hard to get in so I decided to roll down the back window and slide it in throught the window. Towards the end of the procedure I had to twist and turn the bow to get it to slide all the way through. Needless to say the end sticking out the window was twisting and turning on the clear coat......pissed me off to no end. I think I slapped myself too:)
 
myasylum said:
Before I contine on with my idiot move of the day, I'm curious of what others may have done that wasn't exactly a smooth move, and you may not want to admit.

To get started, I'll start with one.

When I first got my Duster, the interior was pretty nice (other then the carpet). Not ONE tear in the dash. It was pretty amazing really. Then I decided to install new carpeting. When I took out the bench seat I kind of had to twist it a certain way to get it out. I finally got it loose, and when it came lose I heard it hit something. Since It was loose though I just decided to continue to pull out the seat. After the seat was out. I notice the stud of the seat went right into the dash and tore all the way out the door.

Real nice huh? The dash made it 35 years, until I got to it! :banghead:
Click to expand...


You, my friend, have a sick mind just to start this thread and are only seeking to find things that people did that was dumber then you did.

To this end I have this...............NEVER EVER tell a cop when they pull you over for driving 115.9 MPH and ask you why you're driving that fast that "you always drive that fast". I will also tell you that telling them "my wife is going to get pregnant tonight and I want to be there when it happens" doesn't work either.

Jim
 
nothingbutdarts said:
Lets see, transmisson in the engine on a motor grader, caught it before starting it! I was once pushing a mower (the older gas ones without the engine kill/stop brake) and saw a wire I was just about to run over, idiot here reached down to pick up the wire and the mower caught some of it and almost yanked my hand into it, I about passed out! I took a bath the other day in hot transmission fluid as in hair, face and clothes. Synthetic oil no less. Oh yea, my 69 340 Swinger that has been painted for 12 or 14 years now and NEVER been on the road, well it's parked in the garage under a cover, I had to move a dryer out of the garage into the house and while doing that I managed to scratch the top corner of the right fender that has never been out. Made me almost cry. And it's still sittin like that. And the list could go on.
Click to expand...

Kim...........you're a train wreck.

luv ya, Jim
 
MVRCorp said:
You, my friend, have a sick mind just to start this thread and are only seeking to find things that people did that was dumber then you did.
Click to expand...

You may be correct sir, but as they say... "Misery loves company" :)
 
MVRCorp said:
Kim...........you're a train wreck.

luv ya, Jim
Click to expand...

Well Jim, you might be correct! However I must add with all the chances in the last 32 years I have been working on big trucks and equipment I have ALL my fingers, eyes, extremedies and can hear in both ears! So I must be doing something right.

Then there was this time a few years ago I was just trying to undo some hydraulic plow couplers on a motor grader with two 1 1/16" wrenches and felt something snap inside me, went to the Dr. to find out I cracked a rib while pulling on the wrenches. They didn't break loose and hit me, just the force of pulling on them cracked them ribs I guess. Still kept working while they healed, just was a tad bit more carefull!

And Thank's I luv ya to Jim!!!! 8)
 
I've left a breaker bar on the harmonic balancer bolt, got distracted then went to kick the engine over with the starter. I hate that sound....
 
i payed for a 12 point roll cage up frount $2200 i still only have a 10 point.he says he will finish the job.i got my dart back 4 months ago.when i call him on may cell phone he dont answer my call.the next day i will call from a friends phone at the same time of the day and i get a answer.i am getting mad as hell. what would you guys do
 
Heres one. Street racing in my Duster without a battery hold down. Some punk in a Honda thought he was hot **** till I blew his doors off. I then ended up taking a left handed corner to hard and thunk. Battery fell over, hit the fan, which then sliced open the radiator. And it wasnt any cheap battery, it was an Optima Battery that my Dad let me borrow. And Dad if your reading this sorry you had to find out what happend this way.
 
Billy: Using acetylene cutting torch

Leanna: Totally mind surfing ... why is the sky blue? why do people like Fords?

Out of the corner of my eye I see something drop to the shop floor. As the then-assistant and one who is closest to the shop floor (he's 6'5, I'm 5'0), I bend down, grab it, pick it up and try to hand it to him. It's a 4" long piece of glowing red hot steel ... stuck to my fingers. I won't repeat the word I said just then as it wasn't very ladylike, but rest assured I didn't repeat that stupid move ever again.
 
Years ago I was just starting out as an apprentice tech at a local ford truck dealer. first time changing a fan clutch in a 7.3 diesel. The shop foreman handed me the labor tag and the fan clutch wrenches and asked me how I was going to go about changing out the radiator and installing the new fan clutch. After I explained my whole procedure in order he told me one thing to make sure of is that I tighten the $h!+ out of the clutches hub nut with a hammer or something to really torque it. I said ok and was on my way. I got the whole job done and me thinking I was a young tough guy surely strong enough hand tight would be perfectly fine. I fired the truck up, checked for leaks and called the foreman over. He took a look and told me it all looked good and to just shut the truck off and start putting all my tools away as it was about the end of the day. I go to shut the truck off and sure enough when I did I hear a banging sound then see something fly up spinning like crazy, smack the underside of the hood then shoot back into the engine bay! Oh F#%$! It took out the shroud, radiator hoses, radiator, cooler lines, and fan. Foreman hands me a hammer and says " well....... I bet you don't make that mistake again."
 
CudaChick1968 said:
Billy: Using acetylene cutting torch

Leanna: Totally mind surfing ... why is the sky blue? why do people like Fords?

Out of the corner of my eye I see something drop to the shop floor. As the then-assistant and one who is closest to the shop floor (he's 6'5, I'm 5'0), I bend down, grab it, pick it up and try to hand it to him. It's a 4" long piece of glowing red hot steel ... stuck to my fingers. I won't repeat the word I said just then as it wasn't very ladylike, but rest assured I didn't repeat that stupid move ever again.
Click to expand...

sorry, but LOL. My friend from highschool did that to himself with the 318 he was rebuilding for his challenger. He had to heat up the piston, got it nice and red then mindlessly grabbed it and ended up with 3rd degree burns on his hands.

My only "doh" moment happened last year. Shaving down the bumpstops on my truck that had just been lowered and using those cheapo utility knifes that have the machined break away points. anyhow the blade held for awhile and i picked up the bumpstop to slowly cut a groove around the bumpstop hoping that the blade wouldnt wander much. Well it broke at a bad moment and i put a 2 1/2 gash in my palm that poured blood. It was a nice knife safety fail.

To my credit and horror of my squeemish friends. I wrapped my hand up, finished the project with one hand, and drove myself to the ER afterwards. :-D
 
CudaChick1968 said:
Billy: Using acetylene cutting torch

Leanna: Totally mind surfing ... why is the sky blue? why do people like Fords?

Out of the corner of my eye I see something drop to the shop floor. As the then-assistant and one who is closest to the shop floor (he's 6'5, I'm 5'0), I bend down, grab it, pick it up and try to hand it to him. It's a 4" long piece of glowing red hot steel ... stuck to my fingers. I won't repeat the word I said just then as it wasn't very ladylike, but rest assured I didn't repeat that stupid move ever again.
Click to expand...


Leanna you have no idea how many times I have picked up a piece of metal 10 seconds after I just finished welding it without any gloves on. I'm a bone head.
 
Many years ago I was working under the hood of a car in my Dad's shop. It had a concrete floor but not a lot of lighting. After repeatedly banging up my knuckles 'cause I couldn't really see what I was doing, I turned and flung a 9/16 wrench down as hard as I could in frustration. The wrench hit that concrete floor just right, bounced back up and centered me right between the eyes. I don't do that anymore.

Years later I was up under a car with an air gun, an extention and a wobble socket. Guess where this is going. Yep. The wobble socket slung off and centered me right between the eyes. I don't do that anymore, either.
 
When it stops glowing, it's safe to pick up, right? I've learned to inspect a weld and put the piece down in like .003 seconds!
Here's my stupid thing- I was 16 and decided to drive to my family's lake house one summer. It was 110 miles away and blistering hot, middle of the summer. A few miles into the trip my temp gage spiked and steam shot out from the overheated engine. My plan was to bury the speedo, then kick it out of gear and coast to bring down the temp. We stopped at every place that looked like it had a hose or sold anti-freeze ($1 a gal back then). We made it there, had a good time, did the same thing on the return trip. When I got back home I pulled the radiator, had the huge hole brazed at a muffler shop and drove it that way for another 4-5 years. No engine damage at all!
 
Stupid thing I did......I got married!!!!!!!

Cost me a lot of time and beau coup $$$ to get back to being single.

Oh, this is stupid things we did with cars???

nevermind

FF
 
Five things that don't get along very well.

(1.) (+) Battery terminal

(2). Wedding ring.

(3). Wrench.

(4). Ground path.

(5). Human flesh.

Never done it myself but everyone I have seen do it will (never) do it again.
 
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