Admit your Garage Mistakes

[Mont5.0]

Originally Posted by dave289

once i put down my screwdriver and just could'nt remember where i put it.anybody had this happen to them.very recently missing tool syndrome.

Yep- I Have a collection of tools gone to the fairies, did find some though- found new hammer in "blue heelers" kennell.

**Never Let Wife pack away your tools for you!!!!**- still missing somethings and that was 3 years ago. LOL.

[Casablanca]

the funniest thing was when me and a mate got the shits with his old escort and decided we wanted something new albeit a convertible so after a carton of rum we decided to use my old n13 pulsar attach a rope around the escort and rolled it over to drop out the engine we then rolled it back angle grinded the roof off and put new engine in. bout a week later and many more drinks besides we had it on the road first road test we went to tugoolawah which is about a 2-3 hour drive from where i am, completely unconsious of the fact that we hadnt got anything to stop rain from getting in, in the meantime we are having a great day as we are laughing about the no roof escort the rain comes over and we get caught in flash flooding and torrential rains, we ended up pulling into my mates old mans the car filled to the brim with water the car had shorted out and we had to roll in the gate with my mate laughing maniacally all the way in. note to self dont ever try to make an escort a convertible and drive long distances.

this was close to three years ago and we finally draged the remains of the roof out from under his house and threw it out.

[fmc351]

Originally Posted by dave289

once i put down my screwdriver and just could'nt remember where i put it.anybody had this happen to them.very recently missing tool syndrome.

Its with the socks

[JamesR]

Originally Posted by flukey77

Holy there seem to be a heap of people who dont like the EA's or must have had a bad experience with them. We have an old CFI EA wagon that we bought second hand in 91 and the thing is a tank!! It has done over 320,000kms on the original engine and still isnt missing a beat, despite our best efforts to thwart it by giving it minimal maintenance and generally neglecting the poor thing. The autobox was replaced at 305,000kms because it started acting up, and we have replaced an alternator and a power steering pump. Deadset this car is the reason that a few long time Holden fans now have Blue blood flowing through their veins.

exact same here mate.
although the ol girl blows a bit of smoke, and uses a bit of oil, it still gets good fuel economy.
ie, went to Adelaide a few weeks ago, full tank of ULP95 got me about 800ks!

[Macca23]

On GQ patrol, I was too lazy to disconnect the battery when chaning the the fuel filter. As I let the line off, it squirted everywhere and my spanner hit the battery as I jumped and it caught on fire!!!!! Got it out quick as had the fire hydrants next too me but still, was a change of undies after that! No damage. Just the battery was a bit cooked and the fuel lines werent in the best condition

[fatxagt]

1. As a young keen rev head i built my first Clevo. It was a 302 so i got 351 crank and rods off a mate and chucked them in, added a whole heap of other goodies. Spent alot of time and money only to start it up and hear a horrible noise coming from it.
It never occured to me that the cylinders need that fresh half inch honed out. The cam retainer was backward too, that squeeled its tits off without the oil getting to it.
I took it to a pro and got it done right. 10 years later the donk still lives and runs perfect in racingdorks jetspint boat.

2. Fitted a cargo barrier to a then brand new VP Wagan, as i drilled through the wheel arch i drilled straight through the tyre.

[snapper20lb]

1st real job i did on my mk5 cortina when i was a young fella, replacing head gasket and got head head planed. When i put it all back together didnt quite get camshaft and crank aligned properly . Managed to get it started, and took it for a run. Was running rough as, turned back for home as didnt seem right and onlyt just got up the gentle slope on the road to home. Back in the garage popped the bonnet and exaust manifold was glowing bright orange! Got it sorted in end but was lucky not to stuff it completely.

[rocketsensor]

Laugh by all means, but please learn from these mistakes:

A mate reached into his escort engine bay and shorted his metal watch band across the back of the alternator. The watch band was red hot in an instant. He had to pull the hot metal out of his cooked flesh. It took many months to heal and the new skin was still pink a year later.

I was using a slide hammer to pull a dent, the self taper screw pulled through the metal and I fell backwards. As I fell, the slide hammer swung upwards stabbed me hard through the eyelid. The self taper end of the hammer went deep through the gap between my eyeball and the skull. As a reaction I tore it straight back out. What a mess but eyeball untouched....my God that could have been a lot worse. Imagine looking at your eyeball removed from its socket and stuck on the end of a slide hammer...shiver...

[Fev]

Do not ever leave soldering irons in clamps on the bench. at Tafe last year i was using a soldering iron about an inch thick, red handle and put it in the clamp, which was also red. i dropped somthing about 5 mins later and bent over to pick it up while putting my hand onto the "clamp handle". i completely grabbed onto the fckin thing felt it. crouched down grabbing my hand, said "Ah." and then ran to the sink.. 2/3rd degree burns to about 90% of my palm and also some of my thumb. had it under cold water for about 2 hours and then drove to the hospital.. which was a bad idea(3 hours later someone finally came and saw me.) i just couldnt handle the pain to drive another 15mins to my local GP

[LUXO_8]

Originally Posted by rocketsensor

Laugh by all means, but please learn from these mistakes:

A mate reached into his escort engine bay and shorted his metal watch band across the back of the alternator. The watch band was red hot in an instant. He had to pull the hot metal out of his cooked flesh. It took many months to heal and the new skin was still pink a year later.

I was using a slide hammer to pull a dent, the self taper screw pulled through the metal and I fell backwards. As I fell, the slide hammer swung upwards stabbed me hard through the eyelid. The self taper end of the hammer went deep through the gap between my eyeball and the skull. As a reaction I tore it straight back out. What a mess but eyeball untouched....my God that could have been a lot worse. Imagine looking at your eyeball removed from its socket and stuck on the end of a slide hammer...shiver...

oh my god both of those sound crazy.....

[AlbertM]

New one for me. The trolley jack slipped off the front cross member on my ED and crushed the oil sump. A lot of work to fix for a very stupid mistake.

[aye you]

yup fev done that too, along with the mandatory socket on the pullys and screwdriver shorting out a battery

[xrfranjo]

many years ago when i was young and smart , i had the bright idea of connecting nitrous to the vacuum inlet on the carby in my centura, my mate held the bottle on the passenger seat and we went for a drive down parramatta road to show the boys at auburn maccas... end result was number three piston decieded he didnt want to play anymore and exited via the side of the block

[ch33z1l]

funny stuff mate

[tankclare]

havent had any real garage mistakes but have been around other people who have made mistakes. A mate couldnt undo a bolt on a 308 we pulled out of a hz. So being a smart *** i said why dont you just hit the spanner with a hammer. Well he hit it and the screw driver flung up and broke his nose..within milliseconds blood was ****ing out everywhere..was funny to see but mustve been painful.

Another incident was when my mates dad was working on a ef falcon..for some reason he had the bonnet tied up to the roof to hold it open. Anyway when he let down the jacks he forgot about the tied up bonnet and now the bonnet is a little bent haha.

Another accident that was in a garage but not car related was a mate cooking on the bbq. He was pouring beer onto the food and some went into the crack in the hot plate and shot out massive flames. It singed all his eyebrows and the poor fella sh!t himself..I have never laughed so hard in my life

[dapgy]

Got up one Sunday morning and decided to drive to the shop for a paper. We had 2 cars lined up in the carport and, thinking that I should give the Cortina a run I jumped into it and promptly reversed into the wife's car.

A quick way of getting off wheel ramps after replacing rear shockers is to gun it in first gear. One wheel ramp ended up on the road as the car dropped to earth.

For ages I couldn't work out why the lpg snorkel on my Cortina had started rubbing under the bonnet, it was always very close but for some reason it was making a mark. Eventually it wore through the bonnet. On investigation I found that both engine mountings rubbers had sheared with age and the engine block was rotating when I accelerated. There was nothing holding the engine in place, it was just sitting on the rubber pads.

Spent all day putting in a new motor to find that when I put water in the radiator it promptly ran out of the welch plug hole at the back of the block inside the bell housing. I'd forgotten to install one, so start again.

Another time I started up a new motor and after watching the oil pressure gauge not register anything for 30 seconds I turned it off. When I got out of the car I slipped arseup on the 4 litres of oil running out from under the car - forgot to put the oil filter on.

[XR6_661]

Mine happened a few weeks ago. Was reversing the car onto ramps, and misjudged how far up they I was...Went clean over the top of them. All I can say is, I'm glad the car wasn't lower then what it already is. There was about 5mm seperating the top of the ramp and the side skirt. Needless to say, I have some pretty impressive notches on the underside of the car now!

[fantasyxr6turbo]

This is a garage accident but not of the mechanical kind.
When I was about 13 my old man had just bought a 78 Corvette. He took it to the local one night to show his mates and a few beers later, he drove home : . Now my bedroom wall where my bedhead was adjoined the garage wall. You know how long the noses are on those vettes ... Suffice to say I was asleep one second and the next I awoke with a nasty bump to my head.
Yep, straight through the garage wall and into my bed.
Needless to say the next day, he hung a tennis ball from the roof so it wouldn't happen again.

[snapper20lb]

My missus managed to have a "garage door" accident last year. As she drove out of the garage she pressed the remote to close it, but she didnt quite go quick enough, as it closed down between the towball and rear bumper. Wondering why the car suddenly loaded up looked back to see a big crease in the roller door. A lot of bashing and swearing to get it going up and down again!

[Karnage]

After the thread regarding the poor guy who was killed under the car this week, i thought it would be good to revive this thread since its full of hindsight!!

[VZSS250]

I once started my SS without any oil in the motor.

I was 18 and had a two year old VS SS Commodore. I had drained the oil into an oilpan on the driveway. Then I decide the car needed to be moved forward a little. I turned on the ignition and the motor started running for a second before I realised what I was doing! Car ran fine for another 12 months before I sold it. Don't know what its up to now.

[tapeworm]

2 yrs back I got my bonnet resprayed on my EF Mony. It was mint in the deep grape colour. I left a 2 sockets sitting on top of the strut tower and forgetting they were there slammed the bonnet down leaving to savage reverse dents in the $500 new bonnet. The term 'spewin' doesn't do justice.

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by VZSS250

I once started my SS without any oil in the motor.

I was 18 and had a two year old VS SS Commodore. I had drained the oil into an oilpan on the driveway. Then I decide the car needed to be moved forward a little. I turned on the ignition and the motor started running for a second before I realised what I was doing! Car ran fine for another 12 months before I sold it. Don't know what its up to now.

i did that with my 120why datsun. changed the oil at a time i put in a new starter. when it came time to test the starter, i did not think about no oil being in the engine - but it had never started on the first turn without pumping the accelerator before (i was outside the car). it ran fine after that. generally for one second if the oil was still warm and in the right spots you should be ok - i would not do it deliberately though

[Ralliart]

i reversed 2 quickly up my drive way this afternnon and scratched paint from my back end NOOOOOO: : , nothing damaged the backend looks fine to me just a few spot with missing paint i'm not fixing it its worth it.

[gngtho]

When i was 16 i had a two door vaxhal HB torrie.

well i was reversing and going forward in the driveway as i couldn't go on the road on my L plates and i left the passenger door open just a tad and the last time i reversed the door latched on the pole in the drive and wrapped around like a KFC twister.
Mum came home and i told her someone stole the car and i found it down the street, but i recon she didn't beleive me. lol........

[Squalo]

Dapgy are you my brother?

I had an engine mount problem with my EH... after changing a gearbox (engine out job) I forgot to put the bolt in on each side, so the 208 was just resting on the mounts.

I went down to the shops (small country town) to get some xmas wrapping paper on a Sat morning. After stalling it twice while trying to turn onto the main street - damn 44/74 cam - I dumped it, and the engine promptly jumped off the mounts and landed on the crossmember - unfortunately this pinned the throttle linkage for the triple 45mm Webers wide open, but as I had my foot buried in the floorpan I didn't realise... till I went for second and thought hmmm why didn't the revs drop. By now I'm nearing redline in second so I go for third, still puzzled and the speedo is zooming past 80mph while all the Saturday morning shoppers have paused to watch me scream by... now I've realised I have a problem, so I push the clutch in and shut the motor down... the local mechanic has heard this thing coming (it was a loud car!) and looks up the road to see an EH rocketing towards him then suddenly everything goes quiet as it coasts past at 90mph

He gave me two bolts and the use of a trolley jack to lift the motor, and I went home. Forgot the damn xmas wrapping paper!

[bodes-sh]

didn't happen to me, but heard this one last week...

apparently when stainless lpg tanks were the go someone fitting one was putting a tek screw thru the inside of the wheel arch for some reason, needless to say, brand new tank with a tek screw thru the side of it, the guy who told me was asked if he could weld it up for him....

[KBBossedXR]

I guess this could be classed as my mistake as i keep my mint condition 67 XR GT replica in my mates shed.
His oldman was under the influence of alot of Beer when he decided to change the light globe in the shed. Problem was the light was above the roof of my Falcon and the only thing he had to stand on was 2 milk crates.
The milk crates collapsed and he came down with a nice elbow slamm on the back drivers side of the roof just before it starts to slope down so hopefully it might be able to be popped out but i dont like the chances.
It is the only blemish in the car and to say that i wasnt happy is an understatement, and to top it off i was away at work in the Centre of Australia on an Oil Rig and every one else new about it except me until i got home for my days off and was told the news.

[Josh_XC]

Taking the engine out of my EB. Me and dad didnt have an engine lift so we decided to use a strong tree out the front as a pulley and another car as the power to lift the engine.

So we grabbed the chain, hooked it onto the engine threw the chain around the tree and hooked the other end of the chain to a F100 ute. The F100 slowly backed up and the engine was sure enough coming out as planned..

What we didnt plan on was the strong tree/branch (which my dad ensured me will withhold the weight and presure of an engine) broke and fell onto my car and totalled it.

Hahah it was sad but bloody funny as it was a really really stupid idea!!

[cowboy]

I once watched 2 blokes trying to get a diff centre out of the housing for about 15 min until I couldn't stand it any longer and told them to take the axles out.

I've done an oil change before and forgot to put sump plug back in, poured 5L of nice new oil into the nasty pan underneath.