Admit your Garage Mistakes

[bingoTE50]

I had a 265 Valiant once which had a std carby on it. At the bottom of the carby it had a metal plug which was soldered in .Mine for some reason started to leak. I pulled it out and siliconed it in. Fast forward a few weeks , the car was running like a dog...
To the mechanics , new plugs , new leads , new dizzy cap, rotor button , timing done , drain fuel tank ,still no good . Pull the carby down , silicone in the Jets !!! Doh !!! I had to own up to my stupidity , never use silicone near petrol , dissolves nicely....

[Burnout]

My sister went overseas in the 60's. She talked me into her Fiat 1500 Mk2.

Jeezzz!

[ten[A]cio[U]s]

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...

Sweet jebus that one made me squirm!!

Dumbest thing i have done (my mate in my car really) is when putting a bigger cam in the AU, my mate dropped a washer into the engine and neglected to tell me.. Made a nice tick click noise... Which had me stumped. He then "remembered" what it could of been haha!

I managed to get a magnet down to the crank and pick the little bugger up. Im lucky it didnt wedge against anything and cause any damage!

[blueprint babe]

My boyfriend pinned me between the pursuit and the TS50 leaving behind a very lovely TS50 exhaust brand on the back of my left calf.
Two weeks later I'm stll going to the doctors daily to have it dressed!
And yes I now know not to stand in between the cars when guiding him into the garage.
So I guess we're are both idiots!
Check out the nice infection even after daily medical attention.

[Pinch]

I will admit it - I somehow managed to put brake pads in the wrong way. Ah, metal on metal!

It was a Commodore though so no real loss!!!

My little bro refilled the oil after an oil change without replacing the sump plug. The driveway was well lubricated shall we say!

[ricky]

I spent a considerable amount of time trying to change a spark plug on a Gemini I had years ago. After numerous unsuccessful attempts I managed to completely destroy the thread where the spark plug screws in.

[mrniceguy]

My mate was trying to get another mates ski boat started in the shed. Hes using a screwdriver on the starter motor solenoid to crank it over and forgets about the petrol leak from the carby. So he cranking it over when the sparks ignite the fuel setting fire to his face. In a panic he rolls backward out of the boat, landing ribs first on an old 302/single rail/bucket of assorted car parts. Reckons he still gets back pain from it.

[Booka]

I watched the apprentice at my old workshop drain the oil out of a VE while the engine was running at 2500 rpm

[robjg33]

these are the things i can remember easily over the last 20+ years
rebuilt a vw engine and forgot to replace lh rocker cover (they just clip on) and took it for a test drive
put 9" in car took it for a test run oops forgot the oil

doing a burnout in the shed in a blown 57 chevy when ****ed thought that was funny untill the diff went boom

mate had a brand new XD and we were putting a shaker on it "i'll start the hole with the drill" drill slips lovely scratch down the bonnet ( next time put tape on panel before drilling)
mounted compressor in shed next to garage (much less noise) put the electrical lead through conduit between sheds so the swith to turn it on is in garage. had to undoe the electrical plug to feed it through grabbed the extension cord plug by mistake which was still plugged in nice zap staggered backwards and bashed head on ute body hanging from garage roof (i was painting the ute at the time) hit the floor cursing and swearing
neighbour comes in to see what the comotion was about starts laughing his head off and christens me tim the toolman

[irlewy86]

Wasn't even on the job but I still copped the blame for it.

Somebody forgot to tighten the air intake clamps on an engine. Obviously it got dusted. $289,000 F&*% up.

[Dezza]

When drilling a hole to fit the EF mirrors onto the EA, we drilled right through and into the base of the A pillar! I ended up filling it with silicon and using touch up paint to cover the hole.

[cowboy]

Converted an XD from 3 speed to a single rail. Cut floor out etc, installed shifter and connected using the original cotter pin that came out of it. Not my brightest moment. Found myself on the side of the road at an uphill intersection in country vic, stuck in fourth and tearing out interior parts to get at it and make a fencing wire replacement. Now has a bolt and nylock nut!

[TZENU]

ANother one for me.....Was working on the XY in my backyard (out in the open, with no bonnet.) on a sunny melbourne day... Was under the dash for approx 2.5 hours on the phone to a mate (trying to figure out wiring)... etc....

All of a sudden i felt a drop of water... WTF???? I look up and it looked as though the heavens were going to unload over my car!!! (only in melbourne, i tells ya).... I ran to grab my tarp and picked up a brick. Running back to the car i slipped on the concrete and slammed the brick into my RHF guard... on a fresh respray...
Thinking back to it i should have not used the car to break my fall and smashed my face on the concrete, my face would have healed by now!!!!

[mdunk]

The two biggest mistakes I made.

1. Fitting a really good replacement engine to an old Renault 16 TS, they have an insanely deep set of tubes for the spark plugs (all 4). Everything went well, until I decided to put a new set of plugs in, "just do the job right". So I pulled all the plugs, but didn't clear off the top of the engine before I started the job. Somehow I managed to drop a 10mm bolt down the number three tube before putting in the new plugs. Started the engine, it ran with a horrible rattle sound for about 5 seconds before it shattered the number three piston completely. Exit engine.

2. Second mistake, not quite in the garage, but I "forgot" not to poke my LPG converted Range Rover too hard at the lights. OK, so I got a little impatient when the driver in front of me kept waiting for the non-existent right turn arrow. When they FINALLY moved off, I had a very orange traffic light to contend with, so I gave it full stick. The backfire was so bad it blew the air mass meter out of the engine compartment and on to the road (along with $450 from my wallet), and left the car in a mushroom cloud of blue smoke, in the middle of the busiest intersection in Adelaide. All this with my company logo and graphics on the car. Pushing a smoking 2.5 ton rover out of a busy intersection at peak hour wasn't a lot of fun either.

[mumbo.com.au]

I've got a few (Darwin awards):

A mate and I decided to fit dual wheels to a valiant paddock basher so we cut the centre out of one rim and welded it to the other via metal band. As we left the tyres and didn't want to cause a flat with the arc welder we decided to squirt down metal with water and promptly electocuted myself.

On another occassion, while moving a stock car engine while it was out of the car we pushed the sump in. As we didn't want to pull the sump off to fix it we decided to weld a rod to the bottom of the sump so we could pull it out. Unfortunately the oil in the engine exploded, blowing the air cleaner off the engine. My mate and I had no arm hair or eyelashes for a while after that. On the upside, the sump held another litre or so of oil after that.

[FPV+fteT3]

mitsubishi express van did an oil change and left oil cap off went for a drive and wondered what the oil burning smell was? sprayed oil everywhere.

XAGT driving it fairly hard and it stopped smoke coming from exhaust wouldn't start thought thats it I'v blown the motor rang my brother who hired a car trailer and came out to p/u the falc. Go the show home all the expert mates etc said well you have finally killed it. Short of cash went to the wreckers and bought a 302 the wrecker started it and then said come back tomorrow and we will have it out for you. The wrecker removed alt, starter,and for some reason fuel pump no worries $500.00 off we went fitted to car new oil etc car still wouldn't go towed around th estreets with no bonnet all we got was an occasional flame and boom from top of carby? WTF turns out the fuel pump diaphram was faulty and was pumping oil to carby and fuel into sump towing the car had filled the sump with fuel. Weeks of frustration and swapped motors skinned knuckles for a faulty pump clevo's and fuel pumps.

[Breezed]

the worst I can admit to is working with my mate on my old vr commie putting a sound system in and been a hot day I had no shoes on coz im bogan. my mate put the soldering iron down and only to seconds later I step back on it and scold my foot. Mega ouch I couldn’t walk on it for a week the blister was huge.

[TOM-CAT]

hah. my main i spose would be putting an EA head on my EF and not noticing for 1 week

[Windsor220]

Originally Posted by fpv84d

mitsubishi express van did an oil change and left oil cap off went for a drive and wondered what the oil burning smell was? sprayed oil everywhere.

Ha. I done that at work before. Finshed the car, roadtested, and put it in the customer car park. Opened up the bonnet to see what all the smoke was and the engine was on fire. Bolted for the extinguisher. Ended up ok e

[duaned]

I remember changing the oil on the Magna one day. I forgot to tighen the sump plug after the new oil was in. Started her up and breifly wondered why the motor sounded as if it was going to sieze! I quickly ripped out the HT lead from the coil to shut her down. That was 11 years ago. The same motor is still running today without burning oil today.

[azaxr8]

Originally Posted by chief

Has anyone seen the show bush mechanics. Its on ABC and I think DVD. It follows Aboriginals and their mechanic skills. Have a flat tyre, put spinix in the tyre. The car lost 1st, 2nd. 3rd and 4th gear. So one person would sit on the boot and direct while the car just drove in reverse. The fuel pump stops working so use the pump for the window washes, to get the fluid pumping need to sphyon the fuel through the pump, so what does a guy do, starts sucking till the fuel comes through, gets a mouth full than spits it in the carbie.

Great show and just great for laughs.

Oh mate, did i ever. Was great for a laugh and i do really miss that show and forgot what its called.

Is it still on air?

[hannem]

Originally Posted by robjg33

mounted compressor in shed next to garage (much less noise) put the electrical lead through conduit between sheds so the switch to turn it on is in garage. had to undo the electrical plug to feed it through grabbed the extension cord plug by mistake which was still plugged in nice zap staggered backwards and bashed head on ute body hanging from garage roof (i was painting the ute at the time) hit the floor cursing and swearing
neighbor comes in to see what the commotion was about starts laughing his head off and christens me tim the toolman

Story above, I have just laughed so hard that I am still wiping tears from my eyes.

Playing around with the wipers on my FC holden years ago, took them off and rested them on the bonnet near the windscreen. jumped in the car later and took off, coming back home I noticed 2 flat and squished wiper arms on the road near the driveway. Doh.

Wrecked the diff in my VH comm and went and got a second hand one, drained out the old oil first then spent a couple of hours bolting it in. Dropped it down and took off. Couple of kays down the road hear funny noises, sad realisation that I had forgotten to put new oil in it, another Doh. Start walking off to Dad's house as he is closer for oil, pump and spanner. Was ok luckily.

Not me but a mate (honest) Had an Alfa Sud in a small garage with the bonnet open, they open backwards, the bonnet hinges are not at the windscreen but at the bumper bar end. The bonnet opens up and sits vertical.
He decides to jack up the car to change a front wheel and is wondering why the jack is getting hard. The bonnet was pushing on the low hanging steel roof truss, bent the edge of the bonnet and bent the hinges.


Had the air cleaner off one day with the engine running and was looking down the carby and revving it, watching it squirt the juice in. Was going vroom, vroom, vroom. Young and stupid still don't know what I would learn from doing that. Anyway it backfires and badly singes my eyebrows, fringe and top of my head. Nice crinkly hair after that and boy did it stink.
:togo:

Again FC holden (At least I have a BA XR6 now) Never bothered to strap the battery down in the engine bay until one day go fanging around a corner and hear BRING! Damn fan knocked the corner off the battery, electricians tape saved the day.

[5.0 ED]

At a mates workshop I grabbed the tranny drum with pump in it one day, thinking pump was 100ml, i pumped away 10pumps, next thing i noticed i was standing in oil straight out of the overflow, turned out to be 1/2litre per push pump. :

In my old 1966 XR, battery wasn't secured properly, driving around hit fan, didn't even hear it or notice until my eye's and face all started to burn slightly, pulled over and found yep corner of battery missing, and a mess of plastic everywhere.

I had a EF 6 cylinder on engine stand, put too shorter bolts in stand, and it broke em out and smashed the front of engine on ground, $800 worth of damage to new components. :togo:

Finished building this above motor to have it run for 2 minutes and then piston valve cause some dumbo didn't tightened the cam gear. :

While drinking in shed i started cutting a vacuum line in half, pulling knife down towards hand, slip straight thru bottom of hand, instant pool of blood, cut straight thru a vein.

[samsy351]

I was doing a quick charge on my battery in my 5L EB one day, Bat was still in the engine bay and the charger was just sitting next to it, and the bonnet was almost all the way down while it charged.( I know- stupid way to do it but I was in a rush ) Anyway my missus wants me to move the car. So i jump in reverse out and then clunk, bang , bang ! ........I forgot about the charger and it fell down ,it hit the fan and then bang into the radiator , puncturing it.

Result ... I needed
1 new battery charger and
1 new radiator !!

[The Yeti]

Originally Posted by hannem

Had the air cleaner off one day with the engine running and was looking down the carby and revving it, watching it squirt the juice in. Was going vroom, vroom, vroom. Young and stupid still don't know what I would learn from doing that. Anyway it backfires and badly singes my eyebrows, fringe and top of my head. Nice crinkly hair after that and boy did it stink.
:togo:
.

When I was an apprentice we had an old VB pu on the hoist for the used car lot, any how one of the mechanics was welding the exhaust with an oxy, he hit a spot of rust and if poped back casueing a spark to land in is ahead of its time afro, I can still remember it like yeasterday he was still welding with this afro fire ball me and antoehr guy had to stop laughing long enough to put the guys head out as he didnt notice till I was hitting his head to put out the flames i'd almost forgotten about it till i read your story

[Lynch'd]

Haha..I hate to laugh at others missfortunes but geez some of these posts are hilarious!

Well my worst has to be pulling out the dash on my old magna. There had been some very dodge wiring jobs done behind it with central locking kits, phone kits, stereo's, alarms, etc., all spliced into different existing cables behind the dash. Anyway, trying to figure out why the cigarette lighter wasn't working I pulled out the dash (without disconnecting the battery :togo: ) and as i pulled it away the live wire from the back of the lighter flicked up and shorted on the stereo casing.

Sparks flying everywhere, the short melted the wire, set fire to some very dodge tape that was covering a few of the cable splices and melted a hole in the side of the console. I managed to blow just about every fuse in the car, fry the radio and destroy the console. All in a days work. :

[V3RSAC3]

Happened only on Saturday, being ethnic my garage is a storage place for cr*p! so it's pretty hard to walk through. Anyway, i was walking through to get my spray paint and wearing no shoes, I stubbed my toe on a box, my foot got tangled in the jumper leads on the floor I stumbled forwards smashing my knee on a wooden box hanging out of a shelf, tripped and hit my head on the car Jack ..... yeap

[Hillbilly F Truck]

OK, so my brother in law (who is a mechanic) and i were fitting new brakes all round on my F truck. Drums, wheel cylinders, brake shoes, bearings ,pads ,rotors...etc you get the picture. Now, as aussie blokes, you all know you can't do any work in the garage on the weekend without beer. So when we were nearing completion there were quite a few empties laying around - just one or two, and it was time to bleed the brake lines. Many of you will see where this is going. I'm in the cab and brother in law is underneath bleeding them into one of the empty beer bottles. Now he failed to mention this to me and when the job was done we were tidying up and i was pretty sure i had finished my last beer so passed the bottle to him, and he assured me it must be mine, so......yep DOT3 tastes pretty bad. Fortunately i had not swallowed any, but i did feel like Monica Lewinski before spitting it out into the garden. I was tasting that for hours.

[The Mighty Red]

Ok, I put new pedders shocks and springs all round on my AU XR6, long story short , i forgot to put the steel washers on the underside of the bumpstops on the front shocks, the car was still handling ok , the old shocks must have really been stuffed lol........6 months later my car starts overheating ,the header tank has a whole in it with the top of the shock absorber sticking through the bottom of the plastic header tank...Oh dear!

[manxman]

I'm confused about which is the worst part: there's a lot more like me out there, Or we are just plain dangerous to ourselves, if no-one else. Gad, I'm NOT unique!!!! My mates will be horrified.