[jimfulco]

Back in the dark ages, a couple of us, the most experienced being a Ford guy, decided to put a cam in a Camaro, thinking the cylinders were numbered just like a Ford. After we got that straightened out, it just belched & farted a bunch (180* out), then once we got it running we figured we'd set the valves, but all we succeeded in doing was setting it on fire. Luckily we huffed & puffed & got it blown out before the owner poured a punch bowl full of water on it. Ran real good once we got done.

[shine]

well i probably should'nt tell on myself . back in the 70's i was a custom painter at good times vans. most vans were white so we just matched what was done inside. i did a killer blue fade and graphics with a sea scape mural on one. tore it down to put it in the clear room.... opened the door and jumped in.............. i was surrounded by ugly green swirl carpet. lived with that one for a long time.

[schnitz]

Back when I was around 10 or 12, my dad had run an extension cord from the barn out to a tractor for the battery charger. It had snowed a few inches just days prior to this. Well, it warmed up enough to deliver a downpour of freezing rain all over the place. Dad told me to carefully chip the ice out from either side of the now frozen-to-the-ground cord. Which I left plugged in. As the cord had been settling into the snow, it hit a deeper spot of drifted snow, and I couldn't follow it with my chipping tool of choice... dad's 8 lb. wood splitting maul. Guess what. I FOUND IT!! Cut right thru it in a shower of sparks. And, that wasn't the only cord I've cut either. Just last spring, I cut one of my own while pruning a shrub in my yard. My guess is I'll die in an electrical mishap......


In a while, Chet.

[xntrik]

Originally Posted by Beenaway2long

How about being in the heat of the moment and call your wife her SISTERS name?

My wife (then) called me by a friend's name twice..... she has been married to him twice now...... 35 years I guess it has been...... At least they are only ruining one marriage... LOL

Me?...... I guess I was taught to "measure twice and cut once". Dad used to say, "Only stop when you are at a stopping place". In other words, don't stop in the middle of a hands on procedure like tightening a bolt, etc.

The only mess up I remember at this second is putting a timing gear in a 460 Ford and afterwards found the oil slinger ring on the floor...... heck no I didn't take it back apart..... never ever leaked either.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/lamm.asp


Well, I actually saw a Chevy put together without a head gasket...... but I didn't do it.

[F3RR3T]

good thread to revive

heres mine

last year working on my lowered dodge dakota change the starter (my dad told me to wait till he got home the next day at 4.

well wanting to impress him i went out there to do it myself jacked it up got the starter off some reason i fell asleep after about 20 minutes i woke up with a heavy chest i was stuck i was hurt and my dad didnt get home for about 29 hours needless to say it was a long wait he pulled in the driveway got me out took me to the hospital on the way he said look in the backseat and sure enough it was a new frickin jack.

i learned my leason to always use jackstands wood blocks or something the hard way all it took was 2 broken ribs

[cboy]

My list is VERY long but the most embarrassing has to be the one that occurred in front of a fairly large crowd back in the mid 70's. I was racing my C/A (pic below) at Great Lakes Dragway in Union Grove, WI. The altered was a Volkswagen shell over a Chapman funny car chassis with a SBC up front and the battery mounted in the back where the VW originally sat.

For some reason I had the battery out between rounds and when I put it back in I neglected to fasten it down and only had the connectors set loosely on the posts. When I made my next pass and stood it up on the wheelie bars in second gear, the battery went flying, hit the rear "trunk" lid, popping it open, and the battery went merrily bouncing down the drag strip.

In those days we were allowed tow vehicles in the competition classes so my wife was following me down the track in our Blazer. She simply stopped, nonchalantly picked up the battery and put it in the car, and continued down the track. Fortunately, the altered had built up a big enough head of steam that I was able to coast it over the finish line and onto the return road or it would have even been MORE embarrassing getting towed off the track. But needless to say, this is not the way to impress a large gathering of hot rodders.

[oldguy829]

Most embarrasing--- My son (10) is racing Jr. Dragsters. Straight alcohol in a 5hp briggs block. Couple of passes, we'd change oil to get rid of the acohol build up. He qualifies for the finals, so we change the oil and push her to the line. Of course in the excitement, I forgot to put the oil filler plug in tight. It's at the top of the motor. It lubes from a slinger on the crank. Within seconds of firing it up, the lid blows and it looks like spindle top. Got a 12 foot spray of oil drenching the lane, the starter, the other car. Being the final, all the racers, families, spectators were watching. Naturally we are disqualified.
Have done dumber things, but the crowds were smaller, and I didn't take my son down with me.

[bluebu]

That not quitting until you get to a good stopping place is a good one! Getting distracted in the middle of a job can be BAD! lol

Examples....

Hubby is getting ready to take his car to the track. He opens the pit **** on his catch can and wanders off to load something else into the truck while it's draining. Forgets to close it. First pass of the evening she stands up hard launching, sloshes water into the can through the still open pit ****, and onto the track. He goes a few feet, hits the water, makes a hard right, and hits the guardrail!

A racing buddy is putting a fresh bottle of NOS into his rig in the backseat area of his car at the track. Someone stops by to talk to him and he neglects to finish tightening the line to the bottle. The line comes loose during his burnout but he doesn't notice anythings amiss until his car fails to leave like it should. He's busy thinking about all the possible causes when he realizes that he's drifted across the center line and he feels like he's going to pass out! He manages to jerk it back into his lane, scrubs it against the wall trying to get it stopped in a hurry, opens the door, and falls out onto the track before passing out. Everyone thought that he'd had a heart attack at first until a track worker hit the kill switch on the car. At that point they could hear 900 psi of nitrous pouring from the bottle. He was fine but he'll NEVER live it down. te he

Me?!? I never Duh moments. I have OH $#IT moments. That's when you have just enough time to think, "Oh $#IT! This is going to hurt!", before it does.

Peg

[kenseth17]

Craked a 450 corvette windshield back in tech school. Teacher let me know the cost. They ended up having it drilled and filled. Also in school, painting a football helmet for someone in thier school colors. Was starting to get a hanger, so I grabbed the heat lamp, figuring it should help stop it from running down the whole helmet. Went to the bathroom and then got sidetracked doing something else. One of the instructors had moved the heat lamp closer, and when I got back to it it was all warped and lopsided. Other kids seemed to think it was funny.
The two back in tech school days that come to mind had to be most embarrasing, I fortuanately didn't do. I am working on a 68 cougar for one of my dads coworkers, and all of a sudden a these little yellow blobs are falling on the car. I am like what the f is going on here. Look way across shop, one of the students put too much pressure in the undercoating gun, his face and glasses were filled in yellow goo and way up on the ceiling (which was pretty dang high) there is a big glob.

Two older guys in class went in the booth to paint a toyota pickup. One side was all dry sprayed, the other solid runs. They never turned on the booth exhaust and came out looking like smurfs.

Sitting in the mechanics shop for that portion of our studies, an elderly gentle man comes in to ask about getting his car serviced. Instructor says, you will have to come back at another time, we are in the middle of class. Old guy must a been a bit thirsty. He decides to take a drink from the bubbler (water fountain for you non Wisconsin folks). Only problem is it was an eye wash, and two streams come out hitting his face and glasses more then his mouth. Couldn't have been too tasty either. Not something you want to do in a classroom full of young, still imature kids.

When younger I buffed a friends escort out for him. Was cleaning my buffing pad with a screwdriver. The buffer ripped the screwdriver out of my hand and shot it across the garage. It missed my friend by inches, about the right height in a place you really wouldn't want to go to the emergency room with a screwdriver poking into.

Dropped the fuel tank in one of my cars recently to change the fuel pump, Put tank back up, and hook up hoses. Forgot to hook up plug and was sitting on top of tank. Ohh well drop it back down.

Few weeks ago was getting out the door to work a bit late. Get to work and have on one good shoe and one work shoe. Hey least I had my pants on.

I hate to imagine things I've done when I use to get wasted, and I am sure there are many more I've done.

A forum member here once said he installed carpet in the wrong home, wonder who would have done something like that?

[carsavvycook]

This is an oldie but goody. I can't resist revisiting this one.

OK here goes.

I used to do a lot of re-ring jobs on Toyota 20R's and 22RE's. One came back to bite me right where my wallet goes. In my haste to finish one up, I had a brain f-rt, and forgot to clean the block out good. Do you know that the honing grit destroy's the cylinder head also?

Another time I put a 302EFI in a Ford Bronco. On it's first swart-up, I am sitting in the drivers seat revving it up, and getting real upset because of NO Oil pressure. I looked at my tool cart, and saw the unopened oil filter box, at the same time a passer-by asked me what the big puddle on the floor was.

Someone else had pulled a 3.1 out of a Buick Regal. It was my job to put it back in. Well I could not get the crank sensor wire any where close to the sensor, sooooo I thunk I'd just splice an extension into the wires. Well it would not run. For 3 days I tried to figure out what was wrong, knowing it was nothing I had done. Come on it was just 2 wires spliced and lengthened, how tough is that? Well I got someone else to come and look at it, and found out, if you cross those 2 stupid wires it won't run.

Do you know those 55 gallon drums full of recycled coolant? If you don't get the hose stuck back in the top of the drum, it will siphon all 55 gallons onto the shop floor.

On a Chevy Blazer, I was looking all under and inside, for a rolling bump sound, every time you hit the gas, or hit the brake. A 6'6" tall guy walks by and asked me if I knew there was 2 tennis balls on the roof. Turns out the guy who owns it, has a dog that likes to chew the knobs on his riding lawn mower. So he cut slots in the tennis balls, to put over the knobs, and forgot where he had put them.

I found out when standing behind a BBC in a drag boat, tailoring a new set of plug wires, it's easy to wire it up in the wrong rotation.

And I don't eat brownies!

[Rob Keller]

Brownies are good for a person who works alone.it brings out a alter ego who checks your screw ups !

LOL

I swapped out the rear end in mu 85 BURB from a semi Floater to a full floater.

I filled it u[ with gear oil & drove to my Friends shop on the way back I hear this Schrunching noise so I limp home bout mile & half pull sown the right side & theres no oil! I had to use a slide hammer to get the hub off.

I wound up adding a xtra half a quart thru the vent tube!

I almost welded the race to the tube

Also went full synthetic.



R

[carsavvycook]

"Brownies are good for a person who works alone.it brings out a alter ego who checks your screw ups !" Quote

Bbbuuutttt does it check it before you screw up? LOL

Like the time I was leaning over the grill of a 'jacked up' truck, reinstalling the power steering pump pulley. The 'crate' I was standing on kept sliding back, sending my chest into the radiator support.

Well I proudly, finally get the pulley back on, but the belt did not line up.

Once again I had to retrieve that 'crate', I had kicked away.

This was when I saw the pulley on back-wards.

Isn't it a good idea to replace the pulley anyways, when replacing the pump?

Not that it would have mattered in this case anyways.


That is why I asked that question.




I just noticed there is only a couple cold ones left in the fridge.

I figure after those and a couple more, my memory will get better.

Believe me. There are many more 'screw-up mistakes' I have made over the years.

Some I would like to forget forever, but sharing is just more fun. Don't they say "Talking about it, is better than holding it in", isn't it?

[Rob Keller]

Its your alter ego that pulls on that milk crate 3 ~ 4 times in a row !.


Like taking 4 per cut shots in the gut while all 220 lbs. is on the fender.

And I still use the milk crate.

Well if its not him ....Maybe its one of them people {imaginary} that I'm talking to all the time?


One of my ex bosses comes up on me one day & I'm just ratchet jawing away.
He say 'who the hell are you talking to"?

My Reply;
Do you agree I do more than one persons job around here?

He said yes.

Well that is the Boss telling the worker to get to work ,.....now did you come here to work?

He promptly drove away.


R {forman}


R {Go fer}


R {grunt}

[carsavvycook]

Originally Posted by Rob Keller

Its your alter ego that pulls on that milk crate 3 ~ 4 times in a row !.


Like taking 4 per cut shots in the gut while all 220 lbs. is on the fender.

And I still use the milk crate.

Well if its not him ....Maybe its one of them people {imaginary} that I'm talking to all the time?


One of my ex bosses comes up on me one day & I'm just ratchet jawing away.
He say 'who the hell are you talking to"?

My Reply;
Do you agree I do more than one persons job around here?

He said yes.

Well that is the Boss telling the worker to get to work ,.....now did you come here to work?

He promptly drove away.


R {forman}


R {Go fer}


R {grunt}

HaHaHaHa ROTFLMAO

I have been asked that question 100's of times. "Who are you talking to?"

My answer, Just Chip sitting on my shoulder.

It is funny to watch the "boss'es" reactions

Most have done an excellent impression of "Dumbo". Some just shake their heads back and forth, like a horses tail swatting flies, as they walk away. LOL

[old fords]

lets see
Valve cover leaking on my 69 Ford when I'd park it it looked like it'd blown up. Drove home in a 76 F-100 with the emergency brake on. The radio in my 92 Civic stayed locked on one channel and the volume would not go down so I punched it about 10 times and nearly jerked it out going down the road. When I got home it would work fine. I'm sure the is more, I just can't remember them