What's the stupidest thing you have done working on a car?
#41
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Working on my old Supra, I was removing the rear strut bar to ship to someone who I sold it to. Took it off, got a phone call in side, mind was sidetracked, came back outside, and decided to go get some gas for the car. Went there, sat in some traffic, got gas, and left. Was coming home, went over a few bumps in the road, and heard a LOUD friggin' bang from the rear of the car, a few times. They were coilovers and the car had a very very stiff ride. On the second bang I looked down into the cup holder and saw the 6 nuts that secure the coilovers to the body... Turns out of the car was trying to jump off itself
DUMB.
-J
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-J
#42
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^^haha I can only imagine your face as you looked down on those bolts.
I've done some stupid stuff messing around with cars with my dad. Mostly as a kid since I'm only 18 now. I just did something so amazingly stupid I think one of you guys needs to stab me. I ran over some orange paint in my truck last week, i get home and see it splashed all over the side. I took a hose to it and a scrubby songe thing and couldn't get it off, so far the only way it had come off was with my finger. I narrowed my options down to a tire brush thing with a long handle and a scotchbrite. I used the scotchbrite on the tire and was impressed. I then thought to myself, "hmm I know my dad said something about using a scotchbrite on the clear coat when he blends crap, I'll just go over it lightly and see what happens." Needless to say I scuffed up the paint
I compounded it and polished it a little, still looks a little crappy. My dad drove to today and didn't notice (or at least didn't say anything) I'm kind of surprised, I guess he didn't look at it too hard.
Anyway I need to do some more buffing to make it look good so I don't need to explain to my dad I'm an idiot.
Just for the record I would never think about taking a scotch brite anywhere near my firebird as I love it. After scraping 20 or so paint splashes with my finger I started to get desperate.
I have a good one about my friend too. He was putting an underglow kit on his 3000gt. Had it sitting on ramps. Finished it up, let off the emergency brake, the car rolled just a little bit back, hit his spoiler (hatch was up) and completely ruined his hatch.
I've done some stupid stuff messing around with cars with my dad. Mostly as a kid since I'm only 18 now. I just did something so amazingly stupid I think one of you guys needs to stab me. I ran over some orange paint in my truck last week, i get home and see it splashed all over the side. I took a hose to it and a scrubby songe thing and couldn't get it off, so far the only way it had come off was with my finger. I narrowed my options down to a tire brush thing with a long handle and a scotchbrite. I used the scotchbrite on the tire and was impressed. I then thought to myself, "hmm I know my dad said something about using a scotchbrite on the clear coat when he blends crap, I'll just go over it lightly and see what happens." Needless to say I scuffed up the paint
![Bang Head](https://ls1tech.com/forums/images/smilies/LS1Tech/gr_banghead.gif)
Anyway I need to do some more buffing to make it look good so I don't need to explain to my dad I'm an idiot.
Just for the record I would never think about taking a scotch brite anywhere near my firebird as I love it. After scraping 20 or so paint splashes with my finger I started to get desperate.
I have a good one about my friend too. He was putting an underglow kit on his 3000gt. Had it sitting on ramps. Finished it up, let off the emergency brake, the car rolled just a little bit back, hit his spoiler (hatch was up) and completely ruined his hatch.
#43
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ive punched my K member with all my weight from a wrench slipping off of a bolt.
ive driven over 100 miles with a box end wrench STILL attatched to the rear sway bar bushing bolt
ive changed oil, put the new oil in, and start the car without the filter on![Bang Head](https://ls1tech.com/forums/images/smilies/LS1Tech/gr_banghead.gif)
changing my pinion seal, i forgot to reattatch the driveshaft when trying to back the car out, needless to say it was really loud.
and my latest accomplishment, when putting the SS rims on i partially grinded the axle hub down, and not the lip in the rim's hub hole.
ive driven over 100 miles with a box end wrench STILL attatched to the rear sway bar bushing bolt
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ive changed oil, put the new oil in, and start the car without the filter on
![Bang Head](https://ls1tech.com/forums/images/smilies/LS1Tech/gr_banghead.gif)
changing my pinion seal, i forgot to reattatch the driveshaft when trying to back the car out, needless to say it was really loud.
and my latest accomplishment, when putting the SS rims on i partially grinded the axle hub down, and not the lip in the rim's hub hole.
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It wasn't me but I was the victim.
I was in the 3rd round of a race and ran a guy just a tick slower than me. I launch and click off a 1.29 60 ft. like it had been all weekend and as the front end settles down I hear see this milky looking water cover my windshield then the RPM's zing up and I head straight for the wall.
I got out of it and sat there for like half a second then stabbed back into it and the whole car shot towards the wall again so knowing I had lost and figuring I'd puke a motor or tranny I clicked it off, got out of the groove and rolled to the return road.
Knowing I had fuel pressure and not seeing a trail behind me I thought it might be ok so I started it right back up and headed to the trailer. I get there, take off the hood and my mom says "was your gas cap off before you took the hood off?". Sure enough, my dad had refueld it and forgot to put the fuel cap back on (fuel tank is right in front of my radiator). So I was spinning on my fuel and the white stuff that hit the windsheild was alcohol
. It sucked, I had him treed and wasn't far from catching him when I shot towards the wall.
There's other small things but I'd say this was the most confusing, simple and eventful mistake. One time we put plugs in that were long reach and 3 of them closed up, I ran a 6.60 in the 1/8 on about 6 cylinders
I was in the 3rd round of a race and ran a guy just a tick slower than me. I launch and click off a 1.29 60 ft. like it had been all weekend and as the front end settles down I hear see this milky looking water cover my windshield then the RPM's zing up and I head straight for the wall.
I got out of it and sat there for like half a second then stabbed back into it and the whole car shot towards the wall again so knowing I had lost and figuring I'd puke a motor or tranny I clicked it off, got out of the groove and rolled to the return road.
Knowing I had fuel pressure and not seeing a trail behind me I thought it might be ok so I started it right back up and headed to the trailer. I get there, take off the hood and my mom says "was your gas cap off before you took the hood off?". Sure enough, my dad had refueld it and forgot to put the fuel cap back on (fuel tank is right in front of my radiator). So I was spinning on my fuel and the white stuff that hit the windsheild was alcohol
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There's other small things but I'd say this was the most confusing, simple and eventful mistake. One time we put plugs in that were long reach and 3 of them closed up, I ran a 6.60 in the 1/8 on about 6 cylinders
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I was installing my nitrous kit, girlfriend was playing around and threw a small nut at me. I took the throttle body off to see if there was some oil in the intake so the nut went into the intake and somehow made it all the way into a cylinder, took me 6 more hours to rip the top end of the engine down to get this little 8/32 nut from the top of the piston. I was soooo pissed, the girlfriend set in a chair the rest of the time asking if she could help.
#47
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Originally Posted by Lythropus
I was installing my nitrous kit, girlfriend was playing around and threw a small nut at me. I took the throttle body off to see if there was some oil in the intake so the nut went into the intake and somehow made it all the way into a cylinder, took me 6 more hours to rip the top end of the engine down to get this little 8/32 nut from the top of the piston. I was soooo pissed, the girlfriend set in a chair the rest of the time asking if she could help.
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#48
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did an exhaust repair on a ladies car at work.. well i used a bungy cord to hang part of it while i worked on it, forgot about it... the lady came back a few days later saying she smelled some rubber burning in the mean time i riped it off the car. in those few days i was looking all over for that bungy and couldnt find it.
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if that happened to me, i would've pulled an ol yeller on her and took her out back and BAM!
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Originally Posted by Lythropus
I was installing my nitrous kit, girlfriend was playing around and threw a small nut at me. I took the throttle body off to see if there was some oil in the intake so the nut went into the intake and somehow made it all the way into a cylinder, took me 6 more hours to rip the top end of the engine down to get this little 8/32 nut from the top of the piston. I was soooo pissed, the girlfriend set in a chair the rest of the time asking if she could help.
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well, i had just finished my 469 Pontiac build. i fired it and held it at 2000rpm to breakin the cam. about 15min into it my dipstick popped out and this weird fluid started to squirt out of the tube. yup, oil and antifreeze. i didnt understand how i lost a headgasket already. well i pull the heads and find that i left a little inspection sticker on the face of the gasket that just happened to stretch from the cylinder to the water jacket. nice.
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#52
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I had just finished swapping my old wheels/tires for my new ones on my 280ZX and torqued them all up and wanted to go for a test drive
to see if i could feel a difference in the improved tires. Well, about 1/2 a mile into my drive i noticed some tire shimmy. I went around another turn and the wheel started shaking A LOT. I thought "****, i put my wheel on crooked and now its rubbing on my shocks." (i have about 1/16" of clearance.) So i pull over and get out of the car to check it out, look all over and didn't notice any rubbing and i finally look at the lug nuts. actually my lug NUT
. I had lost 3 lug nuts on my front left wheel and the 4th was about half way off, and I lost one more on the right front. i spent the next hour walking up and down the streets i had driven looking for my lug nuts. eventually i found them all. I then had to walk back to my house, grab the lug wrench, walk back to my car and torque em back down. Needless to say i had a few words with myself for that one
.
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#53
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Originally Posted by timberman00
On a different car, I was changing the rear brakes. I got the wheel off easy enough, but the drum wouldn't budge. I was prying and hammering and pulling and kicking for an hour till my friend asked if the E brake was off. I said no it's on, but I will go release it now.
Last edited by slw ls1; 12-25-2006 at 01:54 PM.
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My friend was looking at my car on the lift at work and droped a 8mm socket into my bellhousing somehow trying to see what would fit my bleeder.. he forgot about it. need less to say i finished installing my long tubes. I took it for a ride then i heard a few loud booms, and then there were 3 holes in my bellhousing. he installed my new clutch for free...
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When we were putting a new engine in my El Camino, we got ready to bolt the transmission up and realized we left the damn flywheel at the machine shop.
That was real cool.
Edit: I didn't even read the post above me, that's awesome
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Edit: I didn't even read the post above me, that's awesome
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#57
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Originally Posted by wallyj
The other one was just a few years ago when I was trying to push my ElCamino (sold that demon POS) in the dirveway and slipped. Slammed my neck down on the top of the tailgate. Should have killed me , but I'm too dumb to die
LMAO!
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Spoken like a true man.
Some time ago my friends I were reworking the intercooler piping on a Chevy Cavalier. The built motor and new body kit allowed us to move it to a more asthetically pleasing location.
Having several projects going on at once, most of which require cutting and welding, we decide to stick a rag in the intake pipe. Don't want to get to much unnessisary metal and debris into the chambers, after all.
The three of us complete one task after thenext, and finally decide to start cleaning up. Got everything, we say. Tool search, check. Nothing loose, check, no fluids stuck anywhere they shouldn't be, double check.
The old motor put down 210 fwhp on a warm day. And now we're rolling in a fully built car that can't, for the life of it, pull its self up a minor grade.
The car just wont hit more then 4k RPM. The AFR is somewhere around 7. Fuel, almost still in liquid form, is rolling out of the pipes. The turbo is chugging pretty badly. Terrible noise. A lot like its surging.
So we decided to pull the rag outta the charge pipe and the car ran like a raped ape. Who'd'a thunk't
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Oh about 8 years ago I was upgrading the turbo on a Shelby Lancer that I had. I had been drinking when I started putting the head together (putting the exhaust and intake manifolds on). I got the head back on and the and the car all together. When I started it. Ran like crap and was loud as hell.
Had to pull the head back off because I forgot the intake/exhaust manifold gasket.
Had to pull the head back off because I forgot the intake/exhaust manifold gasket.
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i havent done much stupid stuff to cause pain. but i saw my friend do something pretty silly (still no pain). we were putting the heads back on the the '91 that i sold a few weeks ago and.... well just look...
notice anything wrong with that head? hmmmmmmm... i wonder if the head bolts are gonna line up
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notice anything wrong with that head? hmmmmmmm... i wonder if the head bolts are gonna line up
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I was removing the alternator on my LT1 a little while ago, and I just zoned out listening to some song on the radio, Imagine by John Lennon. Anyways, I somehow positioned my wrench so that it hit the positive lead on the alternator and a metal part on the body which was grounded. The wrench ended up welding itself onto the car, it sat there for like a good couple of seconds just getting red hot and then fusing itself with my car. I think the battery or a circuit shorted out which stopped it from further meltdown. Freaked me out, it was like the china syndrome in my engine compartment.