Dumbest thing you've ever done in your garage...

[cmpd1781]

My first car was a 1973 Impala with a 350ci 2bbl, which I got in 1981 when I was 17. It was a reeeeal rust-bucket......Hit a good bump and a bunch of rust comes falling on your head...(haha). Anyway, after about 6 months, I hit a good bump and the exhaust came flying off, almost killing my best friend, who was behind me in his POS 1972 Nova....(haha).......I decided to replace the 'stock' exhaust with a glass-pack. I thought it would add some character to the POS I was driving..... Well....I didn't figure that it mattered WHICH way I attached the glass-pack, so I ended up putting it on backwards. I'm sure some of you remember glass-packs, but backwards is even MORE impressive. It sounded like a friggin' F-4 Phantom jet going down Hwy 101 between Core Creek and Beaufort (NC)......As a matter of fact, that's about 15 miles from MCAS, Cherry Point, and I'm sure some of the folks out on the front porches along Hwy 101 thought at first that it WAS an F-4 Phantom. Now Phantoms sound cool and all.....But not if you were inside one with the canopy open......Or you were 50 feet away from one without mickey-mouse ears on your head......(haha). Anyway, after a couple of neighborhood dogs went deaf, I put them on the right way....... We were real rednecks back then (late 70s, early 80s). Everyone had rebel flag plates on the front, of course. Aside from MY POS......My 3 best friends had (already mentioned) a 1972 Nova with a 307ci.......a 1973 Ford LTD with a 351ci (windsor).....and a 1972 (I think) Plymouth Fury with a 318ci....... What a 'posse', huh? 30 years later and my mechanical abilities haven't improved much beyond that.......despite the occasional best efforts of the 1999-03 7.3L diesel forum folks...... In defense of the Impala.....I can remember the damned thing only breaking down once (I had it almost 4 years).....And that was when the alternator went out.

[Ford_Six]

Originally Posted by powerstroke72

That's terrible and hilarious at the same time. Looks like something I would have done when I was about 11.

One of the local papers summed it up best, but i couldn't find the article online. It basically said a guy drove into the lake, called 911, and the responding officer drove into the lake. I never found out if the cop car hit the other car too, but they both went off the same corner, cleared a set of tracks, and about 15' of beach before hitting the mud.

[4x4 stepside]

droped the gas tank on my wifes car to put in a new fuel pump the top was covered in dust and dirt the shop vac was sitting right there so INSTANT FLAME THROWER blew flames a good 10 ft across the shop and cooked the vac

[rsdjcarter]

Originally Posted by 4x4 stepside

droped the gas tank on my wifes car to put in a new fuel pump the top was covered in dust and dirt the shop vac was sitting right there so INSTANT FLAME THROWER blew flames a good 10 ft across the shop and cooked the vac

LMAO, nice job! I'm impressed.

[ghunt]

I remember when my brother had his old '77 F150- there was one point, and I can't remember exactly why now but he had had an IV in his arm for something, so the place where it had been was covered with gauze and some tape.

He was doing something with his truck, I don't know what, but he pulled one of the fuel lines off the fuel filter and gas ran right down his arm that his IV had been in. He basically went like this and ran 100 yards down a gravel road, to my dad's house, and he was only wearing sandals and lost those about 10 feet into his run....

It was entertaining since it didn't happen to me.

[sierraben]

Originally Posted by ghunt

I remember when my brother had his old '77 F150- there was one point, and I can't remember exactly why now but he had had an IV in his arm for something, so the place where it had been was covered with gauze and some tape.

He was doing something with his truck, I don't know what, but he pulled one of the fuel lines off the fuel filter and gas ran right down his arm that his IV had been in. He basically went like this and ran 100 yards down a gravel road, to my dad's house, and he was only wearing sandals and lost those about 10 feet into his run....

It was entertaining since it didn't happen to me.

And some people think they have gas in their veins.

[rockin300]

i once rapped a chain around an exhaust on my old junked truck and tried to pull it off with my other truck and wamm the other truck went into the side of the garage and the exhaust was draging behind my truck,i got my a$$ beat by my dad for putting a big dent in the side of the garage but at least it worked

[patrick77598]

I just screwed up big time a few days ago. i was removing the driveshaft on my 350 to pack the spline with grease .
I removed the four bolts holding it on and nothing happened so i shook it and still nothing, i decided to upgrade to the rubber mallet and right out it came.
Right then i figured out why it was so hard to remove, the truck was parked on a slope and the weight of the truck was resting on the tranny.
Now the truck is rolling forward with me holding the driveshaft so I quickly grabbed the chock block i had been meaning to put under the wheel and stopped the truck. I was luckie it could have turned out much worse.

Moral of the story always throw some chock blocks under the wheels when working on the drive train.

[Ugly89250]

Was changing the brakes on my Malibu last year. Figured out the rotors were shot so figured what the hay. Only two bolts to get a bracket off, then the rotors would slide right off. Only problem is, the last people to work on the brakes are a well known, national chain who will remain un-named. Cough midas Cough. Anyway, as is their habit, they overtightened the bolts I needed to remove to the point they refused to come out. Finally got a 4 ft. cheater bar and my two foot ratchet, and proceeded to go to work. Wife standing there watching, and as I was say " I don't care if the bracket breaks, because I already had a new one, but I can't break this". Meaning the steering knuckle, when crack, split the knuckle cleanly in half. Had to go to j/y, get a replacement, have the car towed, and the entire knuckle replaced. To make matters worse, when I originally got the caliper loose, I just tied it up to the strut, but didn't block the piston. So, naturally, when the guy showed up to tow the car, he stepped on the brake to put the car in neutral, and shot the piston right out of the caliper.

Also spent the better part of a day looking for the replacement struts for my Festiva, which I had put in the back of the car so I would know where they were.

[Lead Head]

Originally Posted by patrick77598

I just screwed up big time a few days ago. i was removing the driveshaft on my 350 to pack the spline with grease .
I removed the four bolts holding it on and nothing happened so i shook it and still nothing, i decided to upgrade to the rubber mallet and right out it came.
Right then i figured out why it was so hard to remove, the truck was parked on a slope and the weight of the truck was resting on the tranny.
Now the truck is rolling forward with me holding the driveshaft so I quickly grabbed the chock block i had been meaning to put under the wheel and stopped the truck. I was luckie it could have turned out much worse.

Moral of the story always throw some chock blocks under the wheels when working on the drive train.

Actually, I think the moral is that you should always use your parking brake, no matter what, whether you have an automatic or a manual

[tecgod13]

Originally Posted by Lead Head

Actually, I think the moral is that you should always use your parking brake, no matter what, whether you have an automatic or a manual

Correction, ALWAYS ALWAYS use chocks, even with the parking brake. Because no matter how good your parking break works, it does nothing if you lift the rear axle. Also, if you're on somewhat level ground, its good to chock both sides of the tire, so there's no chance of rolling either direction.

[redmt77]

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Ok, a little back ground on this story. My wife is outta town for 4 days doing some training for life insurance stuff leaving me with our 11 month old daughter. I am in a position to take my daughter to work with me so thats no big deal.

I decide that tonight when I get home that I am gonna change oil in my superduty 6.0 which for anyone who has ever changed oil in one of these it has to be about the easiest vehicle ever for oil changes. Well my daughter is sound asleep in the car seat when I get home so I think I'll just go ahead and start the drain process and then later tonight after she's in bed refill with oil...easy enough right?

I shut the engine off but left the radio goin with Dr Laura on...never to early to teach some morals right? I go to get my oil drain pan but remember it's being used under another truck, no biggie, I'll just use a 5 gallon bucket, one with the lid and the little spout thingy...I can surely line up a stream of oil with a 1.25" opening...yeah right! The oil flowed into the bucket for maybe a tenth of a second and then proceeded to run down the side and all over my shop floor.

I flew out from under my truck in a mad dash to find something to catch at least some oil. I returned with some rubbermaid catbox lookin thing and slid it under the truck. Now my hands covered in oil I hear my daughter crying in the carseat, I grab a rag and try my best to get that wonderful black crap off my hands so that I dont mess up her white coat too bad when I have to pick her out of the seat.

I get my daughter and come into the house where I notice my dog is acting guility...I think to myself "I wonder if the little A-hole got into the garbage"...sure enough, I go into the kitchen to find that the garbage can was tipped over and there is garbage all over the floor. I decide I better put my daughter in her crib and deal with the dog and the mess real quick. I yell at the dog and tell him to go outside via the dog door, clean up the garbage mess, and then fix a bottle for my little girl.

I decide that the shop with all the oil on the floor is no place for my kid to be but wanting to be kinda productive I decide to get the vacuum out and do a little house cleaning. Me and my daughter cleaned the house for a couple hours till she got bored with that and decided to take a nap...perfect! I can now go finish my oil change.

I head back out to my shop where the dog...via the shop dog door has taken up residence, but he knows how pissed I am at him he decides to get the heck outta there which is fine with me. I walk over to my truck to see what kind of a mess I have to deal with. I am looking at probably 1.5 gallons of oil on my shop floor and oily dog prints all over the place. As soon as I see the dog prints I think "OH SH#T, I bet the little A-hole went back in the house!"

I run outta the shop and into the house....sure enough the dogs in the house. We have an off white carpet but I dont see any doggie prints anywhere but just to be on the safe side I throw his ass out, I think maybe the fresh snow stuck to his feet and the oil didn't have a chance to stick to the carpet thank god.

I go back out to the shop to finally finish my little project, put the drain plug back in, put a new oil filter in, and add 14.5 quarts of oil. I start my truck and back it up a few feet so I can get at the oil slick. Good thing we have a cat cuz we always have kitty litter on hand. I spread out about 40 lbs of kitty litter on the oil slick and on some of the doggie paw prints. I hope in time the concrete will look good again, but I just wanted to share my worst oil change ever story with you guys.

[*2fords*]

Patrick Don't feel too bad about it. My friend ,who is a mechanic, went to somebody's house to replace U-joints in his truck. He got the drive shaft out, and they go to the parts store to get new ones. Upon getting back, they see that the truck isn't in the driveway. wondering what the F#%k, they're looking around, and see the truck across the street sitting on the neighbors porch. They ran over there and see that the back of the truck is also sitting inside the house. The real funny thing is they didn't chock the wheels because it was a manual tranny and it was in gear. ha ha ha Lota good it does to put it in gear when the tranny ain't hooked to the axle.

[padec21]

I was sealing my slightly inclined driveway one year and put a small milk crate in the garage and on to the side of the driveway with a board across so i can get into the garage without stepping on wet sealer. brilliant right. wrong. I stepped onto board the whole thing shifted downhill and I started to go down. I reached into garage for something to grab onto to regain my balance. only thing I could reach was the garage door track. I put my finger tips into track and thumb on trim and tried to squezze it. it worked!.... for a second then my hand slid down about a foot of the track and the edge of the track sliced my middle finger to the bone. blood was shooting clear across the garage.
one more.....i was slicing clearing tubing with a utility knife lengthwise. as I am doing this I am thinking if I slip I am going to slice my se...... buried the entire blade into my thumb. almost fillet my thumb right off the bone. was at least 1/2 from any medical facility camping. oh well. got some paper towels, packed the open wound with neo sporun, wrapped it in paper towels and then electrical taped the whole thing and continued my camping weekend. it bleed to the point it was soaking throught the paper towels for 3 days. I should have gotten stitches. I know have a scar on my thumb print that is 1 1/2 long and indented.

[King Triton]

Dumbest thing you've ever done in your garage...

Umm,,, I would have to say,,,,My Ex