Oldhalftons, thanks for the advice, I was just thinking about moving. I guess I will just have to use my Chebby Tracker then. hahaha

 

don't pull the e-brake at road speed and try to do the turns like they do on tv....

 

THe same can be said for old weathered A-frame ladders, especially if it is a good friend using it while you stand on a metal step ladder next to him. The wooden ladder could decide to break with no creaking or groaning. Your friend could end up on top of you and the metal ladder with his tooth through his lip where one step hit him and a goose egg on his forehead where the next step up hit him... trust me.

 

Don't try to kill an engine with a hot ignition by pulling the coil wire with your bare hands.

Don't try to kill an engine with a hot ignition using "insulated" pliers.

Don't throw pliers at breakable objects.

Don't think that holding something with vice-grip pliers will give you more leverage than the drill you are using. One of the two will give.

Don't hold the piece you're drilling a hole in (held with the vice-grip pliers from above) too close to "the boys".

"Tough" is relative. Steel is tougher than aluminum. Both are tougher than skin.

Wire wheels, grinding wheels, and sanding disks remove stuff without discrimination. See above.

Hot metal looks just like cold metal.

Welding splatter is precision guided.

 

haha who hasn't tried that one...

 

If you decide to kill the engine by smothering the carb, be sure you can move faster than the resulting fireball that will surely belch from deep within.

Brake cleaner (or carb cleaner) shot into an orifice will end up in your eyes.

Brake cleaner sprayed anywhere in a car will run until it finds an eye or mouth to drip into. (If you happen to be under the car)

It takes at least 2 good washes to get tranny fluid out of hair.

No matter how hard you try, RTV will always end up on every finger and an elbow.

 

No matter how hard you try, you can't force thread a brake line fitting.

Try not to throw a gallon of gas on a brush pile to get the fire going better.

 

Don't try to get your fuel-starved truck home ("it's only a couple miles") by riding up in the engine bay (hood removed) and pouring gasoline down the carb while you're buddy tries to see around you and drive, unless of course you like having an engine fire in the middle of a busy intersection, in the center of town and you enjoy explaining to the local police and fire departments what the heck you thought you were doing.

This happened with a couple of guys I know, unfortunately I only got to see the end result (think crispy), because from what I heard it was quite the hilarious scene (in a bone-headed-move-of-the-year sense).

 

Never cook a chicken over a burnin' tire!

 

In your younger years, never mess around and fall asleep in your 'new' girlfriends bed, espically when her brother is your well-armed friend!

Ever had a gun pointed at your head while you're naked and half asleep??

 

Always unplug the battery when working under the hood.

Always wear goggles. I once was underneathe of my truck, and caught a piece of metal...rusty metal INTO my eyeball. Not on it, not underneathe of my eyelid...lodged IN my eyeball.

Scare tactic: I had to go to the optomologist, as I was having a hard time with my eye. NEVER RUB YOUR EYE WHEN YOU THINK SOMETHING IS IN IT. Even if you go to look in the mirror, and can't see it...it's there. First thing he did was sit me down, and check it out. The office was cool, and it wasn't hot outside. I had a short sleaved shirt on. He pulled the whole eye-looker-into-thing around, and shined light into my eye, and told me I had something in it. (no kidding). So, he tells me to stay still, he rolls his chair back, and I hear a drawer open. I can barely see through one of the open spaces in his giant eye observer, but I see him pull something out and place it on the desk...it's wrapped in a sterilized packet, and it made a heavy clanging sound when he put it down. He never showed me what it was, but I saw it as he came in, and told me to stay still. It was a needle pointed probe kind of thing...very intimidating looking. I felt a slight pressure against my eyeball. You know what it feels like to get a shot in your arm? It was like that, only in the eye. He was working on me for what honestly felt like 2-3 minutes...it was actually like 15 seconds. He would roll his chair out, and wipe the probe, and then come back. I was sweating bullets, like it was 120 degrees in there, when it couldn't have been 72. After his second trip to my eyeball, I had to back out of the eye thing and chin rest, and asked for drink of water. As he was doing that, a nurse walked by in the hallway, and I called to her, because I needed a trashcan to yuke in, and the doc was getting me water...luckily I didn't let one fly. He let me relax for a bit, and let me know that it was a common occurance. It has something to do with putting so much pressure onto your eyeball and throwing off your balance and equilibrium...then he got back to work. The whole thing took about 45 minutes, and after I got my eyedrops, I went to Home Depot, and bought 3 pairs of protective glasses. I had to go back two weeks later, to get checked on. His partner did the looking this time, and luckily it was only looking. She saw that I was a little nervous, and I asked her, "no poking around this time, right." She chuckled, and said Dr, So&so was 'so brutal', and that she normally uses the drill. I'm not adding comedy here....that's what she said to me. I chuckled uncomfortably, and asked her if there was a better way then the probe to take care of this, and she said, "yes, the drill." and looked at me like I was an idiot.

Lesson Learned: WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES

 

I can relate to that, had metal removed from my eyes more than once, unfortunately, and one wood sliver... the first time I went in, I went to the local university. I know it is a learning facility, but they charted BOTH eyes (I only had it in one eye) BEFORE removing the metal filing. After an hour of prodding around and making me so I now could not see out of either eye (they dilated the pupils to do the charting) they FINALLY got the sliver out... Another time had a hot splash of spatter go directly into my eye, talk about pain! Safety glasses are definitely high on my list of must haves...

 

I got a metal sliver in my eye once. It kind of hooked itself in there and the doc spent about 15 minutes trying to pull it out without ripping too much. Then there was rust left, so he took this dremmel tool type thing and buffed that spot on my eye. Took a couple male nurses to hold me down. Geez, I mean I could smell it! Yea, I wear my safety glasses.

 

Never fry bacon in the nude. A little advice passed on by my father.

Point one: Finish small jobs. You will probably remember where you left off with big jobs (engine rebuilding, ect) but small jobs are easy to forget. The other day I was checking out my brakes when a friend called. I had the lugs on finger tight (it was still on the jackstands), dropped it and took off. When I took out th F-100 today, I forgot to retighten the lugs. They loosened quickly, and it became an interesting trip when I hit about 65mph. It was a long walk home to get my lug wrench.

Point two: carry tools with you at all times. When you don't have it, that's when you'll need it.

Point three: a 7 inch grinder and your leg will not get along if they meet. Ouch. And don't ever hold a piece of metal to the blade of a chop saw with your bare hand. Don't ask. It leaves a mark on your thumb you won't forget.

Point four: Don't drive when you're too tired to drive. Thought I could make it. Six days of no sleep, third shift work and auto work during the day didn't add up well. I was driving two hours a day in my 86 F-150 when I fell asleep. Triple rollover. I really miss that truck.

 

don't use plyiers to put on drum brake springs, when they slip you'll know why, lets just say I woke up a couple minutes latter, and I agree with XLT4ME if its not broke don't fix it.