Biggest injury you ever got working on your porsche

[lonewolf]

don't know if anyone has been hurt but here's my story.

10 years ago ,Feb , cold day in Vancouver. so dressed warm. wearing a skijacket under my overalls . One of those jackets with the nylon hood rolled up and tucked under the buttoned down collar. overalls zipped up fully and buttoned around my neck

working on a 911.with carbs,had 3 autometer guages in between the carbs bolted under the speaker panel. engine lid up ,engine running. i'm watching the movement of the guages through different rev ranges so I am leaning in and my head is overtop of the fan housing .my chin was probably 6inches above the housing. while holding the revs at 2000 i snapped them to redline . the suction from the fan sucked the hood out from my collar and the hood got caught in the fan belt and rapped around luckly killing the engine .when this happened it slammed my head into the upper fan housing right between my eyebrows so FN hard it almost knocked me out and i was stuck there till I turned and ripped the remaining hood off .I still have the scar. needless to say it all happened so fast that at first when i stood up i didn't know what happened till i saw part of the hood that ripped off and was rapped around the pully. it split open my head and I had a goose egg and headache for days.

so thats mine ,as embarrassing as it is to share maybe it will remind the few who don't know not to have anything loose on while working in that area.
I was carefull but....

[Hugh R]

Man, your lucky to be alive. When I looked at my targa for the first time (to buy it) I opened the deck lid and I had a tie on and the engine was running. That tie lifted up and headed for the fan and immediately I had visions of my face being sucked into a human vegamatic! I ripped that tie of really quick. Never wear a tie and open the deck lid on a 911!

[austin552]

Nothing major, saving the best for last.

[dhoward]

Johnco has you all beat.
I don't know the specifics yet, but he has you beat.

[911Rob]

ha, ha Bruce, that is funny.
Was there any brain damage as you don't seem to be replying to my emails?

[t951]

I had irreparable damage to my wallet....still isn't fully healed....

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by t951

I had irreparable damage to my wallet....still isn't fully healed....

ditto

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Man, your lucky to be alive. When I looked at my targa for the first time (to buy it) I opened the deck lid and I had a tie on and the engine was running. That tie lifted up and headed for the fan and immediately I had visions of my face being sucked into a human vegamatic! I ripped that tie of really quick. Never wear a tie and open the deck lid on a 911!

I solve that problem by never wearing a tie PERIOD.

Hell, I don't even wear 'em to weddings or funerals anymore. Useless pieces of cloth, IMHO.

Anyway. . . let's see - I've burned myself, given myself xylene poisoning, punctured a number of holes (large and small) in myself, skinned a couple of knees and elbows and left countless knuckle skin-cells on various engine parts.

I think the worst ever was when I was working on my 951 and dropped one of the LAST bolts on the intake to go back on while installing it (anyone who has ever worked on a 951 can relate to this). Needless to say, this was after about 3 solid days (LONG days) of turbocharger replacement and I now had to take the damn intake back off and find where the bolt went. I let out a primal scream and whipped the 10mm wrench at the wall. Whereupon it bounced back and caught me square above the eye. Another primal scream. Next thing I whipped at the wall was an empty beer bottle - and I made damn sure it didn't bounce back. Felt momentarily better.

[911Rob]

Hey svandamme, I found another avatar for you...
from a different forum, but I laugh everytime I see it and it reminds me of your new one there! Feel free.......

[johnco]

nothing I can remember working on the Porsche DHoward.. have a few from other vehicles I'll never forget. they usually leave permanent reminders

[FastCarFan]

Does injuring my ego after spinning at Mid-Ohio in the rain last summer while driving my 911 count?

[Super_Dave_D]

Hurt my wrist trying to latch the lower rear clip on my 3.2 airbox

[vonsmog]

Got a call from a Used car dealership to help with a 911SC that would not start. Opened the rear deck lid and told them to crank it over (didn't know that they tried ether first) I had my hand on the airbox when it blew up! My hand hit the rear deck so hard the emblem flew off! Broke my hand, the flash burned my eyebrows and I couldn't hear to good for a few hours. And the reason for all of this, the cheap fuch dealer ran it out of gas! Cost him a few grand to pay me off, let alone fix the car!
Von

[Laneco]

When Steve and I were building the spyder replica, all of the "unskilled" labor went to me as anything that required a degree of skill was and still is well out of my talent range...

We decided to put an aluminum belly on the car in lieu of the fiberglass one. The deal was to drill all the big rivets that held the fiberglass panel to the frame out, use it for a template and cut the heavy aluminum sheet.

I'm under the car drilling away, slowly but surely... I've got safety glasses on but they are Steve's. His head is quite a bit larger than mine so the glasses are a lousy fit. A nasty sharp piece of the drilled metal bounces around and gets behind the glasses, smack into my right eye. I drop everything - close both eyes and get out from under the car. If your eyes are closed, they aren't moving around which would drive the metal sliver all over the place.

Steve decides he is going to get the sliver out of my eye. He is wildly unsuccessful and puts me thru signficant discomfort in the process.

By the time we head to the hospital, I've not only got a foreign object lodged in my eye, I'm really pis$ed at Steve. While checking in, they ask us to walk to the back. Now I have a towel across my eyes and both eyes are closed BEHIND the towel. Steve takes my left arm and as he is talking to the Doctor, proceeds to walk me to the exam room...He and the doctor walk thru the doorway and I WALK STRAIGHT INTO THE WALL with his hand on my arm!

When we eventually got home, some five hours later, I made him drill the rest of the belly pan out.

angela

[71T Targa]

I shot myself with my nail gun while building my garage. Does that count?

[GothingNC]

I learned the hard way when spinning the wheel rotor to pull the fingers out of the way before getting jammed in the caliper.

Lost a chunk off the tip of my index finger

[widebody911]

I shattered my right thumb years ago trying to take off a spring plate without properly removing the pre-load.

I remember there was a rennlister who got his fingers caught in the fan belt of his running 930....

[FastCarFan]

How about injuring my credit card due to work done on my Porsche? Does that count.

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by widebody911

I remember there was a rennlister who got his fingers caught in the fan belt of his running 930....

Does he go by the name of lefty now?

[syncroid]

Does working on other peoples Porsches count? If so, then I have had too many to count. This is the latest one. (last week) A co-worker left a floor jack in the middle of the floor with a lifting fixture attached to it. I tripped over it. Another time I was setting the timing on an early 911 where you have to set it at 6000 rpm. I had a fender cover over the rear end. It got sucked up with the timing light and my forearm right into the fan. Luckily no severed body parts, just more bruising. It killed the engine.