Tell us your "stupid move" story!

[MAS956]

Okay,

Got divorced during my first engine R&R on my SC (that's not the funny part you sick b*******) and had to, uh, vacate quickly. Rather than try and get the engine back in the car, I decided to move the thing still on the engine stand. Rented a liftgate truck, got the engine-on-stand onto the liftgate. All good so far, so it's time to lift.... The liftgate gets about two feet up and damned if that thing didn't roll right off of that liftgate. If you've never seen or heard a 911 engine bounce, consider yourself lucky!

The only damage I could find was a broken crank pulley, and there have been no other issues in the 5000 miles I've put on the car since. And, oh yeah, the new(ish) gf LOVES the p-car! It is. indeed, always darkest before the dawn!

[Sarah]

chili...you are correct...I am definitely not perfect.

tre...thanks. I will have that checked out next time the porsche is in.

[Mr9146]

Apart from nuking my dad's fresh 2.8, I've also pulled a putz job on my own motor ...

I just finished rebuilding my motor ... polished every single nut, bolt and washer. Cleaned everything ... I didn't want one drop of oil getting out of this thing - mag case, so of course that dream lasted only a couple thousand.

Anyway, I put everything back together, got the car running, drove it around and, TA DA, everywhere I parked it looked like the Exxon Valdeeze. So I start tracing the problem ... took me a week and 4 quarts to realize that I put the top breather gasket on wrong and the motor was blowing oil out the top of the motor like a geyeser under load.

SO, my dreams of a clean engine compartment went to the dogs ... and now I have a wonderful film of grit that has collected. The bright side is that I don't have to worry about rust.

[catuck]

I'll try to make this short:

When I was 16, my first car was a '71 Camaro my dad and I had restored. As a young and "perfect" driver, I had become accustomed to backing down our steep, twisty driveway to a turn around by looking out the side windows and counting trees then turning (when rear window was frosted). One morning, I didn't realize that my dad had his sisters '85 Mazda RX-7 parked in the turnaround. The camaro was a little high in the rear end, and as I backed into the turnaround I was dumbfounded as to why I had stopped moving (blaring radio covered crashing sounds). I got out of my car to see the nose of the RX-7 under the rear bumper of my car, and my rear wheels OFF THE GROUND!!!!

More recent lesson:

Do not by any means tug on coil wire on a Motronic ignition to check for loose connection!! I stalled the engine by grounding through my body! OUCH!!!!

[Sarah]

Here is something my husband did back in the 80's when we were just dating.

His mom let him drive her brand new thunderbird up to "the city" to visit me. Well...he thought he was so cool driving this fast new car. He had a Phil Collins tape blarring and was wearing dark sunglasses with side blinder things on them (it was his miami vice look ). He gets to the corner by my house and decides to pull a U turn and bashes into an on-coming car.

He comes up to my door in shock..."I'm like..what the He** happened to you." All he can say is he has to call his Dad (he was too afraid to call his mom). He later pitched the sunglasses and the tape into a lake.

[MY83SC]

Hmmmmm.....Well, back in '84 my parents took a 4 week vacation in the motor home. I was really, really good....until I found Dads secret hiding place for the car keys on day 21. First it was just a trip to the garage and starting up Dads Triumph TR8. Then by day 22...a few trips around the neighborhood. By day 26 "Dayum if I didn't look a lot better driving a convertable than my beat up '74 Datsun 610 station wagon." That day I said, "Hell, why not...I'll take the car to work."
I was a college student working as a waiter at the local Jolly Roger. After work, had a few bevy's with the crew...and decided to impress the ladies, etc. and invite everyone to the house for a party and fun. Well, on the way back up to the house, I thought it was wise to show all my buddys how fast I could climb the hill. (Anyone familular with LaHabra Heights?) I thought I had over-reved the car because it started to sound worse than a Sears lawn mower on its last leg of life. Scared, but "Young and ready to party" I slid the car into the garage. Next day, and with the reality set in that, "Yes, both a nice car and a house in the hills with a pool and jacuzzi does raise your potential for getting lucky with the ladies".....But, what am I to do now? Parents come home tomorrow! I spent the next 24 hours cleaning and polishing every nook and crany in the house and Dads Triumph. Both the house and car looked ready for a magazine shoot. Day 28 Parents arrive home. They can't believe how clean the house looks. Take me out dinner for being so "DAYUM" responsible. Both "Lady Luck" and "Mr. Better Luck Next Time" showed up over the next few days. First a neighbor tipped Dad off about the party, and the 3 trash cans filled with beer bottles out by the road helped qualify that one.......but then I was still waiting for Dad to decide to take the Triumph for a spin. As it turned out, before leaving he had been mid- stream in the process of replacing the manifold gaskets. He had only finger tightened the nuts. My spirited ride up the hill had left them all but ready to fall out. Hense, the "Lawn Mower" sound.
Dad was cool about the party. The house was cleaner than it was when they had left. Just had the south 40 weed duty for a few weekends. He never found out about my joy rides in his car. (That would have meant being orphaned) ....Luckily, he was so impressed at how well I had detailed the Triumph, he asked me to help "bolt down" the manifolds. Perhaps he did know. Unfortunately, I never had the oppurtunity to ask. By the time I had the courage to tell him about my younger exploits, he was gone. Cancer had taken his life.......several years later........the end

[GSpreeman]

Okay kids, here is a good one, and recent at that. I've been *****ing about my horrible gas mileage and low and behold the garage called me up today to tell me that it looked like a rear caliper had siezed up. On futher inspection the mechanic found that I had over-tightened my parking brake. Hopefully my gas mileage will get above 8-9 mpg now.

[Rondinone]

I tried to fix my floppy sunvisor with (not so) Great stuff. Nuff said.



By the way, if anyone has an extra black targa sunvisor, even floppy, please donate to this worthy cause!

[scg]

Aren't you going to wait to see if any of the litter look good enough? ...or did it mate with a Chevy sunvisor?

[CHILI]

GSpreeman, that's hilarious! You should pay your mechanic extra as "hush" money!

[Paul Franssen]

I've been reading these stories, LOL, and -no- I didn't think I had any funny stories, except one just crept up. I work in shipping and, quite often, I'd go down to the docks and board cargo ships to talk to the Master (the Captain). I know my way around the Antwerp docks and, after many years, instinctively knew that if I parked the car about "that" far from the wall of the warehouse, it would be parked far enough from the nearby railway tracks. So, one very early morning (after a miserable sleepless night) I drove to the port to supervise the loading of our ship (due to load a dismantled steel plant from Germany - being shipped to India... )), yes, the dock workers are all there awaiting the (fogbound) ship which was due to start loading at 6 a.m., I park my car next to the warehouse (checking through the side-window, about 2 meters from the wall is right, then leave and go up the stairs to talk to the foreman. I was hardly inside when all present heard a very strange crushing noise. It was my Opel station wagon, being compacted to the size of a coffee table! A passing railroad carriage laden with steel slabs had caught behind the rear upright window frame of my car, dragging it -and the rest of the car- (in a position parallel to the railway wagon itself) all the way to a 70 metric ton molten steel transport wagon waiting to be loaded onto the ship...end of story. I had parked the car at the right distance of the warehouse, but failed to notice I'd in fact parked it next to a narrow shed that'd been added to the front of the warehouse...I'd in fact parked the car with it's right-hand side about two feet away from the left RR rail... The car's rear axle was bent right over the front axle. In retrospect, it's a bit funny. At the time, it was...hair raising.

[stomachmonkey]

My former sister in law and her best friend take friends moms brand new car out for some joy riding while mom and dad are on vacation.

Upon returning home they notice a huge dent in the side of the car.

Panic sets in and they borrow money from other friends and find a body shop who can repair the damage before mom and dad return.

Mom gets home and fairly soon grounds daughter for driving the car, mom had been hit by a shopping cart the day they left for vacation.

Scott

[CHILI]

Ok, Rondinone, I just took a look at that photo! What the hell did you do? It's like a full time deploed air-bag, or a pillow so the passenger can catch some zzz's.

[Amac]

This is my only Porsche related "stupid move" thank God.
Back in my SCCA days I had a 81SC race car. After a week
end race I unloaded the car and put it in my garage. For
some unknown reason I left the garage door open and
went through the back gate to jump in the pool. After about
10 min. I hear this crash, my to sons run out of the house
and look out the gate. They both have this blank look and
say" Dad your car hit the wall". As you may have guessed
the car rolled out of the garage down the drive way and hit
a brick fence. As luck would have it, it hit a support post and
stoped the car. It could have hit between the supports and
gone through doing even more damage. The Homeowners
Assoc. charged me $3500 to fix the fence, $3000 to fix the
car.
About a month later the Homeowners Assoc. president's honda
rolled out of his garage and went through that same fence,
cost him $9000. "Carma"

[dfink]

Not a p-car but a Ford pinto. Working upside under the dash with car running to try and diagnose trouble with the AC vent doors. Who says you need the clutch to put the car into gear. Don't know why I didn't have the hand brake on. Fenders under the bench Hood over the bench. Bent the hood pole and scuffed the tops of the fenders. A little polish and "as good as" new except for my pride of course.

[Rondinone]

I took out the old foam through a hole in the top, then filled it full of great stuff. Then I clamped it between two boards with appropriate spacers. 24 hours later, I thought it had cured fully so I took it out and set it on the bench. Of course it hadn't. In typical great stuff fashion, by the next day it had swollen to be the most voluptuous visor on the block.

[CHILI]

Oh man, once again, I'm glad I have an office by myself! I'm laughing out loud! "most voluptuous visor on the block" Man, this helps the day go by faster. I'm off in about 3 minutes. Goin' home to wash the P-car. It's been a while.

[Hans Stoehr]

After installing a new windishield, I set about reinstalling the wipers. I then proceeded to turn wipers on to check my handiwork. The wipers prompltly began wiping the paint off my fender and hood!OUCH!!!:

[fogcity]

Hans - I just wet my pants1

[chadwallen]

At 18, getting ready to leave for a high school dance, I start, my dad's '83 Cab in 1st gear w/o the clutch. It really gets up and goes. I go for the clutch and break, hit the wheel well w/my left foot and the clutch w/my right foot and roll into my Bronco II in the garage. It scratched the bumper and crushed the head light rings to millimeters from the quarter panels. As the body guy at the P shop said "Very lucky, very lucky".