admit to your stupidity - Page 3

Harlan Chinn · Harlan Chinn's Garage

When I first owned my car I must have looked like one of the Blue Angels when I was driving across one of the floating bridges here with a dense smoke screen behind after I had a extra quart of oil in the tank. Stopped traffic behind me until the smoke cleared

RF951 · RF951's Garage

Last week I was adjusting the window on the targa. Took the door panel off, adjusted the window, put door panel back on. Forgot to poke the door latch thingy back thru. And I was so proud of myself in the moments that lead up to that discovery.

Jeff Alton · 10-16-2003, 06:40 PM

I was using a Dremel tool with the little cut off wheel. Eye protection, who needs stinkin eye protection?!?!?!? Wheel broke and got stuck in my eyeball. Man that sucker was hot! Being an air traffic controller I kinda need my eyesight, so I now I own about 10 pairs if of safety glasses!!

Jeff

Victor · 10-16-2003, 07:20 PM

OK,

Installed a single plane hi rise manifold on a small block chev. Reinstalled the standard Rocherster Q-jet on top (the holley was still being rebuilt) and didnt locktite the screws at the base of the carb.

You guessed it, one of them rattled out, got sucked into an intake valve, did some rigerous bouncing around inside the combustion chamber and then exited via the side of the piston sleeve.

I was only 19.........not prepared emotionally for this kind of trauma.

UTKarmann_Ghia · 10-16-2003, 07:23 PM

Ummm, I installed an evaporative cooler on my roof (2 stories high) myself. It weighed a few hundred pounds, I weigh about 170 and my ladder is rated at 200. How do you do it? Well, you tie a rope around your waist and the cooler so that you can pull it up. Then, get your wife to push it up from the bottom. The roof has a very steep angle too so try to hold onto the shingles. Amazingly enuf, it actually worked and I did not break my neck. I must have hundreds of stoopid ideas like that

David · David's Garage

I'm sure not going to admit to dropping an intake runner nut down the intake and then starting the engine on my friend's SC.

All is turning out good since we found 6 broken exhaust side cylinder studs after removing the engine to replace the bent valve.

CarreraDan · 08:33 PM

My first oil change I thought I knew more than Wayne b/c 101 Projects said add 8 or 9 quarts of oil and then check the level. Well, I figured this was a typo because we all know 911's hold 12 quarts so I added 10.5 and then went for a drive to warm the car up. Only time my oil guage has read off the scale while driving and when I got home the dipstick confirmed that some idiot had put in atleast a qt. too much. FIRST lesson learned, never think you know more than the man that wrote the book. For some reason I forgot that the oil in the lines to the cooler wouldn't drain out--sometimes I scare myself.

I won't even go into the drag racing incident with the county sheriff sitting behind me watching the whole thing in disbelief that neither of us checked our mirrors until it was way too late. I was much younger back then and I learned a very important lesson that day about what can happen when you are caught street racing--which I have never done again and never will.

Mark McClure · 10-16-2003, 08:46 PM

so many which one to choose...........oK from a while back!

Whilst trouring NZ in an old Ford Escort Mk1 station wagon we over heated and pulled over at the side of the coutry road. Lifted the bonnet and stared at the engine. After a short talk to my then girl friend ( now wife) I returned to the engine and made an informed judgment that the temp was now low enough to remove the radiator cap. How wrong I was. The cap flow up hit the bonnet returning to meet my hand. Whilst the cap had commenced with it's trajectory the boiling water decided to leave the confines of the radiator and liberaly spread themselves all over my upper body.

Whilst I ran down the road trearing my clothes off my girlfriend stopped reading her book and leaned out of the window. Not really noticing anything unusual with my behavour she returned to reading her book untill I came back to the car.....luckily I only sustained a bruised ego and a burnt nipple. Supprising how limiting that is.

Bobboloo · Bobboloo's Garage

Years ago I joined my first rock band. We needed some way to haul our gear. The keyboard player had a 50' Ford bread delivery van that'd been sitting for a few years and didn't run. So I get out the wrenches and go at it. No problem had it running in a few hours. Time to take it for a spin. I pull out heading down the street come up to the end of the street where you have to turn left or right. When I realize "What tha f**" no brakes. Well let me tell ya, 50' Ford delivery vans are hard enough to turn when you can slow down for a turn let alone when you can't. Luckily for me no one was coming and I did manage to make the turn, albeit with a little detour through a couple of folks lawns.

lateapex911 · 10-16-2003, 09:25 PM

in college i had an old dodge, and no mech experience, and no$. so, when the brakes (drum fronts!) started grinding, and i saw the estimate, I called a parts store and discovered I could save 75% doing it myself.

I was worried about my tools and skills. So, I start by removing the LF wheel. can't get the 1st lug off. So i do the right front, tight rusted on lugs, but no problems. back to the lf. no joy, i press harder to free the lug. suddely i'm on the ground. amazed at my own strength I try a second, before I dicsovered that I had sheared the stud clean off. twice.

Then i went to the parts store to pick up a couple studs, when they told me that the left hand side had reverse threads!!!

geof33 · 10-16-2003, 10:09 PM

Sold my factory original Fuchs for BBS mesh. I like the mesh, but want my Fuchs back!!!

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

parked my 67 bug behind a buddies Chevy Luv truck (remember those?) with dock bumper. It was a steep hill (pointed downhill). We went over to the park to...umm...partake in some herbal remedies. I got back to my car and was going to leave before him. Started the car, and debated between putting it in reverse and either holding the parking brake and easing it out along with the clutch, or just rev, pop, and go.

I decided to go with rev, pop go. Just forgot to put it in reverse first. Dock bumper rode right over my bug tube bumper and made a nice "L" shape out of my hood. Drive to a buddies house to pry it open and start pounding away with hammers...repeate herbal remedy.

obrut · 10-16-2003, 11:09 PM

way before p car ownership - age 6, attempted to speed up my colouring-in homework by putting my pencil in my dad's electric drill. didn't work that well and ripped the paper to shreds.

pull cable out of wall and plug stays in socket. remove socket, open, notice three pins, notive 3 wires poking out of cable, use butter knife to reconnect each one a to A (ie. not THE) pin. plug in, test ....

woke up on other side of kitchen, house competely blown, shook for about 4 hours - electrician informed my parents that my life was saved by my mother's 1970's decision to carpet the kitchen (thus reducing the earth path) and the fact that my hand couldn't fully grip the (metal) drill which fell out of my hand when i hit the cupboard on the other side of the room

he seemed impressed that i managed to sort-of rewire it tho'

scared the absolute ***** out of me - never trusted drills since...

ryan

Bill Douglas · 10-16-2003, 11:16 PM

LOL.

Todd your story reminded me of my friends mother who got in her car, reversed back until when heard a wham from the car behind, then put it into first and drove off. All the way home she was pissed off about being tail gated, then found her towbar had hooked under the car behind (which didn't have a parking brake on I guess) and she had towed it nearly all the way home.

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

I didnt do this...my stupid older brother did.

Just out of high school, I spent my hard earned money on a blue 1982 Plymouth Horizon sport coupe...which promptly died of timing belt failure the first time I drove it.

Not having the money to fix it, the car sat in my dad's back yard for a month or so until my brother convinced me that he could fix it.

We got the thing barely running...and it was chugging along when I realized that I had locked the keys in the car. My stupid brother attempted to shut the car off, by unhooking the gas line in the engine bay. Gas sprayed alll over the engine which promptly caught fire.

My brother runs away leaving me with a burning car in the back yard, just a few feet from the kitchen window. I threw the dogs water dish on the fire, which didnt help.... so I got smart and grabbed a blanket out of the garage and beat the fire out.

The engine was ruined. I cleaned it up and sold the car as a roller at a huge loss.

Bobboloo · Bobboloo's Garage

Quote:

I spent my hard earned money on a blue 1982 Plymouth Horizon sport coupe.

Evidently your brother wasn't the only one who did something stupid.

Rufblackbird · 10-17-2003, 01:42 AM

1st stupid P-car thing...bought my '76 911 without a PPI, and paid WAY more than it was worth. Heck...I was 18...

Had an '89 Jetta GLi 16v...fun car...tho not as fun as the front rattled like crazy. Turns out I forgot to tighten the lug bolts, and it was wobbling with only one bolt holding the wheel onto the hub. I was VERY lucky...

GeorgeK · 10-17-2003, 02:53 AM

During re-assembly of my (freshly repainted) Carrera 3.0, I dropped the window *inside* the door while trying to put it in its supporting rail. Made a nice quarter sized hump on the door skin. Of course, the paint had a tiny crack at the top of the hump...
another:
I forgot the coded adaptor for the anti-theft lugs on the wheel, went for a test around the block. After searching for 2 hours, I realised I was better off carving a new coded lug out of a block of alloy. 4 hours later, they were off. I still have my sculpture with the lugs...

zymurgist · zymurgist's Garage

Let's see... I might be able to scare up a few stories...

I replaced the balancer on my '77 Corvette a few years ago. Got the trick puller tool from Summit Racing and pulled it off, no problems other than lots of grunting, getting a 20 year old part off the engine for the first (but not the last) time. Bought a new one from a Chevy dealer. Balancers come unpainted so you can paint them factory orange, factory blue, or whatever color your engine happens to be. Well, I had a can of blue spray paint that I had used to paint the valve covers. Apparently it had been sitting around for a while so the nozzle was clogged up. I thought, hmm, this is peculiar, and started messing around with it. PSSSSH! I nailed myself right in the face with blue paint. Fortunately I wear glasses so I didn't get any in my eyes... but I spent some time with mineral spirits cleaning off my face and my glasses (and I didn't even have a spare pair at the time).

Then there was the time that I finished installing $1100 worth of stereo equipment in the Corvette, and I had barely enough time to finish reassembling the interior before a friend and I were to leave for Hershey for the day. We were running very late, so as soon as I got everything together, I started the engine and off we went. Mind you, this was a car that had been sitting over the winter, and I did not bother to check the oil. Well, that turned out to be a really bad oversight. A week or so later, the engine developed a rod knock... apparently I had run it two quarts low and that sealed the fate of that engine. This incident kicked off a 3 year restification project on the Vette, because once I had the engine out, I found other things that needed to be done on a 25 year old car with 100,000 miles. There was an upside, though... I used the opportunity to replace the 180 hp base motor with a 390 hp small block.

Fast forward to the current day... so there I was, trying to track down an electrical short in my '70 911. I found that one of the red wires that attaches to the battery has a short to ground. I disconnected the wire and started using a multimeter to check continuity between the end of that wire and various locations under the dash. I unplugged the connector from the ignition switch, and I found that this wire apparently connects to multiple terminals in the connector. I then noticed that the connector has a cover on it, and I started wondering if there was a short inside the connector... so I unsnapped the cover, ever so carefully, to avoid breaking a 30 year old piece of plastic, and BAM! All the wires fell out of the connector. So there I was, with a 911 that still has a short, but now I also had munged up the wiring for the ignition switch. I'm still trying to put this back together, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Paging Electrical Gurus!
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/107614-1984-911-wiring-sequency-key-ignition.html#post995833

Shuie · 04:01 AM

I put a JET chip in a 2 week old 1996 Ford Ranger pickup. It made it to the end of the block before the engine died. The road was on an incline so I had to get someone to use another car to push me back to the house. Somehow this blew the end of the power steering reservoir off and showered the engine compartment with power steering fluid. The dealership fixed everything under warranty and told me there was actaully gas in the crankcase when they took it apart. I vowed never to try to work on another car again after that experience.

Somehow, I forgot about that about 6 months ago. I bought my '73 knowing there was a little rust in the car and not thinking it would not be a big deal to fix. Its completely disassembled and on jackstands in my garage right now and wont be mobile for a good while. If thats not good enough, does stripping 4 layers of paint from my passenger side galvanized SC flare with a wire wheel on a 4.5" angle grinder count? If anyone gets a kick out of these, look for future post from me asking for help on this site as I start putting the car back together.

This is the worst I've ever known anyone to do. It wasnt me, a buddy of mine in college did this:

He buys a brand new Z71 pickup and decides to change the oil after a few hundred miles. He drains the transmission by mistake and adds the recommended new oil. I dont remember if it was the engine or transmission that went first or how far he actually made it down the street.