Well here goes. Just got my bumpers back from getting re-chromed, and as most of you know I was very happy.... until I went to tighten the bolts on the rear bumper and the bolt spun and messed up the chrome, well it's called spinning a bolt according to my chrome guy, I call it another handful of money! Today my rear bumper went back to get re done, so make me feel good with some real BAD stories. Thanks for the support. HRD.
I had to replace the battery in my pickup, took my Mustang and picked up a new DiHard. Took it out of the truck when I got back and got about 3 feet from the truck and it slipped from my grip, hit the ground and covered me and the right front fender of the truck with battery acid. If I listed all the others back to 1964 when I first started turning wrenches it would take too much bandwidth :003:
"I can't believe I just did that" is what I'm thinking every time I leave a Casino...like last Friday.
Long time maintenance job...change out the female end of the welder extension cord. Had the plug nearly removed when I welded the new Craftsman screwdriver to the load and common terminals. Probably should unplug the cord before doing maintenance!!!!!!!!!
You think Sears will warranty the screwdriver?
Switched to gel batteries several year ago. No acid accidents since.
Donnie
That's a bummer. I just don't know what to say. How much do they get these days to replate a bumper?
Quote from: Ecode70D on 2013-12-30 21:47
Donnie
That's a bummer. I just don't know what to say. How much do they get these days to replate a bumper?
Well it'll be about 6 to 7 hundred, and the reason is, I'm not putting the bumperettes on,so instead of a couple bigger bumper bolts to hide the holes their gonna fill them and re-chrome I should have done this in the first place. What happened was the square neck on the bolt rounded off and head of the bolt scratched off some of the chrome. I'm not blaming anyone but myself....but I will be making sure the new bolts are not made in....well you know.
HRD
The reason that I'm so touched about this is because I just put my front bumper on and a couple of my bumper bolts were not that great but I'm happy that they didn't slip.
Sorry that happened. Jay
have you considered grinding the next set of bolt heads so they just fit in the bumper ,welding them in place, filing in the front, grinding them smooth and then chroming the bumpers. Smooth and bulletproof. just a thought.
Zap- :unitedstates:
Quote from: hotroddonnie on 2013-12-30 22:13
Well it'll be about 6 to 7 hundred, and the reason is, I'm not putting the bumperettes on,so instead of a couple bigger bumper bolts to hide the holes their gonna fill them and re-chrome I should have done this in the first place. What happened was the square neck on the bolt rounded off and head of the bolt scratched off some of the chrome. I'm not blaming anyone but myself....but I will be making sure the new bolts are not made in....well you know.
Are you saying you can't harden steel in a wok?
Quote from: Zapato on 2013-12-30 23:08
have you considered grinding the next set of bolt heads so they just fit in the bumper ,welding them in place, filing in the front, grinding them smooth and then chroming the bumpers. Smooth and bulletproof. just a thought.
Zap- :unitedstates:
That's a good idea but then I have bolt heads showing on the front bumper and its on and done.
Hiball3985 My old bolts were rusted on, and I had to heat and fight to get them off and the square necks were hardly scratched, so there's a lot of wok's being heated up these days. I cant wait till we start getting the plastic ones!
For the " I can't believe I did that" file, back in the 70's when only real bikers rode Harleys, around here they would take them into the basement and tear them apart in Winter. My brother spent all winter painting, chroming, and rebuilding his beautiful harley. He is putting on the finishing touches , Spring is in the air, he is drilling a rear fender bracket, yup, right through the new back tire. I remember lots of cussing, he fired the drill into the corner, out went the lights, and he didn't go back down there for a week. Mark
Several years ago, I decided about 6:00 pm one winter day to put a set of headers on my new Chevy pickup (350). I had a typical 2 car garage with a single bulb light. I went out and bought a new drop light to shed some more light on this project. I finished the job about 11pm and then turned out the lights and went to bed without starting the engine - that would wait until morning.
I got up at 5:00 am (still dark) , turned on the lights (both overhead and drop light) from the switch on the wall and immediately started the engine without looking under the hood. Within 2 minutes there were sparks and smoke and the lights went out. I turned the engine off and ran and with my wife's help got a flashlight.
It turns out that I had wrapped the drop light cord around the header between the cylinder head and the tubing. When the engine started the drop light cord melted and created the smoke and tripped the breaker. Lesson learned: Never start a job past dark and if you do check your work again once the sun has come up.
I once forgot the socket and extension on the balancer of my Cobra-jet Ranchero. Started it up and went for a test drive, came back and noticed laying on the ground the tools and the big bolt and washer. I was just lucky the balancer never came off and caused who knows what kind of damage.
Or the time I dropped the oil pump shaft down in the oil pan. Started up the engine and heard a metallic banging noise, shut the car off right away. I kind figured what happened as the crankshaft whipping around turning the oil pump shaft into a pretzel. Lucky again, although the oil pan had a couple bruises in it, that was in my Boss 429 Mustang.
Randy
Awesome guys! Keep them sad stories comin....I'm starting to feel a little better.
When I was in college, I was home for a weekend, and decided to change the camshaft in my '56 Ford. My future brother-in-law worked at a Ford dealer, and borrowed the tools for changing the lifters with the engine in the car. I changed the cam and started on a test drive when I heard a loud noise. Went back home and found a huge oil leak coming from the hole in the bottom of the flywheel cover. Pulled the cover off and found a mangled cam plug that was being machined by the ring gear teeth. In "tapping" the timing gear on the cam, I had obviously partially dislodged the rear plug, and when driving the car it came out. I had a Schieffer aluminium flywheel, and the waffle pattern on the back of the wheel wadded up the plug before it made it to the bottom of the flywheel cover. I had to leave for college the next day, and believe it or not, I managed to replace the plug without pulling the engine or transmission. With a variety of pry bars I managed to get the plug in and it didn't leak!
John
Years ago I had a super complete 312 twin 4 engine.For some reason I was removing the water pump and snapped a bolt ?.no biggie right??.I used an easy out and snapped that into broken block as well??. what a mess in a short 3 minutes.
^^^^^ For some reason?every time I post I get unwanted question marks??^^^^?..strange
Quote from: Jeff Norwell on 2014-01-01 10:12
Years ago I had a super complete 312 twin 4 engine.For some reason I was removing the water pump and snapped a bolt ?.no biggie right??.I used an easy out and snapped that into broken block as well??. what a mess in a short 3 minutes.
Jeff
What's a twin 4 engine? I hope it's not what I think it is. If if is, what did you do with it?
Did you save the air cleaner that I need?
Quote from: Ecode70D on 2014-01-01 10:22
Jeff
What's a twin 4 engine? I hope it's not what I think it is. If if is, what did you do with it?
Did you save the air cleaner that I need?
Jay, We call them twin 4's here(2x4).. I sold the entire lot to a fella that made a Battle Bird clone.. 15 years ago. so add to another mistake.I sold the complete works.
You just ruined my day!!!
Quote from: Ecode70D on 2014-01-01 10:48
You just ruined my day!!!
I have a habit of doing that.
Quote from: hotroddonnie on 2013-12-31 18:04
Awesome guys! Keep them sad stories comin....I'm starting to feel a little better.
HRD ! Hey was looking for something else and found some bumper bolts PM me an address and they're yours if you want them.
Zap- :unitedstates:
Quote from: Zapato on 2014-01-02 23:30
HRD ! Hey was looking for something else and found some bumper bolts PM me an address and they're yours if you want them.
Zap- :unitedstates:
PM sent Thanks HRD.
hotroddonnie:
I can add to the "really I can't believe I did that" list. While removing the air cleaner on my 351W, when it was still a single quad un-blown setup, I managed to drop a nut & washer down the carb. Unfortunately, I didn't know that I had done that. When I fired up the engine and heard the really nasty noises coming out of the engine, I knew I'd screwed something up and shut it down quickly. The heads were pulled and sure enough two pistons and the combustion chambers in my nice Edelbrock RPM heads were pretty well dinged up. The two pistons were replaced and the heads were sent out to be cleaned up. It did turn out to be a good thing though, because before the screw-up, the engine put out 300 hp to the rear wheels. When I got the heads back from being "cleaned up," (with some port matching and minor head work) I put it on the dyno again. The new numbers were 345 hp and much improved torque. Then when I added the blower and wound up with 475 hp. I'm sure the improved head flow made it much better than it would have been had I not screwed up in the first place. lol
Bob
57 AGIN
With a piston moving up and down 15 or so times per second it don't take long......for a bit of carnage.
Glad it worked out, sounds like a pretty stout engine!
Randy
BOB, you win.***EDIT) :003:
How can Tom win, he didn't post anything.
Bob,Tom?I get these Global interplanetary Moderators all mixed up.
I normally keep .025 wire in my mig welder because I'm normally welding sheet metal. Months ago when I was welding up my tranny crossmember, I bought a spool of .030 in a new brand because I had seen a write up on it and wanted to try for the heavier welding I'd be doing, and I also had a new welder to try out. The welding went great.
Forward to yesterday. I was welding a fuel pump mounting "box" on my new gas tank last night. I haven't mic'd the metal thickness on the tank, but it's pretty thin. No problem with tacks, but trying to run a bead I blew thru on my first settings. I thought..man, I still have that .03 wire in there, so undid everything pulled the wire out and went to get my roll of .025. No .025 in the box with my welding stuff, but there was the unopened roll of .030 I thought was in my welder. Looked at the roll in my hand I had just removed...yup....025. Sheeeet.
I got one for you guys... I got my ranchwagon from my grandparents and drove it back from Florida when I was 18 and eventually hooked up with this girl that had a garage and I thought we were in love and going to be together forever... what do 18 year olds know, but any ways I took the whole car apart to start restoring and a few months into it we broke up and in a few days just to punish me she scrapped the motor and some of the body panels. I should never had taken the car apart... and I'm 37 now so the car has been apart for almost 20 years. like I said what do 18 year olds know.
Quote from: davemustane1 on 2014-01-13 12:58
I got one for you guys... I got my ranchwagon from my grandparents and drove it back from Florida when I was 18 and eventually hooked up with this girl that had a garage and I thought we were in love and going to be together forever... what do 18 year olds know, but any ways I took the whole car apart to start restoring and a few months into it we broke up and in a few days just to punish me she scrapped the motor and some of the body panels. I should never had taken the car apart... and I'm 37 now so the car has been apart for almost 20 years. like I said what do 18 year olds know.
I would have had that girl in 100 different mason jars, 2 for every state.
at least I did not marry her, turns out she ended up a guy I knew and about two months later they were married and now she has 3 kids by 3 different dudes and got big so it worked out good for me.
One of my goofs was rolling the Ranchero body onto it's side before checking that the area to the side was clear. The roof hit the welder as it went over leaving a 3" crease above the windshield that needs sorting..... When I rolled it back upright I checked everything was clear but I hit one of the workshop lights as it was rolled back upright.
There's many more, some I've forgotten, some I daren't admit!!!!!
That's all you guys got! Well a friend of mine installed his shocks upside down, well they looked fine when I was.....I mean, when he was laying under the car.
Filling a diesel car with gas.
Fitting a new exhaust under a car supported on axle stands (on a hot day, on an asphalt drive) wondering why the car was slowly getting closer to me (as the stands sunk into the melting asphalt).
Using cheap Chinese ratchet straps to tie a car onto a trailer then watching in the rear view mirror as the car on the trailer launched itself into the back of the towcar during an emergency stop.
Buying a Chevy.
Admitting the above.
Saying "yes" during the wedding with wife number one rather than running.
Buying my first automatic car after years of manuals and managing to shift into park while driving through town.
and on and on.......
Holy crap Gary your good!!!!
Just too honest for my own good!
you got me there gary
Gary is winning! I had a longtime high school sweetheart, she said I should get rid of my racecar and we could get married! So I got rid of her, and built a new racecar! :003:
Well, I guess as long as I'm around this thread will be brought back up frequently... I CAN"T BELIEVE I JUST DID THIS ONE...and this is why I need to step back from the '57 projects for a little while. In my 4.6 install thread, I posted about modifying my new gas tank for the in tank fuel pump. Got it all welded in, and after a bit of reweld, got it to not having any leaks..everything just fine to that point. I thought as an insurance for leakage, I'd por-15 the inside around the weld. I did a test piece on the section I cutout and let it dry overnight. The next morning I went out and por-15'd the inside of the tank around the weld and left for 3 or 4 hours. Problem is I never looked at the test piece. Gasolene will not affect por-15 once it's cured, but the problem is por-15 will not stick to shiny surfaces, and my new tasnk is a nice new shiney surface. As I said I can't believe I did that. I can't get to the inside area well enough to wirebrush it off. I'm thinking I need to reorder the pan I welded in, cut the welded in one off carefully to maintain the hole size,then I can get to the inside to wirebrush, and weld in a replacement.
That sucks Rich! That's a lot of work, that's the problem with building a nice car, everything has to look right.
Sorry to hear about all the extra work, but just think of all the problem you would have if you didn't realize this and ran the car with por15 flakes in the fuel delivery system!
Tim :unitedstates:
Rich, on my Ranchero tank I strapped it to a cement mixer (I welded four hooks to the outside of the mixer drum and held the tank on with ratchet straps), filled it with a load of 1/2" and 3/4" nuts, a bit of water and some strong detergent then sealed the tank outlet with a piece of inner tube and a worm-drive clip ("jubilee" clip) and started the mixer going. It made plenty of noise but after an hour I took the tank off, drained & hosed it then repeated it with the tank mounted the other way round. The muck and rust that came out was unreal. If that POR is flaking it might work (assuming you'v got a mixer kicking around that is!)?
The areas it's in are pretty tight. Thought about having it soda blasted, but it's almost imposible to see up there even with a mirror and flashlight. It's not flaking. The test piece I scrapped with a screwdriver to get it started, but once I did, it just pulled of in a sheet. I don't think those sheets of paint would get by the sock type filter that is over the fuel pump inlet, but it could clog that up. I'm better off just fixing it right and chaulking it up to senility setting in.
Quote from: Limey57 on 2014-01-13 16:20
Filling a diesel car with gas.
Fitting a new exhaust under a car supported on axle stands (on a hot day, on an asphalt drive) wondering why the car was slowly getting closer to me (as the stands sunk into the melting asphalt).
Using cheap Chinese ratchet straps to tie a car onto a trailer then watching in the rear view mirror as the car on the trailer launched itself into the back of the towcar during an emergency stop.
Buying a Chevy.
Admitting the above.
Saying "yes" during the wedding with wife number one rather than running.
Buying my first automatic car after years of manuals and managing to shift into park while driving through town.
and on and on.......
Well Gary
I did at least one of them when I put a couple gallons of diesel in the gas tank of one of my old cars.
But it still looks like you still hold the record.
They say that admitting that you bought a C%^*y is the first step on the road to recovery.
Quote from: Ecode70D on 2014-01-24 02:47
They say that admitting that you bought a C%^*y is the first step on the road to recovery.
Only ever had one C***y against around six Fords (so far) so at least the balance is in my favour!!! :003:
Gary
It's about 4:00 AM here in Mass. What time is it over there?
Jay
Quote from: Ecode70D on 2014-01-24 03:00
Gary
It's about 4:00 AM here in Mass. What time is it over there?
Jay
As I type this it's 10.10am, I'm seven hours ahead of the site's clock.