How about an "I can't believe I just did that' thread I'll go first!

[hotroddonnie]

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.   

[hiball3985]

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 

[RICH MUISE]

"I can't believe I just did that" is what I'm thinking every time I leave a Casino...like last Friday.

[gasman826]

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.

[Ecode70D]

Donnie
     That's a bummer.   I just don't know what to say.  How much do they get these days to replate a bumper?

[hotroddonnie]

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.

[Ecode70D]

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

[Zapato]

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-

[hiball3985]

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?

[hotroddonnie]

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-

That's a good idea but then I have bolt heads showing on the front bumper and its on and done.   

[hotroddonnie]

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!

[Frankenstein57]

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

[BWhitmore]

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.

[rmk57]

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

[hotroddonnie]

Awesome guys! Keep them sad stories comin....I'm starting to feel a little better.