HA HA!! 12 years later

[ezover]

about 12 years ago I rebuilt this little trailer and I guess I needed to hold a nut underneath so I could tighten the bolt.

well the old lights gave up the ghost, I tried to clean them and that did not work so I put it on the lift table. sat down to cut off the old lights and seen this hanging. 12 years down dirt roads and pot holed mich. roads . some of the chrome came of during clean up but still works like new Irwin 10cr. it's the simple things that can make you happy.

 

[DocsMachine]

Yep, I was working on a truck one day (not mine) and discovered a set of small needlenose pliers resting- just resting on top of the frame rail. With enough dirt and rust around them to show they'd been there for a good long while.

Then I was working on my '72 Cutlass, resurrecting it from a junker, and while I was under the back end, fixing a leaking gas line, I noticed that somebody had clamped- and taped- a cheap set of locking pliers to the rubber rear brake hose.

I pulled it off, and like the needlenose, I used a little vinegar to remove the rust, and they're still in my toolbox today. (Okay, the "junkyard box" full of cheap tools, but I do use 'em. )

Oh, and I'd initially thought the pliers were there to block off a leaky brake line but nope, the brakes worked perfectly. I can only assume some previous owner disabled the rears so he could do smoky one-wheel burnouts or something. (With a 2-barrel 350 and an open 10-bolt. )

Doc.

 

[PFSard]

about 12 years ago I rebuilt this little trailer and I guess I needed to hold a nut underneath so I could tighten the bolt.

well the old lights gave up the ghost, I tried to clean them and that did not work so I put it on the lift table. sat down to cut off the old lights and seen this hanging. 12 years down dirt roads and pot holed mich. roads . some of the chrome came of during clean up but still works like new Irwin 10cr. it's the simple things that can make you happy.

This sounds like a decent ad for Irwin to use for the longevity/quality of their Curved Jaw Locking Pliers aka Vise-Grips.

 

[NUTTSGT]

LOL, that's awesome. Do you remember losing or looking for them ?

 

[ClappedOutBport]

Nice to get your pliers back!

When I did the engine mounts on my BMW Z3, one of the flanged nuts fell down and disappeared. A year later, when doing my annual inspection/oil change, I noticed a nut sitting in a perfectly sized hole in the A arm. It fell straight down and rode in that hole for 7k miles.

 

[laser3kw]

look again and see if there is a 10mm socket anywhere

 

[ezover]

LOL, that's awesome. Do you remember losing or looking for them ?

nope, judging from the sharpness of the teeth they were a newish set.

 

[juiced10]

Hours away from home on a Friday my service truck decided to have no power to starter. The 2006 Ford F-150 starter wire rotted off. Stripped back the wire and without a new lug I just vice gripped the wire on. Figured it will get me home. Started right up. Years later the starter wouldn’t start again. Got under truck and saw my vice grips still on! This time it was the starter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rieferman]

Great stories!

Summer after high school we were all hanging out at the local convenience store and my buddy bought a “big gulp electric lime slushie”. Placed it on the roof of car and we
drove off.... about 30 miles later we stopped car and found the drink still sitting happily on top of the vehicle!

 

[SGKent]

I lost some pliers that I looked everywhere for. When I went to replace a piece of drywall some 15 years later they they were laying on the bottom plate inside the wall. Must have fallen while I had my back turned 15 years before patching the same wall.

 

[The Cobbler]

I found a pry bar under a kitchen cabinet I had worked on 5 or more years later in a rental unit, not mine

 

[isb cornbinder]

I bought a year old F100 pickup from a neighbour. He wanted $100. He had it towed to a few mechanic shops and the truck engine never started. The F100 ran for a year and suddenly, nothing.
We pushed the F100 to my shop. I had a look under the truck. Someone had clamped a Vise Grip on a rubber section of the fuel line.
Vise Grip off, the engine started and I drove the F100 for another year. Onw of the mechanics I had worked with bought the F100 for his retirement.

 

[Mick56]

Years ago I was doing some work on a relatives car at my house. I lived about a mile out of town, and I had to drive to an auto store and get some parts. I'm almost back to my house, and I spot a hammer laying in the road. I quickly pull over and run out and grab it. What the heck? It's MY hammer. Must have laid it on the trunk and it fell off on my way into town. For the half hour or so I was gone, nobody else picked it up.

 

[James-W]

Several years ago I went to the local K-Mart for something, don't recall just what. I happened to see what looked like a plastic box tool set laying near the side of the parking lot. I went over and sure enough, it was a Craftsman tool set. Apparently someone had dropped it or they were using it and then left it either by accident or they left it on the trunk lid and drove off, or something like that.

When I opened it up, there was a sticker glued to the top on the inside with a name and address. Whoever dropped it was from out of State (Iowa) so I took it to the local police department and turned it in. I am assuming they called the people and returned it to them, but I never heard back so I don't really know for sure.

 

[Corndoggeh]

Hows this one for you all? About 6 years ago when i was fresh out of highschool I was just learning how to do some plumbing work. I changed the wax ring on the downstairs guest toilet (most used). Throughout the time wed have an occasional clog that wed clear out. 5 years later the wax ring started to fail again. Off comes the toilet and whats staring up at me? A 5/8" wrench that must have slid and fallen into the drain when i wasnt paying attention (flush with the floor) just hanging out. I never noticed it was gone all those years ago.

I now check the drain when i change wax rings. Guess you could say it was a ****** way to find a missing wrench.

 

[ezover]

I now check the drain when i change wax rings. Guess you could say it was a ****** way to find a missing wrench.

lol not sure I would be able to clean that one enough to use it.

 

[mde8965]

Not tool related, but...

I graduated high school in 1983. My parents were not wealthy at all. but they bought me a class ring, in 10 karat gold...because I actually was on the honor roll a lot and only one of two of the four kids that graduated high school.

Anyway, one day in 1983 or 1984, my girlfriend and I were at the beach (Gulf of Mexico) wading in the water (3ft high or so). I wasn't used to wearing rings so I was always fiddling with the thing. Anyway, it fell off my finger when I was screwing with it into the water. Me and my girlfriend and other couple looked for that thing for about an hour with no luck.

My parents eventually found out because my mom noticed I was not wearing it anymore (still lived at home)... I felt like a total **** for having lost it too.

Fast forward to 2 months ago. I get a call from some dude that went to my high school and graduated a couple years later. He apparently was on the committee that gets people together for reunions and whatnot. So anyway, he tells me they have been trying to find me for about 2 years. That they have a class ring that may belong to me. The inscription in the ring just had my initials. And some guy from Michigan that was down in Florida on vacation was looking for shells found the ring in 1997 and has been trying to find its owner since. He has since died and his daughter contacted the school and it took off from there.

I don't have Facebook or really any social media, don't go to class reunions and such, so it must have been a chore to track me down since the ring only had my initials. Anyway, the daughter of the guy who found the ring mailed it to me.

So 34 or 35 years after losing the ring that my (now deceased) parents bought for me with money they did not really have, and a (now deceased) man spent years trying to find the owner, I have this class ring back. Its too small for me to wear as I am a "bit" larger that when I graduated high school (was 5'10" and 135lbs), but its kept in my safe now. And its still in pretty darn good shape too.

 

[kylefitz]

I lost some pliers that I looked everywhere for. When I went to replace a piece of drywall some 15 years later they they were laying on the bottom plate inside the wall. Must have fallen while I had my back turned 15 years before patching the same wall.

There is a very nice PB Swiss #4 flat bladed screw driver in the wall behind the shower at my fathers house. It wasn't worth pulling the shower panels to retrieve it.

 

[Antoin]

There is a very nice PB Swiss #4 flat bladed screw driver in the wall behind the shower at my fathers house. It wasn't worth pulling the shower panels to retrieve it.

I dropped a tape measure down the cavity of a wall I was working on. Had to beat a hole in it with a sledgehammer to retrieve it. The wall was coming down anyway so no harm done lol

Sent from my SM-G850F using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[arkansawer]

slightly off topic-too lazy to look for the "A Funny Thing Happened to me on the way to the Forum" thread so here goes.

On my summer vacation (I thought) after my Freshman year of college I got a job delivering appliances in the helper capacity. The first morning I met the driver. Man named Lou. I found out later Lou smoked Lucky's and bet the ponies but anyway we pull up to the first delivery. We are both standing on the lift looking at the catch on the door roller upper and I bent over (since I thought that should be my job) to open the door and about halfway down our heads came together in a resounding thud. After we both found our ball caps we looked at each other (with him giving me that look) shook our heads then preceded to do it again...Lou was all right

 

[madison069]

I've found 9/16" combo wrench in the fenderwell of my first chevy truck. Which was convinence cause I needed it at the time.

I've had to borrow some barb wires to rehang my exhaust after the exhaust hanger broke when I was out camping.

I've had to jerry rig an electric fuel pump on the old chevy truck since the mechanical fuel pump failed and I just happened to have the electric pump in my tool box since I just used it to remove fuel from an old car that's been sitting.

I was helping a buddy work on a 80's blazer and we heard this ticking noise from the lifter valley. Checked the rockers arms and everything appeared to be fine but we couldn't figure out the ticking noise to save our life. So we pulled the intake and laying in the lifter valley was a large flat head screwdriver! Apparently the screwdriver was laying on a lifter and was getting tapped on to create the ticking noise we heard.

Just several odd stories of tools and emergency repairs I have from working on old cars.

 

[Legion Prime]

Closest I've had was a truck my father traded me when I went to college. I found one day while changing the oil or air filter, a pair of pliers. I took them to the wire wheel and discovered they were a pair of Matco branded Knipex Cobra's. Into my tool box they went, still have and use them to this day.

 

[b-boy]

Doing some demo in my house and found a really, really old folding rule behind a plaster wall. It's really well made and has nice brass fittings.

My guess is that it was used when the house was built in 1880. I still use it.

 

[WAS Jr]

Doing some demo in my house and found a really, really old folding rule behind a plaster wall. It's really well made and has nice brass fittings.

My guess is that it was used when the house was built in 1880. I still use it.

We need a picture.
Bill S