Mistakes that Could have gone Really Wrong.

[KCarGuy]

Everyone has done some things in their Driveway, Garage or Shop that...Well...after you did them, you Thank your Lucky Stars!

Here are a Few Of Mine;

Working at a Bodyshop, A 1967 Barracuda was dropped off to be restored.
Drivetrain out, Interior Out and Trunk emptied by the customer, We were replacing the Passenger Quarter Panel and repainting.
I had it up on the Lift and was using my Air Hammer with a Panel Bit, Cutting the Quarter Panel off.
As I was slicing through the Bottom section, I was pulling the Sheetmetal away, when several Live Shotgun shells fell through to the Floor!
They were stuck way down in the deepest areas in the trunk...Scaired the **** out of me!
After that, we always went over every inch of each car ourselves before starting work on it.

Same Bodyshop, we were restoring a 1971 Roadrunner. The owner had dropped off 2 Tennessee Cars.
We took all the good parts off and was building one car out of all the best Parts.
I had a Friend who helped do odd jobs around the Shop, take the Torch setup outside and told him to cut the Scrap Car into managable sized pieces, so that when the local scrap guy comes around...he can muscle it all in his Truck.
After an Hour or so, I was going to check on his progress. He had the Roof off, the Quarters and trunk area gone and was cutting the floor board right down the center (about to the rear seat area), where I stopped Him.
I asked Him if he had dropped the gas tank?
We both Looked under the car...and there, hanging with some gas still in it...was the Tank!
He turned a Pale White, and just staired at me.
Another 15 minutes, it could have gone Ugly!

In My Driveway, a Friend and Co-worker brought his 1975 Camaro over.
He Bought this car off of some Local Dragracers who threw all there old parts on it.
It looked nice, it ran Strong, and sounded even Healther.
But, No Traction what so ever.
He wanted to Add some nice High Quality Traction Bars that day, which he brought with him.
So, as I am getting tools, air hoses and stuff together, he jacks up the Car, puts it up on Jack stands and removes the tires.
I then crawled under and started removing the shocks and bottom leaf spring mounts.
I am sitting on the ground, smacking at one of the plates with a hammer, when all of a sudden....BAM!
The entire Back to the Car Falls on me, trapping me in the fenderwell.
After I was able to get out and was trying to clear my head...I realized...He had placed the Jack stands under the axle, and not the car!

So, Go Slow...Plan Ahead...Think it Through...and Stay Safe!

 

[nit2wn]

Confessions of my teenage years. Jacked up an S10 and actually put jack stands under the rear axle. I was either doing rear brakes or messing with the universal joint. Anyway we were pulling or hitting on something pretty good and I had to slide out from under it. I noticed it starting to move and to took one huge slide straight back. It fell off the stands and landed right between my legs just short of 'shorty' if you get my drift. Will never ever work on a vehicle on dirt ever again without boards under the stands to spread the weight.

Had a so called bud call me over to help diagnose his truck. It was a fuel injected early 90's Toyota truck. Knew nothing about fuel injection at the time to be honest and said so. It was around 97 or so. He said it wouldn't start and thought it was the fuel pump. I now know this was a very stupid move, but I suggested maybe put a little gas in the intake like you would the old carbs and see if it would run a moment or so. I sprayed a little gas with a trigger sprayer and intended to move before he tried to start it.[even agreed to this in discussion before it took place just in case it backfired] He hit the starter before I could move and it proceeded to backfire setting me ablaze. Two weeks in a burn unit, 6 skin grafts later, and a total of a month off work taught me a lot. Never trust someone has common sense to check the simple stuff. When I walked up, the plastic intake tube was pulled fuel line disconnected and lots of other stuff removed. I figured with that much work already done he was smart enough to check the fuses. Nope. A 50 cent fuse ended up being around $70k in hospital bills. Needless to say we haven't talked since then. I admit to sharing in the stupid department on that one, but I toted all the bills and suffering. I won't work on anyone's vehicle now without the key on the dash or in my pocket.

 

[napalmv8]

Have told this story somewhere here, but will repeat:

Once I needed to weld up rear spring bracket on my '63 Volga and asked my friend to help with this job.
We tried to put the car over grease pit in his garage. There was not enough space to get to grease pit with car on it, so we put gear selector no neutral and rolled car over pit by hands from pit
So now we were locked with car in a grease pit. Friend inserted stick electrode into the holder and occasionally touched the gas tank with it ))
There were a lot of sparks but thanks God nothing else happened except we nedeed to change trousers =))

 

[Steevo]

I had a neighbor who was a nice older gentleman, who would stop by from time to time to shoot the breeze and watch me work on projects.
One day he tells me his car started making a strange noise in the dash area, and he couldn't figure out what it was.
The car was a mid 1970's Ford LTD, and he kept it pretty pristine. I had seen it several times, sitting in his driveway with all four doors open, floor mats hanging on the fence, vacuum and assorted cleaning/polishing products lined up on the ledge outside his garage.
I offered to help him track down the noise, so we went for a drive in his car.
He drove and I was sitting shotgun, waiting for the noise so I could try to locate it.
He hit a small bump and a buzzing sound came from somewhere mid-dash, but only lasted a second. I had him take a bumpier road, while I started to crawl halfway under the dash to get a better listening angle.
As he started down the bumpy section, the buzz happened several times, but in short bursts, so not easy to zero in on or identify.
I reached under the dash and banged with my fist on the bottom of the heater box, and heard the buzz again. I had him pull over so I could get my feet outside and really get under the dash.
We stopped in a turnout on the side of the road, my neighbor got out, and I opened the passenger door and started laying down on the floor to have a look. Just as I got down far enough to see up under the dash, something moved under there. I slid down a little and looked up in the area to the left of the heater box, to the right of the steering column, just as a rattle snake poked his head out from behind the box. Banging my head on the dash, and nearly crapping my shorts, I jumped out of the car, and told my neighbor I had located the origin of his buzzing noise.
Now we had to figure out how to "fix" it. I tried using a stick to convince the snake he should come out, but he just coiled up tighter under there and cranked up the "buzz". After standing on the side of the road with the doors open for a while, we decided to try something else. I turned the radio on, and cranked it up really loud, hoping the rattler would decide it was unpleasant enough to leave on his own. We waited ten minutes, and no sign of the snake coming out, so I tuned to a rap station, and cranked it WAY LOUD. So here is this cherry mid-seventies Ford LTD, sitting on the side of the road, with an older guy and a younger guy standing beside it, with rap playing full blast, when a cop drives up.
As we were explaining what we were doing, the cop is looking like he wished he hadn't stopped here. We were walking up to the LTD, when the snake comes sliding out from under the dash and sticks his head out the open door. I went around the other side and poked him with a stick, pushing him out the door. He went slithering away under the car, out the other side, and off into the bushes.

We all had a good laugh, the cop left, I shut off the radio, and we headed home.

No more buzzing from the dash, either!

 

[Rag Roc]

There appear to be several, rear suspension / jack stand stories so I'll add mine:

Was taking a 12 bolt out of a 68 Chevelle back in the day, and I had a pair of jackstands we made in HS metals class. On mine I made the post taller than the tripod to get some extra height for projects. I jacked up the back of the car, and a friend put the jackstands under it. While cutting the control arms and shocks with a torch, spilled ATF ignited for a small fire. I got up to smother the fire by grabbing the door handle, and pulled the car sideways off the stands. Friend never installed the pins in the stands and the car was balanced on the posts the entire time. The car just missed both of us. Ever since if I'm going under a car, I set the jack stands myself.

 

[Buckgnarly]

I had a neighbor who was a nice older gentleman, who would stop by from time to time to shoot the breeze and watch me work on projects.
One day he tells me his car started making a strange noise in the dash area, and he couldn't figure out what it was.
The car was a mid 1970's Ford LTD, and he kept it pretty pristine. I had seen it several times, sitting in his driveway with all four doors open, floor mats hanging on the fence, vacuum and assorted cleaning/polishing products lined up on the ledge outside his garage.
I offered to help him track down the noise, so we went for a drive in his car.
He drove and I was sitting shotgun, waiting for the noise so I could try to locate it.
He hit a small bump and a buzzing sound came from somewhere mid-dash, but only lasted a second. I had him take a bumpier road, while I started to crawl halfway under the dash to get a better listening angle.
As he started down the bumpy section, the buzz happened several times, but in short bursts, so not easy to zero in on or identify.
I reached under the dash and banged with my fist on the bottom of the heater box, and heard the buzz again. I had him pull over so I could get my feet outside and really get under the dash.
We stopped in a turnout on the side of the road, my neighbor got out, and I opened the passenger door and started laying down on the floor to have a look. Just as I got down far enough to see up under the dash, something moved under there. I slid down a little and looked up in the area to the left of the heater box, to the right of the steering column, just as a rattle snake poked his head out from behind the box. Banging my head on the dash, and nearly crapping my shorts, I jumped out of the car, and told my neighbor I had located the origin of his buzzing noise.
Now we had to figure out how to "fix" it. I tried using a stick to convince the snake he should come out, but he just coiled up tighter under there and cranked up the "buzz". After standing on the side of the road with the doors open for a while, we decided to try something else. I turned the radio on, and cranked it up really loud, hoping the rattler would decide it was unpleasant enough to leave on his own. We waited ten minutes, and no sign of the snake coming out, so I tuned to a rap station, and cranked it WAY LOUD. So here is this cherry mid-seventies Ford LTD, sitting on the side of the road, with an older guy and a younger guy standing beside it, with rap playing full blast, when a cop drives up.
As we were explaining what we were doing, the cop is looking like he wished he hadn't stopped here. We were walking up to the LTD, when the snake comes sliding out from under the dash and sticks his head out the open door. I went around the other side and poked him with a stick, pushing him out the door. He went slithering away under the car, out the other side, and off into the bushes.

We all had a good laugh, the cop left, I shut off the radio, and we headed home.

No more buzzing from the dash, either!

................yet another reason I will take blizzards and sub zero temps up here!

 

[Super Scout]

Not mechanical, but bad nonetheless. My 73 Scout, has a locking steering column, in my younger years I couldn't figure out how to replace the ignition switch so I bypassed it. There is a switch and push button the dash. So without turning the key you could start it. It also had a neat little feature that the steering wheel wouldn't always lock.
So one day when I was driving home from school about 70 miles I forgot to turn the key to unlock the steering wheel. I drove the entire way home, down back roads, route 70, everywhere with the column locked. As I pulled into my driveway the wheel locked. Sent me right into the yard. I laughed at the time the later one started to think about what would have happened had that locked on the interstate. Needless to say I check, check again, and double check that the column is unlocked.

 

[CARS]

I needed to replace a U-Joint on my '68 Dart a few years ago. I had a Tilt-Lift. One of those ramp lifts that gets your car up a couple feet by operating like a teeter-totter.

So I get the parts and drive up the lift. Place the saftey stands down under the rear of the lift and crawl under the car with tools in hand.

From previous U-Joint replacements, sometimes the strap bolts aren't in an "easy to get to" location so I leave the car in neutral to roll the car fore and aft. I get the last strap off and grab my bar to pop the joint out...

I forgot to place blocks behind the wheels and the car is rolling off the lift! The tilt lift is not a level platform and the damn thing is rolling away with me under it. I grab "something" and am being drug along till I get a foot on "something else". It stops with a few inches of tire left on the lift. Now what the *^%$ am I going to do??? Cell phone in pocket but I need both hands on the car to hold it.

So I proceed to pull the car back up to the front of the lift, grabbing what ever I can get a hold of. In the mean time, I am getting closer to the rear of the car and manage to get out and lean on the bumper. Make a call, and help arrives.

Chock wheel guys!

btw: As I told this story to some friends of mine the next few days I came to find out that I must have keyed up my F.D. radio during the commotion and everyone on the Dept. heard some struggling but didn't have a clue who or what the radio traffic was. Had I been thinking, I could have leaned on my hip to key it up and ask for help from one of my fellow Fireman.

 

[Jsf721]

Unfortunatley I have too many of these stories. I was driving my Dad's Car. It was a 1986 SAAB Turbo and I got a flat tire.

I loosened the lugs and prodeded to Jack up the car with the jack that came with the car. As I got the wheel off and josseled the car, I notice the jack appreared to be melting into the car lower pannel. Aparently the jack slipped off the pad (or was never in the right place to start) and was running through the plastic trim that covered the lower area on the car. I quickly re-mount the wheel just in time to keep the rotor from hitting the street. Re-align the jack and re-elevate the car. I changed the tire and went directly to the tire store to get the tire repaired. Next I went to the dealer who almot knocked me out with a 700.00 estimate for the part and install. It was this event that let me to learn the value to a junk yard. Dealer wanted close to $700.00 for the complete lower trim assembly and installation. I only needed one of the 3 sections. I got a good used peice for $ 55.00 at a junk yard. it needed to be separated and pop rivited (I think that was the fastener) so it was beyond me and had it installed by a local mechanic for under $ 100.00 total. Best part was I did not have to tell anyone about my mistake becasue I got it all fixed before anyone was the wiser.

 

[tolken4]

Was removing high performance front coil springs on a foxbody one time and the rental tool wasn't up to the task. The center stud/post was bending as I tightened it. I was very aware of the danger, but needed like another 1/4" to squeeze it in there.

Tool gave way a little, the holding clamps were able to shift around to where they clapped together and the spring shot out halfway lodging itself in the mount halfway.

I CANNOT EXPLAIN how fast this happened. I heard the noise, never saw the movement. Took me a few seconds to asses the situation and verify that I had all my digits and was not wearing metal in my head.

Of course, then I had a wedged spring in my car with half of its potential energy still all waiting to let loose. What a time.

----------------------------------------
Couple of Exxon Valdez incidents in my parent driveway when I was younger. Backed off of ramps and knocked over a bucket I was using to drain oil.

------------------------

 

[darwyn]

The first car I ever worked on was an old Ford, can't remember the model, but I was going to pull a 460 out of it. Keeping in mind that most of my education on cars came from books at that point, I put the front of the car up on ramps borrowed from a cousin, and chocked the wheels.
Took a peak underneath the car, feeling like a big man now at 16, I'm going to pull my first motor! Crawled back out to grab some tools, then the ramps proceeded to slowly sink into the soft dirt and down the car came. I'm more of a jack stands on cement kind of guy these days ...

 

[Pluribus]

As a pre-licensed teenager, I couldn't wait to get a car. My enthusiasm overrode lots of things, such as patience and common sense. Ended up with a POS '69 Chevelle purchased at night. Made it home without dying of carbon monoxide poisoning, despite the Flinstone floorboards and the Cherry Bomb mufflers bolted right behind the collectors.

Wait, it gets better. Know what? There's a difference between those ******* bars that go on leaf-sprung cars in addition to the leaf springs and the bolt-on traction bars for coil-sprung cars that are used in place of lower control arms. This distinction becomes important when one decides to remove the bolt-on traction bars due to a hogged out hole in the front mount. Just remove the traction bars, right? The car made it about 25' before collapsing on it's maiden cruise in my driveway. No major harm done, thankfully, but I learned a bit about suspension components and basic physics that day.

 

[tractordude]

Working on a john deere rider, started it up after fixing the problem, most times I cheat the seat switch, but this time i didnt. I started the rider up, to test it. I didnt know the owner opened the fuel drain, and it was pouring gas on to the muffler I shut the engine of but gas was siponing out very fast. The rider was sitting in the middle of the shop, it seemed like a long time before I got the gas line pinched off, no fire, thank god. just some new undies

 

[KCarGuy]

Reading these makes me think that it was just plain dumb luck, that we are all still here.
nit2wn...Your story reminded me of another one...(BTW, Glad that you are OK)

I was working on a '55 Chevy Wagon just outside of my garage.
I had pulled the original straight 6 and Powerglide ******.
The 355 V8 and 4-speed setup was ready to be installed...But First...
I had to weld in the Aftermarket side engine mounts.
With the front sheetmetal off, and Me sitting on the ground in the engine bay, I was welding the drivers side mount in place.
All of a sudden, my lap started to feel wet, but with the helmet on, I couldnt see anything. So, I stopped...raised the helmet and got a strong smell of Gas.
I looked up and the Fuel line that I had moved out of the way, somehow got hooked by the welder and pulled loose.
It was straight over me...Pouring fuel!
Thank God it was a windy day and I was outside the Garage and not inside.

 

[IndyGarage]

First time I ran a tractor loader I didn't know what I was doing. Rented a Kubota to move some dirt around .

Picked up a full bucket load of sand, drove it downhill with the bucket about 5 feet off the ground and barely caught it and dropped the bucket when it started to tip over. Still it bucked me off the seat and the seat switch killed the engine.

I've survived stupidity more times than I care to remember.

 

[mikester]

This isnt as bad as some of the other fiascos here but I stopped at a friends house because he wanted to show me the mint old Cub rider that he just got from a customer of his. The Cub had a trailer with a gas powered leaf vac. I dont know just how he did it but he was standing by the impeller opening when he started the vac up. I guess the thing was sitting outside for years uncovered. The vac part of it was filled with water and soggy chopped up leaves. Like I said I dont remember exactly how he did it but all that **** pretty much caught him all over the front of his body. He was covered head to toe. After I knew he was OK I couldnt stop laughing. Bet he never did that again.

 

[JMLoughrey]

No major mishaps of my own doing thankfully.

One time at the old shop i worked for doing car audio i had a customer come to remove some amp wiring because he was selling the car. Pull the car in, remove the kick panels, remove the wiring, put it all back together and go to back the car out. Put it in reverse, hear this awful noise and shut the car off as quick as i can, get out, ****** fluid everywhere. Guys transmission gave way in the middle of my shop. Phoned him, he laughed, i laughed, he had it towed away and appologized for the mess that was created.

 

[LutzTD]

I was selling an old bus because code enforcement had no sense of humor about my bus project. The guy came to look at it and wanted to buy it, dirt cheap I will add. Trouble was it wouldnt start. So the guy says no problem well pull it out with my truck. we tie off the truck and bus and I get in the bus to back up. I tell the guy pull it back and ill honk for you to stop. It was a narrow twisting driveway and I cant back with mirrors so I did all I know, I opened the door to see. So I test the horn he says great I can hear it, we proceded to start backing up. My plan was to have the door open until we got to the gate then pull the door shut. This bonehead floors his truck and yanks me out of the seat pushing the door full open with me hanging on for dear life, I couldnt reach the horn so he kept going, we get to the gate and I was just barely able to pull myself in before the door was folded back onto the front fender. I would have been smashed. The guy hears the crunch and hits the brakes. Then says, Im not buying this with a broken door, unhooks and drives away.

lessons, dont trust a stranger to drive, get the money before the wheels turn, get the guys info for the police.....

luckily I didnt suffer any injury and another guy bought it broken only wanting the axles anyway.......

 

[wrench409]

While helping my foxy sister in law move after her husband passed away from a stroke. She and I were the only ones in the old house..........we passed very close to each other at one point......we stopped, looked intently at each other......the moment passed.....sigh.....

Never got another shot.......

 

[Kev442]

Cut out the old galvanized lines so the copper can be run they said.
OK,Grab the grinder, cut one, fine. Start cutting the second and phew! Natural gas hits me in the face. Yes there were millions of sparks coming from the grinder.
Lesson learned. Look for an old capped NG line before cutting "water" pipes....

 

[darkk]

I spot welded a leaky tank with a mig welder while it was still in the truck and had gas in it. People were running every where! hahahaha...

 

[cyamaha2007]

Ive had a few close calls but the worst was i was loading a trackhoe on my deck over trailer behind my 07 ram 3500. The trackhoe weighs 15000lbs. I was in a rush so i just start driving the machine on the trailer with out chocking any tires. So as you guess the *** end of my truck comes off the ground And im parked on a hill a very steep hill. The rears still in the air and picking up speed I rotated the track hoe and was able to grab the ground and stop my truck another 100 feet and the entire rig would have been in a very deep ravine. It scared the **** out of me.

 

[starquestMM]

The worst I've seen involved a semi with a flatbed trailer and a ashpalt roller. The trailer was backed up to a ramp for loading. As the operator drove the roller onto the trailer, the front roller somehow caught the flatbed and pushed the truck forward. The operator managed to get it stopped before the whole thing fell between the ramp and the trailer.

 

[jhelrey]

Ive had a few close calls but the worst was i was loading a trackhoe on my deck over trailer behind my 07 ram 3500. The trackhoe weighs 15000lbs. I was in a rush so i just start driving the machine on the trailer with out chocking any tires. So as you guess the *** end of my truck comes off the ground And im parked on a hill a very steep hill. The rears still in the air and picking up speed I rotated the track hoe and was able to grab the ground and stop my truck another 100 feet and the entire rig would have been in a very deep ravine. It scared the **** out of me.

Did something pretty close to that... Luckily I slammed the skid in forward and saved it. Had another guy who had the skid die on the dovetail. Lifted the truck up and it went and crashed into his truck and a few others. Bummer

 

[cyamaha2007]

I should have just drove forward but somehow rotating 180 and digging into the dirt road seemed smarter.

 

[Onerook]

Back in 1969 I was working on my newly acquired Studebaker Lark. It was in good enough shape that it came with a spare Lark for parts. Within the first week the "good" car lost the back axle. I went around the neighbors and dug up some jack stands and a bottle jack.

One was parked in the driveway and the other in the front yard. I jacked up the yard car, placed the stands on the frame and removed the good axle. Went to the other and repeated the process with one small deviation. I placed the stands on the floor pan and when I went to trade the bad for the good axle, I noticed the stands sinking in the grass. While I was trying to find a way to stop it and get it supported somehow. I heard a crunch - the "good" car was bumper down on the driveway, what I did not look at what the rusty undercarriage and the stands punched right through.

At 16 I found out that I was extremely lucky, and most important realized that willingness alone would not makeup for knowing what the heck you are doing and how to get it done safely.

 

[gol4]

When towing a vehicle with a chain you always get that jerking when you get slack in the chain, Many years ago when I was in my teens, My buddies car broke down and we had the bright idea to try a heavy duty spring on the chain. I was pulling and took off nice and slow. No jerk what so ever. That spring snapped and bounced off the roof of his vehicle leaving a big dent right above his head. We picked the spring up several hundred yards down the road. Had the trajectory been a bit lower I hate to think what would have happened.
Needless to say we never tried that again.

 

[roblouvasz]

OK, I'll play. This happened just last week in my garage. I was replacing rockers on a Gran Prix. I just finished the welding on the driver's side and went over to the passenger side to check the fit of the ground effects. All four doors were off of the car and I had a cover on the car to keep dust/debris out. I noticed smoke comming out from under the covers. I ripped off the covers and the interior was filled with smoke. I grabbed the blow gun and blew out the interior to clear the smoke. But I couldn't find where it was comming from. I went back to the driver's side and found a trail of smoke near the rear seat and quickly ripped it out. Still couldn't find it! I finally started drilling holes in the rocker and squirting water everywhere! Still wouldn't go out! I finally got my hand in near the dogleg and pulled out a piece of sound deadening foam that was smoldering. I don't think my blood pressure was ever that high. I had visions of the fire dept. hosing down the inside of the car etc. etc. Thank God nothing worse happened.

 

[sdguy55]

Everyday I do something I consider stupid. I hate it, it pisses me off, but I try to learn from it. To make myself a better technician.
Like today. Had to replace a top turbo on a c15 and I had to redo one part 3 times cause I kept missing steps. I've done the procedure st least a dozen times but I guess my brain wasn't there today.

A more relevant story is just two days ago we were using a chincy cherry picker to lift off a head off a 3406e. The legs had to be pinned but one of the legs the pin wouldn't go through. In a hurry I just decided to say screw it and continued on. The frame was already twisted on the cherry picker so it would pick up crooked and had to have someone stand on the side of it to keep it from tipping. Get it slid over to.the table where I want it and the guy who is the counterweight steps off to help with the head and WHAM cherry picker folds up and starts tipping ky way. Luckily I grabbed it in time and the head set 'easily' on the ground

 

[justanengineer]

I found out the hard way NOT to use a factory scissor jack unless its an EMERGENCY about two years ago. I was in a pinch bc I had recently moved using the truck, bought a new floor jack, and then brought the car out a few months later to find that the jack didnt fit underneath, so I used the factory scissor jack with a ratchet and looooong extension. I had one of the car's wheels just barely off the ground when the internal threads on the scissor jack's nut decided to strip out without warning. The car dropped instantly and thankfully somehow neither I nor the car were hurt. Had I been using the factory stamped steel lug "wrench" and not a ratchet/long extension, I wouldve been underneath the edge of the car and things mightve gotten painful.

 

[napalmv8]

So here is this cherry mid-seventies Ford LTD, sitting on the side of the road, with an older guy and a younger guy standing beside it, with rap playing full blast, when a cop drives up.

great story!!!

 

[lotsoftools]

When I changed the body mounts on my Suburban I was lifting the body with a bottle jack. I made the jack longer by putting a piece of 4x4 between it and the body. I had all the bolts out of the mounts and was replacing the back ones. I was reaching over the bumper and under the body to do this. After a minute or so I realized that if the body fell it would chop my arm off.

 

[bsaint]

We built a potato launcher that was bored out for shooting caulking tubes. We charged it up but I decided I wanted to change from a fuse to a spark plug. Well we didnt evacuate the tube of gas so well, and I'm drilling out the whole and thinking, "Maybe I should tip this down because gas is heavier than air -" BLAM!!! Big ol fireball out of the end. No one was hurt, but it happened as I was thinking about it which was strange.

One time I was stuck in the sand in my 2wd truck on a construction site. I left it in reverse by accident and started to use my hand to dig the sand out from the back of the tire. Luckily the truck was also chocked with sand on the front tires...

 

[pmiranda]

Drove in heavy snow from OK City to Tulsa on summer tires. Only spun out once when I had to slow for stopped traffic ahead, missed every obstacle on the side of the road, too.

And of course driving at night when tired... never had an incident but I don't do that, anymore!

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

I laid a forklift over when the brakes failed on a hill - I made the mistake of jumping off it as it went over. Roll cage must have just missed me - could'a crushed my *** like a bug.

 

[IndyGarage]

I laid a forklift over when the brakes failed on a hill - I made the mistake of jumping off it as it went over. Roll cage must have just missed me - could'a crushed my *** like a bug.

OOH that's a bad one. They always say ride it down inside the cage.

 

[jon.human]

I've had too many but a couple of almost darwin moments come to mind, 1998 stationed a RAF Lakenheath UK I was repairing an external fuel tank from a F-15 that had been involved in a bird strike. I was told that the tank had been steamed out. I was tig welding it when it shot a four foot flame out of the fill hole!!! (never take someone else's word verify it yourself)
1999 East coast power tour at the Daytona Fl stop, my 69 camaro got stuck between gears I was parked in a grass field. I jacked up the car put a jackstand under it so I could reach under and work on the M21 linkage... I had just slid back out from under the car when the jackstand shifted in the sandy soil and fell over... (always park on pavement or a hardpacked surface/ don't skimp on jack stands!)

 

[ford33]

A few years back, my Chevy 2500 express van RV (weight = 8700 lbs) needed to be towed. I called AAA and they sent a flat bed/rollback tow truck to take the van. As the driver was pulling the van onto the deck of the truck, suddenly the front end of the tow truck went up in the air. Front wheels lifted about 3 feet off the street. I was stunned and the tow truck driver was surprised. He let the van slide back down the deck and the tow truck settled to the ground. He said he'd never seen that before.

No damage and nobody hurt but I think we both learned a lesson in physics and the use of leverage.

 

[some zilch]

i was working on a bobcat once and had the seatbar down while i was standing outside the machine. i reached in to operate the lever to raise the boom a few inches and the lever stuck and the arms went all the way up as i was leaning over the the arms into the cab. i never moved so fast in my life to roll off the raising arms and onto the ground. it scared the **** out of me, and i will never do it again

 

[Coloshaver]

Years ago I worked at a ski area on the lift maintenance crew. In the summer we had to do some repair welding on every chair on the lift (yup, boring). I was using a rosebud to preheat the spot and another guy was doing the stick welding. At some point, late in the day, I wondered what would happen if I filled a pipe sticking out of the ground (used during the winter to string maze rope) with Ac and O2 and lit it off. It went off like a 50 cal round - I mean LOUD. Unfortunately, the guy doing the welding had just flipped his hood up. It surprised him so bad he jumped about 3 feet backwards and fell over. Good thing he wasn't up on a ladder.

We spent 5 minutes laughing and the next half hour trying to figure out the best mixture for the loudest bang.