Most stupid thing you have done while working on a car, I'll start

[Restorer32]

Confession time.  We've all done things when working on cars that were "stupid" looking back.  In 1972 or so Dad was driving a 1970 Coupe deVille when it was hit hard in the front end at an intersection.  Being a financially struggling college student I jumped at the chance to replace the front end for some spending $.  Job finished we went for a test drive.  Drove fine.  We were out in the country, maybe a mile from "civilization" when we noticed smoke coming from under the hood.  Opened the hood and the engine burst into flame.  The trans fluid was being pumped out the fill tube onto the hot manifold.  No extinguisher, no water, pre cell phone days.  What to do?  Opened the trunk.  Nothing there except a gallon of antifreeze.  Dad, "does antifreeze burn?"  Me, "I'm sure it does but probably hard to light.  I think it would put out the fire".  "Worth a try at least". We tossed the antifreeze onto the burning engine.  I am here to tell you "NEVER TRY TO PUT OUT A FIRE WITH ANTIFREEZE ! " We hid the empty container.  By the time the fire crew arrived the car was a total loss.  So come on guys, fess up.  What stupid things have you done out of desperation or just plain ignorance?

[kgreen]

Same situation, college student with no money and a scored front rotor.  I replaced the shoes and hand filed the worst of the grooves on the rotor.  Now the brake pedal pulsated because of course I couldn't get a uniform rotor surface.  That blew out the power brake booster.  When the rod finally went through the engine a couple months later I sold the car for parts and walked.

[Durant Mike]

Well it wasn't actually with a driving car, but one night while my Wife was going to college, I went out in the garage to work on my Durant. I have an air system in there and after cranking up the compressor, started to remove some bolts with the air wrench. I got up to move around the car and got my right foot caught up in the air hose. I tried to kick off the hose and untangle my foot while still having some forward momentum. This resulted in my falling forward on the garage floor, and striking my face on a nearby floor jack. Ouch! next thing I was covered in blood and went into the house to see what I had done. When I hit the floor jack it forced my front tooth through my lip and chipped my tooth. Washed it off the best I could, no one else was home, and could not find a band aid that would stick to the lip area. Good ole duck tape worked great. I was done for the night and came in to watch some TV. My wife had made a thing of stew in the crock pot for me to eat for dinner while she was gone. When she came home she immediately saw that I had not touched her stew and wanted to know why, thinking it wasn't any good. I got up from the couch and turned to her to tell her with a fat swollen bruised lip, and a piece of duck tape holding things together. She didn't say anything else!  Everything healed nice, a little scar though and the tooth is still chipped a bit, but my mechanic ego is still bruised a little.  Stupid things do happen!

[R W Burgess]

1 hour, and 2 is all we get???

 

Ok, something minor. I was in the process of getting a 35 Ford (don't tell anyone it had a Chevy motor) worked on, did some of the work at home under a tree. Well, I had taken the seats out, then you just know it? My professional mechanic was ready for the car. No seat, no problem, drove that bugger 6 miles through the back roads sitting on a 5 gallon oil can, destination reached!

[Pfeil]

I posted this on a paint thread.

 

Prior to the car I'm working on, the last time I shot a car in lacquer was in 1992 and before that 1974. In 1974 I shot my 65 Sea Blue Beetle,

http://www.pismoderelicts.com/photogallery/new format 834/images/img_0138_edited_1.jpg

The Beetle was done in the usual way of shooting acrylic lacquer cars I had done in the past. This means shooting a couple of coats and then when I could get some free time like a week or two, wet sanding and another couple of coats and so on until the desired coats is reached. In 1992 I decided to shoot my 69 Pontiac LeMans. Because I'm the original owner and the miles were so low a body-off was a waste of time however the front clip was removed and the deck lid too. This new color was PPG black, and I would shoot the car over several months (like I did the beetle). When the car was finally ready for paint, I had the hood and deck lid on easels and painted them first for their first coats. The next day I wet sanded them, tacked them off and hit them again and the proceeded to go around and shoot the rest of the car. When I got back to the hood and decklid the paint on them had shriveled up like crinkle paint!😬. My neighbor across the street was a PPG rep. so I asked Jeff what's going on. Didn't you read the container instructions??? NO! I've been painting cars in lacquer for a donkey's age! Why would I want to read the label? Turned out with this new lacquer (1992) you will do the first coat and keep going round and round until the desired amount of coats are put down. So I had to re-strip and start over again!

  http://www.pismoderelicts.com/photogallery/new format 937/images/p1020752.jpg   

[pont35cpe]

I don`t even like to have this group of my brains cells, to be disturbed. It was back in `64, i was 16 at that time.  My first rebuild on a chevy small block to put in my `47 chevy. Bored, new pistons, new cam, used lifters, turned crankshaft, all detailed paint/chrome, fired it up, running good, healthy sounding. Drove it to town, strutting my stuff. It was a 20mile round trip. When i got home, it was running rough, and the noise coming from the engine internally, was not good. I drained the oil, i`d never seen "metallic oil" before. Then pulled the pan for a look inside, nothing any good, bearings all ate up, crank no good, all the lobes on the camshaft, and bottom of lifters destroyed. I did mention used "lifters".

[TexRiv_63]

I have so many of these it is hard to know what to pick.

Back in the early 70s my project / daily driver was a 1967 Plymouth GTX. I had picked up a used Six Pack setup for cheap and just had to use it on the 440. Rebuilt the carbs, cleaned up the manifold and put it all on. The two end carbs opened with vacuum but had mechanical links to pull them closed. I put them on but neglected to install the spring clips that held the ends in place. Took it out for a test drive, found a deserted piece of road and floored it - WOW that worked and sounded great - for about 30 seconds. Then I realized that both links had dropped out and the carbs were locked wide open! I turned off the key at about 5000 rpm, it backfired and sounded real bad, I was sure I had blown the engine. I unbound the links, closed the carbs and restarted it - the engine sounded normal! As with any stupid thing a valuable lesson learned, plus I gained a lifetime respect for Mopar engines and mechanical engineering.

[stretch cab]

Newly married, going to college and broke is a good way to set this up.  Probably should say, not a mechanic either.  Had an older car that would do some crazy stuff when you pressed the gas pedal hard.  Motor would rev up and stay that way until you shut it off.  Wife did not like driving the car that way to say the least!

 

My mechanic skills were maxed out immediately as this had to be a huge problem.  So, I took the car to a mechanic who was the son of an acquaintance/friend.  The verdict came back that I needed a valve job.  Didn't know what a valve job was but I did know I had a problem so I said, fix it.  Got the car back and the bill and still the car would stick wide open upon a rapid acceleration.  Now broker than before I decided to look at it myself and noticed the motor tipped up toward the passenger side, (if I remember right) and would lodge there until the ignition was turned off.  Upon a closer look it was evident the driver's side motor mount was broken.  I fixed that myself and all was well.

 

Lesson learn: Try to do it yourself first and never trust a mechanic!  You might have to use one, but never blindly trust!

[keiser31]

Working at Firestone Tire Company in San Diego in the 1970s, I had to do an oil change and flush the radiator in a customer's car. I was done with the draining of the fluids and started filling up the radiator with water and the crankcase with oil. For some reason, I could not seem to get a good footing on the garage floor. I looked down to see oil and antifreeze all over the floor under my feet. I had been distracted and had forgotten to close the radiator petcock and re-install the oil drain plug. Did I have to pay for the oil and antifreeze? Yes. Did I feel REALLY stupid? YES!

Edited July 18, 2022 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[Frank DuVal]

Rebuilding a friend's Chevy II Nova (64) with a 196  [Yes, Pfiel, my memory goofed, 194 cu in] 6 cylinder. 7 main bearings, 6 caps look the same. I did not mark them. Putting ground crank and new bearings in, suddenly the crank stops turning. Hmm, I may have made an error!

 

How to get out of this predicament at 10 PM or so, my typical garage time when I was young.

 

I put Plastigauge on all the main crank journals and tightened the caps on. Removed the caps and studied where the wide and narrow Plastigauge rested. Drew a picture and moved the caps to where I thought they should be, retested with Plastigauge. Good to go!

 

He still has the car, mains still in it after 150K more miles. I did put in rings about 100K later.

 

Whew!😲

Edited July 20, 2022 by Frank DuVal (see edit history)

[avgwarhawk]

1960's Monaco  wagon came in on the crane.   No start.  Check for spark.  Had plenty.  Check fuel.  None.  Removed the line at the pump that runs to the tank.  Used a drop light to see what I was doing.  I used some compressed air to blow through the tank line assuring no obstructions.  In went a quick blast.  Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.  THEN THE GAS CAME POURING OUT OF THE LINE!!!!   The gas hit the drop light(bulbs at the time).  FLAMES!   And more flames being fed by gas pouring out of the hardline from the tank.  My coworker just stood there frozen.  I grabbed an extinguisher.   Put out the ever growing flames.  Car was fine.  No damage.  But geeze...never  do that again.         

[Guest]

3 hours ago, R W Burgess said:

No seat, no problem, drove that bugger 6 miles through the back roads sitting on a 5 gallon oil can, destination reached!

 What is so stupid about that, Doesn't everybody do that? I did!

[Guest]

 I'm not saying who  did this, but don't try to start a car using either AND oxygen.  I, that is he, never found the oil cap and it blew out all the cork gaskets on the engine turning the oil pan and valve covers into something like a balloon.   

Edited July 18, 2022 by Roger Walling (see edit history)

[erichill]

Well this may not be the stupidest but certainly the most embarrassing.  A couple years ago i stopped to help a lady with a flat tire.  Got to talking etc while i removed the spare and jack from the trunk.  loosened the lug nuts on the back wheel, and jacked up the car and proceeded to remove the tire. That was about the time the lady looked at me kind of funny, and I realized the front tire was flat. not the back.  I didn't know what I was thinking. She was good looking but not that good looking to have distracted me so badly.

 

[Pfeil]

1 hour ago, Frank DuVal said:

Rebuilding a friend's Chevy II Nova (64) with a 196 6 cylinder. 7 main bearings, 6 caps look the same. I did not mark them. Putting ground crank and new bearings in, suddenly the crank stops turning. Hmm, I may have made an error!

 

How to get out of this predicament at 10 PM or so, my typical garage time when I was young.

 

I put Plastigauge on all the main crank journals and tightened the caps on. Removed the caps and studied where the wide and narrow Plastigauge rested. Drew a picture and moved the caps to where I thought they should be, retested with Plastigauge. Good to go!

 

He still has the car, mains still in it after 150K more miles. I did put in rings about 100K later.

 

Whew!😲

Bore 3.5625 X 3.25 stroke = 194.4 cu. in.

[Pfeil]

21 minutes ago, erichill said:

Well this may not be the stupidest but certainly the most embarrassing.  A couple years ago i stopped to help a lady with a flat tire.  Got to talking etc while i removed the spare and jack from the trunk.  loosened the lug nuts on the back wheel, and jacked up the car and proceeded to remove the tire. That was about the time the lady looked at me kind of funny, and I realized the front tire was flat. not the back.  I didn't know what I was thinking. She was good looking but not that good looking to have distracted me so badly.

 

That doesn't mean you can't have an imagination.

[CHuDWah]

I was taking the rear end out of a late-30s Ford frame.  Course it had a transverse spring held to the cross-member with U-bolts.  The easiest way was to take those bolts loose and roll the whole rear out.  The nuts were under the cross-member but the frame was bare so I could stand up and unscrew them from above rather than crawling under.  Dang, those things were tight!  I even tried a breaker bar on them before it dawned on me that inverted lefty-loosey is actually righty-tighty.  🤣

[JV Puleo]

My first brass car was a 1910 REO Model R. (I was in my early 20s at the time) I'm sure I didn't have the clutch adjusted perfectly because it would always grind going into 1st gear. But, when you applied the hand brake it would depress the clutch (very common on brass cars)...so I got in the habit of starting it in gear with the brake on. (needless to say, this was a hand-cranked engine.) My shop was in the lower level of a mill building that belonged to a friend and the car was parked at the foot of the steps that ran up to the mezzanine. I was in a hurry and didn't notice that the hand brake wasn't fully engaged. When the car fired up it lurched forward, fortunately stopped by the lower step. I was thrown back on the steps and the right front headlight was demolished by hitting the railing. I don't intend to try that again!

Edited July 18, 2022 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Marty Roth]

Back around 1987 My 1969 Pontiac Custom"S" developed an engine "miss", sounding and performing like a dead cylinder. With no identifiable ignition issues, the next step was a compression check which yielded minimal numbers at the 2nd cylinder on the passenger side. Removing the rocker arm cover and having my wife spin the engine, one rocker arm moved less than desired but the pushrod was still good - time to dig deeper into the Pontiac 350. Suspecting a worn camshaft lobe or a collapsed hydraulic valve lifter, I proceeded disconnecting first the battery and then all linkages and fuel line, and removing the carburetor and intake manifold as a single unit. My diagnosis was correct, but the face of the suspect lifter was flush with the face of the bore, so I couldn't grab it with my trusty Vise-Grip. I didn't have any specialized tools, but reasoned that since either a cam lobe had worn away, or that the lifter had gone bad, in either case I needed to remove the lifter to make the determination - but how to do it ??

 

The easy way "SEEMED" to be that I would bump the starter to spin the engine to get the cam lobe to raise the defective lifter just enough to grab it with my Vise-Grip pliers -

so I connected the battery cable and bumped the starter.

 

Did I mention that the car was in our 2-car garage, directly under our two childrens' bedrooms?

 

Well - with the intake manifold and carburetor removed, but the distributor still in place, the (now open) metal fuel supply line shot a dose of gas straight at the distributor which of course ignited the spurted gas, and here was an open fire directly below the kids' rooms! I hit the button on the garage door opener and pushed the Pontiac out of the house and into the driveway and smothered the flames with a blanket or something close, avoiding shooting the extinguisher into the internals of the engine - maybe not the smartest or safest move, but solving the issue, and at least not having to disassemble and clean out the engine.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Marty Roth
typo (see edit history)

[CHuDWah]

I was under another late-30s Ford using an acetylene torch to break something loose on the frame.  The gas line was on the other side of the rail but I somehow managed to burn through it.  Fortunately the tank was empty but there was just enough gas left in the line to make a nice little blue flame where I had cut it.

[prewarnut]

Wrenching near the starter and not disconnecting the battery. As the free end neared the hot terminal.....

[Marty Roth]

Mot me, but one of the "mechanics" in a friend's foreign car shop where I served as parts and service manager while in between computer administration assignments. The company sold and serviced Citroen, Peugeot, Alfa-Romeo, and Renault products. Renault had just released the USA version of the Renault-5, marketed as Le Car. Sidney was not the sharpest of our technicians, and was assigned to do a Le Car oil change. A few days later the customer came back with a very noisy transmission, and the car smoking badly out the tailpipe. Turns out the technician had drained all of the oil out of the TRANSMISSION, and overfilled the engine crankcase by three and a half (3-1/2) quarts, doubling the correct amount. That was a costly mistake and required a tranny rebuild/replacement - not his only foul-up, but one I recall.

[CHuDWah]

6 hours ago, keiser31 said:

Working at Firestone Tire Company in San Diego in the 1970s, I had to do an oil change and flush the radiator in a customer's car. I was done with the draining of the fluids and started filling up the radiator with water and the crankcase with oil. For some reason, I could not seem to get a good footing on the garage floor. I looked down to see oil and antifreeze all over the floor under my feet. I had been distracted and had forgotten to close the radiator petcock and re-install the oil drain plug. Did I have to pay for the oil and antifreeze? Yes. Did I feel REALLY stupid? YES!

I did the same thing once when changing antifreeze in wife's car - taught me to always check drain plugs before pouring in any new stuff.

[CHuDWah]

6 hours ago, Pfeil said:

I posted this on a paint thread.

 

Prior to the car I'm working on, the last time I shot a car in lacquer was in 1992 and before that 1974. In 1974 I shot my 65 Sea Blue Beetle,

http://www.pismoderelicts.com/photogallery/new format 834/images/img_0138_edited_1.jpg

The Beetle was done in the usual way of shooting acrylic lacquer cars I had done in the past. This means shooting a couple of coats and then when I could get some free time like a week or two, wet sanding and another couple of coats and so on until the desired coats is reached. In 1992 I decided to shoot my 69 Pontiac LeMans. Because I'm the original owner and the miles were so low a body-off was a waste of time however the front clip was removed and the deck lid too. This new color was PPG black, and I would shoot the car over several months (like I did the beetle). When the car was finally ready for paint, I had the hood and deck lid on easels and painted them first for their first coats. The next day I wet sanded them, tacked them off and hit them again and the proceeded to go around and shoot the rest of the car. When I got back to the hood and decklid the paint on them had shriveled up like crinkle paint!😬. My neighbor across the street was a PPG rep. so I asked Jeff what's going on. Didn't you read the container instructions??? NO! I've been painting cars in lacquer for a donkey's age! Why would I want to read the label? Turned out with this new lacquer (1992) you will do the first coat and keep going round and round until the desired amount of coats are put down. So I had to re-strip and start over again!

  http://www.pismoderelicts.com/photogallery/new format 937/images/p1020752.jpg   

 

When all else fails, read the directions. 😁

[Paul Dobbin]

I know I've done some dumb stunts, but I can't remember any right now.   I'm happy about that too.   My wife is out of the room, so I won't ask her.

[just me]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/wisconsin-man-sets-garage-fire-siphoning-gas-vacuum#&_intcmp=hp1r_13,hp1r

 

This was Ed but he was too embarrassed to post.

 

Best

Charley

 

[edinmass]

4 minutes ago, just me said:

https://www.foxnews.com/us/wisconsin-man-sets-garage-fire-siphoning-gas-vacuum#&_intcmp=hp1r_13,hp1r

 

This was Ed but he was too embarrassed to post.

 

Best

Charley

 

 

Charley…….we did it the old fashion way…….and drank a pint of fuel! 😎

[edinmass]

Most stupid thing I have done in a car? The post would be longer than Walt’s photo thread. 

[Buick35]

I worked at a six bay garage in1980 in Florida and the mechanic in the next bay over was rebuilding a carburetor and he had gasoline in a brake fluid bottle that he used to set the float level. I was doing a brake job on a Volkswagon Beetle and needed some brake fluid so I filled up the m.c.with gas. He came back the next day very unhappy. I ended up replacing all the wheel cylinders. At another garage in Illinois I was on a wrecker call to pickup a green Ford station wagon in a grocery store parking lot that had a bad transmission.He said the keys would be in the car. What are the odds that two green Ford wagons with keys in them would be in the same parking lot? I hauled off the wrong car! Good thing the shops name was on the tow truck. Another time I reached in through the window and started up some sports car to check for exhaust leaks.Unfortunately the car was in gear when it started and crashed into the wall. My boss left it in gear but fired me after that. That's before I moved to Florida. Than I got a job at N.A.S.A. go figure. Greg

[ericmac]

I was unloading a '62 Lincoln in the driveway and time was short. I blocked the wheels and loosened the tie downs. Did I mention that a '62 Lincn weighs nearly 6000 lbs? The slightest push and the Lincoln rolled neatly off the trailer, breaking free of the tie downs...and right into my '26 Model T, (a AACA Grand National winner) in the  garage. Oops.

[lump]

9 hours ago, stretch cab said:

Newly married, going to college and broke is a good way to set this up.  Probably should say, not a mechanic either.  Had an older car that would do some crazy stuff when you pressed the gas pedal hard.  Motor would rev up and stay that way until you shut it off.  Wife did not like driving the car that way to say the least!

 

My mechanic skills were maxed out immediately as this had to be a huge problem.  So, I took the car to a mechanic who was the son of an acquaintance/friend.  The verdict came back that I needed a valve job.  Didn't know what a valve job was but I did know I had a problem so I said, fix it.  Got the car back and the bill and still the car would stick wide open upon a rapid acceleration.  Now broker than before I decided to look at it myself and noticed the motor tipped up toward the passenger side, (if I remember right) and would lodge there until the ignition was turned off.  Upon a closer look it was evident the driver's side motor mount was broken.  I fixed that myself and all was well.

 

Lesson learn: Try to do it yourself first and never trust a mechanic!  You might have to use one, but never blindly trust!

Let me guess... mid 1960's small block Chevy V8? 

[lump]

When I was very young and very green Service Manager at a Goodyear store, my wife's boss took the two of us out to dinner. While there, the boss confessed that she was worried because her Buick Riviera needed a new exhaust system, and the Buick dealership had quoted her an outrageous price. This was my chance to be a hero, like my Dad, who often fixed cars for family friends at no charge, except for parts! Besides, it would earn brownie points for my wife. So I brought her car into the shop, put it up on a rack, and started trying to remove the rusty old system. But there was no torch allowed at this service store location, so I tried my best to get the rusted nuts off the manifold studs with every other trick I knew. But they broke off anyway. No big deal (yet), so I set about the task of removing both exhaust manifolds. But unlike the Chevy V8's in my hot rod cars, the Buick V8 engine had manifold bolts which passed through the head castings with exposed threaded ends. And, you guessed it, those bolts broke off in the head castings. So now I had to remove both cylinder heads and send them along with the manifolds to the local machine shop. By the time I was done, I had tied up the rack at the Goodyear store for 2 full days, and I now had a ton of time and lots of costs in the project. Some hero I was! 😒

 

I was a 20-year-old kid at the time, and I had earned this new "Service Manager" position because I had shown an ability to generate sales, and to keep service dept customers happy. But the mechanics working there were older, and not fond of taking instructions from a "kid." Their snide humor and sneering grins made my misery in this project much the worse. But one thing about it... this situation became a good lesson that I NEVER forgot! 

Edited July 19, 2022 by lump (see edit history)

[Marty Roth]

2 hours ago, Buick35 said:

 ....  I moved to Florida. Than I got a job at N.A.S.A. go figure. Greg

Do NASA rockets get left on the launch pad with a key in them?

[Billy Kingsley]

Not really something we did that was stupid but maybe we should have done something different. The Sunday before Christmas 2019, my brother and I went to Manhattan to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. As we are pulling off the Henry Hudson Highway onto 42nd Street the car starts shaking and stuttering at a red light. Not sure the cause, we park it in the parking garage we usually use and do the rest of our trip, hoping we can get safely home. Afterwards, we get in to go home and it's fine...for a while. Just south of Peekskill the vibration and stuttering returns but is worse. The car is clearly struggling but we managed to get to within sight of our shop before it breaks down totally. What normally is an hour and a half trip took two hours and a few minutes. The tow truck had to come and move the car maybe 700 feet, and our mom came and got us with her car. 

 

I don't remember the exact problem it was now, but my brother was getting annoyed with something constantly breaking on it so he got rid of it the following August. It was a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt. 

 

The thing he regrets doing is not leaving it on the side of the road with the title signed for it to be someone else's problem 😂

[Dandy Dave]

I had an old 57 Dodge pickup. The flat head 6 went south. We had a 1975 Chrysler Cordoba on the farm that a neighbor had rolled when he was drunk as a skunk. There was not a side or panel that wasn't damaged. I pulled the motor, transmission, and rearend out and used it in the truck because it was there for the taking. When I installed the rearend I just welded the spring brackets on the way they were cut off. Problem was they were on top of the truck rearend and on the bottom of the car rearend. I had three reverse gears and one forward gear. 😬 About an hour later I had it in the right way around. Dandy Dave!  

[TAKerry]

Most of you guys have forgotten more about working on cars than I have ever learned, so not too many dumb things. BUT, the one that comes to the top of heap..

I had a 2 yr old 93 Grand Cherokee. Took the family on the annual trip to the beach. Stopped about 1/2 before our destination for dinner at the steakhouse. Came out and the car was dead. Just a couple of clicks. My first thought was dead battery, but I had just replaced it about a month prior (with a Sears diehard), so I had to wonder. A couple of people came out and me not knowing anything listened intently. One of the guys said 'These jeeps are known to blow such n such'. Another said 'its the so and so, Jeeps are notorious for this'. Panic set in, I called a tow truck, got the family to the condo, car towed 2 hrs back home to a trusted mechanic, and Pop brought my truck to me for wheels for the week. Got home and found it was a DEAD BATTERY!  

 

Now when a car wont start, dead battery is my first go to.

[64avanti]

17 year old me in my first car, a 67 Ford Galaxy 500. At some point, a PO had replaced the (most likely) big block engine with a 289. Rear end was geared for a fat ride highway cruiser, so it took forever to get any speed. Of course, being a young, dumb and impatient kid I would just put my foot in the carburetor. The first time I broke the motor mounts was also the first time I experienced trying to control a multi thousand pound land yacht stuck at WOT. On winding hilly back roads.

 

Took a terrifying minute to realize that the only way to stop was to shut the car off.

 

Limped home and replaced the motor mounts.

 

A month later I broke those mounts.

 

My mechanic uncle, who helped me keep it on the road, guided me in the 2nd replacement mounts. He let me know that I was a dumbass, then wedged a 2x4 across the engine and under the fenders to hold the engine down. Never broke the mounts again.

 

There are a lot more stories from my early adventures as a dumbass gearhead wannabe, but I'll leave it at this.

 

When I scrapped that POS a year later I sold the 289 to a guy who put it in a late 60's Mustang and drove it for years. Got $50.00 for the engine and $50.00 from the scrapyard.

Edited July 19, 2022 by 64avanti (see edit history)

[R W Burgess]

13 hours ago, Buick35 said:

That's before I moved to Florida. Than I got a job at N.A.S.A. go figure. Greg

*

*

Is that why all this space junk keeps falling out of the sky Greg?  :-)

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Well I think we did a simillar thread on this a while back but will share mine here.  More immaturity than carelessness, but very stupid indeed.  Was trying to align an aftermarket L88 type hood on my 71 Camaro.  Likely around age 17 or 18.  It was not going well so I punched the top of the fender and of course dented it.  My friend Nowell decided, while I was walking away swearing and screaming, to quietly pack up and leave.  Unfortunately for him I saw his plan and said you are not going anywhere till this is done...  Being the good friend he is (to this day) we finished the job and gradually the uneasy silence faded. Dent popped out a bit but was there till I changed that fender.  Mine was rusting where they all do and another pal wrecked his identical, rust free car where that fender was about all that remained..

 

We did pretty good shooting the fender and hood, only time I ever painted with real equipment vs. rattle cans!

 

Yes I have eaten a fair amount of sh**  over that punching incident.  I made up for it to Nowell by changing the coil springs on his Nova for him while he was working.  He was surprised the job was done single handedly when he showed up after work.  Ahh to be a teenager with a car(s) tp play eith in July/ August again...

 

Our Camaros at my house around 1980.  Got the fender off the white car for my blue 71 in the background after my pal totalled it.  Not a straight panel left on it but the one I needed.  When I picked it up his mom (old school Italian lady) came out and said "good riddance to the white car, even the wipers went too fast on it"!! 😯😁.. 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Steve_Mack_CT (see edit history)

[Buick35]

11 hours ago, Marty Roth said:

Do NASA rockets get left on the launch pad with a key in them?

No,they have push button starters.