Garage Mishaps AKA "OOPS"

[theycallmeWALLY]

Figured I'd start a thread about the shit show of the garage life.

1. The times you broke a bolt
2. Knocked over 5 gallons of oil
3. Broke the windshield
4. Fried the ECU
5. ECT...

Let's hear it and more importantly... lets hear how you fixed the issue so it doesn't happen again.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

I'll start with my most recent one...

Last night I was changing out the crankshaft sensor on our 2008 BMW 328i when I snapped the aluminum bolt tightening it down... didn't realize the bolt was aluminum. I wasn't giving it much force and only using a 1/4 ratchet but she just spun and broke like butter.

Some incite:

You can access the bolt from under the car. You can't see it without using a mirror and a light but you can scratch the shit out of your arm to feel it. After you find it with your finger and you then go through the same issue getting the socket on it... it's time to break loose. Got her loose and out. The sensor was stuck but with enough wiggle I got that out... and then the same issue was getting her back in. Finally after 10-15 min located where the bolt hole was and starting to tighten it up... Then she broke.

I have never wanted to burn down, throw things, break pretty much anything I could after that.

Now I get to tear down the intake which will be like 30-45 min I'm guessing so I can get a drill in there to EZ out the bolt. FML

 

[Klever]

Oh man...yeah cars are a pain in the ass to work on, I feel ya. Trucks are much easier!

I lose my patience when I have to move 10 things to get one thing. I hate struggling. I need a damn shop. A 3,000' shop will cost me $165k minimum plus all the hassle of getting permits...having it built etc. I need a turnkey house with a shop already ha ha!

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

Oh man...yeah cars are a pain in the ass to work on, I feel ya. Trucks are much easier!

I lose my patience when I have to move 10 things to get one thing. I hate struggling. I need a damn shop. A 3,000' shop will cost me $165k minimum plus all the hassle of getting permits...having it built etc. I need a turnkey house with a shop already ha ha!

Same here... We were talking about building one on our property but like you I'd need someone to do all of the work and I didn't want to have that extra $800 month payment on a building so... garage life it is for now.

 

[Klever]

Yup agreed!

 

[h0runner]

I spilled three gallons of used oil a couple weeks ago.

Snapped first and last studs on the exhaust manifold of my 22re

Had a small tube come loose out of the cold saw and sling across the garage

Blown up more than a couple 4.5” cutting wheels

Grounded myself thru my welder a couple times

Had a truck fall off of jack stands and barely missed me

Dropped a bolt into the bell housing of a jeep 4.0 w/ automatic, this was the least fun out of them all

There’s a lot more but those are the ones that quickly come to memory. I should really try and be more safe.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

I spilled three gallons of used oil a couple weeks ago.

Snapped first and last studs on the exhaust manifold of my 22re

Had a small tube come loose out of the cold saw and sling across the garage

Blown up more than a couple 4.5” cutting wheels

Grounded myself thru my welder a couple times

Had a truck fall off of jack stands and barely missed me

Dropped a bolt into the bell housing of a jeep 4.0 w/ automatic, this was the least fun out of them all

There’s a lot more but those are the ones that quickly come to memory. I should really try and be more safe.

I haven't shocked myself with a welder since I was in welding class... Actually forgot how to even do that in the first place now that I think of it.

 

[Dsrtrcr01]

Ok... I have had broken bolts, spilled oil and all that but my super dumb, I can't believe I did that one is...

I had a 36v club car golf cart. I installed the front frame section of a quad on it to give it long travel. Back was stock so she was full east county. I was messing with something under it and I pulled the clip that held the the throttle linkage together. Well the key was on and it was in forward. The linkage dropped as soon as I pulled the clip giving it full throttle. Spun the rear tires, ran over my chest and drug the rear shackle and bumper across my chest. Once it ran me over it went full throttle into my washer and dryer. I'm laying on the ground, can't yell because the wind was crushed out of me, bleeding from the cuts and scratches across my chest and the cart is smashed into my washer and dryer spinning both tires trying to go in further. Wife comes running out, sees the shit show and comes to help me. She helps me up still not able to catch my breathe and I shut off the cart. Takes me a while but I catch my breathe check myself out and tell her the story. She calls me an idiot and asks if we need to go to hospital. I say no. Shut the garage door and heal for a couple days. Then I went and bought new washer and dryer and finished whatever I was doing on the cart. Still feel really dumb over that one.

 

[h0runner]

I haven't shocked myself with a welder since I was in welding class... Actually forgot how to even do that in the first place now that I think of it.

I really don’t even know how to do it on purpose. Shitty ground position?

 

[Hunter_mf_]

Was making a LCA crossmember for a buddys ranger and someone used the oem bolts in all four pockets needless to say they where seized and it was a absolute nightmare to cut them out. Got it handled and got some properly shanked hardware so this doesn’t happen again lol

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

So we were getting the RV ready for Thanksgiving.

The morning that we were going to leave I noticed that the battery's were basically dead and not working right even under charge. Kind of flipped out and pulled the batteries quickly without paying much attention to the wiring. Two of the 4 house batteries were 'ok' so I just went out and purchased 2 more... only like $500 to start off the already expensive weekend. Get back to the RV and start trying to figure out the wiring.

Well I obviously fucked up the wiring and ended up blowing the 300amp fuse after a few sparks and battery terminals getting a little warm. Bu... I didn't notice that I blew the fuse until the second day of camp.

I Kept trying to charge the batteries because they died after the first night of camping... they wouldn't charge. I was the annoying dude running the generator for way to long at our quiet camp all weekend. Thanks to my buddy Scott for letting me borrow his generator.

After driving the RV home the batteries were all charged up which then made me realize that there was a fuse blown.

It was a cold weekend in the RV without a heater for 2 nights.

 

[Cleandezert]

while working on black betty i pulled the distributor off to check something and the stupid oil pump driveshaft fell into the oil pan. Never had the little c clip to hold it in place.... was able to jack up the motor just enough to drop the pan without pulling the entire motor, that pissed me off pretty bad and turned a 15 min project into a 1.5 day fix.

One time while rebuilding a carb on a Husqvarna 250 i put the slide in backwards. We kick it over and the bike fires up on its rev limiter.... being the bike was a POS it didn't have a kill switch, so me and 3 friends are in a garage while bike is smoking out the entire place reved to fucking blow. My friend yells "KICK IT IN GEAR TO STALL IT OUT" obviously that wasn't going to work, the bike would of taken off like a rocket ship through the garage wall. By now i am ready for catastrophic failure so I say lets abandon ship let it blow up. Another friend jumps in and pulls the fuel line off just in time before the bike imploaded. We all laugh at the situation now and the friend who still thinks its a good idea to put that bike in gear.

 

[Heer_O]

Ha.... This one time I bought a Toyota... That's it. My biggest oops ever. Freaking piece of shit.
The End

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

Ha.... This one time I bought a Toyota... That's it. My biggest oops ever. Freaking piece of shit.
The End

I think I can say that about most of my cars... well not the olds - She's a champ

 

[85Yota]

My biggest shop OOPS wasn't anything I actually did but my dad did in my first shop. We swapped heads on a 4.0L 5 speed ranger. Bucket of coolant, all the tools and old parts on an old door ontop of sawhorses as table. Well my dad leaned in foot on clutch and started the truck, and jiggled the shifter thinking it was in neutral and lifted foot off the clutch and truck jumped forward since it was in gear and sloppy ford shifter tricked him. Knocked over prob 3 gallons of coolant AND all of my tools, old heads etc. Ran into a truck on jack stands that got pushed back and luckily didn't fall because the one rear side that fell off the frame rail got pushed into a ladder against the wall which was now the new jackstand. Ever since that day my dad and I make sure to be in the vehicle to make sure it won't move without wanting it to.

 

[Cleandezert]

one time years and years ago Kevin my co-driver and I were rebuilding the rear cage on my truck after being Nerfed by Dan Vance(separate funny story) it bent the bumper so bad i couldn't pull my spares out. For the new design, i decided to sleave the main rear tubes to keep them from bending. After working a full day at work we were in the shop around midnight, both of us exhausted. I notched the outer tube to fit the cage, and then handed it to Kevin and asked him to cut another smaller tube to sleave the main tube to make it .250 wall.... He comes back 5 min later with my outter tube cut in half and asked "what am I doing again" I died of laughter as all he had to do was cut a smaller tube and slide it in the one i handed him. There was no reason to cut the outer tube in half to sleave it.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

one time years and years ago Kevin my co-driver and I were rebuilding the rear cage on my truck after being Nerfed by Dan Vance(separate funny story) it bent the bumper so bad i couldn't pull my spares out. For the new design, i decided to sleave the main rear tubes to keep them from bending. After working a full day at work we were in the shop around midnight, both of us exhausted. I notched the outer tube to fit the cage, and then handed it to Kevin and asked him to cut another smaller tube to sleave the main tube to make it .250 wall.... He comes back 5 min later with my outter tube cut in half and asked "what am I doing again" I died of laughter as all he had to do was cut a smaller tube and slide it in the one i handed him. There was no reason to cut the outer tube in half to sleave it.

This one hits home.... So many times I've cut the wrong side or 22" vs 21" and then had to ask myself why the Fluck am I working if I can't even think?

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

I guess this would fall under here?? Mishap because the guy I was helping was kind of helpless haha.

So I saw a dude on Facebook who needed a place to store his truck and trailer for a couple of months so he could go on an epic trip to Mexico. I've got land so why not make a little side cash.

He rolls up yesterday with a rad African Twin in a small enclosed area. I honestly didn't realize how big those bikes were. He had to take the windshield off to get her to fit.

He wasn't very mechanically inclined to say the least and when reinstalling the windshield he pushed both lower grommets that hold the nuts into the fairing. To reiterate... He was using a torx bit to reinstall the windshield allen socket bolts... I mean it worked but still haha. I tried using a magnet to fish it out, but then realized they were stainless steel. At this point he either wasn't going to run a windshield until he could find replacements grommets in Mexico or take off way to much shit that he most likely wouldn't know how to put back together.

I had my two year old in one arm and was like... 'lets just make something real quick bud.' This was above his pay grade so I was like 'I got a lathe, we'll find some material and just make something to get you by.'

About 45 min later I had these little guys made from an old grinder handle. I'm pretty excited to hear if they make the whole 3 month trip honestly.

 

[DesertGoat]

i broke my stupid thumb because I'm a stupid moron.
was using a transmission jack on my back and had my free hand too close to a pinch point without paying attention to it. when i went to lower the jack instead of just a little i ended up letting it down on full release. caught my thumb in the glove in between the frame and the arms of the jack.

thought for sure i lost my thumb, but luckily just broke the last digit. drove myself to the ER and cursed myself for being a dumbass.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

i broke my stupid thumb because I'm a stupid moron.
was using a transmission jack on my back and had my free hand too close to a pinch point without paying attention to it. when i went to lower the jack instead of just a little i ended up letting it down on full release. caught my thumb in the glove in between the frame and the arms of the jack.

thought for sure i lost my thumb, but luckily just broke the last digit. drove myself to the ER and cursed myself for being a dumbass.

WOOF.. Was this recent?