it's 1990 and i'm stationed at Camp Darby Italy. Down the road is Leghorn Army Depot. I was an MP and on weekends we patroled that depot solo, meaning I was the only out there. So I am patroling around in my Reliant K-Car and idle up a ramp that goes over some railroad tracks. Unknown to me, the ramp only went up one side of the tracks and was a two foot drop on the other side.



BANG!!!



The front wheel drive K-car is stuck, drive wheels spinning freely in the air.I scratch my head, wondering WTF I will do now, because there is NO WAY i'm calling this in.





Well, I realize that the car is front heavy, so I put it in drive, walk to the rear bumper and heave ho. Now, as you can imagine, the car careens off the ramp and is now driverless, going about 10mph with me frantically in pursuit.





Thanks god the US ARMY made me run three times a week.. and got me down to 13 minutes for two miles.. I caught her and hopped into the driver seat and nobody was the wiser . Imagine if that was on tape.

I'm laughing my butt off at some of those. Here's my favorite so far:

(from the site)

"My father had his engine on a engine hoist supported by a lift plate on the intake. For some dumb reason he decided to take the intake off. He took all the bolts out and the motor crashed to the floor just missing smashing his feet. I showed up at his house and the intake was still hanging on the hoist."

(end quote>)


I've done plenty of stupid stuff around cars, but a welding bench in the machine shop I worked in really brought out the dumb in me. There was a 10 lb block of steel sitting on the bench with a smaller cylinder of steel resting on top. No problem, just slide the junk out of the way so I can fixture up my job.

The steel looked kind of dirty so I slipped the welding gloves on and grabbed it. That's when I discovered that the temperature of the steel block was about 1,000 F. A buddy had just finished brazing the smaller piece on and the block had barely cooled below red temperature... I was too preoccupied to even consider that it MIGHT BE HOT. It was, after all, sitting on a friggin' welding bench.

The gloves fused into a clenched shape and just kept getting HOTTER and HOTTER. I was tearing around the shop like a madman until I reached the sink. Thank God for the Americans with Disabilities Act! The sink had big paddle levers for the faucet - just perfect to hit with my nose to send water pouring into the cursed gloves. Took a while to get them off because, like OJ's, they had shrunk. Needlees to say I had tender hands for the next week.

If I didn't have the gloves on, I probably would have felt the heat before I even touched the thing...

I was reading that earlier. Some good stuff there.

I've never done this but a guy I worked for had a nicely restored Mustang on jackstands and was taking off the rear end UBolts... you guessed it, the jackstands were under the housing. One side was enough for him to see the error in his ways. No damage at all surprisingly.

about how you've survived LOL!! How about getting stuck under your convertable?

Funny or scary. I was working on my Cougar that wouldn't run. Had the key on checking for juice in the dizzy. A big rain came up and the car was not in the garage far enough to close the door, so I reach in and pulled the shifter back (auto) so I could push the car ahead. Closed the door and windows in the house, after a snack I came back out to continue my search for the problem. My work bench is in the front of the garage with the door into the house directly in front of the car.(bench has two inch oak top and maple drawers) I am in between the bench and the car leaned over. To get a better view of the damper I moved to the center of the car and bumped the engine over by crossing the solenoid. I don't remember now why the car revved wide open, if I had the throttle springs off or what, but it did. I ended up on the kitchen floor. The tires squealing (posi),then it died. Damn I thought I had it fixed. It gives me chills to think how lucky I was to have moved over that two or three feet. What hurt at the time was my fingers that went into the fan, and the door into the house must not have been latched close, cause I went thru that no problem. I got the drawers of the work bench replaced as they were smashed to kindling. But the black marks are still on the floor to remind me I'm not as smart as i think sometimes. Sorry, Not as funny as i thought it would be.

it was winter time 1983 and I was attempting to leave the house. I get into my 1972 International pickup and try backing up.....to no avail. I was sitting on a patch of ice and the rear tires would just sit and spin. The truck had a manual choke so I pulled it out slightly and put it in Reverse and let out the clutch. The rear tires just sat and turned slowly, so I got out and tried pushing on the side of the truck to see if I could get it "grab" and go. The drivers door was open so I could jump in if it did decide to move. It didn't. I then thought maybe if I get a hunk of carpet out and get it under the tire I could get moving. I once again got the tires turning and then kicked the carpet under the left rear tire. Well, in the process of trying to get the carpet UNDER the tire I got my toes too close and it sucked my foot under the tire> DOH!!! The tire stopped turning(as the other then started....non posi). Hmmmm, it was stuck GOOD under that tire as I couldn't get it out and there was NO ONE home!! After a slight panic attack I was able to wiggle the truck around just enough to get it to let my foot loose. Needless to say.....I stayed home that night.


LarryK

1964 Galaxie 2dr 390/6-71/4spd
1964 Country Sedan Wagon 428/5spd
1969 F100 428/4spd
1967 F100 352/now a 4 spd!
1959 B Model Mack

Well once or twice i've had some minor mishaps but nobody was killed.

I've started the headliner on fire in my Mustang while welding the rollbar. That was fun, the whole interior full of flames and me not noticing right away with a dark helmet in an awkward position inside. By the time I got out the flames were huge and the smoke really thick. I grabbed the garden hose before the whole place went up.

I had two cars fall on me, the Comet with no rear suspension under it was the latest. The jack under the ladder bar crossmember fell over while i was trying to move it closer to the wall and the car landed on it with me in the rear axle area and my escape blocked by stuff piled inside the car for storage. I had to slither between a narrow gap of rusty jagged steel and coarse concrete feet first on my back.

when I was about 18 carrying a cheapie style trolley jack from the house out to the garage. Carrying it one hand hanging vertically by the handle. Summer time. Thongs on my feet (no not g-strings!). Stepped down a step outside. Jack fell off handle onto my foot hurting like hell & cutting my foot open. Of course the handle now had no weight so I speared that into my head with enough force to cut my head open & drop me to the ground. Would have looked funny to anyone watching to see me hit the dirt clutching foot & head at same time!

...I was working as the tune up/electrical guy at the Volvo dealership about 1981. I had the last stall, with 4 stalls between me and the wall. A 4 cylinder car comes in on the hook hydrolocked with fuel. It was pretty common in the day that if you got some gas contaminated with water, the fuel distributor for the constant injection system would stick wide open and lock the motor... usually with no damage to the engine.



I proceeded to pull the spark plugs so I could turn the motor over and push the gas out of the cylinders, like I had done many times before.



This time I forgot to disable the ignition.



When I hit the key, the fuel gushed out of the cylinders and ignited INSTANTLY. The at least 10 foot diameter fireball shot from my stall all the way across the shop to the far wall, with Tecs running for their lives in all directions. No one got hurt.



I can still laugh myself to tears over that one. And there's plenty more where that came from.

My dad had his 428 on the engine stand intake, heads and NO oil pan on it. So getting ready to put the rockers back on the threads start pulling out of the edelbrock heads. I told him no big deal I will run over to my friends shop, get some kingserts, drill the heads and put em in!(this is where it gets good) I come back with the kingserts in hand and notice he's fishing in the valley with a magnet. I asked him "dad what yah drop?" he says "I turned it over to put the oil pan on! Now grab a magnet and help me!" Lesson learned: never flip an FE over with lifters in and no rockerarms.