Guest TeamNissan Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 In some previous threads injuries have been brought up along with warning and what not. I though it would be fun and educational for us to share some of the injuries we have experiences working on our cars past and present. I know I can't be the only one who's car has/had a blood stain here or there. Don't be shy, even the best and most experienced mechanic make mistakes or have occasional lapses in judgement. As mentioned in a previous post while torquing down a vg head the napa socket i was using broke and I slammed my hand into the firewall and various sharp things lol. Chipped the bone in my knuckle (to this day its there just hanging out) and received some serious cuts exposing well, more bone. I think the moral was to pull instead of push when ever possible and to always wear gloves. I wrap my hand in a towel or rag as well. The biggest scar was probably mental. Another good one was using a dolly to move a complete engine and having it roll off onto my foot. Nothing too bad but I lost the nail on my big toe ha. I guess the moral is if you don't have the proper equipment at least be extra care full. Can't wait to hear all yours, I KNOW there are some good ones out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustin280zx Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 Well the most that my buddy laughed at was swapping the rear diff out of my zx with a lsd and i lifted it up onto the suspension and I thought i had it balanced out enough to stay there so I could roll out on the creeper and grab the wrenches and such. And I told my buddy who is a true friend drinking a beer and sitting on the chair not even offering to help Quote "watch this rear drop on my balls as i roll out" Just to let you know my feet we're facing the front of the car. Sure enough as soon as i rolled out it dropped right on my male genitalia. Nothing even touched the car, it just fell. And i did it the same way by myself probably 5 times before that in the past. Well just to let you know it made my eyes water and i was unable to work on it anymore for about 20 minutes. But what gets me is that it could wait another quarter second to drop on the creeper or a quarter second before to fall on my stomach. ALL the weight right there in that area...but then again i guess it is a big area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerryb Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 Two things come to mind.....the time I was holding the exhaust up while somebody was unbolting it from the car. At this point it was unbolted and just hanging there. I had an itch so I went to scrtach it .....just as my bud gave a small tug on the system. You can guess......the thing hit me square in the face...it hurt bad..... with minor bleeding ....no stiches. The second time was when I was jacking up the car. I was pissed because I missed something so I was pumping the jack like a cazy fool to make up time. The handle slipped out of the lift and I slammed my little finger into the concrete floor at about 90 MPH. It took two weeks for the swelling to go down.......haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnjdragracing Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 Well mine is one day I was unbolting a header on a a camaro, it was cold as hell that one winter day and there was snow on the ground. While I am unbolting the header I place my hand on the valve cover did not notice the alternator (big red battery wire) terminal did not have the rubber cap on it, my left hand , wedding band finger happen to short it to the valve cover. All I know is all of sudden I had tremendous pain like you cut on a light switch. Luckily there was snow on the ground and I was able to place my hand in it to cool things down. After it was over my wedding ring had melted in places and today I still have a burned in band around my wedding finger even though I am no longer married. John PS: I have another one which probably anyone who welds knows. I was under a car laying on my back doing some welding. All of a sudden there was cracking and popping and pain in my ear where a bead had fallen off and went into my ear. I about killed myself trying to get out from under the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evan Purple240zt Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 The weld in the ear thing friggin hurts. I once pulled really hard on a bolt with a crappy chinese wrench, slipped and punched myself in the face.... in front of EVERYONE who was in the shop. Gave myself a bloody nose. All I could do was laugh. Evan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deja Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 PS: I have another one which probably anyone who welds knows. I was under a car laying on my back doing some welding. All of a sudden there was cracking and popping and pain in my ear where a bead had fallen off and went into my ear. I about killed myself trying to get out from under the car. LOL, sorry but I can sort of relate. I was under my car grinding on something with only safety glasses on instead of the full face shield. For some reason I had my tongue sticking out. Hot sparks don't feel real good on your tongue! It took weeks for that to stop hurting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 I've got four: Breaking a 928 front crank bolt loose I ended up hanging off of the breaker bar and bouncing, and snapped the end of it off (found out Snap on tools will also snap off from time to time). Fell about 4 feet on my hip. Hurt pretty bad. Big bruise. We had an automatic oiling gun at this shop, where you turn it on and can walk away. Much like a gas pump, but no automatic shut off. Boss starts putting oil in a 911, phone rings, and he goes and answers it and leaves the oil pumping in the car. Ended up putting about 25 quarts of oil in the car, capacity is 11, I think about 8 or 9 qts hit the floor. I didn't realize what was going on until there was a lake of oil on the concrete floor. Stupidly I RAN to shut the thing off and when I tried to stop my feet came straight out from under me. I felt like my body was completely horizontal about 5' over the ground, then I just fell straight down into the oil. Hit my head, had oil covering me head to toe, basically it was like being body slammed onto oily concrete. Doing an alignment on the rear of a 911. There is an allen head bolt which has to be rotated to change toe/camber in the back and they can be really hard to turn. We had a bit of a allen key about 1.5" long which we stuck in there and then put a wrench on it. This one was really tight so I double wrenched it. The first wrench came off and it flung straight into the bridge of my nose. It hurt, but it wasn't really that bad. Funny part was I went to show my boss and there was a customer in the office and she just about fainted. I had a big goose egg and a cut right between the eyes dripping blood down my nose. I guess that was a bit much for her. All time stupidest injury: Friday at 4:55. I was maybe 19 or 20, and I was doing a used car inspection on a Jetta. I had already completed the inspection and test drive and was just looking in the engine compartment to give everything the final once over. Saw the flywheel inspection hole. I was not familiar with this hole at the time and wondered what it was. As I pried off the cover and looked in I could not see anything. Then I told myself "Don't stick your finger in there" while I stuck my finger in there. Turns out the teeth of the flywheel are really good at tearing the end of your finger off. Mine was attached only by a tiny flap of skin. Put it back on, wrapped it up really tight, and went home to be in pain and embarrassment for the weekend. I never went to the doctor but it did heal. That finger is still a little sensitive and the nail grows in a little weird, and this was 10+ years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
het976 Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 I was driving my brother's 63 Dodge Dart Convertible with the push button Tourqeflight. Someone has done some really poor rewiring in the past and when I slid the lever up to park, poof...smoke comes pouring out of the dash...I panic and start grabbing wires and find the hot one...wrap it around my finger and give a hard pull...it came loose, but man did it burn AND cut the **** out of my finger. I can still feel it on my finger 25 years later. So...now the car won't start with the key...Only by putting the key into run and shorting the starter with a screw driver. All goes well until one day when it stalls and I jump out and short the starter only to realize too late it is in drive as it proceeds to run over my foot on the way through the high school parking lot. Fortunately my buddy was in the car to stop it (amusing to watch him trying to drive from the passenger seat and figure out how to stop the car) I walked with a limp for a few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbk240z Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 I was making an alternator bracket for my "camel-head" SBC many years ago. Well I was in a hurry to go cruising, and in stead of clamping the piece of flatbar into the vise 10 ft. away, I proceeded to hold the metal down in my left hand on the bench. So, drilling the pilot hole, while applying too much pressure, the drill bit breaks and the drill goes down and almost drills a hole through the webbing of my left hand between the thumb and finger..........OUCH!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlderThanMe Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 Hmm... I was up under my Z before I got it running off of the fuel tank and was trying to clean out the output line from the gas tank. I sprayed carb cleaner down the line and it shot straight back out into my eye. A good ounce or two... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janaka Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 My biggest, most painful accident was working on my brakes of my Grand Prix a few years ago. I was trying to get the caliper off the knuckle and my hand slipped off my ratchet and my hand went flying into the fender. I ended up breaking a bone in my hand (if you look at your right hand at your pointer finger it was the bone just below the knuckle). I didn't realize I broke it at the time as I was cursing and swearing so I clearly didn't go get it looked at. I thought it was just bruised etc. I still have a bump on the finger as it didn't heal 100% on its own. Fun ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 I think I was 19 years old, which was 25+ years ago, and I was doing a frame off restoration on a 1949 International Harvester truck. I was working on the rolling frame assembly and had the running boards just sitting on their mounts. Space was tight so it seemed like a good place to store them. I also had the cast iron exhaust manifold sitting on top of the drivers side running board. I had stepped on the running boards many times as a means of access to the inside of the frame rails. For some reason I was working on it bare footed, yes very stupid, and when I stepped on the running board I stepped too far towards the end which flipped the running board vertical along with the exhaust manifold. The exhaust manifold landed on the big toe of my right foot. Causing me to do this several time around the garage. Amazingly it didn't break it but my toe nail fell off within a matter of hours. It still doesn't grow normal to this day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonfly Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 About 6 or 7 months ago I was in the wrecking yard getting ready to pull a rear differential. I had gotten myself situated under the car so that I had plenty of leverage, about a foot away from me is a welded stack of rims that is supporting one corner of the car (the wrecking yard uses 4 to 5 of these welded rim stacks to support the cars so customers can safely work under them), just beyond my head I had noticed a spider web... well as I start to work little miss black widow steps out to see whats going on, at the time I have every once of my energy pulling a breaker bar trying to break loose one of the bolts. Being about as aracniphobic as any one else I spotted the spider and all my attention went to her at which time the socket slipped off the bolt and I slammed my elbow into the bead of the welded up rim stack beside me. The black widow apperently did not find that to be entertaining so she went back to where she came from. I did get the diff but I still have pain in that elbow from time to time. Dragonfly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSM Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 I burned my finger removing the + positive terminal grounding it to the car and my wedding ring. I had a blister all the way around my finger and it was twice the size of my finger. Removing rusted tail light bulbs from my Z only to have the glass shatter and cut the Sh_T out of two fingers. Wear a glove or a rag. Dumbest was adjusting the chain on the kids go cart. I was bearly moving watching the chain go around the sprockets. Looked a little loose, so what did I do, I touched the chain. Sucked my finger right into the clutch. Had to roll my finger out from under the chain. Have permanent hole mark on my nail, and at the time two nasty gashes on the other side of the finger. I look at moving pullies in a whole different light now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m4xwellmurd3r Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 i think the worst i've done so far, is when i was cleaning some parts with brake parts cleaner, and not pay attention and have it shoot me in the eye. that freakin sucked. luckily i had a bottle of water caus eit was hot outside, so i poured it in my eye. Never has ice cold water on the eyeball felt so good hahaha. oh, and then there was teh time when i was pulling off my fuel rail, and the fuel line going to the rail decided not to come off, so when it finally did come off, SMACK i hit something pretty hard and got a nasty bruise (no cuts, i always wear gloves lol. But i'm sure i'll get more injuries from this car. Love hurts eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 Dumbest was adjusting the chain on the kids go cart. I was bearly moving watching the chain go around the sprockets. Looked a little loose, so what did I do, I touched the chain. Sucked my finger right into the clutch. Had to roll my finger out from under the chain. Have permanent hole mark on my nail, and at the time two nasty gashes on the other side of the finger. I look at moving pullies in a whole different light now. Oh man that sounds painful... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six_Shooter Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 The most painful experiance happened to me a couple months ago. A friend of mine is a Honduh guy. He had a Del Sol, that we built and did a bunch of work on, well it had a built engine. He decided to sell the car but wanted to keep the engine. So he some nutbar gomer do the swap for him. Well at the time of the engine swap an AEM fuel rail and Thottle body were also installed. After the swap it would not start, every now and then it would start and run for about 20 seconds, tap the gas at any tome before that and it would die instantly. Checked over everything that changed a different engine harness with ECU adaptor was used, thought there was a problem there, did find a couple things, corrected them, still same result. So he has the car towed home, so that it would be easier for him and I to work on it. Spent a couple nights going over the electrical. From the get go the pump never sounded just right, so I thought maybe Gomer had wired it backewards, nope it's right. So I check for fuel at the fuel rail, remove the FPR, no fuel. WTF? So I think maybe blocked fuel filter, so I crack the fuel rail inlet, and there's pressure, ok, now this is odd. Pull off the banjo fitting, glance at it and didn't notice right away, but looked at it again a little closer a minute later and there were NO HOLES in the inlet, fuel could not get into the fuel rail, well it did, but through the threads of the nut. Any way, remove the fuel rail, drill a couple holes in it to allow fuel to flow into the rail. Re-install, fires right up, and runs like a charm, idle a little high, but runs. I notice that there's a small leak at the banjo fitting. So I try adjucting the used and now marred washers to seal it better, this goes on for about 20 minutes, with a small leak always. Well I was getting frustrated, and decided I would lean over the car while my friend turns the key, well the leak was MUCH worse at this point and reacted like a water hose with your finger over the end, high pressure and long distance fuel sprinkler. What do I do? I back away quickly, but I also turn my head to the right, to protect my eyes, that are covered by my glasses, and for the fuel to get a better angle of entry in to my ear. About 30 seconds later I dropped to the ground from the pain of the fuel in my ear canal. I don't go down easily. That was some of the worst pain I've ever experiaced, about equal to cutting the end of my finger off with a table saw. It seems we are all just mutated members here, maybe there's some connection to HybridZ with mutation? HAHA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJLamberson Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 PB Blaster to the eye... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TeamNissan Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 That reminds me of another one lol. PB in the eye sucks but I mean gas. My 240z has been sitting for 22 years before I got my hands on it. Like a idiot, rushing I went to drop the gas tank without draining it 1st. long story short the last strap snapped along with the dry rotted hoses and I got SOAKED in what was once gasoline. I had never experienced gasoline that old before. So disgusting, burned me lovely and must have seeped into my blood stream too because even though I immediately ran to the hose and rinsed myself off I quickly developed a crazy head ache and then vomited a few times. Good times lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m4xwellmurd3r Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 OH i thoguht of a better one. my car was overheating, and i didn't realize it at the time, but my nice little overflow tank, was at the edge of popping the lid, so as i have the hood propped up checking some things, i tapped the overfill tank ever so slightly. BOOM the lid popped off and i get DRENCHED in boiling coolant. i was lucky that i didn't get very bad burns (you've never seen me get undressed so fast) took off my shirt like i was on fire (felt like it >_<) and dumped a gallon of water all over me. my wrist burned so much that as soon as the water stopped touching it, it felt like it was back on fire. also, once i had a fuel line split on me, it didn't go straight through, but cut enough to make it pour fuel out and STILL have the car running. So, as soon as i see that my car is bleeding fuel all over the parkinglot, i shut it off, go under the car, hack off the fuel line that's damaged with my knife, and hook it back together. (this happend before the water incident) that burned me too, and i was soaked in gas. felt great on all my scrapes. That happend on a drive home one night. that definitely wasn't fun. so, as a reminder. stay away from hot water and gas burns cuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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