rtruman

Yesterday was working on corvette made a mistake had screw driver
in pocket upside down punctured driver seat . Always have cover on just got back from show and had them off.
Last year someone open hood at car show, air cleaner hole burnt under hood causing for hood repaint .
Things like this happen no matter how careful you are ,
Had towel on air cleaner lid it blew of when this judge opened my hood.

Took seat to upholstery shop try to fix it the problem these seats were vinyl and were in good shape may go leather this winter if The repair doesn't look good enough. No pictures this time no time

A friend of mine just got his street rod out of paint shop and hit floor shift with high idle and ran it into his garage wall
Like I said could be worst.

Frankie the Fink

Never, ever put a tool in your pocket - bad safety practice...it'll hole your car or you sooner or later. When carrying a screwdriver or other metal tool around the car I put my hand over the sharp end. I'll heal my car won't. And, yes, one of those over-priced elastic air cleaner covers are a good idea or else keep the hood closed....a shop towel or rag can blow off quite easily.

Yes, stupid stuff happens, I left a show early because of a rain threat two weeks ago and forget I had that elastic cloth air cleaner cover on. Car ran like crap and then the problem hit me.....luckily I hadn't gotten on the turnpike yet!

I did the dumb *** double oil filter canister "O" ring trick when I first got my '61....4-1/2 quarts of oil dumped on the street and a barely averted engine disaster...

I have a friend that got in a hurry and backed out of his garage with his hood up and the garage door only partially open. The hood wound up on the garage floor!

Ya know what ? Ya get PO'ed, then laugh about it and then "hitch up your drawers" and get on with fixing it...

MikeM

Classis examples of why I always advise to keep the hood shut whenever possible.

DomL64

Keeping the hood shut doesn't always work.
Many years ago I was working on my 64. I had just put on a stinger hood and took the car for a ride around the block. Slowly since I hadn't bolted the hood on yet.
Brother in law asked to drive. I told him keep it under 35 since the hood wasn't bolted on and it starts to lift at 40. Dumb move. He ground through the gears and the hood went flying. Luckily, it didn't hit anything and there was no cars on the street. The only casualty was the front right corner. Talk about lucky.

Railroadman

Dom, I did something very similar many years ago. My GF at the time had a '58, and we had traded cars while I did some work on it. I set the hood on when I was done, it was dark so I figured I'd bolt it down the next morning.

Of course the next morning I forgot about it, and jumped in the car and started for her house. Halfway there, in the traffic on the other side I saw HER headed for MY place. So I waited for a break in traffic, hung a U, and put my foot in it. Somewhere about 40 mph there was a "FWOOM" and that hood took off like a big kite!

Amazingly, it did not hit anybody and did not shatter - 45 years later I don't recall if it hit in the road or in the grass next to the road. One corner had a small contusion on the fiberglass but overall it was remarkably intact.

Here's a pic of the car. Yep, looks mangy, but the GF was about 19 at the time and didn't have the $$ for what it needed. Car apparently still exists somewhere in Washington state.

DansYellow66

I do the same thing with screw drivers when anywhere around one of my cars - I keep a finger or palm over the end of it in case I trip or something. Same with sockets - I always wrap my hand around the ratchet and socket in case it decides to slip off just as I'm reaching across a fender. I learned that after a socket fell and bounced off a fender. And of course a big one - always look behind the car before backing out of the garage. I just paid Ford $220 to repaint the rear bumper on my otherwise pristine Lightning when I failed to do so and backed into a wheelborrow.

jasonsamara

Been there with the air cleaner reflection. I couldn't believe it because I knew better and just wasn't thinking. I never open my hood now in the sun.

After getting gas in the 66 one morning headed to a ncrs meet I heard a bang about a half mile from the station. It was the lid slamming shut. I pulled a quick u turn and my original cap was still at the pump thank goodness! There's always something.

65Bob-bo

Flat blade screw drivers are sharp, especially the small ones to remove knock off caps. They beat out leather every time.
Make sure door is closed when pushing out the car.
NASA was not calling for me that day.

Frankie the Fink

This pic should convince anybody...it was my '63 at a Florida cruise in just before I closed the hood !
That white spot had the heat of a supernova and washed the picture out so much the car appears orange...
That parabolic mirror around the air cleaner wing nut is the culprit !

Mike Geary

Here's one (not mine) that made me wince when I read it years ago.

Don Sherman did a series in a classic car mag on a '67 big block convertible restoration he did. Maybe you remember it -- Don repackaged the content into a pretty cool book.

Anyway, after a tremendous amount of bodywork to get it perfect, and then a gorgeous black paintjob with red stinger, he excitedly picked the immaculate car up to trailer it home.

For some strange reason, he backed the car onto the trailer and didn't secure the hood. The hinges were attached, but no latches as I recall.

So he's tooling along and glances in the rearview mirror, only to see his hood standing straight up and then bending back over the nose.

Fortunately the trip back to the bodyshop was a short one.

Easy Rhino

Damn, those kinds of stories make we wince.

I can be first-class dumb-azz but have yet to knacker up my '65.

"Yet" is the operative word here.

Mr D.

Most of you know I'm in the final stages of getting my 65 project on the road. Well its in the garage with a fresh $$,$$$ paint job.

So I have two 3' tools on the top of my workbench cabinets setting side by side one of which is a pry bar with a 45 deg bend at the end and the other is a big screwdriver. I needed the pry bar so I jumped up and grabbed it and in the process it launched the screwdriver which did a complete summersault and landed handle down on the workbench did a bounce and a 3/4 flip to than land on the rear peak of the light panel.

Now I watched all this happen in slow motion and yelled nooooooooo in slow motion but to avail. Yep chipped paint.

I no longer have tools on my workbench cabinets.

Viet Nam Vett

If your working on your lawn mower..no problem.. just stick that pry bar and lead knock off hammer in your pocket.

Viet Nam Vett

In all honesty... I must say...that once and only once while the hood was up and I was wrenching on one of my serp belt mounts on the passenger side and did push up on the hood which caused it to slam on my Head.

I am also in the "DA"Association..

dplotkin

For the most part & most cars I have the hood stays shut at car shows. The cars look better, the inquisitive can always ask me to open it.

Dan

mrg

Was the hood popped with pins resting on the latches or did these guys reach inside to pull the hood release? .. Heck of a way to get stung for a hood repaint.
John

rtruman

They had a rookie judge that day nobody came up to admit it .
But got it second hand .
I took my friend that is older to the food stand for 15 minutes and tell another friend to shut his hood he had a 64 c2 due to strong sun I noticed reflecting on hood.
While walking back and looked over to my car the hood was up and smoking .The towel had blew of the top of the air cleaner .When I walked over to the food stand the hood was laying down due to wind blowing and strong sun. Looking out for others I got burned trying to save another corvette.
The year before I say this happen in my driveway when my car was black so I knew it could happen in minutes and sure enough it did.
If you get a non shiny air cleaner you would be ok.

MikeM

If you have a Rochester FI sittin' on top of the engine, you don't have those kinds of problems. Who wants to look at a dirty old WCFB or AFB. Whether it's a SWC or a convertible.

jasonsamara

It really amazes me how people do not believe. The day I bubbled mine I parked right beside a friends original 60. His hood was up so I opened mine, the only difference was his cleaner was original and dull and mine is nice and chromed. I tell everyone that has a Corvette at car shows about it and nobody ever believes me. I even saw some nice cars at Carlisle with the hood up and no protection. Mine was up for about 3-4 hours. You could follow the angle of the sun right down my paint. Left bubbles about 2" long.

Larry P

Many years ago, more then 40, I had new paint and chrome on my 27T street rod. Standing outside the car, I reached in and started it.
It started right up and since it was in gear it proceeded forward.
The reversed 32 front end, with the tie rod right across the front hit something and bent.
Knowing my temper, I walked over to a step latter and with all my anger and force I could gather, I wisely flung it out of the garage.
The hammer that was on top of the latter managed to find it's way to the new paint.
Anybody that has never done anything stupid is either lying or
has never done anything.
Larry