A little tape and get back to work.

 

In Tampa we had a radio talk show host who would do a show on pain about twice a year. Hands down, the best was a guy, while wearing loose shorts, closed the hood of a big old Olds 98 and got his shorts caught in the hook and spring catch. As the hood came down and closed, he knew in an instant that his junk would never be the same. The talk show host also did a show on really bad smells, but we will save that for another day. Jerry

 

Not from car work but I have a perfect phillips head scar in my left hand.

 

I closed with super glue but it only lasted a few minutes as the gash was too wide.

 

Well I have a nice scar across the top of my right thumb from 1979 where I severed the tendon trying to remove a crusted on upper radiator hose off a '72 Duster that had a razor sharp aluminum flex fan. My hand slipped off the hose while trying to pry it off the radiator and I cut the top of the thumb to the bone on a fan blade. Never again -- I cut those old hoses off now and don't even try to save them - lesson learned.

My 9-month pregnant wife had to drive me to the emergency room with my hand wrapped in a bloody towel.

 

I usually take off the fan to change lower hoses. Four little bolts.
When hoses are costing 30+ bucks, it's worth the time, and to avoid injury. I had one of those fans on the 66, and they are deadly.

 

Probably my best scar and story have nothing to do with cars. My wife and I were cleaning up hurricane debris at her mom's and I was slashing through a big pile of long tree limbs with a chain saw. Yeah, you know where this is going!

I had waded into the pile cutting the branches roughly in half when I got so deep in I had to step out. I had released the trigger before moving but the chain hadn't stopped moving yet and I lifted my leg to step out right into the running blade!

Yep, right through the jeans and into the top of my thigh...and those little chisel teeth make a truly nasty cut with bits and pieces of fleshing hanging all over! Nothing major was severed so I called to my wife and told her to sneak inside and get a box of band-aids, then meet me in the garden shed. I dropped my jeans and pulled the gash closed starting at one end and working to the other as she bridged it with band aids. It took about a half a dozen or so to close the 4-6 inch open wound but it workd and we finished the clean up.

Left a nice scar and a good story to go with it!

 

a few years ago i cut a finger down to the bone, trying to get the safety
cap on meds off with a knife so i could screw the cap on. my dr said stop by and get a tetanus shot do to length of last one. but they
would not put a stitch in, i would have to go to er. i could not believe
my dr would not stitch me. must have to do with liability or something. jim

 

show em your speedo pix instead...

Bill

 

I don't have the faintest clue what you are talking about

 

I'm in.

Trying to drill a 1/8" hole in a part, was holding the drill in right hand, holding the part to steady it in the left hand. All by myself in the garage. Applied some pressure to push the bit to get it to grab and start the hole. Bit slipped off the side of the part, 1/8" bit went all the way through the left index finger. Could not reach cell phone. Did not want to yell for the wife. Could not open the garage door to the house.

Only thing left to do was switch drill into reverse with my right hand and back the drill bit out of my left index finger. Hurt going in. Good thing all the doors were closed when I reversed it back out.

Didn't take any pictures. Both hands were occupied. 10 minute project turned into 4 hour ordeal at ER. Got lucky, missed the finger nail, missed the bone.

Kevin

 

Ouch. I would have tried to release the bit and pull it through. But then again, this is coming from someone who almost castrated himself twice

 

The guy replacing my garage door last spring tore his thumb off unloading the spring. He was using short hollow pipe and it collapsed dragging his thumb around the back of the spring. It was hanging on by a flap of skin. I wrapped him up in a towel and his helper took him to the hospital. No insurance. Was pretty crazy, they bandaged him up but wouldn't set the bones or reattach it till he got credit checked and did all the paperwork to sign a loan from the hospital. Took a week! After six months of physio he was back to being a carpenter.

Worst thing I ever did was embed a fish hook in my index finger. Didn't really hurt till they froze my finger to fish it out (no pun intended). The needle to freeze my finger was absolutely the most painful thing I have ever experienced

 

Pulling the transmission out of an old Firebird TransAm and the clutch inspection plate is captured by the starter motor so instead of pulling the starter loose I just let it swing down and hang by the starter. Went to start busting a clutch or flywheel bolt loose and it let go and the side of my hand went into the sheet metal cover slicing my finger down to the bone. I remember looking at it and thinking - bones really are white. And then the blood flowed - head got light, etc. My girlfriend (now the wife) had to drive me to the ER for stitches. I remember those shots in the cut to deaden it - probably as bad as just stitching it.

Beware of any sheet metal parts.

 

Not a car story but the fish hook story reminds me when I was a kid and my little brother was trout fishing in Missouri at a family gathering with my mother and using a grub-like lure made out of white kapoc fabric. He backcast with my mother behind him and that kapoc grub somehow went up my mother's nose and when he cast forward, hooked her from the inside out. It was like a one-in-a-million fluke. I don't remember her complaining of a lot of pain but everyone was so busy laughing at the sight of her with this white grub halfway up her nose and the fish hook sticking though the outside that I don't think anyone really knew. Her brother offered to pull it out for her but she wouldn't have any of that. A doctor finally cut the barb off and pulled it out. I think my little brother was almost emotionally scared by the incident. He always especially close to my mom later on and that was probably why.

 

For me, this is the winner! I cannot imagine how painful that hook must have been. My chain sawed leg barely hurt in comparison to what that must have felt like. Proves women do really have a higher threshold for pain.

 

When I was still in the Air Force, I went to the auto hobby shop. I needed to work under my very low slung Firebird, so I asked the attendant to spot me as I ride up on the lift. I made sure to mention that he need to pay attention to the exhaust, as I did not want to hit it driving up the lift.

Anyhow, I am rolling up the lift (4 post) and one of the mufflers snags on the lift, disconnecting it from the exhaust pipe in the front.

A bit peeved, I back off the lift into a flat bay, jack up the car and put some jack stands under it.

Taking the front clamp off the muffler, I hammer the connector on the muffler back to round. Holding the exhaust pipe in one hand and muffler in the other, I try to get the two parts to align back up. The hand holding the muffler slips and the muffler pushes the finger holding the exhaust pipe onto the edge of the pipe (which acts like a guillotine).

Looking at the finger, I can see the bone (which was pretty cool) and the flesh is still partially attached just above the Distal Interphalangeal joint. I push the flesh back into position and wrap it with a shop cloth, then head over to the counter.

I asked the guy for a band aid and tell him I cut my hand. He asked to see it and when I unwrapped the finger bright red blood pulsed out. "No band aid for you" he says and takes me over to the clinic.

After loading me up with numbing drugs (which don't work on me) they give me a stack of tongue depressors to bite on while they try to scrub the exhaust carbon out and stitch me up.

It would have been far less painful if the guy just gave me a band-aid.

Anyhow, to this day I have a nice bluish line on my left middle finger and still have no feeling in a big part of it.

Bottom line: have a good spotter when you drive up on the lift and always wear shop gloves.

 

Sir - by any account you are a 'manly man'...my butt sucked up a silver dollar sized piece of upholstery off my recliner just reading this.

 

When moving cars around wear shoes and watch out for "leaves of three."