I just finished installing new carpet today in my 65 Coupe. I had to do some trimming around the shifter on the drivers side. When I was installing the console, I noticed my trim job was going to be close, real close to being a screw up. Once the console was installed it overlapped the carpet so everything worked out, but I was sweating it. I was thinking what other mistakes people have made while fixing these old cars.

So swallow that pride and lets hear about thoseOOPs or almost OOPs.

Oh, before I forget, thanks to all who had posted about carpet installation in the past. Reading all those post, to include the archives, helped with my carpet installation

Take Care
BayRay

 

Once when I changed my clutch, I kept thinking to myself, I don't remember torquing down the flywheel bolts. It bugged me to the point where a week later I finally took the tranny out and took the clutch off for peace of mind. Of course, I did loctite and torque them to spec originally.

 

I had my rolling chassis (with completed engine and tranny mounted) up on the two post lift. My dad was in town and we were going to work on the rear brakes. I took off one rear wheel, then the other, when I heard Dad yell, "Grab it!"

Because of the weight of the engine and practically no weight on the rear, the frame had started pivoting on the front lift points and was about to take a nose dive! But it was tipping pretty slowly so I grabbed the rear in time. Luckily, this goes in the "Almost" category! :eek:

- Mike Greene

 

Used an electric drill to drill through a new kick panel carpet for a screw hole and of course it snagged a thread and put a run in the carpet piece. I had to spend an evening hand weaving it back in to look normal. Probably not anywhere near my biggest blooper but since you were on the subject of carpet I thought it appropriate. :cheers:

 

Not a corvette but I changed the rear brakes on my wife's car.... was in a big rush, frustrated, dirty, and it was about 95 degrees and humid.

She calls me from the road and tells me the car is making a noise I asked if it was shaking or acting goofy and it wasn't so she drove home. When she got home I took a look and 2/4 lug nuts were gone and the other two were finger tight on one of the wheels. Man I felt like an idiot.....better believe I triple check now.

Every once and a while I have to take a step back and tell myself that carelessness can get you killed in this hobby.

Brian

 

Sold my original 65 396 for $5000. OOPS!! :banghead:

 

When I bought my Corvette we drove from Texas to Florida with a flat bed trailer to pick it up. It still had it's original soft top (or more like pieces of it??). While in Florida the weather forcast changed and there was like 100% chance of rain for the whole state of Louisana for the whole week. - We just trucked through the rain and stopped at the truck stops to shop vac all the water out of the floor board.

 

The biggest oops I can recall right now is buying and mounting $1,000 worth of custom wheels and tires only to discover that I hated the way they looked. Oh, and there was that failed experiment with Wilwood front disc brakes. And then ....... this hurts too much. I'm going to quit now.

 

2 quick ones.

I rebuilt the carb after several years of the car sitting without running. When it fired up I was so excited to take the test drive I jumped in, took off, and felt a slight bump...thats when I realized the I left the original air cleaner in front of the car. Spent the next few hours with needle-nose trying to reshape those little vents.

The other, Im too nice for my own good. My wife was pregnant with our first and trying to nap. I wanted to get the Vette out of the garage without waking her so I started to roll it out without cranking it. The driveway had a little too much incline and before I could stop it it was getting away from me and rolled over my foot. As it picked up speed I somehow managed to run around the rear and get between it and my truck at the end of the driveway. It was all I could do to keep if from crushing me and it got kinda tight but I didnt want to wreck two cars in the driveway at once. :(

 

During the 1st month of owning this Vette (6 yrs ago)
I got a knock at the front door. An older woman was there and said...
"Do you own a Black Corvette?"
Yes....
Oh, its in the middle of the street and its running.

I fired it up, let it warm up in the driveway, went into the house for a minute or two, and it gently rolled out of my drive way and stopped in the middle of the street blocking 1/2 of both lanes. (PARKING BRAKE ON IN NUETRAL)
Felt like a complete AZZ......


[Modified by 396 RAT, 10:31 PM 10/16/2003]

 

Biggest OOPS for my '58 was lowering the car after getting the engine+tranny most of the way out of the car. Needed to drop the car to get the last bit of clearance to completely remove them. Except the car had no parking brake, and had no transmission. So it quite merrily started rolling out of the garage until I could leap into it to hit the brakes.

Biggest OOPS altogether was a really simple one in my 3000GT. In replacing the power steering belt after some timing belt work, I didn't bother checking the tension. A few days later it decided it'd had enough of it, and fragmented. Bits of the disintegrating belt got sucked down under the timing belt and allowed the valvetrain to slip almost a full 180 degrees. Whamo, in less then a tenth of a second, every one of the cylinders had bent valves. Bent so much that some of the rocker arms (which are normally captured between the overhead cam and the valve/lash adjuster) were rattling around completely loose under the valve cover.

Eventually I'll get both cars running again, but in the meantime I've got two nice reminders of the car work yet to be done sitting in my driveway.

 

Jacked up the rear of my 70 Vette to do "something". Kept hearing a small trickle of fluid towards the front end. After a hour of this, I realized that the Q-Jet was flooding the engine (evidently the float was not seated and the gas tank was high enough to siphon fuel). So I pulled the plugs, and fuel ran out of a few of the cylinders. I then cranked over the engine and Whoosh (pretty good flame erupted on both sides). I had forgotten to disconnect the ignition coil, and the fuel coming out of the cylinders was substantial. Thank God for a good CO2 fire extinisher! No permanent damage but did cause a few more grey ones to appear!

Plasticman

 

I once got my left foot caught under the left rear wheel of my '64, while the car was rolling. We were in the process of pushing my car away from a street corner and as I went get back into the drivers seat to steer the car left over a crown in the road the left rear wheel "caught up" to my left foot, so to speak. I wasn't completely in the car yet and was about to lift my left foot up and inside when it was caught by the left rear wheel. The wheel rode up my foot enough to keep it pinned in place while the car continued to roll along. I couldn't reach the brake with my right foot. It was all I could do, to hold on to the steering wheel and open door. I rolled out and onto the road but the wheel wouldn't roll over my foot and was now completely on top of it, dragging it along. I twisted my foot out from under the wheel and that did the trick.
I ended up losing quite a bit of skin from the inside foot and ankle bone areas so a trip to the hospital was in order. I was out for three weeks, on crutches.

It was a freak accident. I would have never guessed it. I found out just how CLOSE the rear wheel is to the door .. ! .. It's embarrassing to tell this story but maybe it could serve as a heads up to others.

mrg

 

I hammered 2nd gear on an entrance ramp going to the Bloominton Gold show - forgetting that my A-C was running - power shifted into third - and cracked yet another GM waterpump casting.

 

Just got the head done on my 57 Chevy. Bought aftermarket manifold and carb at swap meet (carb was already mounted to intake). Bolted on intake and started engine. WELLLLLLLLLLLLLL. There was a small cotter pin in the carb, that gets sucked down in engine and hits piston # 1. So much for a summer drive, wound up tearing down whole engine that day. I ALWAYS Look down Carbs when mounting now.

Did FRAME ON resto on 69 442 conv. Got engine back from rebuilder, was installing engine in my driveway with a rented engine hoist. As the engine/trans (freshly rebuilt/painted) hovered around 3ft in the air above minted out engine bay I saw the chain bending. Engine/Trans fell on rad support and bumper and landed on driveway. Bought new rad support, left dent in the bumper and left the dent in the oil pan and continued to install.

2 great days in my motorhead life. :mad :cry :cuss

 

So far(knock wood) with mine, it was when I put my sidepipes on.. naturally, the exhaust manifold studs were..uncooperative..resuling in my taking both manifolds off, stuffing rags into the exhaust ports in the heads, the cleaning the exhaust flanges with a scotchbrite disc on an air grinder. When I got everything all buttoned up, I realized that I had never pulled those rags out of the exhaust ports :banghead: it was a PITA to redoto get the silly rags out :lol: ...could always be worse..

 

A mechanic neighbor and I decided to tune the engine. After adjusting everything and getting it running "sweet", we took it for a drive. Well, a power shift from 1st to 2nd, snapped some teeth off the tranny input shaft gear. I ended up getting a new clutch and a new "rockcrusher".

 

Two years ago I decided to paint the 64. I had been working on my this project for four months and everything had gone very well, and was in the process of doing the final wet sand on the clear. It was about 8 0'clock Saturday night and I had been wet sanding all day and was exhausted, so I decided to call it quits for the day. I was pulling my wifes car back into the garage when I heard a horrible crunching sound, I immediately knew what I had done, I just ran over my freshly painted and wet sanded rear valance. Luckly I only clipped the corner, but had still broken the fiberglass and removed a good portion of paint from the corner.

And that's my biggest bonehead move.

 

I had just bought a red 65 all matching impala SS396 4 speed car from the second owner (he purchased in 68). I did a good tune up on it and took it out for a spin, as I powershifted into 4th gear I heard the death sound :nopity and the rear tires chirped. I pushed in the cluch and coasted almost 3/4 of a mile home to discover I had disintegrated a piston and the rod had destroyed the block, cam, oil pan, ect. ending my joy at getting what I thought was a good deal on a matching number BB impala :smash: put a new engine in it and sent it down the road at a loss.

I was contracted to finish a restoration on a 68 corvette. This car was a custom colored 3 stage burgandy, frame off, everything overdone, and neerly everything was chrome on it. I had not yet finished brakes on it and wanted it moved. I was having some a severe case of brain damage that day and attemped to back this car to where I wanted it sans brakes and seats, not aligned and rear shims absent, (engine was a crate LS6 w/4 speed) well, needless to say, it hit some sort of bump, got away from me and I proceeded to back it into a tree. I smahed the quarter panel, rear bumper and several chrome brackets, all of which I had to "eat". Matching the paint was a nightmare as I had not initialy painted it, now I never move cars backwards nor without brakes with out extra help around, just in case......

 

Do you really expect me to fess up in front of everyone??? :lol: :lol: :lol: