Scottd

I feel part of being an adult is knowing when to laugh at yourself. As long you didn't jeopardize anyone else or cost too much money, then live and learn....

I was puttering around on the Vette this week when I couldnt find a tool. I dont even remember what I was looking for, but I wound up dumping the contents of 1/3 of my tool box drawers on the ground. I own one of the large (but not professional) 2 tier tool boxes. Lets just say its about 3.5 feet long and 5 feet high. So anyways, I realized Im WAY out of space and need an upgrade. I cannot afford (nor justify) spending 1400-1800 bucks on the next level of boxes, so I bought a Harbor freight side cabinet box. I figured it would be enough expansion space to get me through. I get it home, slice the box open, (destroyed all the foam and carboard) and realized............

WAIT FOR IT...........

Its the wrong size.

My current box is 16 inches deep, the Hazard freight add on is 22. Return it you say? Im WAY too proud for that. Besides, Ive cut up all the cardboard and probably lost the receipt by now. Now Im trying to hang a 140 lb box (slick sided metal, no handles) on the itty bitty 1/4 inch lip. After many curse words, some pounding with a hammer and a small hack saw cut, Ive got the oversized cabinet attached. Oh man, Im going to need to attach some casters as the box is now somewhat front heavy.

Total disaster, but Im committed at this point.

Now I have to roll ot back into the corner. The vette is ever so slightly in the way, so I roll the car back about 2 feet. Tool box is in place again against the far wall. Well, it looks hokey but it will work. I go to roll the Vette back in the garage (its only 2 feet, I can push it by hand) and.......

WAIT FOR IT................

I roll the car right over my toes. Not enough to hurt, just enough for me to exclaim "I am such a dumba$$" and pull my foot free of my now trapped sneaker.

Im going to bed. Ive had enough stupid for today.

Greg

Truth be told Scott, I'm sure others here have done much worse.
I know I have....

Rescue Rogers

I love this story, because its me. THe last couple of days I've been trying to readjust the jetting in my carb, then take it for a test drive so I can check the air fuel gauge at cruise, part throttle and WOT. Well over the weekend I went to a car show about an hour north and the car would get very hot, 230-250 range and I had an idea it was a lack of sealing around the radiator, because i didn't seal around the radiator after the engine compartment clean and paint session this winter.

Well I want to be thorough so I decide to pull the hood so I can get in front of the radiator. Well if I'm pulling the hood itsonly 2 more bolts and 2 hose clamps to pull the radiator and flush it out so I do that too. Here comes the dumb......

So I'm putting it all together, pouring in the clean radiator fluid I have through the thermostat housing hole and I'm being careful not to spill it. I keep pulling this gigantic funnel I have and looking in the hole so it doesn't pour all over the motor and then I put it back in and pour some more. Well I look in, say its getting close , then pour a bunch in and all over the intake it goes. So I clean all that up, wipe everything down, soak it out of the well holes on the intake and put it all together. Well of course one of the holes for the thermostat gets stripped because they're aluminum and it happens so I'm not pissed of because it happens. Luckily the hole is blind so I can tap and drill it without putting fillings in the fluid,so I do it and use red locktite to seal it in. Now I can get back to the carb.....but wait, I can get the overflow tank up to the proper level because I still have the excess fluid and my gigantic red funnel. So I put it in the tank and start pouring. Here comes the dumb...

I still haven't tightened the t stat housing so fluid starts pouring out of the hole all over the clean and now dry intake, again.....

So the cleaning starts all over and I have to take the vacuum advance line out of the puddle and tap it out so I dont let fluid run into the distributor. I finish undoing the nuts on the carb studs, pull the throttle and yank it off and rebuild it, here comes the dumb, i forget the hardline PCV so I didnt get to far. So I undo that and change the jets. Theres some stupid in that story but its just choke linkage stuff that I keep forgetting about so its not worthy of a whole story. I put the carb on and tighten the hardline PCV and off I go gettting more data points.

Fast forward to my return and I'm under the hood again because it was close but not where i want too be so I start to take it off again and start with the hardline PCV, dont want the stupid coming back for me a second time. I'm a smart guy, you know what I mean so I take that off first. But here comes the dumb, i didnt connect that vacuunm advance back on and it could have an effect on my AFR since its a vacuum leak so I plug it back in and off to go on another data run.

Well I have to adjust the crap out of my idle mixture screws all of a sudden. I had just filled it with Shell gas and I normally run Sunoco when I can. I wouldnt think that would effect the idle mixture. So its out 6 turns but its close so off I go. OMG, my really rich running carb is just about to stoic with that little fix. so I go back to the garage cause I want to go to a softer spring for some other data I was curioius about. And thats where the dumb comes in.
I pop the hood and start to take the carb off and the PCV line is disconnected. I couldnt have left it off, could I. I dont remeber disconnecting it this trip so I reconnect it and off I go on anouuther run. Readjust the idle mixture, drive the car, need to change the jets....hmmm thers a pattern emerging...

Thats when the voice in my head starts making fun of me and hes really having a good time.By this time its getting late so I wait a day to see if the voice has stopped laughing and I pull the carb again. I drop back down to .069 jet and plug it all in and I have a good checklist now. Radiator hoses connected, check, PCV connected, check vacuum line connected, check, gas line connected, check. So off I go on a test run, but my rear suspension has developed a squeak. So I'm still in the yard and I'm looking at the rar wheel and pulling on it and puching the car up and down. Its definitley at the at wheel and sounds like rubber bushing squeak... Im out in the extreme suburbs, lots of trees and swampy land aound the roads. So I go about a half mile and the readings are perfect....here comes the dumb. THeres a turtle crossing the road, so I straddle the little guy and pull over, run back and put him in the woods. The little voice is back saying what a nice guy I am and as we walk to the car he starts laughing. Its pretty loud so I have to try and findout what hes looking at. THeres a nice silver stripe in the center of the rear disc where something aluminum has been rubbing on th the disc.....ya. I must have gotten something trapped between the rotor and pad. ( after i got home i could see the pin had failed and the pad was working its way out.)

So i turn the car around and start limping home. Theres one stop sign and thats where caliper blew. So I got this really loud voice laughing in my head and I think I'm going to try and get him drunk and leave in in the woods some where.......

Redvette2

Was replacing the soft insulation for the windows at the top of the door and was using a pair of long nose pliers to hold the glass away when clunk...it falls down into the door. I now have a new rattle when ever the passenger door shuts.

Redvette2

peyc2

Been here done that.

In my haste, to get the oil changed on my 1971 454 LS 5 I backed it out of the garage. Now, the driveway has a Rail Road tie wall that is at an angle, which causes me to have to turn to the left, to swing the right rear away from the wall.
everything was fine, until AFTER the oil change. When I came down the ramps, I forgot that the wall is there. I hit it with the right rear bumper. I jumped out of the car fearing I destroyed the right rear corner of the car. As it was wood, no damage, to the car just a small dent in the wall.

not 15 minutes later, to put the car back in the garage, I back up, and you guessed it I hit the wall AGAIN! I couldn't believe it. I have been doing this for 4 years, and never hit the wall, much less twice in 15 minutes.
luckily, no damage. SO, I feel your pain

PainfullySlow

I would need fill the internet up with all the dumb stuff that I have done over the years...but this is how we learn and grow =)

Rodnok1

Close to the hitting a wall story..
Taking an antique car off a trailer using a couple of come alongs. I'd switch from one to the other, 2nd mainly a backup. Well I had just released one and was tightening it back up when the other one failed at a very bad time. Nothing like the gut dropping feeling watching a car you just trailered 14 hrs go whizzing off a trailer towards a garage and trees. I had the 2nd cable attached only to the bumper only as it was the backup... Hopped over blocks behind wheels too. It stopped at end of the cable with a jerk breaking bumper mount and bending the hell out of the bumper, luckily saved it from being smashed up. Licked my wounds, admitted I was in too big of a hurry to wait for help.
Cost me alot to get bumper mount fixed as it was cast.
I may have drank a beer or 40 that night.

JasonAndrew

Oh, I thought you were going to say the front heavy box tipped over onto your car. Now that would have been stupid.

chazde3

Rolled my car back out of the garage forgetting that the door was part way open. Took a chuck out of the top back edge of the door and dented my garage door rail. Oh well, the car is in bare fiberglass waiting on body work. Just one more spot to fix.

L-46man

Scott...no harm no foul....AT LEAST IT DIDN'T TIP OVER AND FALL ON THE VETTE!

My buddy bought one of those trailer kits from Northern. Took it out of the box and set the 150 lbs frame ON ITS END between the two cars in his two car garage....
There it sat, like the 'Sword of Damocles', until he bumped into it....Fell on his new GTI.....$2500 worth of damage.

Feel better!

Unkahal

Redvette2

A couple more....

1. Packed up for my big camping trip in a Chevy Tahoe but left the rear hatch open and pulled out of the garage. Big kapow....rear wiper assembly caught the garage door edge and shattered the window safety glass all over the garage. Had to pay $800 for the new window and I was still finding the glass pieces in the garage 10 years later.

2. Working graveyard shift at the gas station by myself and had the responsibility to clean the garage floor. We used a solvent and a big brush to get the grease off. After cleaning one night I thru a match on the floor after lighting a ah...cigarette. Lit the whole floor on fire. Fortunately it burned off in a minute or two and nothing else started like the 10000 gallons of gasoline nearby.

Redvette2

HeadsU.P.

I had to go to the dentist one morning for a cracked filling replacement. Really nervous about the whole ordeal. Thought I would take a little tiny 0.5 milligram "Chill-Pill" an hour before my appointment. Hopped in the car. Started it up. Put in reverse. Never opened the garage door! BAM !

kanvasman

Who put the hidden camera in my garage. That is the only way anyone would know all these things I have done. Feels good to have lots of company. Great thread.

derekderek

My 65 GTO wouldnt start. I pulled left rear plug. Hooked up wire and grounded it on fender well by hood hinge. Spark plug points straight at the hood hinge. Ign key is top left of dash. Standing at vent window reach in and crank key. Head next to hood hinge looking at the plug for spark. Big whoosh and piston pumped a big cloud of nice rich mixture all around the plug... and my head. I had just enough time to think "I hope no spark. Please no spark!" It sparked pretty good.

radiotexas

At the top of today's stupid things I did or thought I would do to my '70. I innocently thought I could simply screw my new speed-o cable onto the back of the speed-o by lying on the floor, upper body draped over the door sill and reaching up through and around the clutch, brake and steering column to the rear side of the dash.
"waiter, another serving of humble pie, please"
'shell shocked in Texas'

Scottd

I was worried about that so I installed casters on the extended Frankenbox tonight.

40 bucks in casters, 20 bucks in steel, 3 hours of fabricating and pretending I know how to weld. I now own an officially licensed Bubba-box.

I like this thread. It really makes me feel like Im not alone!!!!

Rescue Rogers

You're definitely not alone......

My ......., never mind, i had a bad day but it got better once I got the vette running and on the road to a cruise in. Ill tell you guys later

pltmgr

Back in the day I was told about a guy pushing his Vette and it ran over his leg and broke it. My remark was how stupid can one be. One week later I was pushing my Vette and it ran over my toe. Fortunately no break, just a lot of pain.

sug

I have done some stupid things like just after I put my brand new dewitts radiator in I thought I would change the timing chain and gears . I was pulling the bottom gear and it flew off straight in to my new radiator .It took some begging and doing some odd jobs but my wife let me get another one .

PainfullySlow

Trying to make a long story short:

Had to build a brand new race bike from scratch in <7 days while working full time. Two days before race weekend, final parts show up so I throw them on the bike and then have to rush to get it to the dyno for tuning as its already 6pm and he is staying late to help me out. Have a small 4x8 trailer for this kind of stuff, hitch it up to my SUV while running around like a lunatic. Step on the back of the trailer, forgot to close the hasp on the hitch tongue. Tongue comes off and goes right through the rear window of my XTerra :ROFL:



If anyone is really bored, here is the full story: https://www.zx6r.com/build-thread/58...race-bike.html