Yep it was my neighbor alright ... we'd just gotten a '63 T-Bird ( bid red one ) and it was a hot day. Dad told me to go crack the windows because, in those days, "the windows could explode" from the expanding hot air. Still don't know about that ???

Anyway, as I'm walking ( seemed more like climbing ), anyway, as I get to the top of the driveway, I see and hear this girl running a screaming ... the car was totally silent - which was wierd.

 

My bonehead move was when I was removing the fuel tank form my 75 Chevy C10. I had a bad fuel sending unit so I had to pull the tank. I had figured that I was near empty in the tank, as I had been guesstimating my mileage and fuel left for about a month. According to my calculations I had about a gallon left. Well I am under the truck, and I unbolt the last bolt holding the tank, and it slams onto my chest. I actually had over half a tank left. There I am stuck under the truck, trying not to spill fuel everywhere, as it is sloshing back and forth. Needless to say I had to push it off my chest to one side, and fuel went everywhere, and soked me. I called to my wife to helo me clean up, and she asked me why I am wet. As I tell her she also smells me, and dies laughing. I did figure out a godd way to get her to stop laughing at me, just headed towards the house telling her I was going for the good towels.

 

Glad your wife does not smoke :lol:

 

The most bone-headed thing I can think of that I did was when my friend was working on my distributor, in the dark, I pulled out my lighter and lit it. Fortunately nothing caught on fire but you should of see the look in my friends eyes!

 

About 30yrs ago while living in Chicago, I was on my way home at 2am in my hot rod 1970 340ci Challenger. It is in the dead of winter, 10 to 12 inches of snow on the ground, and snowing like crazy that night. Now I am trying to creep through the alley tword my garage at a slow pace, so my parents don't waken to the sound of those Thrush Glass Packs rumbling. Back then, the City did not plow the alleys.. they just ran garbage trucks through to make deep ruts. Once your in the rut.. your fine, but try and jump the humps on either side, (especially after their frozen solid) and your in trouble. So here I am, creeping up to my garage door through the alley rut. I have to make a short swing to position my car to pull in the garage.. and I get stuck in the "hump". I try rocking the car back and forth with the tranny.. rear wheel's spinning, RPM's rising, glass packs roaring.. I'm stuck good. So I figure I can leave the car in drive, get out and push it past the hump myself. With all this snow.. where's it going to go.. I'll jump in and drive it right?? Oh yeah.. sure. I get out and give it one good push, and fall flat on my face in the snow. As I look up with a snow covered face, my tires catch on the partially shoveled apron, and my car proceeds to crash through the aluminum garage door, and into the front end of my Dad's Dodge. (Edelbrock Torquer Manifold Holly 650 DP gave great low end TQ) So much for sneeking home at 2am. Luckily this commotion woke my older brother and he came out to see what was going on. He about died laughing when he saw mejust standing there in shock, covered in snow with my car... still running.. rear wheels spinning on a patch of ice... resting against my Dad's car. My Dad was angry the next day and made me pay for the damages. I was also grounded for breaking his cerfew. But luckily he had a good sense of humor, and laughed heartily when I told the story. :lol:

 

I have another I just remembered, Back about 17 yrs ago I had just gotten out of the Army. I borrowed my Dads 72 K5 4x4 Blazer. I did not tell him me and some friends were going Mudding and drinking in the woods and that we would be impressing some girls we knew would be there. Well I got into the biggest, deepest mud hole and was stuck. I ended up breaking both front u-joints, and the truck was still stuck about a 5 mile walk out of the woods it was about 40 degree`s light rain. Well I decided to build a fire for the girls to stay warm while me and the boys worked on gettting the truck out. I had a plastic 5 gal can of gas in the back of the blazer (gas gauge did not work) So I could not get the fire going so I was dumping gas on the fire straight from the can when the end of the spout caught fire :eek: :eek: :eek: . My first reaction was to throw the gas can :nono: :nono: Bet you can`t guess what it landed on :cry :cry Yep Dads Blazer and it caught fire fast. It did not destroy the truck but I had a lot of explaining to do. And alot of melted plastic to get off the truck.
Bob

 

OMG 76 Stop it your killing me :lol:

 

Nothing as spectacular as some of these stories but one time about 12 years ago I was working on the radiator of my 69 vette. I was trying to drain it and the petcock on the bottom was completely seized up so I put a big pair of pliers on it and give it everything I got. Well the whole assemby rips out and shoots about a half gallon of antifreeze into my mouth. Right about that time my dad comes outside as I'm coughing and gaging when I told him what happened he laughs his butt off. :D :U :cry

 

I had a somewhat similar expierence. My wife had a 1974 Pinto (yeah, you heard right, Pinto?) and got up one morning and found the battery dead. So I pulled the battery out, jumped into my Blazer and went to buy a new one. Once I got back I started to put in the new battery. Once I connected the positive cable the dang thing started up and I had left it in gear so I started taking off down the street. I ran to get into the drivers seat to shut it down when I realized that I had brilliantly locked the doors (to a Pinto with no battery). So by the time I could fish the keys out of my pocket (about 200 yards from my house) the little beast smashes into one of the neighbors fences. Never once thought about just yanking the battery cable back off. I would have loved seeing it on video.

 

Thanks for all the great stories today guys. I appreciate the moral support :lol:

 

Here's mine:
About two years ago when I still had my Ranger pickup I was changing the O2 sensor which was located at the back of the exhaust manifold so you had to jack the truck up to get to it. I had the thing on ramps and was under there changing the part when I need a tool. I was on my back and decided to grab the lower passenger doorjamb to pull myself out from under the truck. Well the door was open and when I started pulling on the truck I shook it off the detent that holds the door open. The door slammed on my hand and broke the bone behind my little finger in three places...It still hurts today when it rains or is cold. I sold the Ranger.

Also a friend that I work with had a 62 Chrysler Imperial (I think it was a 62) with the push button transmission( button on the dash to change from park to drive etc) anyway he was working under the dash and his driveway has a good slope to it. When he was finished he reached up and got out from under the dash and accidentally put the car in neutral. He started walking away from it and the realized what was going on turned back, opened the door and tried to set the parking brake but lost his balance and fell over. The front wheel ran over his foot and the car continued down the driveway, across the road, jumped the curve, ran across his neighbors yard and came to rest in the corner of the neighbors garage. The car had about a 3 foot "V" in the rear bumper and trunk and the corner of the brick garage was totally smashed. He sold the car, fixed the neighbor’s garage and wore a cast on his broken and torn tendons for almost 3 months.
John

 

I was working on a '69 cougar. Had the front up on ramps and was preparing to drop the tranny. I unhooked the driveshaft and because of the fact that the e-brake didn't work and the tranny was holding it in place, it started to roll back. A can of WD40 got wedged under the back tire and stopped the car long enough for me to get out. Thank God I never put anything away. If I was organized, that can wouldn't have been there....

 

whats so stupid about that?

 

okay the 69 Cougar twigged my brain. I ran a dynamometer In 1970 I was testing a 69 Cougar for rear wheel horsepower. Standard procedure was to chock the front wheels chain the back of the car down. Hook it up to the scope put the air/fuel probe in the exhaust. Fire it up and drive. Well this 390 Cougar had just finished a Major tune. I ran the car up in speed and let the water into the rollers in a matter of 45 seconds your at wide open trottle engine max'd out and you write down your readings. Well one of the leads fell off the coil and fell right into the carb linkage jamming it wide open the car is flat out with the water coming out of the rollers. the speedometer needle was bent right around and hitting the stop. I was out of control doing 120mph 12 feet from a cement wall. Was the Chain going to hold? would the car jump the wheel chocks? was I going to Die? all this crossed my mind. Other mechanic's in the shop thought I was just having a little fun. Until I got on the horn and waving my hands like a fool. Now how many people would walk up to a car that is doing a 100mph burn out in a building not knowing what the problem was and stick their head under the hood to find out why. I found out not many. I chose to shut the ignition off hit the switch to put water back into the rollers stand on the brakes and hold on. It eventually stopped couldn't see anyone around for the smoke filled interior and shop. WE had to change the back tires. There was nothing left of them. The chain stretched the hole in the frame where it was hooked. I'm here to say what a ride and it was a Ford.

 

You guys have some GREAT stories. I would love to hear some of them in person over a beer!:cheers:

I personally put a little wrinkle into the tailgate of my Dodge 2500 4X4 just a few days ago while hooking up the goose neck trailer. I lined up the ball and stepped out thinking I had placed it into park. It was still in reverse and rolled into the trailer, adding a small character dent in the top edge of the tailgate! This story pales in comparison but just wanted to let it be known that I DO SCREW UP on occasion just like everyone else. I have a l-o-n-g list of self incriminating stupidity stories to tell but I sure do like it best when someone else is the subject!!!

About 20 years ago I was working at a convenience store / gas station. It was ~2A.M., no one else around when out of the darkness I see this guy pushing his little Dodge Omni towards the pumps. He has the door open and is pushing on the windshield pillar and steering wheel. Somehow the guy slips down and you could see the back end of the car hop over him. I couldn't help but to bust out laughing hysterically. The guy rushes into the store and his eyes are big as saucers, yelling "did you see what just happened?", "I just got run over by my own f-'in car!!!". He was totally freaked out over it and I just couldn't stop laughing.:lol:

One other story that I have always enjoyed. . .
A friend that I work with had owned a crop duster business years back in South Dakota. One of his planes had a dead battery so he had been prop starting it. Too busy to get a replacement battery he says.
One day he had landed in a pasture for whatever reason. When he returned to his plane he reached inside and throttled it up a bit, went to the prop and gave it a turn. I fired right up but he had neglected to set the parking brake!!! The plane started rolling fast. He took off running after it but it kept gaining just enough speed that he could never quite get onto the wing. Finally, he made a last ditch effort and was able to grab hold.
He saved the plane. Had he not caught up with it, he was about to be the owner of a very expensive junk pile located under the upcoming tree line at the edge of the pasture.
I'm not able to do his story justice while writing but I get such a clear visual when he tells the story, I laugh my butt off every time. :lol: :lol: :lol: