Things not to do in your garage

[ndurbin]

I could tell alot of stupid things my friends and I did during college as we were studing Ag. diesel mechanics. One thing is we would have "Creeper Races" which consisted of the two smallest guys each knealing on a creeper and having two guys each grabbing one arm and seeing who could get propelled across the shop the fastest. The school I went to was right in the heart of Amish/Mennonite community, so ofcourse we worked on older tractors. Well one thing some of them didn't believe in was air filled tires so they'd wrap the steel wheels with about 2 old tractor tires and but a good one over them. We use to see who could get the wheels to spin inside themselves alot. We did have a shop cat, that thing had just about everything you could possibly think done to it. Sucked it's head into the shop vac hose, trap it in a clear plastic jug and roll it across the shop, painted it green and yellow one day, threw it off the overhead storage area thru a flaming spray of brake clean or whatever flammable was handy. A friend of mine one day snuck up on one of the kids in the class while he was using the glass beader and lit the cuff of his pants on fire. The kids arms were just whipping everywhere trying to get outta the gloves inside the glass beader. We did the trick of mixing salt and butter together to create heat on of of the assistant instructors, he got so ******. We would take the schools scoop tractor and fill each others pick-up beds full of snow in the winter. We used an old pick-up hood also to go sledding behind our pick-ups in the snow, but we didn't like all the snow we got kicked up in our face so we put an old pick-up bed topper over it, that was an interesting sled. We tied a dead squirrel inbetween my friends whip antenna's and went driving around one day, called him super squirrel (even had the shop rag cape and all). The instructure had a pair of Gleaner N7 combines and we would race each other around the shop in them. Theres alot of other things but I will not bore you any longer.



But I'd have to say the dumbest thing I did was listen to my instructor and grab the two points on the magneto on a small gas pony engine on a D6 Cat dozer. He gave the magneto a spin and WHAM! I jumped about 3' up in the air and back.



Nathan

 

[Champane Flight]

Stupid kids!

I used to live near a open pit copper mine when I was a kid. It was a company town, everybodys Dad and Mom worked for the company. Well, not much to do in town, but as a kid we always had a few Euclid inner tubes lying around to go down to the river and float around. Or,,,,air em WAY up and curl up inside em, then have your buddys roll you off the large hill near the river, into the river! WOW, how much fun is that? Until the fateful day that you decided to go further up the hill (about a half a mile, almost cliff) and try it again. The river did not make much of a brake as I bounced over the entire river and down the middle of the two lane highway for another half a mile! I heard cars squalling tires, and people cussing, then I came to a abrupt, painful stop into a large patch of cactus! I puked for a good twenty minutes, lying on the ground flopping around like a fish out of water (ever see someone after getting spun around a few times, this was about a hundred times worse). One truck driver came over as my buddys were trying to extract me from the cactus, blown inner tube, and proclaimed "Stupid kids!". .



Not really a garage story, but it was just as stupid... :-laf

 

[nps]

AfterBurner,



How did you get the brown stain out of your pants? :-laf

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

Sounds like a very formative experience CF. Perhaps that started you down the path to spinning rotors?

 

[Champane Flight]

Could explain?

A lot of my present day actions, Huh? That is what my boss said at least...

 

[BigEasy]

oh the stories that I could add to this thread... i'll just put the absolute best one on.



When: it's New Year's Day, about 3am, about 5 below zero

Where: a small northwestern PA town... my best bud's garage... incidents like this have made us BROTHERS... it was a house-warming party for him, as well as a huge bash for the Holiday

Why: because we can, and it's a GREAT way to break-in the neighbors!

Who: Me and Ben, the Homeowner

and now for the WHAT: it's 3am, party is beginning to show signs of slowing... BigEasy to the rescue! Ben is flappin his gums about his Honda VTX 1800, saying it's louder than my Harley... I say 'I smell a Challenge'... party heads from the house to the garage... now, this party had a bikini/hawaiian/toga theme, so everyone is wearing swimwear, etc... garage is a good 50-75 yards from the house... we're all barefoot in the snow at 5 below... ok, we're all in the 40x40 garage... shop is packed with people, no cars, two bikes... well one and a honda... we crack open the doors and proceed to make just enough noise to wake the entire neighborhood... someone (a girl) yells BURNOUT!!! Ben looks at me somewhat crosseyed, and says 'you're scared, I can see it in your eyes!' (quote from TOMBSTONE)... so I climb right on the bike... we raise his scissor-type floor lift a bit and nose the bikes up to it... 15 or 20 people are standing on the lift to hold it down... Ben and I light 'em up... both speedos are showing well over 100mph... theres so much damn smoke, people are hacking and gagging, but noone is going outside... right about the time that the cops showed up was when my rear tire exploded... cops are busting through the door, guns drawn... within about 5 seconds, the cops are laughing so hard they're crying... I guess the sight of our drunken azzes in swimwear at 3am in -5 weather, doing burnouts in the garage was just too funny for them to write a ticket for disturbing the peace...



this is the event that I will always think of when I here the phrase "the Good Ol Days"... it was last year... I love being young!



here's a photo of me earlier in the night... notice the pretzel bucket on the counter filled with punch... that was refilled about a dozen times...

#ad

 

[rrausch]

True story: My friend Jamie had a small import which developed a problem and wouldn't start. A local garage towed it in and they put in a new starter. A few days later she went to Walmart to shop, came out and the car wouldn't turn over. So she called her sister to come pick her up and went to her sister's house to wait for her husband to get off work and pick her up. She lives in a small town in Mo. , and things are still relatively safe there so she left the ignition key under the front floor mat, thinking the garage will need it when they come to tow the car back and fix it. While at her sister's house she was telling her sister's husband about it, and Pedro, who was doing some odd jobs for them overheard. Pedro said, "Oh that sounds like loose bolts. That's easy to fix. " She did NOT ask Pedro to get involved. A few hours later the Police call her and ask her if she knows where her car is. She tells them about leaving it in the Walmart parking lot. They say, "You better call a tow truck!". It seems Pedro went out to Walmart to do a good deed, located the car, found the key, put it in the ignition and turned it on, left it in gear, THEN climbed under the car with some wrenches and began to tighten the starter bolts. The car started up while he was doing this. It took off and dragged him about 40 feet until it banged into an SUV. It took 6 guys to lift the import off of Pedro and then a chopper medivaced him to a trauma center with serious injuries. Jamie called her ins. co. the next day and asked whose fault this was--they said, "We've never had a case like this before. " The ins. co. lawyer offered Pedro $1,000 to sign a waiver and he took the money!

 

[BigEasy]

Vote for Pedro!

 

[daveshoe]

Living on a farm lets you drive tractors and such at a young age,but driving a truck is not as easy because you do not have a clear view of the corners of the thing when you can barely see over the steering wheel. Dad says gas it up,so I drive the '47 International next to the elevated tank that was filled up with 250 gallons the day before. Went to back it up away from the tractor also being filled and the bumper that sticks out from the side[did I mention it was a '47 International?] hooks the tank base and down she comes. Glug,glug,glug. We all stared in shock as 20 gallons came out,and finally got some shop rags to plug the leak. Dad was not too mad,because the insurance got us a new tank and filled it up so we got at least 100 gallons free.

Just the other day ,Dad shredded his serpentine belt on a full size '97 buick, and I was trying to put a new belt on. After one false start taking the wrong motor mount loose,I finally found access to the correct mount and had the engine jacked up supported on the corner of the oil pan. We got the nut off the thing,but the stud under the nut also had to be removed and looked like the end of a star fastner. I finally located and purchased a female star driver. [Never knew they existed] and got the belt on. Schedules were tight as I needed to get the car to the dealer for repair of other problems. At the very last second, I remembered to remove the jack which surely would have damaged the oil pan.

 

[JL penner]

I pulled the 383 big block out of my old '67 Plymouth Sport Fury using a come-along attached to the rafter of the barn! Luckily it didn't break, I woulda cried! I miss that car :{

 

[TDoumit]

i was probably 16 back then.

and i was helping a guy with an engine swap, my first.

he had the block in and was hooking up the exhaust and asked me to do the spark plugs. he needed more room and so he had the cherry picker hooked up still. he picked the rig up a bit, crawled under there and told me to jump up there and get to work. of course back then you always did exactly what a grown up told you to do. i did. got to the 2nd or third plug when that cherry picker squirted out from under the truck and broke that mans arm. i scrambled to get the truck up off him but he was able to free himself. the worst part is he has two prosthetic legs below the knee. i took out one of his only remainig limbs. i went outside to throw a whiz after that and accidentally snapped myself in the nuts with my underpants. not a good night...

 

[Champane Flight]

Do Not

Do not stand to the side of a large vise and spin the handle! Right in the cohones.....

 

[JApol]

I was cutting a bunch of identical metal pieces for my dad and had already marked them out with soap stone. Fired up the acetelyne torch and away I went. My dad had one of those old 50's stereo cabinets under where I was cutting. I got about halfway through and started smelling something a little odd. I thougt my dad was doing something. Since I had cutting goggles on I couldn't see much more than the flame and the hot metal. A couple of minuted later I noticed a more pronounced foul smell and took off the goggles to investigate the offensive odor. As I do I notice that flames are hitting the bottom of my worktable (3/4 plywood). Yes I was cutting metal on a plywood surface. The flames were coming from the stereo cabinet and were growing fast. Unlucky for me there were no fire extenguishers in the near vicinity but there was 6 inches of snow on the ground. I was able to put out the workbench and the cabinet in minimal time.

My dad could habe gabe two poops about the workbench but he was a little disapointed about the stereo cabinet. That stereo still works.



wet ground + 220v welder + wet knees on ground = enlightening experience.



The summer after I graduated high school I got a job painting a house. I was using and orchard ladder to get at the high spots and a cherry picker to get at the other higher spots. I was standing with my back to the wall painting the back side of an eve and I could feel the ladder starting to slip but I did not have a change to get off of it before if folded. My head went bumpity bumpity bump as it bounced off every tier of siding followed by a corner of the sill and Lights out. I wake up to find myself entagled in the ladder, no broken bones or sprains. About a month later I moveing the cherry picker around and the left brake didn't work worth a darn and was having trouble with a rut. Finall with my left hand on the rail the darn thing jumps forward smashing my hand between the metal rail and the wood siding, It hit hard enough that I was able to hear the wood crack before the pain registered and I again almost passed out.



Ok I'm done

 

[barbwire]

This is going to make me out a major "Dumb Bell", but if the shoe fits... .....



Back in the late 60's I was working for a local rancher. We were working on a gear box, on a New Holland hay baler. We were washing the parts in gas as we prepared to rebuild it. Well in the middle of washing the parts, I stood up and lost my genuine wind proof Zippo lighter out of my shirt pocket, in the gas pan. Sooo I said, as I picked it up out of the gas, "I'll bet this sucker will work now" (they were notorious for not working). Yup, dropped it back in the gas, set my hands on fire, yanked my straw hat off, rolled my hands in it, rolled around on the shop floor until all the fire was out, on me!! The only good thing was it was a metal pan (not plastic) and we were able to use a long handled shovel and pull it out side.





"NICK"

That'll teach you not to smoke :-laf :-laf :-laf

 

[Alphacowboy]

a few months ago I pulled one of these wonderful bone headed moves. Well I was draining the fluid out of my NV4500 transmission, and noticed that they site slanted back quite abit under our dodges, and that there was a good 1 1/2" of oil still back in the tail end of the transmission... so I though, I'll just jack up the rear of the truck so its level and will drain it all out... . so, I grab the jack, throw it under the rear and start jacking away... as I am jackin up the truck, it gets REALLY hard to pump the jack, and I know I am not to the top of the jack yet..... I look up and I bet people 3 miles away could have heard my "OH F__K! Now, my truck is about 6' 11" to the top of the cab, and you guessed it, my garage door is 7'. Well the top of my stacks are 7'5" so I was only half way into the garage. I had pushed the door header into the rear half of my cab, smashing it flat right above the 3rd brake light. Luckly the damage wasnt tooooo bad, and after kicking the roof from the inside it popped most of it out. Did I mention, my wife heard my comment... . in the basement... . with the radio on... . :-laf

 

[DTroy]

I had a welding job to do at the last place I worked. The area that I had to be in that day is extremely hot. The furnace is 2800+ Fahrenheit. So I'm wearing jeans, workboots, t-shirt, and a pair of cotton coveralls.

The equipment is pneumatic and oil lubricated, so some of the railing and deck plating in the area is covered with a layer of oil and dust from over the years.

So here I am welding away with my helmet down and a dark lens. The area has a bunch of big and noisy equipment so people yell all the time. I hear someone yelling but I ignore it. As the yelling is getting louder and closer, I hear my name being frantically called. I flip the helmet up to see what they want, and that's when I realize that the railing, the deck plating, and my coveralls are burning!! I was in a little bit of shock because of the size of the flames. I had a fire extinguisher nearby, but I couldn't tell my co-worker Tom because of the noise. He had already turned around to go get a hose.

You have to picture Tommy. I always thought of him as a Butterball. He was 90% belly and 10% stubby little legs.

He had gotten so excited from the fire, screaming , and running with his stubby legs... ... he didn't realize what he was doing.

He had grabbed an industrial size hose, turned the water on full blast and was swinging his arms back and forth as he was running back to my area to "help" out.

He and his "firehose" got everything and everyone soaking wet. The people that got drenched had no idea why this wacko was running around dousing people. They were dropping tools and screaming at him.

As he finally showed up to find out that the fire was out, I was rolling around on the deck laughing so hard that my ribs were hurting.

 

[DTroy]

Big Easy,



That dress is real purtty. You uhh... ..... busy this weekend?



wink, nudge, wink wink :-laf :-laf

 

[FDrake]

It aint just working on vehicles..............

I haven't read all the responses but the general idea seems to be goofs when working on a vehicle. How about when the vehicle is NOT in the garage and being worked on?



I worked with a guy who was an avid golfer. He wanted to practice his golf swing one Saturday when it was raining. So to do that he put a large screw thru a large board and tied a string to it. The string was strong and long enough for the ball to go from the back wall and ALMOST to the garage door. He then tied the other loose end of the string to another large screw and then screwed that screw into a golf ball.



He was all set. Teed up. Lined up and swung. He hit the ball solidly and it took off. And also left the string and screw when the string reached the end. The ball continued to to the garage door (a heavy wooden door) and then carromed, collided and ricocheted thruoughout the garage for another harrowing, ducking few minutes. The friend ducked for cover as he watched that wild ball so it's thing against tools, bench, light fixture and anything else in it's path.



After the dust cleared and the ball rolled to a stop, he decided rain or shine, his golfing now goes outdoors. All dumb things in garages DON'T involve our vehicles!

Frank

 

[GMincher]

I was working on my girl friends car, using my fathers NEW reel type shop light. I went inside to call the auto parts store and when I came back out I jumped in the car forgetting the light was attached to the underside and proceeded to back out the driveway yanking the light out of its reel. Now I don't know if anyone has ever tried to put one of these things back together... . well it worked... . however. Dad was in the garage weeks later and when he turned on the light while touching the metal bulb cover he got, um, well... lit up! Sheesh, black was always ground on a car. I was banned from the garage. I became a driveway master mechanic!

 

[Mike B.]

When I was 16 or 17 I need to replace the head gaskets on my 71' chevy C10 pick up. Things were going just fine until I pulled of the second head. You see the truck was parked on a hill, without wheel chocks or a working parking break. The truck with me in under the hood rolled down the driveway into the side of a car that belonged to my father friend. It's amazing how fast a truck can get going in 15 feet!

Mike