Did the same thing 2 weeks ago trying to get a wrench that fell in between the header primaries out. I stuck a coat hanger in the little gap between the primaries down by the collector (passenger side) and put the wire through the closed end of the wrench. I thought that I was genious and would just push it up from there using the coat hanger. It bridged the terminals on the starter and I now have a cool divot in my thumb to show for it, mysteriously the size of a coat hanger.

 

Ive got a few glorious ones to add.

1. leaving the radiator cap off after doing an opti change, starting car in garage and watching the boiling green river cover the floor.

2. I definitely did the fuel filter thing. Took it off and took a bath in gasoline. Boy oh boy does gasoline in the eyes burn, and it doesnt taste to good either.

This is the best

3. Going a 120mph down a back road, slamming on the brakes to stop for the stop sign. Going a 3/4 of a mile to my buddies house. Then getting out of the car and touching the brake rotor to see how hot it was. I was still in high school, so what do u expect. college has taught me to use a stick instead or have a buddy do it. he he

Thought i would contribute my stupidity, im sure ill remember some more and add to this.

-Michael

 

Did a oil & filter change. Didn't check the old filter to see if the gasket was still on it. Started the car, everythig was OK till I got out & saw 5 quarts of Mobil 1 on the drive.

The old filter gasket had stuck to the housing, when I put on the new filter I had 2 gaskets & that didn't work at all.

 

I have a couple.

1. At work a couple of years ago I had to put a radiator in a Toyota. I put the radiator in and filled it with coolant. My boss decided it would warm up faster and open the thermostat sooner if he drove it. (I always let it idle in the shop) He drives it for a while and comes back, the thermostat is not open. He drives it another 5-10 minutes, and now the engine is clattering. To make a long story short, there was a piece of tape over the radiator inlet, and I spent the weekend removing the head and having it straightened and a valve job done. Not fun.

2. Before I got the Camaro I had an 85 Firebird with a decent 355. It had an Edelbrock carburator that never quite worked right. One night at school(S.I.U.C. Carbondale) about 11:00 I decided to remove the the top of the carb and adjust the floats. I was working under a light in my trailer park(hey, it is Carbondale). While taking it apart I dropped one of those tiny linkage clips on the intake. Not having a flashlight handy, I whipped out the next best thing. That's right, the trusty BIC. I lit the BIC and quickly found the clip. When I reached for it the lighter got a little too close to the carb. Mind you the top was just sitting on the main body, not bolted down. I suddenly had much more light than I expected. Flames were licking the hood. I didn't have any water handy, so I decided to jump in the car and crank it to suck the flames back down and extinguish the blaze. However, all this did was add pressurized fuel to the blaze, which had now spread to the intake, and all my electrical wires. I rushed inside and grabbed a cup of water, which did absolutely nothing. I ran back inside and got the biggest container of liquid I could find, which happened to be a gallon of rank milk. I extinguished the blaze. After disassembling the carburetor and fixing the wiring, I proceeded to crank the engine which immediately hydrolocked. Eventually all the milk seeped past the rings and it fired, but only after destroying my starter. Ran like a champ after that.

By the way, the smell of chunky milk on the headers lasted for no less than one full week. Sorry for the long post, but I had to tell this story. I now have a flashlight in my glovebox, just in case.

 

good one....

I left a rag over my air filter on top of my carbureator in my 71 Split bumper Camaro. Forgot about it and drove the car. About 15 minutes later the car stalled and smoke came out of the hood and I jumped out and popped it and flames were pouring out. I had no extinguisher so I grabbed the hot *** Moroso retainer thing (on fire) twisted it off grabbed a towel and was able beat the flames out. All the wires are burnt and melted. Afterwards I turn around and the air filter is on fire behind me. So I just stare at it and laugh (adrenaline release). I'm like damn this car is not gonna fire. I get in it, crank it a few times and the 350 purrs to life like nothing happened....

 

luckily my fender did not bulge out

 

Not listening to my father when he told me to leave my car stock. "Don't worry dad, it's just _________, I'll have it done before I have to go to work." That one's gotten me a time or two.

 

Heres one of my many shameful encounters while working on the car.

Was taking the tranny out 6spd,took out all bolts that go to the block.But I forgot to slide the clucth fork out of the way.I wrestled with this tranny for atleast 4 hours with my brother.When I finally was exhausted I went to ask help from here,they told me I had lossen the clutch fork bolt and slide it out the way.I did that came out but I dropped the tranny on the family jewels.It was a rough day to say the least.

 

I once let a shop fix the dreaded intake manifold oil leak cause I had to go out of town the next day and they assured me they could squeeze it in. This was sept of 2002. Well, I recently performed all the mods in my sig plus some more all at once. When I pulled off my intake manifold, they had left 2 big rags in my lifter valley. What is it, like april of 2004 now? No wonder I had no oil pressure for 2 years!

 

Last summer I was having problems passing emissions, so one of the things I did was replace the evap system. While doing so I thought it would be a good idea to flush out the evap lines with the air compressor. I put the air hose on the wrong line and when I put thepressure to it I heard a pop & hiss from the top of the gas tank. DOH! blew the line off the tank. Time for and acess panel.....


Another one was from way back. I was 16 and had a 76 T/A and putting the starter back on and thought the bolt was started and put the socket on and turned, the starter fell and split my eyebrow OUCH! My uncle started freaking when I came out from under the car, blood was pouring down face.

-Tony

 

Well recently I didn’t know there was a seal were the opti meets the cam shaft, so I didn’t put one in. It drips a little oil. I have broken so many bolts inside heads, intakes, exhaust and even blocks that I think I’m the world leader in using tap’s!
Here is another funny one, the first time I did my own brake job I forgot to tighten the lug nuts on the driver side rear wheel on my 85 iroc. Well a day later I was hot rodding around and the wheel came off, broke the axle and the brake drum at the same time.

 

Feel good about your "don't jack here" mistake. A buddy of mine (who I will not name. LOL!) wasn't overly familiar with these 4th gen Camaros at the time but he had been in the auto mechanic type industry for years. He had put hundreds and hundreds of cars on a rack without incident... until he did his own. Put it on one of those "finger" racks where you put the rack under the car and then it lifts it up by the frame. Well, he put it under the fiberglass ONLY on the front end. They had it up about 6' in the air and a few were looking under the car at something. They heard a creaking noise and one of them yelled "LOOK OUT!" and they all scattered. At that moment, one front corner of the car fell off the rack and crashed into the ground. That was followed quickly by the other three corners of the car coming crashing to the ground, from what I understand, in a manner similar to the way a quarter does it's final wobble after it was spinning on a table There was considerable damage to the car So, I'd have to speak up for my buddy in that dropping a car off a rack from 6' was probably the stupidest thing he has done to his Camaro

 

LMAO!!!

OMG, that made me crack up. Good one.

I feel bad for your friend though, I bet fixing that car cost a pretty penny.

 

Insurance But, in the end, all came out pretty good... he has a killer Camaro now. Kinda like my deer incident... hit a deer so decided to change the color to Millennium Yellow. Had I not hit the deer, I'd have never done the killer paint job. Always try to turn something negative into something positive

 

Good point, I bet ChevyIron has a hard time turning "dropping the tranny on the family jewels" into a positive.

Dan