Stupid Is as Stupid Does

[JBNeal]

oil bath air cleaners can be messy if ya forget to tighten the clamp...

[Dan Hiebert]

..... Now-a-days a person probably couldn't go long enough w/o needing the horn that you could forget about removing the buzzer (which was also a relay), but back in those days, and there in Oklahoma, we hardly ever needed a horn.

Unfortunately, horns are essential equipment in many places now, never seen anyone use their horn as much as in D.C.  Around here it's needed more to urge the wildlife off the road, except for moose during the rut, then it's a challenge that brings a look of disdain from the critter, right before it staves in your grill.... 

[mrwrstory]

I'm guilty of one event about every week.  Fortunately most are not life or property threatening,...just dumb.

However, probably the best (in this millennium  ) was changing an alternator and potentially burning down the house.  I had "Gunked" the engine for a clean working space.  While removing the alternator I moved the adjacent fuel line and open up a crack that was started by the fan belt making contact.  Upon ignition the weeping gas ignited.  I quickly extinguished it with a rag.  My initial assessment was the "Gunk" ignited,.... still dumb to the weeping gas.  So,.....I started the car again and upon it firing, the extra pressure from the now energized fuel pump, turned the weep into an atomized spray.  IT WAS SPECTACULAR!!!! but now serious!  Fortunately my wife was just outside the garage watering the flower bed.  I wrenched the hose from her hands and extinguished the inferno,.....told her it was the Gunk and set about replacing the damaged fuel line. 

[Young Ed]

My worst one to date (at least that I can recall) was last fall. Dad and I primered and painted the frame for my truck project. After both coats we cleaned out the gun with thinner. Of course that resulted in a bunch of thinner soaked rags in my trash can. The next day I was out there grinding on something and woosh my trash can is a ball of flames. Quick grabbed it and got it outside. Luckily it was raining so the fire didn't spread too much while I ran and got the garden hose for a good soaking. End result was just that I needed a new garbage pail. Could have easily been the whole garage!

[Plymouthy Adams]

Young Ed, on 29 Feb 2016 - 12:22 PM, said:

My worst one to date (at least that I can recall) was last fall. Dad and I primered and painted the frame for my truck project. After both coats we cleaned out the gun with thinner. Of course that resulted in a bunch of thinner soaked rags in my trash can. The next day I was out there grinding on something and woosh my trash can is a ball of flames. Quick grabbed it and got it outside. Luckily it was raining so the fire didn't spread too much while I ran and got the garden hose for a good soaking. End result was just that I needed a new garbage pail. Could have easily been the whole garage!

at least you did not blame a poor ole kitty cat...

[pflaming]

Spot on Tim. FYI I just replaced the car with a canary!!

Tim's advice on list making I must adopt. I've spent a lot of time to get reverse and 1st. Saturday I discovered I had not escorted the shifter shaft mount that is just below the steering wheel. Did that and two adjustments on the shifter rod below and I was back on the road. Lists !!! YES !!

[Dan Hiebert]

I'm fortunate to have learned from virtually every one of my stupid mistakes, but that doesn't mean I don't regularly come up with new ones.  I'm also getting to where there's a chance I won't remember some of those older lessons, and I'm in a new environment providing new "learning opportunities".  None car related so far, but ask my fourth-point-of-contact ("butt" - for you non-paratroopers out there) about being my first-point-of-contact when I ventured onto my ice-packed yard to get some tools from the shop for a brake-job in the garage (so, sort of car related) last night: Wife - "You should probably put your ice cleats on, I busted my a** a little while ago."  Me - "Nah, I'm only making one trip, I know where it's slippery."  Shortly there after I watched from a splayed-eagle reclining position as my brake-bleeding jar gracefully twirled and slid down our 200' ice packed driveway to the street.  Luckily, no neighbors out to witness, and my wife didn't see it either.  So I put my ice cleats on and fetched the jar...as well as the rest of the tools I needed from the shop.    

[BobT-47P15]

Mine would not start one day. I checked various things....then finally tried bypassing my battery cut off switch. Started right up. So now i have a new switch.

[dpollo]

Just did this one a few days ago.  I put a 48 Desoto differential gears and carrier into the 1950 housing that is in my 35 Plymouth.

The reason for the swap was to get a final drive ratio of 3.7 -1.  Same reason that I changed out the entire housing years before to get a 3.9-1 ratio instead of the original 4.11 -1

 

After I had the new  gear-set in place I realized that there was no filler plug . In '48 the plug is at the rear of the housing not in the side of the carrier as in 49 and up.

 

What makes this a stupid mistake is that I was fully aware of the difference before I started but I substituted the earlier carrier after  the job was underway.   Removal and some drilling and tapping solved the problem.  The new ratio works  very nicely.

 

A "sadder Budweiser man arose the morrow morn."

[pflaming]

I had a 2X6 leaning against my truck, it lost its balance , came down like a guillotine and sheared off the door handle. Was busy so left the latch in the door so I would know where. It was !!! LOL, LOL. I've been looking for it now for some time!!!! DUH. Found it! Up in the door!!

[Niel Hoback]

Hey, at least you found it. Not like it disappeared.

[busycoupe]

While in college I had a weekend and summer job working in a service station. I had been promoted from pumping gas to doing simple repairs in the garage. One day a customer drove in with a problem with his brake lights. Sure enough, his brake lights did not work. I got out a multimeter and proceeded to test the connections to the the lights, the grounds, the brake switch,....then checked them all again just to make sure I didn't miss anything. After about a half hour of this I realized that however unlikely it was possible that both bulbs were burned out! Sure enough, new bulbs solved the problem. Since then, I always remind myself to check the stupid simple things first.

[mrwrstory]

]A friend once said, modifying cars and/or parts is like makin prototypes.  Here's my latest prototype.  Transposed the 1.62" to 1.26".  Seems I do that once every project.   When I realized it I initially thought I could live with the asymmetrical result.  However, in the middle of the night, "The Committee" woke me up to say "no way are you going to live with that goof!"  Sooooo,....today I will redo  and add another prototype to my scrap pile.

 

Edited June 30, 2016 by mrwrstory

[medium_jon]

On 2/26/2016 at 7:57 AM, 46Ply said:

So, eventually, after about three days of fooling with it, I put the shift selector back in the Park mode, and she fired right up!

Ouch @46Ply

[classiccarjack]

On 2/25/2016 at 11:08 AM, 46Ply said:

I think that's a line Forest Gump used.

Anyway, couldn't figure out why my car wouldn't start.  Thought sure I had it flooded, but it never did fire!

Left it sit a while, tried it again, same thing.  Finally opened the hood and I had left all the plug wires off when I cleaned and gapped the plugs, about a week ago.

 

Not sure what the moral of this story is, except if you start a job, you need to finish it.!!     

I hate to admit this, but you are not alone!  My wife called me into the house after I did a tune up.  I closed the hood, and forgot about it.  The next morning I was perplexed as to why it wouldn't start so I could get to work...  I finished everything except installing the spark plug wires...  Sigh. Quick fix at least!  LOL. Six wires are easy to install back, so I was fine and made it to work on time.

 

It seems that family life = Distractions, so yeah, start to finish can be a challenge.

[62rebelP23]

have had carb fires twice, (both those despicable Ford VV 2700's), starters that shook themselves loose, driveshafts looking for quick escape routes, rear AND front wheels parting company with the car... my wife's Valiant losing it's brakes on her, and later losing the differential.... had a pickup blow a muffler off in traffic because of sticking valves.... walking back to pick up a smoldering muffler and jamming it back onto the now-open exhaust in Northern Virginia traffic was a load of fun. Good thing we had some baling wire on hand. Had a Spitfire that had bad front calipers; it would drive fine out on the highway, but a couple of stops in town and they would lock up tight. Too poor to replace and too inexperienced to rebuild them at the time. And Bonehead moves? leaving not only half the wires off a Ford FE engine, but having the valve cover off doing valve adjustment and going inside for lunch... need to go somewhere afterwards, click hood closed and drive off.... car's kinda weak, no acceleration... WTF? Don't figure it out until I get home and open the hood... hadn't lost a tool or any of the valve cover nuts. Fitted everything back together and she ran like a timex watch. 

[medium_jon]

9 hours ago, 62rebelP23 said:

having the valve cover off doing valve adjustment and going inside for lunch... need to go somewhere afterwards, click hood closed and drive off.... car's kinda weak, no acceleration... WTF? Don't figure it out until I get home and open the hood... hadn't lost a tool or any of the valve cover nuts. Fitted everything back together and she ran like a timex watch. 

Awesome story