School of hard knocks

[Don Jordan]

I'm sure if I asked the right questions with all the knowledge on this forum someone would have told me. That's way too easy - I guess if it's not learned the hard way it's not as much fun.

I bought a 47 2 door sedan. I bought it from a kid. It belonged to his dad and the kid had no interest in it. (here's the clue) it had been sitting for about 7 years.

After the usual preliminary stuff I got it running. It would run but just would not start. Rebuilt the starter. New battery. Larger cables. Timing. It would run but not without pouring gas down the throat.

The old boy across the street (my hero) asked if it could be the carb. No says I because it runs. Check it he says. Pulled the top off and the needle had a little crud on it. Took out the float and the inside of the bowl was full of (what's the technical term for ****?)

I took the carb off, took it apart, soaked it in cleaner. The car starts with the push of the button.

It's always something stupid. I learned a valuable lesson. (also got a new Optima battery)

Thanks for listening.

[mackster]

Hey Don, I hear you, I was just shown the right answer to one of my problems by my wife, I told her: it can't be, that's just too easy. and it was, so I didn't tell her she was right ....( I couldn't live with her after that...) LOL. I just show her that I appreciate her all the time, from now on...

[randroid]

Don,

What, I hear you query, is the technical term for s#1t? What's the white stuff in chicken s#1t called? More chicken s#1t.

Although we're not prudes, there are a few of us in this forum who prefer not to read a real word but are more than willing to accept an obvious symbolization as appropriate. We're simply trying to respect the wishes of our friends so please accept this as a 'heads up' rather than any form of rebuke.

There are a lot of additives in gasoline, and given enough time they'll watch the volatile fluids evaporate around them and when there's no more liquid left they condense into gunk.

You have it starting and running so I'd say you just learned something about our old iron. Now you have more to return to someone else. Welcome to the club.

-Randy

[Don Jordan]

Thank you and your point was duly noted.

[Joe Flanagan]

Don,

The car I'm working on is my first project (and hopefully not my last). I have made so many boneheaded moves with this thing. Not to say that you did something boneheaded. I have found that I get in a hurry to get on with things and I sometimes just plunge ahead. I'm learning to wait and ask if I'm not sure. I also am guilty of the "Oh that's too simple, it couldn't be the problem," attitude. I have learned one heck of a lot, though, one of the most important lessons being that sometimes you just need to stand back and take a break. I have three brothers and when we'd do something stupid, my father would call us the Bungle Brothers.

[Young Ed]

Here's a little dumb story for you guys. Not the dumbest I've done but not my finest moment either. Dad and I were in my driveway cutting and torching apart my 46 2dr parts car. When we were up in the cowling I told him to wait a minute I don't want to start this upholstery on fire etc. So he waited while I pulled the material out and stuck it into a 5gal pail. Well I pushed the pail towards the back of the car. Little while later we were cutting something back there and sure enough started the whole pail on fire! I put it out with the garden hose and then had a pail full of water and wet half burnt upholstery

[PatS....]

None of us here EVER use bad words:rolleyes:

I go into a state of shock if I see or hear those technical terms.

That's why everyone uses those funny symbols so as not to offend!!!

Like Buddy Hacket says, if you drop an anvil on your foot, somebody, somewhere will say F**K!!

If it's not you when you drop the anvil, it will be the paramedic who comes to take you to the hospital, or the doctor who treats you:

"Holy S**T!!, You dropped a F**K*NG anvil on your foot!!

[Joe Flanagan]

I've set my car on fire numerous times. I'm not kidding. Sparks from the MIG welder have gone into the old insulation and I didn't know it until I saw something orange in my peripheral vision. When I turned to look at it, there was a small fire going. Another time I was under the car welding and I smelled something burning so I got out and looked and it was a pile of rags that were sitting on the floor inside the car just burning away. One of many Three Stooges moments.

[Young Ed]

I have a feeling we could make this as long as the weather thread from last year if we kept on with all our incidents. Besides that fire there is the time I hit myself in the face with a hammer, in the mouth with a rachet handle, stabbed myself through the finger with an exacto knife, oh and dont forget when the trouble light fell on my arm and burnt me! Also had the light explode in my face which scared the cr@p out of me!

[Joe Flanagan]

Oh my God. I'm laughing so hard I'm crying.

One time when I was stripping the parts off the car I kept catching my T shirt on something everytime I crawled underneath. I got so sick of having to reach around and unsnag my T shirt that the next time it happened, I just dug my feet in and pushed myself further under the car. I hear this loud RIP noise and whatever it was that had snagged my shirt just ripped a gigantic hole from my chest down to my stomach. I had to go in and change my shirt.

Then there was the time I was on my back under the car and I thought the exhaust system was about to fall and hit me in the face so I jerked my head to the side real fast and smashed it into the jackstand. Practically knocked myself out. And the pathetic thing is I just imagined that the exhaust system was falling.

[Young Ed]

I've done the Tshirt thing once before too with the wheels on the creaper. Now I try to remember to tuck mine into my pants. And one time I got my hood of a sweatshirt caught in the wheel and no matter which way I moved it got tighter. Almost choked myself!

[Heavy Flat Head]

This is one of the best threads for a good laugh. Thank heavens I have made it for 59 years with out a stooge,

Oh my; My nose is growing.

[Captain Neon]

I replaced every single piece of equipment in my starting system on a 1978 Pinto, except the battery and starter. Problem, after taking it to a nearby mechanic, dirty battery terminals. Did I ever feel dumb.

I also didn't get the rubber plug all the way in to the filler hole on my Neon's tranny after changing the tranny oil. Plug came out and most of the tranny oil leaked out. Another bonehead moment.

[captden29]

my friend set himself on fire in his garage while we were working on his car. i had to throw him on a nearby dirt pile and luckily there was a blanket in the garage that i threw on him and put him out. it all happened so fast that he only had minor burns. i have set my hair/car/lawn/ and other things on fire. my dog has enough sense to stay away when i work on the old car. dennis

[Normspeed]

You guys are cracking me up! How about doing something repeatedly, like, there are stainless trim spears on the rear quarters of my car, and one sticks out about 1/4" from the body at the rear tip. It's speared almost every pair of work shorts I own, especially the cargo type, when I go past it too close. Still haven't gotten around to fixing it. Which brings up the the profanity thing. I'm a world class cusser at times, and there are projects that would never have gotten done without it. But in print on the forum, I think it's funnier when people bleep themselves. Sorta saying, excuse me for a moment, some situations can't be adequately described without this word..

To me, it reads nicer. One reason I don't visit the HAMB more than I do. Great wealth of knowledge there, just too much use of the same old cusswords. No finesse. No surgical precision:rolleyes:

[Joe Flanagan]

My Dad was a very conservative old guy who would shut the TV off if they showed too much skin or used too much language. One time he got his finger caught in a folding lawn chair. He was telling me about how much it hurt and I asked him, "What did you say?" His response: "Fitting epithets."

He was born in 1914, so you can kind of see where it comes from. I never heard him use the F word but I have made good use of it myself. It must be a generational thing, but nothing says it like a well-placed F-Bomb. That said, I like the restraint shown on this forum. You don't see it much anymore and I think it's important. Now, next weekend, I'll be out there working on my 49 and will no doubt use some blue language, as it used to be called. I was thinking about the body mounts I just replaced and how my father probably would have said something like, "When you're going down the road at 60 MPH, it would be convenient if the body stays attached to the frame."

[Merle Coggins]

"When you're going down the road at 60 MPH, it would be convenient if the body stays attached to the frame."

Good one. I'm sure that would be rather convenient. Otherwise one would probably udder an OH $#!T.

Merle

[Rodney Bullock]

I hate to say it but....... I was under the plymouth one afternoon and I had my buddys jack, one of those big 2 ton jobs that's over kill when it comes to working on a light car like a plymouth. I jacked it up and proceeded to work on the car using a jack stand as safety. Everytime I would get up to get another tool I noticed it was harder to get back under the car. I finally got done with tightening what I was doing when I found that I could not get out. This is 1:14 about 2:00 my wife pulls up and walked towards me..looked me right in the eye and jacked the handle up and walked away. When I came in the house she was on the phone just Laughing:rolleyes: she makes me so sick! She told my buddy to come and get that PAS jack or she was going to throw it away. My goodness what would I do without her:cool:

[Norm's Coupe]

Well, I guess I'll have to join the club.

Probably the dumbest things I did was. Several years ago I had an old antique Dunlap bench drill press. Worked great. One day I put a drill bit into it, turned it on and the drill bit immediately came flying out of the chuck, hit my safety glasses and put a nice gash on the bridge of my nose. I had forgotten to tighten down the chuck. Needless to say I wasn't too happy with myself and put the blame on the drill press. I immediately went out and bought a new drill press and sold the Dunlap on ebay.

The other dumb thing I did was with the antique 36" Dunlap wood lathe in the basement shop. I evidently put the piece of wood in wrong. Started turning the wood and all of a sudden the piece of wood flew out of the lathe, bouncing off the ceiling and wall while I was taking cover. Yep, you guessed it, that lathe was also sold immediately after that. I have no use for tools that don't conform to my mistakes.

[Young Ed]

Norm the ratchet I hit myself in the mouth with was one where the handle and head pivot. While under a cj-7 I for some reason let go of the handle while still holding the head on the fastner. Handle swings down and pow right in the mouth. Now that was dads jeep and his ratchet so I couldn't sell it but I sure avoid using that one now. I had a fat lip for a couple days and really am lucky I didn't bust a tooth!

[Norm's Coupe]

Ed,

Just don't use that ratchet again either, it doesn't like you.

I forgot one other incident I had in the garage. I brought home an old pallet jack we use to use at work. Thought it would be good to have around to move stuff around with. Since it's only a 2 car garage I really didn't have a good spot to store it. So.........I would push the forks under the front of the coupe, between the coupe and work bench, so it didn't take up so much room. One day while trying to squeeze between the workbench and the coupe I hit the big part in the center of the pallet jack where the handle goes with the chin of my leg. I still have a scar on my chin from that. You guessed it, I called a trucker friend and sold it to him the following week.

That's one reason I now try to keep the clutter down in the garage.

[bigred48]

well when I was about 14 my dad and I were adjusting the bunks on our boat trailer. I was pushing up on the bunk and he was tightening the bolts with a 12 inch adjustable wrench, then the wrench slipped he hit me right in the forehead. Ouch it hurt a bunch then but now we can both laugh about it every time we have to go fix something.

[Young Ed]

Oh you reminded me of yet another incident! I had a fire going in the stove in the garage(this is before I moved out) and the chimney had come apart at the ceiling. When I was trying to put it back together before the smoke and heat started the garage on fire I leaned back to far and got the ceiling fan across the back of the head. OUCH Now before you think I'm accident prone I'll say in my defense I've never had a stitch or a broken bone.

[Joe Flanagan]

Oh I've gotten a ceiling fan in the head before. It did three revolutions before I realized what was happening. My two daughters saw it happen and they never forgot it. Every time they see a ceiling fan they have to remind me of that incident. Three whacks in quick succession before I realized what the heck was going on.

Another time I was in a walk in closet trying to figure out why the light bulb in the ceiling wouldn't work. I had only socks on my feet. I had to stand on a chair to reach the light. I took a screwdriver and started to undo the terminals but didn't realize the switch was in the "on" position. I touched the hot terminal with the screwdriver and there was a pop and a bright flash. This blinded me (not to mention scared the living crap out of me) and a shower of sparks came down. Something landed on my foot and burned through one of my socks and started burning my skin. So there I am with one hand over my eyes because I'm blinded, and the other hand grabbing for my burning foot, and of course I went off the chair and into the clothes rack. No one was around for that one, though. That's a personal memory for me alone. I can tell you it's a good thing my wife wasn't around because every time something like this happens she gets at least five or six years worth of laughs out of it.

[BeBop138]

Not really a bone head story but something to think about. I was restoring a 69 Vette and the engine and driveline were out of the car, up on four jack stands. I was doing something to the trailing arms when I noticed that one of the front jack stands was not under the car!!!! I must have knocked it out of the way when I was turning around uder the car. Needless to say you can move sideways pretty damn quick if needed!!! The weight must have been set just right, still can`t understand why it didn`t fall. That`s when I went and bought a Kwik-Lift. Even if you do it right, something can go wrong. Be safe out there guys.