Dumb things you've done working on a car?

[Bomber R8]

Rebuilt a 3.8L ecotec a while back, was on the piss whilst putting the heads on and only did them up about half torque... had to strip the engine back down to clean all the water out of the engine...

D'oh!!!! Didn't bend anything while the water was in there?

 

[Vs hsv manta]

Today I did the stupidest thing I have ever done to a car part !!!!

And am very lucky my head is still attached to my shoulders !!!

My daily driver is a 2000 model v6 magna and the front shocks where completely stuffed, and the top mount bearing had completely separated from its housing,

so I had new shocks and top mounts there but had to change the springs over !!!

Not a problem.

Being in tip top form after yesterday's Xmas drinks I set to work, first shock out to easy

and then I just forgot to think !!!!

there talking to mate as one does, I just put the rattle on top of the shock and undid the top nut holding the top bearing on !!!

Well f@#k me did I come to life as the spring just unloaded sent the top bearing flying into the roof of the shed along with the top spring plate and the spring it's self, I was left there stunned holding the strut and taking in what had just happened, my mate was immediately backed against the wall wondering why the shed was under attack from what sounded like bombs hitting it,

I then realised that's why I brought spring compressors about 5 years ago

This was dangerous on a stupidly high level, I could have very easly been in hospital or worse!!!

Just a reminder to think about stored energy and what it is that u are doing

I finished the job with no more hassles after that

 

[Sabbath']

Haha, i've done that before with Magna shocks. They're under A LOT more pressure than Commodore ones. I usually lay them down on their side anyway to save projectiles flying through the air. This had enough force to canonball the old strut backwards about 4m, only stopping when it hit the hoist arm behind me and ricocheted off.

 

[Vs hsv manta]

Yeah I was just lucky, I was crouching down, and had hold of the shock under the spring and just went for it, and it just shot up away from me, all 3 parts went straight over the car, one of them just touched the side near the mirror leaving the tiniest scratch !!!!

And under load, hell yeah they are under load, at least 200mm

I just had my coil overs out of my manta and changed to adjustable top mounts, they are just loosen the height adjustment and spring is off tension and good to pull apart no spring compressor needed,

I would hate to see it hit some one, dam it would of hurt lol

 

[ncass11]

was welding a mount to a car seat today for my bucket seat conversion on the rover, about 20 sec after welding i went and touched the weld for some reason i dont know, and holy F#### ##### s### F###### that hurt, i can feel the flesh sizzling