Viet Nam Vett

This Topic was inspired by the "Oman" after he put up a post about a problem with his ammeter. At the same time he had mentioned that he had injured his hand while working on his car. After a few post's about the ammeter the topic sort of drifted to injurys received while working on vette's. There were some interesting stories posted and I thought this might make a good topic since most of us have been bitten by our corvettes one way or another. Here's Mine.................................... .


A few years ago I was under my 65 on my creeper. I was greasing a few
Zerks. At that time I had a fairly long pony tail. After a few move on the creeper, the tail slipped out from under my hat. I was rolling my self backwards to get to the back of the car when i realized that I had rolled my tail up into one of the creeper wheels. My head was jamed tight up against the back of the creeper and no matter which way I turned I could not move very far as the wheel kept sucking my head down on the creeper.

Their I was, TRAPED!! I can't move in any direction!! No one around!!!
After a few minutes I came up with an escape plane. I slowly turned on my side and then managed to pull myself on my stomach with the creeper on my back. I then did the low crawl out from under the car and went to my neighbors house who unthreded me from the creeper.

Boy, Did I feel like a smacked hinny....................

6T5RUSH

Viet Nam Vett,

I can honestly say, short of smacking my nose, head, face while on my back trying to find that wrench I had momentarily laid down, I've been pretty lucky over the years. Not working on my '5, I did some pretty stupid things like allowing a jack to be the sole support device while I climbed under a car to work on it. Damn lucky...guess it just wasn't my time.

Since owning the '5, I've acquired a healthy respect for gravity and the weight of this vehicle when I'm working on her. Since installing my lift a year ago, I've just gotten more respectful of any wrenching I do and make a point of double checking for tools laying around as well as making sure kids aren't anywhere near the lift when she's up in the air.

There's an old saying...something like this "take a little time, to save a lot of time."

Jim(6T5RUSH)

Viet Nam Vett

Good Advice........................

Milehigh66

I have a few, some more notable than others. As forum readers know I replaced my clutch and rebuilt my tranny recently. When I was putting in my transmission I couldn't get the rear of the tranny high enough to get one of the bolts into the transmisson mount, so I reach for the crow bar, you know the one with the nail claw at one end, anyway while I was Lifting the mount the bar slipped with about my whole weight on it and I pulled it straight onto my head, with the claw end hitting me on my scalp. All is well now, I can read and write again with some tutoring and the scar doesn't show through my hair.
My other includes my garage door that didn't have an opener on it at the time, while I was walking behind the vette the door closed on my head with full force, my wife found me half in the house and half in the garage knocked out, how I got there I really don't know. My first two questions: Where am I, and is the vette O.K.. :crazy: Nice headache for a week on that one, should have seen a Doctor about the concussion but I'm male. I don't need no stinkin Doctor just a bottle of John Daniels. :yesnod:

Way to many little injuries to list, in fact two of my knuckles are bleeding on the keyboard right now. :yesnod:

Kurt :cheers:

kenmo

I 've strained my pocket book and battered my nerves !

ghostrider20

After a test and tune run I jacked my vette up and slid the jack stands under it. I was checking for an oil leak that I had fixed after installing a new pan gasket and rear main. I was on the creaper and and gave a good push with my feet to propell myself under the car. I stopped when My chest wedged under one of the exhaust pipes :mad :mad .
By the time I reacted I had a nasty burn that ran from one nipple to the other. It blistered and left no scar, only a slightly darker area.

Like my dad has told me time and time again, the differance between a boy and a man is 5 seconds, take 5 seconds and think about what you are doing!.

Mark

pittsaj

Hate to admit this one again :cry

Car was on jack stands, There was one last bolt left to remove up top..

Wife said, "Put the car back down..." :rolleyes:

Yeah,
I could put the car back down to reach it easier, but it's only one last bolt... I can reach it... See... :D

Well, As I reached over the fender to loosen that bolt it just wouldn't budge. I said, one last push, and if it doesn't give, I'll let it down so I can get a better angle at it...
Well it gave..... When it did, I lost my balance and that fender got pushed really hard into my right rib... It gave too :eek:

Needless to say... That slowed me down for a few days
I don't heal as quickly as I used to

You know who was right there with the I told you :nopity

After a day or so looking at the car just sitting there, I had a few beers to kill the pain and was able to finish putting things back together...

And yes, She was right there... reminding me how stupid I was to be still working on it with a broken rib... :nono:

I guess she later felt sorry for me and actually started helping :D

Only took 3 or 4 beers to kill the pain :cheers:


Tony

Grey Ghost

I was rebuilding the f/e during the winter. I had a little camping heater to try and keep warm with. It is a small propane tank with a burner that screws down onto the propane tank. I was moving it and grabbed the burner instead of the tank :eek: If I had been fingerprinted just after that...they wouldn't have got anything. It just about flattened the skin on my fingers completely smooth.

This is an educational topic. Maybe, just maybe, we will remember some of the mistakes and pains of others before we do the same !

richscorvettes

Well I guess I've had the required number of cuts, bruises and burns to prove that I don't always take enough time when working on the cars. The most significant injury though was in trying to take a load of parts into the garage attic and making an involuntary return trip down the attic stairs resulting in a broken foot and torn ligaments. If there is a lesson to be learned it's take a little more time and watch your step. :yesnod:

It's amazing how we take for granted some of the things we do with four good limbs. It's not until you can't use one that you realize how much you need them.

As the guy on Hill Street Blues used to say "Be careful out there".

Rich Lagasse

mrg

I once did an "on the car" carb float bowl cleaning .. I was using an aerosol carb cleaner to spray into the various metered passages as part of the cleaning process .. I had it in mind that the spray could possibly blow back, so I made sure to keep some distance from the action at hand ... Well, there was this one "dead end" passage ... I triggered the spray and as fast as the shot went into that passage most of it shot straight out and back .. ! .. Human reaction time being what it is, I couldn't even react to it .. I got a direct shot right in my right eye .. ! .. All I could do was hold my my right eye ... It was watering heavily .. I couldn't even open it .. ! .. It made me want to keep the other eye closed, for whatever reason .. After a bit I finally had to go down on my knees, as I was starting to feel disoriented .. I finally pretty much felt my way on my knees to the water spigot in front of the house and kept a good flow of water washing over my right eye .. After a few minutes, the pain started to subside .. Man, lemme tell ya', you DO NOT want this to happen to you .. !! .. Figures that there would be no one around when things like this happen .. Shoulda been wearing safety glasses, sure .. Guess we take our lumps the hard way, at times, but it sure wasn't expected .. I guess there's a lesson in that too .. :)

mrg

Sharky Guam

My incident was one of stupidity. I was changing the starter in one of my corvettes. While I was installing the new starter, I got a cramp in my hand. I thought that I already had one bolt started, so I dropped my arms to my side to rest them. About two seconds later, the starter fell right on to my face. I had to get stitches to the inside of my mouth. Luckily, I did not need stitches on my face. However, I had a massive bruise that started from my forehead and ended on my chin. It lasted for over two weeks. Luckily, I did not break my nose or lose any teeth. And for the entire time that the bruise was visible, everyone was constantly asking who beat me up. Being a black belt in Karate, I was so embarrassed that someone thought that I got actually lost a major fight. It hurt my ego more than anything.

Viet Nam Vett

OUCH!!!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Blkblt

Worst injury??? Easy. My pride... :lol: Other than being able to fix anything on the car until it is broke, here is the best.

A few years ago the copper oil pressure tubing where it enters the first connector at the block was damaged and dripping a small bit of oil ("eek; a leak"), so I purchased some replacement parts and was fixing it in the garage. At one point I felt I had it right, got in the car (top was down) and fired up the 427. I didn't have right.... before I could turn off the ignition, the BB vaporized a quart or so of oil at about 80 lbs of pressure straight up in the air. I sat there with my hair plastered to my face, oil dripping off my nose, everything in the interior was dripping, and the huge circular spot on the ceiling (that can still be seen), was dripping on me. The silver pearl car was mostly pearl, if that makes any sense.

Contrary to my normal reactions, I calmly got out of the car, removed my oil soaked shirt, wiped my face, and sat quietly watching the whole mess while consuming three beers in a row. :cheers:

It took me three solid days to clean everything....including the correct repair. My pride??? What pride??? :smash: :smash: :D

********************

********************
Jeff
Ô66. Modified L72
ÒThe Silver BeastÓ
Keep on :cheers: :seeya :seeya

ML67

My worst injury working on my car was scary. I'm lucky to be here today. Basically I had the car up on a scissor jack just to position the jack stands. I got distracted and just plain forgot to put in the jackstands and started working on it. I think I was removing the exhaust pipe from the cast iron manifolds way back when my car was stock and the damn car fell on me. Pinned me to the ground with the three exhaust manifold studs literally less than one inch from my head. Crushed the mechanics creeper I was one and I was knocked unconscious briefly. This was over at my Dad's and he just about had a heart attack as he was in the garage at the time and feared the worst. He managed to get a jack in there, lift the car and pull me out. My ribs were badly bruised and I tweaked my neck when it fell as it not too gently forced my head to the side. I was both stupid and lucky. But my Dad definitely got the worst of it.

Needless to say I am a bit more conservative working under a car now. To this day whenever I get under a car I re-live this incident.

Please learn from my stupidity and ALWAYS check how securely your car is jacked.

In safety,

Mark

achapman

Here goes Mark,

Back about 20 years ago when I was a young'in I was under my buddies 63 SWC helping him remove the transmission, so we could do a clutch job. I though my buddy had the tranny and he thought I had it..... needless to say it fell on my face and sheared off my two front teeth.... :cry Cost me $1700 at the time for two new front caps.... reminded of this incident every time I look in the mirror.... so when I got the chance what did I buy.... a 63 SWC.... and yes it needs a clutch.... Oh boy.... :hat Hey Mark you doing anything this weekend..... got a job for ya with a great dental plan.... :lol: :lol:

John McGraw

This is kind of a stretch, but 4 years ago, I decided that my 60 needed a home of it's own, so I set out to build a stand alone garage detached from the house. While putting the roof on, the toe boards broke and dumped me to the concrete 12 feet below heels first! After two shatered ankles, a couple of pounds of stainless steel and a permanent limp in both legs, I am finally doing okay, but the arthritus is a bitch!

:seeya

Viet Nam Vett

Man, These are some real bone chilling stories..........Scary :eek: :eek: :eek:

And BTW Andy, I'll be up to help you with that tranny in my full body armor suit.....................

MasterDave

I..think.......I may have, lost........my............mind. Not sure................. :jester

kellsdad

During the roughly two years I was spending every spare hour either taking things apart or putting them back together, I developed a severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome. I used that as an excuse to buy a compressor and air tools, but I couldn't avoid the endless wrist flexes that made every night's sleep end with that tingling numbness that feels like your hand has fallen asleep. ... Incidentally, Ive appreciated reading all these stories for the same reason I used to enjoy reading aircraft accident reports when I flew for the Air Force. They let me learn what mistakes to avoid without first commiting them myself. Thanks guys. :cheers:

mrg

That's one heck of a story, ML67 .. I had wondered if anybody in the forum might have had that kind of experience .. I don't think it gets any closer than that ... WOW. .
mrg