Dismantled the carb on the Astra, put it back together and went to check to see if the engine would start . . . forgot to remove the socket set from it's position on top of the engine block, tools went flying everywhere!

Changed the alternator on an old Vauxhall Chevette years ago. Finished the job, gave the keys back to my girlfriends dad who then took it for a test drive. He came back five minutes later with a caved in radiator and a cooling fan missing two blades. Yes you guessed it, id left the spanners in the engine bay:rofl:

Should we have another post - People who are not safe to have near your car (especially with tools...)

I was welding under a kit car I had once, only I hadn't taken the carpet out. Set fire to it, looked into the 'cockpit' to find it on fire, six inches from the extinguisher. Thought 'Hmm, I paid £20 for that extinguisher - not going to use that' so persisted to put flames out with hands... odd logic in hindsight!

Another time was grinding some chassis rails for a Pop my mate never built, dirty oil soaked overalls, switched off grinder and couldn't understand why there was still sparks. Until I realised it was the overalls burning near my family valuables...

Last one - on my Skoda Rapid, they didn.t used to make the best quality rubber, grabbed a damp HT lead and spent a few moment's doing a Max Headroom impression until I was able to let go.

Many many dumb moves, usually when rushing and trying to beat the clock.

The most memorable are,

1. Taking the end of my thumb off on the fan belt of my 2.8 Capri. I knew it was moving, but thought I'd check the tension.:confused:

2. Putting a set of brake pads in back to front on a Fiat Panda. What a lovely noise that made.

3. When testing the newly installed radiator on a 3.0 Capri, I decided to remove the hose straight after a 20 minute run. Needless to say there was a bit of a gushing, scalding steam-filled garage for a while. The missus wasn't too pleased either as it was an integral garage and the living room above turned into a sauna.

Respect to your choice of cars sir!

i once saw sombody welding on the bottom of a car, and some of the sparks went down his overalls..... ouch, he jumped up, whacked his head on the brake disc.... then becuase he was a bit dizzy, he put hi hand on the bit he hand just welded to steady himself

i know of a number of people who have set fire to cars whilst welding , 2 ended up completely gutted

i've also seen a Porsche 928 on fire because a fuel pipe union hadn't been tightened properly after a cam belt change , it did look good , a black Porsche with a white front where the extinguisher had been used , steam cleaned off , one small electrical connector needed taping up , given back to the customer , LOL

just read a thread where sombody has hit themself in the face by accident trying to get the gear nob off.......

Well I put my hands up and admit this was me , It didnt really hurt and I just keep laughing about it.

Anyway back to blunders, where do I start

~ Forgot to put headlight lense back on and it came flying out under the car on a back road, somehow after crawling about in bushes and knettles I found it still intact, as I was jumping over a wall back to my car I dropped the thing and it smashed But hey I found a 50p coin in a bush

~ A lad I work with was servicing a lorry and didnt check the diff oil as it was getting near home time, a few days later we had to supply and fit a new diff costing 4 grand. Doesnt take a genius to work out the cause of the problem

Resurrecting this post as I've done something stupid today

Mates in the process of rebuilding a Mini. Had the engine running and I was poking about at one of the new engine mounts he's fitted. Stupidly stuck my hand in between the mount and the cooling fan on the radiator and managed to hit the fan with my middle finger. I now have a nice deep cut in my finger, and it hurts quite a lot. Can't complain though, it was my stupidity that caused it in the first place! Ah well, you live and learn, and I think I got off quite lightly!

Resurrecting this post as I've done something stupid today

Mates in the process of rebuilding a Mini. Had the engine running and I was poking about at one of the new engine mounts he's fitted. Stupidly stuck my hand in between the mount and the cooling fan on the radiator and managed to hit the fan with my middle finger. I now have a nice deep cut in my finger, and it hurts quite a lot. Can't complain though, it was my stupidity that caused it in the first place! Ah well, you live and learn, and I think I got off quite lightly!

pictures of injury please

It doesn't look too bad as I've folded the flap of skin back over, and I'm hoping it will heal back together. Apologies to people who don't like blood. And as I said, I got off very lightly for my stupidity!

Getting badly frustrated with a car I was working on, I kicked the thing sideways. It rocked on the axle stands, came back toward me and proptly landed on top of my foot. Would have been painful with a wheel fitted, but was just the disc to land right on my foot.

Somehow only minor breakages of the bones behind the toes.

Chris

A few years ago my AX was running a bit rough so I decided to change the oil and give the car a bit of a service one saturday. After a 20 mile drive to buy the new parts I put the car up on the ramps and proceeded to pour very hot oil over my hand as I undid the sump plug!

I learned that day to make sure the oil is only warm before draining it:O

1) I had a hole in the petrol tank of my mk1 Astra, so decided to chemical metal (epoxy) it. Ran the tank down over a few days, then poured the remainder into an oil container, problem, more petrol to come out, so I put it in some old plastic (!) ice-cream containers we had lying around. I jumped down into the pit and pulled the car forwards over me. Some time later I heard something a little weird, so I looked back and saw a flood of petrol flowing forwards over the garage floor! Needless to say I got out quick and opened all of the doors and windows.

2) I needed to roll my car backwards a couple of yards, I forget the reason. Car was parked driver's side to the verge. So, door open, handbrake off, steering straight, shoulder to the B pillar and push! Then I realised my mistake! The bottom of the door trapped the back of my trainer, the car continued rolling! Cue shouts curses as the edge of the door scraped over my heel and achilles. Then I fell over.

3) Hitting myself in the face with the steering wheel from my AX GT whilst being showered with the shattered remains of the auto-cancelling indicator mechanism.

J.

I was driving back to Manchester once in the pouring rain and was in a bit of a rush as I was selling my car (Fiat Uno) upon arrival. Half way down the M62 she developed a bad misfire which got so bad she was only running on 2 cylinders or so. I pulled over under a motorway bridge and got a tin of WD40 out of my boot. I wiped the dizzy cap off and sprayed it liberally with Gods own water repellent and then for good measure gave the inside of the distributor a good going over as well. Imagine my slight surprise when all this foamy white froth stated to pour back out from every orifice possible. I started to panic a little as I wasn

Nice one

Gods own water repellent .

wonderfull stuff

I was driving back to Manchester once in the pouring rain and was in a bit of a rush as I was selling my car (Fiat Uno) upon arrival. Half way down the M62 she developed a bad misfire which got so bad she was only running on 2 cylinders or so. I pulled over under a motorway bridge and got a tin of WD40 out of my boot. I wiped the dizzy cap off and sprayed it liberally with Gods own water repellent and then for good measure gave the inside of the distributor a good going over as well. Imagine my slight surprise when all this foamy white froth stated to pour back out from every orifice possible. I started to panic a little as I wasn

Af riend of mine was rebuilding an old Land Rover defender a few years ago, from the ground up. He'd got the chasis welded, new engine in, and was so pleased to get the wheels on he decided to give it a quick test - just up his drive. Getting to the top of the drive (which was a steep hill) and pressing the brakes, he remembered that they weren't yet connected, so he grabbed the handbrake. He soon realised that he hadn't connected the handbrake, either, as he rolled back down the drive, straight into the old engine (which he'd hoped to sell) through the garage door.

Oh, previously he welded part of the chasis in back-to-front as well and had to cut it out again. There were a few giggles at his expense.

I remember changing the headlight bulb in my old boss's vectra c (it was only about 6 months old).

Tried pulling the plug off the back of the bulb, it woudn't budge, so I tried pulling it even harder, promptly breaking the bulb holder and filling the headlight with glass.

Didn't realise they twist off, not just pull off.

Years ago changed the clutch on my 1275 GT mini , with the engine in place. Removed the brake servo for better access (its was separate from the brake master cylinder unlike most cars) and put it in the passenger footwell. Went to test the clutch but had forgotten to put the servo back - drove straight into a row of dustbins outside the student flats - hell of a noise but luckily little damage done , mostly to my pride.

I once left a rail of torx sockets on the scuttle panel of the astra coupe, i forgot about them and proceeded to close the bonnet. Shoving them straight through the scuttle panel.

about 3 years ago a friends fiat seicento, broke down in dramatic style, bits of the engine flying off everywhere in disintegration fashion! i had a full tow kit in my 1.8 escort estate which should of had enough power to tow the seicento with ease, however the seicento's tow eye was f**ked and as i pulled away the whole of the front of seicento came flying through my back window, werent happy, but the seicento found its way to the scrap yard in the end, and the escort followed 3 weeks later when i blew the headgasket as a result of failed radiator, and ran it with no water for anything up to 130 miles, as the temperature guage didnt work and i didnt realise i had a problem till the steam/ smoke was coming out as i was driving along.

I once went to a scrappy to get some bits for my Mini, they had a car about 3 up on top of a pile and a ladder with 3 rungs to get to it so up I went. I needed a set of column switches so I had to carry the large socket and arm to get he steering wheel off and when I got up there the whole pile started swaying but I cracked on as I really needed the switches. I couldn't get the damn wheel off, I tried everything and in one last attempt I gave it some real welly and pop..... pulled it straight off and smacked myself in the face with it. Broke my nose good and proper. I got the switches and slid down the ladder of death about 30 mins later covered in blood. The scrappy didn't charge me for the bits so bonus but my nose never looked the same again.... :(

There was also another incident with a gearbox, oil on the floor and me landing upside down on two axel stands and a jack, which broke two of my ribs but even after ten years have passed it's still all a bit hazy....

After changing the fan belt on my 2.8i Capri, I was checking things over with the engine running. For some bizarre reason, I decided to check the tension on the belt even though the I knew engine was turning. I stuck my thumb down onto the belt and was surprised when I heard a sound like a circular sander and my nose detected the smell of gently burning flesh. I'd flattened quite a large part of the end of my thumb and nail off and stood looking very confused at my newly shaped digit. To this day, the thumb print is a bit faint in one place.

I guess that my brain had popped off for a cup of tea at that point, as I can't think of a logical reason as to why it happened.

Couple of blunders

Garage who sprayed my car(golf) didnt fit the sun roof properly. reached 75 and the bugger popped out .. Just lucky no one was behind me.. or it would have been nasty

Also.. Car was up on some Axel stands as i was swapping my coils out. Just climbed back out from under the car went to bench to get the bits i forgot.. The stand gave out, car went forward,,stand back. Punchured the fueltank1/2tank of fuel was gushing out the tank in my garage..

I spend 3hours clearning up.. Ive nver felt so rough in my lift

Learned the lesson of renew stands after 5years .. and dont by halfords cheap ones

Never worked on the car properly since.. Kinda scared about going backunder i guess