Garage Injuries

[69TAPoser]

Seeing how I have been about as handy as a screen door in a submarine lately and the there seems to be a direct correlation between my build progress and injuring myself, I figured I may as well also track injuries on my build site. Check out my Injury Tally on my site.

If nothing else, it gives my friends a family even more reason to laugh at me!



Phil

[Van B]

I love the "handy as a screen door in a submarine" line. I did the Dynamat finger cuts thing. The bad thing is I only knew it happened when I started seeing blood.

[ilovefirstgens]

If you have so few you can remember more than a handfull you are better off than the rest of us. My hands are COVERED in scars from every kind of stupid mistake you can think of, come to think of it I am amazed I still have all my fingers.

My favorites are grinding a hole in the middle of my thumbnail (most painful and lasted a few months) and forgetting that I had recently disconnected a fuel hose (soaking my crotch in gas) then griding on some brackets... I think you can fill in the blanks, I just thank god I was wearing baggy enough pants!

[Camaro_Kyle]

Damn, April has been a pretty harsh month for you so far.
Lol, thats a cool page though!

[zbugger]

Very good listing to have. You should call it your blood, sweat, and tears page and list them in your build book when showing the car. Should get a good laugh.

On that note, my latest. Working with MrQuick on one of his projects, while trying to chisel out a forgotten spot weld, I went a little ape **** with a hammer. The chisel moved, I nicked it with the hammer, and got the meat between my forefinger and my thumb. Yeah. Think that hurt? It gets better. You know that wiring channel that goes along the driver side? The one with the sheet metal lip that stands straight up? Yeah, well that was right below my hand when I hit it with the hammer. Luckily I was wearing a Mechanix glove. Oh, yeah... That didn't really protect my hand much from the hammer blow. As the pain continued to build, I checked the glove to see if I cut into it. Nope. All's good here. But the pain continues to build for some reason..... Take the glove off.... Heh... Yeah, I drew blood. Since wednesday I've been icing it for the swelling and trying to keep the gash clean. Makes it fun to drive when you do most of the steering with your left hand.

[Rolling_Thunder]

cool page! i should start one of these... i work in a restoration shop and always seem to be getting messed up...

[Turbo T]

An hour ago I was under my car and found a black widow... about 2 inches from my face! I smacked the old noggin pretty good on the bottom of the door (which was open 6 inches) in my mad scramble to get out. Right on that lump behind the ear too. That smarts!

Haha, I guess I should be happy I didn't get bit though, right?

[67 455 Bird ragtop]

An hour ago I was under my car and found a black widow... about 2 inches from my face! I smacked the old noggin pretty good on the bottom of the door (which was open 6 inches) in my mad scramble to get out. Right on that lump behind the ear too. That smarts!

Haha, I guess I should be happy I didn't get bit though, right?

But did you get the spider or is it still lurking out there to strike ???

[Turbo T]

But did you get the spider or is it still lurking out there to strike ???

You bet your ass I did! Hahaha almost burned down the garage last year trying to get one (long story). I am a "live and let live" kind of guy, but I draw the line at things in my house that can kill me if I accidentally disturb them.

Worst injury I personally know of is my buddy Chris (I know I'm cheating, but you have to hear this). Everyone knows the rule, always use jackstands, right? Well a few years back, Chris decides he's going to do something to his driver's side wheel (I forget what) on his Lightning, and jacks the truck up under the K member. No one is home, and his cell phone is about 6ft away (buncha red flags already here). When he goes to put the wheel back on, he jostles the truck, and it slips off the jack and into the intercooler. The brake disc comes down on top of his FOOT!!! Like I said, no one's home, and the cell phone is out of reach, so he bleeds out over the course of 45 minutes or so waiting for his girlfriend to get out of work and come looking for him. Lucky for him, she shows up about an hour later, but she can't get the jack out... so she DRIVES the truck off of his foot. Just thinking about that makes me pucker. I don't know who had it worse, Chris being in pain he was in, or her, having no choice but to cause that kind of pain to someone you love. Anyway, they rush to the hospital, and he gets a metal plate and some screws in his foot, and his parents get the shock of their life coming home to a garage full of blood. Funny now, but not then, and it could've been deadly. Don't think I need to say it at this point, but USE JACK STANDS!!! That "quick little job" is not worth it. Injury stories are funny only if you live through it.

[65elkyprotour]

Last Thanksgiving I did the 40 grit flap disc on an angle grinder through the finger-tip deal. When I went to the hospital the Dr. said "Grinder, was it a meat grinder?" I replied "Well, it didn't start out that way!" I am now thinking about naming my car "The Mangler".

[BobB66SS]

First there's the old standard where the hood on your car gradually creeps down a couple of inches over time (brand new springs!) while you're wrenching under it, and you stand up to a knock on the corner of the hood with your gradually balding head. Every time I get my haircut there's a new scar to be discovered.

Last one really gripes me, PO'd at myself and the parts vendor. My new Flofit seats arrive in their giant boxes, so I open them up to make more room in the garage. The seats as you probably know come unassembled including the recliner mechanism and its ungodly strong watch-type spring. It's two plates about .150" or so thick connected by the spring. I reach into the box to grab the mechanism only to find out the hard way it's in the loaded, spring-wound position like the seatback is in the up position. The thing snaps shut into the seat-folded-forward position like a bear trap on the tips of my middle and ring fingers on my left hand. I have a decent pain tolerance but that is the worst thing I ever felt, I'm sweating ang getting lightheaded and can't think straight. Ended up chucking the thing in my vice and grabbing pliers to pull it open coupled with WD40 as lubricant (all I could reach). Slipped it out with some real tugging. By then the workbench looks like a crime scene and I subtly tell the wife she needs to drive me to a doctor. Couldn't yell for her to help, she'd have toppled over seeing it and then I'd have 2 problems. To top it off she and the ER surgeon have a mutual friend which they proceed to chat about while I sit there bleeding in agony until some interesting language on my part got the doc refocused. 20+ stitches to reattach the mangled stuff, still numb a year later. Never assume a vendor is bright enough to ship stuff the way you would.

[malihoochie]

I admit to staggering around the garage after pulling the dreaded carb cleaner in the eye/s move.

[rockdogz]

I was amazed at how long the burn marks last when you are welding on your back and the liquid metal drops on to you and burns straight through your clothes...

[BADVELLE]

Man, for your company, you are a workers comp case waiting to happen!! Be careful, you want to be around to enjoy the car!!

[Bow Tie 67]

This weekend was not to bad.

1. black & blue right thumb
2. two fingers hit grinder
3. rust in eye
4. welding sunburn
5. burnt finger
6. cut knee
7. sore all over

And I accomplished a ton of work!

[6'9"Witha69]

You need another column for "Comedy" or "embarassment" factor (depending on which side of the injury you are on)..

[69TAPoser]

I had a good day yesterday, only one additional gouge on my index finger! Granted with the prior index finger injury my finger now looks like a grilled hot dog that has been poked one too many times with a fork, but after 8+ hours in the garage, I view this as a victory!

carb cleaner in the eyes...love that one!

Phil

[bretcopsey]

Like the current Valvoline commercial says "...oil and water don't mix, but blood and oil do."

My worst injury was not in the garage, but rather working in the house. I was using a utility knife to cut out some carpet. I plunged the entire blade into my forearm. The best part was that I was home alone. I pulled out some guaze pads and the duct tape on that one!!

[TonyL]

This weekend, we hooked up a vertex magneto in my brothers boat. Hooked up a ground wire with a cutoff switch from the mag to the battery. Not knowing which way was "off" my brother toggled the switch, and turned to walk to the front of the boat. Now, at the moment the switch went "click" smoke started billowing from the wire! (he'd wired it to positive not negative.) In an instant, as I said OH SH**! He turned, and ran back, grabbing the wire and ripping it loose to break the connection.

Then he saw his hand.

Do not grab a smoking hot wire with your hand. The wire cut DEEP. right across all four fingers and on the soft spot on his thumb. It's a "keeper" of a scar now for sure. The wire was red hot. He's lucky it didn't cut right through.

[6'9"Witha69]

Anyone ever spray a black widow with Brakeclean? It just about melts them. Not that I was trying to be cruel, but I was servicing the brakes on th '62 once and it started to repel down right in front of my face. I also jumped back ~ 7 feet one day when I cracked the hood on the Camaro and as I get it up I realize there is a BW with a body the size of a quarter about 2" from my hand under the hood. The 12mm wrench in my hand took care of that one really quick. I HATE spiders in my car.