Clumsy for a moment

[Felix]

I made a start on replacing the wood veneer gauges in my car today, moved my head up and knocked the rear view mirror. Not hard enough to hurt but enough to crack the screen around the mount and in the middle!!

Hopefully I should have a new screen fitted for the weekend!

What clumsy but costly things have you managed?

[turbotechnics]

Dropped a brand new Porsche 911 xenon head light... Expensive.

[bortaf]

More dumass than clumsy but i had a Mk1 astra estate with an ansa rear box i'd fitted (badly), it fell off on the highroad so i stopped, reversed back to it and picked it up, i got back to the drivers door before i realised it was fooking hot so lobbed it in the car, it hit the passenger seat bounced off and up and smashed the screen (can i get a DOH).
There are many worse but that was the stupidist most clumsyness with me ends in blood loss .

[Deleted]

I dropped a washer into an inlet manifold of a 405 diesel on my work experience when i didnt quite understand the consequences, like 15 or something. It was one of them situations where i thought at the time it would just go away if i forgot about it, and thought it best to keep it to myself. Other than a few hours stripping and rebuilding by what is now one of my closest friends, a loud bang and an irate irish man shouting - it all worked out ok.

[ChasR]

Me? Many things! I shall disclose a few of my mistakes for your laughter and as a way to discourage peeps on here from buying a car from me!

1) 2006 VW Passat 1.9 TDI; There I was planning to change the camshaft. I read the Haynes and saw the MyTurboDiesel video. How I wish that I saw the latter more. When it came to undoing the camshaft bolt caps I could not see them under all of the gunk! I therefore stupidly undid the head bolts.... Upon realising my mistake I retorqued the head. Thankfully the engine went on to live for quite some time!

2) MGB - When changing the rear springs I was paranoid about punching a hole through the sills, so I jacked it on the rear beam. I undid the rear spring plate ;Jesus I thought I almost broke my hand! Lesson learned and a lucky escape!

3) A few of us topped up the engine oil on a Passat TDi. One of us left the engine cap off.... The engine bay was pretty messy afterwards!

[fred]

Changed the oil on my Fozzer, kicked her up, red light? bloody oil filter sitting still in box on passenger seat - oil spewed pretty much everywhere. Bum !

[djefk]

Not seeing a red light at a junction at the Slough CoOp roundabout on millennium eve ( I was probably distracted with the thought of the party I was going to) and ploughing my beautiful low mileage Mk 5 Cortina into a sh!tty nail of an old beige mk 3 Escort at 30 mph, writing both cars off fairly effectively. Tw@t.

[Maxxxer]

The night before the Gathering 2013 I decided it would be good to check all my fluids and top up where needed.
Topped up the oil, screen wash etc... Next day, drove all the way to the Gathering (about 130 miles, ish). Arrived to the smell of hot oil - it seems I had failed miserably to replace the oil cap after dutifully topping it up, and had coated the inside of my bonnet with thick black oil (however I'd not lost a great deal, due to topping it up....)

Between us we made a makeshift oil cap (cling film & rubber bands) and I returned home and promptly ordered a new one.

When I came to fit it I found it wouldn't fit (seems I ordered the wrong one), however after looking deeper into the engine bay, there was my old one wedged down the side of the block (thankfully away from any moving parts).

So I refitted it and sent the new one back for a refund....

[adam73bgt]

When we had a cold winter a couple of years ago, the door handle button on my MGB stuck in so the door wouldn't latch. This had happened before and was simply fixed by giving the door a slam which caused the button to pop out. This time, the button was properly frozen in, so several slams did not unstick it, but did break my door mirror off...


More recently when I had my Jag, I got in and decided to pull the door shut by the top of the door frame rather than the interior handle.. Cue one hand shut in the door and many expletives as I tried to open it again

[MiataMark]

Spent an afternoon replacing the broken interior door lock (and window motor assembly) on the MX5, got it all refitted and messing around getting it all lined up broke the replacement in exactly the same place!

[luckyseven]

Drilling a hole in 6mm ally plate for a bracket. Just a quick job, no need to clamp it down, I'm wearing gloves. Drill bit catches, work piece spins, grips end of glove thumb, turns that into ever-tighter spiral of unbreakable fabric nearly severing my thumb. Drill bit snaps, firing alloy pate at warp speed right into the front of my skull. Fortunately missing my brain by several feet.

Use clamps...Fool

[grifterkid]

Where to start...?!

1) College lad, first car and all that... In a college convoy on the way home I thought I'd illuminate every rear light on my beloved Nova to annoy my 'follower' and slammed the poor old toy into reverse at about 40mph in order to get the reverse lights on...!!!!!! Not good at all...

2) Mk1 Granada Ghia... Leaky sunroof... Carwash... Moist!!!

3) Mk5 Cortina... Hill... Handbrake not working properly... RUN!!!

4) I had a Mk2 Cavalier for literally a couple of days... That was due to my intimate use of the jet wash my old man had purchased and the crumbly nature of the underneath of said Cavalier... T!t!!!

Clumsy moments in old motors...?! That's what they're for right...?!

[86mike]

Once many years ago while working on a pals Escort I managed to get my spanner to slip of the nut I was tightening in such a way that I lost grip and said spanner was launched across the car park landing nicely on the bonnet of another pals "just waxed" BMW......I was not popular...

[Battles]

Nicked the brake line on a W124 while cutting off two failed (went banana shaped) coil compressors because I was too tight to buy the proper spring compressors.
I'd driven the car to the workshop at about 9pm to do the work, got home about 3am. I could have cried.

[v8ian]

Apr 24, 2015 13:45:26 GMT luckyseven said:

Drilling a hole in 6mm ally plate for a bracket. Just a quick job, no need to clamp it down, I'm wearing gloves. Drill bit catches, work piece spins, grips end of glove thumb, turns that into ever-tighter spiral of unbreakable fabric nearly severing my thumb. Drill bit snaps, firing alloy pate at warp speed right into the front of my skull. Fortunately missing my brain by several feet.

Use clamps...Fool

Clamps, and don't wear GLOVES. I'm an engineer, and have recently seen 2 nasty accidents due to people wearing the incorrect attire for work, One was a pair of gloves on a drill resulting in the loss of 2 fingers, his excuse was he did not want to get dirty, and an incident with a lathe and a shirt sleeve getting caught on a lathe chuck while it was rotating.....

I think my worst was having my Mk2 Cortina up on stands and jacking the back up higher, the stands tipped forward and sideways not off the stands but half off them coming to rest against the garage door killing the bonnet and the garage door, gave up at that point, went in for a shower, coming back downstairs I noticed one of my newly fitted stair spindles had warped badly, so I thought it wont be hard to pull it out, so I gave it a yank, came half out and jammed, so gave it a big tug, It came out allright, hitting me on the head, 7 stitches and an evening in casualty,

[gazz81]

The 2 worst incidents I can remember are:

First one was was doing an exhaust repair on my old Cavalier, dropped it back on the ground and leant in through the window to start it up and forgot it was in gear (and handbrake off!). Que hi idling auto choke and the car shot 50 yds across the yard of my mates garage and square into the front of restored mg midget that was being collected that afternoon!!

second incident involved coming home for lunch and parking my 924 infront of the garage as I always did. Looked out the window 10 minutes later and it had gone, shot outside and sure enough was no sign of it. Ran down the road towards the exit of our close and there it was in somebodys front garden! Would have appeared I'd forgotten to put the handbrake on!!
Was bloody lucky, must have traveled about 80 yds in a perfectly straight line, missing parked cars all around! The low conifer hedge it went through slowed it down enough to bring it rest on the lawn, without crashing into the house!!