these should be fun.

so as for me i totally made a rookie mistake one day and laid my wrench across my battery terminals. as soon as the other end hit the second terminal it popped off and flew right past my face nearly hitting me squarely in the eye. to this day there is a small chunk missing out of that wrench and now i'm extremely timid to work around my battery.

 

Last year, while reaching for something down near the alternator my wedding ring made contact with the positive terminal on the alternator and zapped me good. Burned all the skin under the ring and the ring has a little divot in it where the contact was made.

I'm sure there have been worse...many large cuts that bled profusely, tons of bumps and bruises...but that one stands out.

 

I have common sense

 

No real injuries, just close calls. Like the time that Dave was jacking up the car and the angle changed on the jack and his e-brake wasnt engaged...it almost fell...on me. Of course skinny me mightave survived anyway but still, not cool.

 

fixed....

 

my hands are both scarred from working on my car...but its ok, they look manly now

 

Back when I was jacking up my Camry (front-left corner), I was using the scissor jack, IIRC, had blocks under the back of the rear tires, had the ebrake pulled and raised it up fairly high... The car groaned, thought "Hmmm...," it groaned again, and promptly rolled forward off the scissor jack. Nothing happened to me (thank goodness), but the damn jackstand I was about to slide under the car but a small indention on the side skirt just below the driver's door.

 

I'm sure Jeff and Chris will have no problems telling you just how far from the truth that is

 

Always take your ring/watches/any metal off when working on cars, awsm66 can vouch for it and apparently so can a number of you guys

 

One time,on my carport,i kissed a strut spring as it went careening across my nose..

 

Ouch!

I guess Im fortunate to have mishaps not injuries...

I broke my scissor jack. It bent and now wont move. It didnt fall, just seized up when the threaded rod bent...was kind of scary though trying to get it out.

 

A few deep cuts on slipped tools and sheet metal.

I never let it stop me, I just wrap a wad of kleenex around the wound and secure it with electrical tape.

Oh yeah, how many times have you hit your head so hard your scalp bleeds?

 

I sat on a power drill once.

Actually the worst that has happened have been limited to cuts and bruises so far, I'm pretty careful but I haven't done any serious stuff yet. Had a spring compressor give out with my hands in between the coils but nothing came of it.

 

WELL....

two years ago while working at cerritos nissan i was assigned to the used automotive fluids.

the pressurized oil drum i was using to drain into the massive oil tank was surged with air and blew shrapnel and a mixture of fluids into me...

even though i was wearing safety glasses the tank shot oil at me at such a strong pressure that it knocked them off my face.

i spent 20 minutes in front of the emergency eyewash station clearing my eyes of oil...

*i had long hair at the time so whenever i got up for air my hair would fall towards my eyes and reintroduce oil to them...

i had to wait for the dealer shuttle to get me on the traffic packed road for the next 2 hours.

we finally got to the ER and they flushed my eyes with these contact lens type things attached to a saline IV.

the lens were big enough to cover the whole front of my eye. any movement of the eye caused intense pain...

for the next two weeks i would be subject to numerous eye checks in which they would drip a yellow dye into my eyesocket to inspect for more shrapnel.


...my worst injury next to being hit in the forearm by a moving altima.

 

Mechanic's bandage FTW. Of course, I generally just use electrical tape, there's not much Kleenex to be found around the shop...

Let's see...was carrying a Civic rim once, fingers between the spokes, dropped it and it tore a chunk out of my finger. Electrical taped it up and kept on working, it's all misshapen and scarred up now.

A few days ago when taking Merlyn's Cattman rear section off his A33B, letting it off of the stands was no fun. Basically:
Him: 'Alright, it's jacked up, yank the jackstand out'
Me: 'Is it securely supported?'
Him: 'I guess.'
I push up the handle that locks the jackstand in place, car slips off of the floor jack and slams down onto the jackstand. Luckily, it landed on the pinch, would've been hell otherwise.

Raised up a Yukon once on a (rated) 6 ton Rotary Lift 2 post (red posts, yellow arms to the right of the Toyota, as seen in the youtube movie below). Had it up in the air and just got back with the correct socket to take the lugnuts off when one of the damn steel cables snapped, and the car slowly lowered itself to the ground. Techs inspected it, no idea why the mechanical locks didn't hold 2 minutes later and I would've been underneath it.

Friend raised up a Rav 4 at work, double checked it per policy to make sure it was good to go up, next thing he knows it kinda falls, ***** sideways on the arms of the lift. I told him, 'it's gonna fall again...', got out my cell and started shooting. Sure enough, he got it lowered to just off of the ground when it fell again. Got it on film. He was just about to head underneath it to start draining oil.

Changing the oil on a Wrangler with the 4.0, getting the oil filter wrench on below when I'm blinded by a shower of sparks. Apparently the starter battery connection on those isn't protected by anything, so the wrench made contact and started arcing. Friend told me he did the same thing at a Jiffy Lube type place, customer left the vehicle in gear and it started rolling forward with his arm still up in it. Not a fun thing to experience, I would imagine.

Tearing apart a trans one time (auto), couldn't seem to get the rear piston (I believe) out of it. It was pressed all the way back inside the bellhousing, so asked my instructor to help me out with it. He says he'll use a 'little bit' of air pressure on the lube hole for it to pop it out, so I hold my hand out in front of it to catch it. He doesn't notice my hand, goes wide open on the air nozzle, and the part comes right at me. Bounces off of my hand, puts a dent in a filing cabinet, then takes a chip out of a concrete wall before it stops moving. Little blood, couldn't do much with my hand for a couple hours, other than that no real injuries.

I'm sure I have more, but that's just what I can think of right now.

 

was working on an older car one time, was resting my hand on the fan getting ready to do a compression test so my friend is in the car. i told him not to touch it yet, but he heard crank it and so he did, with my hand still on the fan. got a nice wound and a few stitches from that one. to this day i dont have full stretch of that finger, sewed up the skin too tight i guess. thats probly my worst. had numerous jack falling situations but never injury resulting.

 

Damn, you guys make me WANT to visit the mechanic more often and do less myself.

 

Pulled a motor from a mustang using a tie-down........... Well there is a REASON they say on them to NEVER use them to support loads....... It fell from about 6 inches up, dropped down, broke the cobra dohc intake, luckily we didn't have hands in anywhere bad, it could have been BAD. When the tiedown broke there was a 50ft long neon-orange streamer of thread irunning all across the shop. Luckily the rope didn't whack anyone either.

Saw the fuxord tranny pan from an I30 engine & trans that fell from the motor lift about 4-feet onto soft ground. That thing could have taken an entire leg with it. Lolz at everyone in the AM thread that I deleted, because this happened to my buddy when he pulled it from the top. Obviously it was stupidity with the chains though. LIM FTW

 

Does injuring your pride count? I once rolled off the end of my ramps.

 

Thank god nothing happened, but like 2 yrs ago, streetz, nismology, and myself were putting nismology's dad's max back together. We had just put the tranny back on (but just in place, the tranny jack was holding it against the dowel pins).

We put on the ypipe and other random crap from under the car. Then finally we come out from under the car and one of our legs accidentally bumped the tranny jack.... the tranny jack rolled away like nothing.... The DOWEL PINS were holding that tranny up with hopes and dreams while we were under the car for over an hr!

Yea that was scary. If it was a 5spd it would just leave a cute lil bruse.. that AUTO... omg that would have crushed us! LMAO

 

Two things:

First happened when I was still wrenching for a paycheck and it was late near closing time on a Saturday. My manager was rushing on putting a tire on a car (which I was working on) and was a novice to using air tools so he decided to put on the lugs without starting them off by hand first. Needless to say he stripped the hell out of the studs and nuts and now I got to replace the studs and nuts he f'ed up. Its on an Expedition and I pick up my 5lb BFH to bang the old studs out and somehow I managed to cushion the impact of my BFH to the stud with my pinkie finger on my right hand. Ended up shattering the bones in the tip of my finger and it stayed swollen for amost 2 weeks.

Second boo-boo happened on a fellow maxima owners car. I was changing out rear pads and rotors at the shop after hours and had a socket come flying off of a universal 1/2 swivel adapter while taking off the rear caliper brackets. The impact was facing me and the socket came flying off hitting me in the mouth and chipped both my two upper middle teeth. At the time I didn't even know that my teeth were chipped because the socket actually impacted my lip and all the pain was from the socket hitting my lip which was in between the socket and my teeth. The next week I invested in swivel sockets.

 

I've only had bruises, scrapes, and cuts thus far. I do my best to keep things safe when working on automobiles.

 

OOOO!!!! I forgot to add!!!

Just a few weeks ago, i have no idea what we were doing. Either when loosening the axle nut, or loosening wheel lug nuts. But streetzlegend was using my 3ft breaker bar for it. Anyways I got too close, at the wrong time, and he didnt see me cus he was too busy struggling with w/e he was doing.

Needless to say, when the nut came loose... the end of that breaker bar and this guy's fist came full blast towards my jaw, BAM! lmao!

 

Several Cuts and scars from many audio instalations, also alot of burns from working on hot engine stuff.

 

I sliced my hand open trying install the silicone coupler over the throttle body. This was my first time working on my car too!!

 

For some dumb*** reason I was using a drill press to dress down a part for one of my RC cars.... the part slipped and i rambed like 1/2 inch of drill into my palm. Proud to say I finished the job with a shop towel and electrical tape with my 2 boys watching in Pure Shock.

 

I don't remember what i was doing, but i forgot to put something under the hood to help hold it up, and my hood struts decided to crap out. So the hood slammed down centimeters from my head and fingers. I have no doubt that it would have taken off my fingers if they had been in the way.

 

was welding a 3" exhaust together for a customer a while back. cat to muffler was supported on about 6 jack stands holding it in place while I was measuring and cutting pieces. get the last flange between the header and cat ready, and just as I'm about to tack weld it into place, said goober customer decides he wants to move exhaust 1/4" and grabs it. the heavy *** cat (connected to 3" exhaust all the way to the muffler mind you) fell on my face. broke one of my front teef in half so now I look like a redneck..

lots of cuts and bruises and burns from welding and fabricating. it's not a project until you bust a knuckle open and then 'disinfect' it with brake cleaner and cover with electrical tape.

the other really bad one was about 3 yrs ago right after I started BlehmCo.. I was carrying ~120lb of steel tubing across the shop and turned my ankle stepping on a 1" long chunk of scrap metal. As I was going down, I threw the steel away from me to prevent more damage to me.. wound up taking out a headlight on my car scratching up the bumper pretty bad, crushed several LTBs I'd just finished welding up, and broke a couple tools in the shop- I forget what all now. The injury was that I wound up with a small tear in a ligament and it's been sloooowly healing since. I am just now getting to the point I can run at a full sprint again.. but my ankle is now so weak I can step on a pencil and turn it again if I'm not paying attention.

Both of those injuries were 100% preventable had I stopped to pay attention to my surroundings. tripping over crap in the middle of the floor is one of the most common garage injuries there are. getting smashed by a dropped/falling load is another pretty common one- both preventable if you just pay attention to what you're doing and what other people are doing..

NEVER put your body or hands under an engine that's only supported by a hoist- especially when using straps. ALWAYS use chain when hoisting an engine. you never know when the hydraulics can fail or a rope break- especially if you're using nylon straps. it's soooo easy to cut a strap on the edge of the head or block or valve cover of an aluminum engine.

 

 

My worst was when I was using a razor blade to remove old tint from my car and I accidentally moved my arm and cut a 3" gash on my forearm with the blade. It was a clean cut so I just disinfected it and kept going. It didn't hurt, but it sure did bleed a bit.

 

was grinding down some metal plates when i first started my job with a wire wheel. i had a loose fitting t-shirt on. i went to look at something ,and moved the wirewheel so that i can see.next thing i know im on my knees gaspin for air.the wire wheel caught my shirt at damn near full speed had a nice bruise for a while.Second this is a ungodly close call i was on a road call i had to run up to north jersey from morrisville pa to change a tire on one of these.It was 110 degrees out that day,and the truck was loaded to the gills.i had to change the right rear tire,which is pretty close to 300lbs.the driver park the truck on an slight slight incline.So me being stupid and think that it aint gonna move,proceed to jack the truck up chock the front wheels pull the tire off slap the new on and be on my way.....WRONG!!!! The jack sunk into the ground causing the truck to roll off of the jack and back down the incline.not even literally 2 seconds after i just crawled from under it. i must sat there for about a half hour shaking to no end. ever since then a road call on a hot day,i put a piece of steel under the jack and chock all the wheels

 

I have a bad habit of stupd things like that happening to me. For example, one time at work i pulled a 5spd g20 into my bay, i got one of the lot kids to start it for me while i was looking under the hood for a belt squeal and oil leak, well i guess he wasnt paying attention and didnt realize it was a 5spd, so he started it, it was in 1st gear it jumped forward knocked me down, luckily the ebrake was on and the car didnt have enough power to keep going or i probably would have been severly injured.

Anotehr time i was doing an oil change on a 88 pulsar, and one of the service advisors thought he would help me by spraying brake cleaner to get the oil that had leaked on the oil pan from letting it drain, so i guess he didnt see me standing so he sprays it, gets my DIRECTLY in the face. I serioulsy couldnt see properly for 20 minutes, i was flushing my eyes out for awhile lol.

another time i had this project car me and my freind were working on, it was a 91 mazda 323, so i had a breaker bar attatched to the bolt holding the crank pulley on, i was trying to get it to TDC, well i ask him how much more and he said just a little bit more, i guess he thought it would be easier to blip the starter, good idea, except he forgot i had the braker bar still on and my leg was right underneathit, so he blips it, the ****in breaker bar DRILLS me in the thigh, i serioulsy thought i had broken my leg, it hit that hard it took a chunk out of my thigh, and the bruise was about 1.75-2.00" in diamter lol.

my last one was one of my first bad experiences. I did my rear calipers, so to get off the bolt that holds the torque arm to the hub i thought it wouldbe a good idea to use an air ratchet, well i wasnt expecting this, but the bolt was almost seized in so when i hit the trigger the ratched spun trapped my hand against the ebrake spring mechanisim and because my hand was trapped my finger was stuck on the trigger. My god its giving me chills up my spine, that was painful, needless to say im always somewhat apprehensive using those now, i had a HUGE cuts on several fingers, a huge gouge on the top of my hand.

Other then that ive seen some other bad things happen, exhaust from a 3.5 altima dropped on a techs head once because the rear 2 muffler hangers came off because he sprayed penetrating fluid on them, that was messy, ive also seen, impact elbows blow up spraying shratnel into techs faces and etc. Only seen this once, but one time a apprentice tech(he was an a$$hole) put a brand new 06 pathfinder on the hoist, just recnetly sold, he had to pull off the wheels and check for a warped rotors, well the post arm slipped and the pathfinder fell on one side, then the other side gave out, my god was that messy, i dont think there was a part on that truck that wasnt damaged lo..

 

Some nice ones...

A few that didn't happen to me:

Doing a clutch job with a friend on an Eclipse a while back, he was cleaning up the clutch housing of oil and clutch residue (RMS leak) while I was sitting basically in the engine compartment from underneath installing the RMS. It's getting pretty dark outside, and he couldn't quite tell if it was clean enough yet...so as he's sitting there spraying brake parts cleaner into the clutch housing, he gets the smart idea of using a lighter to check his progress. DIdn't turn out all too well, needless to say. Scorches his face up a bit, trans is laying there on fire, and I'm just kinda sitting inside the engine bay, only point of exit towards the fire...

Also, when I worked at Sears (and of course this happened on my day off) apparently a tire machine just...exploded when they turned the compressors on in the morning. Side of the case was all twisted outward, shrapnel laying near it. Don't know exactly what happened, but everything inside the tire machine was destroyed.

 

lmao, classic.

 

I was using an air die-grinder under the bed of a truck at an odd angle. For some reason, the air hose broke (no I didnt grind through it) and it was like a cartoon from there. The hose was flopping around, hitting me in the head repeatedly, until I got out of there. Not a huge injury, but sure pissed me off. My dad was behind me laughing the whole time... classic

 

I wasn't working but...... I was like 11 years old and my brother had his car on the lift. I'm walking around, just looking. I have this bright idea of seeing how fast I could get his tire to spin.

I grab a spoke on his wheel and start to spin it as fast as i could. As i'm letting go of the spoke, my middle finger hits the brake caliper.... the wheel is spinning very fast.... before I had time to remove my finger, the next spoke in the wheel slams into my finger (which was against the brake caliper remember), stopping the wheel completely and about ripping the end of my finger off. It's still a bit deformed to this day.

I guess thats why 11 year olds shouldn't be in garages.

 

Here is my most serious injury from work. I was fabricating a bracket for my electric vacuum pump and the air grinder got away from me. This image is current, as of this post. It is healed from about 2-3 months ago.
http://a74.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/...636b555679.jpg

Other stories are similiar to others. Jack slipped on max as I was putting on a tire. Shoved the tire under the fender and yanked my hands out just as the car fell down on the tire. The impact of the car dropping onto the upright tire bent up my fender which I had just put on a few months before. I was so mad at myself that I've still not replaced that fender.

Other story, working on a Celebrity trying to diagnos a starting problem (was electronic failure in distributor). My friend was messing around and pointlessly checking the tension of the upper accessery belt as I tried to start the car. His fingers got caught under the belt and pulled through the A/C pulley. No injury, but he said it really hurt. Of course, this is also someone who lit a model rocket engine with a lighter and gave himself 2nd degree burns on 1/2 his hand when it ignited.

 

About a month ago I had a pretty good one.

I working doing a timing belt on a honda. The only pita part was braking the crank pulley bolt loose. I tried using my impact gun and that didn't work so I grabbed 2 of my 1/2x6 extentions"(one snapon and the other craftsman), a braker bar and a pipe over the braker bar. The thing was really on there so I had to stand on the pipe and bounce a couple times to try and brake it loose. Well the only thing that broke was the craftsman extension. A piece of the extention flew up and decided a nice place to land was in my knee. It was stuck in my kneecap about a 1/4 of an inch.

15 min. later I used 3 snap on extensions 2 were 3" and the other 6" and broke the bolt loose ( I hate craftsman now)

And I don't know how many times I've lifted up my head into a balljoint or part of a car lift. These leave great cut and or bruises...

 

Working on the engine and I forgot to put a stick or something to hold the hood up (Why...because I'm too cheap to buy new hood supports) and the hood came crashing down into the back of my head. BTW: I have an I30 which has the grill attached to the hood. I was dazed for a few minutes and a sever headache for the rest of the day.

Working on an '82 XJ6, my friend bumped the jack-stands and the car fell onto the floor. I'm very thankful that I was looking for a tool otherwise I would have been crushed. As it happed, I had scooted out from underneath the car just enough so that when the car came down, my foot was in the the axle space in the middle of the car...otherwise I would have had a broken ankle. I couldn't get my foot out and I had to wait for my friend to stop saying "O my god, O my god, are you O.K?" and to get his s#!t together so he could use the jack to raise the car. Incidentally, that was the last time I ever let someone help me work on a car. I'm a lone garage wolf now.

Didn't happen to me...but the worst injury I've ever seen was back when I was working at a Porsche/BMW shop. One of the techs was taking the springs of a 2000+ Carrera to lower it and something slipped and sent the spring crashing into his arm. I will never forget that cracking sound that his bone made nor will I forget the site of half a man's arm hanging limp.

 

Pulled a hamstring changing the rear spark plugs.