have you ever damaged your car while working on it ?

[chip douglas]

Today i blundered real good oh yeah i now bear a grudge against myself. I don`t feel much to explain how it happened, yet i had to let it out her, where people will without a doubt feel my pain. The hugeeeee mistake i made was that i had jacked up the left rear end ofthe car along with the front right side, even though the parking brake was pulled on, and the stick```` was pushed in first gear, the front end collapsed I know the mistake is mine, but still i was like a nightmare the split second the front end collapsed to the ground.........and worst of it is the jack on its way down kinda bit into the rocker panels, creating a deep cut and a dent of about 3 inches long by 2 inches wide, and about 1/4 inch in the deepest part where the bad cut is......i was like phychologically demolished at the very moment it happened.......



Now i`m thinking repair, thus i went to the body shop and the guy told me it would cost round 200$ .......it only affected the underside of the rocker panel though...the side of it being dent and scratch free luckily..........he told me he will pull the dent out, then apply some stuff which name slips me, but he says it s some kinda rubber material, that is supposedly very good.



I asked him for the best repair possible, money is no object to me, as long as the job is well done............Yet what bothers me a lot is the paint down there will not be its original one



moral of this sorty is i feel real sad and almost hammering away at myself for having done such a STUPID mistake that could have been avoided.



Anyway it feels good to let it all out.....thanks for listening guys, and if you can relate to this please, feel free to comment of share your experience.



Best regards to all in town

[DaGonz]

:o I once overshot my ramps while pulling my Datsun 310GX on them to do an oil change..no real damage, just a lot of embarassment! :o

[chip douglas]

kinda of funny **** Gonzo :D

[CRXSi90]

Originally posted by Gonzo0903

:o I once overshot my ramps while pulling my Datsun 310GX on them to do an oil change..no real damage, just a lot of embarassment! :o



been there before...my dad was directing me on...and he didn`t quite give me the greatest directions...or maybe I`d just be scared that he`d yell at me for burning the realitivly new clutch going real slow up the ramps...so he held it at ~2000rpm slipping the clutch the whole time, going very very slowly, and sometimes nowhere at all, up the ramps, while I gave him what I thought were better directions.



Anyway, he says he`s going to weld a bigger angle-iron stop on the end, so it will be safer no matter who uses them.



[btw, these are metal ramps that he made in highschool...I think I`d look into Rhino ramps which are light, and smaller, per the raves here on autopia. ]



Good news, no terrible damage that I saw.

[slvrshadow94tt]

The ONLY time I`ve witnessed damage to my cars has been at the hands of SOMEONE ELSE working on them..........bad scratches, dings, curb rash, and the like.:angry



I`m sure I will slip up one of these days, though. :o

[imported_Aurora40]

Man,



I was replacing the weatherstripping on my Corvette once. The window seals were pop-riveted to the door, so I was drilling them out. Well, I drilled out the center and they still wouldn`t pull out, so I was like "well, drill a little further"... Anyway, long story short at some point I started to notice some red coming through the drill instead of the aluminum silver... This was the dark red metallic my car was painted. I drilled right through the door. Fortunately it was a small hole, and was under the side mirror housing so it wasn`t as noticeable. I filled it in and touched it up, but man was I angry with myself for a long time...

[Accumulator]

Worst thing I can remember is letting a dirty airhose hit the front fender of the XJS. Incredibly severe marring for such a "minor" thing, 15 years later it`s still there as I can`t bring myself to take off that much (original) paint. Today, seeing the marring reminds me: Lesson- ALWAYS control the airhose, every SECOND you`re around a car. Now I`m VERY careful about hoses, electrical cords, etc., all the time. I remind myself it COULD have been much worse.



Chip Douglas- You seem pretty bummed out about this, so heh heh, here`s my standard lecture on guilt/regret, similar to what I posted to Lynn when she almost burned her Jag to the ground:



The purpose of guilt is to affect future behavior. Something you do makes you feel guilty, you don`t like this, so you`re motivated to NOT do that thing again in the future. Once you remedy the situation as best you can and decide to NEVER do it again, there`s no longer any reason to feel guilty. So long as you don`t try to simultaneously jack up the diagonally opposing ends of the car again, you`ll be fine. You just learned an expensive lesson about how tricky it is to do that (namely, VERY VERY tricky!). So, lesson learned, future behavior modified, guilt has done its job and can now leave the building. Seriously, there`s NO point in beating yourself up once you`ve learned your lesson. *I* bet you`re about to become the most careful person on earth when it comes to jacking up your car, which can literally be a life-or-death matter :xyxthumbs

[ntoddalbert]

I once let my car down off a spider lift ( frame Supported wheels hanging freely) problem was I was distracted and had forgotten to put the wheels back on......



I noticed it just as my Rotors were gently touching the ground.... Lucky for me my (Then) pride and Joy an 86 Buick Skylark was undamaged, thinking back now the best thing that could have happened was for that car to burst into flames, god what a piece of crap



In a previous career I investigated aviation accidents/Incidents

I have seen more than a few planes fall off jacks, don`t feel so bad. When 6 guys all with aircraft technician licenses can do it collectively all you can say it "It Happens"



Teaches a valuable lesson though doesn`t it

[chip douglas]

Guys, i must say i like your postings, kinda cheers me up a bit, and about what you both said, well plenty of truth to it all.........we all make silly mistakes one day or another, still, as long as we learn from them, then it `s fine.



And yes, i`ll now be REAL CAREFUL WHENEVER JACKING UP CARS lol :o



Thanks for your supporting post all, i appreciate it.

[Spork]

I had 4 jack stands colapse while it was on them. Do not use cheap stands is the lesson I learned. I now have 4 6 ton stands that will hold up a house! And Gonzo0903 I have been there, had to get out the jack and lift it up as it was looking like a see saw going up and down on the ramps.

[CRXSi90]

MiataPaul, was it the Miata which colapsed the 4-ton jack stands?



I have a CRX and thought that cheap 3 ton stands would be fine, especially since they have various certifications. They are Rally stands if I recall correctly...bright yellow!

[03WRXMA]

Mistakens happen! Sorry to hear it happened to you..



Has anyone every hit the inner lip of a fender while working under the hood? I did it once, and I hated myself for it.

[JimS]

Back in 59 I got a 56 Chevy and I was pretty proud of that! I was doing some underhood work with a flathead screwdriver. When I got done with it I put it in my back pocket....handle down, blade up. A few minutes later I got in the car to start it. All was well until I raised up to get back out and the blade caught the seat and put a rip about 6" long in the seat.



I`ve never put a screwdriver in my pocket handle down since then and seldom put one in my pocket at all...period!



Some memories don`t fade!

[EricZ]

I put a decent scratch in my car by hitting it with the tip of the pressure sprayer gun at work a couple weeks ago. This thread reminds me of all the crazy accidents that would happen around my high school auto shop. These accidents are NOTHING in comparison to what a group of well-meaning but misinformed 16 and 17 year olds can do. Ah, memories...

[CRXSi90]

right after I tipped the ramps, I was able to back my car into some brush and leave one decent sized scratch on the rear about 8" long.



argh