Collateral Damage while working on cars

[SBC 240Z]

I'm curious if anyone else here has this problem while working on their cars or maybe while doing something else completely unrelated to cars. For me it seems like if I'm drinking coffee while working on my car it is going to get broken somehow.

I had a nice Subaru coffee cup I got from a dealership in Mobile, Ala, well I was working on my first S13 and the wrench I had was the wrong size so I tossed it behind my back without looking and it went spinning directly into that cup.

Then while trying to beat a door pin out of the hinge for my second S13 I managed to cause enough ruckus to knock down my brand new Manitowoc coffee cup off the solid wood 20' long work table I was using.

Granted these were completely my fault but *cross my fingers* I guess this is a small price to pay because I'd rather break a coffee cup than something more valuable. You can be sure though if I'm working on my car with a nice coffee cup it's bound to get broken, if it's a cheapo coffee cup it will survive a 10 story fall.

[Jesda]

I usually lose the skin on my knuckles, and sockets. Always sockets lost in the engine bay.

[SBC 240Z]

Yeah i gotta agree with you on the sockets, kind of like socks in the dryer

[Dattebayo]

I usually lose the skin on my knuckles, and sockets. Always sockets lost in the engine bay.

That's why in invested in a few of these things from Harbor Freight...



It seems like I always cut the crap out of my hands all the time when I do something, and there's always a part of my arm dirty that I can't reach somehow..

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I caught the 240 on fire once while welding something on it. Does that count?
My phone has walked off the work bench while I'm pounding on something in the vise. So has the bench grinder.

More often than not, its either my body or one of the tools I'm using that takes the beating... or the vehicle itself.

[krash]

I usually lose the skin on my knuckles, and sockets. Always sockets lost in the engine bay.

x1000, I always get hand injuries, and always find myself buying new 10mm and 12mm sockets.

I've shorted the fuse for my headlights while working on something else in the engine bay. And I think my old Chocolate 2 sustained some heavy damage multiple times from working on cars. But as James probably knows, that thing is near indestructible.

[speedeast]

Always skin damage.

I have 3 different 3/8" rachets, and I find myself exchanging at least one of them after working on cars.

On the unrelated to cars collateral damage note... If I buy a new white shirt, it always has a new irremovable stain on it the first time I wear it. I mean, I can go months without ever spilling a drop of food, but put me in a white shirt and it's on like donkey kong.

Don't get me started on socks in the dryer...

[Solar_Runner]

I'm still looking for my #2 phillips screw driver....

I break a lot shop lights for some reason. Lose skin too....

[PapaSmurf2k3]

But as James probably knows, that thing is near indestructible.

I never ended up using it. I think I ended up recycling it at best buy to get a $5 credit on something. It sure was beat to hell though. Still powered up and worked

[King Ranzo]

I can be doing something as simple as opening my hood and I'll immediately get dirty. Every car I owned is out to get me as dirty as possible. And as for losing s*** in the bay, I always seem to drop tiny as s*** bolts and never find them. Big ones? Oh, those fall in the most visible spot. The tiny ones? Heh. I'll be looking for those for days on end and I will NEVER find them until a week or two later in the most impossible place.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I topped off the oil in the Prelude a few weeks ago and totally didn't put the cap back on the valve cover. I then proceeded to drive ~160 miles on the highway (~4000 RPM), all the while wondering "what the heck reeks like oil?". I figured I just had gotten a bunch on my hands.

Never found it. Had to buy a ricer one from Autozone or something (chrome rubber stopper type). I've also lost all those little metal clips that Nissan likes to use to keep their harnesses plugged together (think MAF, coolant temp sensor connections on an S13). I lost a few of the fuel injector covers and screws as well. My alternator bolt is still rolling around some garage in North Kingstown, RI as well. Never could find that sucker, and it was HUGE.

[speedeast]

Yeah, on my Mazda the oil cap is over top of the timing chain. I left it open accidentally just to start it up and let the oil level settle when I was changing it once. That chain slung so much oil all over the engine and the front of the car... ugh. I've lost big stuff like ratchets and needle nose pliers working under the car. Just never turns up.

[danshaz82]

ive yet to lose a tool or socket. a few close calls, but they always turn up. i try to be careful with those haha.
but i do tend to lose skin and blood whenever i work on it. and always somehow get covered in grease and dirt.

[Jesda]

I have a pulled wrist from 2007 that nags me once in a while. I should probably get surgery.

The problem recurred in 2010 while I was making my own power seat controls for the '92 Seville.

Then again this summer while I was doing something on the Saab.

[Mr1der]

or a girlfriend.

ZING!

I sometimes break tools....can't say I've had anything retarded happen though, other than slamming my knuckles into stuff. I did get my hand stuck under the intercooler piping on the old Supercoupe changing spark plugs for about 2 minutes though. God that job sucked.

[SBC 240Z]

Always skin damage.

I have 3 different 3/8" rachets, and I find myself exchanging at least one of them after working on cars.

On the unrelated to cars collateral damage note... If I buy a new white shirt, it always has a new irremovable stain on it the first time I wear it. I mean, I can go months without ever spilling a drop of food, but put me in a white shirt and it's on like donkey kong.

Don't get me started on socks in the dryer...

I stopped buying white shirts for this very reason. My closet is pretty much grey or black, if they could make a grease colored shirt I'd be in heaven

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I have an abundance of NICO T-shirts that got damaged or stained somehow. They have all become garage shirts. I also gave one to a lady in a rollover accident on my way home from a NICO event (Atlanta 09?) so she could use it as a tourniquet on her arm that got wedged between the steering wheel and the A-pillar. :eek
I got a pretty bitchin thank you note a few months later.

[SBC 240Z]

by that do you mean she showed up at your house wearing nothing but the blood stained t-shirt intending to give it back to you?

[PapaSmurf2k3]

No, she rolled her GMC Jimmy on the highway right in front of me in some *not that bad* rain. There wasn't a turn there or anything. I saw the whole thing go down. Fishtailed, then slid into the median, and rolled the thing. I was the only person that stopped. People were driving over her splash guards in the middle of the highway and didn't give 2 s***. Blood everywhere.

[speedeast]

F***ed up world we live in...