Laying under the gas tank and pulling the sending unit (after draining what I thought was all the gas via siphon tube)and taking a gasoline bath, yea, that was fun.

 

My 71 put 3 stiches in the top of my head.On the hood moulding. Now I make sure the hood is all the way up.

 

Welding on my 59 VW Bus many years ago, underneath, repairing rust damage, using a torch. Got some weld spatter near my eye by the welding goggles. Came blasting out from underneath the VW to get if away. After a short time, when the eye was OK, and everything was normal, realized my leg was hurting. Looked down and saw the big 1/4" welding rod (good for filling holes) sticking out of my thigh. When I had bolted from under the VW, apparently I had thrown the molten tipped rod right at my leg, and did not realize it had just sunk right in.

That was 1972, and I still have a nice bullet shaped round hole scar in my leg.

 

The realization that no matter how much I replace, I will never be "done"!

My broken heart

 

While grinding some bondo off one of my Jeeps I hit some rusty metal and it made it's way into my eye. Did the ER visit and they removed what they thought was all of the metal. Woke up the next morning with my eye swollen shut. Another trip to the ER to get the remaining rusty metal out of my now infected eye. Patch for a week and a new found appreciation for my sight.
I always wear glasses when I'm working, even when I cut the lawn and a full shield when the weed wacker is being used.
Lesson learned!
My buddy slipped while getting out of a hot tub and bashed his face/eye socket on the step and now has no vision in his eye. Protect your eyes!!!!

 

I was using brake cleaner to clean up some oil mess from a rear pinion seal leak and had the nozzle pointing the wrong way. It went straight into my eye. I ran into the house throwing out my contact and running into shelves, doors and everything else in the way. You should have heard my wife say "I told you to wear glasses!".

 

After unleashing an incredibly creative string of foul language when I banged my knuckles bloody trying to loosen a stuck header bolt, my neighbor came over and blackened my eye for cussing in earshot of his kids. Earshot in this case would have been anyone within an 1/8th of a mile...

 

Using a panel cutter on the air hammer to remove a quarter panel, the cutter slipped, and i ran my thumb down the fresh sharp edge, slicing it to the bone. Cut between my nail and the knuckle. Bled pretty bad and left a pretty bad scar. Now years later, I bang my hands all the time while working, usually don't notice it till later, then can't remember why I'm bleeding.

 

I wouldn't even know where to begin, but after BaronVonAutomatics story. I am glad I live in the suberbs of the middle of nowhere!

Larry

 

While working on my 69 i think the worse besides the ocasional scrap,poke or funny bone shot would be the piece of undercoating that went right past my safety glasses and in my eye.went to the doctor and i guess the coolest part of the whole deal,if there is one,was when they put iodine,i think,in my eye and used a black light to see what aws in there when they turned off the lights my wife went"Oh god,you look like a monster"because my eye glowed.Like mentioned there's really nothing more important than protecting your eye's,And besides safety glasses a good face shield is a must. :thumbup:

 

cleaned a part with de-greaser, made a large puddle on the floor, went to the other side of the garage, was holding a large vise to install on my work bench, stepped in the puddle of degreaser with out realizing it. Slipped. right foot went right into engine stand, bashed my fibula, so hard, i thought my foot was broken, went down like a ton of bricks hard. Was in mind numbing agony for about 15 minutes on the garage floor unable to move or scream, wished i had a cell phone on me, began to panic, about how i would have to crawl out of the garage, pain slowly went away, was able to put weight on it after 45 minutes, went inside got checked by the doctor nothing was broken, it hurt for 3 months until it finally healed.

 

On my 70 Mach, I punched the underneath my hood so hard it left 4 knuckles marks. I had a very sore hand for weeks but nothing broken. When I had my Stang estimated for painting, I had to explain what the divots were! :crazy: I felt like a real dumbass!
Joe

 

My 71 put 3 stiches in the top of my head.On the hood moulding. Now I make sure the hood is all the way up.

Try life with a '70 Cougar. These have the center hood extension that goes down into the grille. You can always tell a '70 Cougar owner -- the balding ones anyway -- by the scars on the tops of their heads.

 

My wors injury probably was when I was trying to adjust the window regulator in my fastback and the window dropped and pinned my upper arm between the regulator and the opening in the door panel. I couldn't push the glass up due to its weight and no one was around to help me. I finally managed one last effort and reached up and pulled the glass up with my free hand enough to get free. I had a big, wide, dark bruise around my arm for a couple of weeks and won the doofus award.

 

I had the exact same thing happen when I restored a '64 Cadillac Coupe DeVille in the late '80s.....I was working outside in the evening and got my arm pinched in the hole under the weight of that heavy Caddy door window...my very young wife was in the house with the stereo blasting, and could not hear me screaming for her for close to an hour......arms really can turn purple....she finally did come to my rescue.....LOL
Tom

 

I too was taking a gasoline bath when I saw these two feet in front of the car. I slid out to see a Jehovah and I kid you not, this guy says "If you were to die today, are you sure your soul would go to heaven?" I said "Light a match and we'll find out together." Then I escorted him off my property.
Just recently I broke a nail - right down the middle from the quick to the front edge. Didn't know you could do that. The wrench slipped and my accelerated hand's progress was impeded by the bigass aluminum accessory bracket on my wife's 4.0L. Didn't hurt too bad. A few minutes later I was wondering where the blood on my fingernail had come from. I have been using clear nail polish to keep it glued together and the other crap out. The funny thing about that is I bought the nail polish to protect some prototype circuit boards from moisture ages ago (poor mans MFP for you old timers). Might go look for some Ford Corporate Blue instead.

 

Using a sawzall to cut the front leaf spring bolt, tight quarters, awkward angle, lying on my back, the sawzall kicked back and hit my chin, needed stiches but did not want to waste the day at the ER, so I bandaged the cut with a butterfly bandage and continued to get the F%^#&^ bolt out.

 

Had my fresh rebuilt engine and trans on the cherry picker and made the mistake of not having the lower feet extended far enough. I was behind the cherry picker pushing it in the shop when it decided to flip. I jumped on the back of the cherry picker to try to counterbalance the engine combo but with no luck. I flew up with the back of the cherry picker and hit my head on my garage's ceiling. No major injuries except to my pride :lol: Would have been a funny video either way.

 

Many years ago, I was misusing a swiss army knife (the blade doesn't lock open) to open an oil can. Blade snapped shut and cut the front of my thumb about an inch, from the nail down. About a month later, I was misusing the same knife to cut the rubber boot off the power steering ram. I had an instant to realize "I shouldn't be doing this" before it snapped shut on the same thumb.

I once got a fleck of rusty iron in my eye. I couldn't get it out and while I was pondering going to the doctor, I hit on the idea of using a magnet. Worked like a charm.

Frank

 

Black eye, I was installing the new 8in. rear center section. The car was jacked up and the drive line unhook and held up out of the way with a coat hanger. I was laying on my back and as i lifted the center section up, i bumped the driveline and it smacked me in the eye. Nothing i could do because i was still holding the heavy center section up trying to line up the bolts. Except turn to side and let the blood run off so i could still see to line up the bolts. that sucked

 

I've cut the bejeesus out of both hands installing a flex fan, wondering what all the red spots were, before realizing I was cut.

 

I wasn't actually working on my car but was unhitching the trailer that it was on. The trailer latch wouldn't release from the ball of the hitch on my jeep. After doing eveything I could to release it, I finally thought I'd put my finger in there to feel why it wasn't releasing. Probably not the best idea! As soon as my left index finger touched the latch, it released. My finger was smashed/broken and cut to the bone. I was alone and had to call for help. About 20 minutes later a family member took me to the ER. 18 stitches later and a wrapped up finger and all was well. I now have a nice scar running down my finger with a small amount of flesh still missing and a slightly messed up finger nail as my war wounds.

 

My life has been one long string of maintenance related mishaps....

Most recently....

Paint thinner in my left eye. I was working cleaning a part and I remember watching the splashed drop climb up out of the bucket... getting larger as it approached my unprotected eye. Sure enough, one drop of fresh paint thinner in direct contact with my eye. I remember blindly stumbling to the garden hose to flush it out and it teared for about an hour.

Over 2 years ago, while trying to align a Jeep engine into the motor mounts with a large screwdriver being used as a prybar, the screwdriver slipped and my "pushing" hand proceeded into the engine. Fortunately, the impact of the single pronged water temp sensor with the quick of my thumbnail prevented my hand from serious damage. However, I had to use a screwdriver to pry my thumbnail/thumb off of the sender. Even now, the nail is still healing. The sensor still works like a charm.

Non-car related...

A month ago I was stacking some leftover cinder blocks and caught my left middle finger nail on an adjacent block. It peeled all of the way back. I folded it back down and pulled it off a couple weeks later. Looks like crap right now...

A couple years ago, running across my loose rock driveway trying to kick my new Lab puppy out of the way of a Copperhead, the puppy moved at the last second making me miss. The momentum of the unexpected missed kick caused me to loose my balance. The non-kicking leg lost traction in the loose rock and both legs shot up in the air. I landed in very close proximity to the Copperhead. Him and I were pretty much seeing "eye to eye", except he was breathing. Fortunately for me, the snake was probably laughing too hard to bite me as I lay there with the wind knocked out of me. I cracked 3 ribs on my left side.

A few years ago I was driving 14" spikes into railroad ties with the biggest framing hammer I own (it's a big 32 ouncer that'll tire your arm in about 5 minutes). It had been raining. I was standing in mud. The last 6 inches of each nail required THOR-like swings to make any impact. Needless to say, one of the Thor-like swings resulted in a complete miss of the nailhead... and the railroad tie. The next thing slowing down the crushing blow was my left kneecap. I'm man enough to admit that it made me cry. I did the "curly shuffle" squirming in the mud holding my kneecap for a good 10 minutes. When I limped into the house my wife caught a glimpse of my muddy clothing and laughingly asked me if I had slipped in the mud? I believe that my glare could've killed a lesser person.

Dave

 

Dave, your snake and Thor stories have me laughing so hard my eyes are tearing up. Sorry about your pain, but thanks for the laughs.

 

i was fooling with a 65 convertible i picked up that kept running hot and after a hot run i opened the hood and low and behold the lower hose burst and gave me 3rd degree burns on both my ankles. i hosed them off and went in and asked the wife what should i do and the sight of my ankles almost sent her into shock. finally she drove me to the emergency room. Best part was i used my sick time at work and got to continue fooling with the stang.

 

6 (two spots of 3 each)stiches in my head(forehead and the classic boxer over the eye cut) after running into a heavy part I had painted and forgot I hung on the open garage door to dry.

Also several times the obligatory smashed knuckles and twisted wrist when the drill grabs while doing the shelby drop.

My cousin lost part of a finger when a tranny fell off a floor jack during installation.

Recently heard of a story close to here where some one stealing Cat Converters from a wrecking yard at night was found dead the next morning after a car fell on him.