Any Injuries While Working On Your Car?

[madscotsman]

Spent an entire afternoon/morning messing with a stereo installation before going to work for the evening back in the day. On the way to work the radio kept popping out of the dash (old school pull-out kind). Barely paying attention, and somewhat agitated by now, I used some force to push it back into the dash for the fourth time and it and my hand went all the way into the dash through the small, metal opening. Scraped the skin off my middle finger knuckle (where the finger attaches) all the way down to the shiny white tendon. Had to get 6 stiches to re-attach the "flap". Passed out on the small female ED doc while she tried to stitch it up when I saw the ligaments through the opening and almost ended up on the ED floor, luckily she held me up with her heels in the ground and both hands on my chest (was in a sitting position), until help came for her.. LOL

Also, not on a car but in middle school saw my friend cut his finger tip off as it went between his bike chain and pedal sprocket on his bike as he tried to re-attach the chain.

 

[thomas91169]

Nope but almost. Was at a buddies for a wrench n 'cue, was under the front of the car which was supported by jack stands, when I hear the drivers side jack slip and the car drop about 1/2", never moved so fast in my life, just grabbed the Kmember and forced myself out from under that thing in about a tenth of a second.

Some idiot put the jack stand on the control arm and not the actual frame, so when one guy leaned on the car the control arm flexed and the jack slipped upwards.

Other than that only slight nicks/scrapes. I try to think ahead and be cognizant of what im doing, and not try to force something past a certain point otherwise theres usually a better way.

 

[nxhappy]

our buddy died....jack stand didn't hold up and no jack underneath for backup....killed him instantly. Pretty terrible, the funeral was real sad. Be careful out there gents...

 

[Ford>Chevy]

While trying to get my lugs off with a tire iron, they just wouldn't break loose. Took me like 15-20 mins to get them to budge, but boy when they did, I went tripping over the iron, and took it right in the stomach.

 

[kevinatfms]

Cutting the front rotors off an older 4wd Expedition. Cutting wheel slipped and caught part of a stud. Piece that flew off went under my safety glasses and embedded itself into my iris. 3 days of pain, bloodshot eye then a horrible fever and i was forced to go to the eye doctor. He found the piece in my left eye about 2mm into my iris. He dyed the spot, strapped my head down and called for the assistant. Ten minutes of the most uncomfortable experience in my life and i had Vicodin and a doctors note to not work for a week.
Turns out it had started rusting in my eye and cut so deep that i started having vision loss. A few more hours and i would have lost my vision permanently in my left eye.

 

[kevinatfms]

Another one, working on a 90 5.0L Mustang. Somehow shorted myself to the fender and a broken alternator harness. Woke up to people screaming for help and blood pouring out of my nose. Blacked out and smashed my face on the intake manifold and then hit my head when i fell back. Nothing broken but was in a daze for like 10-12 hours afterwards.

Havent worn a watch since.

 

[murse]

A few years ago i was changing an exhaust manifold on a mazdaspeed 3 (NO room to work) and of course the wrench slipped and the usual gash/bleeding. It wasn't until it healed that I realized I now have a Harry Potter lightening bolt scar!!!

 

[P49Y-CY]

wow some tough stories in here - be careful folks... the only recent thing i had was removing the starter for the first time on my coupe last year using a 3/8 drive and it slipped and pretty badly bruised my forearm on a sharp bracket. got x-rays but they didnt see anything.

but i remember from my youth working on a still-hot big block mopar and somehow my forearm got caught against the exhaust manifold long enough to tattoo the full chrysler manifold casting number and pentastar right into my arm. could read it for a long time

 

[shoracer]

Worst cracked chest. Had a STi tranny fall on me.

 

[alicecooper]

Nothing serious, pinched fingers and smashed knuckles.. The worst was probably when I was putting a catback on my old 92 eclipse GSX and I was using an open ended wrench to tighten a bolt when it slipped off and hit me between the eye brows with one of the ends.

 

[Sn95Snake]

There are some crazy stories in here, definitely makes me want to be more careful when working on cars especially with a jack.

 

[Fox-4]

My brother dropped his 4r70w on my left hand when we were doing conversion on his car. The heavy SOB still have a converter full of oil.:cuss:

 

[Prototype007]

Watched a friend break a wrench and he went forward and plowed the K-Member with his forehead. Required stitches.

Another time was a breaker bar broke at the head and took out a friends teeth.

 

[RedRocketMike]

I try to work smart but I wrench a lot in my free time and have suffered some pain.

Funniest. I was under my old Caprice realizing I need to jack it up more. I saw a big wolf spider running towards me and instintually tried to sit up, smashing my head onto the cross member.

Scariest. Bleeding brakes using my GF to push the pedal and she got the steps mixed up, a drum wheel cylinder pushed out and sprayed dirty brake fluid into my eye. Ran into the house and just held the sink sprayer on it for 10 minutes. I did go to an optometrist. The pressure of it got it behind my eye and embedded particles into the outer layers of cornea but I was fine, my vision is excellent.

Most painful. I smashed my right hand doing rusted rear shocks on my gf's Wrangler. A notorious bitch of a job. Had a leather glove on and hit my middle finger so hard on the gas tank shield's thin edge that it filled up with blood where the nail forms under the skin. I'm surprised I did not break the finger, the pain from impact was much worse than any finger or knuckle smash I've experienced. The nail took several months to grow out and I barely kept it on the finger.