OOF Car related mishaps/injuries

[DavidB]

I’ll never forget the time in 2002 when I had run out of petrol going to take my girlfriend to work (in a doughnut factory). I got a fuel can and jumped in my dads green Proton MPi and headed to the petrol station. Retrieving the fuel can from the boot, the boot lid promptly came back down again thanks to knackered boot struts with the latch coming to a stop right on the back of the skull, resulting in a lot of pain/ blood/swearing. I got round to filling my petrol can, i checked my wound but managed to rub petrol into it resulting in more unnecessary pain.

I finally got round to my girlfriends, and to top it off I walked dog poo into her parents hallway carpet! Ugh, what a night.

Regale me with all your car injury hijinx.

[mitsisigma01]

Had tooo many to mention if you include 2 and 3 wheel conveyances 

[Fraz]

I was changing an exhaust under an old corsa many moons ago. The centre section was being particularly difficult and fought me coming off. It eventually “popped” off surprising me and cracked me right in the eye. 
 

Next morning I woke up with a cracking black eye which was great as I was attending a wedding of which I was part of the wedding party 🤣 

 

Also, not quite working on a car but working in my garage on a push bike 2 months ago I managed to burst a hand held blow torch causing it to explode and produce a jet of flame which burnt my arms and full face. 
 

That REALLY hurt and initiated a hospital visit and many weeks off work. Luckily skin heals amazing well and I’m kind of back to normal! 

[Split_Pin]

When I was 16 way back in 1996 and working in an HGV workshop, I was sometimes tasked with shifting the acetylene welding gear about (they didn't have a MIG in those days) . The bottles were on a huge 2 wheeled upright trolley, plus all the other gear hanging off it. It was about 5 1/2 feet high. Back then I was a 10 stone skinflint however this was far outweighed by bravado so I always continued to try and push it across the stony and rutted yard.

Eventually I ran out of strength one day when the hard wheels got stuck on some stones or something and the whole outfit started to fall back into me. Thinking quickly, I could either let it fall and potentially cause a deadly explosion or keep my hands on the handle to somehow soften the impact. I chose the latter and the top of my 3rd finger literally exploded on impact, the shattered remains hanging on by a silver of skin.

Everyone else saw it and panicked a bit but I was unusually calm. Thankfully the yard foreman and the boss's wife were trained first aiders so it was off to Falkirk Royal Infirmary in the old MG Metro where they reattached the top and sorted me out.

[bunglebus]

Urgh that was a hard read.

I've hurt myself multiple times but the ones that spring to mind were using a bottle jack laying on hard packed snow, trying to put the original wheels back on my MK1 Fiesta to obtain more grip than the 185/60s on Supersport wheels provided.

I got the jack caught on the panhard (?) rod that runs diagonally across the back axle, as I pushed the jack forward releasing the tension, the rod pinged down and smashed my thumbnail. 

Didn't hurt too much until I was trying to defrost my hands over my mum's gas fire a bit later. Had a lovely black thumbnail for months.

Stupidest one was over-filling my trolley jack with oil, when I pumped it the little rubber cap popped off the fill hole and I got a squirt of oil right in the eyes. I was on my own outside and couldn't see to do anything. Caused an anxious few minutes!

[GMcD]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

...... I chose the latter and the top of my 3rd finger literally exploded on impact, the shattered remains hanging on by a silver of skin.

[Split_Pin]

I accidentally let one of the old mK2 Fiesta hacks off a jack without realising there was a block of wood under the Panhard rod. The car was a heap and it made crunching sounds however thankfully didn't break. I said nothing and it and it had absolutely no impact on the car as it couldn't go fast enough for 'handling' to be any sort of necessity.

[CreepingJesus]

Worst one was probably cow punching a Transit chassis rail: trying to take the prop centre bearing out had been an epic struggle, so I was up to the 36" breaker bar, which I'd a very firm grasp of, when the Torx fastener inevitably slipped; it threw fist and bar with all my weight behind it straight to the adjacent metalwork. Three of the four fingers and knuckles exposed were ripped up to fuck, with road and farm crap ground in for good measure. Messy. Lots of blood, bone exposed here and there. Cleaned up and patched myself back together, holding plasters and bandage together with a glove, and cracked on.

Still hate Torx fasteners with a passion, they give me a twitch even yet.

[cobblers]

Some years ago, I sold my MX5 to my mum. I shouldn't have, because now I became 100% responsible for its upkeep - indefinitely.

Unsurprisingly, it needed welding to get it through an MOT one year. We lived in a house that had a fairly steep driveway and you couldn't even remotely safely jack a car up, so I made the decision that, for safety purposes I would do the welding with the car parked on the road, A busy road, on a bend, at the bottom of a very long hill. A few months prior, the road had been tarred and chipped so I was basically laying in fine sharp gravel. Fucking horrible. I was pretty well togged up in many layers of clothes because it was late november.

When I started out it was fine weather and there were cars parked at either end, providing me a bit of safety from fast passing traffic. I only had a crappy little Hilka trolley jack back then and it wouldn't really lift the car very high because it had hardly any oil in. I got most of the rot cut out in a fashion and started making up repair panels with bits of steel offcuts, bashing them over the garden wall etc and then dragged the welder out and daisy chained half a dozen extension cables down the drive.

The panels didn't fit very well but this was no restoration - it was a case of tack one corner, bash the panel a bit, push it up with the handle of the hammer and get another tack etc, repeat until concourse.

With the application of the first tack, it started to rain. Luckily* I was under the car so that kept me dry. I decided to keep plodding on as I was pretty well wedged under there, my auto-dim welding helmet was so bulky that it was a pretty big job to actually move at all.

The rain picked up, and since all the gulleys and drains were blocked solid with gravel (from when they resurfaced the road) so within a few minutes I realised I was laid in a fast flowing stream of water. Great. All my clothes were now absolutely soaked and it had "reinvigorated" the years of oil/petrol/muck ground into my "working on cars" gear and it was making me itch.

I soldiered on, tack tack tacking this panel on. I didn't do the prep very well and all the cavity wax and underseal were popping and spitting at me. Cars still driving past every 30 seconds, but now they seemed a lot closer - The dickheads across the road had now parked their car in a really awkward spot, forcing 40mph traffic to squeeze through a tight gap. Against my better judgement I cracked on - I could feel the MX5 sway slightly as cars passed!

The panel was now 99% on, I just went round filling any gaps up. I got to one corner and it was really fizzing at me, welding sparks were now melting through my soaking wet hoodie but I was nearly done! Until boom, one landed in my fucking ear!!!! The pain was indescribable, I could hear it fizzing away. I jolted in shock and got my helmet hooked on the subframe -  for what felt like about half an hour I was jammed under this car with a hot lump of steel burning in my ear canal. It was probably only about 15 seconds.

When I finally got out from under the car I decided that was the last time I was working on anyones car but my own. My head throbbed for weeks, but somehow I didn't do any proper damage.

[Datsuncog]

I still have a visible scar on my left wrist from where I reached down into the engine bay of my Viva HC to give the starter motor leads a jiggle (hot starting/ earthing issues) and caught it against the cast iron manifold.

It left quite the burn, still there a quarter of a century later.

I also have an interesting curved scar on my upper thigh from where I bumbled into the front wing of my breaker Laguna one winter night, trying to shuffle past it with the recycling boxes in the dark.

Sliced right through my jeans like butter and bit right into my leg. When I stumbled back into the house MrsDC thought I'd been shot, blood everywhere.

Didn't take any pics of the wound, but this was the wheelarch - so you can probably imagine the rest.

I also had a similar mishap to @DavidB where I managed to catch the back of my head on the bootlatch of my scabby Toyota Corona while trying to heft my cousin's suitcase out, at Brisbane airport.

It left me with blood running down the back of my neck and matting my hair - and I then had to spend much of the day in central Brisbane attracting all manner of flies to my person...

[maxxo]

Towards the start of the XM project 

I got rather sick of attaching a cable to the battery terminal to get it to start so I decided to bodge it from the glow plug relay

it was going well, bought cable, had solder and heat shrink too

stripped some insulation, wrapped it round and was almost done with the soldering, quite a tidy job

then I happened to note the soldering iron tip move slightly

cant have that I thought, it could burn something 

so, for some unknown reason, I decided to grab hold of the metal section of the iron to attempt to push the tip down some more

Now bear in mind, I’d just bought this iron, a very powerful one at that too

cue a fizz, hand going numb and me dropping the iron onto the bumper of the XM 

I calmly moved it onto the concrete, walked into the garage and unplugged it

then decided to run my hand under water

then the pain, oh dear god the pain!

still got a scar on my thumb now

i cannot believe my own stupidity 

[Heikin Matsuda]

I have a recent one that happened only a couple of weeks ago, just finished a mamouth welding session on an mk1 mx5, pulled the nozzle off the end of the mig with pliers to clean once cool, coiled up the earth lead and gun getting ready to roll the welder back to its nightly resting place, gave the welding cabinet a shove to get moving and note to self, remember where you put the hot nozzle. Put me hand straight down on the hot bugger and it blew up like a grape! Went home in a huff, a few weeks later im still alive and i still have my thumb so life is good.

Strangley enough that scar on my thumb in the pic was caused by me slipping while repairing the back panel on a corsa B, rusty sharp metal, straight down to the bone. It didnt bleed that much but a bit of masking tape soon had it all held back together and work resumed. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Fucking hell my concussion from the tailgate of a Vectra B when I was a bairn looks like nothing compared to some of these!

[big_al_granvia]

nothing too visible but plenty of knocks, undoing coupling pad bolts on a mk1 coach that hadnt been undone in years, inch drive ratchet with scaffy pole, bolt sheared all the torque went through me, i goes flying.... cutting vac pipe off a scrapper to get a valve, thought i'll cut it from ground level as thats safer than 10 feet up, disc snagged and shattered, bits of disc embedded in my hard hat... cutting more shit of same scrapper with new disc, smells burning but as i had full ppe on i didnt bother, had polished my boots, looked down, laces on fire along with bottom of ovies, legs getting hot, mate grabbed my flask and poured hot coffee to put me out... finally as a bairn in my pushchair by grandfather had taken me to see a live steam 5 inch gauge railway, he was chattin away with a few pints of beer, spark from steam loco landed in my pram and it went on fire, grandfather and friends seeing me on fire poured beer all over me and pram to put me out... so my earliest memory of steam trains is coupled to my earliest memory of beer, have enjoyed both ever since..... apparently mum and gran were not amused at me coming home in a burnt pram stinking like a brewery

  

[CreepingJesus]

I once trapped a mate's fingers under the boot lid of a Mk3 Cav saloon which we were working on. In both our defences (but especially mine) it had had the big hefty Irmscher spoiler fitted, without the corresponding uprated lid springs being fitted, not that we knew it. So when it needed moved 'a wee bit' I put my shoulder to the A-pillar, he shoved from the slam panel and down came the boot lid. It latched, and actually took a while to get him out. Got him to hospital for X-rays, and he had actual broken bones, about five or six I think across the eight badly swollen fingers. Never stopped him, mind you, and he was well pleased with his bumper haul of mega strength painkillers! 

Worst maintenance fuck up was either the Astra I spent two days doing head gasket and top end rebuild on, and 'forgot' about the small brown wire going into the back of the alternator, which cost me (in chronological order) a breakdown, a bus, a taxi fare, a justified ear bending, another bus, a recovery fee, and a new alternator and battery. 

Either that, or deciding after all to service the 850 T-5 and it rewarding me by blowing the turbo, fairly terminally. Must've dislodged something!

Both those jobs were done in a narrow street used by artics, so I feel anybody's fear/pain in that regard too. I had a few close calls while under cars working away. It was narrow enough that we were well used to damaged/removed wing mirrors, put it that way.

[vulgalour]

Recently found out what it feels like when mig wire cauterises a hole in your finger.  Had to hold a tiny patch from the back because there was no way to clamp it, intended to just strike a tack to hold it in place so I could weld it in fully.  The wire managed to miss both the bodywork and the patch and find a tiny gap, locate my finger, push through the glove and then not strike up until after the wire started feeding against my unprotected finger.  It all happened so quickly that by the time I registered what was happening I'd already let go of the trigger, the patch had fallen off, and I was trying to figure out how the welder had managed it.

Happily on the second attempt the incident did not repeat itself.

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, big_al_granvia said:

 spark from steam loco landed in my pram and it went on fire, grandfather and friends seeing me on fire poured beer all over me and pram to put me out... so my earliest memory of steam trains is coupled to my earliest memory of beer, have enjoyed both ever since..... apparently mum and gran were not amused at me coming home in a burnt pram stinking like a brewery

I don't mean to laugh, but that's pure gold...

[big_al_granvia]

22 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

I don't mean to laugh, but that's pure gold...

why not mate, i have found it funny since i could talk

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I know a bloke who used to be called Jake.

One day he decided the best way to get a battery out of a particularly snug recess in the boot was to get 2 screwdrivers , push the points into the side of the battery and lift . Started to go well until one of the screwdrivers slipped …

Everone knows him as One eyed Jake now.

[Rocket88]

I’ll leave this here…..

[Rust Collector]

 "Errr, Andie, I've hurt myself"

Calling this loudly but calmly into the house is the signal to my partner that there's blood coming out of me and I would appreciate assistance with the first aid kit 😅 Today, we are mostly offering toe blood to the car gods.

Spoiler

Walking around barefoot outside tinkering with the Aldi, I stubbed my little toe on the big trolley jack. It just sort of instantly gave up and split at the end 😅 The split in the nail just continues straight through the fleshy bit of the toe below and out the bottom. I should have been wearing my boots, but I was being a cock because it's warm and I was in the back garden.

@paulplom I've got the right foot match your left! Can't put any weight on the bastard so I'm just hobbling around now.

[Bear]

A Mercedes S124 with worn brakes

A tubular jack mount in a sill, and some chocks on the front wheels

A young man, sat facing the brake disc, legs forward for easy access to work on adjuster

Disc won't budge. Get up, release handbrake

Sit back down. Wiggle disc. Jack rotates...

Car starts to roll back as jack leans over. Legs are under car.

Put hands under wheelarch. Hold car up as jack spins off ground. Twist hips to get legs out of way, then lower car onto towbar and hub.

Never work on a car with just one jack ever again.

[JMotor]

Ermmm...

Got a few 😅.

Sliced the back of my hand open with a sharpened lawn mower blade. Had a flap of skin on the back of my hand, so I calmly patched myself up and then nearly fainted. The scar is now barely noticeable.

Smashed my thumb between a concrete floor and the battery of my sawzall when cutting an exhaust off. I manged to burst a DeWalt battery so yeah it slammed down hard. Sair yin for me and my wallet!

Welding spark in lug 'ole. Welding spark to the front of my ankle, again that hurt!

Think I need a new hobby.

[DVee8]

@gm

[DavidB]

I was angle grinding something in my dad's garage in about 2014. The angle grinder bounced off the thing I was grinding, leapt from my hands and attached itself to the side of the hoody I was wearing. It only stopped spinning because it managed to spin my loose hoody into a tight fitting version. I pulled the plug and unspan it to reveal a big hole in my hoody and tshirt. This took months to heal. It looked like a fanny.

 

 

[mercedade]

On 28/07/2022 at 11:20, Datsuncog said:

I still have a visible scar on my left wrist from where I reached down into the engine bay of my Viva HC to give the starter motor leads a jiggle (hot starting/ earthing issues) and caught it against the cast iron manifold.

It left quite the burn, still there a quarter of a century later.

I have almost the exact same wound, achieved in very similar circumstances - on my right wrist, courtesy of my B reg Fiesta breaking down just outside Preston Poly (sorry, the University of Central Lancashire).

I saw a stray cable, I figured "I've done work experience in a garage, I can probably find a home for that" and reached into the engine bay that housed an engine that had been running at 75 mph for 3 hours straight.

Sizzle.

(the cable was an irrelevance, it was the points breaking down).

[Soundwave]

I've been fortunate enough not to injure myself too seriously while working on cars, although a close friend of mine had an incident a couple of years back. He was changing springs on a Polo, when the spring compressors failed. The strut top was still on, so the spring didn't get launched... but unfortunately two of his fingers were in the spring's path. The end of one was completely severed, and the other one crushed to a bloody pulp and jammed under the strut top. Apparently he calmly walked into the house, with his fingertip in a plastic bag and an entire suspension strut still attached to his hand, and called 999. 

Amazingly, after a couple of surgeries they actually managed to reattach everything and make them look finger-shaped again, although he doesn't have much sensation in them anymore. He bought a floor-mounted hydraulic spring compressor after that...

[gm]

4 hours ago, DVee8 said:

@gm

this one ? 

or this one ? 

both very painful and both avoidable - you would think i’d learn my lesson 

[chaseracer]

Took a shattered angry cutty disc to the face recently, while trimming a front wing for the 2CV racer.  I had eye protection on, but it managed to hit me in the mouth!

Kept me quiet for a bit...

[DavidB]

I was on a whatsapp video chat and the person on the other end said 'what's that on your elbow' - "how did that happen" I enquired.

Some of my other clumsy tw@ greatest hits:

'Bolt suddenly comes loose, fist proceeds headlong into side of car'

and again

Classic wire brush in angle grinder

Drill slips and goes right into my thumb - note other recent injuries to my hand.

Fixed it