How were you hurt?

[austinlunsford]

Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
Originally Posted By: Chris142

I was hanging from the car, head on the ground with my foot still stuck between the grill and core support.....bent all funky.



This wasn't too serious, but that does remind me of the time I was lying across the core support of my truck and got the family jewels caught in the hood latch....

that's pretty serious...

 

[threeputtpar]

In my earl 20s, I bought a 1989 Z24 parts car to use to restore a 88 Z24. As I was cutting off the trailer hitch to get access to the trunk pan, the angle grinder cut through and launched the hitch bar through my safety glasses into my left eye.
I lived alone at the time, so when I came to I rushed into the house to get my contact lense out. I was wearing rigid contacts at the time, and they probably saved my vision. Now i'ms mart enough to make sure the blade is spinning AWAY from my face!
Seems like eyes are a popular target for automotive injuries at BITOG.

 

[MCompact]

Nothing serious, but I can think of two minor injuries...

1. I was reaching under the bumper of my 1972 Bavaria parts car to locate the mounting bracket bolts. Turned out that there was a large wasp nest right where I stuck my hand.

2. Then there was the time I was changing the oil on my ti; I was on my back under the car tightening the drain bolt when my cat crawled under the car and stuck his nose in my ear. I jumped and bashed my head on the front crossmember.

 

[meep]

Injury escape: was 16-17, under the back of our 57 chevy on metal ramps. ground wasn't even and the ramp started to give. I was able to roll out before it came down. Always put stands AND the tire under the car from then on...

Mild Injury: lost hair and clothing when a 73 VW van pooled unleaded in the muffler and went "FOOMP" when I tried to start it with the engine hatch open. flames everywhere.

I've been more concerned lately over the continued skin exposure and fumes exposure to unleaded, oil, and combustion fumes that I lived in daily as a kid. I've had a lot of weird health problems hit me starting at age 30. I always had my hands in an engine from 6th grade on.

 

[OVERKILL]

My most serious isn't all that serious. Lost a fair bit of hair and my eyelashes (and some of my eyebrows) when a Chev 350 backfired through the carb.

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
My most serious isn't all that serious. Lost a fair bit of hair and my eyelashes (and some of my eyebrows) when a Chev 350 backfired through the carb.


It had to have been a Chevy!

 

[Win]

Nothing that bad.

I tore a piece out of the back of my left hand putting headers on my '75 Firebird. I don't even know how I did it - I just saw this torrent of blood come rolling down my arm.

The scar has faded and filled in over the years ( I can still see it, but know where to look ) but for a couple of decades it was prominent, and shaped just like the Pontiac dart.

edit: was changing the differential output bearings on one of my Jags, and had so much torque applied to an extension, that it twisted in half, sending my hand flying at full force into a piece of the steel subframe. I think it must have chipped a piece of bone in my thumb, because it hurt like heck for days, and there is still a funky raised scar on the side of my thumb, even though it never drew blood. This is the same hand that has the dart scar.

 

[eljefino]

Took a shard of metal to the eye using an angle grinder to cut exhaust. Was wearing prescription glasses but too lazy to use my not-very-clear safety goggles. ER doc got the shard out in five seconds with a q-tip. Marched myself down to Home depot for some quality (clear) goggles thereafter. Sounds real stupid, but with greasy hands, I don't like stretching the elastic over the back of my head/ hair. I still don't, but I'm dealing now.

I wasn't going to mention it, but this thread has enough, I guess I'm in good company.

 

[wander2039]

Pulled a stupid one time and used concrete blocks for jack stands. Tried popping the axle out and it rolled. Luckily I was able to roll fast enough but my thumb didn't. Permanently ruined it.. I hate removing axles for this reason. I've roped the last two to a tree before attempting.

 

[zyxelenator]

Nothing serious, just bunch of cuts, burns and couple Vise Grip pinches that leave deep cuts, couple wheel balancing hammer hits.Slammed fingers couple times while mounting wheels on German cars with bolts instead of lug nuts.
Dropped my previous car ones from jack, while leaned forward to reach something near firewall.Luckily I was in front of the car, not under. After that incident I use jack stands and jack all the time.

 

[L_Sludger]

Ow. I've never been seriously injured while working on a car (or ever, for that matter.)
I hope that I can keep it that way.

 

[wirelessF]

Since I moved to my new place with a sloped driveway, I haven't worked on my vehicles that involved a jack and jack stands. When I raised the vehicle to do brake jobs, etc, I had pieces of 4x4 wood to chock the tires.

I was doing a tire rotation on my truck. I completed the passenger side and was about to do the driver side. I was underneath the truck to remove the jack stand from the pass side. Started to jack up the driver side rear tire, which was the only tire chocked. The tire jumped the chock and rolled down the driveway with me underneath it. Got some scars on my back from the trans crossmember and a nasty scar on my left foot from being runned over by the tire.

The worst part was showing my scars to a gay chick I was talking to. Apparently they don't like it.

 

[wirelessF]

Darn, too late to edit.

The tire jumped the chock and the truck rolled down the driveway while I was underneath.

 

[Spazdog]

Oh sheesh, I've run my Waekon logic probe through my thumb or forefinger countless times.

The edges of the metal knee bolster on a late model Grand Prix are razor sharp. removed an entire section of knuckle skin there.

The nut that holds the positive battery on my ZN1100 LTD fell off and killed the bike. I attempted to wire the terminal back on with a paperclip to get home. Shorted it to ground and went to swipe it away with my finger. Burned halfway through my finger and cauterized the wound.

Was filling a battery for a customer wearing a pair of safety glasses instead of proper goggles. He grabbed the fill hose and yanked it out of the battery without warning splashing my face with acid. Apparently, I had some get in behind the lens. Chemical burn on my right eye. had to wear these giant painful contact lens type things over my eye with tubes on them to flush with 2 liters of saline solution at the hospital.

 

[Colt45ws]

Worst Ive had so far is a couple wheel weight hammer hits. Otherwise I cant recall anything in particular.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

I'm lucky to have five fingers on both hands. During high school, I was doing something to a friend's 1970s Cougar and my hand slipped. The fan just grazed three fingers. It didn't cut so much as it just took most of the skin off so a little blood could seep through.

The "CAUTION FAN" sticker on those things is no joke.

 

[JasonC]

Worst for me was I was finishing up an oil change on a Thunderbird SC I had ad when I stepped off of my curbing my kneecap dislocated. It immediately dropped me to one knee and all I could do was pull myself up on to the engine until help came. Thankfully when the EMT took off my shoe to make sure blood was flowing to my foot my kneecap went back into place all by itself.

 

[SS1970chrysler]

Memorial Day, 2005. I was doing a little bit of bodywork on a rust spot on the wheel arch on my 79 Thunderbird's front fender. Those cars always get one where the trim pieces meet. I had ground the rust off and was drilling some anchor holes around the hole for the fill to stick to when something smacked me in the face and it felt like my nose was running. Apparently, someone had placed a piece of thin metal behind the hole for a previous repair and my drill hit it and sent it spinning out through the wheel well. it hit me at an angle just under my glasses. gave me a cut between nose and eye socket requiring 4 stitches and I'd passed out in the ER waiting room from the amount of blood lost. No permanent injury other than my views of the medical industry. I'm sitting there bleeding to death literally and they're letting in people whose "tummy hurts" before even checking on me. Then the endless questioning of how I'm going to pay for this while getting worked on after I came-to didn't help either.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Other than a rare scraped knuckle I've never been injured working on vehicles or farm equipment.

I was always taught to make sure any vehicle in the air is properly supported (that's why I have a lift), to make sure I always wear appropriate safety gear, and to think through the next several steps before I actually do them.

I rather enjoy having all my body parts intact and working correctly.

 

[NHHEMI]

Never hurt myself on a automobile but I did on a motorcycle. I had an old Yamaha 750 Special that I rebuilt from the ground up. Took it down to the last nut and bolt and redid it. Getting the engine back in was a pain without damaging the freshly painted frame. I finally had enough and told my friend to get on the other side and I did my Hulk impression and lifted the engine/trans assembly and squated down and slid it into place in one fluid motion.

As happy as I was it was in I was not happy as my right knee popped and let go from the strain.

No ligament tears/ruptures thankfully but it sprained my MCL( think that is what it was )and tore the cartiladge n the knee up pretty bad. On the exam table the Dr actually was able to pick my knee cap up and move it around as whatever happened sort of detached it. Made me want to

everytime he moved it around.

Turns out I have a slight birth defect in that my knee caps don't align and sit properly where they should. They are sitting slightly to the outside. Thus I have to be careful doing things where I squat and have weight on my legs or it could happen again.

It hurt pretty bad when it happened but I have had worse. Unfortunately, my knee was weak and would pop in and out causing me to stumble and even fall for like a year+ before it finally got better.