What automotive mistakes you have made and are willing to admit to

Mine's not so bad.
Was going to the beach with my very hot girlfriend.. did I mention she was hot... 67 Camaro SS rag top.. just about to get to the toll booth (stop and go) and the car cuts out... Push it over to the other side of the road. I take the Chrome air filter cover off (open filter all the way around). She doesn't appear to be getting gas... I look down and the fuel pump is hanging out of the engine, the casting broke, leaving the studs in but pump hanging in the breeze. Get a lift to an auto parts store (Sunday).. get a new pump, put it in, get the car going, my hands are all dirty. We start driving back to the parts store to get my core charge back.. and as we are driving I hear bang, and did not recognize that I just lost my air filter cover...

What could have been a nice day, turned into a pain in the rear. It wasn't so bad.. but it wasn't good.
 
I once painted the hood my car when I was supposed to be applying some kind of spray on polish. But I blame my unquestioning trust in my understanding of my Dads description of the can. Which is one step closer to admitting I'm a schmuck. There was a good twenty years where I blamed it only on Dads description. And yes, it was tan spray paint for a Granada, not polish for a maroon Plymouth Horizon.
 
When I was 16 I had a 55 chevy 2 dr post. I made friends with a guy that owned a local shop and I would do work for him like changing engines and transmissions. One day he called and had a 69 camaro z28 4 spd in the shop. A guy bought it for his son and the dumb ass kid let the block freeze and break. Bob (shop owner) told me if I put a new engine in it I could have the old one. It was a 302 with cross ram. Basically a factory trans am race car. The engine the dad chose to replace it with was a 307 2bbl. I bet the kid was ****** about that.

So I found another block and put everything in it and put it in my 55 chevy. Had 4.11's in the rear and a muncie. Ran like a scalded ape.

One evening I had a date with Wanda Richardson. (she was hot) We were at an intersection waiting to get a left turn. Waited forever and i got ****** and turned right and left it all hang out, pulled second and the clutch blew. Parts came through the floor and one of them cut her foot, also broke the top off my brand new accell dual point distributor, scattered my muncie. Wanda wasn't hurt bad, but there was blood. I had my buddy Bob tow me home When Wanda's mom found out about it she came after me with a broom. Then, I thought I was friends with her brother and one day when I came home from work at a gas station my 302 engine was gone. I found out later he took it.

I'd not seen Wanda for 48 years and I ran across her sisters daughter on facebook. I messaged her and she put me in touch with sister Carolyn and she gave me Wanda's number. I called and we talked for 3 hours. She really surprised me and told me I was the only guy she ever met that was good to her and had been looking for me all her life. Asked if I was married and I said yes. Told me if I ever get single she would be waiting.

Then 2 years ago yesterday her sister posted she had died. Complications from diabetes. My first love, I'm sad to hear she is gone now.

This is her at age 40.
wanda.jpg
 
Last edited:
Senior year of hs, drove myself and a friend to a high school dance in my 67 Olds Cutlass supreme. Somewhere along the line we both come out with girls we didn't go in with. Dang car won't crank over, dance is over and everyone is leaving so off go the gals while we bum a ride home. Next day I get a ride back and try jump starting it with no luck getting it to crank over. After a couple tries I decided to put it in neutral. Apparently someone didn't put it in park in the first place so it started right up...... Never told my buddy what happened.

The best part, a couple months later the gal I was with ended up pregnant by someone else. Always felt like I dodged a bullet on that one. Really worked out in my favor. Not often doing something stupid works out.
 
I didn't cause it but I got to cure it. And didn't explain the after effect. Tha got me in trouble with the owner.
Local barmaid was a friend sort of. One morning she came wailing down my road in her '68 Nova 6 cylinder. And killing any flying insects on either side of the road. Burning oil like nothing I'd ever seen. She was poor and struggling to take care of herself and daughter, and had finally figured out she couldn't ever replace her car. She figured she had to start taking better care of it, which involved checking the oil among other automotive stuff. She tearfully explained she had "blowed the motor" and could I look at it. She wanted to stay and watch. First things first; raise hood to check oil. Everything well preserved and dripping hot oil.
As I reached for the dipstick she grabbed the filler cap, ripped it off and looked down into the valve cover. "Oh Lord it's out of oil again!" She ran back to the trunk and hauled out a gallon jug of K-Mart reconstituted motor oil. I stopped her from topping it off, showed and explained to her how to check oil the right way. Oil was up to within an inch of the top of the dipstick tube. I must have drained what seemed like 2 gallons extra oil out of that poor 6 banger. Satisfied her Nova was ok, she left was gone 15-20 minutes and back in my driveway. Still killing mosquitoes. Forgot to explain she had filled the muffler with oil the motor had pumped out. According to her I couldn't do anything right which made it all my fault. Geez, really?
 
I could fill pages on this thread lol . But my favorites are about my wife . Little background about me ,,worked as a fleet mechanic Had to take all the ASE tests to get the Master Car & Trucks certified. Years ago we had a 1994 Chevy Caprice that was having starting issues, at times you could turn the key but nothing happened, after a few times it would start but very random so it was hard to trouble shoot . One morning it acted up , great told my wife I was taking her car to work, dont use the car I’ll bring some test equipment home and finely find the problem . Came home that afternoon, the car was moved . Now I’m mad because it might not happen again for days . I went in and asked her why she didn’t listen to me . She said to me “ let me see your key “ I did and she looked at it , ( the old GMs had a chip sideways in the key ) “ your keys worn out .“ and handed it back to me . She was right !
 
I've been working on cars and heavy equipment for 55+ years, and the list of things I've done wrong could go on for some time. I'm pretty adept at fixing the problems now, if I could just find the damn tools after I set them down. Mike
 
FOMOGO said:
I've been working on cars and heavy equipment for 55+ years, and the list of things I've done wrong could go on for some time. I'm pretty adept at fixing the problems now, if I could just find the damn tools after I set them down. Mike
Click to expand...
Mike, I know where your tools are. Erikmannie has been loading up on them.
 
Reading this thread brought back memories.

I was with a gal in the 80's and she had a friend named Charlene. Charlene wined a lot, it was her way of getting guys to do things for her. I was immune to her, I had a lady. She had a vega and it was running like crap. I lifted the hood and the carb was leaking everywhere and I told her she needed to get it fixed,.

Well apparently my woman wasn't immune to her wining and talked me into fixing it. So put a new carb on and adjusted it and it ran better than it ever had she said. So 2 nights later at 3 am (when the bars closed) she called and said she blew the rear end out and the tow truck driver told her that when I put the new carb on it gave it so much power it blew the rear end. Well my woman and I had a big fight over it and ended up apart because of this. I did not fix the rear end. Best decision I ever made.

Another one I remember is my second girlfriend (in my teens) her mom had a big old Chrysler. She said she was having problems getting in to shift. Before I could look at it she took it somewhere and they fixed it. Told her it was a "rubber gourmet" and they replaced it. I wasn't all that familiar with chryslers then and had no clue what it was they replaced. They were from the deep south and sometimes it was hard to understand them. Took me years to realize it was a rubber grommet on the shift cable they replaced.
 
I just put new calipers and pads on the F-250 with some minor learning issues , turns out they were easier than most cars I've done in the past . Todays project , new pads on a Toyota 4 Runner which they say is VERY easy ..........................we'll see about that . :big grin:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top