Dumbest mistake you've made to your vehicle?

That's scary. I had a hood fly up and shatter my sunroof. Glass was every where. I straightened the hood. I used bolts with wing nuts hold it down so It wouldn't fly up again

 

My 1984 Chevy Camaro was the first car I did aftermarket amplifiers in. Instead of running the power wire through the firewall, I found a way to snake it through where the door wiring goes inside. Since I had no power goodies I figured that would cut it. 3 days later I pull up to work with the tunes blasting and the hott lady who was my boss turns her head to see. I shut it off and get out, close the door and she says "you're smoking". I held up both hands so she would see I wasn't smoking a cigarette. She then says "your car is smoking". I see smoke pouring from under the hood..closing the door grounded out the power wire. Of course, being a rookie I used some 10 gauge wire from a building I was a cleaner at and didn't fuse it either! Fortunately no other damage was done, except to my pride.

My '73 Buick Apollo. Bought it in 1993 with 50K one owner miles for $150. Inside I found the window sticker, owner's manual, sale contract listing how much the owner put down, traded in her 50's Studebaker for, etc. Full vinyl roof with no rips. 2-3 spots of rust that hadn't eaten the metal. I needed to replace the front brake lines which I did, bled the brakes, etc. Did a brake stand and that 350 Rocket moved the whole car even though it was just a 2 barrel.

So what's the stupid part? Sold it. I had that, my Camaro, and my 1984 Chevy Monte Carlo with only one plate and winter was coming. Tried selling the Monte but someone came to see it and got their eyeballs on the Buick. I didn't want to but my father made me. A couple of years ago he actually asked me whatever happened to that car. My reply? "YOU DID!"

 

Another dumb thing I forgot to mention was the time I hitched up a small trailer to my second gen and forgot the secure it down to the ball. Tried to load a motorcycle in the trailer and it popped off the ball and gouged the shit out of my tailgate!

 

I had the dent of shame in my tailgate back when i had a ford ranger from backing too far into a trainer, and i now have one in my 2012 tundra bumper from the same thing.

 

i also caught a chevy blazer on fire (irony isn't lost). wouldn't start, so i began pumping the gas to try to start it while cranking and the came the flames.

 

yeah, it was a turd anyways. worst part was i was my sisters and i was home on leave from the army and borrowed it. The blazer didn't survive. it was smoking and i was running like a madman into the stores looking for a fire extinguisher. then once i got one, i thought i would die from a hollywood style explosion but managed to put it out.

 

Had a 55 Chevy Pickup in high school. Lets just say the wiring was not a professional job. Had a friend help me chase a few gremlins, but went ahead and ordered a painless wiring kit for it. Sat on the kit for awhile. One day it was dead. Truck sat for almost a year, figured I should just start the wiring. Like a dumb dumb, I proceeded to take a knife to the fuse box, cut it away and just kept going. Finally got on my back under the engine and found out why I had nothing. My starter cable had somehow fallen on my header and melted away.

Never ended up finishing the wiring. Was moving and the truck was losing its parking spot. Sold it to a friends Dad who couldn't yet give me the money. He had helped me a lot with the truck and I was sure he was good for it. Time went on and on and I pretty much couldn't get ahold of him. He had started a failing trucking company and was constantly on the road.

Went to take my truck back but he had stored it in a lot and stopped paying for it. Long story short, I sold it to the lot owner for SUBSTANTIALLY less than I wanted. Oh man, I've got so many stories and memories from that truck...

 

I was trying to put new speakers in the back of my full size chevy extended cab. I pulled the plastic moulding off and saw that the speakers I had were not going to fit without a lot of cutting, so I decided to leave the old ones in. It was a Saturday and I had way too many beers in me to be doing anything productive.

Several of the retainer clips that held the roof moulding in place broke so I grabbed the drill and a 2 1/2 inch galvanized screw and zipped it right up. I didnt realize what I did until several weeks later when I was washing the roof. I let it be, it never leaked and I traded it in like that.

 

Now that is great. Winning!!

 

This -



Completely stripped, gutted, and torn down to a bare rolling shell.

It used to look like this -



I spun most of the crank & main bearings and put a few holes in the block. Instead of spending a weekend and swapping in another motor, I decided I wanted to strip the car down to nothing, fix all the rot, and completely rebuild/restore it.

That was 3 years ago. I really miss driving this car. It would have been easier just to swap another motor and beat the piss out of/drive the car into the ground.

So far all the rot in the engine bay has been fixed. They bay is completely shaved and smoothed. The car still needs both floor pans/inner rockers/outer rockers/4 doors next, then the rest of body work needs done. I need to build an engine and a FULL harness for the whole car.

Needless to say, I feel like Im in WAY over my head on this one and had more than 1 thought of scrapping the whole car, selling off all the parts Ive collected for it, and cutting my losses

 

Oh shit

 

Driving my moms xterra when I was 16. Backed out of a parking space in a parking lot and hit a police that was driving through it. Freaked out. Pressed the gas instead of brake. Hit the police again.
&
Cutting my statoshi mesh too small. Its now held on with painted chicken wire.

 

Opps^

 

Big oops. But I was wearing my high school sweatshirt and guess where the lady cop went to when she was in highschool? Mine! So she sang the fight song and let me on my way

 

Nice. You definitely got lucky!!

 

I installed a Kenwood stereo in my 91' Cavalier really well. Too well. When I sold the car in '95 (heading to Korea for a year), I couldn't get it back out without removing the whole dash. Dammit. That was an awesome stereo.

At least I could save the speakers...that didn't fit in my wife's '90 Corolla. Double dammit.

 

Drained the transmission fluid instead of the oil. It was dark. It was my first time. I was using my cell phone for a light.

Don't judge me.

 

You've been judged .

Two days ago I did my own oil. While I was under there I decided to check and see if the socket was the same for the oil and the transmission fluid. It is obviously. How simple would it of been to make the transmission plug 2 mm bigger. Then at least most people would know somethings wrong when the standard socket they've been using or read they should use doesn't fit.

It's all just one more way to try to get people to do dealership maintenance.

 

I need a 4x4 piece of wood. So on the side of the road I seen a sign that had one. I decided it was a good idea to back my taco with the tailgate down to knock it over . Well the tail gate got dented and bounced up and I also dented the rear factory bumper.... It was a stupid idea. That 4x4 didn't even budge.

 

At least I now know how to refill the transmission fluid You can find a nice pump at most auto part stores that screws right onto a quart of oil.