"Car People" injuries

Other than the usual cuts, bumps and bruises, I burned myself twice with my 924.

Once while changing the rear wheel bearing and using the torch to heat up the rear control arms. I managed to set my hoodie on fire. That sucked.

Then once I was driving it, the rear exhaust hanger failed on the way to work and while I was trying to get it to stay up, it fell and landed on my forearm:

Yep, I still went to work. I put my arm out the window because the wind felt good. My wife (who works in healthcare and surgeries) called me an idiot for not going to the ER.

Luckily some Melallueuca oil and proper cleaning and bandaging left me with no scarring and a well healed arm. Needless to say the wife didn't like the 924 before that, and really didn't like it after that lovely situation.

In reply to turboswede:

Ow. That looks like what happens to me if I go in direct sunlight.

Knowing that my body parts (especially my hands) are extremely important to my wellness and overall happiness as a human being, I treat them extremely well.

I ALWAYS wear gloves unless they won't allow me to do the work I need. I'd rather work slower than stab a hole in my finger. I even have face shields and safety goggles in the garage now, as soon as power equipment comes out, safety equipment goes on.

My most common injury is slicing skin off due to sheetmetal parts on cars when a bolt finally breaks free.

In reply to HiTempguy:

I got steel shards in my eye taking off my safety gear. Always remember to take the air hose and blow yourself off really good before you pull your mask off or yank dusty clothes off over your head.

I've had a lot of burns, a lot. I have a tremor, worse when stressed, tired, or hungry, but always present, it actually helps a little welding, but it SUCKS big time soldering.

I had a piece of welding slag go between my shoe and its tongue, through my sock and rest between the little piggy that didn't get any roast beef, and the one that went wee, wee, wee all the way home. That little piggy was not the only one saying something similar to wee, wee, wee.

I had the impression of the back side of an incandescent drop light's stamped steel reflector burned into my forearm for about 5 years. I quit using 100W incandescents and switched to CFLs shortly after that.

Oh I forgot the time I got super glue in my eyes. Only slightly car-related, because I was working on a car radio at the time. I'll always close my eyes and look away when opening those things now, and I'm done with super glue in soft squeeze-tubes for life.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to HiTempguy: I got steel shards in my eye taking off my safety gear. Always remember to take the air hose and blow yourself off really good before you pull your mask off or yank dusty clothes off over your head.

This bears repeating.

I've had all of the common injuries mentioned already. I've gone to wearing as much safety gear as I can over the years. I can deal with cuts, bruises and the like, but my eyes are another deal. I spend a few minutes whacking the area around where I am going to work with a rubber mallet to remove any rust flakes, dirt, bees or anything else that might get into my eyes or cause me harm. Having compressed air would help with that, I really have to get a compressor soon.

I've seen this mentioned before, and I'll say it again: throwing wheels and rims under a car your working on can prevent you from getting crushed. When I first moved to the south, I had a car slip off of jackstands in a blacktop parking lot because the blacktop got hot enough that the jackstands dug into the surface and slipped. I wasn't under it at the time, but I started using wood support under the jackstands and the wheel trick after that.

To much damage to catalog here but I still have all my digits and the scars that bring back memories of various incidents. Most if not all are repaired with tape. Many should have been stitched up but after a while I realized that if it is not on my face then a bandage will do.

I have drilled 3/8" hole through the web between my left thumb and left pointer. Not much blood and only hit the soft tissue so cleaned it out and bandaged t up. It mended up after a while.

The couple that did require ER trips were when I soldered three of my four fingers together with molten lead. I was doing some lead work on a piece of metal on the bench and I did not know that the lead was running through and pooling on the bench. I then leaned on the bench and it tilted just enough so the molten lead rolled of the bench on to my hand. That was an ER trip more to get it off with out damaging tendons than anything else. The other was when I all but chopped off my right pointer finger while loading a grease gun (lack of sleep and being stupid). That was an er trip as well. That one really sucked

The worst and most long term problem I have had is hearing loss. Back when we were playing with cars hearing protection was something that was not even discussed. Tinnitus when trying to go to sleep reminds me of all the un muffled motors I tuned at WOT to get the jetting "just rite". The loss of hearing on the right side reminds me of the water pump that exploded (Oxy Acc was involved).

KIDS ware your hearing protection you will pay for it later if you don't.

Just got a cut above my eyebrow hitting stuff with a hammer and chisel. I've finally gotten smart enough to realize that if I'm actually trying to break something I should be wearing eye protection. Not sure if my wife didn't notice or didn't care. I am pretty good and figuring out if an impact to my head/face is going to bleed just by feel. Sometimes I'm wrong and I come inside looking like a slasher movie. I should get a mirror for the garage.

My most painful experience was probably the time I was adjusting timing on my Trans Am and I became a giant 6'1" ground wire. My hand was locked on the distributor and my dad had to knock me away from the car. I'm still gun shy with electrical stuff from that experience.

Blue shop towels and electrical tape are perhaps the best first aid items of all time.

SilverFleet wrote: My most painful experience was probably the time I was adjusting timing on my Trans Am and I became a giant 6'1" ground wire. My hand was locked on the distributor and my dad had to knock me away from the car. I'm still gun shy with electrical stuff from that experience.

Never heard of that happening on car electrical systems, just bigger 120/240 etc stuff.

In reply to Gearheadotaku:

He was adjusting timing, grabbing the distributor and wires with around 30,000 volts pulsing through them.

That's why I refrain from adjusting distributors or touching plug wires with the car running, they're insulted good enough to work, not good enough to be man rated.

In reply to cmcgregor:

What did it sound like?

SilverFleet wrote: My most painful experience was probably the time I was adjusting timing on my Trans Am and I became a giant 6'1" ground wire. My hand was locked on the distributor and my dad had to knock me away from the car. I'm still gun shy with electrical stuff from that experience.

I got a nice burn the last time i welded a 14mm wrench to the starter on the MX6.

An exploding cutoff wheel nearly took off my ding-dong. Felt it hit high on my pants, did the "Ftttttt" sound with my lips, and quickly patted my junk to see if it was intact.

It was.

Gearheadotaku wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: My most painful experience was probably the time I was adjusting timing on my Trans Am and I became a giant 6'1" ground wire. My hand was locked on the distributor and my dad had to knock me away from the car. I'm still gun shy with electrical stuff from that experience.

Never heard of that happening on car electrical systems, just bigger 120/240 etc stuff.

I got nailed off the coil once on my jeep. YOOUUUUCCHHH!

Stabbed myself with a screwdriver a few times, crossed a few battery terminals, a few exhaust burns, but nothing that really left a scar while working on a car except a few burn marks.

I did get hit square in the elbow with a clay pigeon that stuck in the hand thrower my buddy and I were using to shoot trap at his cabin once, left a gnarly scar and I was sure I needed to go to the hospital for that one. Didn't because no insurance and fortunately it was fine once i picked the clay shards out of my elbow. Whiskey helped.

It wasn't quite car related, but a few years back I got careless whilst unpacking a product and swiftly placed a knife half way though my hand. Wifey said we were going to the hospital. I rerouted to Walgreens. They have superglue. Looking at the scar now, I don't think an ER would have done any better. Barely noticeable.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: I got nailed off the coil once on my jeep. YOOUUUUCCHHH!

Was helping a friend out with troubleshooting the ignition on his T-Bird. He cranked it and the coil pack gave me a good jolt backwards. I informed him that he was the guy without epilepsy therefore he would be the one playing with exposed live electronics.

Lots of small cuts and other stuff.

I've been scalded in the face 2x. First time I was 16 and the heater hose burst while I was checking the oil in my first car - '63 Lark. Blistered my fore head, shoulder and arm. 2nd time Stag #3 burned me pretty good. A coolant hose let go. I had pulled into a parking lot to check under the hood why the electric fan wan't blowing. The hose burst shooting hot coolant all over me and the parking lot. Blistered my scalp and reddened up my face pretty good. I slipped onto the hot coolant that had spilled into the parking lot.

Big cuts, Working on making a header for Stag number 1. I was standing on a 5 gallon bucket, leaning over the fender. Lost my balance, went to grab the fender to stop my fall, filleted the skin off the palm side of 3 fingers on the fender lip. Still had to push the car into the garage and drive myself to the ER. I always wear gloves now...and I do not use a 5 gallon bucket as a step stool.

Being a mechanic for a living, I've forgotten about most of the injurys incurred but the most memorable was when I was working for a dodge dealer.

Doing an oil change on a V6 charger and someone did their best he-man impression on an oil filter, so using my wonderful kobalt oil filter wrench to break the grip I went at it, problem is the spot welds broke and I ended up punching the corner of the oil pan and it took a nice 4" long gash out of my middle finger on the right hand.

Being on commission and customer waiting I did my best combat life saver class in washing the wound, laying down a layer of neosporin, placing said 4" of skin back over, wrapping up, and putting on 2 latex gloves over it went back to work.

That is the one so far that has stood out for me.

My most recent garage mishap was a lesson in clamping a work piece to a drill press rather than trying to hold it by hand.

It's probably a combination of age and having safety awareness drilled into us at work, but I'm pretty good about wearing safety gear. About the only thing that I still do consistently is work on live electrical panels.

Gearheadotaku wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: My most painful experience was probably the time I was adjusting timing on my Trans Am and I became a giant 6'1" ground wire. My hand was locked on the distributor and my dad had to knock me away from the car. I'm still gun shy with electrical stuff from that experience.

Never heard of that happening on car electrical systems, just bigger 120/240 etc stuff.

If you want to feel that feel (and I don't recommend it), just grab your HEI distributor while the car is running. Every time I think about it, my heart skips a beat, and not in a good way.

Funny I mentioned this yesterday, as I was over my parents' house helping them install a new modern home thermostat last night, and my dad mentioned this incident and not having a good track record with electrical stuff.