My first Cobra injury.. Any others?

[Zedn]

I spent Sunday making brackets and installing the steering column. I was using the following high risk tools: Air cut off wheel, angle grinder, arc welder, drill. At 7pm i was trying to force a 3/8 tap into my tap wrench when i slipped and put the tap the whole way under my thumb nail. It ripped the nail out of the nail bed so it was jammed half out and half in. I went to the hospital and was told i needed plastic surgery (lol hollywood hands!). This morning i went to my GP for a second opinion and he just gave me a local and cut it off. Lucky it was just the tap that injured me and not one of the dangerous tools. Kind of ironic that it was a basic hand tool.

Got me thinking has anyone given themselves a serious injury working on their car? Apart from the regular burns when welding, small cuts and skinned knuckles?

I have to take a couple of days of the build which sucks cause im just starting to get somewhere.

Liam

[andyl]

All I can say is OUCH! Must have hurt like a bugger. Just for reassurance value, it will grow back fine, fingers are amazing things, as long as 1mm of the nail bed survives it will grow back over time to be normal. Your next session on the car will be full of expletives though!

[Merv and Sharon]

Nasty Liam! I did have this altercation once between my finger and a power planer .... but none so far on the Cobra.

[Zedn]

Nasty Liam! I did have this altercation once between my finger and a power planer .... but none so far on the Cobra.

Ouch that would have hurt. I have done a chainsaw. Luckily i had a leather wallat in my pocket that took most the brunt. I had an idiot of a boss who put me in a rain forest to cut down trees in my first job out of school. No trainining.

[Merv and Sharon]

Life is often a lot of luck. Strangely, the power planner and finger just made a mess at the time, but I didn't feel a thing. I have my fair share of car injuries over the years but I have a friend who was working under his Volvo when the jack slipped and the car was on his chest for three hours until his wife came home from shopping. He is a big guy fortunately ...

[Modena]

trimmer router mounted under a bench with the bit sticking through, small part, stupid moves, chopped up the tip of my index finger and nail, but it grew back fine within about 2 months. Scared the **** out of me, now I cringe just thinking about it

[Wazza]

It broke my heart to sell my Cobra !!!....

That's all I got...Sorry.

[stephen low]

Have recently been braising copper pipe to provide the under dash link to my heater.

Father-in-law's primus jet was glowing red hot through this work and I'd put it down on jack stands next to the bench after turning it off. Finished a section and less than a minute later inadvertantly backed into the cooling jet.

Like real side pipes, it was still so hot that it took a second to register and left a neat crescent burn.

Fortunately a mild burn and as I immediately tied a soaked bandage against the burn I think I took more of the sting out of the injury.

Cheers

[acmjg]

Using a drill press drilling a 3/8" hole on a piece of 1/8" flat stock. The metal was 2" x 10" and I was drilling the end while holding the other end. You know where this is going. Bare handed, the drill bit caught as it went through the bottom side and ripped the metal out of my hand- That got my fingers as it left, and when it came around it ripped into the palm of the same hand. Still got the scars. I make sure I clamp everything these days.

Anthony

[lamaluv]

Merv my wife was reading about your friends mishap and suggested that we men always have our cell phones with us for such emergencies. While I pointed out that this was clearly proof of a need for a strict time limit on the wifes shopping.

Dick

[jdean]

I was mocking up my side pipes and had one side up on small jacks beside the Cobra so that I could get the gap between pipe and body right. The car was on stands so the whole thing was about 18" off of the ground. The next day I was doing something under the hood and moved the front jack enough so that the side pipe fell to the ground, but fortunately :-( my big toe protected it from hitting the concrete floor. I said "Oh shucks!" The entire toenail turned purple and then fell off. The new one grew back and looks fine.

Other than that, just the obligatory calf burn scar.

[Rick Parker]

Zedn.............Fine or Coarse thread


Tools Explained

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, "Oh, sh*t!"

SKILL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent to the object we are trying to hit.

UTILITY KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

Son of a b*tch TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling, "Son of a b*tch" at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

[Great Asp]

A deer ran into my first Cobra, and broke my heart....



E

Wazza stole my line......

[gjkrv8]

If anyone ever pulls up my carpet they will think I have murdered someone and tried to hide the evidence by glueing caprt over it, it as there is blood everywhere in the passenger footwell from an extremely sharp stanley knife. Proud to say no stitches though.

Rgds

Gregg

[stiffy]

Lots and lots of hangovers........





Stiffy

[Tenrocca]

Originally Posted by Modena

trimmer router mounted under a bench with the bit sticking through, small part, stupid moves, chopped up the tip of my index finger and nail, but it grew back fine within about 2 months. Scared the **** out of me, now I cringe just thinking about it

I have a fingernail that grows out the side of my left hand ring finger from an almost identical incident. I remember pulling it out as quick as I could with a nice chunk of flesh peeled of the bone. Dr said I rooted it, not routed it.

[Baz]

In my younger days, I had a quick EH Holden 179 which hopped over the 1/4 in 14 secs. One day, I was tuning the triple SU's whilst standing in the front of the car with my guts hanging over the radiator. Suddenly, one of the four fan blades decided to let go when I was revving it to about 6 grand. The broken off blade just missed my left ear and went straight through the metal skin of the bonnet above me, flew another 20 feet in the air and then impaled itself into the lawn next to the car. The body wasn't injured, but my undies sure were. You will always see me over the side guards now.

Baz

[Merv and Sharon]

This thread is a theme for a good documentary! Gregg you're right - we put a lot of blood and (Baz) some guts into these cars! I know I am going to be more careful.

[COBRANIP]

I was looking at a cobra once and took a really big bite of really cold ice cream and got one of those really painfull "brain freezes".....does that count?

Intelligent people learn from other peoples mistakes.
Average people learn from their own mistakes.
Fools......................................never learn!

P.S. If I told the truth I would be afraid my health insurance premiums might go up!

[boxhead]

I have a few from days as a mechanic.

Only one proper one from the Cobra, My original quick bolts used to be big wood bolts, they had domed caps with no slot for a screwdriver or allen key,they did have a square molded into the underside to bite into the wood. To get them to sit flush on the quick jacks I had to remove the square piece from under the head.
I was doing this on a bench grinder, well I was pushing a little too hard and teh bolt caught the grinder and was ripped from my grasp.
Well my fingers did not go into teh grinder (I am sure you are all thinking that) but the threaded end of the bolt whacked the back of my third finger (not sure what that one is called) and it now has a scare that is earily like a bolt thread, and yes I did loose the nail.

Doesnt look like much but at the time it hurt alot.

Now for car injuries whilst being a mechanic.
Back in my 4th year as an apprentice I was working on a 323i Beamer (early 80's version) and tightening a hose clamp from underneath, I had teh car on a hoist and could only fit one hand through the small gap, I was using my left hand (I dont know why now as I am right handed) So I was pushing with moderate force as well as turning to keep the screwdriver engaged in the slot, well teh screwdriver slipped and my hand pushed up into the tight area, and in doing so the back of my hand scrapped over the tag end of another hose clamp, ripping the back of my hand open.
That took 6 stitches to close up.


Then I was replacing a ball joint in a VC Commonwhore, well instead of doing it properly I tried to take a short cut by not removing the lower control arm and using a press.
I got the old one out no worries then chocked the control arm so it would not go up, I placed the ball joint in its hole and found a socket that cupped the edge of ball joint.
Holding teh socket in my left hand I proceeded to whack the socket with a FBH, well inevitably the hammer missed the socket after a few blows (I was swinging hard as confidence was high I was hitting the target) My finger became the target and when hitting a finger that is between a hammer face and a control arm, let me tell you the finger is the first thing to give.
I hit it that hard that the finger joint "popped" out the side of my finger.

That finger gets very sore in cold weather now.