Stupid (kick me type) mistakes
Discussion
Whilst I haven't done any stupid things on the wedge (yet), yesterday I was changing a headlight bulb on the clio. Typical french design, the whole bumper/grill front end needs to come off to get the headlight out. Not actually as big a job as it sounds. When refitting I noticed the undertray didn't fit as tight as I would've liked to the front valance, so I thought no probs I will drill and fit a few self tappers.
Working from the passenger side 1st I fitted 4 no problem, the last one to be drilled was near the drivers front wheel. Drilled through the plastic bumper, through the undertray and into the windscreen wash bottle
Anyone beat that?????
Working from the passenger side 1st I fitted 4 no problem, the last one to be drilled was near the drivers front wheel. Drilled through the plastic bumper, through the undertray and into the windscreen wash bottle
Anyone beat that?????
Not car related but I was running a computer cable upstairs - drilled through the wall from outside when I took the drill out water was pi55ing out the hole. I had neatly drilled between both radiator pipes inside (buried in the wall) so I had damaged both of them.
A quick s
t st st, smashed the wall open with a hammer and hammered the pipes flat then cut them and folded them over (this was a tip from my plumber neighbour when I rang him). Still had a minor flood to clear up.
He then fixed it for me when he got back when he'd finished wetting himself
A quick s
t st st, smashed the wall open with a hammer and hammered the pipes flat then cut them and folded them over (this was a tip from my plumber neighbour when I rang him). Still had a minor flood to clear up. He then fixed it for me when he got back when he'd finished wetting himself
I can beat all of those no problem.
2 years ago drilled a hole in a customers wall straight through a radiator pipe buried in the wall resulting in a 2 grand bill for the flooded flooring etc. The year before I was drilling through another customers wall and the drill bit hit a metal stud inside the timber kit wall and the end result was a fire due to paper backing on the ply sheets catching fire. The bill for that one was £60000!!!!!!! My public liability insurance is now quite expensive.
2 years ago drilled a hole in a customers wall straight through a radiator pipe buried in the wall resulting in a 2 grand bill for the flooded flooring etc. The year before I was drilling through another customers wall and the drill bit hit a metal stud inside the timber kit wall and the end result was a fire due to paper backing on the ply sheets catching fire. The bill for that one was £60000!!!!!!! My public liability insurance is now quite expensive.
gromit wedge said:
I can beat all of those no problem.
2 years ago drilled a hole in a customers wall straight through a radiator pipe buried in the wall resulting in a 2 grand bill for the flooded flooring etc. The year before I was drilling through another customers wall and the drill bit hit a metal stud inside the timber kit wall and the end result was a fire due to paper backing on the ply sheets catching fire. The bill for that one was £60000!!!!!!! My public liability insurance is now quite expensive.
2 years ago drilled a hole in a customers wall straight through a radiator pipe buried in the wall resulting in a 2 grand bill for the flooded flooring etc. The year before I was drilling through another customers wall and the drill bit hit a metal stud inside the timber kit wall and the end result was a fire due to paper backing on the ply sheets catching fire. The bill for that one was £60000!!!!!!! My public liability insurance is now quite expensive.
I hope you get someone else to drive the drill for you nowadays
gromit wedge said:
The bill for that one was £60000!!!!!!!
I only asked you to blow the bloody doors off!!..
Years ago i rented a ford sierra and was supposed to pick up a mate for a day release from maidstone prison but the car was running like a proper donkey so i slackened off the dizzy bolt..Turned the car over and proceeded to try to turn it while it was running..YYeeeaahhh..My hand stuck on it like superglue..
..I managed to pull my hand off..Then after stomping up and down the pavement and shouting every swear word i could think of i went back to it ,And guess what..I went to touch it again and this time my hand was well stuck and i was struggling to pull it off of it..I felt electricity travelling up my hand..Then arm..Then shoulder ..I had to push myself away from it via my foot and the front bumper..A lot more swearing occurred and i kicked the wing and put a dent in it..I parked it up on the sunday night outside their office and on monday morning still got my deposit back as apparently someone had been vandalising their cars of a night..
After years of freezing my nuts off in my old 350i I decided to modify the heater. This entailed a 3" hole in the air intake box and fitting a tube with an on/off valve (for the summer). This delivered lovely hot air into the heater matrix.
Worked a treat but very nearly killed the Wife!
Worked a treat but very nearly killed the Wife!
gromit wedge said:
I can beat all of those no problem.
2 years ago drilled a hole in a customers wall straight through a radiator pipe buried in the wall resulting in a 2 grand bill for the flooded flooring etc. The year before I was drilling through another customers wall and the drill bit hit a metal stud inside the timber kit wall and the end result was a fire due to paper backing on the ply sheets catching fire. The bill for that one was £60000!!!!!!! My public liability insurance is now quite expensive.
Not me but one of my work colleagues... some years back we got asked by a client to put a new electrical system into their radiography bay. The walls were 18" thick concrete. So matey sets to with a hired core drill and after some time he pulled the drill out for a break... only for a mountain of small balls to come pouring out. Turned out that the walls were actually a cavity construction filled with lead shot for additional shielding in the days when it was used for gamma radiography with Cobalt-60!2 years ago drilled a hole in a customers wall straight through a radiator pipe buried in the wall resulting in a 2 grand bill for the flooded flooring etc. The year before I was drilling through another customers wall and the drill bit hit a metal stud inside the timber kit wall and the end result was a fire due to paper backing on the ply sheets catching fire. The bill for that one was £60000!!!!!!! My public liability insurance is now quite expensive.
I've done the screw through heating pipes stunt - and also drilled through live mains cables. Car-wise I've reversed the TVR into a forecourt bin that managed to be invisible in the mirror and (many years ago) crashed another car on a roundabout, resulting in £100 of costs whilst trying to save £2.50 on bike brake pads by driving to another town
mrzigazaga said:
slackened off the dizzy bolt..Turned the car over and proceeded to try to turn it while it was running..YYeeeaahhh..My hand stuck on it like superglue....I managed to pull my hand off..Then after stomping up and down the pavement and shouting every swear word i could think of i went back to it ,And guess what..I went to touch it again and this time my hand was well stuck and i was struggling to pull it off of it..I felt electricity travelling up my hand..Then arm..Then shoulder ..I had to push myself away from it via my foot and the front bumper..A lot more swearing occurred and i kicked the wing and put a dent in it..I parked it up on the sunday night outside their office and on monday morning still got my deposit back as apparently someone had been vandalising their cars of a night..
I did that on my old golf. Though I wasnt stupid enough to do it twice;)..I managed to pull my hand off..Then after stomping up and down the pavement and shouting every swear word i could think of i went back to it ,And guess what..I went to touch it again and this time my hand was well stuck and i was struggling to pull it off of it..I felt electricity travelling up my hand..Then arm..Then shoulder ..I had to push myself away from it via my foot and the front bumper..A lot more swearing occurred and i kicked the wing and put a dent in it..I parked it up on the sunday night outside their office and on monday morning still got my deposit back as apparently someone had been vandalising their cars of a night..I put diesel in my Rover P4. Luckily only a gallon before I realised. Doubly lucky the P4 has a drain plug on the tank so I drained it into a gallon container (while dressed up to go to a night club in Chelmsford - Puke's I think...)
Then I went to the cashier and asked him where I could put this fuel - he said he didn't know. So I tipped it down the drain, an when that was full into the flower bed of the petrol station. 2 gallons later the tanks was pretty empty, and diesel was oozing out of the flower bed. As this petrol station was in a town centre there was a slim possibility of someone flicking a fag butt into the drain, but hey-ho. Filled up with 4* and left (yes 4*). Bishop's Stortford didn't blow up that night so no harm done ;^)
Got into Puke's smelling slightly of diesel/petrol but that just seemed to attract the local flange even more for some strange reason....
Then I went to the cashier and asked him where I could put this fuel - he said he didn't know. So I tipped it down the drain, an when that was full into the flower bed of the petrol station. 2 gallons later the tanks was pretty empty, and diesel was oozing out of the flower bed. As this petrol station was in a town centre there was a slim possibility of someone flicking a fag butt into the drain, but hey-ho. Filled up with 4* and left (yes 4*). Bishop's Stortford didn't blow up that night so no harm done ;^)
Got into Puke's smelling slightly of diesel/petrol but that just seemed to attract the local flange even more for some strange reason....
An old work collegue of mine some years ago was installing a water softener in a semi detached house,he completed the fitting by drilling the wall and poking the overflow through it,started packing up his tools when the neighbour popped round to mention that someone had pushed a little white pipe into their living room, Brian s emigrated since to New zealand bless him.
Adjusted the front wheel bearings on the 390 - but did the usual thing where you do them up till the wheel locks and then back them off a bit - this worked OK on the Vauxhall Viva.
They were too tight and 50 miles into my trip up to the National Motor Museum the steering felt odd and eventually the offside front locked up and nearly put me into the barrier. I was recovered by the AA and when I got home I found the bearing had locked but was spinning on the stub axle until it welded itself on, then it was spinning in the hub and wore a larger hole so that was b****ered too.
Final repairs - One stub axle (I never got the bearing off that), One hub and a set of new bearings. The nearside had also ruined the bearings but damaged nothing else.
Moral of the story is - big cast-iron hubs expand when warm so always allow the correct amount of end-float when doing up the bearings.
Russ
They were too tight and 50 miles into my trip up to the National Motor Museum the steering felt odd and eventually the offside front locked up and nearly put me into the barrier. I was recovered by the AA and when I got home I found the bearing had locked but was spinning on the stub axle until it welded itself on, then it was spinning in the hub and wore a larger hole so that was b****ered too.
Final repairs - One stub axle (I never got the bearing off that), One hub and a set of new bearings. The nearside had also ruined the bearings but damaged nothing else.
Moral of the story is - big cast-iron hubs expand when warm so always allow the correct amount of end-float when doing up the bearings.
Russ
wooly350i said:
An old work collegue of mine some years ago was installing a water softener in a semi detached house,he completed the fitting by drilling the wall and poking the overflow through it,started packing up his tools when the neighbour popped round to mention that someone had pushed a little white pipe into their living room, Brian s emigrated since to New zealand bless him.
Priceless wooly...... priceless 
wooly350i said:
An old work collegue of mine some years ago was installing a water softener in a semi detached house,he completed the fitting by drilling the wall and poking the overflow through it,started packing up his tools when the neighbour popped round to mention that someone had pushed a little white pipe into their living room, Brian s emigrated since to New zealand bless him.
Nearly the same as mine. Years ago in a past life when I was a Joiner, I was fitting a kitchen with the help of my labrador (labourer for the uninitiated). I had a dentist appointment so gave him a small list of 'easy jobs'. One was to fit the socket back box to the wall that I had previously chopped out for.
When I returned I was pleased how he had got on, apart from using 2 3" screws to fit the back box, an inch of them protruding into the dining room. Good job the houseowners were out
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