Blood and sweat, what injury has your truck caused lately?

[gigamanx]

They say we build these trucks with blood, sweat, and tears. For the second time in a week, I find myself pouring alcohol over an open wound to clean it out. Thanks to trying to set the TDC of cylinder 1 with my hands. I still bear the scar from two weeks ago catching the corner of my freshly cut truck bed with my wrist and slicing it open. I have since learned to flap disc any metal cuts even if I'm throwing the piece away. What are your war torn stories?

[jeffahart]

All mental!

The scars are deep!

[mr48chev]

Lately just to my wallet, I bought a 4 barrel intake made by Aussie Speed a while back and bought my cast headers from Langdon's last week. Talk about service, we did the deal on the phone while he was on a road trip on Sunday and the headers were shipped out on Monday. Now to save for the finned aluminum valve cover I want.

The truck has treated me with plenty of scars in the past many of which I still pack around.

[joedoh]

the other day I was welding up some seat risers, couldnt find my left glove and I got a wicked sunburn on the back of my hand.

[mongocanfly]

Nothing but sweat...I'm hoping to get my geothermal system in this year...my shop temps been running 95-100 lately

[MARTINSR]

Between work and home, come on, here at home I forget what I was welding but didn't have my gloves on. One of those little metal balls the MIG will toss ended up hitting and sticking to my wedding ring! Guys, this produced the worse burn I have ever had in my 40 years in the autobody industry. This sucker COOKED the meat on my finger! It wasn't just a burn it COOKED the meat! I couldn't put my ring back on for weeks, it was really funky. The photo was taken minutes later before I even got the ring off. The next day, it was MUCH bigger than it looks here and COOKED!

The other one happened at work, ok, I wasn't working on my truck but you have to hear about it. LOL I ran a 1/4" drill into my face breaking into my sinus cavity! It missed my eye socket by 2mm! You can see by the scan the broken white area between the two black areas above my teeth. You can see in the photo with the red shirt how my nose was seriously crooked. It got better with time and my modeling career hardly missed a step.

When I went to the surgeon for him to look over the CAT scan he kept saying over and over "I can't believe how lucky you were." He apologized, "I am looking at it as a doctor, sorry for being so insensitive, I can't believe how lucky you were!"

Just a half inch in any direction and it would have went into the middle of my nose, my eye, my teeth, it would NOT have been good.

I broke a nerve that will never heal. For the rest of my life I will have the numb/tingling feeling I have under my eye down to my upper lip. But in looking at would could have happened, I am THRILLED to have this numb/tingling feeling.

I could go through another five posts full of cuts and crap but these are the two most interesting.

Brian

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

Between work and home, come on, here at home I forget what I was welding but didn't have my gloves on. One of those little metal balls the MIG will toss ended up hitting and sticking to my wedding ring! Guys, this produced the worse burn I have ever had in my 40 years in the autobody industry. This sucker COOKED the meat on my finger! It wasn't just a burn it COOKED the meat! I couldn't put my ring back on for weeks, it was really funky. The photo was taken minutes later before I even got the ring off. The next day, it was MUCH bigger than it looks here and COOKED!

haha I had this happen. I was wearing gloves but there was a hole right over my ring finger. gold is an amazing conductor and you dont really know what that means until you get a ball of slag on your wedding ring. all the heat in that ball is instantly transferred to your finger through the gold. I had a ring blister for weeks like you describe and I had to file the slag smooth on my ring.

I dont wear a wedding ring any more, still married but its not worth the danger!

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by joedoh

haha I had this happen. I was wearing gloves but there was a hole right over my ring finger. gold is an amazing conductor and you dont really know what that means until you get a ball of slag on your wedding ring. all the heat in that ball is instantly transferred to your finger through the gold. I had a ring blister for weeks like you describe and I had to file the slag smooth on my ring.

I dont wear a wedding ring any more, still married but its not worth the danger!

You described it perfectly, I too had to file it off. I really like wearing my ring, I love my wife and want to wear it. When I was doing this stuff every day at work I didn't wear it for years but started to and it wasn't a problem, I simple took it off at work. I have a split keychain like this.



It is literally a tiny air chuck. Anyway, when I got to work and unlocked my tool box I split the keychain and stuck my ring on it. When I locked the box back up I pulled it off and put it on my finger. Worked very well for years.

This time I burnt it was at home and I wasn't thinking. I will tell you this, there is NO WAY I will weld now with it on!

Brian

[gigamanx]

I am starting to amass quite a few gloves now working on the truck. It's always those "hey I'll just do this one thing real quick" that bights me. A quick tack weld here, a quick turn of the wrench in an engine cavity. I have chemical gloves, fabric "mechanic" gloves, a box of nitrite ones for getting dirty, welding gloves that I hate because I can't grip things with those fat fingers haha, Face masks, shields, welding mask, ear protection, dust mask, chemical dust mask.... Honestly, those are the best tools I've had.

That might have to be a new thread...what's the most unlikely yet most useful tool in your arsenal. For example, I use my shop vac and my engine hoist for all sorts of things.

[vintovka]

My truck account is empty and it hurts!!

[1project2many]

I dont wear a wedding ring any more, still married but its not worth the danger!

I never have! I started growing a beard the day we got married with the promise that I will wear a beard as long as we stay together. Why? A safety video with pictures of injuries from wedding rings (burns, amputations) watches and bracelets (imagine the damage from a watch shorted between two massive batteries in a fire engine) and chains / necklaces (burns, chafing, and a near decapitation). Not for me, thanks.

I wear ear protection, eye protection, gloves, and a mask when appropriate. Why? I've been working on cars since I was 12 and I've got plenty of scars and injuries. There's a hole in my right shin from a clutch and flywheel assembly falling off a 366. My right pinkie finger got crushed between a hammer and punch and it will always tingle and get cold long before my other fingers. I've had back surgery from all the lifting I've done. I once had a ball of slag from flux welder wire land in my ear while I was laying on my side. I've had an arm catch on fire due to a backfire in a carb. I've been shocked and burnt more times than I can count. You collect injuries when you work on cars for a living.

The only thing I can remember specific to my truck was an injury to my pride. I had restored the grille long before anything else and re-installed it in the truck. I had the truck parked in front of the bench and because I was in a hurry I assumed it was in neutral when I turned the key. The engine flared to life and the truck drove straight into the workbench wrecking the grille.

[vintovka]

I doubt there's one good project of mine i haven't shed blood on. Maybe its a DNA marking thing?

[starterman99]

My most recent ''oh sh*t'' moment happened about 4 weeks ago. I repair starters for a living and had a heavy duty starter in the vise on my workbench. It had several layers of heavy paint on it so to clean up the case quickly I grabbed my 4 inch grinder with a twisted wire wheel cup and went to work with the trigger locked on. Being in a hurry I moved the wheel to far over the end of the case causing the tool to kick back pulling it out of my hand and landing in my shirt. I managed to get hold of it as it reached my belt line. the shirt wraped around the wheel and stalled the wheel as i got it turned off. Lots of surface scratches and three areas where it took the skin down to open wounds. But I was lucky it could have been so much worse.

[mr48chev]

Years ago I told my students in auto shop that it wasn't wise to wear watches, bracelets or rings when working on cars. Sure enough one day I reached across the top of a distributor on a running car to grab the vacuum advance to move the timing a bit and a big blue spark jumped out of the top of the cap directly into my watch band in front of 20 something students. That gave them a good laugh and a realization of what I had talked about.

When my mom worked at Pacific Power and Light the manager and line supervisor had to sit down with more than one young lineman's wife and explain that it was a serious safety issue when they complained about the company policy of line crew members not wearing wedding or other rings. The only mark they found on more than one who had died on the job was the burn around his wedding ring where it had worn though his leather gloves and the ring had come in contact with hot wire. My wedding ring had a nice design on it when we got married in 1969 but you can barely see the design now. I got it hung up on too many things and stopped wearing it but if you pull it out of the box now you can barely see the remains of the design.

[b-mac]

Just the ones that are still on the camera...and I wouldn't even consider myself clumsy. I used a grinder to find my finger bone last spring, but I've changed phones since then.

[steve aleve]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

You described it perfectly, I too had to file it off. I really like wearing my ring, I love my wife and want to wear it. When I was doing this stuff every day at work I didn't wear it for years but started to and it wasn't a problem, I simple took it off at work. I have a split keychain like this.



It is literally a tiny air chuck. Anyway, when I got to work and unlocked my tool box I split the keychain and stuck my ring on it. When I locked the box back up I pulled it off and put it on my finger. Worked very well for years.

This time I burnt it was at home and I wasn't thinking. I will tell you this, there is NO WAY I will weld now with it on!

Brian

Wild!! I had never heard of this happening to anyone ... else but myself before today!!! I was also stupidly welding without gloves (never again) and a hot ball of slag hit my ring and it immediately burned my finger all the way around. Worst burn I have ever experienced. The gold conducted the heat all the way around my finger. I looked for water and there was none in sight so I immediately started spitting on my finger to try to cool it. I grabbed the ring, twisted and pulled it off and I now have a scar there
(where the ring was and a twist mark up my finger) forever. Crazy!

My wife is kind of happy it happened cause she will smirk and mention "it's forever" lol

[Dan in Pasadena]

Currently, my wallet lies bleeding on the side of the road near death.

PS: The 1st week i had my truck in 2011 i was grinding out the spot welds that weld a 1/8" steel plate onto the angle strips and ground a kerf into the very tip of my right index finger (I'm left handed). It STILL grows excess callus over it and lacks feeling. Oh well, but I'm building my dream truck!

[vintovka]

Dammers:
"My body is a roadmap of pain."

The Frighterners, 1996

Now have 32 plus non original body parts. Anyone beat 32?

[mongocanfly]

On the rings on fingers ,where I work they're forbidden...to much of a safety issue..some guys went and got the rubber ones but that got shot down quick..safety said they had a hard time telling what they were made of with just a glance...so some of the guys went and had ring tattoos done..

[joedoh]

too dangerous everywhere! I guess a thing the kids at my daughters high school would do is jump and slap the top of the lunchroom door. well a kid in her class had one of those fashionable titanium rings on when he did it, which fit neatly in between the trim and the door frame and, well you can guess what happened when he tried to hang his whole body from the meat of his middle finger.

I guess there are no muscles in the fingers, its all in the arm! but they couldnt slide it back over the bone so they subtracted his middle finger! like took it out behind the first knuckle! he has 3 fingers an a thumb like cartoons. made me shudder to think about it.

I told her honey I love you and thats never going to change. I spend my time being as gross as possible to reassure her that women arent talking me up without a ring.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by vintovka

Dammers:
"My body is a roadmap of pain."

The Frighterners, 1996

Now have 32 plus non original body parts. Anyone beat 32?

WOW!

Brian

[gigamanx]

Originally Posted by 1project2many

I never have! I started growing a beard the day we got married with the promise that I will wear a beard as long as we stay together. Why? A safety video with pictures of injuries from wedding rings (burns, amputations) watches and bracelets (imagine the damage from a watch shorted between two massive batteries in a fire engine) and chains / necklaces (burns, chafing, and a near decapitation). Not for me, thanks.

I wear ear protection, eye protection, gloves, and a mask when appropriate. Why? I've been working on cars since I was 12 and I've got plenty of scars and injuries. There's a hole in my right shin from a clutch and flywheel assembly falling off a 366. My right pinkie finger got crushed between a hammer and punch and it will always tingle and get cold long before my other fingers. I've had back surgery from all the lifting I've done. I once had a ball of slag from flux welder wire land in my ear while I was laying on my side. I've had an arm catch on fire due to a backfire in a carb. I've been shocked and burnt more times than I can count. You collect injuries when you work on cars for a living.

The only thing I can remember specific to my truck was an injury to my pride. I had restored the grille long before anything else and re-installed it in the truck. I had the truck parked in front of the bench and because I was in a hurry I assumed it was in neutral when I turned the key. The engine flared to life and the truck drove straight into the workbench wrecking the grille.

Isn't there the possibility of hair in any spinning, moving parts?

I've been so careful with all my sheet metal even though the paint job is far overdue. I'd hate to dent any of that old steel knowing it lasted all these years and my dumbass is the one to ruin it.

[1project2many]

Now have 32 plus non original body parts. Anyone beat 32?

We're not talking about the trucks anymore, right.

That's a competition I don't even want to enter. Seriously, it sounds like you're pretty lucky to be here.

Isn't there the possibility of hair in any spinning, moving parts?

OWW!

I keep it trimmed to a reasonable level. Can't imagine what it would look like after 25 years if I'd promised never to shave!

[_Ogre]

ogre bumped his knee on the column getting into truk last week
does that count???

[mr48chev]

I thought that was a requirement of owning and driving a TF truck. Banged knee on the dog leg or on the column at least once a week. Remembering my 57 Panel.