Basmitharts#weirdcarmastodon #carsofmastodon
Morning friends. Today's QOTD...What is the worst experience you've had working on a car?
jeffbattTrying to take off a brake drum, I did something stupid with a screwdriver and basically stabbed my knuckle. I ignored it/didn’t realize it was that bad until I took my glove off and the blood started dripping out. Had to go get stitches.
Other than that, I really don’t like working with the fiberglass on the lotus, get nasty little splinters etc.
@jeffbatt I made fiberglass molds for over a decade when I was younger. I know all about splinters lol
Den of Earth@Basmitharts @jeffbatt I keep hearing rumours that fibreglass insulation (for homes) might be the next material to be banned like asbestos, because of the tiny fibres that wind up everywhere, including our fingertips and also presumably our lungs if not wearing appropriate breathing gear.
I believe it. Kind of nasty stuff.
Zep@Basmitharts swear the soft top job for my NC was cursed, met with my car friend who offered to help on the first go, stopped because of illness, 2 days later I was in the hospital for appendicitis
Near a month later we had another go at it and that day was over 90'F and humid, my cheap soft top came with no instructions so we had to reverse engineer it, the frame is bent, occasionally had to start the stripped out car to run the AC and cool down
nothing but misery until the job was done
MrRob.in 
🇬🇧@Basmitharts 4200 kg of campervan crushing a dense concrete breeze block supporting a bottle jack supporting the chassis above my head 💩
Thankfully it only moved 1/2 and inch before the axle stands loaded up and stopped it. There was also a huge chunk of oak as a third line of defence that would hopefully have held it if the stands had jet go too…
Its needless to say, but next time it needs a £$6 abs sensor it goes into a f’k’n’ garage 🤣
Dan 
@BitchinRob @Basmitharts when I look back at the summer I spent working under my camper it’s a wonder I survived. I wouldn’t do it again.
Solid pieces of oak do make excellent cribbing/backup. I always recommend it as backup for people a little nervous about getting under a car and are searching for a fail safe.
@dan @Basmitharts yeah I don’t often work on my vehicles now. the number of times a pro mechanic has picked up a safety issue when doing the regular maintenance, that I would have missed, is a big reason on top of me personal safety.
Very grateful I live next to a canal lock where they had left some short 9x9 inch good oak bits cut off of the old dock walkway when they replaced it about 7 years ago. I have use them as ramps to do oil changes too.
Toot Suite 
@Tiezep @Basmitharts not a thing went wrong with mine during my 7 year stint with it that I didn’t cause myself
rAdio frEe mETa @driveelectronic I love the wheels on the special wheeled storage rack - the sign of a true gear-head.
@driveelectronic One of the Rover powered ones?
@Basmitharts that is indeed the infamous Rover K-series
Ivan Tsenov 
🇺🇦@Basmitharts Haven't done much, but it has to be replacing clutch cable.
Internet Graham@Basmitharts Broke a bolt holding the PCV assembly to the engine block in my RS. Couldn't get to the broken bolt stuck in the block due to space reasons, screw extractors wouldn't fit. I don't actually remember how we got it out other than that it took hours.
Nathan Avots-Smith@Basmitharts it has been long enough now that I can admit to the world the incredibly stupid way in which I changed the engine mounts on my old BMW Bavaria…
Scene: we had a very narrow, tandem two-car garage. The Bav was in the back, up on jack stands, with the engine/trans supported by a floor jack (driveshaft removed). Raised the engine enough to get the old mounts out and the new ones threaded to the unibody—how to properly align and seat the engine?
…to be continued…
Scene: we had a very narrow, tandem two-car garage. The Bav was in the back, up on jack stands, with the engine/trans supported by a floor jack (driveshaft removed). Raised the engine enough to get the old mounts out and the new ones threaded to the unibody—how to properly align and seat the engine?
…to be continued…
@Basmitharts this is where it gets really dumb and dangerous.
My husband, bless his heart, takes his life into my hands and gets on the floor under the car. He is manipulating the floor jack, lowering by degrees and pumping it up again as we try to align everything. He’s also majorly risking his fingers, trying to feel for the flanges on the engine block that thread onto the mounts.
…more to come…
My husband, bless his heart, takes his life into my hands and gets on the floor under the car. He is manipulating the floor jack, lowering by degrees and pumping it up again as we try to align everything. He’s also majorly risking his fingers, trying to feel for the flanges on the engine block that thread onto the mounts.
…more to come…
@Basmitharts Where am I? Why, I’m planking on the edge of the front fender, of course, my feet braced on the garage wall, pushing and pulling every which way to maneuver the engine into place from overhead!
No fingers were lost, the repair was a success, one of the best workouts of my life, but so, so dumb.
No fingers were lost, the repair was a success, one of the best workouts of my life, but so, so dumb.
@autonerdery @Basmitharts so glad it all worked out ok, it’s amazing in hindsight … what stoopid things we did.
Joe Tanner@Basmitharts forgetting to chock the wheels when working on a jacked-up car and watching it slowly fall of said Jack and sit on its brake disc. Lesson learned!