Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
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Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
I took one of the break bolts all the way of the rear, and had the whole deal hanging by one bolt- when it was almost undone it had stripped the hole and I was ****ed- I had to find a place where I could buy/rent the proper tap/die to get my car out of my driveway that was parked diagonally. It sat there for a day or two just looking ridiculous.
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
i was re connecting my cigarette lighter to hook up a new radar detector i just bought. plugged it in, started the car and fried the radar. turn out i crossed the wires.
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Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
i tightened bolt too much and it snapped the head off. when installing my new vtec solenoid i forgot to put the gasket screen back and had to take it all apart again.
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
mushroomed my tie rod bolt that connects to my strut. then put stripped nut over the bolt and held it in with the cotter pin. road like that for a month! nothing happened and i fixed it all!
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Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
did not re-adjust the valves after installing the stage 3 cam spun the motor unseated all the valves. Had to pull the whole thing apart and re-seat all the valves. what fun!
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
wow here we go...
1st - when installing new headers stipped a nut on a bottom stud. blow torch and big *** hammer on her for about 5 minutes nothing happend. ending up forcing one size smaller socket onto it to get that bitch off but some of the stud broke off so had to pay dealer $80 to drill it out and put a new stud in.
2nd - when installing springs i cut the bump stops in the rear but forgot the front so rode around for a week hitting the bump stop every two seconds... gah
3rd - i nearly died on this one... i was unscrewing a distribution block on my audio setup. forgot to un do the battery first and shocked the **** **** out of myself. luckily it was just a 750 watt amp. if it was a kicker warhorse.. i woulda died. thats what the trainer guy said at our shop.. i will be installing one soon too in a eg. woot!
4th - installing leds on my center console drilled a **** load of stupid holes and ended up taking leds out a week later and now im stuck with all the damn holes.
5th - wasnt me but was on my car lol. my cousin was taking off my oem catback when installing my new one and didnt wait for it too cool off. he first unbolted it from the downpipe and it fell down and hit him in the ear cinging his ear and cheek. haha. it was great.
1st - when installing new headers stipped a nut on a bottom stud. blow torch and big *** hammer on her for about 5 minutes nothing happend. ending up forcing one size smaller socket onto it to get that bitch off but some of the stud broke off so had to pay dealer $80 to drill it out and put a new stud in.
2nd - when installing springs i cut the bump stops in the rear but forgot the front so rode around for a week hitting the bump stop every two seconds... gah
3rd - i nearly died on this one... i was unscrewing a distribution block on my audio setup. forgot to un do the battery first and shocked the **** **** out of myself. luckily it was just a 750 watt amp. if it was a kicker warhorse.. i woulda died. thats what the trainer guy said at our shop.. i will be installing one soon too in a eg. woot!
4th - installing leds on my center console drilled a **** load of stupid holes and ended up taking leds out a week later and now im stuck with all the damn holes.
5th - wasnt me but was on my car lol. my cousin was taking off my oem catback when installing my new one and didnt wait for it too cool off. he first unbolted it from the downpipe and it fell down and hit him in the ear cinging his ear and cheek. haha. it was great.
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
well lets say I had new suspention and well, i forgot to put the top bolt on, I drove around and the ****ing piston shock or whatever blew a nice hole in the metal in the back.
hard to explian, ruined shock
hard to explian, ruined shock
My Pony Princess is the inspiration for my ride.
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Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
Let's see. When drilling a hole in the firewall of my wife's (then girlfriend) '97 Civic to install an amp, I went too far and drilled through the AC condensor.....
....then there was the time I installed the MAF sensor of my old Blazer backwards when I put the filter-on-a-stick on and ruined the MAF......
....the first head re-assembly on my '85 CRX (after a T-belt broke) and I put the crank pulley "to TDC" by using the white mark on the face of the pulley, not the timing marks on the edge. Eight more bent valves later and I got it right.....
....I'm sure I'll do more boneheaded things.
....then there was the time I installed the MAF sensor of my old Blazer backwards when I put the filter-on-a-stick on and ruined the MAF......
....the first head re-assembly on my '85 CRX (after a T-belt broke) and I put the crank pulley "to TDC" by using the white mark on the face of the pulley, not the timing marks on the edge. Eight more bent valves later and I got it right.....
....I'm sure I'll do more boneheaded things.
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
Mine's better than all of you. (I'm a one upper... ok not really) on my old nova, during an engine swap in which i did a headswap and full exhaust swap I did everything myself. However the last step of the project required me to hook up my brand new 750cfm carb. While hooking it up i didn't quite read the instructions carefully enough and put the gas line where a vacuum line was supposed to go. I tried cranking it for 10 minutes before I gave up and took a closer look at everything. I discovered that my motor was basically full of gas everywhere it wasn't supposed to be. If for some reason it would have turned over and fired I would have probably blown myself and my car straight to hell. Luckily, I thought to check my exhaust to see if gas was in there too... there was about a half-gallon of gas between the headers and the mufflers... dammit that added about 10 hours onto an already long job.
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
You have definately won the most hideously grotesque finger contest. Your prize is 25 bandaids. 
Looks like your mistake was getting so angry with your DIY that you repeatedly raped your finger with your seat and seat rails until desired pain was achieved.

Looks like your mistake was getting so angry with your DIY that you repeatedly raped your finger with your seat and seat rails until desired pain was achieved.
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
I gotta hear the story behind that picture. That'll probably take a whole box of sesame street bandaids, 3 zipties, a dirty rag, and some duct tape to get patched up. Damn......
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Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
ah well.. that would be the reason why my hatch project stopped....
on one beautiful april afternoon waiting for the gf to get ready to go out to the store i decided to fire up the hatch and see whats up with it... so i hear a vac leak coming from the i/m
so i think lemme lean over and take a listen... so i do what i always do and have always done and leaned on the vc to hold myself up. well the only diffrence was this time the timing cover was off. :/ not paying attention im listening at hissing noises followed by a quick grind noise...
car sputters and dies.... hmmm that was weird, i thought.
i look over real fast to see my finger is cut... oh well ill clean it up later... so looking for any obvious reasons for the motor dying i feel a burning sensation in the cut area... look over again and think....
w....t.........f....... lol
so im alone i was going to pick my gf up... so i shut the hood put the car cover back on lock the house lock up the garage grab a rag and get in my car(5sp, right pinkey finger) and jet.. lol got to the gfs hop in her car and thats where you see that pic taken from...
it def was a learning experience lol...
i got complacent. and dumb ive been working on cars since i could remember. for this to happen.... i just hope people could learn from my mistake...
well as for the healing...







now it looks about normal the nail grew back kinda lol its pretty good...
on one beautiful april afternoon waiting for the gf to get ready to go out to the store i decided to fire up the hatch and see whats up with it... so i hear a vac leak coming from the i/m
so i think lemme lean over and take a listen... so i do what i always do and have always done and leaned on the vc to hold myself up. well the only diffrence was this time the timing cover was off. :/ not paying attention im listening at hissing noises followed by a quick grind noise...
car sputters and dies.... hmmm that was weird, i thought.
i look over real fast to see my finger is cut... oh well ill clean it up later... so looking for any obvious reasons for the motor dying i feel a burning sensation in the cut area... look over again and think....
w....t.........f....... lol
so im alone i was going to pick my gf up... so i shut the hood put the car cover back on lock the house lock up the garage grab a rag and get in my car(5sp, right pinkey finger) and jet.. lol got to the gfs hop in her car and thats where you see that pic taken from...
it def was a learning experience lol...
i got complacent. and dumb ive been working on cars since i could remember. for this to happen.... i just hope people could learn from my mistake...
well as for the healing...







now it looks about normal the nail grew back kinda lol its pretty good...
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
Its amazing to me how well hands can heal up. That wont look too bad once everything is finished healing all things considered. Lucky to still have it. I've had a few close calls not paying attention. It only takes a second to do something stupid and once its done, it can't be undone. I'm a pretty calm collected dude who has seen a lot, but to be honest I might have at least gagged if that happened to me.
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Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
yes i am very lucky to have it... and honestly it must have been the shock or something. but i didnt feel anything just a burning.. and also i was joking alot about it. at first i was kind of in a panic. but once i realized it happened and there was no amout of wishing or anything i could do to reverse it i was joking up a storm. in the er i had people saying. how can you joke when your finger is haning off. i was like well its only a pinkey. i was asking the doctor if i would ever play guitar hero again... and if i could ever do a dr evil impression again. lol then he was looking at it and said hmm.. and i said if its going to be a big trouble just take it off. lol but im glad to still have it... live and learn...
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Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
^^^ u live at Niagara Falls? lulz
well my biggest mistake while DIY'ing is when i was changing my rims and i jacked the car on soil instead of the asphalt/cement. needless to say, the fukking jack sunk and my fukking car was crooked like ****. worst decision EVER.
well my biggest mistake while DIY'ing is when i was changing my rims and i jacked the car on soil instead of the asphalt/cement. needless to say, the fukking jack sunk and my fukking car was crooked like ****. worst decision EVER.
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
did the cluster swap and fuel guage doesn't work. Have to get my fuel pump checked out in the shop which will cost money
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
I thought I was the biggest tard ever, but somehow I did the install of my cluster without a hiccup. I think all these problems are probably due to the shipping, and roughness of the transport.
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
Honder and I met and swapped clusters. Mine worked in his but his didnt work in mine. He looked through a manual and it said i have to take out my fuel pump and check it out.
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
Fixing my roll up window on my 91 Civic 150... kept falling off the rail so i got this wonderful idea to drill through the bottom of the window and bolt it on
the bit went through clean, put the drill down, looked at the window and bang! window exploded in my face.
While rewiring my stereo i dropped a screwdriver into the depths of my Dash and it dissappeared...
overall:
the bit went through clean, put the drill down, looked at the window and bang! window exploded in my face.While rewiring my stereo i dropped a screwdriver into the depths of my Dash and it dissappeared...

overall:
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
[QUOTE=brettf;4366769] looked at the window and bang! window exploded in my face. [QUOTE]
WAIT?!? WTF?! u used ur mind powers to blow up ur window??...why?!?! lol
ive bin wanting to take out my window to give it a full pro tint job but im scared ill break the glass...ive already nearly severed my hand wit broken glass so idk im thinkin soon in the future ima post up on here about that lol..is it hard to take out the glass from windows?.....dont make me have to find out n put pix like the guy wit the fingerr..
edit..yea wow so i deff ****ed up the quoting thing.....
WAIT?!? WTF?! u used ur mind powers to blow up ur window??...why?!?! lol
ive bin wanting to take out my window to give it a full pro tint job but im scared ill break the glass...ive already nearly severed my hand wit broken glass so idk im thinkin soon in the future ima post up on here about that lol..is it hard to take out the glass from windows?.....dont make me have to find out n put pix like the guy wit the fingerr..

edit..yea wow so i deff ****ed up the quoting thing.....
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Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
yes i am very lucky to have it... and honestly it must have been the shock or something. but i didnt feel anything just a burning.. and also i was joking alot about it. at first i was kind of in a panic. but once i realized it happened and there was no amout of wishing or anything i could do to reverse it i was joking up a storm. in the er i had people saying. how can you joke when your finger is haning off. i was like well its only a pinkey. i was asking the doctor if i would ever play guitar hero again... and if i could ever do a dr evil impression again. lol then he was looking at it and said hmm.. and i said if its going to be a big trouble just take it off. lol but im glad to still have it... live and learn...
Re: Whats your biggest mistake you ever made while DIY?
While installing lowering springs on my car i forgot to support the cv joint, and that sucker broke...so now im driving with a messed up cv joint on the right side....i also lost 2 nuts that go on the top strut mount...so each strut is being supported by only 2 nuts....can i get those at the honda dealer?



