Tell us you worse battle scars from working on you Chevelle. Got hurt or possible disabled from the Chevelle restoration hobby and love. Please no "Trailer Queens". I'm talking about the people who that attempt to do the work that other profressional people could do in a timely manner. The thrifty people that are not afraid to try something new.

My cut off wheel came apart at about 20,000 rpm. A piece flew off and cut my arm open. My garage looks like a crime scene and I have to go to the emergency room at the local hospital. 4 internal and 8 stitches on the outside my arm is ready to start again a week later. WooHoo

1. Finger tips into spinning fan. Ting, ting, ting......5 minutes of PAIN!

2. While resting one hand on fender, reaching in and making sure the coil wire is on tight....with engine running. Whose the ground? I'm the ground!!! Zap! :rolleyes:

this was the elcamino. Under the car pulling the B&M linkage to put on the factory console linkage on the tranny. Whoops. forgot to block the wheel, popped the car in neutral! fortunately my ribs stopped the car from rolling too far! jim

2. While resting one hand on fender, reaching in and making sure the coil wire is on tight....with engine running. Whose the ground? I'm the ground!!! Zap! :rolleyes:

l:)l:)l:) I can relate, or as Bill Clinton use to say, "I feel (and have felt) your pain."

While trying to carefully place the iron intake on the heads for my first cam change, which was in an apartment building underground lot, my feet came out of my shoes. All I could think of was to get my fingers out as I flipped into the engine compartment. The sway bar stopped my head before the ground. I was in a ton of pain but remember laughing when I saw my shoes on the other side of the bumper.

I cleaned up the mess, reprepped the intake, realized I could get into the engine compartment with it, got it installed, and then went to get a bunch of stitches. I'm sure happy it was a small block, since that manifold was heavy!

About 20yrs. ago I had a couple of tendons in my wrist surgically attached. :yes: A flex fan + Chinese 12 point socket = :clonk:

My Chevelle had one of those Flex fans with razor sharp blades on it. I was dropping the distributor in and needed to turn the engine over. Well the ratchet I had on the harmonic balancer bolt slipped off, and my forearm grazed the fan blade creating a two inch gash. The skin folded under, so there was no bleeding until in the Emergency room when they pulled the skin out to sew me up. They gave me seven stitches. Now I have a nice Chevelle battle scar. :yes: LOL

About 20yrs. ago I had a couple of tendons in my wrist surgically attached. :yes: A flex fan + Chinese 12 point socket = :clonk:
Those damn Flex fans.:mad:

None yet.... I just got it but im sure i will. Thats why theres a motto BLOOD, sweat, and tears(maybe not tears but for sure the other two lol))

I have mostly what you guys have already talked about I remember the coil episode really well and the usual cuts, busted knuckles and stitches. Putting aside the physical pain the worst I have had was mental pain. Its a long story but the short of it is I busted my butt for a very long time working on a 67 Chevelle, took it to a body shop for the paint job,had it on the road for one month, when a guy with a 66 Chevelle ran a stop sign a TOTALED my car !!!!!!!! He hit me so hard it spun my wife and I 3 full turns on a state route and when we got stopped we were heading east in the west lane. Blew out all windows except the windshield and put my back seat in the shape of the letter A. It felt like part of me went to the junkyard when it was towed away. I was pissed for a looooooong time. The 66 survived with a ripped off front end and no one got hurt very bad which the Highway patrol was amazed about.

I'm one of the lucky ones, only minor Cuts and Abrasions.

Rust in my eye, scars on my fingers, shocked, busted knuckes, sore muscles, mental distress, and an empty wallet..
Isn't that all part of it?

rust in my eye, scars on my fingers, shocked, busted knuckes, sore muscles, mental distress, and an empty wallet..
Isn't that all part of it?

x2

Fortunately nothing on the Chevelle, but everything else I own has had a piece of me in one way or another.LOL.

Had a guy turn left in front of a '65 I used to own, I hit him at about 45 mph. I walked away with only a few abrasions but he was in the hospital for about 4 weeks, then at home for another 4 or 5 weeks.

I hate Gremlins.

Stupid people don't wear seat belts.

I have a 70 El Camino,I had some things in storage and the place had gate that you had enter a pin number on a pad next to the gate to open it.The gate would open and close pretty fast so I pulled up to it one day when I was leaving and I'm sure I put the car in park and I got out and soon as stood up the El Camino started in reverse and door caught me thew me face first on ground busting out my front teeth,cut my lips cut my forehead, but what another scar for a guy like me but the worst of all is I felt like a damn fool.The car hit of the storage doors and bent it along with my bumper.Another day in the life of me.

I was using a screwdriver to remove the springs on the rear drum brakes. Well my hand slipped and I stabbed myself in my other pinky finger. I remember it like it was slow motion. screwdriver went in, I stared at the screwdriver stuck in my pinky and then I pulled it out. Hurt like a SOB. I hate drum brakes!

How about the time I thought I could remove a starter without disconnecting the battery? I was about 17 and shorted the wrench to the frame through my class ring. It was like instant red hot and nasty.

Not a Chevelle wound but still hurt like hell.

My wedding ring has a gash in it when I was replacing an alternator on an Olds I owned years ago. I grounded the wrench on my ring while I was leaning on a bracket, ouch.

Another injury was when I sprayed carb cleaner in my eyes.

I got a good one. While re-assembling the front end on my 72, I was trying to line up the left lower control arm bolt holes. I remember trying to get the front hole to line up. I just couldn't get that damn bolt in there. I stuck my left pinky in the hole. Man, I can feel that it just needs to move a little bit. I'll just tap it with a hammer. All it needs is a tap. So I tap. I didn't feel it move (yes, I still had my finger in the hole) so I tapped it just as soft. This time the control arm moved about an inch. This acted like a cigar cutter and my pinky finger like a Cohiba. It didn't hurt, but it sure didn't feel right. We all know if it doesn't hurt, it's baaaaad. I pulled my funger out of where it shouldn't have been, to see the end of it pointing up on the air kind of like an open soup can. So what did I do? I folded that baby down, grease and all, put a couple of Band-Aids over and around it, and finished putting the front end back together. Man did that sucker throb that night. All is well that ends well. I have no lasting effects, not even a visible scar. I even have feeling in the tip of it. I was lucky, but I'll never do that again.

My 68 post had been running what I thought was a little hot, being original with no guages only a dummy light, I just pulled it in the garage and was gonna loosen the radiator cap to vent pressure, but it didn't vent, so I turned it a little further, it blew the cap off and antifreeze all over me, it was July so all I had on was a pair of shorts. I got second degree burns all over my left arm, under arm, hand, stomach, left cheek and two fingers, and first degree burns on my eyelid and ear. so now every time I get a good sun tan I have a big scare that shows up on my arm and stomach. antifreeze is very hot! the thermostat was stuck on the car so no telling how hot it was. and the rubber seal piece of the cap stuck to the radiator not letting it vent properly, causing me to turn it further than normal. so besides going to the emergency room, with burns all over the left side of my body, my freshly detailed engine bay was a mess, litteraly, and I would have sold that car for cheap in the emergency room if someone had made me an offer ;) I was mad at that car. couldn't work for about a week and had to wear long sleeve shirts the rest of the summer, people seem to stare when its 95 degrees and you have on long sleeves. LOL
Van

When I was 19 and the new owner of a Chevelle, mom had to take me to the ER at 11:00PM. one night. I was taking the car apart and cut the living crap out of my left hand, on that piece of stainless between the door glass and the roof on a 67'.
Bad thing was, I passed out twice, that I remember, before I made it in the house. Dad threatened to kick my azz for even working on it so late. And mom was pissssssssed.

Then there were a few times I have hurt myself doing something, when I needed help; isn't it funny how many friends you have, till you need help.

I dropped the rear out of my 70 on my foot while I was cleaning it. I had it on jackstands, and leaned the wrong way on it and the backing plate landed across my foot. Had to go to the hospital for X-rays for that one. Nothing broke though. Took a good chunk out of my leg with a wire wheel one time. Lots of cuts and smashed fingers, bumps on the head, etc. Plenty of burns too.

16 yrs old, trying to figure out why my first engine rebuild wouldn't fire up.
I was looking down the carb while cranking the starter, to see if fuel was flowing.
Fuel was flowing, in a vapor cloud around my head, on fire.
No trip to the ER, they can't reattach burned off eyebrows.

Got myself on fire one time pouring gas into the carb.
There was a tiny little flame down inside that ignited the coffee can which I immediately threw all over myself. :o
I always wondered why they say people take off running BUT I did it too.
Pants on fire are hard to get off while running but I got them down to my ankles where I wound up with some pretty bad burns. :o :o :o

Tore the end of my finger off one time by sticking it through a hole in the axle to line the hole up with the bolts and rotating the axle on my 49 Ford.
The momentum of the opposite tire kept it going.

A polio victim guy on crutches that hung out at the station wher I worked placed his hand on my chest and held me up against the overhead door when I passed out.
I woke up when they banged my head against the door while carrying me.
DUMB thing to do but I was just a kid.

I haven"t had too many battle wounds, but my very good friends dad bleeds EVERY time he touches my 69. Doesn't matter what we're doing. I think my worst one is cutting out the old leaking exhaust with my sawz-all not holding the flowmaster up and it dropped on my forehead... Saw bright lights on that one.

Just some typical scratches and bruises from slipped wrenches, twisting to get into tight places etc.

as Bill Clinton use to say, "I feel (and have felt) your pain.
HAHAHAHA he said "feel your pain" l:)l:)l:)

What's that saying,Dean? Liar liar pants on fire,didn't know you sold cars for a living.:D

While tuning up my big block in my twenties, my dad was working the key while I was trying to adjust the carb under the hood and the car backfired through the carb and took off an eyebrow and some hair....couldnt see so well for a few minutes either......funny thing was my dad after seeing if I was ok was reeming be about getting to close and told me to work the key and he would handle things under the hood and the same thing happened to him....lol

Well over the years I have had the regular burns and cuts but worst one I hurt a buddy. Working on the 69 few years back car was in the air by a couple of feet. He was under driver's side we were double checking the Z-bar we just installed I was on top of a two step stool looking down. I had a socket and ratchet set in my hands playing with it while we talked suddenly it slipped from my hands went straight down hitting my buddy on the bridge of his nose at the eyes.He came out from under the car son of a beech tim - I felt bad but no cuts or broken nose. A few days later got a call to drop by his house he wanted to show me something. His wife answered the door said they were going out an engagement that evening and my friend was out in the garage. I went into the garage he kept his back to me for a few seconds then turned around and there was the face of a racoon I fell onto the floor laughing. He didn't laugh as hard as me and said his wife was put off a bit but I have to say those big dark circles around his eyes were a sight to behold

Years ago I was attempting to change the cam in my '66 Super Sport. I had removed the intake, carb and fuel line, but left the fuel pump in place with a 90 degree brass fitting pointing straight up. (now you know where this is going) I couldn't figure out why the cam wouldn't come out of the block. For some reason I leaned over the radiator and looked down as I twisted the cam. Gas squirted out of the fuel pumps brass fitting right into my eyes. I couldn't see and thought I was going blind. Learned a lesson that day.

Changing an alternator belt with a flex fan setup on my 70, wrench slipped off the bolt head and my hand just slipped a bit, and i kept on tightening it down. Noticed the dripping off my hand a second later. Sliced open the top of my pointer finger on my right hand all the way across through the skin. the bones in your fingers really aren't that big when you look at them directly.

Bad part was i was in the middle of nowhere with a carload of kids heading to a church camp. A good butterfly/tape job though and it closed up really nice since it was clean and straight, now i just have the scar to show!

-Daniel

Two things really scare the hell out of me. The car falling on me and the radiator fan. So far, no injuries from either. I did touch the hot header pipe with my wrist though. I still have a small scar from that. The outer layers of skin pretty much vaporized in an instant. Here's one I bet no one has listed....I was working on the suspension or brakes (I seem to recall I had the wheel off) and I had a can of PB blaster sitting on the ground in front of me. I was on my hands and knees (I have a bad back and anyone with a bad back knows how you have to brace yourself when a big sneeze comes on. )when I sneezed I planted my forehead right into the top of the can of PB....and the cover was off! I hit it so hard I bent the metal base of the spray nozzle. And no, it did not leave an imprint of an arrow on my forehead but it sure gve me a good headache.

Rust in my eye, scars on my fingers, shocked, busted knuckes, sore muscles, mental distress, and an empty wallet..
Isn't that all part of it?

All the above...
The worst was a piece of rust that flew off my grinder, Under my safety glasses and into my eye. (Literally INTO my eye) ER to remove it, Then three follow up visits to the eye Dr until I could see clearly again. I now use goggles when grinding....

Changing an alternator belt with a flex fan setup on my 70, wrench slipped off the bolt head and my hand just slipped a bit, and i kept on tightening it down. Noticed the dripping off my hand a second later. Sliced open the top of my pointer finger on my right hand all the way across through the skin. the bones in your fingers really aren't that big when you look at them directly.

-Daniel


Yowza, that's two of these with the flexfan. Man, am I glad I was talked out of putting one of those on my car. I would have to sell my guitars off if I had one by now.

March 4th, 2007! New rearend due in two days, decided to go ahead and put trans. in and be ready when rearend gets here. I got the trans. partially stabbed while laying on my back, I got into a sitting position to push the trans the rest of the way in. When I pushed, both the rear jack stands fell. Rear bumper hit shop floor and I folded up like a cheap pocket knife. Result was two herniated disc in my cervical spine and one ruptured and one herniated in my lumbar spine. After 18 months of treatment and agony I finally had two surgeries. Both were successful and I'm back as close to normal as I ever was.As the old saying goes, The Good Lord look after fools.

Under the Camino trying to get the starter off. Was hung up on the header. Itried and tried to work it out and it would not come past. So I thought Ok I have to go up and loosen the header.
I shoved the starter up off the header and took my hand away to slide out from under the car. The starter dropped and came right past the header (where I could not make it fit) and hit me square in the face. I had one hell of a black eye as it swelled shut immediately. My wife insisted I get it checked out even though I said it would be fine.
Fractured orbital and cheek bone was what they found! Plus a piece of glass in the eye from my glasses lense that was supposed to be a safety lense!!!

I was working on my 68 chevelle in the garage with my head under the hood when I felt the car moving and realized it was in neutral. I scrambled to open the door and hit the brake, but instead hit the clutch and ended up slipping under the car as it went backwards down the driveway. Fortunately no one was coming down the alley and I escaped with severe road rash on my back and butt (jeans and flesh make poor brake pads). I was going on vacation the next day so I spend the holiday with an oozing wound that didn't heal until I was driving home. Good times. :)

2. While resting one hand on fender, reaching in and making sure the coil wire is on tight....with engine running. Whose the ground? I'm the ground!!! Zap! :rolleyes:

I did this one, but even better... I gat zapped, and when I did I quickly pulled back and whacked my elbow on the hood hinge... Ouch!


But my worst (so far) was a trip to the ER for stitches...

I installed a Trunk mount battery years ago, and we (my brother and I) decided to place it above the rearaxle, so as not to kill the trunk space... Well, I had probelms, so we moved the battery back to the front, and removed the box... But Ileft the long bolts through the floor, until I could get someone to help me (one person under and one in the trunk)...

Well, one long bolt would fall down and hit the axle, and it was making a racket... I pulled over, opened the trunk and proceded to bent the long bolt... the bolt snapped in my hand, slicing my thumb... Ouch... needed a few stitches...


I had another:
I swapped a TH350 in place of the Powerglide (cracked case), and later went to the landfill (actually a "trasfer facility", large building with a concrete floor) to take a bunch of crap from around the house... Even though you aren't supposed to throw car parts (oil, etc) in the transfer facility, I decided to take my chances, as the trans was well hidden under all the bushes and crap...

I was pulling the stuff out of the pickup and waiting for a chance... When the workers turned around, I quickly slid the trans out and started to turn around a toss it in the pile, when the torque convertor slipped of and hit me right on the big toe (just sneakers)... Imagine dropping a convertor 3+ feet (full of fluid too)...

OUCH!

Took me another 10-15 minutes to finish unloading and didn't get caught. Amazingly, I don't think I broke my toe... It hurt like hell for a day or so, and then it was just a little sore... Of course, I lost the toe-nail, but it eventually grew back...


Lots of others, but nothing else needing "professional medical attention"... :thumbsup:

cant remember what exactly I was doing, but I touched a wrench to the ground one the alternator and I got shocked, I jerked back so hard I hit myself in the face with the wrench :D

Five years ago I was taking the 9" Ford rear end out of my newly bought Pro-street '65. I took the coilover shocks loose and the axle was still hanging there. I saw the drive shaft was bottomed out in the rear loop, so I took the U-bolts out and popped the U-joint out. The axle of course dropped down and the rotor hit me square in the side of my fat head! Another inch or two under the rotor and I would have been pinned like a rat in a trap under that 300 pound axle, and nobody was home at the time! I was very lucky and sure said my prayers that night.
Last week I had a backfire in the blower and blew out a 1/4" piece of intake gasket. When I went to change it, I took the fuel pressure line off the manifold that goes to my cowl gage and stood it up out of the way. Usually I use a piece of string to tie up the fuel lines, but today I didn't. Two seconds later it flopped back down and came to rest against the battery side of the starter solenoid. It sparked like crazy and I grabbed at it and the stainless braiding burned a 2" gash in me! Won't make that mistake again, either. Other than that, just the usual cuts and scrapes annoy me when the tools get too wet and sticky.

cant remember what exactly I was doing, but I touched a wrench to the ground one the alternator and I got shocked, I jerked back so hard I hit myself in the face with the wrench :D

Oh, that one just reminded me of that day I was painting a guitar in the garage. I was getting the area clened up and ready, and going about it way too fast. I pulled the rope to release the garage door opener so I could lower it most of the way. When I did, the rope snapped and I punched myself right in the eye. I looked around to make sure the neighbors didn't see that, then sat down for a little while. Had a bit of a shiner the next day.

Car caught on fire, burned hand pretty good. Felt worse about the car though.

I've been hurt many times, but the funniest had to do with the parachute anchor on the car. When the car was being backhalved my friend welded a pipe off of the back for the anchor point. This was SUPPOSED to be shortened when we put the bumper on. Well I had to work the next couple of weekends and sure enough there is the bumper on the car and the anchor finished up sticking out of the bumper by about 10-12". I left it always being consicous that it was there. UNTIL, I was in the driveway jacking the car up and I sat up and whacked my head on the anchor on the way up and the driveway on the way down. When I could finally open my eyes, I could see the little girl across the street standing dead still holding her ball looking at me. I just calmly got up, a little wobbly though, and went in the house. I came out about 5 minutes later with the sawzall and finally cut that thing right off.

I caught a hot spark from of a cut off wheel. Wouldn't come out of my eye no matter how much I tried. Trip to the doctor explained why, it had burned it's way in! He was able to freeze my eyeball and then remove the chip with a needle. I thought that was unnerving until he told me he had to "clean it up". That meant a micro die grinder with a small burr on it to grind out the damaged area of the eyeball. Chunks flew. Very uncomfortable.
Yes, I was wearing safety glasses, even earplugs at the time.

I caught a hot spark from of a cut off wheel. Wouldn't come out of my eye no matter how much I tried. Trip to the doctor explained why, it had burned it's way in! He was able to freeze my eyeball and then remove the chip with a needle. I thought that was unnerving until he told me he had to "clean it up". That meant a micro die grinder with a small burr on it to grind out the damaged area of the eyeball. Chunks flew. Very uncomfortable.
Yes, I was wearing safety glasses, even earplugs at the time.

That does it, I'm wearing a full helmet, face shield, and body armor next time I use the grinder. That story made MY eyes hurt.

IMO, Scars are a sign of Courage. I have about fifteen of 'em and I'm shootin' for twenty! :D

I am a bit accident prone. Sometimes the weirdest things happen to me and other times just plain carelessness. I've been electrocuted, cut, burned, scraped, cut, twisted, ran over, etc. The one that is sticking out in my mind right now is pretty funny. I had just finished putting new brake shoes on the back of my brother's Pontiac Phoenix. The car was still jacked up, I had just finished finger-tightening the lugs and for some reason I wanted see how tight the shoes were against the drum so I gave the wheel a good spin. I spun it so hard that my hand went all the way around with the tire, except there wasn't quite enough clearance between the tire and driveway. I mangled the back of all 4 fingers when they got squeezed in there. It looked like someone took a cheese grater to the back of my fingers and bled like a son of a gun. :(

This hurt! Coming back from town and a car in front of me slammed on the brakes, so I did the same, the pedal went to the floor @ 55 mph nothing there, yanked the car into oncoming traffic and stopped on the shoulder, wow missed everyone. I babied the car all the way home w/no brakes, pulled it into the shop and jacked it up. The right rear tire was covered in brake oil, coming from the cylinder, so after 2 trips into town finally got the right part started to put it all back together, its about 98 degrees, was covered in brake dust and fluid, could'nt get the last spring on. So crawled under the car and propped myself up inside the fender to get a better grip on the brake tool, pulled as hard as I could, almost here and wham! Slugged my self in the face, the spring slipped off. That hurt, did'nt know I was so strong. One more time and made it, went to the bench to get a shop towell, got back and there was a huge pool of red fluid on the floor, tranny fluid? No, I had ran the end of the brake tool through the side of my cheek and into the gums, went in to the house and my tee shirt was soaked w/blood and I could stick my tongue clear through my cheek! I came out of the emergency room w/half of a mustache on one side and a Bob Squarepants bandaid on the other side. 8 internal stiches and 12 cheek stiches

ive done all the basic stuff- busted knuckes, cuts, bruises etc... it didnt happen to me but the coolest thing ive seen was when i was at school at wyotech and i was helping a classmate on his car. he had a "jumper" car he was building with hydrolics. we decided that we would go with 10 batteries in the trunk to give the pumps their juice and that extra edge. well when you wire these batteries up, you wire them in series with each other posite to one to negative on the other all the way down the line.. for some reason (probably because we were inexpirenced and in school) we had everything wired except the ground. well i looked over and saw my buddy tighting down his battery holder with an extra long wrench. before i could say anything the wrench arched the inner wheel well and literally disolved the wrench. it exploded! also took out and melted a huge portion of the wheel well! luckly he only received a small burn but we never found the rest of the wrench.. just two melted ends..

A little over a year ago, I had the 66 high on jack stands and was on my back installing the 4 speed trans. After much cussing, finally got it stabbed into the pilot bushing and slid the crossmember under the trans. Holding everything in place with my left hand, I reached over for a bolt on the garage floor. I reached over a trouble light laying on the floor and, you guessed it, burned the crap out of my arm. I could not just let go of everything, so I quick got a few bolts started and then went in the house to assess the damage. Within an hour a perfect image of the cage on that trouble light blistered up on my arm and that sucker was sore. I can still easily see the scar on my arm, I am looking at it right now - looks like someone was playing tic-tac-toe on my arm with a soldering iron.

by the way, we all know it:
CHICKS DIG SCARS!

These are awesome. This should be "required reading" for anyone starting a frame restoration. Or lets deem it the " Monthly Safety Briefing"

New scar today caught the end of a piece of square metal tubing in the left temple after I tripped over my air hose carrying my drivers car door over to a bench so I could work on it. The door landed on a cardboard box full of rags on the inside panel of the door. No damage to the door but I bled like a stuck pig. I was sweating and after a few moments of laying on the floor saying things that aren't appropiate in most places I got up and went back to work on the door. Later when I came into the house from the shop everyone looked at me like I was shot in the head or something. Amazing what some Blood Sweat and Words will do. I had dried blood down my face chin and neck. It looked pretty cool.

New scar today caught the end of a piece of square metal tubing in the left temple after I tripped over my air hose carrying my drivers car door over to a bench so I could work on it. The door landed on a cardboard box full of rags on the inside panel of the door. No damage to the door but I bled like a stuck pig. I was sweating and after a few moments of laying on the floor saying things that aren't appropiate in most places I got up and went back to work on the door. Later when I came into the house from the shop everyone looked at me like I was shot in the head or something. Amazing what some Blood Sweat and Words will do. I had dried blood down my face chin and neck. It looked pretty cool.

Safe work days...ZERO

Just had the stitches removed from the nasty gash between the first and second knuckles that I recieved from a cut off wheel while removing the LAST weld on the bracing on my '70 Chevelle project.