Ever have a day you wish you never touched your car???

[imjoesnuffy]

Well today was one of those days for me. Total catastrophe all the way around. Got home by 4:30 was gonna tweak the tune on the car and do a lil of this and that. Ended up almost burning the house down and destroying the car

Was trying to adjust the TV shift detent cable, pulled cable out as far as it would go, pushed button in, pressed accelerator all the way down-- nothing.

Can't get the darn thing to adjust now???? Don't get aggravated I think to myself, I'll come back to that.

Was about to solder up the connections for a tach I was installing, no big deal. Had an old flat baking tray I use for that on top of the radiator, with the iron and electrical accessories on there, like I always do. Had the battery and ecu disconnected, safety First!!! Well in the process of getting to the green connector under the alternator, I moved the stainless steel braided line that has my FP gauge on it out of the way. It went like this:

I smell smoke, I haven't started soldering yet. WTF, what are those sparks??

I look over to the battery, terminal is out of the battery, but the GD alternator wire connector is touching the sidepost, @#%%$

Sparks and smoke are showering out of the SS fuel gauge line now, in the split second I looked at the battery, what has it been 2 tenths of a second?

I reach for the line to get it off of the nut on the back of the alternator, from the time it took me to reach less than a foot to the line flames are starting to appear.

By the time I have a firm grip on the line 116 octane fueled flames are spewing out of the line, over the front end of the car. I am now guiding the flames away from anything flamable or anything that won't burn too quickly. One car garage here, lots of stuff in there.

By the time the thought runs through my head that I don't have a way to get to the battery to knock the wire off of the sidepost, the geyser stops.

I drop the line, grab a shop towel and put out the flames in order, engine compartment, front of the car, large flame puddle on the cabinet, floor, cardboard box. Had to stop there to switch to a differernt rag and fling the flaming rag in my hand out the door.

It could have been alot worse. I had cleared out the garage last weekend of a lot of junk. I had mechanix gloves on and the kids were no where near the garage at the time. No permanent damage to anything, just a lot of explitives in a very short amount of time. Only thing really hurt was a tube or electric wire resin solder

That pretty much sums it up for me and the GN today. I love that car but she sure can be a fiesty/firey ol broad at times! So how was your day?

 

[87grandnat]

lol, I am sorry to hear you went through all that but you explaining it was funny as hell,

Joshua

 

[notacarlo]

wow...I ate two blueberry muffins and had three cups of coffee.....diahrrhea attack at a preconstruction meeting.

Ever wish you had diarrhea?

Glad you didn't lose everything, that's pretty scary.

 

[georgewe4]

Wow. My day wasn't that bad. I just started out the day doing an estimate at a dirty house. The lady was showing me around the house and we finally got to the basement door. She was trying to get the door open when I looked down where she was standing and saw a big fresh cat turd on the rug she was standing on. She didn't know it was there. Her feet were dancing around it and I just stood there wondering if I should say anything, and if I did how I should tell her she was about to step in a turd. Well A few seconds later sure enough she stepped on the turd and kept stepping in it while talking to me and fooling around with a stuck door (she had shoes on). She smeared it on the rug and on the tile floor in the kitchen. She finally got the door open and let me go down into the basement where I was finally able to collect my thoughts and pull an estimate together.
It is Monday.

Glad nothing worse happened to you or your car and property. That would have been terrible.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Guess my day wasn't as bad. Wanted to go to the first cruise of the year at this huge event about 60 miles from home. Usually there are over 500 cars there. Met up with a friend and headed up there. Weird, no other "hot rods" seen on the way up there. Turn the corner and the place is deserted. They canceled it because the grass was too wet. Hasn't rained for about a week around here.

Ended up going to Hooters and had supper and a pitcher of Killans Irish red lager so it turned out OK. :biggrin: