Not my biggest mistake, but probably my most painful. Was sanding back some BOG in a coop I had years ago in the top corner of the boot recess in the body. I had the boot off, didn't want to undo the torsion bars so I just pushed the boot hinges down and stuck a broom handle across the inside of the boot to hold them down and started sanding.
When I came to with blood gushing from my chin, it only took s plit second to work out what happened! Bumped broom stick, hinge sprung up, my chin in the way. If you check out the XA/B/C hinges you'll find they've got a lovely bit of bent metal right at the end. Its worth six stitches and scar that gets cut everytime you shave.
Once after a night of racing at the drags, we had the coop loaded on the trailer and of we went. Couldn't turn right from our position so I had to do a loop in the pit road. The F250 has got a BIG turning circle. As i was part way into my turn some people walked up to the outside of my arc making me turn sharper tahn I would have liked. Int he instant that my brother yelled 'Look Out' I heard the bang. I had run into what amounted to the only tap in the pits. It was secured in the ground with a railway sleper. I caught it on the front wheel of the car trailer. It snapped the axle clean off leaving the whole wheel and stub axle sitting on the ground. It also sheared the tap of causing a nice fountain to rain down on the area.
Obviously a big cheer went up and people gathered, photos were taken, tempers got frayed etc and the trailer had bottomed out on the remaining wheel. It was only thanks to a good mate whom I am still in debt to today who came out with another trailer and took ours back to his work. Not bad at 1am hey!
The best thing about making mistakes is learning from them.
There are some crackers here!!
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