Post A Bonehead Moment!

[Jason Edge]

I had recent "bonehead moment" and thought it might make a fun discussion topic.  We all make these goofs, oversights, mistakes, etc. and thought it might make for an amusing topic thread since the site has been rather quiet the last few weeks. 

So, Perhaps you caught something before disaster struck like I did, or maybe it became come a full-on disaster where you just have to laugh for crying.

I have a few but will start with a recent one and and a prior one:

Jason Recent Bone Head Moment: I was under the back of my 64 CDV Dino the other night looking at the condition of my rear brake backing plates and looked over at the rear driveshaft and one of those 5/8" hex head driveshaft bolts and lock washer was completely missing, one was about 1/3 the way out, and the other two were only hand tight. These have split lock washer and know... just know I had tightened them well when I install the driveshaft the last time. It was of course a disaster waiting to happen.  So, I jumped out from under the car ran to my bolt boxes retrieved a bolt and split lick washer and installed giving all bolts an extra tug. I could feel my heart thumping with horrow when I saw the bolt missing. I will go back and put new split lock washers and bolts and some red thread locker, but still feel my heart flutter when I think about it.

Jason Prior Bone Head Moment: I have pulled in 55 parts cars. Needless to say there is a lot of moving cars around on my driveway getting them up and down the cart hauler and moving them here and there. These cars are of course about 5000 lb and a 200 lb dude can only control one once it gets away so much.  Well I had a parts car get away from me once and start rolling toward my 3rd bay and the end. It never got over 5 mph but it is again 5000 lb and those garage doors are foam filled aluminum. Of course when the car got to the door it was a slow motion nightmare watching it roll thru the door like a wet paper towel. Luckily I had another parts car on the other side in the bay very close to the door. That 5000 lb parts car basically met it's match when it push the garage door up against the other car as it call climaxed in a big THUD!  The rolling car stopped dead in its tracks!  It tooks some careful bending to get the door back on the tracks and the the door repaired and repainted where it didn't look too bad unless you get right on it. If you come to my house and go up to the garage you can see where the damage was done. I tried to get my insurance to cover it and since that garage door type was discontinued I could not get a match and would have had to pay a deductible.  I decided the patch job was ok, but it was a scary Bone Head moment!  The cars were hardly scratched as the foam filled doors seemed to cushion the blow and again was not moving that fast. It was just freightening to see the car rolling into the garage but also weird to see it come to an immediate stop when it hits its equal. 

So, here are two of my BONEHEAD moments. What are yours?

[Jason Edge]

Am I the only Bonehead! LOL So... here's another involving a car getting away from me.

Jason Prior Bonehead Moment #2: 
I'm guessing about 10 years ago, I had pulled up in my driveway with my 64 Coupe de Ville Dino, and jumped out unknowingly leaving it in neutral instead of park and no park brake engaged.   My driveway has a mild crest that either goes down toward the garage or out into the street.  I was walking toward the garage and looked back and in my horrow saw Dino starting to roll backwards toward the street.  I of course ran as fast as I could but right as I got to the door tripped over my own feet and did a roll on the ground. So, there goes Dino across the street down a pretty steep hill toward an ice skating and ice hockey rink called Garner Ice House with a full regulation ice hockey size rink (it's a big building!). I could just picture Dino crashing through the wall and into the skating rink ... that is if it made it across the very busy New Rand Rd without crashing into traffic.  Well, Dino rolled across New Rand Rd with no incident started down the steep drive to the ice house, but luckily turned sharply left and basically took out and wedged up on some short hedges. Weirdly there was basically no damage to the car, just some minor scratching on the under side. I got it pulled off the short hedges and grass arrow hill with a chain from my 2002 Escalade, and once back on pavement drove back across street ... and this time made sure it was in park and started checking for damage. It took about 5 years for the hedges to recover but don't think I ever fully got over that boneheaded moment! The Cadillac Gods were definitely looking after me that day. Even if it has veered right it would have crashed into parked cars. 

That was my biggest bonehead moment and was going to save it for later after some of you posted your "moments". So there you go. Who can top that?!

[Andy Kalnins]

My bonehead moment occurred during the 2020 COVID lockdown. During the month of May our company was working five12hr days every week. So basically we worked 5am- 5pm. Thankfully no one is on the road at 4:30 in the morning... EXCEPT the one day i decided to place my JBL Flip bluetooth speaker on the dash directly in front of me. I'm sitting at a red light and so is a pickup directly behind me. The light turns green and I proceed forward. As I did so, the bluetooth speaker (which is shaped like a round shampoo bottle) starts to roll towards me and rolls off the dash and into the shift lever. If I had a "64, no big deal, but i had a '63. for those not familiar the '63 shifting pattern is  P  N  Drive1&2  L  R.  My tranny was having issues so I start out in low gear. Ya... i was 5 feet out into the intersection and the cart slammed into reverse. luckily I slammed on the brakes immediately before hitting the truck behind me.  close call. and embarrassing. The poor guy behind me is probably still wondering what the hell? what did he do to deserve someone slamming on their brakes and shifting into reverse? Luckily no one got hurt and no one else saw it!

[Jason Edge]

Andy, That's a good embarrassing "bonehead moment"!  Luckily you were able to quickly stop the car before plunging into person behind you. That's one of those things you just want to get on down the road away from anyone that saw you! LOL  I have once or twice went to far into a light, reversed the car then forgot to put in drive and start to go backwards... that is also embarrassing! Your situation was a freak accident... but I bet you don't keep that speaker loose on the dash in that location now!
OK. who's next?

[Chris Codd]

A few years ago my buddy and I went to AutoZone to replace my alternator. The belt was too small and we were having a hell of a time installing it in the dark. The store closed and right as we were finishing installing it a wire touched metal and the alternator wire caught fire. Luckily my friend quickly smacked away the wire that was touching metal, but it was too late to save the wire that was now toast, and we couldn't replace it since the store had just closed. Ended up walking home, but now I never forget to disconnect the battery. 

[Jason Edge]

Great story and bonehead moment. I have a wiring problem on Dino that happened a few months back involving all this Cadmium replacement that I will share later. It could have been really bad but those spring ring battery clamps saved the day. More later.