No you're not the only silly bugger out there. I'm now 53 and have 4 cars to work on. I still to this day skin knuckles or such whenever I have a spanner in my hand. I've got a bandaid on right now. As for punching myself in the nose, been there, done that.

Colin.

I can't top that one, but I've done a few silly things resulting in injuries.

I've dropped a spinning angle grinder on my thigh. It's surprising how resilient skin can be.... It was only for a second or so until my reaction got it away from me. The grinder didn't stop until it twisted itself around & around on the cord & cut through enough to trip the RCD.

Back when you used to have to pay $100-150 to get rid of a shell, I used to cut them up into box trailer sized chunks & take them to the scrapyard (and get $25 back). I used a combination of a 9" grinder, and a "machete" that was an old leaf spring, ground to a sharp edge on one side, and you hit it on the other side with a lump hammer.
I'd cut the roof off VH at windowsill level - so the B-pillars stood about 2 feet high, with a jagged grinder cut on the top. The car was propped underneath (I'd also learnt that lesson) and as I was cutting through the rear floor, I tripped on the back seat base bracket & lost my footing. I promptly 'sat' on the exposed edge of the B-pillar, slashing open the back of my left thigh. It left bits of metal inside the wound that took weeks to surface...

When I was in my late teens, I was helping a mate rebuild a tired LJ torana. We'd put the replacement motor & box in it (202/trimatic/column shift) and all I had left was the tailshaft. We were light-on for tools, so I wiggled under the back to attach the tailshaft to the diff. My mate's brother was mentally impaired from an accident as a child, but he loved watching. He was in his 20s, and weighed about 100kg. To keep him from destroying things, we taught him to sit in the car & watch through the windscreen (we had the bonnet off). This became his habit. He came out to the car this day, saw me working - with the fuel tank resting gently against my ribcage - as I'd wiggled that far under. He sat in the car - as taught, pressing the tank hard into my chest. With what little breath I could manage, I yelled out "get the Fxxx out of the car." He jumped from the drivers seat, across to the passenger seat, and stuck his head out the door & under the car "what did you say?" The bouncing of the car ended up re-breaking a couple of my ribs that were only a few months healed from a prior stupid incident! But how can you get mad at him when he was only doing what he was taught?

Went to weld a petrol tank and it exploded. Arm wrapped up for two weeks with second degree burns.

Actually I will be honest here. I was checking the tank for fumes with a lighter when it exploded.

I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't explode when I started welding.

I have now laughed quite a bit reading this thread, I'll post my own soon, gotta pick out a decent one though.
The bit that intrigues me is that we have done some real dumb things & people on the forum still look to us for advice..........

Edited by user Monday, 27 August 2012 6:06:44 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

All this talk of potential fire reminds me of my in-law's efforts at cutting the ass off an EK for my bro-in-law's year 12 project. We found one up around Parkes, in a paddock - grass was 3 feet high.
We took all the precautions - used a brushcutter to clear a decent working area, took the fuel tank & lines out, and wet down the immediate area with a heap of water from the nearby dam before cranking up the oxy to cut the back off.
Didn't expect to cut through an oil-filled rear shock by accident though.....
The flaming oil spray shot far enough to get the dry grass quite a few metres away. The january heat helped it even more. We spent more time putting out the 2 acre grass fire than it took to get the back of the EK! Lucky for us the property owner had a pump at the dam with a decent hose on it, otherwise it sould have been a lot worse.
Nobody got hurt though.