Official "Some Beach, Why did i do that?" thread

[GottaBeTRD]

So i had this idea after i made a stupid mistake last night, Hopefully We have all been there, or at least I hope I’m not the only one. But let’s hear some of stories where you give yourself the ultimate face palm. Weather its wrenching or wheeling or just simply driving. It would almost make me feel better hearing some of your stories.

I love my 4runner and it has been very reliable except for the things that I have broken by making stupid mistakes. Yesterday was one of them, and here is the story:

I was working on my rig all day long. I got the lower ball joints done as well as outer tie rods. After that I came home from getting an alignment. I decided to try and install my new ABS/Speed Sensor, cause I broke the other one installing my new lift a couple weeks ago.

Anyway it took me a lot longer than it should have but I finally got everything installed and I was just tightening everything down, using a zip ties for some of the clips I broke. I was on the last zip tie and went in to cut off the access and snip… I cut the wire instead of zip tie. :ybrick: yeah it sucked! Tools were thrown, cursing was spilt. I was able to solder everything and fix it but still… I can't believe i did that!

green i was supposed to cut, red i did cut lol

 

[TCMach]

I've definitely had some of these! Great idea for a thread haha!

I don't think I've had too many on my T4R... I ripped a plug wire in half when I tried to check my spark plugs, but apart from that its just been usual delays.

My biggest one was when I was restoring my 86 Chevy. I was restoring the carpet so I pulled the bench seat and all the trim and such. The last thing to pull was the seatbelts, and I didn't exactly need to pull them. But I thought what the hell, lets pull them. I broke every single mount bolt. I ende up having to drill and tap every single one and it took forever.

 

[ChildrenOfBodom]

Just spent $600 between new clutch and new seals and gaskets for Probe


Friend installs oil pump incorrectly, ****ing leaks... requires oil pan and pickup tube removal to reseal. Removing oil pan means removing engine or subframe, one of the two.

Ready to put my 3rd gen in 4LO and pulverize the ****ing thing

 

[Supra725]

the other day.. I was working on my rig and I left the keys where the wiper arms are.. I don't know what I did but somehow the key fell into the engine bay and that's when I snapped and throwing tools around..

other time.. while changing the oil.. I was removing the skid plate and when the car was in the shop.. someone didn't put all the skid plate bolts back in and when I went to take it down, the plate came down faster than I had anticipated.. lets just say.. those things weren't light..

 

[white_n_slow]

My worst facepalm story was when I was installing a rebuilt cylinder head on a honda. There are these little alignment dowels that make sure the gasket and head are lined up perfectly on the block. I was placing them in their holes and dropped one of them down a coolant passage. No amount of fishing with a coat hanger or sticking a magnet down the hole was going to get it out. Jacked the car up and pulled the oil pan and windage tray and thankfully it fell all the way down to the bottom of the motor. If not, that would have been a $2,000 facepalm.

 

[cghmkcghkhu]

So i had this idea after i made a stupid mistake last night,

 

[93cr250]

so on my 1st gen 4runner that i had, i could never get very good heat out of it. It took FOREVER to heat up the cabin in the winter. So i backflushed the heater core tons and made sure all the air bubbles were out, still no heat. So i decided to put a heater core in it because i thought i had no choice. There were 3 different heater cores listed for a 1987 4runner. 2 said with rear heat, 1 said without. All were different dimentions. I ordered one for without rear heat like mine.

I got it and took my whole dash apart, and its 100% wrong and way too big. So my 4runner sat for a week and we got another one from rockauto. Still wrong, $300 later we found another on rockauto that fit finally.

I got it all back together and everything went suprisingly smooth. STILL NO HEAT THOUGH!!!!!!! I was pissed. So i thought maybe i had a defective thermostat in there even though i had just replaced it when i bought the truck a month earlier. I took of the thermostat housing, and the thermostat was installed backwards. Filpped it around and had great heat. Somehow the thermostat being backwards caused poor flow to the heater core. Yeah i felt like a complete idiot.

 

[Dirtyfingers]

This wasn't in my runner but in my old ford sport trac, I was wheeling in a very well known area and it had just rained. We were pulling around this Bend and there was a nice puddle right in front of me, being the cocky sun of a fun I was back then I gunned it and the front end of my truck sank right into about 2 and a half feet of water and mud. Luckily there was a construction site right around the corner and they were nice enough to get some of the guys to help us out with a tracked bulldozer haha. Good times.

 

[BlackCat914]

I had just finished my projector retrofit the weekend before, and it was a huge PITA. The next weekend, I took my truck off road and went through some large mud puddles and stuff. One was deep enough to let me know I didn't properly seal my drivers side projector, because I filled it with mud water. So a week after doing my retrofit, and after swearing I'd never do one again, I had to take everything back apart, clean it, and reseal it all over again. FML.

 

[fightman80]

Several weeks ago, while waxing my 4Runner, I was in the middle of doing the roof, when 2 of my kids, along with the neighbor's little girl, decided to run out of the yard, and into the street.

The result, I got distracted, dropped my polisher, and put 3 dings on the 4Runner! One on the roof, 1 on the hood, and 1 on the top of the driverside fender.... :/

After seeing the damage, I went into "Hulk Smash" mode, threw some F-bombs, slammed some doors, and yelled the loudest "warrior cry" I've ever heard!!! lol!

Those dings still drive me nuts.....

 

[Dirtyfingers]

Those dings still drive me nuts.....

Did you get distracted to go save the kids....or we're you distracted by the screaming of the kid and was just looking wondering what the eff was going on?

 

[fightman80]

Safety of the kids.... morons like to speed down my street with their wannabe race cars and Ford Pickups.... last thing I need, is my kid getting plowed into by one of those ba$tards...