Hey frederic, the oil one is funny too although I bet it wasn't to you. Don't feel bad though. I poured a quart of oil into my radiator one time. Ha! That was a joy to clean up. What a moron.
Ha ha ha. It was bad in the sense I thought I had destroyed the engine (new engine, no oil, ooops), but once I put the pan on and filled it, it started up and broke in just fine, and lasted almost 150K. Not bad for something I assembled out of 20 different motors, very few new parts, in my garage using hand tools and a drill press. So without the no-oil first start, maybe it owuld have gone 175K, who knows
clean every last part. Then he got a new gas tank for it. The old gas was just like varnish.
Those kind of mistakes are hard to swallow.
Yes, they are.
Throughout the 90's, I had designed and assembled a mid-engined sports car. You know, one seater, weigh nothing, more power that exceeds your tire's traction limitations, etc. However it took me 7 years to build, by hand, as I had time between torturous corporate employment.
Anyway, on year 3 I guess, it was time to mock up the suspension, so I could weld on the suspension mounts to the chassis. It was a sunday, so my favorite bolt store was closed, so I went to home cesspool, and picked up the correct dimensioned bolts, but they were zinc plated garbage, as far as quality. No biggie, because all I was doing was mocking up the suspension to weld on brackets. The bolts didn't need to support more than 70lbs of a-arms, spindles, rotors and calipers. No tires and wheels even.
The next day, I reminded myself in the morning to go to the bolt store after work and get hardened steel blah blah blah. I worked late. Same for tuesday.
The next time I remembered to replace these bolts were four years later on the first test drive.
field. We were 1500 miles from the shop, and a deadline to meet. I never lived that one down. [/B]
OOoooowwwwwww.... I so feel your pain.... At least the cases you made came apart. Be glad you didn't glue them before doweling or screwing them or however they were joined together.
