Foibles of working in the garage alone.

pigeon wrote: In reply to Rad_Capz: On the no cell comment - a prepaid cell should be able to be had for ~10$ or so, just for emergencies.

In addition, any cell phone, even if it is not hooked up to current paid services, will still be able to contact 911 provided that the battery is charged and there is actual coverage where you are standing at the time.

Timely reading as I plan to put the e30 on jackstands today.

I was trapped under an Opel for several hours one afternoon. Thankfully the tire was under the body and I was thin enough then for it to help.

My best advice on the matter is for everyone who works on cars to swing into their local big box home improvement store or lumber yard and buy a 12' 6x6 post. If you can talk them into doing it, have it cut into (12) 1' sections, if not you'll have to do it at home. The $25 you will spend on good, solid, pressure treated wood may be the best $ you've spent this month.

It may sound like a lot of stuff to store, for you guys who think you don't have the room, but they will tuck nicely into the void between wall studs, they are for the most part fine living outside, and you can use them as a base for a car seat to turn it into a chair when you don't need them under a car. Best thing about a block of wood as compared to a jack stand is that they can't tip over, and you can use them safely under jack stands or on top of floor jacks to get that extra height you wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

A friend of mine once dropped a car on his chest when he was younger. A teenager, probably. His brother found him and got him out. He has been VERY careful about securing vehicles properly up in the air since. That is, jack stands and not whatever is handy in the Upper Peninsula.

Same thing happened to the kid next door. Mom comes home and sees the kid lying under the car with his legs hanging out. "Hi honey" and heads into the house. Hours later she went out to tell him dinner was ready. He hasn't moved.

He was a good kid.

I have a crushed toolbox that was given to me by my father when I started helping him do things in the garage. "Without that you and I wouldn't be here. Keep your tools in it. Maybe it will remind you to make sure what you are crawling under isn't going anywhere."

I still have it - full Husky 1/2 ratchet set and all.

How about a camera/security system? HF usually has them. Mount the cameras at various places in the garage and tell significant other to keep an eye on the monitor.

Sonic wrote: Otherwise, I always have my phone out in the garage with me, usually hooked to the stereo, so if I was able to move at all, I could get it and call for help. If I was trapped, well....these are the risks we take to enjoy our hobby. I do try to avoid the situation in the first place: Jackstands under everything, shake the car before you get under it to be sure it is secure, if the wheels come off I usually stick them under the car for another way to keep the car off of the ground, etc...

I think I learned/borrowed most of this from you.

I try to leave the jack engaged as a backup to the jackstands on the end I'm working on, as well.

If the garage door is open, my across-the-street neighbor is nosy (in a good way) and tends to peek in on what I'm doing, so if something happened he'd probably notice shortly thereafter.

Oh yeah--OP is lucky no bones were broken.

gamby wrote: Oh yeah--OP is lucky no bones were broken.

Fukanay! This could have ended badly. I have road rash-blue purple bruising on my hip & left cheek, pants really hurt today. Trish is freaked out, I realize now this is a big concern for her.

She kept asking if I had the wind knocked out of me. No. She mentioned it again this morning, no. I've had the wind knocked out of me, it didn't happen; I've been knocked out, it didn't happen. Remember our first date?

This was a warning. I'm having a garage sale and taking up bowling or something.

Dan

Fuggabunchabowlin .Riding motorcycles is unsafe but I'm tuning my reflexes on the old SS.If you need a home for that BMW lemme know, I'm old but I ain't dead yet. Age and treachery,there is debauchery out there and I am going to show a youngster how it's done. It's my civic duty.

Dan, glad you are OK.

I got the cold chills a while back concerning getting squashed by a car, the result is some no-E36 M3 6x6 stands that should make that a remote possibility.

About a situation like you mentioned: there's a landline phone in the shop, I generally have my cell phone and if those don't work, well, I have been called the human public address system.

I also learned way back when to NEVER ride dirt bikes alone. The buddy system could be the only thing which saves you. No buddy = no ride, and that got driven home hard the day I broke my leg. Had I not had two friends with me, no telling how long I would have laid in those cold wet woods 'cause there was damn sure no way I was going to get out on my own.

My girlfriend seems to have some kind of radar that goes off when I'm doing something stupid. She'll just pop out to the garage to see what's up, and I'll have a guilty look on my face and say, "It wasn't a big fire or anything."

(That was the first time I discharged a fire extinguisher - which is not to say it was the first unintentional fire I've started. By a long shot. But man, those extinguishers make a mess!)

alex wrote: My girlfriend seems to have some kind of radar that goes off when I'm doing something stupid. She'll just pop out to the garage to see what's up, and I'll have a guilty look on my face and say, "It wasn't a *big* fire or anything." (That was the first time I discharged a fire extinguisher - which is not to say it was the first unintentional fire I've started. By a long shot. But man, those extinguishers make a mess!)

Extinguishers make a smaller mess than a shop in ashes. Don't wait too long to use one if there is a fire. If the structure is scorched at all call the fire department, even if you think it is out.

It was a just a little fire on a motorcycle I was working on, from some residual oil in an airbox - I kinda figured starter fluid + open throttle body + spark + oil residue might = flames, but I sallied forth undaunted. In any other scenario, I would have let it burn out, but I was worried about melting the plastic airbox. And the nearly full gas tank suspended about a foot above it made me real nervous real quick.

That was the second time I've had a small fire on that bike. I think it's trying to tell me something.

This thread chills my bones. I did two complete motor/tranny/suspension/brake swaps with the cars on cinder blocks when I was a kid.

No one told me that wasn't safe.

I'm so glad nothing happened.

My general rule of thumb is to never get under a vehicle on jackstands when I'm alone. I'll bring The Boy along to the shop if I have to get under the car.

That's not to say I haven't done a brake job (or five) alone, but I don't put body parts under the car.

The ceilings in the man-cave are 11 feet high with four recessed flourescent lamps, each are 3 X 4 ft. When the temp dips near freezing the 4 ft. bulbs don't want to come on so I was sitting on top of a ladder wiggling the lamps and getting I.D. numbers off the ballast. I understand there's a new type that makes the lights work in any temperature. I was comfy up there but had to turn a few times to get to each end of the light. I had to shift my weight so I put a foot down on the second wrung only to find (right away!) that I stepped onto the side with no steps.

I was very luck with a garage full of crap! I came down next to the Cortina but a few inches away is that 2X6 thing that could have impaled me, three motorcycles with unforgivng stuff sticking out, and I missed the work bench full of bolts by mere inches. Although the work bench would have lessened my decent by about four feet..

I got lucky. Road rash on the five head, forearm and a biggun on my hip/butt.

I'm having a beer and a garage sale ...

Dan

Everyone is worried about things falling on them,seldom about things they fall on. Even a simple trip over an errant wrench can be dangerous around sharp thingies. Use the proceeds from the garage sale to update lighting in mancave? Thats gotta hurt, glad it wasn't any worse.

One of my brothers is a contractor. He was on a stepladder doing an inspection, lost his balance and fell. It wasn't far, maybe 3 feet or so, but he landed on his hip on a 2x8 which was on edge. He said it hurt like hell for a couple of minutes and left a bruise, but after that he didn't think much about it.

Until six weeks later when he couldn't get out of bed one morning. Lucky he has a roommate who helped him get up. He went to the doc that same day, he now has one artificial hip. I always figured that I'd be the family cyborg what with the motorcycle racing and all but he beat me to it.

razor blades sorta immune now but atleast when I do get cut its surgical and precise , super glue it wrap it in vinyl go back to work

914Driver, I've always been very cautious about working under a car, but until you posted this, I'd never thought about all of the other stuff that can happen to you working alone. Before I met this woman, I spent a lot of time working on stuff by myself, but would always call an SCCA buddy or something if I had to get under the damn thing. And the girl's not really interested enough to sit and watch me work, but she does come check on me about every 15min or so (sooner, if she doesn't hear me drop a tool or curse a stuck fastener).

I'd never thought about falling off a ladder. I wonder how many other potentially dangerous things I do with nobody around simply because I thought, "..well, at least I'm not climbing under a car..".

Taiden, it's a crime nobody told you about properly supporting something you're working on. Pay it forward, dude..tell everyone you know about it. Lend jackstands. Hell, stand around (with a charged phone) while somebody's under a car.

Get a harness and some climbing gear for the next time you decide to play with things on the ceiling, and/or use a long stick to poke your light bulbs.

The wife wasn't too happy when I re-wired the contractor saw for 220V v. 110V.

The lights no longer dimmed in the house when it started up, thus warning her of a potential drive to the E-room. "Johnny's ridin' the lightnin'...." -The Green Mile

Whenever I'm under a car, I have a piece of lumber from an upright piano that is 6"x8"x3', a refined RR tie. No car will ever crush that thing and the wife is glad to see that I'm using it.

I ask the kids to check on me, but unfortunately they haven't taken to the training.

'Haste makes Waste'. Worse when the 'Waste' is a former part of you.

So whats the general consensus? do these count as jack stands?

If so, I work with one pair of wheels on the ground, chocked, and the other half supported by those. I also do the wiggle test. knock on wood, but so far so good.

If I am able to get my way, when Mrs 4CF and I build our dream home, my garage will have an underground bay like the quick lube places, and a hydraulic lift that picks the car up by its frame rails and raises about 18 inches. Just enough for brake jobs and such on the surface, and with the pit, you can easily work underneath on suspension buts, bottom end etc. You really only need to go down about 5' to make usable pit space. Wither that, or some type of ramp to raise the car up several feet, and have the lift on top of that. One way or another, I plan on making it a reality.

I dont like those stands Fury, the base is too small. Think how easy they would be to pus over on thier side, especially when fully extended. As for the pit, my wife and i just built a new hous 2 years ago. I wanted to put a pit in. The contractor said "sure I'll do it, but talk to your insurance company first". all the insurance companies said no way would they insure me for that. I could put it in but my home owners rates would be higher and they would write an exclusion for the pit. Needless to say, I didnt get my pit. I to have a hill side down off my shop apron and a big stack of I beams and steel diamond plate. Now I just need a welder.