Board logo

One step forwards, 2 back
James - 25/2/10 at 12:30 PM

So, Tuesday evening decided to do a few jobs around the house.

We have a large, externally accessible cupboard built into our house that's piled high with junk. It deperately needs shelves.

As I'm unemployed and broke I decided to make the shelves by slicing in half the 6 old doors left in the loft.
All going great (I love using my 1200w Bosch saw- it's really new, goes through anything and is super fast) until I got to the door that had been the bathroom door. Horrible noise and a few sparks... then I remembered the steel 'runner' along the bottom of the door.
So, check the blade and I've broken the tips of 50% of the teeth of the saw. Not such a cheap shelf now!

Yesterday decided to service my Punto including timing belt. Raining so drove it to Mum and Dad's to use their garage. Took me an hour to tidy the garage enough to fit the car in. Jacked the car up halfway and then 'bang' the car slipped off the jack. Smashing the plastic inner wing and seriously bending outwards the wing of the car.

Got car on the stands, find that the sump plug is a 12mm Allen key. I can find, 10, 11 and 13mm Allen keys... can't find the poxy 12. Pretty sure it's miles away at my house! Borrow Mum's car and drive to motor factors... they've sold out unless I spend £22.50 on a massive set.
Mum needs car back so I drive home.
Finally get one from a mate up the road.

By the time I've done this, have a total nightmare getting out the rusted sump plug, lamely designed alternator mount, stuck oil filter and pulley bolts, and nightmare spark plugs it's 7pm by the time I've finished!
And I've now got a knackered wing on the car.

1 step forward, 2 steps back!

James


scootz - 25/2/10 at 12:37 PM

Just be thankful you weren't under the car when the jack slipped!


02GF74 - 25/2/10 at 12:55 PM

be thankful you weren't resting the door on your leg when sawing.


TimC - 25/2/10 at 01:06 PM

On monday I decided to fit a new thermostat to the Nova-run-around as the car was struggling to get warm.

This went relatively well until I decided to start the car to get the new coolant flowing. The window was down so I put my hand in and turned the key. To my horror, I'd knocked the car into gear; even worse as the choke was out the bl@@dy thing started driving forward at some speed. It hit, mounted and climbed the low barrier in front of it and was heading for the building in front of that when I managed to turn the car off. The problem was it now had the front wheels the wrong side of the low barrier. On the third attempt, with the help of improvised ramps, we managed to get the car back where it was supposed to be. The problem was that the valance hit the barrier on the way back adding another scar to my, until recently, immaculate 25k mile Nova. On the bright side, the temperature issue is solved.

One step forward, two steps back.


bob - 25/2/10 at 01:09 PM

James, might be a good idea to never ever ever touch anthing ever again.


snakebelly - 25/2/10 at 01:09 PM

should have set fire to the punto, at least you would have been warm!


James - 25/2/10 at 01:16 PM

quote:
Originally posted by bob
James, might be a good idea to never ever ever touch anthing ever again.


You know The Midas touch? This is the shitas touch- eveything I touch turns to sh!t!

What's really worrying is I have a new radiator fan and a wiper motor to fit... I might manage to actually write the car off doing these jobs!

[Edited on 25/2/10 by James]


bartonp - 25/2/10 at 01:44 PM

http://www.tradecounterdirect.com/productinfo.php?pid=479

quote:
Originally posted by James
So, Tuesday evening decided to do a few jobs around the house.

We have a large, externally accessible cupboard built into our house that's piled high with junk. It deperately needs shelves.

As I'm unemployed and broke I decided to make the shelves by slicing in half the 6 old doors left in the loft.
All going great (I love using my 1200w Bosch saw- it's really new, goes through anything and is super fast) until I got to the door that had been the bathroom door. Horrible noise and a few sparks... then I remembered the steel 'runner' along the bottom of the door.
So, check the blade and I've broken the tips of 50% of the teeth of the saw. Not such a cheap shelf now!

Yesterday decided to service my Punto including timing belt. Raining so drove it to Mum and Dad's to use their garage. Took me an hour to tidy the garage enough to fit the car in. Jacked the car up halfway and then 'bang' the car slipped off the jack. Smashing the plastic inner wing and seriously bending outwards the wing of the car.

Got car on the stands, find that the sump plug is a 12mm Allen key. I can find, 10, 11 and 13mm Allen keys... can't find the poxy 12. Pretty sure it's miles away at my house! Borrow Mum's car and drive to motor factors... they've sold out unless I spend £22.50 on a massive set.
Mum needs car back so I drive home.
Finally get one from a mate up the road.

By the time I've done this, have a total nightmare getting out the rusted sump plug, lamely designed alternator mount, stuck oil filter and pulley bolts, and nightmare spark plugs it's 7pm by the time I've finished!
And I've now got a knackered wing on the car.

1 step forward, 2 steps back!

James


Nomexnomad - 25/2/10 at 02:40 PM

Just remember the 7P's

Proper
Prior
Planning
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance


UncleFista - 25/2/10 at 05:24 PM

Could've been worse.....

tyre change fail
tyre change fail


[Edited on 25/2/10 by UncleFista]