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Stupid things you only did once....
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Da TOW'D
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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 8:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Things that I’ll only do once.
Driving through Edmonton Alberta while visiting friends. I found that the turn signals were not working on our Eurovan. I pulled over and tested all the fuses and then found that shaking the #6 relay they would work for a while.
I stopped in a large parts store and bought a 3 prong flasher thinking that all 3 prong flashers were all the same. Big Mistake. As soon as I stepped out to see if the 4 way flashers were working on the front, my grandson started hollering that there is smoke coming from steering wheel. I pulled the flasher out.
Most of the wires from the fuse box to the steering wheel switches were toast- the plastic parts in the 4 way and turn signal and fuse box melted all in a couple of seconds.
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Half of the fuse box and its many levels. Taking the fuse box apart a couple times before I found the melted spacer and the short. Some creative electrical tape work and all is good again. Good part was that I had the Bentley manuals and wiring diagrams. I learned that the VW flasher grounds out through the fuse box and the New flasher connected the + flasher wires directly to ground.
Some smoke show
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66ratrod
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 9:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

closed the rear cargo door on the front cargo door Mad
(nothing's hurt, but i feel like a dunce)
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79SuperVert
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 11:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had an old Snapper lawn mower, the kind that can continue to run if you take your hands off the handle. The mower was running, I was doing something else, I saw something underneath the mower, I reached under the deck with one hand, felt THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP. Yes, this is the STUPID thread...

I withdrew my hand, I realized the mower blade had been hitting my ring finger, but it did not break the skin. I raced upstairs to get the Dremel Moto-Tool and cut my wedding band off my finger before it swelled up to the size of a sausage because otherwise the ring would cut off the circulation and I would lose my finger.

I had an appointment a couple of days later with a surgeon regarding trigger finger in my other hand. He looked at my ring finger, nearly black and the size of a sausage. I laughed and said, "No, Doc, that finger's OK." He gave me a very odd look.
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daisy71
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 9:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Me and my father replaced the distributor on my bug, we went to take it for a test drive and we couldn't get it over 10 mph, turns out we had the timing way off and we mixed cylinder 4 with 3 Embarassed luckily we fixed it in time and now shes running great!
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Air-Cooled Head
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:06 pm    Post subject: Happy 10th Reply with quote

This thread has been going for 10 years! WOW!

I had to move in July of 2012. One of the last things I did was drive my Square to the new place. Of course, moving is major trauma, and I really didn't have any VW time for the rest of the Summer.
When this Spring rolls around and I'm ready to drive, I can't find the keys. (Of course I didn't have a spare!) Sad I look & look, but they are nowhere to be found. Since I had another steering column with the key, I swap out the keyless one. Not all that hard, but a hassle with the wiring & all.

Today, I found the old keys. Hanging on the end of the curtain rod over a kitchen window. Rolling Eyes WTF made me think THAT was a good place to put them Question
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1965VWBUGGER
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 25, 2013 3:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laying my arm across an old ballast resistor that had a metal cover while adjusting the carb on my old chevy, woke up 20 feet away.

Forgetting to drain the oil out of the motor on my 65 before I pulled it, had it on the bench and decided to pull the heads and jugs, what a mess.

Biggest smooth move of my driving career, was driving out in the boonies with a 2wd Pickup looking for new ground to hunt, saw what looked like a standard mud puddle and drove into thinking it was, truck stalled after I had water coming up over the hood, and shorted my battery out. After a 24 mile hike to the nearest bar, and calling a buddy to come pull me out and then calling for a tow to haul me home and $750 in repairs, I still get heckeld to this day about it 18 years later..LOL
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vponder
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 25, 2013 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well growing up I had a 68 mustang it was black pretty good looking car. But being 16 I had to makes changes. I took out the original shifter(auto) and just had to have a Hurst shifter. Had the car up on ramps in the drive way. while under the car I moved it out of park messing with the linkage, I heard a noise Hummmm, well I wiggled out from under the car in a hurry sure enough the car rolled down the ramps. Close call!
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pondoras box
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 9:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

got married
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79SuperVert
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 11:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

1965VWBUGGER wrote:
After a 24 mile hike...


Shocked That's, what, about 8 hours of walking?
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zombiebug
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

1965VWBUGGER wrote:
After a 24 mile hike...


Shocked That must have been hell.
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zak414
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Today I put my engine back in my bug, got the last bolt tightened up and began to gather up the final pieces to put it all back together only to realize that I forgot to put on the piece of tin between the engine and the firewall. Had to drop it again real quick to put the tin back on.
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YouBugMe58
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Several Years ago I was welding on a fender next to a 12v battery. Didnt think much about it and had do so many times. This time the battery blew up covering me in acid!. Had to strip and get under the water hose. It was Winter time - I look for batteries and gas cans even remotely close to me now!
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zak414
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 10:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pulled another one resulting in my 3rd engine drop in the last 5 days. I didn't know that all the exhaust and manifold gaskets couldn't be reused.
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Axitech
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

1984, just got out of the Air Force, couldn't find a decent job so I took a job driving a tow truck. Boss's buddy was restoring an old British coupe. Had it in his garage and wanted it towedto the paint shop for paint job. I hooked it from the rear and after enduring a lengthy sermon on how hard he worked on it, and how long he worked on it, and how valuable it was, I drove off. Ten miles later, I see a wheel go bouncing past me, right through the bushes in front of the local Funeral Home and BAM, right into the side of the brand new hearse.
The worst part? The wheel I saw was the SECOND wheel to come off. Front end had been dragging on the fender for a mile or more.

Spinner wheels are threaded so that the spinner tightens up as you drive FORWARD. Turns out if you drive backwards, or tow backwards, they loosen up. Especially if they were never more than hand tight to start with.
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Da TOW'D
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This happened a year ago I'm just now ready to deal with it.
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our 1957 "Blackberry"
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it doesn't look too bad with no flash
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with the flash

My grandson wanted to help in the shop so I said "how about waxing the bug?"
We had waxed his mothers Volvo the last weekend and it came out just fine.
He did a fine job of laying the wax in circular patterns.
I told him to get a clean rag and the paste wax
He grabbed the rubbing compound instead and the clean rag was a little girls
soft tee shirt with little metal stars in it.
I know I should have checked but he looked like he was doing it right.

At least we both will be more careful now
Doh
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EverettB Premium Member
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ouch, that is a bummer.
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Damian Gomez
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

1) make sure distributor cap is back on
2) put drum back on before pumping the brakes.
3) don't adjust the drums if its not needed (ebrake works on one side of car now)
4)DO NOT hook up a timing light the wrong way and pull the trigger...... major shock..
5)replace fuses with the ignition as least off or you get zapped pretty good..
6)don't take out both quarter windows at same time if you've never done them
7) pay attention to how you take out driver and passanger windows.. (took me for days to figure out how to put back in)
Cool make sure the bolts that hold the shifter on are tight when putting on a new one
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noah2burchell
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When i was a little kid my mom had a new beetle and i was shooting my little kiddie bow while my dad was changing the oil in the vw. I was shooting down hill which was away from my dad and the bug. Well i decided that it would pose more of a challenge to shoot up hill and as i did so the arrow ricocheted off the top of the target and hit the door of the 99 beetle and left a big dent. Luckily it didn't hit my dad. Needless to say I did not escape without a proper whipping with a belt. Embarassed

Also i bought a locking gas cap without a key. That was my first mistake. It wouldn't open right it just kept spinning and you had to press really hard to open it because it was broke. I took the seal off of my good one and put it on the locking one and then when i realized it didn't work i just screwed the old one back on. Well i kept wondering why i had a bad gas smell and why i had gas running down the side of my car. I thought it was from refueling but it kept reappearing and i kept wiping it off until i did refuel and gas poured down my arm because the gas cap was full of gas and the seal wasn't there. The moral of this story is don't buy a locking gas cap because you think it looks cool.
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2true
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 12:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll Chime in.

Used a clutch disc without springs (Early) in the disc with a pressure plate for a late model. Lets just say it took a while to figure it out. That and a few engine drops....
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bugman1955
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 06, 2014 2:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doing some welding in the left rear fender mount area on a '72 Bug and suddenly smelled something burning. I didn't realize the wiring harness passed through that exact spot Sad
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