So pissed off you just have to walk away!

I'm looking for stories here when you are working on something that pissed you off so much that you just had to walk away and come back to it later.

I had bought a brand new mountain biking frame and when putting in the bottom bracket (the part the pedals attack to) I put it in wrong and stripped out the head of the lock. I couldnt get it out! :banghead: I beat it with a hammer, I tried heating the frame up to loosen the stupid thing, I even took a screw driver and hammered it clean through the barring trying to bust the barring so I could knock out the shaft. My wife heard me in the garage yelling at the stupid thing and came out and pulled me off the project! That night I figured out how to fix the thing and did it in 10 min the next morning...after I got the screw driver out I hammered into it.

I'm sure we all have some story like this. I just want to hear other peoples problem so I feel better.

Man, making that bike sounds like hell to me. i don't have a story like that.

Well.. one time, I was working on my FC. Something was up with the foglights.. they just weren't working, so on a day off, I decided to work on it. I got all the supplies I needed.. almost. I rewired the system and I went out to be a relay switch to my foglights would come on whenever the ambers came on. The people at all the auto shops said they never had any.. but the had regular toggle switches, so I said whatever and I bought a toggle switch. As I was under the hood hooking up the switch.. I realised it would have been better if I just hooked up the switch to the inside of my car.

Ice cream break #1

I soon needed to go back to the shops and get some more wires and connectors. All simple. When I got home, I wired it all leading into the inside of my car. Now I needed to figure out where I was going to put my switch.. I decided I would put it where my old foglight switch should have been (the switch was long gone before I bought the car). Great.. the switch doesn't fit, so I ghetto fit it with a saw blade and now it fits. Well.. kinda. I soon noticed that I couldn't put the inside panel in I wired it going into the panel.. not coming out of the panel and I used up all of my connecters.

Ice cream break #2

I went to the store and grabbed some more connectors and went home to put it in. I pulled on the switch to come out.. and it broke.

Ice cream break #3

After getting another switch, I put that in and now, all I had to do was hook the wires up to the foglights and I'm done. I looked at my wires and they were all yellow. How dumb of me. This is what I get for being cheap.

Ice cream break #4

I got back under the hood to hook up my wires to my foglights and they were such a bitch because my foglights are directly under my retractable headlights, so accessability isn't the greatest. I finally got it in, and I power up the lights and I hear a giant shock. I blew the fuse for my amber lights. No ice cream break this time! I went into my tool box and replace the fuse... but then it blew.. again. and again. and again.......

Ice cream break #5

I went to the auto shop and bought new fuses and then I went home to put them in. IT FINALLY WORKS WITH NO TROUBLES. Excited, I got in my car to fire it up and go for a cruise! The second I started my ignition, I heard an explosion and something big and metal fell out of my car. I got out, and found that I blew my muffler off. By then, I had enough ice cream and was about to call it a day. Don't you just love working on cars :D

If you want to see pics of my muffler exploding off, there's a link in my sig. I only blew off one that day, and blew the other one off while doing some acceleration testing on the highway. It's garaged now.. but I have big plans for it this winter. Sounds like I'm going to have a lot of ice cream :icon16:

Hope you feel better!

Indeed, I too have had this problem. I once saw a waitress being treated badly at an Italian restaurant so I got up and started telling people off and after I was done I just walked away. The next morning I woke up in Mexico to a goat licking my ear....:confused:

But all kidding aside, I usually never get angry no matter how hard you try, But in the off chance Im in a bad mood and you make me angry I get really ticked and walk away....the people in the white coats dont let me have any knives or sharp objects :dunno:

i have a real problem with geting pissed off with my own stuff.as soon as i open the hood i get pissed.i can work on a friend or family member car or anything else all day,but as soon as i try to work on something thats mine.i automaticaly get pissed off.

I moved this to Stress Release for you.

Well.. one time, I was working on my FC. Something was up with the foglights.. they just weren't working, so on a day off, I decided to work on it. I got all the supplies I needed.. almost. I rewired the system and I went out to be a relay switch to my foglights would come on whenever the ambers came on. The people at all the auto shops said they never had any.. but the had regular toggle switches, so I said whatever and I bought a toggle switch. As I was under the hood hooking up the switch.. I realised it would have been better if I just hooked up the switch to the inside of my car.

Ice cream break #1

I soon needed to go back to the shops and get some more wires and connectors. All simple. When I got home, I wired it all leading into the inside of my car. Now I needed to figure out where I was going to put my switch.. I decided I would put it where my old foglight switch should have been (the switch was long gone before I bought the car). Great.. the switch doesn't fit, so I ghetto fit it with a saw blade and now it fits. Well.. kinda. I soon noticed that I couldn't put the inside panel in I wired it going into the panel.. not coming out of the panel and I used up all of my connecters.

Ice cream break #2

I went to the store and grabbed some more connectors and went home to put it in. I pulled on the switch to come out.. and it broke.

Ice cream break #3

After getting another switch, I put that in and now, all I had to do was hook the wires up to the foglights and I'm done. I looked at my wires and they were all yellow. How dumb of me. This is what I get for being cheap.

Ice cream break #4

I got back under the hood to hook up my wires to my foglights and they were such a bitch because my foglights are directly under my retractable headlights, so accessability isn't the greatest. I finally got it in, and I power up the lights and I hear a giant shock. I blew the fuse for my amber lights. No ice cream break this time! I went into my tool box and replace the fuse... but then it blew.. again. and again. and again.......

Ice cream break #5

I went to the auto shop and bought new fuses and then I went home to put them in. IT FINALLY WORKS WITH NO TROUBLES. Excited, I got in my car to fire it up and go for a cruise! The second I started my ignition, I heard an explosion and something big and metal fell out of my car. I got out, and found that I blew my muffler off. By then, I had enough ice cream and was about to call it a day. Don't you just love working on cars :D

If you want to see pics of my muffler exploding off, there's a link in my sig. I only blew off one that day, and blew the other one off while doing some acceleration testing on the highway. It's garaged now.. but I have big plans for it this winter. Sounds like I'm going to have a lot of ice cream :icon16:

Hope you feel better!
That is great. I took 6 "ice cream" breaks when I was doing the spark plugs on the camry. I think the books call for you to take off the intake manifold but I was too cheap to buy another gasket so I just used an assortment of Universal, Length, and swivel extensions. Also with a little touch up work you'd have a schweet exterior.

Every time I work on my car I have a shit fit... I'm Italian though so it's all good... LOL

Pretty much everytime I work on my car.

It generally goes something like this:

Some bolt, or oil filter gets stuck. I go nuts with every socket, wrench, breakerbar, extension, I have, I exhaust myself and curse alot. Next a round of heat or PB blaster, hit it hard with something metal and curse alot more, pause for beer, and return to hitting it.

Get mad, kick it, throw a tool or 2 over your roof, curse alot again, drink 2 more beers, go onto AF to bitch about it being stuck, return outside for another exhausting round of brute force.

Trip to Autozone in other working car to buy a new tool that I never had a need for before. Return home for more beer. Outside to try tool. Tool fails or breaks and gets thrown either over the roof or down the street in anger. More beer. Kick the brick wall outside my garage. Go inside to tend to broken/bruised foot. Go on AF while icing the injury to see if I got any replies/suggestions.

If it's an oil filter, this is about the time I stab it with a screwdriver. If it's a bolt, another round of PB blaster and beer. Go over to my neighbors and borrow another tool I never had a need for up until now. Tool fails, I return it dejectedly. Check AF. After more beer and cursing I finally get some good advice and solve the problem.

But by this point the day is over and I have to save the initial job for the next day :biggrin:

Mines not too bad, I drained my coolant, oil, took of IC pipes, radiator fans, everything else needed to put in a new turbo. Got to the manifold bolts, and got everyone but 1, had to refill everything, take to my mechanic, have him take out bolt, redo and no problems after that.

the trick is have a beer come back to it. if you still cant get it have another. repeat until you fix the problem or feel awsome.

the trick is have a beer come back to it. if you still cant get it have another. repeat until you fix the problem or feel awsome.

Or instead of beer get some philly cheesesteaks and your choice of none alcoholic drink..

Whenevr I'm working on something (usually car related) and it gives me hell, there's a progression

First, is the standard cursing, throwing things around the garage.

Next, is realizing I broke something of value when I decided to chuck large metal objects around

After that, I become even more infuriated after unsuccessfully attempting to fix what was broken by the chucking of tools

Finally, I throw whatever is unfixable. Then smash it to pieces or if that doesn't work out, I punch the garage wall or my bedroom door until I've let off enough rage.

Lately, I've been getting better about not smashing/punching things by walking into the middle of the yard or alley and pacing back and forth with clenched fists and breathing hard enough to launch a watermelon out of my nose. As long as nothing is within punching distance, I can hold back.

Well.. one time, I was working on my FC. Something was up with the foglights.. they just weren't working, so on a day off, I decided to work on it. I got all the supplies I needed.. almost. I rewired the system and I went out to be a relay switch to my foglights would come on whenever the ambers came on. The people at all the auto shops said they never had any.. but the had regular toggle switches, so I said whatever and I bought a toggle switch. As I was under the hood hooking up the switch.. I realised it would have been better if I just hooked up the switch to the inside of my car.

Ice cream break #1

I soon needed to go back to the shops and get some more wires and connectors. All simple. When I got home, I wired it all leading into the inside of my car. Now I needed to figure out where I was going to put my switch.. I decided I would put it where my old foglight switch should have been (the switch was long gone before I bought the car). Great.. the switch doesn't fit, so I ghetto fit it with a saw blade and now it fits. Well.. kinda. I soon noticed that I couldn't put the inside panel in I wired it going into the panel.. not coming out of the panel and I used up all of my connecters.

Ice cream break #2

I went to the store and grabbed some more connectors and went home to put it in. I pulled on the switch to come out.. and it broke.

Ice cream break #3

After getting another switch, I put that in and now, all I had to do was hook the wires up to the foglights and I'm done. I looked at my wires and they were all yellow. How dumb of me. This is what I get for being cheap.

Ice cream break #4

I got back under the hood to hook up my wires to my foglights and they were such a bitch because my foglights are directly under my retractable headlights, so accessability isn't the greatest. I finally got it in, and I power up the lights and I hear a giant shock. I blew the fuse for my amber lights. No ice cream break this time! I went into my tool box and replace the fuse... but then it blew.. again. and again. and again.......

Ice cream break #5

I went to the auto shop and bought new fuses and then I went home to put them in. IT FINALLY WORKS WITH NO TROUBLES. Excited, I got in my car to fire it up and go for a cruise! The second I started my ignition, I heard an explosion and something big and metal fell out of my car. I got out, and found that I blew my muffler off. By then, I had enough ice cream and was about to call it a day. Don't you just love working on cars :D

If you want to see pics of my muffler exploding off, there's a link in my sig. I only blew off one that day, and blew the other one off while doing some acceleration testing on the highway. It's garaged now.. but I have big plans for it this winter. Sounds like I'm going to have a lot of ice cream :icon16:

Hope you feel better!


Ah yes. Replace "ice cream break" with "cigarette break" and that's the spittin image of me whenever i worked on MY FC's.

Like the 16 hour brakejob.

Well, more accurately the 16 hour and 1 pack brakejob. I was replacing the front brakes on my GXL when they were low. The left side took all of 10 minutes to do. By the powers of deduction and mathematics, i guess you all can figure out that the right side took 15 hours and 50 minutes. Im not even exagerating here. Turns out that the pads were frozen to the caliper, and the pistons were also frozen to the caliper, because the previous owner never EVER changed the brake fluid.

Anyway yeah, i basically had to chisel the damn pads out and remove the pistons and clean them off with emery cloth and smoke a lot to keep myself from freaking out and bashing the shit out of the car with whatever tool was closest to my hand.

The part that REALLY ticks me off is that at the time, 3 years ago give or take, i didnt really have much experience working on cars. Now after being a professional tech for a bit, i know how i could have saved myself about 15 hours of hear tearing aggrivation; buy a new goddamn caliper. Or use my mechanic tricks to get the pads out and whatnot. Whatever. When i get another FC, im going to kick her ass whenever she needs to be fixed.

Which will be often.

Like, on a daily basis.

Because shes an RX-7 :D

Turns out that the pads were frozen to the caliper, and the pistons were also frozen to the caliper, because the previous owner never EVER changed the brake fluid.


So does this mean that it was brakeing all the time? Bet your car was faster after the change!:grinyes:

So does this mean that it was brakeing all the time? Bet your car was faster after the change!:grinyes:
It means that the pads were in contact with the rotor on the effected side only. Not to mention he got rid of a TERRIBLE vibration and is probably getting better fuel economy as well.

pshhh...that aint nothing...i spend 150 on a B&M short shifter for my cavalier...i start putin it in, break a little plastic clip, and have to go to the dealership and buy a whole new setup costing me an aditional 150. then not marking the links correctly, and then having to pay to have someone re-adjust my shit so 1st is 1st and reverse is reverse....

I almoast had to stop when I was changing oil on my friends Dad's `04 Audi A6. I had such a hard time removing the plastic splash sheild (10 bolts/screws in all - 4 flat plastic, 4 phillips, 2 10mm), but even a harder time putting it back in! I must have tried for about 45 minutes until I got enough bolts in for the spalsh sheild to hold up on it's own. Hitting and cursing the car the whole time. lol, I still have 3 screws from that car in my garage :p

I almoast had to stop when I was changing oil on my friends Dad's `04 Audi A6. I had such a hard time removing the plastic splash sheild (10 bolts/screws in all - 4 flat plastic, 4 phillips, 2 10mm), but even a harder time putting it back in! I must have tried for about 45 minutes until I got enough bolts in for the spalsh sheild to hold up on it's own. Hitting and cursing the car the whole time. lol, I still have 3 screws from that car in my garage :p

I HATE THOES DAMN SPLAH SHIELDS! Always the first thing to fall of the car! Then you cant get them back on because they are broken and no one wants to pay to get another one on! I once saw a woman draging one under her car.:grinyes: