tires and wheels Take a moment and check your lifting and safety equip.

[SteveJ]

I opened up this post on the California Melee list this morning. I think we all should take a moment to ensure our safety while wrenching.

About two weeks ago I stopped by a friends house and spend an hour

B.S.ing about how he was going about fixing up his Falcon 2-door wagon

so he could have a cool family car for his wife and almost one year old

son. (they were away in Japan for two weeks)

Sunday a week ago I left a message on his phone to make shure he was

comming out to the Dirtbag Chopper Challenge.

Monday I got an email about a memorial service for Steve Finer at his

house-there was some kind of accident.

!!!!W.T.F.O.?!!!!

Wednesday night his house was packed-he always threw big parties.

His Mom explained that sometime Thursday, he was working on his car in

the driveway and it came off the jackstand and crushed him. The cops

found him Friday.

Steve was one hell of a nice guy and came from a line of real

Gear-heads. His Dad built a bunch of cars back in Boston.

He recently sold the big-block Pro-street Nova he built, and was now

entheusasticlly into the build off Chopper scene. I was hoping to get

him into Sports cars and Cafe racers some day. Most of you probably

didn't know him, but you should miss him anyway, he would have been

great to have on the Melee or TT.

More importantly think about that time you just crawled under the car

for "one second" to do some small thing and didnt bother to properly

support the car. Steve was a very smart guy, but impulsive-

Please take the extra 30 seconds, chock the wheels and shake the shit

out of the car before getting under it.

Rob. D. 13

My reply:

Holy Sh**!

I used to joke about how my wife would kill me if I died while working on the car, but that is no longer funny at all. I often work alone and at night. There would be nobody to help.

I propose we all go and give our lifting and safety equipment a close inspection as a sort of tribute to Steve. Check those stands, use those chocks, safety glasses, eye wash, fire extinguisher, etc...

I think I will print out this email and put it towards my 2-post lift dream file.

[ibjettin]

This is sad to hear. This is my biggest fear whenever I get under my car.

I'm like you Steve, I work at night alone and it means I have to be extra cautious whenever I do anything.

My prayers to his family.

[alp]

the same thing happened to a friend of mine except it was a semi-truck that fell on him! He was doing an inframe (rebuild the motor from underneath). It was luch at work so everyone had gone out. He was just going to finish up a couple things before lunch. The jack that the truck was on gave way and landed on his entire body. The truck was caught by his safety back-up jack but still was enough pressure to pin him to the ground. The leaf spring was across his head the frame was along the middle of his body. His hips dislocated from the pressure and the leaf spring dug into his head just enough to tear the skin but not enough to pressure the brain. After everyone returned from luch an hour later they found him stuck. They lifted the truck off of him and his legs popped back into their sockets. After getting out of the hospital he was black and blue from hair line to toe nails, but he was still breathing!!

[Otis]

Scary.

Old woodworker's tip -- put a cheap lifeguard's whistle around your neck. True, maybe you'll be in a position where you're so FUBAR'ed, you can't use the whistle. But if it's there, at least you have the option. And if you're there alone, and something happens, and you have enough left to blow the whistle, you can keep blowing until somebody comes along to see what all the commotion is about.

Hey, it saved Rose in Titanic.

[schwarz75]

...this is what I do.

[alp]

my brother is a logger and the whistle suggestion is what they do. They keep it within reach of your lips (usually on their suspenders) so if they are trapped without the use of their arms they can still reach it with their mouths. With my friend he couldn't use his hands or legs to help out.

[Brandon]

I know I'm putting myself in gods hands everytime I get under a rusted 2002 parts car....I generally support the car with jack, jack stands, and stack a couple wheels on top of each other on both sides of the car beneath the rockers....it's a good fail safe in case the jack fails or a jack stands falls off....Another good thing to do is jack the car up the night before securing it properly and leave it over night...if it's still up in the air the next morning...things are safe....Best thing to do...if you're not working on something where the wheels need to come off, is to jack the car up and stack up some boards under all the wheels to a good height...let the car down on the boards and secure it with e-brake and put the car in gear. This gets the car high enough to work on and it's not going to fall down on you...

[slash02]

My reply:

Holy Sh**!

I used to joke about how my wife would kill me if I died while working on the car, but that is no longer funny at all. I often work alone and at night. There would be nobody to help.

I propose we all go and give our lifting and safety equipment a close inspection as a sort of tribute to Steve. Check those stands, use those chocks, safety glasses, eye wash, fire extinguisher, etc...

I think I will print out this email and put it towards my 2-post lift dream file.

I once had a car fall off its jack while changing a tire. That was enough to invest in a small floor jack for roadside use.

I always call a friend if I am working alone, and have them either check up on me, or come by if I do not call within a specified time.

Jackstands and safety gear are cheap... AND a word to the wise, just because someone says there's an extinguisher, doesn't mean it will be there when you need it always verify before you start your work..

Ask me how I know?

[eastsidebimmer]

(nt)

[Biscuit3]

Not only check your jacks and safety equipment, also check your parking and hand brakes! I don't know if you guys remember, but in June this year, I was simply warming-up Karl's engine one morning while I wipped the mist off the windshield and next thing I knew, he started to roll backwards. The bad thing about that is, he's an auto! I don't know what I would have done if I was behind the car. I probably wouldn't be here today because it was only about 2 feet's worth of rolling distance into the garage.