Fingers and hammers

[ksdaddy]

I was doing body work on an old Sable today, replacing the rotten rockers panels. When I was shaping a piece of metal I whacked the end of my left middle finger with a hammer.

 

I believe I said a certain common curse word about 37 times in rapid succession, each instance becoming enunciated more plainly and possibly louder. The pain in the contact area was intense but the odd part was the pain shooting all the way up my arm as well. I have a low threshold of pain to make it worse. Think of a synonym for a cat.

 

Then the blood came. More than I would have expected. I rinsed it off and wrapped it and continued my assigned tasks.

 

Man, guitar playing sucks right now.

[Blackie]

.......ooooo....duct tape that up............then the neosporin...........man if I lost my left middle finger I would have to give it up..........

 

I have just recently stopped having pain at the base of my thumb..........from the hammer whack while chisseling concrete.........

[zigzag]

I know most here are familiar with this story about Tony Iommi (from wikipedia), but...

 

In an industrial accident at the age of 17 on his last day of work in a sheet metal factory, he lost the tips of the middle and ring finger of his right hand.[5] Iommi considered abandoning music, but his boss (who knew of Iommi's "night job" as a pub band guitar player) encouraged him to reconsider by playing a record by jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who earned wide acclaim despite limited use of his fretting hand following an injury.

 

After attempting to learn to play right-handed [6], Iommi strung his guitars with extra-light strings (using banjo strings, which were a lighter gauge than even the lightest guitar-strings of the time) and wore plastic covers over the two damaged fingers. He fashioned the latter himself, by melting plastic liquid-soap bottles into a ball and then using a soldering iron to make holes into this ball, putting his fingers in while the plastic was still soft enough to be shaped. He then trimmed and sanded away the excess plastic to leave himself with two thimbles, which he then covered with leather, to provide better grip on the strings. Subsequent tips have been custom-made.

[Riverside]

When the nail gets ready to fall off, you could yank it with a pair of pliers.

 

Then you could write about hammer-ons and pull-offs.

 

Ba dum dum.

[Blackie]

I know most here are familiar with this story about Tony Iommi (from wikipedia)' date=' but...

 

In an industrial accident at the age of 17 on his last day of work in a sheet metal factory, he lost the tips of the middle and ring finger of his right hand.[5'] Iommi considered abandoning music, but his boss (who knew of Iommi's "night job" as a pub band guitar player) encouraged him to reconsider by playing a record by jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who earned wide acclaim despite limited use of his fretting hand following an injury.

 

After attempting to learn to play right-handed [6], Iommi strung his guitars with extra-light strings (using banjo strings, which were a lighter gauge than even the lightest guitar-strings of the time) and wore plastic covers over the two damaged fingers. He fashioned the latter himself, by melting plastic liquid-soap bottles into a ball and then using a soldering iron to make holes into this ball, putting his fingers in while the plastic was still soft enough to be shaped. He then trimmed and sanded away the excess plastic to leave himself with two thimbles, which he then covered with leather, to provide better grip on the strings. Subsequent tips have been custom-made.

 

Really ...........damm............

[cwness]

Sounds like you smacked it pretty good to draw blood. Your lucky you

didn't break any bones. Hope it heals fast.

 

CW

[TommyK]

..

Man' date=' guitar playing sucks right now.[/quote']

 

So... good as new. Right?

 

 

Make Lemons:

Don't sweat it. Em is such a nice sounding chord.

 

 

"No officer, I wasn't exhibiting Road Rage..., I was doin' some body work on the Sable... ow.. OW OW, those cuffs are tight!"

"Your Honor, I wasn't ... my middle finger.. I ....." >WHACK< "30 Days Scotty."

"No Bruno, I hurt my finger, now go back to your own bunk."

 

 

You'll laugh about this next month Scott.

[SHO]

I've cut a total of three digits really badly in two separate accidents, or as some would call it, acts of severe stupidity. All reattached and healed up nicely! Hard to tell if it has had any real impact on my guitar playing as I did it when I was very young.

 

I was more worried about 18 months ago when I cracked the knuckle for my left hand pinky, but that seems to have gone fine also.

 

Yeah, I'm clumsy. And yes, the scars totally add mojo!

[SGplayer1994]

i lost half of my finger nail on my left ring finger about 4 months ago. Unfortunately, that is the finger i make the most bends with. Got it caught in a tool in my metals class (its a miracle it didn't take my finger off) and i can now finally play normally, although its only 3/4 of the way grown back.

[ksdaddy]

The tip looked bruised today. I played a little and it's not so bad. Well, my playing is still as bad...

 

I had to wash my hands a few times with lacquer thinner today, that was nice under the nail.

 

Thought it was going to rain today and I could get out of finishing it but it was around 80 with the occasional rolling cloud. I was able to go until I ran out of metal. I basically had to make the whole corner in front of the rear wheel from scratch, wheel well too. The rockers have just enough rust so I will rebuild them completely so I don't have to patch them again next year. I did use a lot of that rubberized undercoating, which forgives many sins and helps hide pop rivets.

 

 

I finished the passenger's side last weekend:

 

 

I'm no body man, I just patch them to get them through inspection.

 

My youngest daughter got her license a few months back and the 80 year old woman up the road bought a new car, so she offered her Sable to me (for my daughter) for $350. It runs like a freakin' new car and I expected to find doilies on the seats. It just was a victim of Maine winters and calcium chloride on the roads.

[Murph]

Play slide for a few more days.....

[badbluesplayer]

Car looks good!

[TommyK]

Not bad body work Scott. I suspect living in a state where they care about the state of rocker panels makes a difference.

 

Maybe you could encourage your daughters to find boyfriends with auto body experience.

[KL]

How's the finger today ksd? Hope it's getting better.

[ksdaddy]

Oh it's fine now. I can type with it and not even notice. I've smashed fingers before and had the nails turn black and fall off, I didn't know if this was a repeat performance.

 

I probably won't be playing my Martin for a while though. Have to stick with Gibsons, they play themselves....

[LPguitarman]

Ouch. Glad to hear it's doing better. I alway emphasize to my kids to protect their left hands at whatever costs... They are in a Floor Laying Class in school, and they both play guitar too. The two don't mix well together.. So far no accidents.

[FirstMeasure]

First, sorry about the finger. But.......

 

Damn KSDaddy, you do some nice work. That's a very difficult part of the body to get looking right.

[ksdaddy]

Thanks!

 

It would be easier if I had some way to 'break' (bend) the metal besides a pair of vise grips and a hammer and a piece of 4" channel iron. Rocker panels vaporize nowadays. I did the '94 Explorer a couple years ago. Next time you see the profile of a 90s Explorer, note the long plastic piece that covers the rocker panels. Now imagine taking that plastic panel off and finding NOTHING underneath. When I did the Explorer I did the whole drivers side in '07, quite stoned on Vicodin due to sciatica. The sheet metal place was closed but I had an old Gibson clothes dryer and a bunch of cutoff wheels for my Makita grinder. Lots of good sheet metal in a dryer! I did the other side in '08 with store-bought metal. Then my daughter bought a '96 Sable that looked great. Until I pulled the plastic trim off. Nothing underneath. Notice a pattern?

 

So this Sable is a walk in the park, except for the hammer mishap. That and running the disc sander over a knuckle or two.

[FirstMeasure]

That makes sense, If you find yourself in the desert with nothing but a plastic bag, you can put the bag over a Bush or Cactus and collect the Condensation for emergency water. I imagine the plastic covers on these "Newer" cars are collecting condensation just like the bag would, and not in such a dry environment.

[retrosurfer1959]

I'm having a 63 VW van rebuilt right now doesn't have a speck of rust after 47 years - something to be said for Arizona cars I guess

[ksdaddy]

Yep. Find me a '93 Tempo, 4 door, preferably 90s turquoise, in rust free AZ and ship it to me. I will stock up on struts and brake shoes and I can probably drive it another 20 years. And be nerdy all the while driving it.

[TommyK]

Yup, the plastic cladding allows moisture and road salt to just sit. Running the car through a car wash does little to get the sand, salt and grit out from behind the plastic. The only way to really clean it is to remove the cladding, but they are installed without any thought to weekly removal. They're held on by one time use clips.

 

GM used to trim the wheel wells with strips of shiny stainless steel. They looked great new, but cars were rusting out from this point within a few years because they held road salt in place indefinitely.