I've been painting both doors over the last week and have disconnected the battery countless times as I have been removing/replacing the handle mechanism. Today I decided to take the handles out again for a final polish, but this time I forgot to disconnect the battery. VERY BIG MISTAKE I WILL NEVER MAKE AGAIN.

The drivers door window was fully up, keys were in my pocket, I reached into the inside of the door to release the links between latch and the handle, suddenly all four windows started to drop, my arm was immediately pinched, time goes into slow motion or my mind goes into hyper drive...


Do I yank my arm out or tough it out, if I pull my arm out I could lose a finger on the way, better to stay put and hope it doesn't break my arm. Next thought, well it would be better to lose a finger then lose a hand, too late, the motor is straining and my arm aint going anywhere.

Hmmm, this does smart a bit, more groaning from the motor as it tries to snap off my hand.

I reach into my pocket, fish out the keys, turn on the ignition, luckily I had reconnected the window switches after I took off the door card, and raise the glass.

I guess that counts as a lucky escape, I expect there will be a bit of bruising later.











Thankfully the door turned out well.


Sanded down first with 1000grit.



Base coat on, feathered out towards the back edge.



And then cleared.




I was pleased with that.

 

Don't you just hate it when that happens!

 

I'd say I feel your pain.......but it's just not true.

Bet it hurt though.

On a cheerier note the car looks good.

 

Would have made an interesting headline--"Man Loses Hand to Jaguar"

Doug

 

It's just a bit of armless fun!

Bloomin good spray job though - one handed too!

 

Very lucky to get away with that!

Paint looks great and you definitely win the street DIY competition.



Your neighbour isn't in the same league.

Graham

 

It hurt? I didn't feel a thing! ha ha ha

 

I wondered if anyone would spot that, his Granada is in great condition but it does not get out much.

 

Lucky it was only me left hand!

 

It could have been worse. You could be doing stuff like this for a living every day. Both my arms and hands are held together with nothing but scar tissue. It got to the point where I just stuffed my arms down, touching exhaust manifolds, to start a bolt, because waiting for an engine to get cool enough to do the job, would have put me behind a job or two, and I wouldn't make my 16 hours that day.

I had an inch and a half of rusty muffler clamp go into my brain, when a single pole hoist dropped a little bit, and got to listen to the doctor tell my wife I only had a 10 to 15% chance of living. 4 days later, when I woke up, I pulled out all the tubes, and that thing in my throat(don't think dirty now), bought a welder's cap, covered my dressing with it, and went back to work, because I had bills to pay. I couldn't even take aspirin, for my honkin headache, because the doctor said it would start me bleeding again.

I saw the doc. ever other day, after work for him to change my dressing, and bust my ***** about my new monk style haircut.....(the SOB)

Suck it up Buttercup. A quarter of the mechanics I knew in the mills were missing a finger, and they could still flip me off......sorry for your boo boo........be cool....Mike

 

Well as I have said over and over again Never Never pull a plug and with the battery connected I will now say take your keys out of your pocket when working on your car.. It sounds like you are OK and that is a good thing. I’ll bet you will think twice before you do that again.

 

Hey Racey,

Thank God you had your keys in your pocket. Things could have been really, really bad had you laid them down elsewhere.

In no way is this a "TOLD YOU SO", but just wanted you (and others) to see my comments on just this same thing which I commented on here on the forum back in July---

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just replaced the seal (gasket) on my drivers door.

The door handle has to be removed which is quite a job. The door window has to be in the 'all the way up' position. After you do that DISCONNECT the Bty[/U]., because if you hit or move the wrong thing in there, the power window will come down and if your hand is in there, you could loose a finger or mangle your hand. Thankfully I wasn't hurt, but I speak from experience.


The new seal is just like the old one and wraps around the handle. The handle lift (opening) part was not present ----------------

 

No problem, there cant be enough warnings on this one!

 

I do agree on the paint job. It looks damn spiffy, after you cleared it. Are you using an acrylic lacquer, and if so, are you also using a paint gun or the paint from Automotive touch up. I have been using it on my white car, because of white hiding a lot of flaws. You have made that silver look like glass........Well done.....Mike

 

+1 AWESOME JOB on the paint!!

 

It was strange, I was nervous putting my hand back in even after I disconnected the battery, it felt a bit like a "final destination" moment.

 

Yes events like that will make you think twice before moving forward. I have several stories but none like that. I am pleased you were ok.

I like your paint job and only wish I had the skills to do what you have done with body and paint.

Yesterday I had my keys in my pocket and I managed to lock the doors and open the trunk and not because I wanted to. The keys in your pocket was a good thing but best to leave them on the table or on the seat.

 

No worries, mate. My hands and arms look similar to yours after nearly every repair job I have to do in tight quarters....

Hope you heal quickly....

 

The good news is my arm is fine, no worse than a light hammer blow , now I'm sure everyone has done that before.


As for getting good spray results, it is not very difficult but it is fairly time consuming. 95% of the effort in in the prep work. I learned everything I know from watching "The Gunman" on youtube and then just trying it myself (I had zero spray painting experience before this summer). Luckily even if you screw it up and get runs or orange peel, both are pretty easy to sand out and polish to still get a great finish.


You do need a bit of up front investment but if you already have a decent compressor you are half way there.


It is critical though to have good clean, dry, oil free air, this is how I set up my air line.

 

Excellent post.

The spray equipment setup you use is exactly the question I wanted to ask you after seeing the results.

Graham