Funny dumb things you did as an apprentice or your apprentice

65 SD L79 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Funny dumb things you did as an apprentice or your apprentice

pontiax · Poncho Master!

Our motto for the apprentices was, "You can lead them to school, but you can't make them think!"

they don't all fall in that catagory but alot do. Just saying.. I don't want to start anything.

norontcan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I have a sort of reverse version of a story. Remember how many helpers were sent for a "sky hook" or a "bucket of steam" well here's the reverse.
Went into CTC and after searching asked a young clerk where the liquid electrical tape was. I got one of those glances that said :"I'm wise to you old guys not falling for that."
Then I told him to do an F15 on the terminal and search for it ( I had spent some early days of my retirement filling in at the local store.). This sort of took him by surprise so he reluctantly did it. The look on his young face when it came back with 2 locations for it was priceless.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

From about age 14-17 I worked for my brother at his Texaco station which also had 2 service bays.

One day he got me to put a diff centre section into a customers Ranchero, I think it was a 70-71 with a 351 Cleveland.

I put the diff in, my brother took it for a road test and when he got back I saw him the one and only time I ever remember him being mad at me in his whole life. I never put oil in the diff....

pontorquer · Poncho Master!

As a rookie back yard mechanic in my early 20s I did my first front wheel bearings job on my 75 Olds Cutlass, my first car as well. I threw the bearing cups in the thrash thinking I could use the existing ones, It didn't take long to start squealing and seize on the spindle ...

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Brinks came everyday to take our money to the bank as I worked as a junior accountant in a large business that did a lot of cash transactions. Brinks went on strike and the Treasurer arranged for the local police to come each day and take me to the bank before it opened with the deposit. I'd get the same two constables very often assigned to the detail and every morning they'd ask how much, I'd say $90,000 or $300,000, $750,000 or what ever it was until on morning during an especially busy time I said $1.1 Million. It was always packed nicely in a briefcase and off we went in the squad car, me in the back dressed in suit and tie. We arrive at the bank and the regular routine is followed, one goes to the side door of the branch and a teller unlocks it, the other opens the car door for me and I walk into the branch. I place the briefcase on the counter and pop it open and what do I find but an empty brief case, I nearly died with fear, I look around and glance back to and see the constables dying of laughter and one holding my briefcase with the cash. After all these years I still have no idea how they did the switch but obviously I wasn't doing my job very well.

hawkeye5766 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Back in my roofing days(Tar & Gravel/flat roof) we would wait until near the end of the day and tell the new apprentice that we needed more roofing felt(tar paper) but the supplier was closed,,,,,so we told him to go back to the yard and get the paper stretcher. Always called but could never find it........be rich if I could find one! biggrin

Pontiacanada · A Poncho Legend!

I was a "car jockey" at F**d dealer. I had to pick up a F**d wagon at a transmission shop after a downpour one day. There was foot+ of standing water under a train bridge afterwards, so decided to floor it through the water for fun. The F**d stalled and quit in the middle of it, so I ended up being stranded and blocking traffic for an hour or so. I had to walk a mile to phone a tow truck. My boss wasn't impressed.