What DIY Car Projects Nearly Or Totally Ruined Your Ride?

Nothing beats the overconfidence of the stereotypical DIY-er when it comes to a project. "It can't be that hard!," we say. I can say this because I've also said it myself with my Project 190E (a 1989 and not the cool one) years back. I ended up selling it to a friend of a friend who gave the car a Mercedes AMG engine swap and full makeover. It's living its best life now, one I could never give it, on the coast.

But not every project survives tinkering, and some project fails have become well-circulated, viral videos on socials and Reddit. Needless to say, you can go into a project with the best intentions, but your abilities or the car's um... uniqueness can completely ruin it. One that forever haunts me is the Lexus that fell off the floor jack. He later posted a video explaining what he did and how it happened. And to be fair, DIY anything on low profile vehicles that you need to get under in a home garage already make for a unique challenge. My current daily, a 2016 Mercedes-Benz CLS 400 presents a similar problem.

Admittedly, growing up in a household where my father was called "the Doctor" by his car friends due to his reputation and ability to fix about anything, I've had a tendency to ask a lot of questions when getting into projects. If something was out of my scope, I've had a built-in team of professionals to help get me out of whatever stupid thing I might attempt. But I've also played it safe, and most of my DIY projects were cosmetic, like turning my former Ducati Scrambler Sixty2 into a cafe bike (see above). Though there were a couple of rebuilt carburetors that led to running bikes, and for that I'm thankful and mighty proud.

I know the wrenching stories well has slowly dried up at Jalopnik over the years, but I also know that doesn't mean you, or your friends, or family, or the guy down the street isn't wrenching on something. And even with the best-intended projects in mind, sometimes things can go wrong. Sometimes they go catastrophically wrong. We all learn the hard way — one slightly to really expensive project at a time.

That being said, dear wrenchers of Jalopnik, whether beginners or seasoned greats, what DIY projects nearly or totally ruined your ride? Scroll on down to the comments and share your story. There's bonus points if you also post your story with a photo. Don't any of you take photos anymore?