from the "Damn I'm Stupid" dept...

[Walrus]

Well, I hate to report how stupid I can be, but maybe it will prevent someone else from the same mistake.

I made myself a block and tackle rig to remove my hardtop on my 88 560 the other day. In tests, it performed perfectly. The harness i made supported the top in 4 places, and held great. The block rig picked up the weight perfectly. The problem that presented itself was as I was officially lifting the top. I was going to only lift the top a few inches (lucky for me that is all I did), and drive out from underneath. Then i was going to set the top down for storage. Alas, I forget to consider how heavy the thing actually was. Also, I decided not to use a whinch, allowing I could lift the top and secure the rope to a 2x4, strategically placed (nailed) to the studs on my garage /shop wall. All went well until I attempted to belay the rope on the aforementioned 2x4. Just as the full weight applied to the 2x4, it came rocketing away from the wall, dropping my top right onto the car (seems the 2x4 pulled away from where it was attached, nearly striking me square in the face).

Thankfully, the damage is slight and can be easily repaired. The pin that holds the rear of the top gouged the paint for about 3 inches, and created a slight dent which I can massage out easily enough. The top did not sustain any damage, nor did anything else on the car (as I mentioned earlier, I had only lifted the top a couple of inches to allow for clearance to drive away). My ego; however, suffered nearly irrepairable damage.

Another case of pennywise and dollar foolish!