Here are a few tips I learned the hard way.

1. Wear safety glasses when grinding. You only get one set of eyes.
2. Keep a fire extinguisher nearby when working on fuel lines.
3. Disconnect your battery and your FI control box before welding on your car.

What are your best safety tips?

1)Don't get your hair caught in the armature of a power tool...it will real you in

2) Wear hearing protection

3)When ever possable don't ground yourself and then touch the business end of a welder.

1) Lock the door so your wife cant get in.
2) turn up the radio so you cant hear if anyone is yelling for you.

On a serious note.
the top two injuries in the auto shop accoriding to a national study by NADA are eyes, and hands.

So, wear eye glasses....38% of the accidents are eye related in a shop.
Wear gloves, lots of hand injuries.

Rich

If a little voice tells you that something isn't right...... LISTEN

don't trip over the tonuge of the boat trailer and fall into your work bench. did that last night, hurt like an SOB, LOL

Put a rim under the car when working with jackstands.

/Gint's Axiom?

make sure your jack isnt leaking....

Whenever possible, don't work alone.

Have Brant do all of the hard stuff

When working with solvents, for God sakes, remember not to make manual contact with your privates unless you plan on entertaining near by on lookers as you show them your Galic like fancy footwork while using profane language which makes them focus on your genitalia in outburtsts of laughter.


Talking form experience here.

wait with the beer until the majority of your work is done ...

don't drink and wrench!
Andy

When welding always make sure all skin exposed to the arc flash is covered, its a great way to get a bad sunburn.

When drilling holes in small pieces of sheet metal always make sure the piece is well secured will something other than your gloved hand. Spinning sheet metal is a great way to get a good cut.

Now how am i gonna get tan?

NO sandals in the shop...

1) Two pairs of jack stands are better than one.
1a) Keep that jack up under the car 'just in case'.

2) When working with items that need to be heated to install (gears, bearings, etc), don't use the oven in the kitchen!

3) Keep your cell phone on you and easily reachable in case you need to make a 911 call.

4) No more than 1 litre of beer on your lunch break.

5) When using power tools such as grinders, sanders, welders, etc; take a break every hour or two to let your hands stop swelling.

6) Common Sense Isn't.

Jack stands are your friends. Jacks sag, jack stands don't.

Don't trust the jack stands implicitly, either--have a back-up method of supporting the car, just in case!!

Wear safety glasses, or a full face shield!

Gloves are good--latex or nitrile for fine work, leather and/or cotton for heavy work. They'll keep you from leaving too many bits of knuckle in the car.

Always have a fire extinguisher handy.

--DD

If you're doing something that requires the presence of a fire extinguisher and the car will roll..... move the car outside before you commence. The garage/house you save from burning down might be your own!

Keep a bucket of water close by when using Aircraft stripper...

Always remember to take frequent water breaks when working in a hot enviroment...

-- Rob

Always make sure that you are wearing heavy clothes and a welding apron. Getting a welding burn on your private parts will definitely inhibit your sex life for a month or so.

And yes, this comes from real world experience. It happened while welding in sway bar mounts on Betty's car (20 years ago....).

better yet...make sure your wearing clothes

wearing baggy sweatpants are a bad thing, even more so when using a wire wheel on a grinder

1. Your knees are an insufficient clamp for a workpiece undergoing wire wheel TLC.
2. Keep lots of adhesive bandages in the house

Yes, these items are related.

Not to be confused with drinking and wenching

1) Never use a grinder without gloves and always wear safety glasses.

2) Always wear something inflammable when welding, catching your pants on fire hurts a lot.

Note to others: knotted wire wheels + contact with ungloved hands = lots of blood loss, removal of nail and entire finger tip, and last but not pretty much complete and total loss of feeling with fingers.

Clay-
you stay away from those kinda "sway bars".

Block a wheel before you jack up the car.

Don't under any circumstance help Gint with anything UNDER the car...

Once the car is up on jackstands, give a medium-hard shake before you get nderneath it to be sure it's on there solidly. Also, if your jackstands use pins to set the height, be sure they're all the way through both sides of the jackstand before crawling underneath.

I'll also second that idea of keeping a jack or wood or blocks under some other part of the car as a last ditch safety item.

I've just started on my new project, which is the restoration/updating of a 1975 GMC motorhome. You have no idea of how big and heavy that sucker is compared to the 914! Besides jackstands, you use dimensional lumber (6x6s and such) to keep that thing in the air! Anyone have a lift that can handle a 12000 lb, 26 foot vehicle?