Hardcore, shit, that weren't nothing. While getting ready for our transnational outing, I was putting new pistons and cylinders (from JC Whitney--remember them?) on my bug. They were "high compression". I think 7.8:1. Whew. Stand Back! Anyway, while putting them on, I didn't have the band clamp set right and broke one of the top rings.
No sweat, head down to the import parts store and get another set. Back at the bug, find out that the top ring for my "hi compression" pistons was only 1.5mm thick vs the standards which were 2mm. Crap. Went to a couple of machine shops who just shook their heads.
I was not going to miss our convoy out of Gainesville to our Bright Future in Hollywood. Filled with automotive mayhem--Marty's van ate an alternator in a rainstorm in Biloxi, Carl's Sprite a valve in Tucson, etc.
I had to remove .5mm off that ring. Armed with a plate of glass off an old TV front (they were flat back then), some silicon carbide dust from my parent's rock tumbler, and an orbital sander, I proceeded to grind away that .5mm, checking for high spots with a micrometer, and pressing harder on those areas, until I had the ring ground down to 1.5mm all the way around. Carefully put that sucker in and ran that baby all the way out to CA, and still running strong when I sold it several years later.