Rust repair. Long and tedious, and when you're done nobody can tell you did anything. The feel of auto tranny fluid creeps me out.
Worse car chore.............. Doing any work at all on my Wife's Cherokee. She is a rural mail carrier and puts intense wear on the POS brakes every 3 months, broken leaf springs, u-joints, hub bearings etc............ never a fun job. On my collector cars, they are a labor of love. The Jeep is a pain.
I just degreased and 52 years of grime and gunk from the under chassis....After it soaked and got nice and loose, I made the mistake of pressure washing it RIGHT INTO MY FACE!
Trying to breathe and see after removing the headliner from a F1 and finding out that some squirrel had pack it full of old black walnut shell. Dump the hole thing right in my lap.
Only 46 years worth for me but still enough gunk to fill half a five gallon bucket.... I'd rather wash cats then scrape....
Cutting out brackets and such with cutting torch (2 minutes), grinding them smooth and to right shape (2 hours). Man I need plasma cutter.
Any job that involves anti-freeze. The wife and I had a good laugh re: the brake bleeding post...she will never bleed for me again maybe after I asked "What part of sustain pressure on the pedal don't you understand?" Ya gotta love those Speed Bleeders, an easy one man job that I almost look forward to.
Rebuilding 50s hardtop "flippers" Wonderful if they work when you took them apart. Not so much wonderful if they are missing parts and pieces when you start. Pull here, bend there, dont fuck this up, dont fuck that up, nobody makes this part anymore so we supply you with another part that wont work till you partially fuck it up but be carefull that you only fuck it up so much, or your fucked. (You have to read between the lines on the fuzzily printed instructions to get that last bit.) I'd have more fun smashing my fingers with a ballpeen.
When you start your truck and all the gauges lite up .you lift your hood to find the neighbors cat EVERYWHERE
Flairing brake lines with the $20 Chinese flare tool. Making a brake line that bends over and around everything...getting your bends just perfect...flare one end perfectly...go to the other end and screw it up cut off a little bit...and come up an inch short. Or cut off the messed up end get a perfect flare and realize you left the fitting off. Am I the only one? I hate brakes!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That hits WAY too close to home. I HATE brake lines... or is it how much I HATE shitty flaring tools!
I rolled in a puddle of that stuff 40 years ago and to this day I can recall the stench. The smell never left my clothes.
Worst Car Chore; 1- Selling it for close to what you got into it. 2- Convincing you wife to use that money for the next one.
Changing exhaust manifold gaskets on the Ford FE engines. Usually at least one of the top four bolts will break off in the head. What should be a routine 1/2 hour job can ruin the better part of a whole day. Anything under the dash on daily drivers, especially if they're air-conditioned.
Washing the salt off the bottom of my truck and trailler after Bonneville. Really bad when I loaned the truck and trailer to somebody so he could go and I know he won't do a good job.
The Jalopy Journal
