69FBCuda
Stand back 10' for your viewing pleasure & Safety
Terrific idea for a "In Car" wood chip smoker, Squirrel included!
Top 5 worst A-body repairs/restoration jobs
- Thread starter skep419
- Start date
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Terrific idea for a "In Car" wood chip smoker, Squirrel included!
Removing undercoating
sanding a firewall
Rebuilding leaf springs sucks also.
sanding a firewall
Rebuilding leaf springs sucks also.
69FBCuda
Stand back 10' for your viewing pleasure & Safety
Maybe not the worst but the most disheartening is not being able to get the pinion yoke nut off, a lot of effort and patience along with heat usually does it.
Nicking the new cam bearing, motor in car.
Dropping parts into the oil pan when you didn't plan on dropping the oil pan.
Rear window regulator was a Blood Letting experience also, sacrifice to the Mopar gods.
Nicking the new cam bearing, motor in car.
Dropping parts into the oil pan when you didn't plan on dropping the oil pan.
Rear window regulator was a Blood Letting experience also, sacrifice to the Mopar gods.
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ir3333
Well-Known Member
I like the for sale adds that say "Easy Restoration"
Those guys should read posts #1 through #53!
..the only easy restorations are those you pay someone to do!
Those guys should read posts #1 through #53!
..the only easy restorations are those you pay someone to do!
70chall440
Mopar or No Car...
No such thing as "easy" or "cheap" when it comes to restorations or building cars correctly; there are just differing levels of pain.
Dartnut
Don't hate me because i'm beautiful
Removing the clutch pedal over center spring in a car with the pedals installed.
After trying to jam coins, washers, etc. in the extended spring (which didn't work), I had to use a cut off disc in a dremel tool to cut the spring off.
What a pain in the *** even with the driver's seat out.
Next time, it will be done with the pedal assembly removed from the car and done on the bench...........
Another gripe that comes to mind is installing new steering parts like ball joints, steering box, etc. that are supposed to be good to go out of the box only to determine that they are defective.
Then you have to remove, return, and reinstall until you get good ones.
I went through 3 sets of upper and lower ball joints on a car until I went with another brand where they were perfect the first time around.
There were no apologies from the manufacturer either, which REALLY pissed me off!
All I can say is, don't buy Spicer ball joints.........
After trying to jam coins, washers, etc. in the extended spring (which didn't work), I had to use a cut off disc in a dremel tool to cut the spring off.
What a pain in the *** even with the driver's seat out.
Next time, it will be done with the pedal assembly removed from the car and done on the bench...........
Another gripe that comes to mind is installing new steering parts like ball joints, steering box, etc. that are supposed to be good to go out of the box only to determine that they are defective.
Then you have to remove, return, and reinstall until you get good ones.
I went through 3 sets of upper and lower ball joints on a car until I went with another brand where they were perfect the first time around.
There were no apologies from the manufacturer either, which REALLY pissed me off!
All I can say is, don't buy Spicer ball joints.........
A propane torch works wonders on undercoating removal. You only need to heat an area a few seconds and it scrapes right off. The undercoating actually insulates the heat from the sheet metal so no worry's about warping if you do it right.
Found oven spray is awesome!
harrisonm
Well-Known Member
I am pretty sure you can do a complete rewire with the dash in place. I have done it several times. pull out the instrument panel, radio and glove box door and liner. You will have all the clearance you need to rewire.
You guys have covered the jobs I was going to list based on what I've taken on personally.
Heater core was a collosal PITA. If I had to do it again, I would just pull the bench out first and saved my back a ton of strain. I have no excuse for why that didn't occur to me last time.
The power steering box removal- wow. I unbolted everything I could see that was in the way but it wasn't until I loosened the motor mounts and lifted the whole damn engine that I was able to get it out. It felt like pulling some tenacious, alien, octopus like parasite out of the mouth of some poor animal.
In the category of "this shouldn't be hard" I'll put torsion bar removal. One mistake can turn this into a nightmare. I had a case where something was apparently just ever so slightly misaligned and my brand new aftermarket torsion bar got jammed while still 6-8mm away from being fully seated. Not having done this before, I thought that the bar going in pretty much all the way was a sign that it was aligned ok and that it just needed a good whack. Well, that one last solid whack was just enough to jam the damn thing at about 5.5mm shy of being fully seated... it was jammed so tightly that even The Incredible Hulk himself couldn't get it loose. Not an exaggeration, I was on my back under my car on jackstands for 20+ hours (non-consecutive) trying to get that damn thing out without damaging the car. I tried heat, I tried cold, I tried doubling the torsion bar removal tools (for more grip) and using a bigger hammer. In the end, I gave up, got out the angle grinder and cut a section out of the damn thing. One end came right out of the control arm...but it took a tremendous whack directly on the stump to knock the other end out of the body mount. I ordered a replacement and accepted it as the cost of learning.
Heater core was a collosal PITA. If I had to do it again, I would just pull the bench out first and saved my back a ton of strain. I have no excuse for why that didn't occur to me last time.
The power steering box removal- wow. I unbolted everything I could see that was in the way but it wasn't until I loosened the motor mounts and lifted the whole damn engine that I was able to get it out. It felt like pulling some tenacious, alien, octopus like parasite out of the mouth of some poor animal.
In the category of "this shouldn't be hard" I'll put torsion bar removal. One mistake can turn this into a nightmare. I had a case where something was apparently just ever so slightly misaligned and my brand new aftermarket torsion bar got jammed while still 6-8mm away from being fully seated. Not having done this before, I thought that the bar going in pretty much all the way was a sign that it was aligned ok and that it just needed a good whack. Well, that one last solid whack was just enough to jam the damn thing at about 5.5mm shy of being fully seated... it was jammed so tightly that even The Incredible Hulk himself couldn't get it loose. Not an exaggeration, I was on my back under my car on jackstands for 20+ hours (non-consecutive) trying to get that damn thing out without damaging the car. I tried heat, I tried cold, I tried doubling the torsion bar removal tools (for more grip) and using a bigger hammer. In the end, I gave up, got out the angle grinder and cut a section out of the damn thing. One end came right out of the control arm...but it took a tremendous whack directly on the stump to knock the other end out of the body mount. I ordered a replacement and accepted it as the cost of learning.
harrisonm
Well-Known Member
Dude, I have found that the 20 minutes it takes me to pull and replace the drivers bucket seat is WELL worth the time. At 40, squeezing in through the door and in front of the seat on my back was tough. At 60+ (I'm 69 now) it's almost impossible. Taking the seat out makes it SOOOOOOO much easier. In fact, the time you save will probably be more than the time it takes to pull and replace the seat.
No ****.....
I did an install in my own '70 Charger. The drawings were fair but the instructions are written for a person that has done this type of project before. There are assembly steps that are not covered and obstacles that are not mentioned.
I agree completely.
This was one of the very first repairs that I took on when getting this car back on the road and one of my first attempts at doing anything remotely challenging. It seems to me that we don't learn these lessons until we suffer through them.
Red63440
Olddawg
A 63 Dodge 440 I had bought had the entire engine compartment sprayed with bed liner by a previous owner. It took almost a week to remove it working everyday but in the end I ended up with a pristine engine compartment with no rust.
No wonder I am old and woreout after all these cars and years!!! Mom told me 72 years ago, it would not be easy!
duct tape
The easiest way to take froze torsion bars out is to remove the strut nut , ball joint and control arm nut and hit the arm back pushing the torsion bar out .
The steering box or headers drop the K-member
The biggest pain in the *** thing we did was upper bushings in a car that had the engine compartment with fresh paint. All the bolts were froze in the arms so heat was out of the question. Cut off wheel the arms off and then use a combination of tools . Mainly a air chisel and a big hammer . Usually someone that does all their own work makes everything pretty and then comes for upper bushings there is a reason so we charge them by the hour , injury and curse word.
One thing that we ran into was volunteering to install a K-member in a stripped car for a V8 for someone who said he couldn't get the bolts loose with his small ratchet set. Oh they were loose but all the nuts were turning in the frame rail. When we called him in two hours and told him we were done he was surprised. That's when we knew that he knew they were spinning. We charged him double and told him we had a special tool we couldn't show anyone. He was dumb founded.
The steering box or headers drop the K-member
The biggest pain in the *** thing we did was upper bushings in a car that had the engine compartment with fresh paint. All the bolts were froze in the arms so heat was out of the question. Cut off wheel the arms off and then use a combination of tools . Mainly a air chisel and a big hammer . Usually someone that does all their own work makes everything pretty and then comes for upper bushings there is a reason so we charge them by the hour , injury and curse word.
One thing that we ran into was volunteering to install a K-member in a stripped car for a V8 for someone who said he couldn't get the bolts loose with his small ratchet set. Oh they were loose but all the nuts were turning in the frame rail. When we called him in two hours and told him we were done he was surprised. That's when we knew that he knew they were spinning. We charged him double and told him we had a special tool we couldn't show anyone. He was dumb founded.
This!^^^ P/O of my Duster put a 1 piece floor pan, rockers and quarters on my car that were only held in by sheet metal screws and 1/4" thick bondo. Found this out the first time I jacked the car up and car flexed in the center and split the filler. That was the hardest repair yet on this car.
harrisonm
Well-Known Member
I thin I liked the Bedliner better.
LOL, just kidding. You did a great job. Was there rust, bondo and fiberglass under the bedliner? Usually, crap like that is sprayed to cover up something bad.
harrisonm
Well-Known Member
Can I get an AMEN? There were so many mistakes, I documented all of them. Just for fun, I wrote a 12 page document covering each mistake, where it was in the instruction manual, and what was needed to correct it. I sent it to them hoping to get at least a "thanks" or something, but I never heard from them. After several years, the instructions are the same. So they obviously don't give a ****. I consider myself to be an excellent mechanic. But I had to call their tech line three times. The guys on the tech line were knowledgeable and helpful, but if I wrote the instructions, the tech line calls would be cut by 75%. You are right, the instructions are assuming you know a lot about AC systems. The quality is great, and the system runs great, but the instructions are so bad, I would not recommend them.
For me, one issue was the template they provided on where to drill a hole for the evaporator drain tube. The placement was wrong, resulting in a visible hole in the firewall that did not need to be there.
Idaho
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Cal Tonsley
Well-Known Member
Have to agree but really the easiest restoration is the one you watch or read about!
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