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Repair snowball effect, what's your worst???

threewood

FBBO Gold Member
FBBO Gold Member
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OMG! I need some therapy and I know some of you have gone through this. Starts off as a small repair and ends up being a complete pita. This one may not be the best but it may drive me to drink lol

Friday, got my new strut rod bushings. Sweet, couple hour job to pull the LCAs, loosten some parts and done. Well, start on pass side get everything marked and unhooked and the frickin LCA bangs into my header before it clears. No way out. Plenty of extra threads on the strut rod so jam everything back in and hacksaw about 1" of threads off. Gives me just enough clearance to swap out bushings in the K frame housing. Still very tight.

LCA is hung by a wire to keep everything up and out of the way. In the process of wiggling it back in the wire pulls out and the whole shebang comes down and is stopped by the brake flex line.....fml. It didn't break or leak but I knew. Got the drivers side done no issues.

Test drive is good, everything tracks straight. Next day I'm driving it and now it has a slight pull to the right and when brakes are applied it pulls hard right...could it be the hose? Get back and the right side drum is much hotter than the right. So $10 later I have a new hose. 10 minute job including bleed. Love those speed bleeders! Get it buttoned up, bled and as I am tightening the bleeder with my mini 1/4" wrench.....snap.
F'n thin chinese sized bleeder snapped right off. Off comes the wheel and luckily I have a spare made in usa frt brake cylinder in my box. Go to put it on and one bolt just isn't going on. Pull it back out and......that's why it was in my parts box. Stripped bolt hole....sigh. tap it, cut another bolt down and get it all back together. I still need to test drive it so I may not be out of the woods yet.

Lets hear some good ones:)
 
My entire restoration project on my Roadrunner snowballed! Thought it was going to be much more straight forward, but I just couldn't put anything back on the car that wasn't restored, replaced, or upgraded! LOL
 
To add insult to injury, first key turn to fire it up resulted in an explosion. I cannot even make this up. A boom followed by smoke. Neighbors came by to what blew up. Engine not spewing fluids, radiator fine, no fire, nothing. Start to look around and as I am under the car there is a hunk of steel shrapnel where the pass muffler use to be. Completely unrelated but I imaging it is the car getting me back for the cussing. Fml

Car has never backfired, ever. Runs great and lots of power. Hadn't been run since last night, didn't even hit the gas. Crank....boom!
 
i can relate to that. i learned how to do a 30 grand rebuild the hard way, budget for 15 grand.
 
My 68 Coronet. Was supposed to be a 1 month front and back glass reseal, and a quick interior refresh. Ha ! Turned into a 12 month ordeal. Full interior job, suspension work, FULL brake system replacement, FULL fuel system replacement, electrical work, .... you get the picture, I'm still doing small things !
 
The front brakes on my Imperial were a serious PITA. What should've been a two-hour job, tops, lasted about six months. Between the wrong tools, busted bolts, and my general impatience; it took me forever to do the fronts!
 
Took a car in to the body shop for some spot repairs and it turned into a rotisserie restoration. I win.
 
When I trailered my GTX home nearly 18 years ago, I had plans just to repair the brakes, re-kit the carbs, and fix the leak in the steering box. 'Nek Minnit' .....3 years and 120K+ later......

 
When I trailered my GTX home nearly 18 years ago, I had plans just to repair the brakes, re-kit the carbs, and fix the leak in the steering box. 'Nek Minnit' .....3 years and 120K+ later......


that is one beautiful GTX! looks like a million bucks
 
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