What Is Your Least Favorite Automotive Project?
“Bear in mind that it is always by way of pain one arrives at pleasure.”
– Marquis de Sade
The, ahem, highly controversial life of the Marquis de Sade created some noteworthy historical footnotes, not to mention a running gag at Car and Driver magazine that some of you may remember from the era of automotive content pre-internet. (They’d reference a Grand Marquis “De Sade edition” when lamenting the lack of yearly changes at the Mercury brand. This joke went on for years.)
The quote above is commonly associated with the Marquis de Sade and always seems to ring true to me when I’m working on a complex and undesirable automotive task. A personal hell, if you will.
And I am feeling the heat from the fact I still haven’t finished re-installing the wiring harness on my 1985 Ford Thunderbird, a project that I chronicled earlier this year. At this point, the harness has become an albatross around my neck. I got the car running again, as the massive wiring harness that includes the fuse box goes from the front of the car to all parts within the dashboard. Running, yes, but not even remotely functional inside the cabin.
Soon I will once again dig into the Thunderbird’s dashboard to complete my least favorite automotive project. I will leave the discussion there, and ask the question to you, dear member of the Hagerty Community:
What Is Your Least Favorite Automotive Project?
Exhaust systems. Big. Heavy. Dirty. You assume every fastener is seized, or about to break off. You get to find out that the last guy saved by welding it all into one piece. You get a cat back only to find that the 1500$ cats are junk. I hate anything with a tailpipe.
Exhaust systems for sure. Exhaust manifolds are the worst. Cramped work areas, special or customized wrenches and tools, penetrating lubes, waiting times, broken bolts in the worst places, and the ongoing threat that you will probably have to pull the engine to fix something that you broke while trying to fix something. 🙁
Any exhaust system work for sure. It’s the one thing I will gladly pay to have fixed.
I gotta say that at 75 years old, I love to drive cars but I hate working on them or cleaning or polishing them.
Agree with all above!
Although I have not started it yet (I have the parts), switching from a FMX auto trany to a 5 speed. The clutch pedal assembly will require taking half the dash apart and removing the steering column and brake/clutch support. The actual trany install looks straight forward.
I inherited my brother’s 1967 mustang convertible “restomod”. It has been cut up and abused by so many different people not least of all him that doing anything requires reinventing the wheel. It’s an adventure! I’m currently attempting to finish installing the aftermarket air conditioning he started. Finding room for those hoses and the fuel injection harness and the auto meter gauges and the aftermarket stereo is a bit of a challenge
Pretty much any project that makes it very difficult to satisfy my urge to make the job perfect. Usually by mid-project, I start to feel that there’s no way to do the job right or perfectly, (without spending a bunch more money and time), I get discouraged and pause the project. Then it takes quite a bit of motivation to get going again. My 88 Pontiac Fiero GT is still waiting for a center console rebuild after starting 2 years ago. 🙁
I have a ’31 Model A Ford Tudor and electrical was somewhat of a problem since I converted to LED lights, and 12 volts which required total rewiring, plus added some accessories too. My biggest problem has been the fuel system, and a trashy gas tank. I refuse to remove the tank since the car has a relatively new paint job and that would destroy a good portion of the front end paint. being a gravity fed system, the slightest particle will plug the carburetor. At 79, climbing under the das to change the tank filter and address any wiring issues is all but impossible. Almost to the stage of hiring it done.
Had same gas tank issue. Installed a remote race type gas tank in rear and added electric fuel pump.
1976 MG Midget 1500: With the engine and trans in the car: Removing and installing 1) the clutch slave cylinder, and 2) removing and replacing the starter motor on an MG Midget 1500. Both are much easier with the engine and trans out of the car, as is required for a clutch replacement. But,otherwise, both of the above are two-person jobs, one above and one below. It takes many tries to get them correctly seated.
Now, electrical stuff is pretty simple since the car is basically a 1930’s machine. No electronics to speak of after one tosses the original burned out Lucas dizzy. And it only has four fuses/circuits, so troubleshooting comes down to, most times, checking grounds.
I do hate getting under the car, tough, because its on ground clearance is just 3.5″ and jack stands only take it up about another 9″ max.
Talk about a money pit, my 91 Ram D150 LE I can’t keep up with everything that needs done now that I am retired and living on Social Security!
Working on my wife’s 2001 CLK320. Best I can figure is that Mercedes hires engineers with sadistic bracket fetishes intended to cause harm and suffering to anyone who ever might need to service the car. My Dodge Magnum has the same NAG1 transmission, and both had a leak from the transmission plug port- 10-minute job in the Dodge, 2-hour job in the Merc. Layers of brackets, many unnecessary, all leading to me use up all of my known list swear words while wondering how Dante could have missed the “engineers who never turned a wrench” level in hell.
Check engine lights. Not the ols idiot lights, but ones on cars with a low speed canbus, a high speed canbus and a diagnostic bus. You get the code, then the description, and then have to “figure out what the code means”. Replace what you think caused the ‘puter to be unhappy and then wait for the light to come back……
keeping my shop organized and uncluttered. yes, this to me is a project and one that sometimes gets a really good sigh outta me. getting organized is an ongoing project that’ll probably take me into the next century, maybe millennium (i still have glimpses of my 1st house – 900 sq ft, 1-car garage w/ port, all dialed in after 4 years of weekend work, and working on my cars at the dealer). i’ve been kinda lucky not mixing up metric & sae fasteners. it’s something that, if let go for too long, can be a one-way trip down that rabbit hole. fortunately i can tell the difference between nissan, toyota, & other foreign hardware, let alone 60s-80s sae bits. staying uncluttered? it’s been a long while since it’s been that way, but i keep chipping away at it. i just bought $400 worth of plastic containers for my picapart treasures, etc. at that cost, i’d like to think it’s enough.
Replacing the brake booster in 1971 Corvette.
Awful, awful job, especially for one who had never done it before. Remove seat, lie on back…Long swivel ratchet attachments, long needle-nose pliers, and oodles of already spent patience required fighting with impossible to get at clips and loosening, then eventually installing upper nuts on the nearly inaccessible booster studs…the list goes on…
Terrible
Snapped off nuts or bolts. I have added time to what have otherwise been a straight-forward project. Worse if anti-seize was not used or difference in fastener/receiving part metallurgy.
Anything under-dash where you experience the unfortunate trifecta of little to no access, electrical gremlins and a sore neck.
I abhor working on any necessary car project, like the wife’s daily or the kids’ dailies. The “because I have to” part of it plus the “get it done ASAP” part really really really annoys the crap out of me; mostly because I know it’s not going to go easily and always takes longer than I anticipate.