Biggest jobs you have completed in the shortest amount of time.

[Mr Clean]

Making my kids... 18 years for 7 minutes of work....

 

[squaredeal91]

Making my kids... 18 years for 7 minutes of work....

That's funny right there

 

[MikeB]

Great stories above.

Back in 1998, I installed a Vintage Air system in a 69 C10. It was my first A/C installation, but took me only 2-3 days, which included cutting holes in the dash for the factory A/C supply events. The truck still has that system, and looking at it now I don't know how I did it so quickly. Back then, I could also change a cam on a Saturday. These days those projects would take me a week! For example, last year I spent the better parts of two months (off and on) installing a AAW wiring harness. But back around 2005, I did one in less than a week!

 

[MikeB]

About 25 years ago we were wheeling my '80 SB out at Uwharrie and the trans burned up. Yanked off the trail & into the campsite about 7PM. Pulled the tranny & had running again when the Ranger came by at 10PM to remind us of "quiet time".

Reminds me of helping a friend at college install new rings and bearings in his 57 Ford with a 312. We did it on the road next to our dorm on a Saturday. Ridge reamer and all! That was so long ago, I don't want to say when it was.

 

[Hunter79764]

Might not be the fastest, but I was on a work trip with a bunch of coworkers, and one of the vans started leaking from the water pump. They called around, the best any shop could do was to take it in that Friday, when we were due to drive 8 hours back to Texas, and it was going to be $500 or something. After a couple of beers, I told them I had changed water pumps in 20 minutes before at home on my suburbans, and that the van shouldn't be that different (all LS stuff, BTW). They gave me grief about it, but I stuck to my guns that even being a van, 30 minutes tops. The next day, we got a new water pump, thermostat, coolant, etc., we got back to the hotel, all had a couple beers, then I went out and started the job. 28 minutes later, one of the guys came out to poke fun that I wasn't done yet, and found me finishing burping the system.

 

[Hunter79764]

I forgot the more recent one... On my trip when I toasted the transfer case shifter, I decided I'd try to find another one to replace it while in my hometown. I made a call at about 10:00 AM, had a new case and was at the parts store getting fluids etc. by 12:30, grabbed lunch on the way home and me and dad had the new case in and were cleaned up to get to my niece's graduation party at 4 or a little after.

And then managed to kill something else making it puke all the fluid in 3 days and 60 miles under its own power, TBD what exactly, and it will take months to get to the bottom of what's wrong and repair it.

 

[Fastduramax]

Front hub pilot conversion BY MYSELF cuz my crack head helper apparently needed no crack money that particular weekend...

 

[Honest Bob]

I disassembled a multicolor 4x4 ls swapped squarebody (rusty frame) into parts, disassembled my blue and white '75 2wd 1 ton and reassembled everything onto a 1 ton 4x4 cucv frame with an ls swap/4l80e and refreshed an np205 in about a year (2019-2020). I was an IT guy not a mechanic, I thought it went pretty quick. Luckily I had bought most of the parts I needed before covid shortages really started effecting things.

 

[squaredeal91]

Looks good Bob! That was a good project. Welcome on here

 

[Trucksareforwork]

Most "big jobs done quickly" are because you actually need the truck by morning. I haven't had that problem, so pretty much every project I do takes two or three times as long as necessary. Usually, it's because I decide to do a brake job and end up in a front-end rebuild "just because." I have the luxury of spare cars and can leave something undone for weeks (or months?) if I need to.

Just so I add something to the conversation: I did a heater core in a few hours earlier this year. I did swap a frame within a week or so of evenings and weekend time last year by myself, but that truck still isn't on the road. The frame is good and ready and the cab is on, but I ran out of shop time for the rest of the mechanicals and had to mothball the project.

 

[chevdude]

Used to be able to swap engines in about four hours, casually.
Now, it takes a couple of weeks and I need assistance getting up off the creeper.

 

[1STLS1]

In my youth, I swapped a bad crank in a 305 TPI IROC in about 9 hours, the balancer spun the keyway out of it so it was straight forward in and out but still.

 

[goldpack]

Used to be able to swap engines in about four hours, casually.
Now, it takes a couple of weeks and I need assistance getting up off the creeper.

this got me thinking:
a couple weeks ago on America's funniest videos; the winner of the week was a lady and her mom.
mom fell on the patio concrete floor, adult daughter got a low clearance floor jack to pump her up so she could sit / standup.

(I don't actually watch the show....just seen that in passing,... so another good use for a wheeled floor jack that can lift a corner / half a car),..
..I can still figure out how to lift a 200lb person up off a floor, ...but I am also 200lbs to be doing the picking/ counter balancing).

edit: and yeah last week, on the new tim allen sit-com shifting gears. they showed a floor creeper that could lift to a seated position.

 

[chevdude]

Just make sure Mom is centered on the rubber pad, if your jack has one.
And mounting a seat on the floor jack is a great idea. Adjustable height. It's on wheels. And your kid can pump you up when you need to pee.

 

[squaredeal91]

2 low profile jacks. One for each cheek