[BugsBunnyMustang]

I have to laugh at myself on how I will watch the guy on cj youtube videos say this is a quick install.
So I watch a few times get my parts ready just like him and his 9 min bezel install
Takes me hummmm a few days to finish. Lol
My ignition switch install fought me for a week to get it to lock in.
But in the end the videos have been very helpful.

 

[Fly2xs]

I have another problem, order a part, and about 30 days later, it may show up!

 

[4ocious]

The all-time list of things that are accomplished quickly the first time you do them probably starts with sex. As for putting my mustang together, I assembled most of everything before painting and then took it back apart. That seemed like forever, but after paint I was amazed at how quickly it all went back together despite how slow I work.

 

[mustang656man]

Great reply!

 

[65fstbpieces]

Yea! I estimate a project time and the multiply it by 4. When I did rear brakes the first side took 21/2 hours. The other side 40 minutes!

 

[a793aa]

I am currently replacing all the weatherstripping on my 66' coupe and reliant on forums and videos. After disassembly of the first door leading to the vent window, I do realize my second door will proceed much faster without the lags in time figuring each step without damaging the paint or glass. In the end its about the time and care you took to upgrade your car toward a satisfying result. I look forward to my weekends with the car and want to insure I approach each task with passion and with detail.

 

[Lizer]

I am on my third and fourth car restorations currently, and it’s amazing how much faster things go. Even engine removals go very quickly. Once you do a few cars, you begin to learn a lot of things are generally similar on all these old cars.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Yep. Having owned a Mustang for almost 30 years and doing some jobs more than once on that car, friends' cars and now having bought 2 more, I'd rather do almost anything on my Mustang more than any other activity except that thing @4ocious mentioned !!

 

[Travis98146]

It's like the question, "How do I get to Carnage Hall ?". Practice, practice, practice. When I was still working as a mechanic at the USPS, I could r&r an automatic transmission in under 2 hours and an engine/trans r&r in under 8 hours.

 

[image98]

Yup, I have been there. Each time I revisit a task, I get significantly faster. Practice makes perfect.

 

[DonP]

For me what should be a 1 hour job is usually 2 hours reading VMF + 2 hours watching youtube, 2 hours shopping for the best deal only to save way less than my time is worth. Then 2 days to do the actual work. That means, setting up, getting distracted and doing something else on the car, stopping to do whatever house/yard tasks the wife wants done, drive kids to/from whatever activities they have, eat something and drink beer.

 

[Mr.E]

Yea! I estimate a project time and the multiply it by 4. When I did rear brakes the first side took 21/2 hours. The other side 40 minutes!

I was just telling someone this same thing, with these old cars, take how long you think it will take and multiply by 3 or 4, add extra if someone has changed it from stock over the last 50 years, it took an extra month to get my disk brakes figured out because at one point a PO changed from 68 spindles to 70s and I didn't figure out the difference until after a lot of research, measuring, and of course help from VMF! And then of course add time as @DonP said if the life/wife interferes with your schedule.

 

[MUSTANG65FBK]

One reason why it takes them such little time is that they have a lift that they can stand upright underneath when working under the car. That would save so much time just being able to drive it on the lift, put it up in the air and then get to work as opposed to jacking the car up, putting jack stands underneath it, making sure it's safe and then crawling underneath and having little to no room to work. I'd love to get myself a lift one of these days... it would make just about everything underneath the car so much easier and quicker. That and I'm sure they've done everything in each video dozens of times before, probably pre-loosen any stuck bolts or nuts before hands and so on.

 

[Dave R.]

A CJP video convinced me that I did not know enough about upholstering to install my new upholstery myself. Some things are better left to the professionals. Dave R.

 

[65coupei6_2]

But how many times did they shoot the video to get it right?

 

[Kelly_H]

I have a similar problem, but most of my time seems to be tied up in just... noodling around, I guess. I know for a fact that I can build many things on my car very, very quickly. I do it every year when I suddenly realize "oh man I forgot to fix that one critical thing and I'm leaving on a road trip in 5 days"! But when there's no time crunch, things take me FOREVER.

I think my general procedure is: put the car up on jackstands. Wander around some. Crawl under the car, forget the light, go get the light, find something interesting on the bench to play with. Get reminded that something else on the car was leaking and maybe look at that. Play with something else I found on the bench. Decide to organize the bench. Lose interest in organizing the bench and remember to crawl under the car again (with the light this time). Realize I need a wrench, go get a 1/2" wrench. Crawl back under the car, realize I needed a 9/16" wrench. Take a nap under the car instead of crawling out to get the new wrench. Wake up 30 minutes later, get hungry, get some food. Wander around the house. Go back under the car but this time bring the whole toolbox. Get my arm stuck against the chassy while trying to get a tool out of the toolbox. Realize how dirty the undercarriage is because now it's all over my arm. Go get the Simple Green and detail the undercarriage. Realize I still haven't actually done what I was going to do. Look at the weather for tomorrow and see that it's supposed to be nice; decide to do the work "later" on a "gross day". Repeat process periodically, once every few weeks, until 5 days before the road trip... at which point I will actually fix it.

Man, thank god Jane is very infrequently in need of major repairs!

 

[CJM68GT390]

I have a similar problem, but most of my time seems to be tied up in just... noodling around, I guess. I know for a fact that I can build many things on my car very, very quickly. I do it every year when I suddenly realize "oh man I forgot to fix that one critical thing and I'm leaving on a road trip in 5 days"! But when there's no time crunch, things take me FOREVER.

I love reading your posts. You have some real talent outside of the engineering/scientific world.

 

[LeeFred]

My problem is I put something down and then spend a 1/2 hour trying to figure out where I put it down. Or recently, dropping a screwdriver bit somewhere in the grill area and never finding it. Spent about 15 - 20 minutes looking for where it fell, and just couldn't find it. So back to the tool shed to get another one and finish whatever I was working on. Never did find the one that fell.

 

[jsbenami]

I have a similar problem, but most of my time seems to be tied up in just... noodling around, I guess. I know for a fact that I can build many things on my car very, very quickly. I do it every year when I suddenly realize "oh man I forgot to fix that one critical thing and I'm leaving on a road trip in 5 days"! But when there's no time crunch, things take me FOREVER.

I think my general procedure is: put the car up on jackstands. Wander around some. Crawl under the car, forget the light, go get the light, find something interesting on the bench to play with. Get reminded that something else on the car was leaking and maybe look at that. Play with something else I found on the bench. Decide to organize the bench. Lose interest in organizing the bench and remember to crawl under the car again (with the light this time). Realize I need a wrench, go get a 1/2" wrench. Crawl back under the car, realize I needed a 9/16" wrench. Take a nap under the car instead of crawling out to get the new wrench. Wake up 30 minutes later, get hungry, get some food. Wander around the house. Go back under the car but this time bring the whole toolbox. Get my arm stuck against the chassy while trying to get a tool out of the toolbox. Realize how dirty the undercarriage is because now it's all over my arm. Go get the Simple Green and detail the undercarriage. Realize I still haven't actually done what I was going to do. Look at the weather for tomorrow and see that it's supposed to be nice; decide to do the work "later" on a "gross day". Repeat process periodically, once every few weeks, until 5 days before the road trip... at which point I will actually fix it.

Man, thank god Jane is very infrequently in need of major repairs!

This all sounds very familiar. Especially what LeeFred wrote. I'm sure I'm not the only one who rambles around the garage forever trying to find 'that tool' or 'that part' that was everywhere until you actually need it. Now napping under the car...that is something I could never pull off!

 

[jsbenami]

One reason why it takes them such little time is that they have a lift that they can stand upright underneath when working under the car. That would save so much time just being able to drive it on the lift, put it up in the air and then get to work as opposed to jacking the car up, putting jack stands underneath it, making sure it's safe and then crawling underneath and having little to no room to work. I'd love to get myself a lift one of these days... it would make just about everything underneath the car so much easier and quicker. That and I'm sure they've done everything in each video dozens of times before, probably pre-loosen any stuck bolts or nuts before hands and so on.

That and video editing...I performed a complete mechanical, driveline and interior restoration in just a few months because I had access to shop lifts, pneumatic tools and a bit of help and advice here and there. It makes a HUGE difference! I did some work this past weekend in my dad's unheated garage floor and it felt like demons sucked my bone marrow out and put rocks and ice back in.