When I was a young guy, I thought nothing of replacing an exhaust system after I got out of work at 9 pm on a car I needed to drive the next day. In my 30’s, I’d call it quits in the 10-11 pm range. In my 40’s building R/C airplanes, I discovered that I frequently had to re-do work I did after 8 pm. Now that I’m in my 60’s, I lack the drive to work in my shop after 7 pm. Fortunately I’m retired, so I work on my current Model A project for several hours in the morning and again after lunch. When I visit my high school car buddies, though, they are still tearing into stuff at 9 pm when I’m ready to head home for some Z’s. What is your preferred project time?
Most of my engineering is done when I’m tossing and turning trying to get some sleep. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
7-10+PM on the weekdays, if I get off work before 10. Most Saturdays from mid-morning until I can't stand it anymore. Season in kids, wife, house, yard, mom, and assorted other distractions that occur in your 40's and you have my car work schedule.
Saturdays, around 8 or 9 AM, whenever I get out there, until about 1 or 2 PM, maybe 3 PM if things are going good. When I get tired of being on the concrete floor, it's time to quit, 1 hour or 5 hours. No time through the week at all. Oh, and temps have to be right, too. Anywhere from about 55* up to 90* is fine, much over or under and I don't get outside much unless it's a have to. Spent several years working outdoors in all temps and weather conditions, but the last 34 have been in a heated and AC cooled truck cab, so I don't like extremes in either direction anymore.
My favorite time isnprobsbky 9pm-1:30am doesn’t happen often but every ones asleep. Everything is quite and I can’t just space off and work on something with out worrying about getting it wrapped up in the next few minutes
if I'm trying to get something done, I will work nonstop from 6AM till midnight. Otherwise...whenever the mood strikes.
At 76 and being retired I don't have a schedule. If I have a car to do, I will work on it 7-10 hrs a day. Recently did a woody for a friend, 15 days straight at 8-10 hrs a day to meet time line for Woodies on the Wharf. Have AC and heat in my garage which helps a lot. Divide into phases then proceed-30-32 hrs to wire= 3 10's or 4 8's, AC-23-4 hrs-2 long days etc. Some days I'll start about 9am then work thru til dinner then maybe 2-3 hrs after til 9pm.
When I was still working I would work in the garage from around 7:00 pm until about 11:00 pm and got quite a bit done. After I retired I try to work from around 9:00 am until 2:00 or 3:00 pm and don't seem to get as much done, I think I did more when I was working under a deadline. I have developed the attitude that there's always tomorrow and don't work as hard.
Right now !!! Good a time as any time I suppose ! I’m usually all gun-ho at 2-3 in the afternoon about coming home and doing this or that. By the time I get home at 6pm I’m like fu!k that !! I’m done. So on the week ends I’ll spend an hour here or there doing what I can.
In the summer time EARLY AM on the weekends when I can.. 5am till 11ish and sometimes late late afternoons. Winter time any chance I can get, Normally when the sun comes out and starts to warm things up. Again normally weekends. I have a job I still have to attend to on the weekdays UGH !
I usually find myself getting shop time in come evening. Wind comes up and cools it down some. Just me, my project and the radio. Nice way to end the day.
Lets say I have available 8 am until about noon, and maybe an occasional afternoon until 3 pm or 4pm, Monday through Friday, if I have something I'm really ready to do. Nothing big going on right now, so most of those mornings might involve sitting in the chair in the shop and thinking. If its nice out, I might spend some of those mornings in the porch swing with my wife until about 10 am when the sun gets around the corner of the house and the swing is in the sun, then I might wander towards the shop. I have a project I could be working on, but funding is pretty tight and I'm not in such a big hurry these days. I got a lot more done on my projects when I had to work for a living. I think I made better use of my time because my time was so limited. That is just not the case anymore. Gene
A busted car for anyone I know is a priority and when one of us puts up the bat-signal, the troops will assemble and get to work. Last year it was my broken Muncie. In general I'd rather work in the cold than the heat, anything I do has to be done early or late in the day to beat the heat.
Generally, between 8 & 5 pm these days. I'm retired. Before, it was mostly weekends. Years ago, it was any and every night I could get out to the shop. Things change as you age.
Hello, Back when we were kids, time had no barriers. As a teen, I was given the duty to go out after school on Thursday, to get the 1958 Impala ready for the weekend. The changes were for Bixby Knolls on Friday and Lions Dragstrip on Saturday. That meant starting around 3pm and going until finishing, which was usually around 9-10pm. The latest was 11pm on a Thursday night. Our mom used to yell at my brother if I was under the car after 9 pm. But, it was my job, if I wanted to go to Lions on Saturday day/night. As I got better at setting up the Impala, the finishing time was around 8pm. That satisfied our mom and I was able to get some school work done before lights out. What took so long from 3pm? I did not have a license, but my secret pay was to back the car out of the backyard and get it situated in its correct place on flat concrete. Sometimes that meant backing up the car all the way out to the street. If no one was around, a quick spin around the block was done with a smile on my face. Hey, I was no dummy… Then getting all of the correct tools and equipment ready, as well as the necessary parts took a while. The actual physical stuff was difficult at first, but I got better at removal and that saved time. I had to replace the 4:11 rear Positraction gears with 4:56 gears. The complete third member was removed and replaced. But, first, oil drain, and the wheels, drum and axles had to come out. For the first several times, my brother wanted to have the axles out for inspection and that took up time. Later on, I pulled the two rear axles half way out just to clear the 4:11 gear third member to be able to pop out onto the hydraulic floor jack. Then the new 4:56 gears were placed on the hydraulic jack and rolled into place. The buttoning up was tedious, but the cranking sound of the ratchet socket tool was heard late into the night. Then I had to check all nuts and bolts with a torque wrench. My brother was a fanatic and wanted it done his way. I was just the underpaid mechanic crawling around under a couple of jack stands on the cold concrete, but learning those techniques. Jnaki That took up most of the time. A quick tune up, new plugs and checking the timing was necessary for Friday. Saturday morning, at the dragstrip, new racing plugs were installed and the exhaust down tube caps were opened. We usually took a pair of 7 inch Bruce Slicks for the preliminary, timed runs down the strip. But had to cap up everything and put the stock tires back on the rear for the eliminations. That was the emphasis of the fun I had on Thursday afternoons to Saturday. On Sunday night, my orders were to reverse the whole process to get it back to the 4:11 gears for school and job on Monday. Sometimes, I had to put in 3:55’s, if my brother was going down to Laguna Beach or San Diego on Friday nights. Those 3:55 gears were a lot better for high speed highway or freeway speeds. The key was on those long, Friday highway trips, if a known race day was coming up on Saturday, the 4:11s sometimes stayed in the car both days and nights. It was strong enough to give us some good E.T. times and speeds. A little bothersome on highway speeds, but tolerable. The 4:56 gears? Very little comfort on highway speeds and a lot of tight winding sounds with low speed driving. So, those were never in during my brother’s days in the Impala. But, when I was the major driver several years later, Balboa and Laguna Beach runs from Long Beach were down the coast in 4:56 gears ready for anything.
Warm summer evenings seem to be the best time for me to tune or do delicate things. I just set my Chevy 454's ignition up perfectly the other night. Cold winter days are best for me to do big jobs. I like being in a nice warm garage with the radio on and some good, hot coffee and trail mix for energy...
The Jalopy Journal
