Well, if it makes anyone feel better..right now the temperature is sitting at 28F..and the 'humidity' is at 88%....damp raw winds at 25-35mph from the west...and what was I doing? I had to climb a 45 foot tower to fix..yes, fix..a rotater on my shortwave/20 meter antenna....I am
The damned wind tore the hell out of my Costco tent garage last spring. I haven't put it back together yet but it and the blast heater would make things a bit more comfortable out there. If a guy has a small space to heat one or two of those 500 W halogen work lights puts out enough heat to let you work. I've changed a clutch in 20 below weather with tarps covering the truck and two of those lights under it for light and heat. They will thaw out frozen pipes or pumps too.
Yep, I don't miss London weather one bit, although today in Houston it's been in the 40's most of the day and raining. I must be climatized after 7 years out here as I thought it was cold today.
This should make you feel a little better, http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=553467&highlight=backbreaking
I work on my 54 in one of those tents. Came home from work one day and the wind had it upside down in the driveway. Next day when i put it back up I power nailed it to some 2x6's and into the concrete. Then I added some braces from the corners to the ground on the sidewalls and where the sidewall meets the front / back poles. That frames solid as a rock now.
Agreed, a tent is better than nothin'... I've survived a winter of stock car wrenching out in the NY cold, that was brutal. I've also did some crazy repairs in bitter 10-degree cold so I could just get to work the next day. The latest was in 2008 on my OT Caprice wagon that ate a spindle bearing on a 14-degree day at 6 AM... I did get to work by 10 though. In the blizzard of 1978, I recall parking my '64 Ford up on a snow bank to change the starter. I simply blocked up the rear wheels, dug out under the front of the car, laid on some cardboard and did the job. Cardboard is a life saver on the cold ground! Bob
Sure, it keeps the rain off the metal, and blocks a little bit of the wind. My panel truck is camping in the backyard right now!
Such a nice slab you got there. Seems to be a shame not to have an equally nice garage. Myself I work in the great outdoors way too much but it's been exceedingly mild this winter so I've been able to get a few things done.
i remember waiting for the big puddle to freeze under my coronet,so i could re-install my transmission. then there was replacing the block heater in my bro's mustang in the back lane at minus thirty.now i know how to get em running without a block heater in extreme cold.then there was the dude at the mine site -44 before the wind chill,up to his armpit in diesel fuel trying to clean off the pickup screen in a loader fuel tank.i still shiver thinking about that one. tents and a little heat source of any kind is bonus.
You guys for the most part at lest live were it gets cold winter time,but I'm from south Florida,had to go to Newport Vt. to bring a loaded trailer back to Fla.,but it goes and brakes the axle,so me and my son are laying in the snow at 28* fixing it!! Our OJ blood just an't good in cold like that,feels a lot colder if your not in anyway used to that stuff
I thought I had it bad changing my fuel pump on the plow truck (mounted on frame rail) during a snow storm in a parking lot with 6 inches of slush on the ground. I think I ran the heater on the bake cookies setting for about 3 hours when I finally got it running. Makes me feel a little better about having to do that after reading some of these other stories. Brrrr.... I'm going to go bump up the thermostat. JW
Some of us So Cal guys are such wimps. It gets around 60 degrees and call it quits couse its to cold. Not me though..Haha..
A garage tent is luxury to what i got old rubber quarry belts layed on top the dirt next to my shed. no roof. At least my tools are able to fit in the shed.
Be happy you have the money to be doing something you enjoy, there are many less fortunate people out there that have alot less than you or I do.