What are te nastiest conditions you've ever wrenched in?

It's chilly and drizzling rain here which is keeping me from working on the car.
I got to thinkng about how soft I've become. I once changed the radiator on my TR6 in literal freezing rain. As in I was having to chip ice off of parts and was risking frostbite on my hands. And due to where I buste the radiator I was standing with wet boots in slush the whole time.

 

Wyoming!
It always seemed nasty, but there is no place like home.

 

In a snowy muddy puddle installing a replacement drive shaft in the Beer truck way back when I was a fleet mechanic.

 

No heat in my garage, it averages mid-20°'s all winter. Dry but friggin' cold.

 

Wyoming and Missouri. Both places have total SHIT weather year round, just two different versions of it.

 

I have a bunch of them.

I was changing a timing chain on an OT 1970 Chrysler product in 1978 or so... I was outside and the temp dropped to 20* F by the time I was deep into it. Had to take many go-inside breaks with that one.

More recently I was on the way to work in my '84 Chevy wagon parts chaser and a front wheel bearing goes blooey. It was March, 16* at 6 AM as well. I had to cut the old race off the spindle with an air grinder, which iced up on me due to the compressed air being so cold. Made it to work by 11 AM that day.

Same car a few years earlier, starter goes on a 9* day. Bitch about that car was this brace running right by the starter that had to be dropped, it was one of those empty-the-tool-box jobs just for that alone.

Bob

 

Pulled a motor in a gravel parking lot in the middle of an ohio January .
That sucked .

 

Dropped a BB chevy in outside in a driving snowstorm, just because I wanted to hear it run. When I got finished I had a mild case of frostbite on my feet. I was so much younger then, I'm older than that now...

 

I used to race both Rally Cars and Off Road Trucks. You wouldn't believe some of the conditions we have wrenched in, especially with the rally cars!

How about changing a transmission on a dirt road in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 2 feet of snow while it's snowing and below 0°, on a steaming hot car and only 15 minutes to do it!

 

I was working on my car once, it was in the mid 80°'s and it unexpectedly started to drizzle.
Sorry, I live in SoCal.

 

Replaced a lower radiator hose in front of a dairy barn on a 93 big block chevy suburban once.

 

In 2008, same old Chevy wagon pukes up the water pump in January. I can nestle the car up almost-inside the garage and I have an electric heater pointing towards the car. It was maybe 36* when I started, quickly dropped to 28* with freezing rain and snow mix. That required many breaks to get done. Indian Head gasket shellac doesn't like to tack up in extreme cold... it was fun.

In 1989, wife's 1984 Monte Carlo blows the alternator, stuck at her parents house right off the Great South Bay. Bad enough to change in nice weather, it was just below 0* with a wind chill down to -20*.

Bob

 

When we lived in Pennsylvania I spent many hours working under a car in the yard in the Winter fixing something so I could drive to work the next day. I remember melting snow running down the back of my neck and having to run back inside every so often to thaw out, and then going back out again. Sometimes I would have to shovel snow from under the car to make room for me to slide under there.

That's probably the major reason I now live in Florida.

Don

 

Changed spring body at night on a semi trailer on a seasonal winter road...-48 C and hand wrenching all the u-bolts.,,really if you are dressed for the conditions you got nothing to bitch about.

 

Driving rain, replacing the aftermarket electronic ignition (Motorola - remember those) with the points. And, trying to fix wheel cylinders, outside, in Jan, in Mich - so cold the shutter on the 35mm camera wouldn't work.

 

My old K-5 Blazer died in the mudd one night in the middle of a swamp landish area. Got it stuck in the deep stuff and it wouldn't start back up.

Turned out it needed a starter. The next day I walk about a mile with the starter and toolbox in hand to get to the truck. Lie on my back and I am under water and sinking into the ground. I get the thing installed and still won't start. The asshole parts guy gave me the wrong starter. Take it back out, sludge back for a mile with both starters in hand, clean up as best possible and take it back to autozone to get the right one. Make the hike back to the truck to lie down in my bed of shit again.

After that I came down with some sort of a 1 month strange sickness. Easy fix in the right conditions but Man, I was pissed

 

Dressed for the conditions at minus 48 c ?
I just picture the kid from Christmas story movie - I CAN'T GET UP I can't get up I can't get up lmao

 

Under a Garbage truck in 100+ degree weather (HUMID) replacing a complete leaf pack. Dodging maggots (trolls here on HAMB ;d) as an added bonus. 'can't smell that smell/the smells all around you'

 

An early adventure was in the 60's on my first ride, a 52 Chevy. Mid winter in northern North Dakota. Deep snow drifts & 0 temp. got to do my first clutch, gravel driveway & one small tool box. Years later helped a friend drop an engine in his car in an unheated shed, Same conditions. Now I bitch when I cant find the right wrench.

 

Ahhhh.. memories. Posted this somewhere here before. Blizzard of '78, actually 2 back-to-back storms hit us hard. The starter goes in my '64 Ford, I have a new starter on hand but they closed work early due to the storm.. no lift priviledges.

I get a push start, head for home. Drive the car up on a snow bank as far as I could go. I block the car up so it can't roll. Then shovel out a tunnel under the car, lay down a big piece of cardboard and change the starter. By the time I was done, I had a 1/2" of snow on me and the makings of frost bite.. that was a fun one.

Bob

 

I'm a carpenter so I'm used to working outside in all kinds of lousy weather or conditions. I hate working in the rain. Helped a buddy change a starter in a hotel driveway on an OT F350 diesel. 36 degrees, 40 mph winds, torrential downpour.

 

Same deal 96* and 98% humidity. Assisted on a tire change on a diaper service truck, something falls in my hair as I set up the jack... look up... the whole bottom of the truck was a solid carpet of maggots...

Bob

 

-20 unheated garage installing heater fan in 1971 MB 280se POS. So cold it took 2 weekend to disasemble and reasemble heater box that is to big to remove in one peice.

 

Damn, mine isn't nearly as bad as what some of you guys have done... Had to change a timing belt and water pump in a late model mini van in a 120 year old barn that was about to fall over, in December, on the eastern planes of Colorado, at night, with a freezing rain/slush mix coming down outside and by the light of a single 60watt bulb.. Never again..

 

I've got a few bad ones, lots of things that could have waited, but had to be done in the middle of the snow storm or pouring rain or at 2am, but the one that im thinking of -

pulling a full gas tank out of a 66 coronet, by myself, on a 90 + degree day in july with the car on the grass/dirt and it started raining hard. lol...teenagers

 

I worked on the railroad repairing freight cars outside in all kinds of weather. working on cattle cars in the summer was no picnic

 

Christmas eve morning, in a parking lot, laying under the car in a rain storm, ice cold water pouring on me as I loosened the motor mounts and cut off the exhaust prior to a motor swap (this was the donor engine, and a freebie - so it was definitely worth it)

 

Wow, you guys back east make us So Cal guys look bad!

Wrenched in the rain during a *cold* california winter. Cold for us is like 55°!

I think the worst was when I worked at Costco Tire Shop in full uniform, during July and 105° weather. Lots of water breaks!

 

The one that sticks out in my mind was not car related. In my teens we lived in a very rural area and had a wood-burning furnace. My Dad woke me up about 2:00am one winter night as the house was filling with smoke - furnace flue needed cleaning/sweeping. Single digits outside, about 12" of snow already on the roof and still coming down hard and I'm up on the roof of the house removing the chimney cap and jamming the chimney sweeping brush down the flue. When we would sweep the chimney so much crap would come down to the cleanout that Dad had to let the dust settle before he could do much cleaning it out of there. Nice way to spent the wee hours but we still talk about that night 30 years later.

 

Trying to keep this steam rotary plow operating 24/7 while living, sleeping and cooking in an old caboose. 72 mile run with snow falls not seen in years.
Normbc9