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

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MikeB

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Location
North Texas
First Name
Mike
Truck Year
1969
Truck Model
C10
Engine Size
355
Great stories above.:cheers:

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!
 
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MikeB

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Location
North Texas
First Name
Mike
Truck Year
1969
Truck Model
C10
Engine Size
355
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

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Sep 1, 2021
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Location
Grand Prairie, TX
First Name
Shawn
Truck Year
1987
Truck Model
Suburban V20
Engine Size
350
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

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Location
Grand Prairie, TX
First Name
Shawn
Truck Year
1987
Truck Model
Suburban V20
Engine Size
350
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

Supporting Member
Supporting Member
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Jun 8, 2022
Posts
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Location
Uranus
First Name
Todd
Truck Year
1986
Truck Model
K10 Silverado
Engine Size
572
Front hub pilot conversion BY MYSELF cuz my crack head helper apparently needed no crack money that particular weekend...
 

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Honest Bob

Junior Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2020
Posts
10
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13
Location
Easton PA
First Name
Ben
Truck Year
1975
Truck Model
K30
Engine Size
LS 4.8
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.
 

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Trucksareforwork

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Feb 22, 2022
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244
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473
Location
Spartanburg SC
First Name
Geoff
Truck Year
1985
Truck Model
C10
Engine Size
305
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.
 

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