Can someone please teach me to leave stuff dirty

[tdskip]

Rich and I fought the J-type OD back into place last night. Mostly. I had the mounting brackets wrong, and once we figured that out I'd have had her installed today except the mounting brackets were dirty, really dirty. And oily. And had surface rust on them. So...I spent my7 free moments today cleaning and prepping and painting and clear coating...

On the #&$^@ transmission mounts. And it's not like the exterior of the car is nice or anything...

 

[Brosky]

You're like me. The big problem is you know it's there and in your mind it's not right. Better to do it now that to tear it all back apart again to clean something.

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

Same as me. Even if no one else will see it, you know that it's not up to your standards Might as well clean it/fix it/paint it while you are in there!

Cheers,
Tush

 

[mallard]

I hope you took the time to clean the frame where the bracket bolts on.

 

[go_inbroke]

I'm worse...I put it back together, drive to make sure it is right, then take it apart and clean it...

 

[Bremer]

One's own standards of workmanship can on occasion get in the way of effective time management. Sometimes I catch myself doing some task that is not going to improve the driving experience one bit, but takes a lot of time. As much as I would like to continue "doing it right", I try to focus my attention on the bigger issues. The sooner I'm on the road, the better. I can make things perfect in the winter.

 

[DrEntropy]

The big problem is you know it's there and in your mind it's not right.

Uh-huh.

I'm worse...I put it back together, drive to make sure it is right, then take it apart and clean it...

...and this is bad, HOW!?!? :wink:

 

[dklawson]

Remember the TV show from about 8 years ago... Junk Yard Wars? Several people told me that I would have been great on that show. I knew better. I told them I would be terrible on that show because I couldn't bring myself to throw something together without properly finishing it. On any project car I find myself taking adjacent parts off and cleaning/painting just because "I'm in there anyway".

 

[JodyFKerr]

You'd need a double scuba tank set-up. One full of carb cleaner, the other compressed air to clean everything as you go.

heh.


edit - now that I thought of that rig, I really want one.

 

[LBCs_since_1988]

Sure would be nice to have the time to spend the day cleaning parts.

 

[Lewis_McDorman]

To answer your question, yes, someone probably can teach you to leave stuff dirty. But that person doesn't appear to be any of us.

 

[vagt6]

Wait, if I leave the parts dirty, then my GARAGE might get dirty!

Not gonna happen . . .

 

[tdskip]

To answer your question, yes, someone probably can teach you to leave stuff dirty. But that person doesn't appear to be any of us.

LOL.

 

[Tinkerman]

Besides, I LIKE working with clean parts!

Tinkerman

 

[chappy444]

the only dirty parts in my garage are the ones in the trash that i will not be putting back on...oh wait...i dont throw any parts away...

my wife hates this...she asks me why i am cleaning a part that i have no intention of useing again. i tell her that just because i don't intend to use it again dosen't mean that i won't be forced to use it again...and if that is a possiblility then i prefer to have it clean and laying around than to have it dirty laying around and transfering its dirt to other clean things...

so i guess i will have to answer your question with a question....

why would you want to learn to not clean parts?

i have always thought of dirt as the "car killer"

 

[Silverghost]

Go out to your garage, sweep the floor, then take a large sidewalk chalk and write 100 times "I will leave it alone and NOT clean it."! Then LEAVE it that way!

When I r&r'ed the clutch in my MGB recently, I saturated the garage with MightAsWell Away! (Available at Luigi's Cassa Della Tire from our friends at Rusteze.) And it worked!! Not a single mightaswell got anywhere near my car! If it came out that way, it went back that way - unless I had to clean it off to see what I was working on! LOL It may still be dirty but I'm driving it!!

 

[Brosky]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]"I'm in there anyway"[/QUOTE]

Little does the unsuspecting new owner know that this common LBC affliction will soon be upon him. ESPECIALLY, if he hangs around here for very long.

 

[glemon]

I will go ahead and be the odd man out, sort of, for most of my thirty plus years of brit car ownerhip I did not worry about grease or the appearance of the mechanical bits, when I started driving the Healey or MG or Triumph was the car that got me to college or school or the bar. If it was broken I was usually trying to get it back together so I could get where I was going.

Also the grease would inevitbly and quickly find its way back onto the daily driver and I noticed the only areas not prone to rusting away were the greasy bits.

That philosophy continued until recently, I am takking the cleaning all the parts, painting and polishing on the TR250, I can't say I have gotten to the point where I feel compelled to do this, and I can't say I enjoy it, in fact it slows things down, and I have learned the generic Ace rust fighter enamel and Rust Oleum gloss black and flat black is that the name brand dries much faster, which is a very good thing.

I still feel to some extent that the shiny bits on the outside should be shiny, and the greasy bits on the inside have a job to do and as long as they are doing their job right if they get a little dirty doing it who am I to complain?

I do save old parts, I do not worry about cleaning them other than to make sure they are not leaking fluids, if I have a compulsion I need to get over it is saving old parts, once agian coming from when I was young, not a lot of money, and LBC parts were getting harder and harder to come by, I have recently started to throw away replaced brake hoses and pads, I always knew I would never use them again, but the thought that some day the car woudl need something right away and I couldn't get it and a general dislike of wasting anything has kept me somewhat of an overpacking rat.

 

[Brosky]

Please don't get me started on being a pack rat. I hear about the tubs and bins of spare/original parts every time my wife walks down into our basement.

 

[JImEgan]

It is so much easier to work on an engine or other drivetrain component when it is clean. I have only two colors. Black painted if it can rust, and clean but not polished if aluminum.