OK guys im curious about the most unusual place to work on your rigs..

Me im attending collage so im living in the red lion hotel (long story) i do all my work right here in the parking lot so far no one has said any thing to me.


OK thanks guys
Ben

 

I changed a transfer case in the rest stop at Michigan City, Indiana. If anybody is driving the highway there, the oil line starting at the state line, going to the third truck space, that was me. Oh yeah, if anybody finds a few chunks of aluminum on the highway, those were mine too.

 

I had to replace bent push rods in the middle of Lake Powell on my boat once. 21' Tahiti, 460, jacuzzi jet. Tore the top end down and found the problem. Pa was there with his boat so he went to the marina (about 30 miles) got parts at the boat shop (they sure are expensive) came back with push rods and gaskets, put it back together and continued on with the play time.

It can get a bit difficult to stay in the boat when one of the huge cruisers goes by leaving 4 ft swells that hit you broadside

 

If you were going west on I94 out of Michigan , that rest area is a few miles from the state line ! So do you carry a spare T-case ? LOL !!

 

Nah, I had Subaru on the trailer behind me, so I drove into town, found a junkyard, and got a replacement.

 

I put a complete exhaust system, from the headers back, in the parking lot of a Canadian Tire store while traveling thru Quebec.

 

my buddy did a head gasket on his ranger along the side of I-95

 

Just helped a guy I know switch out his steering column in the parking lot of an Arco, the thing was on its way out so he had a replacement on him but it took a good long while to get it done right.
-Chris

 

My buddy blew apart the carrier in his rear axle one night mudding, so he did a complete axle swap in a mud hole. When he tried to move, the axle shafts moved out of the housing, so... "can't move it, so I guess we fix it here." I've changed many a part in gas station parking lots too.

 

I rebuilt a Datsun engine in a Hotel Garage and my room. It was that or figure out how to push it half way across the country packed full of tools. Left the good car for my wife and was trying to settle on my totaled work van at the time. PS there wasn't one drop of oil, grease or coolant in the garage or room, washed the engine in a car wash across the street. Man, was I ever broke at the time, saw my tax returns from then recently.

 

Then there's the times you just have to give up, and there's no fixing something. In college, my buddy Phil and I built a 4-cylinder modified to race in Binghamton, NY. We hauled our stock car on a worn-out flat trailer behind a 78 E350 the first year we raced (1994)..... By the third race of the season, we had whipped an axle bearing on the trailer and chewed up the spindle REAL bad. On race night, we decided "well, let's just go with 3 wheels" (extreme low-buck racing, here, people!). So, we took off the left rear wheel and started hauling to the track. Bad idea. The extra weight on the (now single axle) left front was apparently a bit too much, and the spindle broke, sending the wheel across traffic and into a cemetery on the other side of the road. Fortunately, we caused no damage to oncoming traffic or any headstones, but it was obvious that we weren't going to get to the track. Phil had AAA, so he called them for a tow. The driver told us there was no way he could haul the car AND the trailer, unless he called another wrecker in.... that was waaay more than we could afford, so we backed the car off the trailer. The guy put the stock car on the flatbed and took it back to our shop. We followed him, dragging what was left of the trailer behind us! In hindsight, we probably should have just left the trailer by the side of the road and never come back for it. We seriously thought about putting the trailer on the flatbed and driving the racecar home, but that seemed like an even worse idea....
The next week, Phil had found another trailer (borrowed, but all 4 wheels!), and we tried again. Made it to the track, went out for hot laps and munched the clutch. Had to get push-started to finish hot laps, push-started for our heat, and again for the concy.... embarrassing to say the least! That night, we got stopped on the way home from the track, because we had a taillight out on the trailer. That's when we found out the registration on the trailer we borrowed was not current...... when Phil appeared in court the following month, it turned out the presiding judge was the guy that drove the push-truck at our local track! He remembered Phil (how could he forget? he spent more time behind our car than anyone else on the track that night!), and dismissed the charges, out of pity, I imagine!

 

I dismounted and mounted a tire onto a wheel at 2:00am in a circle K parking lot. All I had was a tire iron, and a small sledge hammer. That was very fun.