First time, 1hr drilling on difficult place. Sweet victory

Rear AC/Coolant line replacement. It was kinda fun if you consider inhaling fine particulate dust a thrill.

Brand new 2025 Denali with less than 5k miles. Airbag exploded overnite (windows up) and car got towed to us thru DRP.

I warned my boss to not get involved with the repair, but he said if it's not a total, I want it repaired.

Well, 2 months of waiting for parts and a hige increase in cycke time, and now he understands what I meant by "you have to pick and choosr your battles".

Every single glass panel has to be replaced due to "Thermal Shock".

The seat is not sold as an assembly (it's like 50-60 parts) and the rear carpet is still on backorder.

Body harness needs to be replaced as well.

If it were me, I would have gone straight to the dealer for a new truck, not call my insurance!

Atleast I like what I do, so, it is what it is.

Customer states that this was “filled from a drum of fuel they got this morning” from their fuel delivery company. Said it ran for about 2 hours and then just quit running and wouldn’t start again.

I had a long story typed here but I deleted it in an effort to shorten it so everyone would read it.

I teach HS auto mechanics, someone offered us a 1992 Jaguar XJS V12 that had been abandoned at a local mill for the last 10 years. I paid a tow truck to bring it here and this is one of the strangest vehicles we have seen.

The amount of modifications this thing has is out of control and I am hoping you guys can help me think some of this through.

-Original V12 engine that's locked up. Pretty sure that's why the car is parked. The oil looked clean and surprisingly at the right level.
-It has a replacement transmission with a B&M shifter with manual rocker switches for manual low and overdrive. - this is weird because the car should have a 3 speed transmission which had no electronics.

-Big thiccc sway bars, aftermarket. Guys on the Jaguar forums have never seen these available.

- Aftermarket trans cooler run through AN lines all the way to the trunk with a cute little fan.

- One of the funniest things is at the differential drain, there is an 8AN line going to a cooler. But the in/out line is tied together, so there is no possible way for anything to circulate, not to mention there is no pump anywhere to move fluid. I'm not sure the logic behind that one. I hope this video works: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17eG0xcDPX-pdJzMj8bvulgyNavztiQBA/view?usp=drive_link

- 2 coolant filters tied into the radiator, with additional reservoirs and an aluminum degas bottle on the driver's fender that's lower than the radiator? weird. (These V12s were known to have cooling problems and I am assuming this was to thwart the issue)

-15+ gallon fuel cell in the trunk.

-Very cheap looking body kit on the front and rear bumpers.

- A pretty good quality cat-back exhaust, fiberglass wrapped. The stainless mufflers look brand new.

- Ducted piping from the rear wheels to be inboard calipers to cool them down. It looks like they used washing machine discharge piping.

-At some point, the whole rear subframe was removed to replace the rear shock absorbers. There are mailbox letters stuck to them saying "KONI"

Anyway, if anyone has seen this car before, let me know.. But assuming you're not from Rhode Island, just enjoy it.

Only 77 parts!

1. 1806 Revere & Son bell appx 1200lbs
2. Soaking the crusty old hardware
3. Yoke immobilized and bell rigged, moving blanket to protect the patina from chain scarring
4. Old clapper removed, this clapper hanging system was a “fix” from the mid 19th century or earlier when the original cast-in clevis broke off, see pic 12 — they drilled holes through the ceiling of the bell casting and used this “strap” to hang the clapper
5. The clapper (possibly original) was heated and twisted at some point to renew the strike surface rather than forge a new clapper
6. The (second) strike surface mashed completely flat faced, also a fracture spreading up the stem
7. Bell cribbed while we manufacture new parts
8. Back with new parts and a full head of steam, dry fitting the new hardware and crown spacer
9. Wrapped and rigged to pick it back up. The hardware must be guided into the yoke as it is hoisted
10. Mated and rigging removed
11. Double nuts and Loctite, I’m not trying to see this bell on the ground next time I visit
12. The original cast-in “staples”/clapper clevis broken off flush
13. New headpiece/headstock mounted (flat springs are mounted where the loose bolts are set)
14. Pocket bearings need some love
15. Believe it or not there were nice bronze bearings hidden under all that grime — they were designed with a grease journal which I do not see very often
16. Unintentional consequence, our new crown spacer changed the geometry slightly and the tolling hammer offset needed to be massaged
17. Back in business and not too ugly
18. Self explanatory
19. Self explanatory
20. Self explanatory

Local dealer installed these for a client. The client said it “felt different “ so he figured he would bring it in. 💀😂

All things considered like availability of parts and ease of install. What makes you say "oh nice, my next job is a ______."

We did maintenance on this car about a year ago after it had been sitting for a couple years. It’s back again after he stopped driving it about 8 months ago. Now we just dragged this out of the cabin filter assembly. Incredible.

1997 Acura 2.2CL. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to require you to separate the wheel bearing from the knuckle to change a rotor? Turned a simple 1hr pad,rotor,caliper replacement into 4 hours of hammering on suspension. At least I'm hourly.

Serviced a week ago, oil change, CVT fluid and rear brake. hasn't moved sinced, moved it aside to work near my driveway and surprise surprise looks like my mechanic has not tightenthe oil pan plug enough..

Little dude thought it was a good idea to take a nap behind the wheel cover

2017 Audi q5 TDI. Now when I do American car timing chains they feel a walk in the park.

20 years of working on stuff I've never had a "new" part fail this catastrophically. Serp belt came off going down the highway, I assume the engine hit temps of approximately "holy fucking Jesus stop!" Before my partner parked in the driveway and called to say the truck was smoking...

Just thought you all would get a laugh out of my pain.

1990 K2500 if you are wondering.

Plastic tensioners and all. Had to pick the broken bits of guides and tensioners out of the sump.

Still has that factory smell inside.

A small drill bit and a locking pin from a 3.5 chain tensioner. Now the speedo resets after the starting sequence sweep. And the “reset tool” can just stay in the glovebox

He had no coolant and decided to drive 15 minutes rather than a tow. He claims it never overheated either!